Top Ten Queen Songs

Queen were one of those bands that I was a fan of when I was a spotty teenager and they remained so until the untimely death of their enigmatic frontman Freddy Mercury. I loved them before they became a global phenomenon. 

I would estimate that I first heard music by them way back in 1974, when their second album, the blandly named “Queen II”, was released. It was a big hit amongst my friends at school and I didn’t really take notice of them until I heard a song called “Killer Queen” from their third album, with a much more interesting name – “Sheer Heart Attack”.

From that point I was hooked. At that point they were more of a rock band and it was only after this release that their style evolved into something more, crossing several musical boundaries, ranging from pure pop to progressive rock, from art rock to electronic disco with added symphonic rock and even operatic and orchestral tendencies in places. 

Their style was kind of unique in that anything was on the table. And being a fan of progressive music, that really resonated with me. 

My love of Queen peaked when I was lucky enough to see them perform live at Knebworth in 1986, which was the year after their legendary performance at Live Aid in 1985 and, sadly, was the very last live performance of their wonderful front man, Freddy Mercury. I was honoured to be there.

Freddy was diagnosed with AIDS in 1987, and kept it quiet for four years before revealing his diagnosis publicly. Tragically, he died shortly afterwards and that was then end of Queen for me. 

The band still exists in a sense because Brian May and Roger Taylor still perform as Queen but with a guest vocalist. That, to me at least, isn’t Queen and the bass player John Deacon also agrees because he retired when Freddy died. People still go to their shows but not me. It’s not the same without Freddy. 

I enjoyed the movie “Bohemian Rhapsody” and can tolerate the inaccuracies that I know weren’t true, for example, Freddy being diagnosed with AIDS before Live Aid. I think Rami Malek’s portrayal of Freddy was incredible and he deserved his Oscar and all of the other accolades he received. 

Such is their appeal that even Mrs PM loves them and she is not traditionally a lover of rock music. We have several of their songs on our joint playlist. 

I have decided to present to you, dear reader, my favourite ten Queen songs. Again, with such a vast catalogue, many Queen fans may disagree with my choice. To be honest, that doesn’t bother me. Such is their range that I would imagine every Queen fan will select a different top ten.

And it’s really difficult. Ask me another time and I will pick a different ten.

Here’s mine:

(10)  Somebody To Love (from A Day At The Races - 1976)

The vocals on this song are exquisite and not just the harmonies. Freddie’s voice is superb throughout. I was even impressed with the version that George Michael performed at the Freddie Mercury tribute concert – although it is quite clear, comparing the two, that Freddie was a much better vocalist.

(9) Was It All Worth It? (from The Miracle - 1989)

I remember sitting in a pizza restaurant in Birmingham when for some reason this song came on as background music. I instantly recognised Freddie Mercury’s dulcet tones and assumed that it was their new single. I hadn’t heard it before and the following week I realised that they had a new album, which I promptly bought on the strength of this song alone. 

The video shows a pocket history of the bad up to the album “The Miracle”.

(8) Radio Ga Ga (from The Works – 1984)

This is a special song because it reminds me of my third and final year at university. It is also a return to form for Queen after the disappointing "Hot Space" album. I remember when they performed this at Knebworth in 1986, Freddy Mercury had the entire crowd in the palm of his hand and we all sang the chorus with him and I had a huge smile on my face. 

(7) Play The Game (from The Game – 1980)

This may surprise people but I love the melody of this song and once more Freddy’s voice is excellent. I particularly like when it veers off-piste at about the 2 minute mark. 

(6) Princes of the Universe (from A Kind of Magic - 1986)

Air guitar time. The first Highlander film was fantastic – the rest were garbage. "Princes of the Universe" is an ideal accompaniment to the first movie. It is a great rock song with brilliant guitar and pounding drums. This is a great Queen song.

(5) Gimme The Prize  (from A Kind of Magic - 1986)

Keep out your air guitar and crank up the heaviness "Gimme the Prize" is also used in the soundtrack to Highlander and shows Queen at their heaviest, which is understandable since it is the bad guy's theme. Turn up the volume and enjoy.

(4) Now I’m Here (from Sheer Heart Attack – 1974)

I love this song and it gives a taste of what’s to come in terms of the band harmonising and playing with vocals in a similar way to Bohemian Rhapsody. You can see how the band was evolving. 

(3)  Brighton Rock (from Sheer Heart Attack – 1974)

"Brighton Rock" wasn’t a single and comes from Queen’s third album "Sheer Heart Attack". While you may not regard this as chart material, it appeals to me, firstly because it is a great slice of classic rock and secondly because it shows just what an incredible guitarist Brian May is. It’s edgy, raw and brilliant. Keep your air guitar out again, dear reader – you’re gonna need it. 

If you like the song, check out the live version – it’s even better.

(2) Bohemian Rhapsody (from A Night at the Opera - 1975)

It took a while for me to like this song and I think most of the world thought the same. It was a bizarre choice for a single and a risk because nobody had done anything like it before. After hearing it a few times, I began to appreciate what a masterpiece it really is. It was probably the first progressive rock song I heard – a mini opera complete with wonderful harmonies. 

You can’t deny it is a classic and has been used to great effect in the movie "Wayne’s World": 

And also the version by the Muppets – this is funny:

(1)  The Prophet’s Song   (from A Night at the Opera - 1975)

If you like "Bohemian Rhapsody", you will absolutely love this less commercial offering from the same album. "The Prophet’s Song" is a progressive masterpiece, coming in at a cool eight minutes with incredible vocal harmonies. Sit back and enjoy the perfect Queen song.

That’s it, dear reader. 

Feel free to let me know your favourite song by Queen. 

Finally, if you like the heavier side of Queen, have a listen to this metal masterpiece from Brian May with the magnificent and legendary drummer Cozy Powell pounding hell out of the drums. It's called "Resurrection".

 

Five

Greetings from South Manchester where the Autumn chill has been banished briefly by pleasant sunshine. It’s slightly windy but the temperature is perfect for a nice walk. It’s hard to believe that November is almost upon us, especially as the clocks go back tonight, meaning I can spend an extra hour in bed (which of course the cats will not allow). 

As predicted, the western world is preparing us for Christmas despite the fact that it is two months away. We already have Christmas movies appearing on various TV channels. 

Why? 

Christmas is okay but only in December in my opinion. 

I am not Ebenezer Scrooge by the way; I’m just saying that my birthday is nowhere near to Christmas and that’s when the tsunami of Christmas nonsense starts appearing in my life. 

I will try to answer some silly questions in order to distract myself from what could turn into a mild rant. As usual the culprit is Sunday Stealing. 

FIVE things on my To-Do list:

1. We’re off to Malaysia early next year so I have to make sure that I book an appointment to check whether Mrs PM and I need to be vaccinated. We may be okay but I like to check. Can I just add that I am glad that we don’t have a nutter like RFK Jr in charge of our health over here in the UK. What is going on in America? That’s a future blog post I think. 

2. I need to join Manchester’s library network. I read books on my Kindle but there are many other services that the library can offer to a retired person like me. 

3. My laptop is starting to show signs of age and Mrs PM has kindly told me that I can use her brand spanking new all-singing all-dancing one, which means that I have to set up a user and copy all my junk across to it. She hardly uses it but I am on a laptop frequently. 

4. I have a lot of box files full of papers, old photographs etc. that I really need to sort out. I can probably discard a lot of stuff in there but, when it comes to the photos, I should probably sort them all out, discard the rubbish ones and put the rest in a bunch of photo albums. This is definitely a winter task so I will aim to start this within the next month or so. 

5. Talking of photos, I have hundreds of them in the cloud and on my laptop so I need to do something with them too. I have considered creating a photo book from the best ones. Another winter task methinks. 

FIVE snacks I enjoy:

1. Cheese on crackers/biscuits. A nice little mid-evening snack if I’m feeling peckish. 

2. Almonds. 

3. Flame raisins.

4. Apples.

5. Dark chocolate.

FIVE places I have lived:

1. Walsall – a town about 12 miles north of Birmingham. I was born there. I lived there from 1962 to 1981. 

2. Liverpool – a famous city in the north of England, where the Beatles are from. I was a student there and I love the place. I am going back for a university reunion in two weeks’ time. I lived there from 1981 to 1984. 

3. Altrincham – a town in Greater Manchester about 10 miles south west of Manchester. I lived there from 1985 to 1998. 

4. Hong Kong – I visited there many times between 1993 and 1999 with work but in 1999 I lived there for about three months while supporting the system I had worked on. 

5. Manchester – 1984 to 1985 and 1998 to the present. I love this city and becoming an honorary, if not plastic, Mancunian. I don’t plan to leave. 

FIVE jobs I have held:

1. A newsagent’s assistant when I was at school I started off delivering newspapers, but after a year, I started doing more for the owner of the shop, including stock taking, serving in the shop etc. 

2. A postman. While I was at university I became a postman at Christmas time in Walsall to help with the massive increase in volume of post during that time. I actually really enjoyed it as a job. 

3. A software developer. This was my main job from the age of 21 until I retired. Basically I spent most of my career writing software for a variety of projects but mainly (certainly for the last 30 years) software in airports. You can probably see the fruits of my labour in several airports dotted around the planet. 

4. A development database administrator, which went hand in hand with being a software developer. I was regarded as the “database expert”, though I wasn’t a full time database administrator as such but I knew a lot about it. I wrote a lot of software around the database and generally sorted out  issues with the product database as they arose. 

5. A software trainer. I’ve travelled to a few places to train the people who use our software, including the USA, Russia, China, South Africa and a couple of places in Europe. Not my favourite part of the job by a long way and was an unfortunate necessity because of my knowledge of the system. 

 

I Am I Said

Welcome to a cloudy South Manchester on a Saturday afternoon. I just have time for a blog post before getting ready to go to the Manchester Apollo later, with Mrs PM, to see the Stranglers, a band that started off as a punk rock band back in the 1970s and are still around 50 odd years later. Although no longer a punk band, they are still producing good music. Here are a couple of songs from “then” compared to “now”. 

No More Heroes – 1977

White Stallion – 2021

I’m looking forward to reviving the inner punk from my childhood. 

In the meantime, let’s answer some silly questions from Sunday Stealing.

I AM …

I am a 63 year old retired IT consultant/software engineer who is enjoying life outside the rat race and the politics of work. I have a largely eclectic taste in music and I am a weird geek who loves weird things. I could perhaps fit into a British remake of The Big Bang Theory if I were younger. I love to travel and do so whenever I can. I am also an adopted Northerner living in Manchester coming originally from a town in “The Black Country” called Walsall where people talk like this:

I guess I am a Mancunian Yam Yam (if such a thing exists).

I LIVE …

I live in a leafy suburb about five miles south of Manchester city centre. My house was built in 1903 and I know this because when we moved in, we stripped the lounge walls down to the original plaster and found a message from one of the original builders with the date and his name (corroborated by the deeds). It has three bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs, a loft that is easily big enough to use as storage space, a lounge, a man cave (though Mrs PM calls it the “back room”) which can be adapted easily to be a second lounge or a dining room and a kitchen. There is a small garden and a brick outhouse where we store garden equipment and all manner of other junk. 

This is my house of course but it is owned and run by my furry overlords, Ziggy and Star(dust). 

I THINK …

I think all the time about weird and wonderful stuff. I am a bit weird, it has to be said. My mind to me is a strange place where I can retreat to and use my imagination to float mindfully (aided by music if necessary). 

I KNOW …

I know a lot of useless facts that I have picked up on my journey through time from 1962 to 2025 (and counting). A few years ago, I was asked to join a quiz team from work consisting of a couple of young lads who had only ever finished at most fourth in the pub quiz. When I became a member of their team, we won. In fact, we never finished lower than third when I was in the team. 

I WANT …

I want a peaceful and active life, which is why I am doing my best to not watch the news on TV (it drives me to rant)!

I WISH …

I wish the world wasn’t so divided. I plan to write a blog post about this because whenever I hear news about the UK, it seems that we are more divided than ever at the moment. We are following in the footsteps of the US with our own version of Donald Trump, a man-frog called Nigel Farage, who is a grifter, a chancer and a disruptor and is stirring up a pot of hatred with lies. This is why I am trying to resist the temptation to watch the news. 

I PRAY …

Actually – I don’t pray.   I was christened as a Roman Catholic and I went to church religiously (if you will pardon the pun) until the age of 16 when I decided to follow the fascinating scientific path and consider alternatives about the origins of the universe. However, I was indoctrinated with certain beliefs so although God is not part of my life, those old teachings from my past are still there and I would never call myself an atheist. I actually think religion can be a good thing and I love chatting to religious types about their beliefs. I think that religion can bring comfort to people and I welcome that – even if I don’t believe it. 

I would rather believe that the universe is a vast unknown entity with trillions of galaxies, each of which has billions of stars, each of which has several planets. My mind is boggled by the scale of this and I would love to know more. 

Tune In Turn On

Welcome to a cloudy South Manchester on a Saturday lunchtime. I’ve just returned from a cruise to Greece where we visited four Greek islands, Athens and a couple of ancient Roman cities in Turkey. It was a good trip and renewed my faith in cruises. 

Sadly it now marks the end of summer and Autumn has now definitely kicked in, as is usual around this time of year. It was my birthday on Tuesday last week and I am looking forward to seeing Christmas adverts appearing on TV and every other social media outlet. 

There is other evidence of Autumn too – like this wonderful tree I passed the other day on my morning walk. 

Anyway, let’s mark the beginning of my Autumn with some sill questions from Sunday Stealing. 

1. Name a TV show you've seen every episode of.

I watch every episode of every TV series that I like. I will name one that I have recently watched called Stargate Atlantis because it is fresh in my mind. I loved the show and I think it was better than Stargate SG-1, the original series from which it was a spin off. I was surprised to see that one of its stars is a young Jason Momoa and I have to say that my favourite character was the curmudgeonly, flawed, scientific genius Rodney McKay. 

2. On which device do you do most of your viewing (television, tablet, computer, phone)?

I only really watch shows on my TV. There are exceptions of course, and it usually involves football. For example, I was in Malta this year and I watched a very important play-off match involving my team, Walsall, on my tablet. Similarly I watched a whole game on my smartphone while away on a weekend to Delamere Forest because I couldn’t get it on TV. These are genuine exceptions due to necessity and unavailability of the games on local TV. 

3. Name an actor/actress who would make you less likely to watch a show.

I’ve mentioned this before. I refuse to watch anything with James Cordon in it because he totally annoys me with his clumsy arrogance. He thinks he is hilarious but I find him totally irritating and annoying and not funny at all. Here is an illustration of him being an arsehole to a man I admire greatly – Sir Patrick Stewart.

See what I mean?

4. When you were a kid, what show did you love?

I am a huge geek and I love science fiction. I was a huge fan of Dr Who (I still am) and Space 1999 as well as Star Trek the original series. I will pick Space 1999 as it isn’t around anymore. In case you have never seen it, just imagine a parallel universe where in the year 1999 there was a base on the Moon manned. On September 13th of that year, a massive and catastrophic nuclear explosion on the Moon blasted it out of orbit and into the darkest depths of space. 

I absolutely loved it. 

5. What show do you recommend everyone watch?

Definitely Dexter. I wrote a blog post when the original series ended after eight seasons and I was genuinely saddened. You can read it here:

Goodbye Dexter Morgan 

I loved it. For the uninitiated, Dexter Morgan is a blood splatter analyst who works for the Miami Police department but just happens to be a psychopathic serial killer. His father, who was also a policeman, taught him a way to channel his murderous ways into bumping off other serial killers. I loved a line he said in a trailer for the first series:

“You had better hope that the police get you before I do!”

However, now, I am delighted to say that Dexter is back. I have seen the follow up series Dexter: New Blood and even the prequel Dexter: Original Sin. And now as I type I am about half way through the latest series Dexter: Resurrection. 

Long may you live Dexter – my favourite anti-hero.

6. What show do your friends like, but you don't?

I have female friends who adore Downton Abbey and all the movies and I simply do not get it at all. It is just not a series that I could watch. I saw one of the early episodes and just found it dull and tedious. Now I’m not saying that it really is dull and boring; it’s just not my cup of tea. 

7. When you watch TV, do you also busy yourself with something else (jigsaw puzzle, folding laundry, etc.)?

I tend not to watch TV unless I really want to, which usually means excluding any interruptions. However, if there is a football match on TV featuring teams that I do not support, sometimes I will have the occasional surf of the internet while the game is going on. 

8. Do you eat a meal or snack while watching TV?

Yes – often. We are not the typical family who sit at the dinner table to eat, unless it is a special occasion, which means that we will have breakfast, lunch and dinner while watching TV. Etiquette experts will no doubt frown on this practice, suggesting that meal times are family times. But who cares what they think? 

I know I don’t. 

9. What's your preferred genre (comedy, drama, reality, etc.)?

I am a huge fan of comedy and I love anything that is exciting, intriguing and weird. For example, I will watch a lot of science fiction programmes, intriguing thrillers like Dexter, action series. I also like documentaries especially science based stuff like Brian Cox’s Solar System, and anything involving UFS’s and conspiracies. 

10. Do you prefer mini-series (shows that tell their stories in a pre-determined number of episodes) or shows that come back season after season?

I like both. I’ve watched a couple of mini-series recently and really enjoyed them. I think that if you get a series that is based on a novel then a mini-series is the only thing that really does it justice. If you watch a movie based on a novel it can be good but I think sometimes it loses the profound essence of what the author was trying to say. 

I must admit that I presser TV shows that have multiple seasons to have an overriding story arc that lasts the entire series. You can say so much more and get deeper in the characters and story. 

I like that. 

 

It's Me

Welcome to a very wet and miserable South Manchester. I’ve looked at the weather forecast for today and it is bad. 

I don’t care. I don’t plan on going anywhere today at all – and this time next week I will be on a cruise liner navigating Greek islands in the Aegean Sea in what will officially be the end of summer for me. When I return it will be my birthday and I fully expect to see commercials for Christmas paraphernalia appearing everywhere. 

Doesn’t time fly? 

Let’s jump into a silly pond of Sunday Stealing questions. 

1. The phone rings. Who do you want it to be?

I want it to be The National Lottery telling me that I have won millions of pounds on either Lotto or Euromillions. 

2. When shopping at the grocery store, do you return your cart?

Of course I do. Dumping your shopping trolley randomly is one of my pet peeves, especially now that I do all of the grocery shopping. 

Once, one lazy shopper dumped their trolley behind my car, which meant that I had to move it out of the way to unload my trolley. 

And being a good citizen, I took both of them back. 

3. In a social setting, are you more of a talker or a listener?

I can be both. I like to listen to what other people are saying but I also contribute to the conversation.

4. Do you take compliments well?

I am quite a humble person and this means that I don’t really know what to say when I receive a compliment. Usually I mumble a surprised “Thank You” and feel a little awkward (if I’m honest). 

5. Do you play Sudoku or Wordle?

I have played Sudoku in the past but I have never played Wordle. 

6. Did you ever go to camp as a kid?

We don’t have “camp” in the UK so the answer is no. 

7. Could you date someone with different religious beliefs than you?

Absolutely. When it comes to religion, I like to chat about it rather than avoiding the subject. I was baptised a Roman Catholic but I am not religious at all. That said, it doesn’t stop me from chatting to people about their beliefs. I  might not share their views but I guess you can say that about most subjects. 

One of the most interesting chats I had was with a Jehovah’s Witness who tried their best to convert me into their cult. 

I would love to have a chat to a Scientologist and have been tempted to pop into the Scientology shop in the centre of Manchester just to see what they have to say – especially after my “encounter” with them as a naïve 19 year old in Amsterdam. 

Actually I will reconsider my answer to this question. I would date anybody – but not a Scientologist. The reason is that I wouldn’t want to be attacked for criticising them or have to suffer “disconnection”.

8. Would you rather pursue or be pursued?

I assume that you are talking about dating here. I gave up pursuing because I got fed up of being rejected. Some women were nice about it but I inwardly cringe even at lovely rejections like “Oh Dave – you’re such a lovely guy but I only want to be friends. I’m really sorry”. 

Every relationship I have had, I’ve been pursued – even though I had no idea that I was actually being pursued. I quite enjoyed it, if I’m honest. 

9. Have you ever fired a gun?

You may be surprised to hear this but the answer is yes. On a trip to Vietnam we visited the Củ Chi tunnels near to Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) back in 2019.  Basically you could pay to fire a gun at a target and I had a couple of goes. I missed. 

Here is evidence:

10. Would you rather dine at Olive Garden or Panera?

I have never heard of either Olive Garden or Panera. However, I looked them up and I think that I would probably prefer Olive Garden.

Retirement - A Year On

41 years ago today, on Monday 17th September 1984, I started work as a Graduate Computer Programmer at a large company that was based in South Manchester. It was the beginning of almost 40 years in Software Engineering, which basically means that I spent my entire working life in combat with computer software running on a variety of machines that slowly evolved and now continue to evolve to this day.

I actually loved writing software but eventually all the politics and crap that surrounds such a career got to me in the end. I guess all office based careers end up mutating into something else and that was definitely true of my job. 

In a sense I was lucky because for about thirty five of those forty years I worked in the airport industry, which meant that I got to travel to exotic places such as Russia, China, USA and South Africa as well as Europe. 

What I discovered as part of these travels is that people the world over are largely the same. When I say “people” I mean ordinary people such as myself, not politicians, celebrities and others wielding power.

For example, in Russia, I worked with a guy who was wonderful company and very helpful to me. In China I was looked after so well by the people I was working with and my attempts to speak Mandarin were met with enthusiasm but laughter as I skilfully mispronounced all manner of words, turning simple sentences into utter gibberish.

On Thursday 12th September 2025 I waved goodbye to all that and retired.

Now, on the day that career started, I thought that I would reflect on what has happened since I handed over my work laptop and said goodbye to my work colleagues. 

Do I think of work now? 

The answer is not really. I am still in touch with quite a few people I used to work with and I definitely miss some of the trips abroad, even though they were hard work in terms of the job I had to do. Thankfully, now that I am free of the chains of my career I can revisit some of these places as a tourist and enjoy them without the pressure of the job. 

The question I am now asked most is:

“What are you doing with your time, Dave?”

When I was younger, I thought that retired people just spent their time doing nothing but now that I have joined that elite group of people, I know how wrong that naïve view is. Some of the retired people I know are actually busier now than when they worked. 

From a personal point of view, my plan for retirement was to make sure that I didn’t fall into the trap of doing absolutely nothing. I wanted a routine. I wanted to keep fit. I wanted to challenge my mind. I wanted to make time for fun. 

I actually went about the task of bringing this plan to fruition in quite a methodical manner. I guess this is no surprise for somebody who designed algorithms for computer systems to follow. Here’s what I did:

First, I made a list of things that I wanted to do (hobbies if you like), and a list of things that were necessary (such as chores etc) as well as finding something to do to simply relax. That list is huge by the way and I have only really looked at a fraction of it. 

In a sense, I was lucky to retire when I did, though fellow retirees will almost certainly disagree with me. Retirees I know said that the best time to retire is at the start of summer yet, paradoxically I ignored that advice and quit my job at the start of autumn. The weather in autumn in the UK is okay but steadily gets worse as time passes inexorably towards winter. Consequently, I found myself staying at home as the weather devolved into unpleasantness. 

You may think this is a bad idea, but it wasn’t bad for me. It allowed my routine to take hold and now, a year later, I have a daily routine that absolutely works for me. 

That is a key thing (and I can’t emphasise it enough) – get yourself a routine that suits you. It doesn’t matter what it is as long as it is something that you can look forward to every day and something that is fulfilling. However, there is a caveat, which I have learned this summer. By all means stick to the routine but don’t be too hard on yourself if something more interesting comes along like a trip out, a holiday or just hanging around with friends. My life was rigid enough when I worked and, as paradoxical as it seems, I don’t want to take that into retirement even though I have a routine for less active days. 

I have a massive list of things that I would like to try and I have spent time listing those in a document for future use, but for now, I have selected a couple to fit into my routine. 

These include, teaching myself (badly) to play the piano, playing with a synthesiser, writing (including a novel, a memoir and blog posts) and learning languages (Spanish, French and German). 

The timetable includes time for daily chores, a bit of relaxation and time to be a total child with my PS5. 

As well as this, I try to walk roughly five miles a day. I do this first thing in the morning because this serves a couple of purposes. First, it wakes me up and second I find it quite mindful and relaxing. Walking also gets me out of the house and is great exercise for an old git like myself. I do this even in terrible weather (Like this morning when I was asking myself whether there was a new Noah constructing a brand new Ark). 

So, have I stuck to myroutine? 

In short, the answer is yes.

It was easier during the winter months and even into spring. 

When summer arrived it was more tricky because there was more to do. I started seriously watching cricket, for example and I have been to a lot of games. Also, the weather improved which meant that I was able to get out and about more or simply sit in the garden and read, enjoying the nice weather. For once we have had a great summer in 2025, involving four heatwaves (yes four – can you believe that in the UK?) with temperatures reaching the high twenties to the mid-thirties Celsius. I don’t think I have spent as much time in the garden as I have this summer. 

To be honest, summer has ruined my routine quite a lot but that is a good thing if you consider that going out and doing stuff is as good as settling into your routine. Summer has taught me that no matter how rigid you wanted the routine to be, it is okay to put it aside for a while and enjoy the benefits of good weather, like a cricket match or simply reading in the garden, as well as other activities and socialising with mates.

Holidays have also required me to shelve my routine a lot. I have been on holiday nine times, three of them in the UK and the rest abroad. There are a few other things going on too, notably bi-monthly get-togethers with a bunch of old retired workmates to travel around the local area via train to seek out new pubs and new breweries – to boldly drink beer where no Mancunian has drunk beer before.  

As well as that, I have become a domestic goddess. Mrs PM is still working and so while she slaves away over a hot laptop, I look after domestic chores such as washing, shopping and being a slave to our two furry overlords. 

That works well and I am (relatively) happy to take over. 

What about the future? 

I am going on another holiday at the end of next week, a cruise around the Aegean Sea with two friends, and after that I will take stock of where I am and consider changing things around a little bit as winter approaches. 

I don’t think that I will change much, if I’m honest, because I am content at the moment. I have a list of new things to try and perhaps I will find time but at the moment I am happy to continue for a while. I will of course review again as the New Year approaches, as this is the time that people traditionally review their day to day lives. 

Life is peachy at the moment and I will try to make the most of it while I am still in the go-go period of retirement. As I said above, I have learned that no matter how disciplined I am with a routine, it is absolutely fine to break that for more interesting pursuits – and in fact it should be actively encouraged. 

I expect more of the same next year and I am delighted with that. 

Assorted Nonsense

 

Welcome to a changeable South Manchester. When I say changeable, I mean the weather because, really, South Manchester always tends to stay the same. We are in a weird pattern weatherwise as autumn starts to dig its heels in. This means we are getting sunshine but occasional heavy showers and the odd rumble of thunder. The weather really can’t make up its mind what to do. 

If you ever wonder why British people seem obsessed with the weather, you can tell from days like today. 

Should I wear a coat? 

Should I take a brolly? 

I don’t know. 

Thankfully I am staying at home today. 

Let’s dive in with some silly questions from Sunday Stealing. 

1. Name five songs that you have completely memorised.

I’ve memorised these songs (more or less)  by simply listening to them so often over the years. 

Deep Purple – Highway Star

Rush – Subdivisions

Tears For Fears – Head Over Heels

Depeche Mode – Personal Jesus

Nazareth – May the Sunshine

2. What takes up too much of your time?

At the moment, it is household chores. There is a blog post coming soon about this but basically, since Mrs PM is still working and I am now retired, I have taken on the role of doing most of the stuff around the house. It is a pain in the backside but we need to do it so it has become a necessary evil. 

3. What TV show or movie do you refuse to watch?

Anything with James Corden in it. He has a sitcom called Gavin and Stacey that apparently people actually like (even though he has pissed off most of the other cast). I was going to watch the Friends reunion but when I discovered that he was involved I simply refused. 

Other things that piss me off are reality TV shows like Made in Chelsea. I would never watch such bilge.

Oh – and any TV programme with Sinon Cowell in it. 

Oh oh – and any TV programme with Piers Morgan in it. 

4. What's worth spending more on to get the best?

Technology. For example, if you are going to buy a laptop or tablet, then the cheaper ones lack the resources and processor of the more expensive ones, so while they will work, they will soon struggle to cope with the latest operating systems and software so you will end up replacing it sooner than you think. It may seem pricey but you can almost guarantee that it will last longer. 

5. Share something you did last week.

Last week was a bit of a quiet one, which is good for the introvert inside me. 

The week before was different. I went to see Lancashire play Middlesex at cricket in a 50 over one day match. 

I also took my car in for its annual check up (called an MOT over here).

Finally I went to Heaton Park in the North of Manchester for a gig called Festwich, which consists of several tribute bands playing on three stages for the whole day. Good clean fun with a touch of heavy metal.