Overwhelm

Woodland Cemetery, March 2026

I've been focussing on friends and GRUHI while keeping an eye on the water issues and also negotiating with the painter and scaffolder. I have a date for Severn Trent to investigate further, and a start date for the scaffolding permit. It's been a bit overwhelming, to be honest.

Anyway, recent GRUHI success stories include donating another box of stuff to a friend who works in a charity shop, another couple of bags to Action 21, and actually selling my tenor saxophone for real money, to someone in my music group who is collecting instruments on behalf of a Scout group. It takes a long time to list things on eBay so I'm only using it for the things that are either easy to send by post or are worth something - so far I've sold a Chromecast Audio device and my Clavinova electric piano, which gave me such pleasure for so many years but realistically I'm not going to play any more. And Lola II has one if I do get desperate.

I've been trying to keep in touch with friends despite feeling as though I'm doing a full time job at the moment. With various people I have gone for walks, seen a film, gone to a comedy show, had a Zoom call and a telephone call, and a coffee morning. In the last week I managed badminton twice, Buddhist group twice, board games, a concert, U3A walking group and spent two days with mum, accompanied by Lola II and Sister D for a trip to the cemetery to see dad's freshly installed gravestone. It was an unusually hot and sunny day and the woodland cemetery full of daffodils, including some on the grave that we definitely hadn't put there. Lola II placed a beautiful boulder she has decorated on the grave, and then we nearly got locked in as we hadn't really taken account of the fact that the cemetery closes at 4pm.

UJ is back in town, although she's staying with friends and is not sure where or when she will settle. She came round to collect the few letters for her that had arrived; we went out for a meal and it was very interesting to catch up. The winter in Ukraine has been particularly cold and conditions are terrible; she thinks her parents may be coming round to the idea of leaving. Nothing can be relied upon, no planning for the future is possible, and Russia has gained from the war between the US and Iran. More than four years since the start of the war between Russia and Ukraine and it seems no nearer to ending.

Water, water, every where

Lola Towers, March 2026

It's been a very water-focused winter. So much rain, mum's leaking pipes, evidence of water rising in my Auditorium, and then my boiler also started to make an intermittent noise. I've received a lot of attention from plumbers.

The boiler guy came in the morning of the day that Severn Trent were booked to dig up the pavement in the afternoon, which was quite convenient. In between phases of investigating the boiler noise he was kind enough to take a look in the cellar beneath the water stain. The heating pipes all looked sound and dry but he did comment that the cellar walls are saturated, and the house being the age that it is, there is no effective damp proof course. He tweaked something in the boiler and the noise hasn't recurred yet, but he's going to give me a quote for a replacement fan which will help not only if it fails but also should guide potential house purchasers, should guidance be needed.

In the afternoon the two Severn Trent workers came. I offered them tea or coffee and then discovered that I have no coffee, so that wasn't a good start. They put up signs and barriers and closed the footpath before getting stuck in to the job of digging around the water meter, and were very clear that I was not allowed onto 'the site' to look any closer. Their verdict was that the joint under investigation was not leaking but wouldn't let me through to look in the hole, so I gave them my camera to take a photo, which just showed a puddle in wet gravel. I've now followed up with a text conversation with another plumber, and then went back to Severn Trent to challenge their verdict. The saga continues.

In the meantime I've got a heater set up in the Auditorium which is drying the wall nicely. It keeps raining though. I've also done a test with photographing the water meter at 10pm and 8am and it shows some movement of the dial, but I don't know how significant it is. I did the same at mum's with the same result, so there's Thames Water to contact about that too.

At mum's I also had the job of replacing the knobs on her 40-year-old cooker. I found a company which supplied 'universal' knobs but the kit supplied didn't entirely work without adjustment, which we did using some tubing left over from when dad needed a catheter. I've left mum with one new replacement knob to try out, and if she's happy then we'll replace the rest. [Update - we've put the old ones back.]

Then there's the painting needed of the front of the house. I finally managed to get three acceptable quotes from firms. One was a man on a ladder, which I specifically don't want because of the chimney pointing experience, but when I turned him down he started to argue that he's very experienced with ladders... The second one started talking about payment in cash (the amount is more than £2000). So I picked the third one who advised that the start date will be based on the availability of the scaffolding. 

Then the scaffolding company called to explain the convoluted process of applying for a licence to put up scaffolding on the public highway (the pavement outside my house) and the steps that would need to be taken involving suspending parking, cones and redirecting pedestrians. Let's just say, it's complicated. But after just a day or two he phoned back to say the permit had already been granted and the scaffolding can go up at the end of March.

Inadequacy

All England badminton, March 2026

Last week I was fully immersed in my volunteering for the international badminton in Birmingham, with short breaks for my Buddhist activity, blogging and Muscles the Personal Trainer. Muscles was as disappointed as I was to hear of the results of my follow-up blood test for the pre-diabetes. The lipid and cholesterol results have improved a great deal but the blood sugar result has gone down only to the borderline level between non- and pre-diabetic. This isn't enough for me to become comfortable that I've done what I need to do. It also highlighted the difficulty when volunteering and faced with all manner of treats supplied by the lovely people who run the event. So Muscles, who I think also does some coaching, made a few very helpful suggestions, and even agreed for me to message him at the end of the day to help me stick to a 'no snacks' policy for the day.

It's my third time in the role down in the basement 'Event Control Room' with all the radios, and I'm starting to get the hang of who represents all the various teams on the Field of Play, Logistics, Transport, Athlete Services, Volunteering and more, where the Practice Courts, Final Warm Up Area, Premier Lounge and Sports Presentation are located, and what a 'Show Cube' is (a fancy room high up in the building with a view of the arena). I still can't always understand what's said over the radios though. Next year the Badminton World Federation has decreed that instead of 6 days, all the World Series events (of which this is one) will be extended to 11 days. This will pose all sorts of issues for Badminton England in recruiting volunteers (many of whom take time off work) and also over-stretching contractors, who work 18-hour days during the event. We'll see what happens.

The weekend before that I attended an online retreat together with four other friends in an Airbnb in that holiday haven of Solihull. It obviously needed to be a fairly large property so there were five bedrooms, four of which were only just big enough to accommodate the double beds. Never mind, we didn't need a lot of bedroom space, and four out of five of them were warm. The fifth bedroom was downstairs off the kitchen in what was clearly a garage conversion without sufficient insulation. The bed there only had a thin blanket and the first night was uncomfortably cold for its occupant, so we contacted the host who revealed that the duvet was (unaccountably) in the cupboard under the stairs with the hoover, dustpan and brush etc.

This example conveys the flavour of the weekend. We'd been told that one patio door was broken and had been boarded up, but not that the hot tap in the kitchen had fallen apart and couldn't be used. The listing described the dining room as 'spacious',  the living area as having 'ample seating' and the kitchen as 'fully equipped' which was completely untrue - it was manageable for the five of us, but if the house were full (advertised as 8 people) there wouldn't be enough seating, space or kitchenware.

The kitchen situation was particularly strange. It had the most complicated kettle, induction hob, combi ovens and microwave you could imagine - the kettle had about 8 different settings - but none of the other equipment you would expect. There was just one tea towel, a tin opener and a potato masher, but no peeler, grater, sieve, colander, no measuring jug, mixing bowl or serving dishes and only shallow oven trays - no deep dishes and no oven gloves. The frying pan wasn't compatible with the induction hob and the microwave was almost too complicated to use. There were no mugs, only cups, and not enough of those for all of us.

On the plus side it was mostly warm, mostly clean, with plenty of hot water and blisteringly fast WiFi, which meant that at least we could all independently run Zoom without problems. And we had some proper conversations and quality time together, and that was the main purpose of the weekend.

Another preoccupation I've had is finding someone who will (safely) paint the front of Lola Towers. None of the contacts provided by the estate agents I've contacted have been any good, but at the moment I've got one promising quote, one not so good, and someone visiting this week to have a look. It seems unlikely, however, that the work will be done before May.

Hill Close Gardens, February 2026

What I've been reading

A Voice in the Night
by Andrea Camilleri

"Feeling his age, as his birthday rolls round once again, Inspector Montalbano decides to cheer himself up by dealing with a young driver's road rage in his own unique way. Back at police headquarters he receives an angry phone call from a supermarket boss; there's been a robbery at his store and Montalbano's colleague is treating him as a suspect."

The previous book I read, by Carlo Rovelli, was written in Italian and translated to English just like this one. But despite its challenging scientific material, that was a better translation and far easier to read than this rubbish. I'm aware that this series now features on TV, and I'm prepared to believe it might be quite good in that medium. But in print, apart from enjoying a large amount of seafood there's nothing that gives any insight into what the Inspector is like, and I didn't care in the least about him or any of the other characters either. And they are all men except his housekeeper, some unexplained woman he occasionally talks to on the phone, and a (naked) corpse. Absolutely not recommended.

Parade's End
by Ford Madox Ford

narrated by Bill Nighy

"The story of aristocrat Christopher Tietjens as his world is shattered by the First World War. It traces the psychological damage inflicted by battle, and the collapse of England's secure Edwardian values - embodied in Christopher's wife, the beautiful, cruel socialite Sylvia."

A very long audiobook that comprises four print books, so it was good value but needed quite a bit of commitment to get through. It was saved by the wonderful Bill Nighy, who is a terrific narrator and fits the material perfectly with his world-weary beaten down voice. The story meanders about among the different settings of England and the trenches, but the theme seems to be that everyone around him, led by his despicable wife, are liars intent on getting what they want at Tietjens' expense - in money or even at the cost of his life. It ends relatively well but I would have liked his wife to get her just deserts.

The Forgotten Waltz
by Anne Enright

"In Terenure, a pleasant suburb of Dublin, it has snowed. Gina Moynihan recalls the trail of lust and happenstance that brought her to fall for "the love of her life," Seán Vallely. As the city outside comes to a halt, Gina remembers their affair: long afternoons made blank by bliss and denial."

I have a problem saying no when offered a book to read even when I think it won't be much good, and this was one of those cases. Because the author features on my list of Classic books and I seemed to remember liking (or at least not disliking) that book, I thought it would be OK, but it wasn't. Nothing objectionable, just an account of an affair between two people who eventually left their spouses, and not much else. Like going on a walk in a demolition site - it's a walk, so that's good, but nothing attractive to see. I enjoy both walking and reading but if there's nothing of interest it's just an empty experience.

Hot Air: The Inside Story of the Battle Against Climate Change Denial
by Peter Stott

"Across continents and against the efforts of sceptical governments, prominent climate change deniers and shadowy lobbyists, Hot Air is the urgent story of how the science was developed, how it has been repeatedly sabotaged and why humanity hasn't a second to spare in the fight to halt climate change."

I know the author because he and his wife are friends of Lola II. It's not only well written, especially given the fairly statistics-led nature of the narrative, but tells the fascinating story of climate change from the point of view of the scientists striving to find the facts, whatever they may be. The book was written before the resurgence of President Trump and the reversal of many positive steps towards slowing or halting humanity's descent into irreversible extinction. Obviously I can't predict what will happen but my best guess is that we're all doomed.

After Buddhism: Rethinking the Dharma for a Secular Age
by Stephen Batchelor

"What does it mean to adapt religious practices to secular contexts? This book is the culmination of four decades of study and practice in the Tibetan, Zen, and Theravada traditions, and an attempt to set the record straight about who the Buddha was and what he was trying to teach."

I read every word, understood not more than half, and I'm not really sure what the point of the book is. I was given the book by a friend who I'm going to have to talk to about it, and have no idea what to say. Maybe he will explain. [Update - he did explain and it makes a bit more sense now. The author is probably trying to make the point that the Buddha was not a god, which confused me because I have never been asked to believe that he was.]

Artemis Fowl
by Eoin Colfer

narrated by Gerry O'Brien

"Twelve-year-old Artemis Fowl is a millionaire, a genius, and, above all, a criminal mastermind. But even Artemis doesn't know what he's taken on when he kidnaps a fairy, Captain Holly Short of the LEPrecon Unit."

After the huge effort of the last audio book I thought I'd choose something much easier, a young adult book with a child protagonist set in a magical world. It was certainly a much easier read and had some nice ideas, but I won't be reading any more in the series.