{"id":7811,"date":"2025-11-07T15:13:44","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T15:13:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mch-net.info\/wordpress\/?p=7811"},"modified":"2025-11-07T15:13:45","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T15:13:45","slug":"friday-7th-november-2025-day-2062","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mch-net.info\/wordpress\/2025\/11\/07\/friday-7th-november-2025-day-2062\/","title":{"rendered":"Friday, 7th November, 2025 [Day 2062]"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Looking at the planning whiteboard I maintain in our kitchen, I am reminded of the act that in just about a week’s time there is to be meeting of the lunch-time dining club which goes under the name of ‘The Old Fogies’ This all dates back to a period of time when several of us work colleagues realised that at least four of us had birthdays in May and mine just happened to be in the middle of the month. So we started to have a communal celebratory meal in \u00a0May and we complemented this with another meal in the autumn generally at about the time of the start of term and this tradition has carried on almost unabated for the last twenty years. We are a group of colleagues who all enjoyed each other’s company and retired more or less within a few years of each other. Since then we have carried on with this tradition but the experience of COVID was an evident huge interruption and the ‘gram reaper’ has taken its toll of a few of our number as well. But I imagine there are about eight of us who will enjoy a meal where we feel inclined to reminisce about how good things were when we were in charge and how terrible they are now. I am the farthest flung of the group so after we have had our meal and dispersed, I generally have an hour or so before I can catch my train back to the Midlands. So we have got into the habit of repairing to a local Wetherspoons in Winchester were we can sit around a table and extend the conversations not always possible when we are seated around a dinner table. I saw many of these colleagues six months ago on the sad occasion of Meg’s funeral but, that apart, I have not been able to attend many of the get togethers in later years whilst I was caring for Meg in her declining years. I must get cracking and get the train ticket booked whilst I can and often \u00a0go from Birmingham International or even Warwick Parkway as this cuts out the link in to Birmingham New Street and saves some time (and a little money as well). There is a survey reported this morning that Aldi<\/em> has been knocked off its top spot for being the cheapest supermarket in the UK to be replaced by Lidl<\/em>, particularly if special offers are taken into account. These days I tend to vacillate between Aldi<\/em> and Lidl<\/em> depending on whether I have a heavy or a light week and even ease of parking comes into the equation. Thursdays is my \u00a0usual shopping day but this is preceded by a session of Tai Chi and hopefully a cup of tea and a good natter with my (male) friend in the local Methodist Centre. This can mean that the whole of Thursday mornings are well and truly occupied by the time I have the shopping unpacked and the lunchtime meal cooked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thinking that I ought to act quickly, I went on to my favourite train tickets booking line (called ‘thetrainline’). I had almost made up my mind to got to Winchester via BNS (Birmingham New Street) instead of cutting off the corner by going via Birmingham International. But the train times seemed exactly right for me and I actually don’t mind undertaking the entire journey by train which, although it takes longer avoids the quite steep car parking charges and negotiating Birmingham International and the M40 in the dark, which  it will be when I return. I was amazed how cheaply I purchased the tickets and I am sure I only paid about two thirds of what I paid last time I undertook this journey. Of course going in November is helpful and I think the trainline app is utilising ‘split ticketing’ which is helping to lower the cost of the whole journey. My son and daughter popped by this morning as they told me that they would and we are discussing the kinds of Christmas food in which we are going to indulge. As a rule, I tend to avoid turkey and go for what I like (beef) but this year we are probably settling on some god lamb shanks. I promised to prepare the vegetables and intend to put the sprouts on at about 11.00pm the night before to ensure that thy are well done (family joke) My daughter-in-law just happens not to like any of the foods associated with Christmas so this year we are going to buy just what we want to eat and throw tradition to the wind. We have made a quick agreement not to buy each other presents this year but spend the money saved on the food that we happen to enjoy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whilst on the subject of organising things in advance, I have been contacted by one of Meg’s carers to see how I am am getting on and I suggested that we have a party again this year like we had last year. This suggestion went down very well and I was able to offer a house in which we could have singing and dancing and even a sleepover in a spare bed for those who might want to drink more than is safe for them to drive. There is a group of at least four of the ‘care’ youngsters who are great mates with each other and I am sure that there will be quite a few more who will take the opportunity to drop in. I knew in my heart of heart that last year’s party was likely to be the last that Meg attended and this, of course, it proved to be. Later in the morning I went down to the Methodist Centre and had my normal Tai Chi class with about a dozen other class members. Afterwards I was delighted to share a coffee with my new ex-bank manager friend and he told me that he was actually in the Centre yesterday but we must have missed each other, a bit like ships passing in the night. Anyway, we had a good old chat today that made up for the disappointment of yesterday and then I shot off to Aldi<\/em> to do my weekly shop. Fortunately, the store is pretty quiet at this time mid morning and when I got home I had only forgotten a couple of things.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Looking at the planning whiteboard I maintain in our kitchen, I am reminded of the act that in just about a week’s time there is to be meeting of the lunch-time dining club which goes under the name of ‘The Old Fogies’ This all dates back to a period of time when several of us […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mch-net.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mch-net.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mch-net.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mch-net.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mch-net.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7811"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mch-net.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7811\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7812,"href":"https:\/\/mch-net.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7811\/revisions\/7812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mch-net.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mch-net.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mch-net.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}