From the Tuckers Grave Inn website – see below

As we grow and gain more experience we can see things from a different point of view so although I have written  about this topic before, it popped into my mind – as things do – to revisit it and see what if anything new comes along.

I should add that before writing stuff I don’t know what I’m going to write, it’s not like keeping to a script. It’s more like unrolling a carpet. What I’m about to write is as much a mystery to my conscious mind as it is to you, dear readers.

I started writing over eight years ago in 2016 when I had a garden accident and ended up in hospital. After I came out I wanted to let those who knew me how I was doing. It did not occur to me to use another modality apart from the internet to publish my work and this pertained from the inception of the idea.

I do not regard the events in my life as private, rather for sharing with other people because who knows I may inspire someone else to also keep a diary. Why is there this lack of secrecy on my part? I feel we’re all in the same boat and we all experience ups and downs and we all have to face new challenges so in revealing weakness or lack of experience.

I’m not saying anything that other people have not experienced a million times so what’s the problem? Do I feel that if I describe the weakness people will turn from me and start laughing? These days, people don’t bat an eyelid. The origin of this term I find interesting.

The use usually occurs in the negative as did not bat an eyelid which means to show indifference or lack of reaction. That is an old word from the 1400s, originally a falcon return. When hunting, birds ‘bat’ their wings. It means they beat or flutter their wings. To bat an eye or eyelid means to blink, and dates from the late 16th early 17th century but it was not until the 19th century that it’s negative form came to  denote indifference or lack of reaction.

So, why do I write?

So I now list the reasons for writing in the order that they occur to me in other words the order in which they pop into my head.

The sheer pleasure of documentation.

We have so many events that are interesting and of value and yet they are far too easily pushed side by the next latest and greatest event. I know we communicate with each other on social media but it is more via a single phrase, sentence or reaction to something that someone else has said.

We  seldom reflect on our inner feelings towards something. In our society today we’re in such a hurry that we don’t take time to sit down and chew the cud with people.

Writing encourages me to meditate on how the day was gone and the events in his and I think I get more out of the day or the event through writing an account of it.

How are you?

When friends and contacts inquire about how I am I reply’ have a look at my diary’ which is an occupation they seem to enjoy and benefit from. I think it is a way of getting to know me a bit more and when they write and comment it is a way of my getting to know them.

I think diary writing adds an extra poignancy to the day and makes you pay attention to the detail of what is going on.In other words you do not live the day for yourself but for potential readers.

The one and only Tickers Grave Inn

Today instead of having an early  lunch we decided to go to Tuckers Grave Inn which is an old and traditional cider pub with a cafe and camping facility attached. It is known for its late 20th century rock and roll music and is the closest I can think of to a traditional way of life.

We arrived c 12.30 after a lovely journey through unspoiled countryside with blue skies and scudding white clouds.

I met an old couple who told me they had first visited the pub 66 years ago, yes 66. I cannot imagine anyone doing the same thing for so long. I was a gawky teenager of 14 years of age when they first came to the pub.  They live in Bath as do their extended families and they still take the trouble to drive some distance to this establishment.

I asked the wife if she had any grandchildren and she replied that her great grandchild was taking their driving test shortly. She did not say much mainly because her husband did all the talking. He regaled us with some yarns about how the place had changed. The couple were obviously very loved by the pub staff who served them at their table, which is very unusual for pubs.

Tuckers Grave really is an exclusive cider pub, I don’t believe they serve any beer at all. It is all local or fairly local and served at room temperature. There is no bar as we know it, just a pile of boxes or kegs of cider piled one upon the other.

I had a pint of rhubarb cider which tasted little more than fruit juice and had the colour of cough mixture but into my second pint I felt my legs giving away somewhat which is a sign that there was probably alcohol contained therein. It is a good thing that Francoise always drives back.

We also met three keen cyclists who were doing a round tour of the area and they were full of stories, enthusiasms comments about how far they had written in the wind which is always more good difficult than if you’re ensconced in a car.

Future recall

The fact that I’m writing this now on the 26th of March 2025 means that I can in some Future year go back and recall in some detail the events of today and thus in my mind anyway they achieve historic importance or significance.

I sometimes look back over my diaries say for five years ago, and amazed at the things I did and said at the time and sometimes I squirm with embarrassment of my views but never mind it was as it was and it gives me some indication that I have actually made progress over the years.

Including media

For some time it did not occur to me to include photographs but when I became more adept at using a computer I decided to include them and this has taken me up to ridiculous levels of demands on the memory on the server. I think it’s about 13 gigabytes.

Stats

Just for comparison, the words in the whole Bible, Old and New Testament, contain around 780,000 words. This is equivalent to 1.56 megabytes which seems ludicrously small but it just shows how much space my images have gobbled up.

I find it very difficult to envisage that my mobile phone has 73 gigabytes of free space. Not megabytes, gigabytes. Whatever you think about technology, this is a technological marvel. On a more subtle level I find it very psychologically balancing to have an altar ego which is an alternative self which is different from my normal or true original personality, or is it?

I may present a slightly different version of myself than I know and reading extensively it does give me a more objective  many dimensional imagery of who I really am.

I’m up to about 1.6 million words. My predecessor and exampler wrote 1.2 million words over a 10-year. But then all he had was a quill pen and candle light. Pepys’s achievement is great compared with mine who is used to all the technology including speech to text.

He wrote in a fine hand. My writing is so bad it looks like spiders have escaped somewhere and run all over the page.

Who reads this diary?

Here is a list of my most recent reader locations. This report is created March 28th 2025 at 6:48 p.m.

United States,
Bristol,
Bristol,
Huntingdon New York,
Bristol,
Leinster,Dublin,
seven visits from Iowa USA,
Xanthi,
Bath,
Sumqayit City (Azerbeijan),
Hong Kong,
Singapore,
Mumbai.

Benefits to others

I like the idea that I may be planting a seed for reasons that I will never know for example

* the way I use the English language which I’m proud of
* my accounts of Life living in the United Kingdom that may attract or not people who are thinking of moving,
* the words may help people to understand aspects of life in this country,
who knows?

I have got so used to writing that it does not feel appropriate to  and the day without writing my recollections. I suppose it is a closure and a new start.

Saving for posterity

If the entire world communication system breaks down I will of course lose it because it only exists in an electronic version and to put it all together including images would be prohibitively expensive.

I suppose I could do a word only version but that wouldn’t be half as fun. I do have enough backed up copies to preserve it against all but the most dire dystopian situations.

Why not start your own journal?

If anyone is thinking of starting to write an essay I would say just start. A journey begins with a single step and in the way I just started feeling that there was something there to write so inspiration comes as you work. Don’t start by comparing yourself with other writers. You will find you have your own style which some people will like, and some people will not like and that is none of your business.

If you write trying to  please others your style will be inauthentic. The only thing that matters is that you write what you feel and others will take it or leave it. I find it encouraging that visitors come from all over the planet.

I have no means of discovering how much they value it.