Wow, I was 59 in June! So, I have 6 months until I am 60 years old! I have achieved most of my life wishes and wonder whats left and what should I do! I am open to suggestions. I am well-travelled and satisfied in that department, I have written a book full of wonderful local stories, you can see it here if you want it. (click to see My Latest Book).

So, a quick recap, I am in Leicester, England, I collect stamps, have a model railway, live in a modest castle and am married to a very beautiful woman called Rachel for 33 years. I write a lot of local family history stories and articles for a history club; I write my own books, and I love to cycle. I spend as much time as I can volunteering in Leicester’s Secret Garden, it is a hospital garden. I work in the county asylum as an orderly. (medication porter).

I think this year I would like to complete this, 2026 should see its publication!

A book about chess. I have got a huge chunk of it done as you can see! Each part you see is a chapter.

I am still a belly builder and have reached 16 stones 5 pounds. (229 pounds/104 kilo’s) I have decided I really need to lose some blubber as I keep seeing fishermen looking at me whilst sharpening their harpoons. So, I shall henceforth try seriously to lose weight. *Update, I managed to lose 24 pounds! So I now weigh 14 stones and 8 pounds, (92.05 kilos).

Now to Chess, this year I am going to try to reach daily 1300 and hover around there, I wish to play fewer daily games and more rapid, I aim to crack 1500 in chess 960. I feel I should learn two openings well. But which two is the question. I know a few bits of some, and I know the London ok.

I will also get the chess club(click for chess club) to 600 members, once there I will cycle out all the banned and closed account, 600 active, live and participating members. It’s a lovely friendly little club with great admins. I have 100 daily tournaments running for the club and it is great to be able to help so many have fun.

Top tips for a better life: -

1. When making stir fry, put the hardest things in first, such as carrots, soft things in last like mushrooms. Sort out the order before you begin and life will be better, don’t forget dark soy sauce in it to give it that little extra. Stir fry is your new go to meal now you know this! Also use butter, even dogs and flies won't eat margarine.

2. If you are meeting a friend, it is not ok for them to turn up late regularly, (rare times is ok) it means they do not value you or the time you spend together if they are always late. Find a friend who actually wants to be with you and is not with you because no one else will put up with them. It truly is worth finding good friends, there are others looking!

3. If you like someone tell them next time you see them. Today, when you meet with someone, be it your wife, your mother, a friend or whomever, if you like them tell them you like them and see their face light up. Once will be enough, but you must truly mean it! If you are feeling really brave tell a mature woman she looks beautiful, it will make them beam for a month.

4. One of the most wonderful things I incorporated into my mentality was this "Thoughts are not facts". Trust me, if you can absorb this mentality your worries will decrease tenfold. Also "Do not be the jailer keeping you prisoner in your own mind".

6. Wash your hands more often, every disgusting habit you have, every disgusting habit you have ever heard of and every disgusting habit you can imagine are happening near and around YOU. So, wash your hands to avoid eating other people’s bodily excretions.

7. Those boxes of family photos at your mums/grans? Get a roll of plain stickers, go to your elderly relatives house and help them write who is who on the stickers, then put them on the back of the photos. These elderly relatives are the only ones who know who the people in the pictures are and they are YOUR history. Your elderly relatives will love it, and you will have preserved your own history whilst spending time with your loved ones which they will treasure.

8. You don't need drink and illegal drugs; blue cheese and a sleeping pill will take you down the rabbit hole. I also find Ardennes Pâté and cress on toast makes me dream.

9. People will only treat you how you let them.

10. If you have a will, be sure to request your dog see's your dead body, dogs understand death and you would not want your dog to spend its life thinking you abandoned him/her!

11. Don't waste your time as you simply do not get enough of it and it is the only thing you really cannot replace.

Derek-C-Goodwin