Blog - Ivor’s Daily Gallivant

Ivor’s Daily Gallivant Saturday July 8, 2023 Slept most of the day and did a little more work on my Will. I’m not making the best use of my time and want to do something about it. Went for a run round the block to perk myself up. Ate the last portion of cottage pie. I need something to motivate and energise myself. New interests.

Ivor’s Daily Gallivant Friday July 7, 2023 After making yesterday's post I received a comment from a friend saying she had written her own Will and it’s less difficult than might be imagined. All that it needed was filling in an online template and getting it signed by two witnesses. So, I started a template and began filling it out. And phoned the Will writing company I’d booked an appointment with today and cancelled my appointment. Later, I did some shopping in Lidl in Hythe and had Tofu with rice as my evening meal.

Ivor’s Daily Gallivant Thursday June 6, 2023 Yesterday’s post concerning raising a money from my garden caused some controversy. And resulted in replies from Julie Hope, my niece Amanda Lowe and Lucie Mann. The final reply from Lucie which said I would make less than I imagined (which was endorsed by Julie) made me think again. The website my niece suggested was Alottme which was free to advertise allotment space on (instead of the National Allotment Society which charges) the information provided by the BBC isn’t the best in this instance.The site showed a lot of people offering their gardens for free, which further reinforced I wouldn’t make very much money. I have made further progress with planning my funeral and will be speaking to someone tomorrow about writing my will. And discussing the arrangements with my sister-in-law. The plan is I will save up for a direct cremation. Rather than following a prepaid plan. The advantages with doing it like this are: I won’t have to follow a set payment schedule and until I’ve made the purchase I’ll have the money to hand if I need it for some other purpose. A lady is coming round tomorrow to sell me a will. Andy came round and beat me at Scrabble twice once again, this time he got his best ever score in the second game.

Ivor’s Daily Gallivant Wednesday July 5, 2023: Making money from waste ground. Yesterday I came up with an alternative idea for what to do with my garden after reading a Money Magpie article which suggested unused land could be turned into allotments which would generate income for the landowners. Through the article I found out about the National Allotments Society and emailed their Legal and Organisational Representative and got a reply soon after which prompted me to become an allotment landlord and set the necessary forms for membership. Unfortunately, because of the cost (£66) will have to wait until I get my pension (on 14/7/23) before I join. Today (5/7/23) Wednesday I got up after 10, not knowing what to do and not in the mood to do much. Sat in my armchair dosing after deleting today’s selection of recommended women from the Ourtime website. My sister-in-law emailed to discuss my funeral arrangements, and I said I would research it and get back to her by the end of the month. I found out the cheapest funeral is a direct cremation which at today’s prices costs £895. Also setting up a family trust which would avoid probate so that my trustees could access the money before the Will was settled.

Ivor’s Daily Gallivant Tuesday July 4, 2023: Pessimism Avoid Disappointment I woke at around five and looked at today’s selection of ladies on offer from Ourtime. It amazed me how little a couple of them said about themselves. They provided a picture, age and a short sentence that stated the obvious. And for hobbies put ‘fitness training’ I remember explaining to my art teacher (he was a good listener) that with a drawing what is left out is as important as what is included…. The all the ladies' profiles contained predictable ingredients. Boy! - it would have been a breath of fresh air if someone had said I don’t have a sense of humour, hate walks in the country, beaches, swimming, music, sightseeing, concerts, art galleries, Reading and watching TV. My grandchildren are pernicious vermin. They’re all sociable and enjoy cooking for their families and friends and on and on ad infinitum. Why not just to stand out from the crowd put ‘I’m looking for an unkind, uncaring idiot who has no interests and is a rude pig? Anyway, I cancelled my subscription. One of my slogans when I was designing tee shirts was: Pessimism, Avoid Disappointment.

Ivor’s Daily Gallivant Monday July 3, 2023Got up at about six thinking of giving up on the online dating. After spending hours on Sunday approaching every lady online who might possibly be interested in me and getting a lot of views to my profile with no follow ups. I’m wondering if anyone will ever be interested.One trouble is probably my photos aren’t very good and the written content isn’t enticing. I don’t have much money and I haven’t led an interesting life. I’ve been reading profiles and don’t really think I have much to offer. (One lady blocked me after visiting my profile and in the words immortalised by Clark Gable in Gone with the Wind… ‘Frankly my dear-I don’t give a damn’)What the hell I needed a few things in Lidl (bread, butter, mixed vegetables garlic, pizza slice, and spring water) and take my auto books back. While in the library I enquired about getting my double glazing fixed and left my contact details.I think the problem with the Ourtime website for me is it’s designed for rich people and I’m not one of them

Ivor’s Daily Gallivant Sunday July 2, 2023 Unable to sleep again, after sleeping through the evening I got up and had some tea. My used my time watching instructions a video for writing messages for Ourtime. And watching a Ted Talk entitled ‘Being Happy isn’t the only thing’ which gave four pillars for a purposeful life: Belong. People need a scene of belonging to a group or society and need to be accepted for what they are rather than how they fit in. Purpose: The sense of being of value Transcendence: this is when you’re ‘in the zone’ and performing beyond maximum capacity. Story Telling: The one that was most interesting to me was Story Telling which is about how people edit and interpret their life experiences which enables them to adjust to their pasts. A good story will offer redemption, growth and love. It was also remarked that chasing happiness can cause unhappiness. I spent the day contacting ladies on Ourtime and by afternoon was exhausted so went to bed and slept until early evening. I made myself a meal of fish fingers, jacket potato and cauliflower with broccoli. And later ate a large tin of pineapple chunks.

Saturday June 1, 2023 Had an early start and made some modifications to my Ourtime Profile. Following watching an advice video that said include nothing on your profile that you wouldn’t mention on your first date. So, it now includes nothing about my epilepsy or diabetes. A few nice ladies who don’t live too far away viewed my profile and I started to try and strike up conversations with them. Then I felt exhausted and used Google to find a way to deal with it. It suggested exercise and drinking water. So, I had some water and ran to the bus stop. Which sorted me out for a while. Ran to Boots Holbury and picked up my medication. Had a cheese and beetroot sandwich and caught the bus into Hythe. And went to Marcella where I met May the new manager. When I got home, I looked at some ladies who had visited my Ourtime profile and wrote responses. After a supper of pork steak, jacket potatoes and cauliflower and broccoli, I slept through the evening and woke thinking it was four in the morning. It was about ten at night. I dosed a while longer and it was midnight, so got up and had a tea. There were no more viewings of my Ourtime profile, and I tried to get into conversation with a lady I know on Facebook but there was no answer.

Ivor’s Daily Gallivant Friday June 30, 2023 Unable to sleep, once again I got up early in the morning and treated myself to some tea. Previously I had decided to do something different this weekend and did a Google search for ideas. The problem was finding something that would be amusing that didn’t cost too much money. After a little searching I bought a ticket for the open mic session at The Art House where I planned to do a public performance of my: ‘Wonderful, Wonderful Boris Johnson’ song. (The prospect of bellowing at the top of my voice like a demented rhino in front of a crowd of onlookers and making them laugh appealed immensely) During the day I intended check I’d got the best deal on my house insurance (and emailed Savage and Bullock)I also meant to go to Hythe Library and see if anything can be done to fix my double glazing. But didn’t. I spent a lot of time modifying my Our Time profile and looking at the responses from it. By the time it came to catch the bus into Southampton the lack of sleep had caught up with me and there was nothing for it but have a nap. The weather had gone dull and there was some rain. And by nine at night it was raining hard so I skipped having a run which would have made me feel good.

Ivor’s Daily Gallivant Thursday June 29, 2023 Another sunny day. I was late getting up and just after midday Julie came and picked me up followed by Helen to take us to the UCSA meeting at the Unite building in Southampton. The meeting was okay, but Julie remarked there were fewer attendees than there used to be. She told me about a website ‘Global Research’. Which if what she said is true reveals was very disturbing information about Covid and what’s going on in the world. It is said. ‘People believe either what they want to believe or expect to believe.’ I’m not in the mood to learn about the world’s troubles, there’s nothing I can do about them, and I would rather they passed me by. Feeling depressed and need a break from my usual routine, I booked a ticket on ‘Moving Voices’ at The Art House tomorrow. And have taken out a subscription to the Our Times dating app. And looked through a few profiles. It was way past my bedtime when I gave up and crawled off to bed.

Ivor’s Daily Gallivant Tuesday 27, 2023 to Wednesday 28 Feeling Down in the dumps. Recently I decided living alone isn’t ideal and joined a free online dating site with unfortunate results. I posted my picture with a description of myself, and got two responses, who looked attractive but were stupid. It looks like if that’s any example- I’m always going to live alone. I have always consoled myself with the belief it’s better to be alone than part of an unhappy relationship. There was a telephone consultation with the diabetes nurse was okay, but my injections may become in short supply soon. My friend Andy came round, and we played Scrabble. The games were close but as usual he won both of them.

Ivor’s Daily Gallivant Monday June 26, 2023 Woke up ridiculously early and wrote up and published my blog post for Sunday which was an uneventful day. Drank several cups of tea and ate two slices of toast with hummus. Sometime after seven I still hadn’t gone to sleep. After snacking in the night my blood sugar was high because I’d taken it directly after eating but took it again at around 11.00 and it was nice and low. I phoned my GP surgery to check about my diabetes appointment- it’s a 3.00 on Wednesday and it’s on the phone. I dosed in my armchair, and it was too late to go to October Books for lunch, so I had a tuna sandwich washed down with tea. Worked on my latest painting. Ran to Holbury Hardware and back where I bought a large bottle of white spirit which was needed to continue my painting. Worked on my latest painting which will be included in my exhibition in October, at October Books. At 5.30 to 6.00 I had a Zoom Meeting with my friend Richard and showed him the progress on my painting. Had my evening meal: corned beef, small jacket potato, cheese, mixed vegetables after I’d eaten I remembered I hadn’t taken my blood sugar. So decided to take it at bedtime.

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