This week my past caught upwith me and then a twist in the tail for a work colleague.

I am back in the water swimming the Channel for ASPIRE, no Webb great achievement as it is in bite size amounts over several weeks. I have started early to make use of the open air Lido at Shepton Mallet. On Friday, as we made polite conversation getting out of the pool I discovered that mu coswimmer from the adjacent lane was around three years below me at Colfes in South London. He had qualified as a teacher and returned to the school after University – I never went back, although I support the school when I can.

I was telling this tale to a work colleague as we were about to go in to conduct a wedding, and she had a similar experience there in front of me. There was a somewhat bossy woman telling everybody what to do and when she saw us she came over and said to my colleague “I was at school with you!” Alas she was I discovered afterwards, the school bully, terrifying juniors and free with the violence too.

A tale of two halves, so to speak, and a clear display that our ties to our old schools come in different colours.

It has been nearly two years since I have written something, shame on me as there is so much that I should have written. New home, new car, new interests and challenges.

To start with the home. In November 2023 we bought our new home in Castle Cary, it is a detached, comfortable home with a big garden. there was some work to be done before we moved in. At Christmas Jun’s mother was diagnosed with liver cancer, so the day after we moved in, wewere at Heathrow for her to return to Huizhou. We had asked Adie and the removals team to have one bedroom that was uncluttered, which they kindly did, but when I came back from the airport there was that realisation that only the downstairs toilet and the second bedroom were not full of things. Nearly two years on we still have one bedroom and the garage to sort. It was a long lonely time, Jun came home for a two week break, but flew back to be with her mother when she passed. It wasn’t until July that she came home and, of course, I had unpacked everything into the wrong spaces.

In the summer, Chenxi visited from China and again at Christmas, Jun’s sister and husband made a flying visit when they did Europe in November and we continued sorting rooms.

This year, 2025, we have started on the garden, there has been some work by professional removing trees and cutting the hedge. Sadly an ash tree had to go as it was rotten and a birch that was growing up through and inhibiting an oak. We now have a flourishing woodland patch with two oaks, two birch, two rowan, three field maples, an ash and a chestnut. I have planted two gingkos, three cherry, a replacement birch and a descendant of Issac Newton’s apple tree. In the autumn the last apple tree will arrive to complete the patch. The aim is to create a Chinese / Japanese garden at thge top, with a small hop garden and veg and herb plot. There are some roses and camelias already added, and work will continue in the autumn. The lawn is vast and I walk 1.7km each time I cut it. To the side of the house is ‘Jindi’ which will be a reminder of the village (gated community) where we live in Huizhou. It is a mix of bananas, palms and elephant ears.

The garden has a lot of residents, including badgers, foxes, moles and a large variety of birds. As I stated we are in our summer idyll.

It is the November Tournament at Fukuoka and it is day two. Already it is shaping up to who will be the losers. Some of the older hands are dropping down the ratings and are meeting the younger, keener fighters on the way up. It is a hard life, but watching the highlights today I am impressed that so few suffer injuries as they are thrown or drop off the dohyo. With their weight a two foot drop off the clay could prove disasterous. (thus speaks a man with his left leg in a boot waiting to attend a fracture clinic)

I am not sure how I became a fan, it just happened and I enjoy watching this ancient and heavily disciplined sport and cheer for the winners and commiserate with the losers. Today was a particularly good round of bouts which I watched whilst drinking Japanese Cherry Tea. It is good to escape the reality of a wet, windy and cold November day in Somerset. Thank you Japan.

Rather like Sam and the other Hobbits, it does seem that I have been gone for an eternity. No great epic adventures, survived COVID with eight vaccinations and two bouts of the damned disease. It is as if your life was put on hold and of course it is time that can never be recovered. My retirement and live with Jun has taken different directions, from 2019 until 2023 we were unable to travel. That has been rectified this year with a trip to see the family in Guangdong, Jun stayed for three months and we are now planning our return for Chinese New Year.

Family life has changed with the addition of Max, our Doberman, despite his size he is still a puppy and at the moment we are enjoying the petulent teenager stage. Everyone assures us that it will get better.

After seventeen years in Shepton Mallet, the longest I have lived in the same place we are preparing to move, not far, but closer to a railway station. Rather than downsizing we are upsizing to a slightly bigger house, but with a much larger garden, for all three of us. A larger lawn for Jun, a larger space for Max, and an opportunity to produce our own fruit and veg and for me to realise a long held dream of creating a Chinese/Japanese style garden. The latter will be chronicled over the months once we take possession and have completed the work inside the house.

So lots to write about and having drifted for four years it is good to be back and looking forward to the discipline of regular editions and a change in lifestyle as we grow into retirement,

Serious bit. There is a Guy’s and St Thomas’s survey tool being used to track the spread of Coronavirus. Once you have filled in all your details there is a daily check on whether you have symptoms or have been tested. The maps on their website are illuminating.