where art collides

keeps you warm in winter

A bleary Wednesday morning and the train is trundling through dull waterlogged November fields. I was initially going to use the word hurtling instead of trundling but that’s not what it feels like.  A steady pace which is just too fast for the bloke out front with a red flag to keep up with. Outside, horses wear coats and inside I have my Harris Tweed jacket to keep me warm. Perfect for winter and obvious to me why the garment is worn by the good crofters of Harris.

There is a reason why the train is slow between Lincoln and Newark, being charitable. We are currently stopped on platform 3 in Newark waiting. It is ever thus. They allocate too long for that leg of the journey, presumably to allow other mainline trains through. This service takes just under two hours Lincoln to London Kings Cross but it could be quicker without the,  waiting. Note comma inserted there to slow down your progress through the sentence.

As we steam south the big landscape is barren with poor visibility through the early morning mist. It almost doesn’t matter. The only thing to see is big field after big field, devoid of growth and with the occasional stack of round straw bales ready for collection. These round bales don’t have the romance of the old rectangular ones but are presumably quicker and easier for a machine to put together. What price old haycarts eh?

Today I am in London for a working lunch. There is wine involved and later a meeting in a pub in the London Bridge area. It should be a productive day. Don’t be deceived by the wine.  My lunches bring like minded people together and we get things done. Today’s involves a discussion about voip network testing. Interesting I hear you say. Well you are right:)

Visibility outside is nearly down to zero now. I’m tempted to remove my Harris Tweed. It’s quite warm onboard the train. Now pulling into Peterborough. Quite a few people will get on at this station. It’s commuterland. No life, commuting from Peterborough. We pass a goods train in the siding. There is a driver in the cab so it is obviously waiting for us to go by. I like counting the wagons on a goods train. Don’t ask me why. Maybe it harks back to when the kids were small. Maybe it’s me regressing. Probs.

Yesterday afternoon a installed a new app to enable me to extract post content from philosopherontap into a word document. this is the precursor to putting together the “Book of 2016”. Figured it would make the process easier if I could automate the process. Unfortunately the php version supported by the host is older than that required by the plugin so it doesn’t work. Will have to consider my options. Copying and pasting 365 posts is not a trivial task.

Below Peterborough, as we approach the deep South, the early morning mist is lifting exposing black earth.  Idon’t think it’s a case of burnt stubble. Don’t think they are allowed to do that anymore. Rhe soil is just dark. A few sheep graze in a field. Unusual for this part of the world. It’s mostly arable. Where the money is.

The school back car park was chaotic yesterday afternoon. Someone had parked in a silly place and kept having to move her car back and forth to let others pass. Why she didn’t just park next ot me at the side I wil lnever know. This caused a log jam and someone else reversed right in front of me whilst holding her mobile phone to her ear. In a school car park for goodness sake! I took a photo of her which clearly shows the phone to her ear and her face looking at me doing it. Not worth my while showing you the pic.

I’ll save posting this until later. Be aware that i will have had some wine by then. Have decided that it’s better to post at the end of the day instead of at the start as has been my recent habit. That way I can consolidate more than one post.

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V good lunch. Ended about 6pm. We sat in the bar for a bit. Hit the tube to get to Kings Cross. Unbelievably busy. What’s more the train out of Kings X was cancelled and there were several trains worth of people in the 1st Class carriage of the alternative 19.03 which was itself delayed. It was further delayed by the fact that the train was so overcrowded that it refused to leave the station until a load folk were offloaded. The fat bloke sats next to me got off. He had initially complained that I was sat in his reserved seat. F*&k him. There were no seat reservations. As soon as he got off we got going.

Got a taxi picking me up from Newark. There is a replacement bus service but it will only take me to Lincoln Central. I’ll still need a cab from town to home. Lets not mess about.

and the cost of a loaf of bread

Warwick beat East London in University Challenge last night fwiw. Anne is good at UC. I’m not particularly. Spent the evening watching BBC 4 stuff using the chromecast. Jeff Lynne’s ELO at Hyde Park and 2 railway documentaries. It’s how I roll.

In between I threw together some flour, yeast, salt, butter and water and made a white loaf. Single rise in the tin. My knocking back efforts have not resulted in an adequate second rise so I thought I’d bypass that bit. It was based on reading about other people’s efforts on tinterweb so it wasn’t without forethought. It’s still down to the yeast I think. This single rise loaf got an extra amount of initial kneading to maximise the distribution of yeast which is why typically they suggest a second knead and proving. Seems to have come out ok.  Now bought sachets of dried yeast and will see how that works.

Swim this morning and then swung by Lidl to pick up some basics. Porridge, bog roll, yeast. You know, every day standard stuff. Yeast was 59p for 8 sachets. That’s 7.4p per loaf. Flour is 75p for 1.5Kg from Aldi (based on some comparison website) which is 25p per loaf. Call it 5 pence worth of butter and you have a loaf of bread for 37 pence. Plus energy obvs but I’m not about to try and work that bit out. Let’s say you bake three loaves a week. That’s around £1.10 for freshly baked bread for the entire family for a week. Depending on the size of the fam obvs.

Featured image is the car park at the Carlton Centre  just outside Lidl where I went to buy the yeast. It is a very mundane image. To the right may be seen the building that was formerly a McDonalds but which is now being refurbished. Maybe a newer better MaccyDs?;) Then on the left you can just make out the shadowy form of Lincoln Cathedral. Voila.

My Partial Keyboard post got a bit of traction on Facebook:

I prefaced it with the words “a prize for the best piece of writing done using this partial keyboard”

Comments

Raza Rizvi It will have to be one word as there is no space bar

Trefor Davies ok how about who can get the highest scrabble score ? 🙂

Ma Zipan thunders

Trefor Davies how many points would that get you? assume no double or triple words and letters 🙂

Ma Zipan according to this calculator online it’s 12. I’m changing my word to ‘knights’ instead, it gets me 15 😀

Ma Zipan Nope, I’m changing it again. Heightened 18 points!

Trefor Davies hang on it’s not your go 🙂

Trefor Davies this does suggest we need to firm up on the rules here because you have used one letter more than once despite the fact that it only appear once on the partial keyboard. However I can’t be bothered so keep them coming 🙂

Ma Zipan Haha, I didn’t realise only once. If that is the case then stick with one of the others. You can actually make lots of words from there but I haven’t found one to beat heightened yet

Trefor Davies there aren’t really any rules. just like mornington crescent

Ma Zipan 😮

Jennifer Spencer Okay, but heightened has ten letters. By scrabble rules the highest score i see is knights.

Ma Zipan I used a scrabble calculator online but I wouldn’t have a clue if it’s accurate or not. Whichever is actually correct can be my answer…lol

Trefor Davies Jennifer is right. In a real game there could be other letters already in place to reuse but not in ours (not that there are any rules remember)

Simon Wade Rejustify

Trefor Davies points?

Simon Wade NFI. I’m still at work!

Simon Wade Skybridge?

Jennifer Spencer Okay with no rules does that mean letters can be used more than once, like an attenuated typewriter?

Trefor Davies I don’t know. I need someone to step in at this stage to run the game. I’m just a concept guy 🙂

Jennifer Spencer 😏 visionary

Trefor Davies yea yea

Dyson Wilkes · Friends with Raza Rizvi

My^5^cents^is^here

Jennifer Spencer Cucumberdoughnut

Jennifer Spencer Retracted because theres no o

Trefor Davies supacalifragilisticexpialidocious – I make that 485 points

Rob Mitchelmore “regicide is my thing”

Rob Mitchelmore aaand I’m on the few watchlists I wasn’t already

Steven Poulton This is the end

Trefor Davies amen

Eileen Gallagher Finger sucking is unhinged?

Trefor Davies I have checked this and can confirm that it only uses letters visible in the image. Clearly it uses letters more than once but it is a mould breaking entry and merits the rules being modified to make it acceptable. Not that there were any rules.

Eileen Gallagher This feels like a FB version of Mornington Crescent

Trefor Davies we can only dream…

Steven Poulton I have checked this… and it is factually incorrect lol

Jennifer Spencer Harder to play mornington crescent here than you would think. Seven Kings is okay.

Eleanor Rose Bland Fingering 3456789 chickens is highly disturbing…

Eleanor Rose Bland I am now quite disturbed that I even came up with that!!!

stays mainly in Lincoln

It’s horrible wet day out there. Opted to go to the gym this pm rather than a swim first thing. Healthy fruit and fibre for breakfast. Working on a quote on behalf of Netaxis and also trying to sort out the DNS for joefest.co.uk. Email account is working but struggling with the A name redirect for some reason. On live chat with Namecheap person right now.

The beech hedge is looking decidedly rusty. The hedge doesn’t lose its leaves in winter. They just turn a rusty brown which is a good thing. Not only is it a nice colour but it means it never loses its opacity. Never thought of a hedge in terms of opacity but that is what it is for. Cover. Privacy.

Quiet morning in the house. Mondays alway are. Anne has her Monday Group and she listens to kids read at Eastgate School. After that she is off downtown. She has a very full schedule. DNS sorted btw. natch.

yawn

Another 5.30 am start. Sat here in the TV room doing a bit of work on JoeFest. Had a glass of wine at the Southwells when I went to pick up Anne, Erica and John last night. Then got home and set up the JoeFest email account. Had forgotten to do so during the day as promised to Tom and Joe. Done now.

Dinner was successful. Burgers, chips, peas, caramelised onions and mushrooms. Bread didn’t rise very well in the tin though. Need to continue practising. Lamb casserole however is looking like a hit. I stuck it in the garage fridge before hitting the hay last night so the flavour will be even more developed. Just got to do the dumplings now plus Cyberdoyle has recommended slicing some onions and soaking them in vinegar. I will give it a whirl.

Finding myself hungryish sat here on the settee but it’s too early for breakfast. It’s even too early to make the tea although time will pass quickly enough.

The capital of Albania is Tirana. Do readers have any other interesting capital cities to share?

There’s been a bit of cricket action over in India. India got 455 in the first innings with England at 255 in reply. Unless I am very much mistaken india could have enforced the follow on. Just. India were 204 all out in the second innings leaving England with 405 needed to win. Ain’t gonna happen. There are 5 sessions left to play. That’s a day and two thirds.

Updates as they happen. Tea time now. Time for tea. For two. T 4 2.

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08.49 and it is chucking it down in Lincoln. I’ve probably mentioned it before but I like the rain. The best perspective is gazing out at it from the window of a warm and dry room mind you. There is nothing wrong with a nice walk in the rain with the caveat that the specs have to stay dry somehow. This can either be achieved by the wearing of a waterproof wide brimmed hat or by taking the specs off. Contact lenses may be used if desired. The experience is only pleasurable in the absence of wind which ruins the effect.

I will make the dumplings in a bit. Took a look at recipes and was amazed to find that almost every one was different and often didn’t use suet. Will use the one on the Atora pack. Simple and safe.

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16.42 lamb casserole was brill. John’s team won 7 -1 in the U18s hockey v Boots. Bit of a yucky pm but back in the hoose now before heading out to the Morning Star with Anne.

2rly for that sort of question

8 teams in the pub quiz at the Eastgate. We came joint 3rd. I think we were only 2 points or so behind the winners. As usual I didn’t get many answers. I’m totes rubbish at “pub” quizzes. Wasn’t on top form anyway and drank orange juice instead of wine. The late night the previous evening did for me I think. My virulent cough seems to have abated though which is good news.

Today Anne is off with Rachel to the borough of Pete. She is also going out tonight and I am taxi driver both ways. Doesn’t seem unreasonable although it will feel strange for me to have a quiet night in on my own on a Saturday night. Won’t do me any harm. A few quiet nights wouldn’t do me any harm. Next timetabled “occasion” is Wednesday in London for my Working Lunch.

Downstairs pre dawn again. Eyes are somewhat sleep filled and the heating hasn’t yet kicked in so it isn’t exactly warm. Not quite refrigerator like but that may be only because I have two blankets draped over me. I’ll get up and make the tea in a bit. It’s a Saturday so it doesn’t need to be quite as early as a school day. On the other hand Anne is being picked up at 8.45 so she will be wanting to be up and at it.

Some of these early morning posts might be getting a bit repetitive but they do represent the state of play at this time of day. All quiet in the house, the sound of the clock ticking and the occasional car on the road.

In other news my droid upgraded its software last night. I woke up at just before six and entered the passcode which prompted it to then upgrade all the applications. I quite like it when that happens. At least when it happens without a glitch and I have to say I don’t seem to have ever have had a glitch. Fingers crossed eh? Makes me think the great god Google is looking after me as I sleep:)

Tea time…

Featured pic doesn’t really do justice to the red sky this morning.

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Back in bed and having a lie in. Anne is up and sorting stuff. Our bed is very comfortable. Today it has been determined that I will cook a lamb stew for tomorrow. This task has been accepted and will require some consideration. The issue is how to make the liquor in the stew thick and tasty. Lamb stew can turn out quite thin. Root vegetables and leeks will be involved. Also dumplings. A stroll around Waitrose beckons. What’s the hurry?

Good word btw don’t you think? 2rly – twirly – too early.

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My last shave was Wednesday morning. Just realised. It is Saturday. Not going to shave this morning. It is a Saturday. Historically I have never shaved on a Saturday. All down to the days when I played rugby. Shaving on a match day was weakening the skin. It was also normally a sluggish start after a night on the pop on a Friday night. I would shave after the game before the Saturday night out.

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Lamb casserole prepared and in the oven at gas mark one. Next up ham sandwich or simlar. This afternoon breadmaking followed by Wales v Japan at the Millennium Stadium.