GRUHI continues

Worcester, January 2026

My sojourn at Maternal Manor continues, where I try to make myself useful as well as exploring the locality. I am becoming familiar with a couple of key bus routes - I didn't use the bus much when I lived here as a youth because I'd always be going into London by Tube, and school was close enough to walk (or cycle), and I'd get lifts to most other places. When I did use the bus as a child, I would generally make some mistake and be too shy to ask anyone (often ending up in some bus terminal far from home) or leave something on the bus (most notable was my clarinet). Navigating the buses is now transformed - another thing to thank the Internet for.

My car enjoyed an outing to deliver some stamps and envelopes to one of mum's friends who has connections with Diabetes UK. Would it be a surprise to know that there are still stamps and envelopes lurking in the building? I found some more this week, in an old briefcase in the garage. I do believe these are the last, but wouldn't bet on it. Mum and I unearthed another box from a wardrobe and opened it with trepidation, but it contained old rheumatology journals - I never thought I'd be pleased to see those. This week I also found a large lever arch binder that contained about a hundred photocopied sheets of the engravings on Trajan's columns, each within a plastic wallet. Mum separated the paper from the plastic and now has even more scrap paper and a pile of plastic wallets that her carer took away for her son.

I also took mum to Lidl, which she enjoys, and then on to the municipal recycling centre where we dumped one of the four sacks of rubble that was excavated from the kitchen floor. The dehumidifier continues to extract moisture from below the floor but the low temperatures and the fact that the kitchen isn't actually heated means that it will probably take a long time to dry out. I uncovered the trench so there is more opportunity for evaporation, moved the microwave, and reorganised the kitchen cupboards to minimise the need to go from one end to the other across the trench all of the time. This made me very happy because now the pots and pans are next to the cooker and the plates and bowls are next to the microwave and fridge instead of the other way round.

Along with watching films (on DVD, streaming, at a local cinema and at a cinema a bus ride away), and going to two different Buddhist Centres, one in Highbury and one in Chelmsford, I played badminton with a local club. It has been surprisingly difficult to find a local club. Whenever I have ventured to other parts of the world there are usually two or three that I could try out, but all I could find here were Academies for training young people up to National standard, or courts that you can book in a sports centre, neither of which is suitable for me. Eventually I discovered a club that has a really complicated arrangement for booking a spot on one of four club nights during the week. I went to one of the sessions last Friday and will go again this Friday, but in fact the Saturday and Sunday evenings would be a higher standard that is nearer to mine. I'll have to put off that experiment until next time I stay.

Another social event was a whisky tasting with Lola II and Mr M, where the other guest was a friend of Lola II's who I hadn't seen for 25 years but was still utterly delightful. Due to the nature of the evening I became more drunk than I have been for many years, and I was still feeling not quite sober next morning when I had two Buddhist Zoom calls lined up. Totally worth it, but maybe not to be repeated.

I paid another visit to Lola II and Mr M in order to support Lola II's efforts at tidying and decluttering, where my role is split between police officer (stopping her from getting distracted or running off to do something less unpleasant) and Paper Shredder Operator. [This activity used to rank as second most satisfying after my own GRUHI project, but has been relegated to third behind the behemoth that is Maternal Manor.] During the visit we also started the eBay listing for the disposal of dad's fifteen (count 'em, FIFTEEN) 35mm slide projector carousels, and initiated the insurance claim for the water leak in the kitchen. I anticipate that the latter will be a recurring item in these reports for some time.

The highlight of my stay was a trip to Morrisons. This isn't one of mum's usual shopping spots because her neighbours and friends don't shop there, but I prefer their fruit and veg. So mum came with me, and they offer people the loan of a mobility scooter with a big basket on the front, and mum had a great time going wherever she wanted and taking her time because she wasn't having to stand and walk. And I enjoyed it even more because she was having so much fun.

On my travels I encounter an heirloom

Tomb of King John, Worcester Cathedral, January 2026

I've been trying for a while to post a blog entry every six days. A few things get in the way - making preparations for two trips at once was definitely one of those things. I am currently at Maternal Manor for a two week stay - we both survived one week last time I stayed, so I'm taking that as a win and going for the 'double or quits' option. I exaggerate, there really has been minimal friction so far. After just under two weeks I'll be going skiing without returning home in between, which is why packing was so complicated. At the moment I believe I've only left behind my 'ordinary' gloves (I did remember to bring ski gloves and fingerless mittens), and the power supply to my laptop. This was the more concerning item but I think I'll be able to do everything on mum's PC, which is actually a higher spec machine than mine. Both my laptop and my phone really need to be updated, but the thought of it may put me off for some time yet.

Anyway. I met the second Estate Agent representative, and the cat is very much among the pigeons because he had a very different opinion on both the marketing approach and the price. The difference is so significant that I now need to do my own research - isn't that what Estate Agents are supposed to do for you? - and potentially contact a third company. There are many to choose from in Leamington so it's not a problem, and luckily there's no hurry or deadline.

My tour guide in front of Worcester Guildhall

A very long time ago I attended an auction of delights in aid of the Birmingham Buddhist Centre's fundraising appeal, and I won a guided tour of Worcester. I was hoping to bring a particular friend along, but her health deteriorated significantly so we had to cancel. Then Lola II was going to come with me, but finding a suitable day was quite difficult, and then on the actual date agreed we were on our way when my car broke down. The tour finally took place at the weekend, with just me and my guide. It was cold but didn't rain until the very end, and I enjoyed it a great deal. After my guide left me I went back to the cathedral for a proper look around, but I wouldn't mind going back to Worcester for a proper weekend break.

So down at Maternal Manor for two weeks means a few things. Odd jobs around the house, but also doing more clearing out - it is quite astonishing how much dad managed to accumulate, and mum and I have had a few sessions on the easier stuff (photocopied books, notes for lectures - not difficult to consign to the recycling box). The difficult stuff is dad's personal effects - identity cards, passports, school books, diplomas, drawings. I asked Sister D and Lola II to come round so we could go through it together, and it nearly worked, except Lola II was ill and couldn't be there in person so we stuck her on Zoom while the three of us sifted through everything. It has made a difference, but there is still quite a lot more to do, but luckily no particular urgency at the moment.

Mum and I have been plotting how to get rid of some of the bigger items, some of which may be worth something but mostly not, we thought. Charities will collect saleable furniture for free, and the Council will come and collect three items in any condition, but we've got to get them outside and protected from rain. I think it would probably be worth waiting for better weather, but the first targets are the sofabed with the disintegrated foam mattress, the huge wooden wardrobe that still needs emptying and will have to be dismantled to get it down the stairs, and the oval kitchen table that dad made but forty years on is now not all that stable and surplus to requirements.

There is also a big bookcase that mum thought might be worth 50 or 60 quid - I was sceptical, having had such trouble giving away my bookcase for nothing, but that one was Ikea and this one definitely wasn't. I took a couple of photos and some measurements, and ran it past Lola II and Sister D to see what they thought, and Lola II ran it past ChatGPT. Oh me, oh my, after quite a bit of this and that, it turns out to be a genuine Swedish design classic worth several THOUSAND pounds. Which was, to say the least, a surprise. Mum then mentioned that yes, she had inherited it from someone who had definitely furnished her house in style. So now we have the very welcome task of having to actually sell it, which is quite a lot harder than asking the Council or the British Heart Foundation to come and take it away for nothing.

Visiting and being visited

Lola Towers, January 2026

It's been very cold indeed. Lola II and I forgot that she really shouldn't visit Lola Towers during the winter, so she enjoyed my new heated blanket while also serving as encouragement to my ongoing efforts at shedding surplus stuff. With her help I took down quite a few items from the loft, but the most excellent service she provided was to thread the lace back into the cuff of my Wellington boot, which took a very long time. She also modelled various items that I was offering to particular people, sang songs in the car with me when we were held up on the motorway for an hour, made tea, and was generally in charge of Morale.

I continued to attempt to give away my huge bookcase, with several enquiries leading to nothing, but finally someone who was serious took it away. I was expecting its removal to reveal horrors in the wall behind it but nothing horrific emerged, so that's one bullet dodged. I imagine that many people are not looking to spend much money in January, so I'll be trying to sell the few items of value that I have in February or March.

Trips I have made - one to the north where we ate pizza and congratulated one another on progress made in various aspects of life; one to mum where I feel I was helpful by way of Organising; one to Oxford with Sister D which was quite cold, drizzly, then rainy but the Weston Library was as good as ever and we had lots of time to talk. A more local trip took me to badminton at the height of the snowfall. "This is crazy," I was thinking as I drove at 15mph, slowing down for junctions, trying not to use the brakes and turning corners very carefully. But I needed to play badminton after more than two weeks off, and there wasn't anything like the amount of snow that was forecast, and by the end of the evening it was already sleet and slush.

Cousin M and her son visited from Seattle en route to Spain, and we all met at Maternal Manor and caught up with family history and current goings on, followed by an excellent trip to the Royal Academy of Music in London for a student performance of Trial by Jury. My enlightened music teacher at junior school was quite a character, completely indifferent to the musical limitations of under-11's. He encouraged composition, percussion and harp players (as well as your traditional instruments) and we even had a school orchestra. Together with one of the other teachers he also staged productions of Gilbert & Sullivan operettas. I still remember them - Pirates of Penzance was one, and Trial by Jury was another, where I was chosen as understudy for the part of the Usher. It's now FIFTY years later but some of it was spookily familiar. Anyway, I enjoyed it a great deal.

The official process of moving on from Lola Towers has started with a visit from a representative of an Estate Agent. She found the property bigger than she expected, called the garden 'generous' (which it has never been to me), and showed me comparisons with other local properties that she could find. We agreed on the ballpark figure that might be asked, and the next stage will be a similar visit from a second Estate Agent representative.

What I've been reading

Science Fictions: Exposing Fraud, Bias, Negligence and Hype in Science
by Stuart Ritchie

"Bias, careless mistakes and even outright forgery influence everything from austerity economics to the anti-vaccination movement. There are disturbing flaws in today's science that undermine our understanding of the world and threaten human lives."

Very interesting, if a little depressing to think that how many current scientific ideas may be built on sand. He does have some great ideas for how the situation might be improved towards the end of the book, but I'm not sure whether scientists and their publications are actually looking for something to increase the reliability of their results.

Thinking in Numbers: How Maths Illuminates Our Lives
by Daniel Tammet

"In Tammet's world, numbers are beautiful and mathematics illuminates our lives and minds. Using anecdotes and everyday examples, Tammet allows us to share his unique insights and delight in the way numbers, fractions and equations underpin all our lives."

He writes very well, and introduces numbers in a more sophisticated way into lived examples. For example, working through his particular mental process of finding factors of a number - not that I would or could do it that way, but it's fascinating to imagine. But it's not all numbers - there's poetry, history and more.

Boudica: Dreaming the Eagle
by Manda Scott

narrated by Philip Stevens, Jerome Flynn, Liza Goddard

"In AD 60, Boudica, war leader of the Eceni, led her people in a final bloody revolt against the occupying armies of Rome. It was the culmination of nearly twenty years of resistance against an occupying force that sought to crush a vibrant, complex civilization and replace it with the laws, taxes and slavery of the Roman Empire."

A very long book, but well narrated and went along at the right pace. A good sign was the fact that I could (mostly) tell all the characters apart, although hearing their strange ancient British names meant that I didn't have the same recall as I would if I saw them written down. I think there are more in the series; if they weren't so long I might read another.

After the festivities, retreat

Wales, September 2025

Another year gone by, and for me the overall flavour is that it was a good one. This was helped, no doubt about it, by my withdrawal from accessing any form of news except local news and other specific topics - assisted dying and films being the main ones. 

My book log for the year says I read 66 books, of which 19 were audio books. Only 8 of them gained my top rating, and 3 of those were books I'd read before. This is probably because I'm still obsessively churning through the list of literary classics like a gambler hoping for a big win, because very occasionally I've come across an absolute masterpiece which raises my hopes that it will happen again.

Volunteering went well last year - the international badminton, several Buddhist roles and the Warwick Folk Festival. After a difficult period where I recognised I'd overcommitted my time, I have been much more diligent about not doing too much, and it's paying off with more time to focus on important stuff and generally ending up in a much better mental state.

After the quiet Christmas I embarked on a home online retreat led by good friends, which extended over New Year. I don't find it easy to set up retreat conditions at home - I have to use the laptop to access the retreat so it can't be put in a cupboard and forgotten. Nor, on this occasion, could I turn off the phone. An interesting point to note was that the WiFi signal kept dropping out despite the router being in the room next door. I managed to resolve this by opening the wardrobe door... This morning when the retreat had ended I realised quite how much I had benefitted from pausing most everyday activities. 

So all is well at Lola Towers, and the flavour of coming year is set to be the taste of potential: big changes that are just peeking over the horizon.