Author: Jeff

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Adios 23!

Pic of the week 31/12/23

And so its farewell to 2023.

But before I look back on the year, I need to look back on the week that has just gone. We have enjoyed a wonderful Christmas week together as a family – no great dramas, no great arguments just plenty of time together enjoying each others company. I took Sam back to Cardiff yesterday, and Sophie travels back tomorrow morning.

So what of 2023? For me, it was a year of two halves – I started the year with a bad foot and weight that I couldn’t shift.  To say I was depressed in early ’23 would be too strong, but my foot really did hurt, which meant I couldn’t exercise like I wanted and it did bring me down. When I replaced my running with swimming, and also got back into spinning, and started running again in late April, early May, my mood picked up. Also, my “health scare” of high cholesterol in early June gave me the kick I needed to look at what I was eating, adapt my diet , stop snacking and I have enjoyed losing a stone or more.  My foot improving, and weight loss beginning, mid-way through the year did see a definite change in my physical well-being and, by corollary, my mental well being too.

On the travel front, I have enjoyed all my trips (Rhodes in April, Soller in July, Cavtat in July, Barcelona/Blanes/Girona in October and Cordoba/Malaga in December.  I think Cavtat – for the water – and Cordoba – for the chilled vibe – were my two travel highlights of the year.

My Spanish has come on well (again, more so in the second half of the year) and I have enjoyed continuing to learn (and, occasionally, use) the language and learn more about the country.

Work has continued to be fine – full of ups and downs, and, for now at least, the ups continue to eclipse the downs. The biggest negative is the all encompassing nature of my job – 6 days a week in term time is a slog, you never fully rest & recover, and have little (or no) time to do anything other than work. I do increasingly look with envy on those that do four or four and a half day weeks (but, of course, I get the longer holidays.) The biggest positive is mercenary – I get paid well and it allows me to take all the foreign trips that I do.

For the UK plc this has not been a good year – I am becoming increasingly angry with our political masters whose sole goal, it would seem, is to enrich themselves at our expense.  An election must come in the next twelve months – I hope it is sooner rather than later (but fear we will be waiting until autumn ’24)  but am hopeful that the current corrupt conservative government will be booted out (and emphatically so)

Anyway, adios 2023 – you’ve not been a bad year and, perhaps most importantly, you finished better than you started. Now it is time to leap into 2024 – may you be as warm and as welcoming as the beautiful Cavtat sea.

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Christmas in Cordoba

Pic of the week 17/12/23

Last Sunday, at early o’clock, Becky and I headed to Bristol airport to catch a flight to Malaga and begin our Andalusian adventure. But first we had to navigate the hordes of excited young children and Christmas jumper and snow boot clad mums heading for a day at Lapland. Fortunately, our flight was on time and we soon rose into the still dark skies to leave the grim, grey clamour behind us. We landed to see blue skies, hopped on a Renfe train from the airport to Malaga central (3 stops) and then found the bus station, which was surprisingly busy and hectic, and we boarded our Alsa bus for the two hour trip to Cordoba.

Cordoba was calm, sunny and delightful. Cold in the mornings and evenings, it warmed up during the days, and was “chilled” for our whole stay. I loved the Romano bridge

It was peaceful yet purposeful, beautifully bathed in brilliant sunshine.  The Mezquita was something special

an enormous space, part Mosque, part Cathedral.  I loved the space and patterns, the mix of form and function. For me, it was a much more special, and beautiful, place than the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, but Becky disagrees with me on that.

The Alacazar de los reyes cristiano was impressive, too

It was the gardens (again, basking in the beautiful sunshine) that I particularly enjoyed.

One of the things that I particularly liked about Cordoba was the sense that it wasn’t totally touristy – not everyone automatically spoke English and I had the opportunity to really practice speaking some Spanish.

We headed to Sevilla (by train) for a day, taking in the Plaza de Espana

A grand vista, and another chance to practice my Spanish speaking skills and then, after a bit of lunch , the Setas, or mushroom

A magnificent wooden structure that you could walk, affording fantastic views of the city, and also of itself – a bit of an engineering and architectural marvel.

And we’d timed our return to Cordoba to be late enough to allow us to take in the spectacular Christmas lights …

The next morning was another early start, to catch the 0830 Alsa bus back to Malaga. The 2hr 30 journey was a pleasant route through the Spanish hinterland and was enjoyable in its own right.  By the time we arrived in Malaga, the temperature had risen, we were in t-shirts as we took a paddle

and enjoyed a beer

Before later that evening, donning the puffa jackets and enjoying more magical Christmas lights

And then, the following morning, it was adios Andalusia and an uneventful flight back to the UK, after a wonderful, wonderful few days away.

 

 

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Adios!

Pic of the week 9/12/23

So term has finally come to a close and tomorrow we jet off to Malaga, and then onto Cordoba for a few days (fly out Sunday, return on Friday) Am looking forward to some Spanish culture, some time away and, in particular, some warmer weather and blue skies.

After the big freeze of last weekend, on Sunday evening the rain started to fall and didn’t stop for 24 hours, and it was heavy rain! There was quite a bit of flooding, road closures and at school one boarding house (Keens Elm) flooded and the boys (Y9) had to spend the night in the library. Living halfway up a hill as we do, there were no problems for us.

Tuesday and Wednesday were both dry and the forecast rain for Thursday was not as heavy as feared and so no further problems caused. But its been a wet autumn an early winter. If December and January are particularly wet then it could be a very soggy start to 2024.

Anyway, off to sunnier climes for a week – looking forward to it.

Hasta luego!

 

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Spotify wrapped

Pic of the week 3/12/23

This week Spotify wrapped dropped, giving an insight into my musical habits and tastes of the year.

Before looking at the numbers, my sense is/was that I haven’t listened as much this year (Becky not working on Sundays has denied me a significant slot of “kitchen dancing time”) but my listening has been more eclectic than before.

Abba were my top artist, although Olivia Newton John’s “Xanadu” was my top track and, along with Cher’s “Turn back time” in 5th place, I’ve clearly embraced my inner disco queen.

But I listened to 40 different genres, and I’m not surprised to see that “Soul” was the pick of that pile.  On the whole, I listen to “happy music”

My top songs, and …

… my top artists.

Looking back over previous years, both Deacon Blue and the Jam regularly appear in that list.

So, I listened for 7,302 minutes (down on all previous years), to 548 songs from 348 different artists. Music does still play a big part in my life, it brings me joy and happiness, and can change my mood, from bad to good, in the course of a few three minute blasts.

In other news, its been cold this week, very cold, with a heavy frost Friday into Saturday (my fleece seems to have done its job in protecting my outdoor geraniums. ) And yesterday I put up the outdoor Christmas lights – its beginning to look … and all that!

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10K!

Pic of the week 26/11/23

Today I ran my first 10K of the year!

I had been losing my love of running at the tail end of last year and had stopped regularly running 10K – running 7K instead – in October ’22 (although I did clock up two 10Ks in Dec ’22) and then with my plantar fasciitis my running dropped off significantly this year.  But in April I got going again, but 7K was still very much my limit – I lacked the energy or inclination to go any further.

But over the last couple of months I’ve got my running mojo back, my times have improved and in this month (November) I’ve been adding an extra 1k onto my seven K run as I felt I had a little bit left in the tank.

Today, I did the extra 3K loop after my 7K run to complete my first 10K of the year. Wasn’t too bad at all, took it comfortably within my stride (pun intended) Annoyingly, map my run was playing up, so I didn’t get any splits, or an accurate time, but I ran it faster than I did last December. Am pleased with myself, now need to build on this and make it a more regular occurrence.

In other news, the temperature dropped on Friday night and we had our first frost of the year – quite a hard one.  I had bought some agricultural fleece and cocooned some of my geraniums and nasturtiums under it – my aim is to try and see some of the former through winter and spring to bloom again in the summer. So far so good, but I will now be a slave to the nightly weather forecast …   (I kept the fleece on over Saturday night as well, another cold one.  Its been cold all day now, but the temperature is warming (but still cold!) – typical grey, damp and cold late November: not nice!)

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Indoor gardening

Pic of the week 19/11/23

This year, I have really enjoyed the garden and, in particular, watching plants grow (obviously over a period of time, rather than as an instantaneous spectator sport!) It started in the spring with the bulbs in the lawn, bringing a sense of hope when all was brown, grey and drab; moved through the summer with as the sunflowers reached for the sky, then the pumpkins, large and small, and still the nasturtiums and cosmos valiantly burst forth in colour, continuing to flower into mid-November.

But despite the best efforts of those plants that refuse to give up despite the falling levels of light, incessant rain and howling winds, winter is coming and soon there will be little cheer outside. The best we can hope for is the frozen  form of white frost covered seed-heads against a brilliant blue sky, but days like that are few and far between. (We’ve yet to have anything close to a frost – hence the nasturtiums soldiering on.)

So I decided to bring the outside in, and try my hand at over-wintering some geraniums and also nurturing a collection of spider plants – the latter in part inspired by my Mediterranean travels where they can be seen as part of normal outdoor planting. My hope/plan is that mine will spend the summer outdoors reminding me of sunnier climes.

So I put up a new shelf in my room, and also moved an Ikea shelf, and have filled them with six geraniums taken from outside that I hope to over winter, my four cacti, and twelve baby spider plants that I bought of ebay and have potted up.

I look forward to watching them all grow over the coming months, (hopefully) providing an oasis of green and a source of interest over the dark months to come.

 

 

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Trees

Pic of the week

I have been enjoying the colours of the trees this week. They have been a lovely range of colours and, when its not been raining*, I have been deliberately drinking in their beauty, full in the knowledge that before too long they will be gone and we will be left with a barren brown-grey vista for a few months to come.

In the garden, I have still have some cosmos and nasturtiums flowering, and a couple of poppies keep popping up in the “wildflower” corner of the lawn, to provide some cheerful colour alongside the autumnal hues. My grasses (near the fig) which did so well this year are just beginning to turn, I’ll keep them in place for some structural interest until spring doesn’t seem too far away.

*its been a wet autumn so far, with wind and rain never far away. A damp, depressing winter beckons (good job we’re off to Spain (Cordoba) in 28 days time!)

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Bambinos

Pic of the week 5/11/23

It was Sophie’s birthday (24!) yesterday and she came home, bringing Sam with her.

Was lovely to see them both, have birthday tea together on Saturday (although I was on dining room duty on Sunday evening, so couldn’t also have tea with them then)

No he’s no longer insured on the Corsa, I’ve been a taxi service for Sam, shuttling him to friends in Wells and then Glastonbury.

Lovely to have the family back together for a weekend. in six weeks they’ll be back for Christmas!

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Barcelona, Balnes and Girona

Pic of the week 29/10/23

So for the last eight days or so, we’ve been away travelling through north-eastern Spain, Catalonia. Departing on Wednesday 18 October, we flew out to Barcelona (a very civilised 10 am flight!) and then hoped on a train into the city, where we stayed for 5 nights, enjoying the sites and scenes that Barcelona had to offer.

I must confess, my initial thoughts (well after the excellent train ride from the airport to the city centre) were a little disappointing as we found La Rambla and walked along the famous street of Barcelona – yet another disneyfied experience that could have been any where in Europe (yes, I’m thinking of you Dubrovnik and Rhodes old towns) – sanitised and designed to part the tourist from there money. But we soon left the well beaten track and headed into the gothic quarter – busy, but much less so, and certainly more authentic; you got a sense that you were in Spain, Barcelona, and not just a magnet for the cruise ship masses.

 

The next day we did the must sees of Parc Gruell and the Sagrada Familia – very and impressive and worth seeing. Becky loved the (slightly bonkers – my opinion) architecture of Gaudi

although I think I preferred the more classical constructions, particularly when married with the modern. I particularly liked this:

The Church of Santa Maria del Pi

The huge piece of modern artwork inside the old building drew me in and was particularly striking. The artwork was commissioned when the outside of the church was graffitied and the authorities entered into a dialogue with the artists, looking to collaborate. I don’t think these old buildings – wonderful though they are – should exist in a vacuum, they are part of a modern, breathing world and  need to work out their place in today’s world.

With the pun fully intended, my highlights of the trip to Barcelona were when we gained height and could enjoy fantastic vistas across the landscape. On the Friday we went to Montserrat by train, cable car and funicular before exploring on foot the strange mountains and rocks

We also got high by going to the top of the church at Tibiado

and on the Sunday when we took the funicular up to Montjuic where, in addition to the views

we wandered the parks and grounds and saw a few sights from the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.

After some busy days on Barcelona, we went up the coast, via slow train (1 and half hours, E6 each)to the seaside resort of Blanes.

The day we arrived was windy and the sea very rough, but it was lovely to have a slower pace of life and sound of the sea crashing onto the shore.

The next day was calmer, we walked up to botanic gardens, Jardi Botanic Marimuta, which were beautiful

… and then we went and found a cove to soak up the sun for the afternoon.

where I swam in the sea – warm, and clear. The highlight of my holiday

And then it was up to Girona for night (flying back from Girona was much cheaper (and less busy & stressful) than returning from Barcelona)

Whilst in Girona, we walked the walls, and I made a new friend, Eugene, 78, who spoke to me in Spanish for some time about the region – I was pleased to be able to “get by” in conversation with several locals during the trip

Then it was an evening flight back to Bristol. Shortly after taking off we flew over Blanes in the dark, a last glimpse, a last reminder of a great Catalan adventure.

Becky’s blog – and far more photos – of the trip can be found here

 

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Haircut 100

Pic of the week 15/10/23

For the first time in about 20 years, I went to a barber of Friday.

Di has had a new hip so is currently out of action, and I have been growing my hair a bit longer, looking for a new style. For the last week or two it has begun to annoy me – a shapeless nest atop of my head, nut after my trip to the barber I’m happy again after he has given it some shape and style.

I’ve also had a busy couple of days in the garden ( we broke for half term on Friday. On Friday it poured with rain – really poured, Sophie had a nightmare journey home from London due to flooding in Swindon, eventually getting back to Cardiff at around midnight – Saturday and today (Sunday) have been quite bright and sunny, but cold, much colder than before. A bit of a shock going from unseasonably warm to a cold (albeit normal) autumn day)

I have taken out the sunflowers from the front bed and planted it up with tulips, daffodils and grape hyacinths. Also planted up several pots with daffodils and several others (9) with about 5 allium bulbs. Looking forward to spring already …!

And I harvested my pumpkin:

This year it weighed in at 4.2kg, with a circumference of 71 cms, so a little smaller than last years effort, but an impressive pumpkin – good shape and colour – non-the-less.

Still seems a lot to do in the garden it doesn’t seem like its fully ready to be put to bed for the winter just yet. Still have several sunflowers “shinning” in the back garden, and the cosmos plants that took so long to flower are now producing a vibrant pink and magenta display. Am going to try overwintering a few geraniums to see how that goes.