les Davey de France

 In a month's time I turn 66 and two notable things happen : 1) I become a UK pensioner. I won't get anything until four weeks later, but I get the status. 2) I get to use my tram and bus pass on my phone!  For some time we have had senior rates tram season tickets - we don't get them free, but we get them cheaper - on our TBM cards, but the cool kids buy their tram tickets in the tram system app. Recently the app has been changed to allow senior season tickets, so from my next birthday - my next renewal date - I won't need my TBM card any more - I can travel just using my phone! 

My dear ophthalmologist is very thorough, so when he discovered an "anomaly" in my optic nerves he decided to send me for various tests : MRI scans of my head x 2 Doppler imaging of my carotid arteries and those which feed my eyes. A night at the sleep clinic to explore the possibility of sleep apnea. My own doctor was somewhat sceptical. Do you nap? How long for? Every day? Who is this Dr.? Anyway, the sleep clinic is run by a psychiatrist, and you have to fill in all sorts of questionnaires about your sleeping habits. I filled them in honestly, I promise, and my score was very low, but she said, "you have a long head and I'd like you to do the overnight sleep test and for us to have a good poke around in your sinuses". I came out feeling worse than when I went in. A year passed without me hearing anything, so I wondered if she'd decided not to bother, but then on my next visit to the ophthalmologist he told me to contact them. Some message had gone into sp...

 We sold the table on a Saturday. On the Sunday evening after church we hied us away to the Ibis Budget Hotel near the airport to stay overnight before our early flight to London. The Ibis Budget Hotel was fine. The lift wasn't working, but we were on the first floor, so what did we care. Next morning at 5am we trotted the 10 minutes to the airport and ran from terminal to terminal (not very far!) to find our flight. We were in London in time for breakfast. Breakfast was in a nice Turkish café on the way to our London hotel. Bacon, eggs, tomatoes, etc., and a big mug of tea. Bliss. We were staying in the Easyhotel in Shoreditch. It was fine. You get a bed, a bathroom and two coat hooks. Once I fixed the shower all was good. Our week included : A visit to The British Museum, this time armed with my little book. The Museum was crowded, so we curtailed our visit a little, but not before visiting Alexander the Great and Socrates, as well as Ur of the Chaldees and Assyria. Oh, and the P...

Back in perhaps 2007 or thereabouts we saw a table at Ikea. It wasn't part of their catalogue and had no strange name. It was just a big, heavy table in very solid pine, measuring 180 cm by 100 cm, or almost 6 feet by 3 feet. We fell in love with it and bought it and it became the centre of our life for almost 20 years.  It was where the children did their homework. It was where sewing projects were done. It welcomed family meals. It held Bible studies. It was where people ate, prayed, read and talked. It was the field where endless games were played. You could easily seat 10 people around it, and we regularly did. And more. It moved with us from our house to our small flat, where it dominated the living room. It then became the centre piece of our bigger flat and we put a makeshift bench at one end increasing its seating capacity. You could squeeze stools in, too. But now we've moved once more to a smaller flat and the table is just too big. I offered it to family and church f...

 The DW letter arrived yesterday telling me that I am, as I thought, and as the government website informed me, entitled to a full UK state pension from 18 April 2025. It will be paid into our bank account every four weeks, etc. Once we've received the first payment we can reduce further our support from UFM. We're getting there slowly, step by step.

Who knows! However current thinking is that maybe we will not leave UFM completely, but will stay as long as we have some kind of useful service somewhere, somehow.  We'll keep you informed!