Hi Everyone Thought that I would start our journey through 2026 with a quiz question. What do the years 1975, 1982, 1991 and 2008 have in common? If you have not already worked it out, in each of those years we had a financial crash. Now, no doubt, the doom mongers are out there predicting all sorts of bad things in this coming year, including another possible financial crash. In 1973, with my two partners, we started our business with petrol at 33pence a gallon. In 1975, the

Hi Everyone Now that another Christmas has come and gone, it is perhaps time to look forward with a personal wish list for 2026. Apart from hoping that our family and friends enjoy good health and safety, we then have to rely on others in positions of influence and power to act for the good of us all. I realise, of course, that it is unlikely, as many of them have personal ambitions and prejudices that are at odds with many who, unfortunately, voted for them, assuming that yo

Hi Everyone We have been fortunate to have had a number of American road trips as independent travellers to New England, California, North and South Carolina, and Colorado, Arizona and Utah. In addition, we have special, long term friends in New England, California and Michigan. On every visit, we have experienced on a daily basis friendship, courtesy, and we have met many wonderful people. I think that if we went back to America tomorrow, we would find the same great welcome

Hi Everyone Christmas is coming, and once again, we are out with Santa on his sleigh to raise funds for the charities that we support throughout the year. This is something that I have been involved with for over thirty years, and I never fail to be impressed by people's generosity. Every year, we rely on the weather being kind to us and despite the fact that we are told that the economy is stagnant and that unemployment is rising, it looks like we could be facing a record ye

Hi Everyone I read this week that since the war started in Ukraine, we are now Putin's greatest enemy because of our unwavering support for the country and its people. I am very pleased about that, as I said on day one, that the Russian invasion was an act of war on a sovereign European country and that Europe and the US should make sure that it is a conflict that Putin should not be allowed to win. Now the US have spent five hours in Moscow with Putin trying to negotiate a p

Hi Everyone Perhaps a lot of my Rubbish readers will be surprised to know that I had a band called The Chessmen (get it Mate - Chess) before the Beatles were formed. Our first public appearance was at the local Church Institute on Wednesday 27 th February 1957. In 1956, there was an uprising against Russia’s Communist rule in Hungary. As expected, the Russians came down very hard on the population, and many people had to flee the country, so we decided that the money raised

Hi Everyone In March 2020, just over a week before the first Covid lockdown, I was in our local Pharmacy together with nearly fifteen staff and customers crowded into a relatively small space. I remember being very uneasy about the situation and being relieved when I was able to leave the shop after about five minutes. At the same time, I was using a local gym three times a week, but after that incident in the pharmacy, we decided to have our own voluntary lockdown, as we kne

Hi Everyone When I was young, the radio news, the daily newspaper and the cinema newsreel were our only sources of news. On the radio, that news was provided by the BBC. Which newspaper you read was usually dependent on your political views. Now there are a myriad of TV and internet news channels, while those people who still buy newspapers are still influenced by their political views. Now, not a lot of people know this, but the BBC is 103 years old. During those years, has

Hi Everyone Now you must all know by now that the Senior Partner was tight with money. If she had been around today, she would not have to make sure that the shop scales were tipped in her favour or make less than 2 pence on each pound of potatoes that she sold. She would not have had to inspect the waste bin in the shop before the Junior Partner was allowed to consign the waste to the pig bin in the yard or get down on her knees with a bucket of soapy water to scrub the shop

Hi Everyone I think that most of us watching and listening to world events over the past few months are irritated by the so called leaders who have massive egos or have misused the powers that they have been given. It was refreshing to encounter two people this week that I did not previously know much about. Firstly, Kamila Harris, who lost to Trump in the presidential elections last year, gave a fairly long interview on BBC TV. She was here to promote her book 107 Days, the

Hi Everyone There have been a couple of interesting stories in the last couple of weeks with a common theme. The first was that over 30,000 homes across the country have had insulation work done to their homes under a government backed scheme that has cost millions of taxpayers' money. Apparently, about 90% of the work done was deemed to be substandard and has left the homes in a worst state than before. The second story was that locally work to repair potholes had again been

Hi Everyone This week, Trump flew back home from Israel and later Egypt, declaring that he had achieved peace in the Middle East. If he really believes the words he is uttering, then he is deluded. Now, those are not my words but the opinion of a BBC journalist who has reported on Middle Eastern conflicts and politics for almost thirty years. From my viewpoint, the more I read about the situation, the more confused I become with my sympathies moving from one side to the other

Hi Everyone Most of my readers will know that as you approach middle age, many things pass you by and, more importantly, many...

Hi Everyone This week, our news has been dominated by a BBC reporter who had been working in a London police station with a special...

Hi Everyone This week, a pop group returned from yet another world tour. During an interview on TV they were asked where their favourite...

Hi Everyone It seems that the topic of free speech has been again in the news this week. We all appreciate that we are able to express...

Hi Everyone One of my earliest memories, I would be about four at the time, was sitting next to the Junior Partner in his car, driving...

Hi Everyone As you probably already know, as someone who is approaching middle age, pop music of the last thirty years has passed me by....

Hi Everyone Fortunately, as we approach middle age, we have some great holiday memories both with our children and then on our own in...

Hi Everyone A few years ago, I researched my family tree. I got back to 1710 when Matthew Mate married Ann Biker at a church about 20...