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We sold our table

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...
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The letter from the DWP

 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.
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2026 and beyond

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!
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The DWP has heard me and has written me a letter

The DWP first acknowledged my request to be paid my UK State Pension from April. Then they sent me back my birth and marriage certificates. Then they told me by SMS that they had studied my case and written me a letter. We might be all systems go for the next phase of retirement. 
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Back on the bikes

We both got ill at Christmas - I blame the foreign Parisian bugs - and it's taken us both a while to fully recover. My asthma got set off, not with major crises but with a fairly constant wheeze and rattle. I slept through it but apparently I was noisy all night. Pat, for her part, got over her infection but then had one of her back problems. So we've not been on the bikes for about a month, relying on shanks' pony (walking) and the trams and buses. It's not been a great loss as we've had very cold weather and occasional torrential downpours. I saw the doctor and predictably am being sent for x-rays, blood tests and probably a cardiologist later on, just in case it's fluid retention. Pat saw the doctor, too, and also an osteopath. I took herbal anti-inflammatories and maxed out my asthma treatment until things settled down.  Anyway, long story, on Friday we looked at each other and at the forecast, and hop, bikes it was. It felt good to be back in the saddle. Co...
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Bara brith - fruit loaf, recipe refined

 1 cup sultanas 1 cup strong tea 1 tsp ground mixed spice 1 egg 1 cup self-raising flour Soak the sultanas overnight in the tea with the spice Next day mix in the egg, then the flour Bake at 180°C till a skewer comes out clean (30 to 40 minutes) Cool, slice, butter if required. Note well, if eaten unbuttered this tea-loaf has no fat and no added sugar.
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Christmas in Paris - oops, in the Paris Region

There were no direct flights to Bordeaux from a convenient English Airport, so we rented an apartment in the Paris region from Monday to Saturday. Catrin, Froim and Dorothea stayed overnight on Sunday evening and on Monday morning we sneaked off to get the 840 train to Montparnasse. Then we had a metro and a train journey to get to the apartment. Well, travelling by metro and train in Paris with a pram is all kinds of dreadful. Lifts that don't work, or will only go to the floor you don't need. Trains that you have to climb into or jump down from. Hordes of people everywhere. Long queues of able bodied people who could have taken the escalators but instead are waiting for the small lift that anyway takes you to the wrong floor. Tickets that will randomly refuse to work. (a railway worker told me that they demagnetise. I told her that I wait for someone else to go through then run behind them and she laughed.) But the apartment was great. We managed to eat nice meals in Paris fo...
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