June 25, 2019

Apparently it’s Summer. I usually take a foreign holiday in June and so suffering our chilly and rainy weather has been depressing. Clearly the Summer of 2018 may have been down to global warming but it was a memorable few months. A trip to London saw a visit to Stanfords in Covent Garden. Here I perused their vast selection of maps. Specifically I investigated the Australia section. I was looking for fairly detailed maps of the East coast. I was successful. With this I take a further cycling step toward ‘Australia 2020: The Grey Nomad Goes Forth”.

 All news now seems to come with such a presentation that you’re obligated to agree or disagree with it. One development where I was at odds to the popular sentiment over the BBC’s decision to abandon the concession of free TV licences for viewers over 75 years of age. In line with the world today D-Day war veterans were hauled out, replete with medals, to emphasise it was a heartless decision. Gary Lineker’s salary was identified as one way the BBC could save money and populist Tweeters like Piers Morgan waded in. uncomfortably, I thought the decision was right.

The back story of why the BBC did this (after some earlier negotiations with the Government) seem a little murky but they’re still planning, correctly, to exclude certain pensioners who cannot afford the licence. My in-laws are in their late 80s rely on the TV for company. However they’re paying for Sky Sports monthly and taking a daily newspaper without it causing penury. Coughing up an annual £154 is not disastrous. This would be the case for a lot of pensioners. 

Ultimately it seems that the older population have a lot of concessions paid for by younger people who have no property equity or final salary pensions. Theresa May, in her catastrophic 2017 election campaign, was planning to dismantle the ‘triple lock’ that was used to calculate annual State pension increases. A ‘vote loser’ if there ever was one. This age group is holding onto all it can. Mystifying to me is that a London resident Council Tax payer over 60 years old can travel for free on London Transport. Think how many people on over £1000,000 pa are wandering around the system paying nothing? Anyway I expect a future political manifesto will overturn this decision.

I appreciate that most of you are reading this to catch up on the Morgan sports car fuel hose saga. The hose (image below) took a month to obtain after contacting three dealers. One in Kent ‘knew a man at Morgan’ and it appears this hero braved factory politics to obtain the item and despatch it to Kent. The routine process of using part numbers etc didn’t seem to apply and hence it all seemed ‘smoke and mirrors’ to get the pipe. I’m having it fitted tomorrow: apparently the rain is said to lift and equatorial heat descend, which will be perfect for the restored Morgan.

 A bike ride of a 60 mile round trip to Helmsley (north of York) saw me start wearing a light windproof jacket. Just north of York city centre I had warmed up and took off the jacket, this was mid morning. This I stuffed in my rear cycling jersey pocket. Three or fours later I got home to discover the jacket had fallen out of my jersey. Tony was a sad boy. I thought it was lost as I had no idea where I had lost it and either it would be taken by another passing cyclist or ruined by cars, trucks and tractors driving over it. Next day coincidently we’re in the north of the city and the present Mrs Ives suggests driving toward Helmsley to see if it’s on the verge or similar. How pointless.

A day later in effect we drive 6 or 7 miles up the road and as we go around a corner  there is the jacket still in the road. It was in perfect condition. Unfortunately I forgot to buy a lottery ticket as I think my luck was in. 

My luck wasn’t in at Costco when I enquired as whether they had any handkerchiefs? I was greeted with disbelief (as if I was asking for the section of the store containing slide rules, paraffin heaters and collar studs). I’m well aware that only old males blow their noses with cotton squares. The common view is that using them is ‘gross’ due to the harbouring of diseases within. The alternative is disposable paper tissues. I must admit that encouraging people to chop down trees to make tissues wrapped in cellophane to blow their noses seems like a waste of natural resources. Also I don’t seem to have been harmed by the infections contained within. (I’m only telling you this so you’ll know that I was ahead of the curve when they ban tissues).