Substack Diary No.123: Sunday, 12th. April 2026

For the first time in many months, and possibly since the day I retired from work, I have work to do and am up against the clock. Is that a good thing? I am not entirely sure.

Midweek I have a visitor from Yorkshire for a few days and whom I have not seen since the 90’s. Myself and my oldest friend, who lives on the other side of town, will be meeting up with him. The catalyst is one of Britain’s biggest beer festivals – The Maltings here in Newton Abbot.

Not long ago I scanned a few rolls of film I took on a lengthy road trip from Devon to the Cote d’Azur to stay with friends in Toulon and Nice. The three of us were together on that trip in 1982 and the car – a little bright yellow mini – was the star of the show. Some of the negatives are damaged and I have only recently got around to restoring them, or at least those that can relatively easily be salvaged. Some of them are very good. It is my intention to get them ready to view on a 65” screen thanks to Apple TV, when collective and individual memories will no doubt fall into place. I suspect the resulting travelogue, should I ever get around to writing it, will be quite entertaining.

Apart from that, I took 90 or so photos recently at a shoot for a friend who has opened an eco-shop. I need to get them to him but he does not have a computer. They are too large to effectively email but I’ve worked out how to convert them and get them up to iCloud so he can browse and use them to his hearts content.

And finally, a young member of my extended family has expressed an interest in building a family tree, which I already have. I am helping her out with details of relatives she does not have, together with photographs.

So, three big jobs to be getting on with and all with fairly tight deadlines. It’s a bit like being back at work. The only difference being I shall enjoy the work and real people will gain real enjoyment from it. I think that’s a good thing.