It would have been so good to look back on people and places. I have a few of my childhood from an album put together by my parents and this is very precious to me as my father seemed to get rid of any memories before he moved out of his bungalow. When he went into a care home and we cleared the bungalow out ahead of selling it, we found no memorabilia at all.
Now I keep a record of virtually every aspect of my life. On our recent trip to Madeira I took well over 300 photographs but I never seem to be satisfied with what I've taken.
My favourite shots are what I call the busy ones. Full of things going on and certainly not following the rule of KISS (keep it simple stupid). I like muddle and mess and things going on. I like the shape of wood and trees and I like the shapes that buildings make. In many ways I'm breaking the rules of photography which suggest a good photo shouldn't be cluttered. For me the more clutter the better.
A few days ago I put over 300 of my Madeira photographs on my website along with a number of photos from our family visit last year to Colchester Zoo which was a nice day out but in truth we didn't see all that many animals.
I'm now trying to trace other photographs to put on the website as I have them all over the place. I have printed photos in boxes, printed photos in scrapbooks, digital photos all over the place and hundreds of slides that I don't quite know what to do with. My website needs some serious work to bring everything together but my next project will be my autobiography and to continue the read through and make corrections. I am hoping that by featuring what has been something of a pretty ordinary life that readers will be drawn into sharing my world, much in the same way that my blogs do.
Overall I'm trying to document and put together a full record of who I am which will enthuse me and disappoint at the same time.
Writing this blog for you has become a daily delight and, along with my personal diary, something I do automatically and almost without thinking. I can't envisage a world without my diary and my blog.
Oh and at the risk of boring you we have signed off the Le Paradis book and it should be printed in the next week or so. I will have details of how to get a copy shortly. We will be giving a talk and selling copies at the Norfolk Family History Society in St Giles in Norwich in May. More details to follow on what will be a free talk.
I don't watch a lot of daytime television. Ok I'll come clean I watch but don't watch a lot of daytime television.
When I'm writing on the afternoons, which I very often am, I like to have some background noise and somehow it comforts me to have A Place In The Sun or Homes Under The Hammer twittering away in the corner. Strangely I find writing in silence doesn't work for me.
I very rarely sit and watch a programme but I do like watching Doctors and now they are axing it as I've mentioned before. Doctors will end at the end of this year and that saddens me.
You know how much I hate things medical and I think that Casualty is one of the worst and most flawed and incorrect dramas ever. But Doctors is different. It's gentle, it's often fun and the characters are well drawn and real. But the good old BBC, which seems to have very little idea when it comes to putting on drama that doesn't involve blood and guts and people being shot or blown up in what are always known as gritty northern dramas, knows better and isn't the slightest bit interested in what the public think. Doctors is/was different - too wholesome for the stab em and blast em into oblivion gang.
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Yesterday I felt like throwing up. I was watching the breakfast news when there was a piece about the prime minister at home - a carefully controlled piece aimed at softening the PMs image. We were given an insight into Sunak's life with the revelation that he thoroughly enjoys stacking the dishwasher. Wow. We are all taxed to the hilt, the NHS is really struggling but it's ok because our prime minister enjoys filling the dishwasher. Filling the dishwasher and emptying it is one of my tasks. I can say here and now that it doesn't fill me with a great deal of joy. Mind you putting the washing out is another think entirely. That really gives me a buzz and I absolutely love making the bed (I'm being sarcastic here by the way).
Meanwhile in America it's looking like a re-run of Trump v Biden which acted as a reminder that yesterday was the latest old farts lunch.
I'm coming towards the end of my series of photographs of Madeira. Today's are of our walk from Canada Gireo to the village of Quinta Brava. It was a pretty tough walk along main roads down to the village and then a long climb back up and along the lavadas. It was made worthwhile by a cup of coffee which cost the princely sum of one Euro. That's the equivalent of about 85 pence. Eldest son said he recently paid £5 for a scone (or should that be scon)?