I have been concentrating on the blog for the last few years, with every intention of implementing search engine optimisation. Each step I took was blocked in some way – mostly my own ineptitude. The amount of time taken was enormous and took me away from the primary purpose of writing. Similarly I helped out with Facebook marketing for a choir concert. It takes over. So it’s a well-earned rest and back to updating the archives. Also to continue exploring what Pinker calls ‘Resumes and Eulogies’ in Jonathan Sacks podcasts on Morality in the 21st century. And reading Harari’s Homo Deus after listening to his interview with Andrew Marr on ‘Start the Week’.

The family updates are mostly about the children.

Chris (now 32/33) moved from Glasgow to Manchester. He finished with Eszter, leaving her up in Glasgow. They had got engaged, but he backed out the weekend we were all due to fly out to Budapest and stay with her mum and dad. She is thriving. Chris graduated to captain and bought a house in Holmbridge and a ‘jag’. He has since moved to Jet2 in Leeds, removed to a house in Linthwaite and struck up a relationship with a divorcee and two children. Not necessarily in that order, but that’s the summary.

The childbride and I had our 70th last year in a pub in Holmfirth when this relationship was getting going. It looked and felt like a takeover. There didn’t appear to be a courtship – it just happened. Apparently it is the new lady’s learning style to do things and reflect later. So we never caught up and we still haven’t and we are not convinced that Chris has either. She may well be part of the ‘snowflake’ generation . Wiki tells us that snowflakes are raised by their parents in ways that give them an inflated sense of their own uniqueness … more prone to taking offense and less resilient than previous generations (too emotionally vulnerable to cope with views that challenge their own). I don’t know too much about this definition but there are some echoes here. She is pregnant. They plan to marry in 2020. To add a little balance, she has survived a divorce and several miscarriages and raised two kids. Chris is busy flying and taking children to tennis and football.

Andrew (now 37) fell out with fellow residents in Heckmondwike and applied to move to Longwood in Huddersfield. Not a good move. It’s private supported living and the staff are not trained to the standard of his previous spot. He is in debt (supported living this isn’t) and has lost some of his benefits. His social worker is on secondment. The residential manager has just about given up on Andrew – he won’t admit her into his flat. Same old: heavy drinking, rude, poor personal hygiene, need I say more? There is still English studies at a local college. Me and the childbride are having to take responsibility for his money.

We are now both 71 and how much of the boys’ future are we going to share?

I have never written about Louise (now 38), especially the period between the ages of 13 and 18. She began with a local car accident management company back then and has stuck with them. Married and divorced, remarried and two brilliant grandchildren who we see several times a week.