Reasons to Be Cheerful (Again)

I see WP have altered the “Posts” page. It’s probably an improvement, but I always wonder when they change things – it’s the same old story – The Overcrowded Bookshelf – you squeeze another book in and one drops off the end. I wonder what has been lost in the latest reorganisation. I’m guessing it’s not the cost. They always seem to get the billing done without any glitches.

I have written three previous posts with the title Reasons to be Cheerful – one, two, three, and one which is almost that.I am clearly not cursed by originality.

Two things are mentioned more than once in these posts – one is my chief reason for being cheerful – Julia and the second being Ian Dury. This is fair, as it was his song title before I started using it for blog posts. I looked up the lyrics because I always do when I think of the song (I can never remember any of them apart from yellow socks) and found there’s actually a site for translating Dury’s English into American English. This contains such gems as the fact that “cheddar cheese and pickle” is a “popular British sandwich”. There seems to be nothing you can’t write about on Wikipedia.

Julia and I are enjoying a peaceful and relaxed start to the day. We have brought our dressing gowns from Nottingham and, with having heating, are able to wander about in the morning feeling very Noel Coward. The heating is set to 18° C (64° F), which is the recommendation from Age UK. To be fair, we aren’t letting the possession of a working heating system go to our heads, as we only run the heat about six hours a day. The rest of the time we wear our fleece ponchos. So far it’s working well.

So here I am again – cheerful, warm and domestic.

I have just agreed the subject for my 2026 talk at the Numismatic Society – Royal Visits to Nottingham (with particular reference to the medallions of the 19th and early 20th Centuries), so I have something to keep me busy.