Today (27/03/2025) I’m feeling old. Its a nice day for this time of year. 17C at the moment which is nice. I’ve been gardening for most of the day both here at home and at my neighbours house where I spent an hour and a quarter cutting grass and weeding. After that I’ve been tweaking our garden spraying for greenfly and other stuff you’d probably not notice but when things start flowering it’ll make a nice display. After all that I’ve just been for a short walk around our estate; probably no more than a mile and a half. I just feel tired. I should add I’m fasting today. My last meal was fish and chips last night at “Deep Blue” in Drayton with Val and friends Paul and Gilly….My next meal will be tomorrow morning sometime…
I find it difficult to find things to write about. There is so much happening around me and its always difficult to decide what I should put to my journal. Today (26/03/2025) our Chancellor of the Exchequer brought a whole new range of measures to Parliament which she assured the house would put the country back on its feet. In my opinion its 50/50.
From BBC news
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has set out her plans for the UK economy during her Spring Statement in the House of Commons.
It came as the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) – which monitors the government’s spending plans – unveiled its latest economic forecasts.
Here is a summary of the main points.
Welfare changes
Health-related universal credit for new claimants, which was already due to be cut from £97 to £50 per week from April 2026 under measures announced last week, will now not rise with inflation until after 2030
Under-22s will no longer be able to claim the health-related element of universal credit
As outlined last week, for existing claimants health-related payments will be frozen at £97 per week until 2030, with a new top-up payment introduced for those with the most severe conditions
The standard allowance for universal credit will rise by £14 a week by 2030, instead of £15 a week as announced last week
There will also be a stricter eligibility test for personal independence payments (Pips), the main disability benefit, from November 2026
The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has downgraded predicted growth for this year from 2% to 1%
But it has upgraded estimated growth for the next four years, to 1.9% next year, 1.8% in 2027, 1.7% in 2028 and 1.8% in 2029
The chancellor says this means the OBR is predicting the economy will be larger by the end of the forecast compared with what it was predicting at the time of her Budget last October
Inflation is forecast to average 3.2% this year, up from 2.6% previously forecast, before falling back to 2.1% in 2026 and then hitting the government’s 2% target in 2027
The OBR says that without action, the government would have missed its spending rule – for taxes to cover day-to-day expenditure in 2030 – by £4.1bn
It says cuts and extra tax from the planning changes mean a £9.9bn financial buffer against that rule, which had been wiped out by higher debt costs since the Budget, should be restored by 2030
The forecaster says there is now a 54% chance the government will meet its spending rule, up slightly from a 51% likelihood in October
The chance of meeting the government’s other rule, for public debt to be projected to be falling as a share of the economy, remains unchanged at 51%
Defence and overseas aid
Defence spending, which had been due to rise £2.9bn next year, to increase by a further £2.2bn
The Treasury says this will take military expenditure to 2.36% of national income next year, a “down payment” on plans to raise it to 2.5% by 2027
Ministers say the spending will be funded by reducing overseas aid from 0.5% to 0.3% of gross national income in 2027, and from the Treasury’s reserves
Public services
Day-to-day government spending to fall by £6.1bn per year by 2030, growing by 1.2% in real terms (after taking account of inflation) after 2026, instead of 1.3%
Target to reduce the administrative costs of government departments by 15% by 2030
About 10,000 civil service jobs are expected to go, including staff working in HR, policy advice, communications and office management
Other measures
A pledge to hire 400 more HMRC staff to tackle “wealthy offshore non-compliance” – estimated to bring in an extra £500m over five years
A new US-style scheme to be launched later this year, under which tax avoidance “informants” will get a slice of any money recovered
Its 3 and a bit months since I was enrolled in ZOE and I have to admit it does become a little compulsive. Its coming up to my second test and I was expecting that I would only get an opportunity to get the “poo” test but low and behold a couple of days ago I received an email from ZOE asking if I would like to do a complete test which would be like the initial test….. I have no idea why I received the invite but why wouldn’t I?
My pack to start the retest is arriving this morning (2025 02 02). I’m excited… Why wouldn’t I be.
My friends Martin and Donna do some really interesting travelling and write posts on Facebook which quite a few people follow. I have suggested to them that although they write good stuff its condemned to disappear into the depths of the FACEBOOK hole in the ground. I have suggested they set up a blog of their travels that friends can go back to to see restaurants, hotels and places they have reviewed at a later date… Its simple and they get a nice record with pictures they can go back to at any time…. I would certainly value it
I don’t think it’ll happen. Martin doesn’t change very easily 😉
I’ve added a screenshot of one of Martin’s last posts. I’m hoping he won’t mind. I’ll take it down if he disapproves 😉
I’m very concerned as are many other about what’s going on in the world with particular reference to the USA, only because the USA has such a profound influence on the rest of the world.
The election for a second term of Donald Trump is scary. We are seeing the world stock exchanges taking a tumble since his election. The POTUS has put a non elected billionaire (Elon Musk) into a hugely powerful position where he has the power to go into govt offices and sack people on the spot. Apparently this is unlawful and US judges are fighting against it.
Yesterday several members of Trump’s cabinet shared plans on “Signal” for an attack on Houti people with a newspaper editor of a US paper (Atlantic) against all protocols set by previous set ups
Val and I have been talking about doing “The Camino” for years. My friend James did it some time ago on the French route and Hannah (my daughter) has done parts of it I believe, but I’m not sure about that.
We have decided to do a shorter route as a starter for several reasons. 1. We have a cat (Bob) who we really love and we don’t want to leave him for too long. 2. Val is concerned about where we’ll stay, getting stuff moved from place to place, and several other things 3. We seem to have settled on doing around 100’ish Km and perhaps from Vigo to Santiago de Compostela.
We’re probably looking at around Easter in 2026.
Currently I’m walking around 50 to 70 miles a week but continue to push myself to improve that.
Its been along while since I last wrote on this space. In December I made the decision to join the app ZOE, which is a science and nutrition company.
You can take a look at it here and get a discount if you were to join.
I was incentivised to join by my wife who had joined earlier in the year. She signed up for a short period but Zoe offered my a discount and I went for a year. The box with all the stuff involved arrived on the 10th December and I immediately got stuck in… This involved fitting a CGM (continuous glucose monitor) to the underside of the top of my left arm. I then did a blood test and supplied a poo test, both of which had to be sent to ZOE as quickly as possible.
Meanwhile the CGM was monitoring my glucose levels. I’m pleased to say I wasn’t showing big spikes no matter what I ate. This amazed Val a little as she had had some quite high spikes. It seems, as you would expect, the tech has moved on since Val did her tests earlier in the year.
Val and I set off for Canada and the island. It had been a long time in planning and we were excited if a little nervous
The trip started when we arrived in Vancouver (staying overnight at Sheraton Wall Vancouver Centre, Burrard St, Vancouver, BC V6Z 2R9, Canada) and boarding a cruise ship the following morning to Alaska. Val had splashed out for a junior suite which was lovely. It had a balcony which was big enough for us to sit and watch the world go by. We quickly found our way around the ship and found the best places for us to eat. After a couple of days we met one of our neighbours (Lora Gaddy) who we quickly made friends with. She was travelling alone and was a very very frequent cruiser (unlike us). Over the course of the cruise the weather was pretty wet and so Val and I spent time walking around the top deck in the rain much to the surprise of other cruisers (mostly Americans) who probably thought we were crazy. You will find pictures in the folder you can click on below. We have stayed in touch with Lora. On our arrival back in Vancouver at Canada Place we went to our Hotel (17/9/2023 Metropolitan Hotel, 645 Howe St, Vancouver, BC V6C 2Y9, Canada) and left our luggage before walking down to the shore and getting a ferry/Taxi to Granville island where we wandered around just looking at the tourists and drinking coffee. We then heard from Bryn who suggested we met for lunch on the shoreline near to his apartment. We walked along the broadwalk and met up with Bryn and Gareth (Val’s cousins) at the Cactus Club Cafe for lunch. It was a brief meeting but pleasant. Perhaps if we visit again we’ll have a longer visit with them. After our visit we went and had another night in the city visiting the same restaurant we had visited. After a good night’s rest we headed for the Horseshoe Bay Ferry Terminal (49°22’28.0″N 123°16’22.8″W) by bus. It was quite simple but we nearly got on a bus going in the opposite direction. We had to wait quite a while for our ferry but eventually it arrived and we found somewhere to sit on the top deck as it was sunny, if a little windy. On arrival in Nanaimo on the island we were met by Val’s other Canadian cousin Bronwyn who had been living on the island for many years and now lives in Ladysmith, ( 48°59’12.1″N 123°48’45.4″W ) a delightful town right on the river. Bronwyn and Mark were the perfect hosts. They had given us a large room in the bottom of the house and although we had a large amount of luggage we quickly settled in. Bronwen suggested we go for a walk with Wally (the dog) and we set off in the direction of the town. At that point Val and I had no idea where we were. It was a pleasant walk. Over the next few days we visited very interesting places. Mark took us to the big qualicum salmon hatchery near to Dunsmuir. Apparently there were Bears in the area but we didn’t see any. What we did see was thousands of salmon/steel heads fighting their way up stream. We then went and had lunch at a shoreline restaurant ( the shady restaurant and pub) that Mark and Bronwyn knew well. It was splendid. We then went onto Rathtrevor beach for a gentle walk and then back to Ladysmith.
The following day (Thursday 21st) Bronwyn took Val and I into Victoria. We had a meet up with Morgan (Bronwyn’s daughter) for a coffee. We then wandered towards the centre and the government buildings. I had been there many years before but it all seemed me to me. Time flies.
We then jumped in the car and Bronwyn took us to “Malahat Skywalk”. How impressive that was. This was a raised walkway which went up and up until you could see all over the estuary. It was impressive and magnificent. There are pictures in the Album. The following day Mark took us on a local walk through woods nearby. Wally accompanied us which was great as he is an early warning when bears are about. We had to say our goodbye’s much too soon. A fab trip. The ferry back to Vancouver was a bit rough. On arriving back in Vancouver once again we found a bus back to the city centre and another hotel. This time Val had booked us into “The Rosedale on Robson Suite Hotel”, 838 Hamilton St, Vancouver, BC V6B 6A2, Canada. This was a rather strange hotel but nevertheless it was very comfortable. We spent our last day cruising the city before making our way to the airport for our return journey. We had a long wait for some reason I don’t remember but while we waited we heard Penny had been born. A good end to a memorable trip.
I’m often amazed at how much other people seem to have considered the problems of the world and have solutions that they are convinced by I find that quite admirable and it makes me (briefly) feel inadequate and not very clever
Currently the world seems doomed to disaster as we regularly have reached 50C in many parts of the globe and there is no sign that this will improve in the near future. I’ve been in some very hot places and when I was there (and younger) I convinced myself I liked it but now I know its not really for me unless there is a swimming pool nearby that I can luxuriate it and wallow in the solitude of being beneath the water. It’s been quite a while since I last did that. It was Sept 2018 in Greece.
Val and Peter Ball are ....... 