An offer

Wales, September 2025

Nameless Man fixed the plug socket; I managed to clean all the downstairs windows (which I thought would be the best thing to do to improve the look of the place) and there have been five house viewings. Mr Celery, as I suspected, is very prone to error but so far I have corrected the mistakes that I have noticed, none of which have been particularly egregious, but he managed to sneak one into the printed brochure by adding the excited statement "NO ONWWARD CHAIN." 

One offer came in at £75k below the guide price, and now a much more realistic offer has materialised along with one further request for a viewing. I filled in a form and went to the office of a solicitor just in case I needed conveyancing sooner rather than later. They say I must complete a second form stating the source of the funds I used to purchase my house 25 years ago - it's the Law. I continue to range around the house picking out things to get rid of that escaped previous purges.

One such find is a trove of letters hiding under past family calendars that I'd kept, and some more letters in a box in the loft that had travelled with me, unopened, through all house moves since, it turns out, 1975. That was when I seemingly started keeping every single letter I received, initially birthday greetings from faraway relatives and letters from family when I was on school trips and holidays abroad. In later years it included letters from school friends and then university friends when we all dispersed to our various jobs and travel. I'm scanning or reading most of them before putting them into recycling - it's difficult to prioritise this job over more pressing matters but it's intriguing.

In other news - there isn't anything interesting. I went to the funeral of the mother of my longest-standing friend from junior school - two years ago I was there for his father's funeral, and one year ago it was dad's. I went to Maternal Manor where we applied for mum's Blue Badge to be renewed, booked a Bulky Waste Collection with the Council for the sofabed and dismantled wardrobe, and I took lots of measurements of rooms and furniture. I took my new collaborative games to the U3A board games group, and as expected they didn't take to them especially well. I have officially handed over the finances of my Buddhist group, so now I think I'm free of any official responsibility there.

And there has been badminton and Buddhism and cinema and Muscles the Personal Trainer, who is aware of my plans to move away and says that before I leave he is aiming for me to be able to dead-lift my own weight. I started eighteen months ago at 20kg (just the bar without any weights on it) and I'm up to 50kg, so nearly there. And my core strength and balance are great. It's astonishing.

A jolly hot weekend

Kew Gardens, May 2026

After the slight trauma of the broadband and landline difficulties at mum's, I went on to stay with Lola II and Mr M for a London minibreak. Lola II had helpfully planned our activities, starting with an outdoor film in their garden on Friday evening, complete with projector, screen and three-way headphone splitter. The film was much more gory than any of us usually choose - I was watching through my fingers for some of the time.

On Saturday Lola II and Mr M occupied themselves elsewhere for the day and I treated myself to a badminton event (spectating not playing). It was in Alexandra Palace Theatre, which turned out to be an excellent venue, and it was a new competition for young players who are at a higher standard than county leagues but not quite national team level. I had a great time, not least because I happened to be sitting next to a couple of enthusiastic and interesting men, but also because some of the people I volunteer with at the international event in Birmingham were also there, and it was lovely to see them.

In the evening I rejoined Lola II and Mr M to see a play at the local theatre in Ealing about some elderly residents in a home. It was a comedy, although it portrayed some uncomfortable bullying. There were a few delightful performances as well as a very talented singer, but someone in the audience laughed so loudly that it was intrusive. Despite this, whenever I go to the theatre I always come away thinking that I don't go to the theatre often enough.

I had volunteered to provide a 3-course picnic for the following day, so on Sunday morning I did some of the preparation and cooking for that, before Lola II and I headed out to the National Gallery to see an exhibition by a Spanish painter called Zurbarán. I'm no expert on art but I particularly liked the way he painted the textures of cloth and fabric. Saturday had been quite a hot day and Sunday was the same, but it was relatively cool inside the gallery. Mr M joined us for supper at a Sri Lankan restaurant which we ate outside accompanied by live blues music from the venue next door.

Monday was the hottest day so far and we had decided to go to Kew Gardens. The following day we read that the temperature that day at Kew broke all records (and it was even hotter on Tuesday), but we set off early and were even allowed in before the general public because Mr M has a civil service benefit that got him and Lola II in for free, and half price for me. We saved £80! Mr M heroically carried all the picnic, which we ate as an early lunch. 

After a quick climb and walk around the Treetop Walk, Lola II and I set off to book places on a tour of the sculpture installation by Henry Moore. We arrived one minute after booking started to find that all places had already been snapped up. This was no bad thing, because standing in the sun looking at sculptures would have been pretty uncomfortable. Instead, on the advice of a lady at the tour booking desk, Lola II and I visited a building where they were exhibiting some of his smaller sculptures alongside some lovely botanical drawings. We agreed that we didn't really like Henry Moore all that much, so we counted ourselves lucky to have missed the tour. And that building was air conditioned - very welcome indeed at this point.

Kew was lovely, but overwhelmingly hot and mostly green - there didn't seem to be many flowers except in the glasshouses, and roses. Is there any time of year when there aren't roses? The redwoods were beautiful too. We had a break for afternoon cakes sitting in the shade, we played one of the new games I was given by a man who lives and works at the retreat centre where I volunteer. He suggested that I try collaborative (rather than competitive) games, and this one was very unusual. I won't try to describe it, but I'm not sure how it would go down with my U3A group. We played the other collaborative game that evening, and it was much easier to understand and play but again I'm not sure if it would be enjoyed by the U3A people.

I have omitted some of the many happenings that occur when I spend time with Lola II and Mr M, including the substitution of Kenneth, Roger, Demi and Ilkley for Henry Moore, the subsequent misunderstanding of "varieties of trees in Kew Gardens" as "varieties of cheeses on Ilkley Moor", the Horror of the Permanent Marker, the falling asleep during the bedtime story and probably many more stories. But it was a great way to spend the hottest days of the year so far, and a nice break from all the issues connected with selling a house.

Not Appy

Warwickshire, May 2025

Nothing of note to report, which is how it should be. Having said that, of course I haven't been sitting around doing nothing. 

• Exercise: Muscles the Personal Trainer is working me very hard, badminton as always, lovely walk with a friend and his dog, and another lovely walk with the U3A group.
• Nameless Man came to fix my garden gate and recommended a play being performed in a local wood which I attended. It was about codebreaking at Bletchley Park and included musical numbers. The company is based on a narrowboat and they seem to choose unusual venues - there will be another performance in Leamington, this time at the allotments.
• Visit to mum including installing netting below the greengage tree to catch the falling fruit and tweaking her new installation of Windows 11 to make it more like it was before the upgrade.
• Catching up on episodes of Taskmaster together with UJ, films (Love Lies Bleeding, Don't Look Back), and series (finished Years and Years and started Call My Agent).
• Registration for the NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme. The app they really, really want me to use is not compatible with my phone, so despite letting them know that I can't use the app but have been using the website I received several messages to the effect that unless I log in my participation will be discontinued. 
• A phone message then gave me a phone number to call where there are seven options to choose from, of which the first two options that I tried told me to use the website or app and then cut me off. 
• I found a combination of options that put me in a queue to speak to a human, and after a very long wait I finally got through to a woman who sounded like she had been partying all night and then had a raging argument with someone just before answering my call. But anyway, she noted that I couldn't use the app and made an appointment for me to start the programme in September via telephone calls
• I received two emails inviting me to do two separate long questionnaires about my eating and exercise habits then more messages telling me all about the benefits of the app, and finally confirmation of the telephone appointment we'd just made. 
• I have continued to receive daily emails pointing out that I haven't logged into the app, and here are the things that I could be doing with it. Painful.
• I went to supper with local friends who have a 10 year-old son. I was obliged to play games - he has a small air hockey table so that was first, then I'd brought a game that involved goats climbing mountains, and then we played a snap-style game during which everyone became overstimulated and we all had to have a bit of a break. Very different vibe from the elderly U3A board games crowd, and good fun, mostly.
• Now I've started a period of nearly four weeks volunteering at the retreat centre during its busiest time, which is over the Bank Holiday weekend. Updates will undoubtedly be forthcoming.

A visit from Lola II

Lola II enjoying a nice sensible cup of tea, April 2025

I was privileged to host an overnight visit from Lola II, despite the terrible state of her knees which are each suffering from a different complaint. We usually do a whole lot of walking when we are together, so this demanded a new, car-based approach for our usual pastimes of eating, talking, playing and mucking about.

It's not that she can't walk, but she can't walk far, and steps and stairs are quite a problem. So instead of walking together from the station into town I picked her up in the car. First stop was lunch at a beautiful riverside pub that used to have delicious food, but was sadly disappointing this time. Never mind, we went elsewhere for dessert after a stop at the Re-Useful Centre, my new treasure trove, where we found a perfect walking stick. She doesn't particularly need it for walking but it does help with the stairs, and it may get her a seat at busy times on the tube.

Dessert was cake at Temperance café, where they also keep a few board games for customers. I'd noticed one of the games I'd played with my U3A group that I thought was rather good (Splendor), so we had a go, and it went so well that we thought we might go to a games café next day - there are at least two in Leamington.

Evening entertainment was a National Theatre Live performance of Dr Strangelove, adapted for the stage by Armando Ianucci and starring Steve Coogan. I'm enjoying these NT Live shows, and there are a few more to come over the summer. Lola II managed to walk from Lola Towers all the way to the Royal Spa Centre where it was on, but went the long way round to avoid the steps up to the door.

Next morning I started on the task that Lola II had brought for me - shortening some new trousers (she did give me two large leeks and some carrots in payment). I only made one fairly serious mistake and broke two sewing machine needles - the twin sort for stretch material, which seem to break as soon as you look at them. My enthusiasm for stretch fabric is seriously waning, although this must be the first time I've got the sewing machine out for at least a year, and I came across the fabric we bought in 2016 when I was supposed to be making a dress for Lola II. I try not to think about it. I'll definitely get round to it one day but it just doesn't feel like a priority at the moment.

My ineptitude at sewing was interrupted for each of us to have a massage. I'd booked this when the venue was just a short walk into town, which might have been a problem for Lola II's knees except that they had moved to an out-of-town venue so we could drive. I try to make sure that there are activities in Leamington that can't be found in Lola's home area so that she has a reason to visit. Previously it had been the optician, but she's found one locally (how rude). Thankfully I think I have her hooked on the massage option now. She does the same for me - visiting their local international supermarket is my treat whenever I stay with Lola II and Mr M.

We had lunch at another place (Boston Tea Party) in Leamington which was half the price and twice as good as lunch the previous day at the fancy riverside gastropub. I shall visit BTP again. Then we did go to one of the games cafés where we repeated the game from the day before and tried another (One Key), which involved guessing which very strange picture had been chosen using various other very strange pictures, and it seemed absolutely impossible except somehow I managed to guess Lola II's very strange picture - an achievement that will never be repeated.

Before she left, I went through my box of art materials and persuaded Lola II to take as much GRUHI stuff as I could. So at the end of a lovely couple of days I delivered Hopalong Lola back to the train station with her new walking stick, and listed a few things that she didn't want on the trading platform Olio, and they were collected later that day. When it works, Olio is a marvel.

Lola I enjoying a ridiculously outrageous milkshake

Field of Games

Field of Games, August 2021 (photo credits: all Lola II in this post)

There has been a lot going on and I'm a long way behind in the news reporting department. Key events: 

• Vaccination continues, but the centre is only open for three days a week. The customers we're getting are mostly the 18-year-olds who generally have beautiful deltoid muscle definition.
• The most dangerous thing I've done this year is go to a gig in a basement without air conditioning and people dancing without masks. I kept away from anyone else for the next few days and was glad that my lateral flow status remained negative.
• Filled in the fiendish Attendance Allowance form with mum, seemingly designed to be impossible to complete by the people it is supposed to help. It took us two sessions and more than seven hours.
• Decided to get a dog. Yes, I'll just slip that one in here. 
• Joined the 'Borrow My Doggy' website community and arranged to walk with a lovely lady who owns a husky, King. Over the course of the walk and our chat it became clear that not only would a husky be a totally inappropriate breed for me, it was also a pretty poor choice for her.
• Investigated the options for rehoming a dog from the Dogs Trust before discovering the fostering option available by applying to Guide Dogs. A friend is already in this scheme, so went for a walk with him and dog in training, Morgan, and found out lots more about it. My application is under way.
• Field of Games is an event that I found out about from one of the doctors I used to work with. It combines camping and board games, two hobbies that I enjoy, so I persuaded Lola II and Mr M to sign up for it with me for last year. What with one thing and another it took place a couple of weeks ago, and Lola II helpfully made notes and took photos for me. So here's my report.

I got to the field first and had just finished putting up  my tent when Lola II and Mr M arrived. Once the tents were up we wandered round the small campsite and saw that there were three larger tents containing tables, and people were already playing games. We wondered where to start. We had a look at what was going on in the games tents - I don't think I've ever seen such complicated board games. Most had a board with at least four different sections and multiple games pieces representing people, goods, money and much more. There were a couple of cars parked nearby with the boot open and full of games, as well as big bags containing more games belonging to people in the tents.

Everyone was really friendly, though. One chap in particular was very helpful, and one of the car boots was his, so he suggested a couple of the simpler games for us to get started with. At that point all the tables in the tents were occupied, so we sat at a picnic table outside and assumed our roles. I was generally the one who read the rules out, and Mr M interpreted them and generally identified how things ought to be done. As ever, Lola II was responsible for morale.

Deep Sea Adventure

The first game we tried involved us diving from a submarine to retrieve treasure and trying to get back to the submarine before we ran out of air. It didn't go well on the first round and we were surprised by the low scores we were getting when throwing the two dice. It wasn't until the second round that we realised the dice only contained one, two or three spots so six was the maximum roll. We played three rounds, with everyone suffocating each time. Thumbs down for this one.

Azul

Not a good start, but then we tried the other game that had been suggested, Azul, which involved selecting different ceramic tile designs and winning points for various arrangements of these tiles. This was actually my favourite game of the weekend, and I would have liked to have another go at it later but there were so many other games to try that we never got round to it.

After lunch (local pub, two portions of fish and chips between three of us plus a jam sponge for Mr M) we returned to the fray and were lured into playing a game with one of the more experienced gamers - actually his son, although he stuck around to show us how to play. It is called 'Quacks of Quedlinberg' and involved cards, rubies, rats' tails, droplets, more cards, victory points, a long spiral track and another track around the board perimeter, and I didn't get on with it at all. Every so often there was an extra rule announcement that made no sense - "this round your rubies are worth double or allow you to win two potion points" - and combined with the fact that the son was cheating shamelessly and continued to do so even after he'd been asked not to, I was quite glad when it was over. I got a telling off from Lola II for being so grumpy.

Lola II and Mr M were in charge of catering that evening, and produced a delicious nacho dish followed by the obligatory chocolate. I don't think we played any more games that day, but it had been a great introduction and we'd met some nice people already, so I was looking forward to more of the same. And the weather had been kind - there had been occasional showers but not for long, and some sun but not too hot either.

Chakras

On Saturday a different person let us borrow a game called Chakras that involved collecting gems, aligning them on your chakras and meditating to replenish your energy. We were joined by another stranger, a grown up this time, who knew the game from playing it online, so we had a bit of a struggle with the rules and scoring because online it was done automatically. It wasn't bad, though. The fabric bag that contained the gems was torn, so I got out my sewing kit and  mended it, which felt like a useful contribution and thanks for the loan of the game. 

Apotheca

Lunch was at a local airfield. Mr M was enjoying the whole thing enormously, so when we came back from lunch he joined a hugely complicated game that lasted 3½ hours while Lola II and I tried another recommendation where the aim appeared to be to create a potion to satisfy three mystical apothecaries (who comes up with these ideas?) We played twice, and each time it seemed strangely unsatisfactory, although I couldn't say whether that was the fault of the game or our interpretation of the rules.

Then Lola II and I were invited to join in a game called 'Word Slam' with some of the other people, including children, and it wasn't bad and resembled Pictionary but using word cards instead of drawing pictures. Mr M came to join us at this point, and was playing with a card that said 'starfish' but halfway through he'd converted it in his head to 'octopus', so that was confusing. We got as far as guessing 'moonfish' but never quite made it to the finish line.

Bites

Supper was my responsibility on Saturday night, and was a chilli that I'd made at home and frozen and which had been thawing gradually over the past 24 hours, with boil-in-the-bag rice and, of course, chocolate to finish. And fruit. We're not complete heathens. This time we returned to the fray for an evening session, and joined another player who introduced us to 'Bites' which was all about ants eating picnic leftovers, and had the virtue of being quite short while also having lots of different ways to play. Then we played the classic game, Rummicub, which resembles the card game Gin Rummy, and then Lola II and I were ready for bed. Not Mr M, though, who was up for another game, retiring half frozen at 12.45 a.m.

On the last day we started with 'Bunny Kingdom', with a complicated board containing representations of forest, plain, mountain or farm with pieces representing castles, cards containing rewards or instructions, and each player represented by increasing numbers of rabbits on the board who amassed treasure in the form of carrots, wood and fish and other items while moving a game piece to record the score. We were joined by another stranger for this one, and at last I'd found something that I could win, although I was probably helped by the luck of the draw as well. Lola II had the same look that I'd had during the Quacks game, so I don't think she enjoyed this one very much.

Mr M stayed on to play another long duration game while Lola II and I headed off for lunch at a cafe, which was observing Covid ventilation rules by keeping all the doors open. This meant it was so cold that I kept my coat and hat on, and while the food was good I wouldn't choose to go there again. The poor waitresses were allowed to wear only the branded T shirts, and looked frozen. While we were gone Mr M finished the game, took the tent down and started another game, so Lola II and I took down the other tent and tried yet another game.

This one, called 'Santorini', contrasted with all the other games in its simplicity - a five-by-five board without any other decoration, two player markers each, four different components of a tower, and only one significant rule: move your player one square and build part of a tower in an adjacent square. You can climb up one layer or descend any number of layers, and you win if you can get one of your markers up to level three. It was impressive how this developed into a chess-like strategy game, and in fact it could easily be reproduced without the sophistication of the actual board and plastic pieces.

That was it for the games, and although Lola II and I enjoyed it a lot, Mr M enjoyed it even more. When I was back home I got in touch with the doctor who'd told me about it, and he told me about more venues and options, and I am even thinking of going back to my local games shop and am only hesitating because of all the other things I cram into my spare time, and is there really space for this too?