It’s now open!

OME months ago major overhaul began in the area shown in the above article – an historically significant structure that underwent very significant changes since around January (I’m way too young to have any fond memories of it or to have taken train journeys from it). I wrote about it in relation to the Banksy exhibition and today there was a grilling event, with pleasant-smelling smoke coming out of the building.

More importantly, the coffee shop has opened to everyone.

“A new coffee shop is set to open in the former Mayfield station ticket office,” says the above.

There are still more trees left to be planted near the pavement, but it is overall work well executed. They took one of the ugliest corners of Manchester and turned it into a gem. We saw it gradually, in slow motion so to speak, turning from dust to gold.

Lots of rain heading our way

HE coming week will be rainy here. This is what we wanted and this is what we need.

The water level of some reservoirs across the country is low. If not enough rain falls (or fell), it would lead to all sorts of problems, not limited to “yellowing”; increases in food and water prices can follow (agriculture).

Rainy weather sucks, but water is life and we must get a lot of water.

he decision made a year ago to curb binges of salty and sweet foods ended our weekly ‘ritual’, but we have since then found alternatives, which are healthier and more productive use of time. Improving diet is a desirable thing and governments should recommend healthy diets.

So we try to stock good foods and consume them in moderation.

Today, for instance, I spent 2-3 hours organising and tidying up the house. It’s neater and it makes easier to find things. For instance, I categorised the bottles and sorted things by dates, then I arranged all the detergents and agents in the laundry room. In the past, when I worked nights (overnight) we mostly neglected some of those things and over time some closets became highly disorganised. We lacked the time to deal with it.

Worse yet, sleep was not consistent and diet was not ideal; even eating times were quite stochastic.

I’m glad we made the changes needed and, in hindsight, regulation against consumption of unhealthy foods is the push we needed. Less chances of diabetes, too.

oday a squirrel was walking along the fence here (on top of it). It wasn’t the first time, but it’s always a nice sight. Someone near us has begun feeding the birds, so there was a flock of about 200 birds flying there and their population seems to be growing despite weather and climate hardships.

It’s always good to see other people “chipping in” and feeding the wildlife.

Tomorrow football resumes here. First match in nearly 3 month. The trees are still green and owing to recent rainfall the grass is visibly regaining some life.

Maybe tomorrow I can finally write something positive about football. The last game was awful. Didn’t want to even watch it…

‘ve just come back from the local Asda, where tomatoes were on offer – a very good offer. So I bought over a hundred of them. Rianne’s birthday is on Monday, so this weekend we’ll make one of her favourites, shakshouka. It does take a lot of tomatoes to make one very large casserole of it. The taste is rich.

think we now have 3 flocks of birds we can regularly feed and easily find. They almost chase us, even before any clapping (to get their attention).

Today I opened a new jar for Bottle’s Friend, the biggest of the birds. I enjoy seeing him eat. This mix is more premium than the typical premium, there are some very expensive seeds in it.

It is kind of sad that, at least the way it seems to us, many young people and kids (young adults sometimes still act like kids) waste their live away at skinnerboxes and “apps”. They could derive so much more joy from birding. And these are living things like us, with emotions, sometimes hunger, sometimes fear.

If we teach people – preferably when they’re still young and gradually form leanings – to be kind to animals they will also learn to be kinder to other human beings. Societies thrive in empathy and collaboration.

At the park, Rianne and I sometimes teach very young kids to feed the birds instead of chasing them. We say, “they are like friends…”

Stats pertaining to excess deaths spoke for themselves; wellness is harmed by economic hardships (worse diets), stress, and competition for medical attention among other factors.

think it is fair to say that after 2019 an already-embattled NHS became less available than before. To book an appointment with a GP became hard. It had already been hard for years, but not this hard.

To be clear, I don’t need a GP or specialist or anything, I merely speak for a friend here.

It increasingly seems like people need “connections” or an emergency (or faking an emergency) to secure appointments due to burden on the system and financial stress (privatisation contributes to waste of NHS budget, I covered this before).

As if stands at the moment, the best way to keep healthy is to avoid getting ill (or becoming unwell), in other words prevention, not cures.

For senior people this advice is largely meaningless, even somewhat offensive and potentially a case a of victim-blaming.