Reflecting on New Year’s Eve. Service disruption.

 New Year’s Eve!

Twenty-five years ago it was Millennium Eve. There was some argument about it actually being Millennium Eve as, strictly speaking, the year 2000 was the final year of the previous millennium and the new one began on January 1st 2001. But 2000 was a nice round number, full of fine fat zeros and 2001 had connotations of the rather fatalistic Space Odyssey film, with the computer taking charge. And there were already enough rumours spinning around about how the various computer systems were not going to respond well to changing from 1999 to 2000 and might crash. They didn’t!

Millennium Eve was also the 50th birthday of an old friend who organised a small party of a select group of friends to help him celebrate. We ended up taking a very small Granddaughter Number One along with us so that her mother could out and celebrate the New Year with friends. One of the guests assumed she was ours, a late addition to the family - which of course she was but not actually my child, flattering as the idea might be.  

Those New Year’s Eve birthday parties became a regular event. Amazingly it almost always turned out to be crisp and cold, perfect conditions for watching celebratory firework displays from our friends’ garden at the high point of the town. Perfect also for a walk down from that high point to our house in valley in Delph, lit by the almost full moon. 

I noticed last night that we had a high, bright, almost full moon, which explains the cold night and the frost on the shed roof this morning.

Our Millennium Eve birthday friend died almost 13 years ago. For some time we kept up the party tradition, raising a glass in his memory, probably even until Covid came along and disrupted all our lives. And this evening we have no plans to go and celebrate the start of another year. I might well be fast asleep when midnight comes around! What a difference a quarter of a century makes!

Eurostar seems to have to to a bad end to the old year, with accusations of too high prices and yesterday a loss of power, leaving people trapped in LeShuttle. “A LeShuttle passenger, Tim Brown, told the PA Media news agency he had been stuck in his car on the train at the Calais terminal for more than three hours with “no access to food or water. The fact that nobody has come around offering everybody a bottle of water is what has shocked me the most,” he said. “I know things happen, but surely that would be an easy way to help.”” Poor customer service must be added to their list of failings. They are not sure that things will return fully to normal today!

I have only travelled through the Channel Tunnel once, accompanying a group of A-level students to a conference Paris. We convinced some of the more gullible students that if they got off our bus once we the shuttle got moving and stood in the kind of open area there, if they were fortunate they might see fish swimming in the Channel. Such trusting 17-year-olds! 

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!

Cold fronts. Feeling the cold. Bears. Climate change. Government failings.

This should have been posted yesterday. I just found it in draft. In my feeble state I failed to publish it. So here goes! 

According to the people in the know we are due for a spell of very cold weather: The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has issued two amber warnings for north-east and north-west England, which will be in place between 8pm on Sunday until midday on Monday 5 January. It seems to me it’s quite cold enough already. As well as old biddies like us, the experts tell us, “vulnerable younger people and those sleeping rough may also be affected”. Every time I’ve been outside in the last day or so, I have reflected that it must be awful to be sleeping on the streets at present - awful at the best of times but especially so right now.

And then I think of the masses of people in refugee camps in Gaza, where they are being denied better accommodation, and where floods and strong winds are whipping through the tents. 

None of this stops me feeling sorry for myself. Granddaughter Number Two, who tells me that she too has a chesty cough and a snotty nose, and I have decoded that Granddaughter Number Four, the youngest of the Southern branch of the family, infected us all as she was coughing and sneezing furiously during their pre-Christmas visit. Whatever the cause, I seem to be surviving on Lemsip and sleep! Hey ho!

In Japan they are having a problem with bears, not all over the country but in a significant number of places. Osaki, the north-eastern town of 128,000 people is best known for its Naruko Onsen hot springs, autumn foliage and kokeshi – cylindrical dolls carved from a single piece of wood. But this year it has made the headlines as a bear hotspot, as the country reels from a year of record ursine encounters and deaths, with warnings that winter will not bring immediate respite.

People are going hiking equipped with special bells and bear-repellent spray. Personally I think I might avoid places where the bears might appear. People have been attacked. You would think that by now the bears would be hibernating but it seems they are short of food and so have not fattened up enough to go and hibernate. No doubt this has all got something to do with climate change. 

On the subject of climate change, here’s a link to an article about how extreme weather has pushed nature to its limits in 2025.

We’ve been watching Stranded, an Italian series about some people trapped in a hotel in an Italian skin resort when an earthquake causes an avalanche and blocks the only route in and out. Of course, there are problems with relationships, with a woman and her daughter in a witness-protection programme, with a man who has a link to the criminal who led to her being in said witness-protection programme. All a bit Agatha Christy but with lots of nice scenery.

Because this series is presented on 4 by Walter Presents, we have to tolerate the very annoying sponsorship spots by Indeed. Also there are lots of adverts for gambling. Now this is one of my bugbears, as I am sure some readers are aware. According to this article, Sadiq Khan has pledged to remove gambling advertising fromTransport for London but he has had some problems because of a prolonged impasse between the mayor’s office and the government! And the advertising has not only continued but increased. So it goes.

Here’s another thing. Eight and a half years after the Grenfell Tower fire it seems that some of the firms involved in providing the cladding that burned so fiercely are still receiving multimillion-pound public contracts. The mind boggles! 

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!

What day is it anyway. Honours. Unwanted gifts. Bardot obituary story!

It’s that time of year when people lose track of what day it is. So we’ve had Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Boxing Day, The Day After Boxing Day, then a couple of nameless days - officially Sunday and Monday. Today New Year’s Eve Eve, tomorrow is New Year’s Eve, and then we have New Year’s Day. After that we can revert to ordinary days of ghe week! What a  relief! 

I think my milkman got mixed up as well for yesterday he failed to leave me a bottle of milk. Fortunately I had enough in the fridge as I was in no fit state to go and replenish supplies from the local co-op store.

Surviving on Lemsip and sleep seems to have been working though - still coughing but rather less lethargic that I have been for days. I might venture out into the world later.

It’s also New Year’s Honours announcement time. Idris Elba is about to become Sir Idris Elba - not just for being a good actor but for his contribution to society. Torvill and Dean also be come a Dame and a Knight - it seems to have taken them a long time to achieve that honour. It was 1984 when they danced on ice to Ravel’s Bolero! 

In the study I found a bag containing a dressing gown I bought as a Christmas gift for Granddaughter Number One. What was it doing there? Talking to her mother yesterday I discovered that she believed that its fluffiness had triggered an asthma attack she had on Christmas Day. Not wanting to offend me by rejecting the gift, she put it out of sight, presumably hoping a black hole might swallow it. Goodness! Now I need to decide what to do with it. Here’s a link to an article about what people have done with unwanted gifts! It’s quite easyntomoffend people by giving their gifts to charity shops.

And here’s a letter written by Quentin Falk, someone I had never heard of. I googled him and found this: he has been a show-business journalist for numerous national papers for over 40 years.He has written nine books, including biographies of Anthony Hopkins, Albert Finney and Alfred Hitchcock. Somit’s appropriate he should write about Brigitte Bardon, I suppose:

Letter: Brigitte Bardot obituary

Mon 29 Dec 2025 

“A year before her breakout role as an international sex symbol in And God Created Woman (1956), Brigitte Bardot made a rare trip to Britain to co-star with Dirk Bogarde in the second of the “Doctor” comedy film series, Doctor at Sea. She played a cabaret performer stranded on a cargo ship who is first discovered by Bogarde, as Dr Simon Sparrow, taking a shower.

As I recounted in my 1987 book, The Golden Gong, filming was, with characteristic British modesty, to take place from the other side of the shower curtain, with Bardot’s body covered. However, as the producer Betty Box explained to me, the camera was able to pick out the outline of the garments which, frankly, looked foolish.

Bardot came to the rescue. She stripped off before an agog crew. Word whizzed round Pinewood Studios and often the sound stage was bulging at the seams.

Box would later recall in her own memoir that Bardot was “a joy to work with” and that her “fractured English charmed everyone”.

There you go. 

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!

Post-Christmas news. Adieu Brigitte Bardot. Bonuses. And unwanted gifts.

 Another one gone - Brigitte Bardot has died at 91. Another icon of our youth has disappeared.

In Italy, Etna has been erupting, despite being covered in snow.  It must be quite a sight to see. Scientists have issued a red Volcano Observatory notice for aviation, signalling a potential risk for aircraft. Despite the alert, authorities said flights continued operating normally at Catania-Fontanarossa airport, adding that no disruption was expected unless ashfall increased

Here’s someone who has had a Christmas bonus. The former chief executive of Wessex Water received a £170,000 bonus from its parent company last year despite a ban on performance-related pay after criminal pollution failures on his watch. And this is despite all the various complaints about water companies throughout the country. 

Colin Skellett received a total of £693,000 in pay from the water company’s Malaysian-owned parent company, YTL Utilities (UK), including the bonus, according to its accounts up to June 2025.

The bonus prompted strong criticism from the Liberal Democrats, which said it showed that the government’s bonus ban was “nowhere near strong enough”.

It seems to me that it’s only well-paid bosses and executives who receive bonuses at present. Teachers certainly don’t receive bonuses, no matter how hard they work!

A friend of mine has been commenting on the fact that now that Christmas jumpers have mostly been but away, everyone but he seems to be wearing pyjamas. This is partly because he admits to owning no pyjamas. Maybe someone should have gifted him some already-worn pyjamas. 

According to something I read already-worn pyjamas have topped the list of the most disappointing Christmas present, beaten by Marmite-scented deodorant. Who even knew that that was a thing? And who decided it was a good idea to have Marmite-scented deodorant? According to research that one in five Britons have received an unwanted gift in their festive haul. More than 2,000 members of the public were polled by the consumer group Which? in January about the gifts they received last Christmas, with 21% of those surveyed saying they had been given an unwanted or unsuitable present.

A Chelsea fan was given a Tottenham Hotspur book.  And a vertigo sufferer with a fear of flying was given a helicopter ride by their daughter. Maybe she thought this was a way of curing his phobia! 

So it goes. 

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!

Some of the oddities (nuisances) of modern living.

As we walk around our village it is quite common for people, mostly youngish men, not older people, to ask ‘Are you all right?”, often reduced to “Y’all right?” It doesn’t seem to require a response, apart from possibly, ‘Yes, and you?”. As a rule they’re half way up the street by then anyway. It seems to be a replacement for the old “How do you do?”, similarly reduced to “How do?” And similarly requiring no real response. 

I read something this morning about how people respond, or should respond, to the question “How are you?” 

Someone pointed out that Oscar Wilde’s definition of a bore is someone who, when asked “How are you?”, tells you.

I think my favourite comment was this one: “My late father-in-law, who lived to be 104 and was a veteran of the Dunkirk evacuation and the north Africa war, would inevitably respond to the question “How are you?” with an enigmatic “Surviving. That’s the name of the game.” The dialogue is now used regularly by members of the family in fond memory of his fortitude.

Ray Woodhams

Cawthorne, South Yorkshire”

Coming a close second is this one: “At the age of 88, my response to the question is “Still above ground”.

Mike Peacock

East Meon, Hampshire”

A couple of years ago our son and his wife had an extension added to their house. Very nicely done, it has skylight windows in a high ceiling. Recently my daughter in law commented that she had received yet another email advertising skylight windows. This is one of he bugbears of the modern world: you purchase something and proceed to receive emails suggesting similar things you might like to buy. Now, I can understand the compulsion suppliers have to tell you, “people who bought this also bought this (similar or related object)”. It’s understandable with relatively small items, clothing and such but skylight windows are not the sort of things you purchase on a regular basis. 

In the same nuisance category comes the compulsion to ask you for feedback on something you have experienced or purchased. Again, it’s pretty much understandable. If I’m feeling generous I will accept that they want to improve their service but I really don’t feel the need to give feedback on a routine visit to the dentist or even less so to shops like The Body Shop! If I shop in a place where I have never been before and they offer the possibility of sending the purchase receipt by email, I always turn it down now. It was an interesting novelty to begin with but the flurry of advertising emails is quite off-putting. Here’s a link to an article, more of a rant, by a comedian I have never heard of, on the subject of post-purchase emails.

As far as I know, they have not yet recovered the crown jewels stolen from the Louvre in Paris. Here is a report of a rather lower key theft, this time silverware from the Elysée palace. Staff are accused of half-inching the tableware. Oh dear! 

Now I am about to walk into village to replenish our supplies of Lemsip cold remedies. If anyone asks how I am, I shall refrain from giving them chapter and verse on my coughing and sneezing. But they might not hear response anyway as my voice has been reduced to an intermittent squeak. 

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!

Thinking about Christmas organising. And some committed people.

Well, Christmas mayhem almost did for me yesterday. We organised to have Christmas fizz, followed by Christmas dinner, followed by a pause to exchange gifts (incidentally giving tine for dinner to be partially digested), followed by a range of desserts, to whit, my now famous mincemeat cheese cake, apple crumble (requested by Grandson Number One and my son in law), jelly - stripey jelly planned by Granddaughter Number Two and partially executed by Granddaughter Number Four - and, of course,  Christmas cake, which my daughter and I will consume over the next few weeks.

It was as we sat down to dessert that I realised I had run out of energy and needed to sit quietly for a while. This did not stop me joining in the Christmas quiz.

Looking back over the last two weeks I can see that I was building up to this. The Christmas Mayhem began sooner than what I outlined yesterday. 

On Monday December 15th I got up at a silly hour to do our traditional Manchester shop with Granddaughter Number Two. 

[In the previous week I had been out to lunch with old friends, had a telephone consultation with my GP, done a run to Uppermill to collect a prescription, had a Saturday craft session with Granddaughter Number Four who wanted to stitch presents for her mother and her older siblings.]

On Wednesday December 17th I attended Grandson Number Two’s Nativity play and then brought him and Granddaughter Number Four home for tea. 

On Thursday December 18th Granddaughter number Two came to visit after going to the hairdressers and didn’t help in the least in the preparations for my son and family arriving next day. 

On Friday December 19th said sone and family arrived and we had the house full for the weekend. We organised a “chippy tea” from the local fish and chip shop - 12 people round the table. 

On Saturday December 20th we had a long and rather fine walk around our local beauty spot, Dovestone reservoir. When we returned Granddaughter Number one, who isn’t really up for long walks, joined us and we had stage one of exchanging gifts.

And then I cooked dinner for 11 of us! 

On Sunday 21st, winger solstice, everyone came-to breakfast ans tonsay goodbye to the southern branch of the family who were heading home for Christmas.

Then came this week’s mayhem: 

Monday - mostly planning and shopping.

Tuesday - entertaining small grandchildren.

Wednesday - baking an getting ready for today. Last minute wrapping.

It’s no wonder I ran out of energy over dessert yesterday.

Added to that, Granddaughter Number Three, one of the sudden contingent, was sneezing an coughing all over the weekend. I think she infected me. I’ve been coughing and wheezing and filling paper handkerchiefs at a furious rate of knots. I have not been so ill in a lomgbtimr

Monday - mostly planning and shopping.

Tuesday - entertaining small grandchildren.

Wednesday - baking an getting ready for today. Last minute wrapping.

This morning I set no alarm and almost slept the clock round.

Still, I am not truly complaining. It’s lovely to have all the family together. But maybe I need to pace myself. Others have had a quite miserable Christmas.

Here’s a reminder  by someone called Christine Achofield of people suffering for what right! 

“Remembering Mary Jane Clarke, a suffragette, died on Christmas Day in 1910, two days after spending a month in prison for smashing a ­window. She went on hunger strike and was force fed, which is thought to be linked to her death from a brain haemorrhage.

Thinking about Qesser  Zuhrah. Day 50  hunger strike after being held for approximately 17 months without trial for criminal damage following a break-in at the Elbit Systems (an Israeli-linked 'defense' firm) This significantly exceeds the standard UK legal custody time limit for remand, which is typically six months. Despite her lawyers and supporters arguing that she meets the legal conditions for bail, her applications have been denied by the courts....

....One in four British MPs in the last parliament accepted funding from the pro-Israel lobby. Over 180 current MPs (including 130 Conservative MPs and 41 Labour MPs) have accepted such funding, totaling over £1 million in donations and paid trips.

Direct from Israeli State: Over 40 MPs have accepted funding directly from Israeli state institutions, such as the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Hmm!

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone.