My First Musings Of 2022

~ beetleypete

I’m musing on the wrong day here, but at this time of year I have to look at my calendar to know what day it is. Apparently, it is Saturday. As it is a ‘sort-of’ public holiday here, and most people will not be out and about or back at work until the 4th, it feels like yet another Sunday.
(The 3rd is the official public holiday, because today fell on a weekend.)
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I managed to stay up and awake to see 2022 arrive. In fact I didn’t go to bed until 2am. My perkiness was assisted by only having one glass of wine with my dinner. The Tapas-style buffet we chose to prepare was delicious, and eaten over a decent amount of time as we sat around watching the poor choice of seasonal TV provided.
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I am going to try to be a little more positive about things this year. Here is one example.
It rains too much in Beetley, and that gets on my nerves. So here is a positive slant on that for New Year’s Day.
Too much rain = never having a water shortage.
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My driving licence expires in March. That is because I will be 70 years old. In Britain, that means I have to make a ‘Medical Declaration’ that I am fit to drive, and also supply proof of my identity all over again. It is such a faff to do this. They recommend you do it online, but I have no scanner to scan documents. The paper form requires that I send original documents as proof that I am who I say I am, and it comes with a warning that there is a very long backlog of applications already. I was hoping to win the lottery so that I could just abandon driving and employ a full-time chauffeur.
Sadly, that did not happen.
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Ollie is going to be 10 in February. For his breed, that is a considerable age, close to 80 in human years. His fur is still patchy, and refusing to grow back. Some other dog-walkers seem to be avoiding me recently, as they are convinced his skin condition must be contagious. Covid-19 has made people fear anything unusual.
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I intend to cook a Chinese meal tonight. Duck in hoisin sauce, stir-fried with suitable vegetables and noodles. After days of making do with leftovers or eating huge traditional roast dinners and High Tea, I am yearning for something Asian and spicy.
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The brakes on my car are making a nasty ‘squeaking noise’. When life gets back to normal on the 4th, I fear I am going to have to take it in for examination and repair. No doubt this will be my first financial downturn of 2022, as I can already hear the mechanic’s cash register ringing up a huge bill.
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On the plus side, I am looking forward to reading all your posts in the coming year, and I might even be having my usual moans about bloggers who follow with no link to their site, or others who think that a one-word comment like ‘Nice’ is acceptable. (It isn’t, and you get spammed for it by me)
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The sun is shining brightly. That’s two days in a row. I am taking that as a sign!

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87 thoughts on “My First Musings Of 2022”

  1. A lot of ver considerable thoughts, Pete. Here now we also have the re-approvment of the driving license, every fifteen years, and we will first time ever get a cheque card version of the license. But honestly with the actual growing prices of the fuel it soon will not be very affordable here, to have a own car. Lets hope the best, as our former state secretary for transportation had dreamed about air taxis. Lol I would gift some of them a free one-way flight to the space. 😉 xx Michael

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  3. Here we are alive and well in 2022, amazing, and you’ve been bit by the positive bug! I love that Pete. I’m hopeful for 2022, I like to make wishes in threes: 1) Let’s hope for an unexpected surprise that will delight and charm us all. 2) Let’s set our sights on one new accomplishment and may we achieve it with grace and diligence. 3) Let the privilege of travel be open and available to us all this year and may we experience a part of the world not yet known to us! To a fabulous 2022! Cheers, C

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    1. Thanks, Cheryl. Unless I win the lottery, I won’t be experiencing any new parts of the world. Besides, my passport has long expired! But on a positive note, I wil be happy to holiday in England again.
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  7. Happy new year.

    I was wondering how many people were shooting fireworks where sales were again banned here last year. We held out until shortly after two o’clock and greeted the year with champagne and sparklers and wonderful music from the seventies. We didn’t have any guests, so we didn’t make a lot of effort.

    Traditionally in northern Germany there is kale on New Year’s Day with a rather fatty sausage. A very hearty meal. There should be luck and money for the new year – unfortunately that doesn’t work for most people.

    The exhaust of my car was noticeable during the last drive. I also fear a “nice” bill.

    Let’s hope the New Year doesn’t have too many negative moments. We have to stay positive.
    Best regards, Irene

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  8. It is Sunday and we are having a Chinese meal tonight, too. As for positive vibes – our son is sending us a new computer and i am afraid it will be a real task as he doesn’t realise how wedded to the familiar my hubby is. If we get through that, and everything that goes with it, it will be a good 2022.

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    1. New computers can be a trial, but if it is a Windows one, the new version is fairly similar. It doesn’t take too long to get to grips with it.
      Enjoy your Chinese meal today, Julie.
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  10. Will drive for food, although I would need to get a new UK license as I don’t know if my Polish one counts anymore 🙂 Your brakes might just be dirt, if you have a compressor or even a can of compressed air you might be able to blow the dirt out with a well aimed squirt, even a pressure washer might do the trick.
    Here’s to more sunshine and to hell with the water shortages 🙂 Happy New Year!

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    1. Cheers, Eddy. Can of compressed air? Pressure washer? This is me, don’t forget. I think I have a hammer and some screwdrivers, maybe an adjustable spanner or two. That’s it for tools. 🙂
      I had a disc brake ‘Advisory’ on the last MOT. I might get them checked anyway, as Julie takes her two grandchildren around in my car because it has more room. I would hate anything to happen with the little ones in the car.
      Best wishes, Pete.

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      1. I was thinking that as I typed it 🙂 Of course you are right, better safe than sorry, discs and pads are not normally that expensive and often fitted at exhaust and tyre places, no need for the dealership.

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  12. Two bright days of sunshine in a row? Yahoo! I can’t believe what you have to go through for your driver’s license when you turn 70! Here, as long as you renew, you can drive forever. I think there should be a happy medium. What does faff mean?

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    1. Faff is commonly used here. Something apparently unnecesary, bureaucratic, etc. Also wasting time before doing something or going out. “Don’t faff around, just get on with it”.

      Here is the real definition.
      faff
      /faf/
      Learn to pronounce
      INFORMAL•BRITISH
      verb
      spend time in ineffectual activity.
      “we can’t faff around forever”
      noun
      a great deal of ineffectual activity.
      “there was the usual faff of getting back to the plane”.

      Best wishes, Pete.

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  14. It’s always good to see the positives, though it has been much more challenging the past couple of years. One good thing that happened during Covid was that I now Zoom with my three older brothers once a month.

    Good luck to Ollie. Our dog (Lulu) is now eight and has finally settled into a more mature dog. Last night, she had a hard time as the fireworks made her a nervous wreck.

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    1. Ollie rarely notices fireworks, but we don’t have that many going off in Beetley.
      I have never been on Zoom. I don’t have a camera on my PC, and nobody to Zoom if I did. 🙂
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  15. (1) It’s amusing that you are musing on a Saturday.
    (2) I went to bed a few minutes after midnight because I had to get up for an eight o’clock Zoom session with my songwriting partner (three hours this morning).
    (3) I don’t noah single person who is happy with rain that never quits.
    (4) William Shatner, who will be 91 years old March 22, 2022, recently had an automobile accident (Dec. 21) while driving in Studio City, California. But he’s still fit to drive a car…or captain a starship.
    (5) Beetley natives fear a dog with Apache coat?
    (6) I’m also yearning for something Asian and spicy. But then I remember that I’m married…
    (7) I know a groovy mechanic named Kronk who can diagnose your breaks: “Squeaky, squeak, squeaker, squeakin’.”
    (8) Nice.
    (9) “The sun is shining brightly. That’s two days in a row. I am taking that as a sign!” Mother Nature just wanted to get all the sunny days out of the way before raining on your parade.

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  17. I like your observations in this brief form. With regards to the scanning, try downloading an app that is free to scan. That’s what I do. I then email it to myself and I have it in the computer forever. I use the app “simple scanner”.
    I’m having Polish kielbasa and sauerkraut for dinner.
    I’m looking forward to posting more, reading more, walking more. I’ve started going to the gym to combat my fragility. I feel much stronger and healthier these days. 🙂

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  18. How can they remotely know that you are able to drive? Happy New Year to you, Julie and Ollie. We are having the traditional black eyed peas, rice, greens and cornbread for our dinner. It is supposed to bring good luck. If 2021 was an example of good luck I shudder to think what bad luck looks like.

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    1. I have to make the medical declaration, to satisfy their rules. They have no way of knowing if any of it is true, but there is no infrastructure in place to examine me medically.
      I have never had cornbread, but I think I would like it.
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  20. Hi Pete, happy new year. I heard it was 15 degrees in London today, pretty warm for this time of year. I also cooked today. A Cape Malay Biriyani curry. Given we are in a holiday flat, I was very pleased with the result 😊

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    1. It is still 14C in Beetley at 6pm, Robbie. All temperature records have been broken after the last few days of warmer weather.
      Your curry sounds great, I have just prepped everything for our Chinese stir-fry later.
      Best wishes, Pete.

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      1. Nothing gets past you Pete!

        Happy New Year! We too are experiencing very unusual rain in Phoenix, AZ. Been coming down here to spend time with my wife Terrie’s family this time of year for 33 of the last 34 years and it has never rained between Xmas & New Year’s, not that it is unwelcome, just unusual. We all went to Baja Sur, Mexico that odd year out. . . No rain in Cabo San Lucas that year either. . . 😂
        But like Beetley? This New Years day is a bright and sunny 😎 one after the rain let up early this morning 🌄!

        Hopes and wishes for a better year for everyone in your orbit Pete And, it is especially nice to read that you are setting off on the adventure that is ‘2022’ with a new perspective. Hope it takes hold.

        Cheers! 🎉🎊🎵🎶🥂🍾🇺🇸 🇬🇧
        CT

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  22. Happy New Year! Pete, it seems that 2022 will be filled with delicious food like you are making today, and the ongoing annoyances of life like noisy brakes…that just means the world will continue to turn, and you will always have material for your blog! Cheers!

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  23. Happy New Year, Pete! Were you contacted by the DVLA regarding your driving licence? On another tack, a strange thing is that now I receive no email notifications regarding your blog and have to remember to search for it.

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    1. I received a ‘brown envelope’ from the DVLA, giving me three month’s notice that my licence will be withdrawn and I have to complete the declarartion before that date.
      Quite a few of my followers have to keep re-following my blog. Apparently, WP is aware of the ‘glitch’ but have done nothing to try to fix it.
      Hope you have a great 2022, Stevie.
      (Sorry I haven’t got around to reading ‘Scam’ yet. I underestimated how much was going to be happening around Christmas.)
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  25. Before I turn ‘veg”, I used to cook duck, though nothing as fancy as you describe. These days steaming vegetables is about as ambitious as I get, but sometimes I can produce a cake. Maybe as a positive start for the year I’ll whip one up later for my house mate. He’ll eat anything sweet!
    A hug for Ollie. Is he over his Christmas trauma?

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    1. He got over the upset, but his fur is very slow to grow back. Duck in hoisin sauce is nothing fancy. Just sear a couple of breasts, then slice them up to stir fry in the sauce, adding the Chinese vegetables and noodles later. Takes about 15 minutes, and all in one pan. (Wok) Very little washing-up to do after. Two bowls and one pan, plus the cutlery. 🙂
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  28. happy new year, Pete and it certainly sounds like the perfect time for an asian spicy meal. glad you’re looking ahead with a sense of positivity in spite of everything, and see the act of paying for your brakes as a positive one, an investment in your safely and continued independence. – best!

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  33. I was positive it was Sunday when I woke up, for no discernible reason! I went to bed at my usual time, and thankfully, I wasn’t woken by fireworks or relatives ringing me after midnight: they know my preferences well by now 😉 It’s partially cloudy & breezy here, but no rain [yet!] and pleasantly mild, so that’s a good start to the year, even though I don’t bother with ‘omens’ or ‘auguries’ these days. Here’s to plenty more interesting posts, Pete 😀 Cheers, Jon.

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  37. A great outlook, Pete. I couldn’t sleep, so I rose at 4 am. I did see the new year in, laying in bed talking with Michelle. We may try a picnic today, to bring in the new year. Depends on if it rains or not.

    I have to take Max in for a skin condition, and see if we can get him fixed up. He’s allergic to fleas of all things, it causes itching, and then a secondary infection on his lower back.

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    1. We give Ollie a flea and tick tablet every three months. If he gets bitten, the fleas and ticks die on him without causing irritation. It’s expensive, and a huge tablet that we literally have to force down his throat. We always dread ‘flea-tablet’ time! 🙂
      Best wishes, Pete.

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