Trips here and there

Jephson Gardens, Leamington, June 2026

What with all the moving house and everything we lost momentum on the organisation of our annual ski trip. I'd been working with JW and JD for a while, choosing from a selection of dates, countries, resorts and accommodation types. We found a moment to revive the project, and now we are booked into a self-catering apartment in Ischgl, Austria at the beginning of February next year. One job crossed off my list. Except that now I have to work out how to get there and back.

Mum was slightly appalled by the length of my list of jobs, but it's the only way I can get through without forgetting important things. For example I am reminded of the need to keep chasing things like insurance renewal and quotes for work on the kitchen as well as keeping track of the refunds I'm owed for council tax, utilities and broadband. And the rest.

Recent trips out with mum: two, one to her friend who has been having treatment for cancer and then on to Lidl, and another trip to get ericaceous compost for the heather plant she bought on the first trip. While Lola II is away on holiday she has also given mum the responsibility for caring for a plant that needs a strict regime of 14 hours in darkness, so mum's green fingers are glowing emerald.

Meanwhile I took myself off to Mr M and Lola II for a very short break, since they were in the midst of preparing to go on the holiday mentioned above. I helped Lola II focus on clearing her room while she helped me focus on photographing the contents of six boxes of kitchen stuff that we offered to the rest of the family so that whatever is unwanted can finally leave the premises. [I estimate that mum and I are about three-quarters of the way through the process of merging the two households.] Then we entertained ourselves with a real treat - Lola II's new Spirograph kit, which she intends to lend to friends who have a similar nostalgic attachment to this amazing toy.

Back home, and my first session with my new Personal Trainer, Muscles 2. The sessions take place in a gym, and he must have thought I was joking when I said I wasn't going to do anything without my music on, because that stipulation was completely ignored and I had to endure the din that was being broadcast throughout the gym. As a first 'get to know each other' session it was OK - he worked me a bit too hard on the shoulders which are now quite sore, but the real issue is the music! I've paid up front for five sessions, but I'm also considering exploring other options.

Another trip out in between contemplating storage jars and two households' combined cutlery collection was to Tate Britain to meet a Buddhist friend who comes from Croydon. I'm sure I haven't visited Tate Britain since I was a child, and maybe not even then. My friend is a member so presumably knows the place quite well, but we wandered randomly from room to room, and sometimes a new room felt like a whole new realm as we switched from Pre-Raphaelite to some strange and modern installation then back to the nineteenth century and then to Henry Moore. They don't half have a lot of Turner.

Decorator Dave came to quote for redecoration of the kitchen, the insurance job that keeps on giving. I liked him and would like to give him the job, but I wonder if this is just the hope that comes with novelty and he will eventually become difficult to get hold of and pin down for a date just like all the others.

Lastly (for now) I visited Eastbury Manor House as part of London's Open House Festival, which "opens up and celebrates the city’s architecture, special sites and neighbourhoods." The added bonus is that the normal admission price is not charged. It's a Grade I listed 16th century manor house that once stood alone between Barking and Rainham surrounded by farmland right down to the Thames. It was very nearly demolished before World War I and has managed to retain just the gardens around it - otherwise it's now completely surrounded by housing. I joined a tour led by the Curator who described the work that's been done recently and what's planned, so I'd be interested in going back again next year when the gardens might be little more developed.

GRUHI in a heatwave

Adhisthana, May 2026

After the retreat I spent 10 days at Lola Towers, walking with and meeting and phoning friends and generally getting my head together over the situation with the house sale. Nothing else to report on that score until either the estate agent or the solicitor tells me I'm supposed to do something. 

Of course I continued with the GRUHI project at Lola Towers, paying particular attention to the loft and the garage this time, which resulted in another fruitful trip to the tip and a couple of donations to the Library of Things (a garden spade and a rake). I took a full car of Stuff to Maternal Manor, including bedding, winter clothes and a bedside cabinet that will stay there. 

We had booked a council Bulky Waste collection for Wednesday, and the large sofa, sofabed and dismantled wardrobe had to be out on the drive by Tuesday evening. Mum had made arrangements with a neighbour to help, but we were scratching our heads about how to manoeuvre the large sofa through the hall and out of the front door when our handyman JC arrived with his sidekick to look at the trench in the kitchen floor. The two of them easily managed what the neighbour and I had failed to achieve.

JC the handyman had come to finalise the plan for filling in the trench in the kitchen floor, but we took advantage of the fact that the neighbour was also there to discuss arrangement for fixing the broken garden fence. Then JC and I talked about how to complete the refurbishment of the kitchen floor once the trench was filled, and this required me to visit various tiling establishments where I discovered that 330mm square tiles are not actually very common. It won't be possible to match the colour so we went for contrast instead. 

Lola II came and joined in the work for an evening, and helpfully took away some more Stuff. I ferried mum out on trips for shopping and to the optician. We marked two years since dad's death by getting stuck into the many accumulated storage containers that remained on the garage shelves, separating the contents into metal and non-metal ahead of a trip to the tip. Mum was particularly taken aback by the amount there was; I am no longer surprised by what dad 'collected'. This clearing of the garage shelves continued over several days and we got rid of quite a lot.

My efforts to find a suitable badminton club continue. I don't intend to return to the one I went to last time, but found another club on a Monday. The organisation is again complicated, made worse by the poor directions which meant I couldn't find them within the Sports Centre. Once I finally arrived they were quite friendly and the standard nearer mine, but while asking directions I had come across a set of oldsters who have been playing together for ages and are now suffering from depleted numbers due to age. Next week I'll have a go with them.

I went to one of the Buddhist centres I'm trying out while I'm at Maternal Manor, and they had air conditioning and were lovely (this is the centre that I'm favouring at the moment). In contrast, I went to Lola II's concert, or at least I tried, and in the time it took me to get to Paddington by tube and train I could have driven to Leamington. At that point no more trains were travelling west, so I gave up and came back. I claimed points for trying, though, which were awarded with good grace, and we all know what points mean.*

In between all of this, during the third heatwave of the year, I was liaising with J+J over our 2027 ski trip. Having been to the same place in France for many years we were attempting to find somewhere else to go that we might conceivably reach by train, that has a high probability of having snow cover and plenty of intermediate slopes, and the right sort of accommodation. It looks as though a couple of resorts in Austria might fit the bill.

* Prizes.

Mainly snow and water

Lake Tueda, Meribel Mottaret, February 2026

The skiing holiday was another good one, affected only slightly by one of our party (P) falling on the third day. Sitting on the piste, he was in immense pain around the left shoulder and thought it was dislocated; the paramedic on skis (Damien) thought it probably wasn't. Damien called an ambulance which arrived very promptly and delivered the patient to the local medical centre, where an X-ray confirmed a break right through the humerus just below the shoulder. P came back in a brace along with industrial strength French painkillers, including opium powder. We all hoped he would start wearing a smoking jacket and writing romantic poetry, but no, he just winced and went a bit grey and silent whenever the shoulder was disturbed. There followed some discussion with the insurance company, who finally came up with a plan to fly him home, accompanied by his wife, on the same day that the rest of us came home by train.

Aside from that notable event, the rest of the holiday went very well. In advance it had looked as though the weather would be very bad, but actually the clouds came in and it started to snow only on the last day. I went out with JW anyway despite the difficult conditions, and enjoyed his graceful dives into a couple of soft snow drifts. It started to snow again when it was lunchtime and we were just next to a restaurant; when we were ready to carry on the snow had stopped, so that was perfect.

One afternoon I decided to stay out a bit longer than my companions, and confirmed the fact that I have absolutely no sense of direction or navigational skills. I planned a route that would definitely not take me into an adjacent valley, only to find myself in the adjacent valley on a slope that was challenging to say the least. I managed to get myself back, but skied for about an hour longer than was sensible.

Back home I had to return to all the aspects of life that disappear on holiday. I took mum for a CT scan, which she found very helpful and I found very interesting. My main role was translating and transmitting whatever the various clinicians say to mum because they a) mumble and/or speak very fast b) use jargon c) have strong accents and d) don't look at her when they talk. 

At Lola Towers there is still water penetrating through my front wall. Glf (current favourite of all my tradesmen) came and had a look and we have a plan that includes contacting Severn Trent Water to see if it might be a leak around the water meter. The third estate agent visited; his estimate comes somewhere between the first and the second. Before I put it on the market I have decided to get the front painted, if it ever stops raining. I'm still waiting for a decorator to give me a date before the end of February to do some of the interior painting that's needed, and if we get on OK I'll ask if he'll do the outside work too. If not, estate agent 2 gave me a possible lead.

Ski France

From the balcony, Mottaret, February 2025

The annual ski trip this year involved nine people (two resident in France and the rest of us from various parts of the UK), of whom two are definitely non-skiers, one went out to ski just a couple of times on her own, one beginner who had booked lessons, one expert and the remaining four (including me) at about the same standard. All except the French residents travelled by train via a route we hadn't tried before but was far better than having to cross Paris on the Metro - St Pancras to Lille and then just across the platform from Lille to the 3 Valleys ski area, and a taxi at the end.

The journey was not without its problems, however. A large landslip had closed the main access road, and traffic was having to be re-routed so that both arriving and departing traffic went through a tunnel designed for traffic in one direction. Our French duo, who were aiming to get to the resort early and make us all supper, ended up having to sit stationary in their car for a number of hours, but decided against seeking refuge in the emergency accommodation that was being provided. Meanwhile, we were waiting for our taxi, which had also got caught up in the mayhem and arrived an hour late. Despite this we arrived before the car party and provided supper for them instead.

The conditions for skiing were perfect - plenty of snow, temperatures around -1 degrees, and glorious sunshine for the whole week except for one morning when there was light cloud. I started badly, perhaps due to overconfidence, and kept falling over on the the first couple of days. Then I was involved in a nasty accident, where an out-of-control skier bumped into me and knocked me over. I was absolutely fine but she had knocked herself out, and for a minute it wasn't clear how badly she was hurt. 

One of our party had seen the whole thing and reassured me that it absolutely wasn't my fault. The perpetrator/victim seemed to be skiing on her own because nobody else turned up to help her. Then a couple of random skiers who happened to be doctors stopped to help, she recovered consciousness but was clearly in need of medical attention, and there were enough people around by then to make us superfluous, so we left them to it. After that I skied much more cautiously and gradually built my confidence back up, so I didn't fall over again, and I didn't push myself to stay on the piste after about 3pm (which I might have done in previous years).

Apart from skiing there's entertainment (some of us watched LA Confidential on DVD - a bit more violent than I remember but a good film despite this), and food and drink. Hot chocolate with whipped cream is my drink of choice and there was a wide variety available, rating from about five out of ten to a magnificent ten out of ten in one particular café. We went out for a couple of dinners, cooked for ourselves a few times, ordered takeaway pizza, and for one evening I deliberately planned a vegan dinner because of my experience that cheese is the only protein available to a vegetarian, especially in the Savoie region which prides itself on fondue, raclette and many local cheeses like Beaufort and Tomme de Savoie. 

On the way back we stayed at a French hotel for one night, which allowed the trip to include seven full days of skiing. Expecting some sort of grubby Travelodge, we were actually accommodated in a lovely place where I managed to avoid cheese for one evening by selecting soup and chocolate mousse. 

Skiing and skydiving

Les Arcs 2000, January 2024

I'm still a bit childishly overexcited with all that's gone on since the last blog post, but let's start at the beginning. The first thing was a weekend Buddhist retreat for people who are part of small groups like ours. I always come away with new ideas and enthusiasm and this time was no exception, with the added complication that I'm pretty sure the decaffeinated tea was mislabelled. So: extra energy during the retreat, and a stonking caffeine withdrawal migraine on Tuesday.

I've been to see the parents two or three times, and the shower conversion has been started by very pleasant workmen. Mum had a nasty experience with pain followed by a trip to A&E - she rates paramedics very highly, A&E doctors not so much. But when I saw her this week she was dosed up and pain-free. We have the usual long list of jobs to be done - liaison with neighbours over garden fences, reliable carers to be found, a wound that needs to be reviewed by the GP... I was impressed by her stamina given that I can only be there for a few hours and we work pretty hard.

Then there was a week skiing in France with JW and JD and their son and his friends and our friends - we were a group of 9 altogether, and split up during the day mostly according to skiing ability and during the evening mostly according to age. We travelled by train - Eurostar and TGV - and funicular and bus, and the weather was sunny and dry except for one afternoon. The resort could do with a bit of fresh snow, but on the whole it was wonderful. I used my new hat with attached crocheted beard (thank you Lola II) and got no reaction from anyone. Perhaps it looked a bit too realistic.

On the day we came back there were UK rail strikes, so those trying to get back to Cambridge had a bit of trouble - two managed to find a train and a bus replacement service, two decided to stay in London for an extra night. Luckily I only had to go back to Lola II and Mr M's house, because the next day we had arranged to do Indoor Skydiving as part of Lola II's Belated Birthday Events, postponed from her actual birthday in 2020 due to Circumstances.

Indoor Skydiving is done in a large tube with a huge fan at the bottom blowing air upwards. We watched a very entertaining training video and signed a waiver beforehand, but any shoulder injury is enough to rule you out, so sadly Mr M with his frozen shoulder couldn't take part. Luckily he agreed to take pictures and video, so we have a wonderful record of what happened. There were six of us, and we were kitted out with helmet, goggles, flying suit and (optional) earplugs. Our instructor Ellie checked that we knew all the hand signals for straightening and bending our legs, keeping our chin up, and relaxing. Then we filed into the tube.

It was one of the most exciting and wonderful things I've ever done. Up to that point the closest thing to flying that I've done has been skiing, and we know that I have always wanted to fly - like a bird, not in a plane. Each of our two 'flights' were only one minute long, and some people had a bit of trouble getting their balance and needed a lot of support from the instructor, but watching the video back both Lola II and I were among the best. We both took the option of being taken up higher in the tube for the second flight, which seemingly had to be done by a different instructor.

As I'm writing this it's two days later and I'm still grinning from ear to ear whenever I think about it, and I've watched the video many times. Our nephew and his wife even signed up on the spot for a future flight, but I've had a look and there isn't a convenient option that's local to me. If Mr M's shoulder recovers and he wants to try it, Lola II and I will definitely join him, especially as they are very good at finding discounts to make it more affordable. 

I'm nearly 60

Irvin, February 2023

During the ski trip there was a theme running through the week, which started on the overnight Eurostar going out. I found myself in the small hours, still awake and trying to get comfortable enough to sleep by lying on the floor rather than sitting up in a chair. "I'm nearly 60," I thought. "I don't think my younger self would have anticipated that I'd be lying on the floor of a train trying to sleep when I'm nearly 60." Subsequently, when on previous trips I'd have been working out when the last ski lift would enable me to get home at the end of the day, on this trip at about 2.30 p.m. we started to consider getting back for a bath and supper. "After all, we're nearly 60..."

Then last week I played in two badminton matches. Towards the end of the second one I completely ran out of steam. Luckily I was paired with a much younger partner who did all the running about that I would previously have considered to be my role. I'm really am nearly 60, in so many aspects of life.

Coming back from the ski trip I was expecting UJ to reappear within a couple of days. She had gone home to fetch her cat and I thought she had made all the arrangements and booked transport, but arrangements can be altered and cancelled, and she gave me a new date when she was planning to come without the cat. That date also came and went, and now it may be March. I'm not holding my breath.

Before she went, she drew my attention to the draughty state of the windows in her room, and she has a point. So I called upon Doors and Windows Ulf, who diagnosed old hinges and has gone away to order some new ones. So that needs to happen at some point.

The Film Festival run by Mr M and Lola II went swimmingly as usual, with a new introductory trailer and a fantastic advertisement for Random Cuts, the hairdressing service offered by Lola II ("Only 15 minutes bus ride from the nearest A&E!") My music group restarted, there's the usual Buddhist activity, and I was able to take in another dog, called Irvin. Only for 24 hours, which was quite enough - he's not done much training, and it shows! I've been spoiled by the dogs that are later in their training like Caddie and Pat.

The dental work is going fairly well, I've been allowed to move on to my sixth set of aligners (out of 37), and yesterday I had one of my back molars extracted by my very lovely dentist. It's a shame that I see him mainly for painful treatments. In fact, despite the difficulty of the extraction and the state of the resulting extraction site, it hurts very little today. The dentist's commentary as we went along was also interesting - I had to have extra anaesthetic because of my 'interesting jaw anatomy' and apparently I'm very good at clotting. I told him that this information will all be very useful when I create my online dating profile.

Not feeling it

Lola Towers, May 2022

I haven't felt much like blogging recently, which is unusual. I've had a busy time as  always - immediately after mum's accident I was visiting her and dad twice a week alongside Sister D and Lola II, to the exclusion of anything much else. Then we could reduce our visits to once a week, and now thankfully mum and dad's situation is more stable - we have two reliable carers with another about to be tested, which makes it much less likely that I'll be called on to help when I'm not due to be going there anyway. But there's been some resistance on my part to sitting and typing.

I managed a week's skiing in France with five friends (two of whom did not ski), travelling by train and bus rather than flying. I prefer the idea of overland travel, but in reality it was almost as uncomfortable as flying. The journey out was on the Eurostar overnight, and although we were lucky enough to have lots of space with spare seats, none of us got any sleep to speak of. The weather when we arrived was glorious sunshine all week but this meant it was cold, and the snow was thin in some places although obviously not thawing. I really enjoyed the skiing and also spending time with friends whom I don't see that often, including Friend-Of-The-Blog CERNoise.

It's now a few days later and I'm at Mr M and Lola II's film festival. Not much time for sitting and blogging, so I'll post this now and perhaps find more motivation when I get home. And here's another bonus picture from the garden last year.