My life

I shouldn't complain, really. Things are going well for us right now, and the money has never been better. I do worry about my mother not getting a good night's sleep. I've tried some herbal tablets, but she says they wake her up more than anything. Another little problem I want to try and resolve is my sister Sarah. She has not been in touch for 2 years now, and I feel my mother finds this stressful. They were more like best friends back in the day when we had horses. But they have drifted... Sign in to see full entry.

With Christmas coming up, I think back to earlier holidays which I really enjoyed. My favourite was 1978 and 79. This was the time when I left the Coop supermarket and the job insulating roofs and found myself on the dole. I had no big rent to find in those days, as we lived in a house that went with mother's job. The Christmases before that were ones where my stepfather was still in the house, before he went off with another woman. Once he was gone, there was a height lifted from our lives, and... Sign in to see full entry.

Little has changed for us, but the subscription for Bloggit is coming round again, and I want to justify the right to keep this account open. I see AI is creeping into everything. Most of the videos on YouTube are cobbled together with AI writing tools, so you end up with the craziest stories. But you can't tell if they are all false. I know students are now checked for plagiarism in essay writing, but who checks up on all this? I bet it’s an AI doing all the work. Very worrying for young people... Sign in to see full entry.

I found out today that the car will only need £350 to get it through the MOT. This is such a great relief as we live to fight another day. I was prepared to budget up to £2000 to keep it on the road, but this is wonderful news. The irony is that I have almost paid for this thanks to the massive gains I've made on the stock market, Steve. Sign in to see full entry.

I find myself at a point where I have to make some big decisions. Should I keep the car? Sadly, I only use the car about twice a week, and the MOT comes up this week. I fear it will not pass and will need a lot of money spending on it. I am prepared to go up to £2000 to keep it on the road, but beyond that, it does not make sense. Two taxi rides into town would only be £40 a week, and we could get the groceries delivered to the door, so why throw good money after bad? The bus runs past our house... Sign in to see full entry.

Trip to the dentist today to replace the filling which I pulled out through flossing! Can you believe such a dumb thing? There it was, sitting in the basin before me. Anyway, a very kind man replaced it and only charged me £27.40. I was lucky. Sign in to see full entry.

There are just too many cars in the world. I ran a neighbour to a hospital appointment today, and I was struck by the fact that we are being swamped by cars. Not trucks and vans, HGVs or any other work vehicles, just cars. Each household has to have two cars just to live. No car, no job. There is nowhere to park, and the roads around here haven't changed much since the war. So we are just going under with cars. You dare not use the word: BUS anymore, and the companies could not organise... Sign in to see full entry.

Thank God, the rains have returned. Horrible if you are on holiday, but wonderful for the gardens and the fields. The harvest is coming to an end around here, so they won't have lost much, and they need a certain amount of moisture in the crop to get the best price anyway. With all they new houses going up around the village, they will need a new water source soon. Everyone has to come off the same one we have been using for 70 years. The village is situated in a small valley with natural... Sign in to see full entry.

Just a quick note to keep the account open, but the truth is that nothing much has changed for us here. I'm still caring for my Mother, and looking after the other big house in the village. Gardening and trying to make a little money online. Little change, but to be honest, I like it that way. Sign in to see full entry.

Things change very little around here. To some extent, I'm more than happy with that, but I fear change and what it can bring. The village seems so content to just sit back and let things happen, but when the changes come, we are overwhelmed by them. The big house I look after in the village is empty now. Its owner is in a care home, and he is not expected to return. At 94, he can't live there as it's not made for disabled living. Dating back to the 15th century, things have not changed there... Sign in to see full entry.