David George Richards's Blog

Rosie and I are still housebound and ordering in our groceries. We are staying in and safe and are settled into our routine now, and I am not really missing going out. What I do miss is driving my car, and I begin to wonder if I will ever drive it again.

Time will tell.

No 24 Hours of Le Mans this year because of the coronavirus. But they did have a virtual race in which nearly all of the actual drivers took part. Very interesting!

Take care all of you in these trying times.

See you next time.

I have been semi-retired for just over a year now, and have mainly gone out once a week for the shopping and not much else. But just after last Christmas I developed the same problems with my feet and legs as my wife. They swell up and get painful during the day, and only go down after several days in bed. So I have become housebound like Rosie and have to shop online.

Now that the coronavirus has struck, things have got even worse, with all the supermarkets under great strain to provide all their customers with the food and supplies they need. It leaves housebound and vulnerable customers like us at risk as the delivery slots become much harder to book, and the supplies run short.

The supermarkets and NHS are doing all they can to deal with this crises, but it is worrying times.

Take care all of you, and stay indoors if you can. I hope Easter brings better news.

See you next time.

A Very Merry Christmas to one and all!

I hope you are all having a nice time and are enjoying yourselves.

Rosie and I are doing our best to have a nice quiet Christmas time with just ourselves for company.

I wish you all good fortune for the coming New Year!

Regards,
David Richards

June is Le Mans month, an important time of the year for me. The race was good this year, as usual, and Toyota won again, but I think the race lacks the tension and excitement it had when Toyota had competition from Porsche and Audi. But these two manufacturers no longer compete. They are sadly missed.

Summer is here and the weather has improved some what, but nothing like the heatwave we had for most of last summer. As I write this it has been raining again, but at least it isn't cold today. Hopefully the weather will settle down and be a bit warmer for the next few months.

This month I have enrolled my books in the Smashwords Summer and Winter Sale. This starts on the 1st July and lasts for the whole month. All my ebooks will be free at Smashwords for this time. You can find my ebooks here. Have fun.

Rosanna is still having compression bandages applied to her right leg. The leg has improved since I last wrote and the wound in her calf is looking a lot better. I hope this improvement continues.

See you next time.

I hope you all had a nice Easter. Rosanna and I had a quiet Easter with less chocolate than other years. But like usual, we spent the time together keeping each others company.

The weather has been strange this year, with periods of cold weather followed by heat waves. The Easter weekend actually had the highest temperatures for the whole year so far. We have been making the most of it. Spring seems to have come at last.

Rosanna is having compression bandages applied to her right leg. These seem to be having a positive affect as the weeping has dried up and there are signs of healing. Hopefully this improvement will continue.

See you next time.

Christmas has come and gone again and it is now 2019. As usual I am dragging out my Christmas well into the New Year and I am hanging onto the Festive spirit for as long as I can. I hope you all had a good Christmas and New Year.

Like 2017, 2018 has not been a good year for my wife and I. Rosanna has continued to suffer with leg ulcers, mainly to her right leg as her left leg has now cleared up. For some reason her right leg doesn't want to get better and the problem is dragging on and on. I am semi-retired now and remain off work and stay at home with Rosanna on a permanent basis. I think she has got used to me being here with her. We will see how we can survive on our savings and what pensions and benefits we receive. Let us hope that 2019 will be a much better year for all of us.

See you next time.

A Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all on Goodreads!

May 2019 be a prosperous and healthy New Year for everyone!

And may your typing fingers and reading eyes never get tired!

See you next time in 2019!

October is already nearly over. It is one of the highlights of my year as it contains my Wedding Anniversary and my wife's Birthday. This year it was our 30th Wedding Anniversary, so we had a cake and some beer to celebrate. We both can't believe that 30 years has passed so quickly. But it has, and we are both that much older. As a result it is slightly sad as well as good. Let's hope we can put in another 30 years!

There were quite a few downloads of my books during this year's Summer & Winter Sale event at Smashwords. But as usual, no reviews or further actual purchases. Despite this I will still probably partake in these sorts of events next year.

I continue to stay at home looking after my wife, Rosanna. She is reliant on me being at home to keep her company and look after her. Although to be fair, she does a lot of looking after me as well! We will be very pushed to make ends meet each month with only a few benefits and our savings to rely on. Hopefully my pension will help when that comes along. I just have to make ends meet until then. It is hard, but we are together.

See you next time.

Welcome to another one of my irregular updates.

Le Mans was a good race this year with far less incidents than last year. At last Toyota won, and although it was a somewhat depleted LMP1 field, I am happy at last.

I decided to take part in this month's Summer & Winter Sale event at Smashwords this year. So despite the fact that I don't get any reviews or actual sales after the event I have marked down all my books to free as usual. So if you want any of my books but don't want to pay for them, now is the time to look me up on Smashwords and get them for free.

I have now given up work to look after my wife, Rosanna. She is reliant on me being at home to keep her company and look after her. So I have now taken early retirement to be with her. My employers were very good with me and gave me a good severance payment. But the financial consequences are going to be high. I will be very pushed to make ends meet each month with only a few benefits and our savings until I can claim my pension when I am 66. We will still be a bit pushed then. It is a difficult and serious situation, but at least I don't have to worry about work anymore.

See you next time.

I hope you all had a good Easter.

This is the first year I did not take part in Read an Ebook Week at Smashwords. I was going to take part, but then didn't as although I do get a number of downloads when my eBooks are marked down to free, I never get any feedback in the form of reviews or after the event actual sales. So I gave up on it this year.

I am still off work and beginning to accept that I may have to give up work to look after my wife, Rosanna. Rosanna is reliant on me being at home to keep her company and look after her. I am also finding it hard to go back to work as well. I was 61 in February and am now a bit burned out, so an early retirement would be appreciated. But with retirement, the financial consequences are high. I would be giving up a fixed wage for benefits and our savings until I can claim my pension when I am 65. We would still be a bit pushed then. It is a difficult and serious situation.

See you next time.