Yep, after time in rolling Devon and a brief sojourn in the hills of West Yorkshire I’m back in the coastal flatlands of Southport for the next few days. Only this trip is tinged with sadness. Whilst I was away in Devon I received the tragic news that Bev, my sister in law had lost her brief fight with cancer. There’s so many thoughts and memories about the time we all had together before I moved down to London in 1986, but a blog is hardly the best place to express them. So many of the people we knew then have passed away – but there is one memory I’ll mention. A birthday party at the flat they occupied in the early days. Lots of friends were there and various people provided food – including my mother, who’d made a trifle. As the evening wore on (and the more senior members of the family had taken their leave) things got out of hand. If I remember rightly, Angie threw the first bit of trifle. After that all hell broke loose and we ended up in a full on food fight of the sort that you’d have seen in a 1960s comedy! The next morning those of us who’d stayed overnight ended up trying to clear up the mess, scraping trifle and other sticky foodstuffs off walls, pictures and carpets. Not to mention what was stuck to us! So, Bev, I’m so sorry to hear of your passing, but I will never, ever forget you – or the fun that we had in those distant days.

Right now I’m passing time by getting fit (no really!). Staying with my sister Anne has enabled me to do a lot of walking as well as taking advantage of the exercise equipment in a local park. What I’m finding helpful with this is what was my old Fitbit. Now, Fitbit was great for keeping track of your movements and giving you feedback on some of your health metrics, but it was passive. Now it’s been absorbed into Google and they’ve added an AI coach. I’ve always been cynical about AI – for lots of reasons – but I find this AI coach really helpful. It’s both motivational and informative, it’s not passive at all. It doesn’t always get things right (but all you have to do is correct it) but it gives me lots of useful information unprovoked that inspire me to improve my exercise.

Mind you, that’s not all. Our friends in Devon (along with Dawn) have inspired me to go on a low-carb diet. I’ll be interested to see how that pans out over the next couple of months, but as I’ve just cleared 3 million steps in 2026 I’m feeling positive!

Meanwhile, I’ll be enjoying splitting my time between walking, exercising and working as the weather here in Southport’s been pretty good – although we’ve had some threatening skies

Tomorrow I hope to be doing some more exploring, so watch this space….