where art collides

A lazy start to the day. No breakfast as John and I are dining out this morning. A rare treat. The lad has been home for a few days and heads back to the bright lights this evening. Will be seeing him again tomorrow when we head to the Royal Albert Hall for the proms. Bruch’s violin concerto amongst others.

Looks windy out there this morning. The wagging tail of hurricane Evangeline. Not really. Just thought it sounded good. I toyed with calling it hurricane Methuselah but decided against that. Not completely satisfied with Evangeline but there is no mileage in wasting any more time on it.

We appear to be missing the extremes of weather being seen by the rest of the world. Forty six degrees Centigrade in parts of southern Europe. Floods elsewhere. Just typical British summer weather here. I’m not too unhappy with that. As long as it doesn’t get too wet when I go camping at the Eisteddfod in August. Now that I’ve said that it will of course chuck it down. We are talking Pwllheli!

Uphill Lincoln seems quiet this morning. I guess it isn’t nine o’clock yet. Sunday and all that. Folk will be easing themselves into the day. Reading the paper. We used to get the Sunday Times but stopped that perhaps a quarter of a century ago. Certainly before we moved to this house. A different era. Trying to think what else I’ve stopped doing in that time but nothing immediately springs to mind. Certainly nothing relating to the changing times. 

Bought a Financial Times a few weekends ago. The Saturday issue is a good read. It was four quid if I remember right. Thought about an online subscription but I wouldn’t use it enough to justify the three hundred and something pounds.

I have stopped going to the pub on a regular basis. Early doors on a Friday night used to be a thing. Now it’s only an occasional visit. Covid put an end to that routine. That and a low carb diet.

Sometimes if I was travelling back from somewhere I’d stop off at the Morning Star for a couple and call Anne to say I was just passing Newark. That gave me half an hour. It was a lot easier to do after they banned smoking in pubs. I suspect Anne was never fooled anyway 🙂…

Looking at the heatwave hitting Europe and remembering the hot summer we had last year I pondered getting an aircon unit in. We had one but it fell out of use and eventually took it to the tip. Part of me says now is the right time to buy when it is not hot in the UK. However part of me says if it gets too hot the only sensible thing to do is to down tools and sit in the shade with a cold drink. Right now I’m not buying aircon 🙂

Had an excellent lunch prepared by THG. Noodle soup. Didn’t make breakfast at Waitrose and instead had yo gurt, berries and gra nola. Then cracked on with the jobslist. Getting to the point where all the low hanging fruit has been picked, so to speak and now facing gargantuan tasks such as  tidying the garage. Tidying the garage is a minimum one day effort where the all the contents have to be emptied into the front drive and replaced far more efficiently and orderly. I anticipate finding a few things that I’ve noticed are lost. It will have to wait until the week after next.

In the meantime I’ve put up some shelves, fixed a trellis, marinated the pork blown the leaves away from the front, prepped some courgettes for the barbecue as well as getting some stuffed mushrooms with roquefort, onion and sun dried tomato filling ready. Also got the deets for the Halfords roof box and three lots of roof bars that we are selling on Facebook Marketplace. More clutter gone from the garage.

As well as tidying the garage I need to affix a bike rack mount on the wall. Bought last year but not used the damn thing yet and it gets in the way in front of my bench.

Forty one minutes past twelve. Saturday. Afternoon. The wind is getting up. Storm brewing.

The main news of the day is that the gravel I bought yesterday to ‘top up’ the drive doesn’t look as if it is the right stuff. This is a slight problem as the previous lot I bought earlier in the week wasn’t right either. The gravel in the drive has been down for maybe fifteen to twenty years so it doesn’t come as much of a surprise that this latest lot doesn’t match. The original quarry was probs used up, so to speak. The right stuff is probably a mix of the two lots tried this week. In actual fact we can probably just rake the new stuff in with the old and nobody will notice. See how it goes innit.

It is good that the main news concerns gravel. It could have been much graver. Pestilence, floods, the ravages of war. You could visit websites that would tell you that pestilence, floods and war are indeed the main issue of concern and which never mention gravel. 

The choice is yours: gravel or pestilence. I know which one I would go for. Pestilence can bloody pee off. Estilence. No ‘p’.

As I mentioned there is a storm a brewing. A thunderstorm. We will be shut away in the shed watching the Ladies Final at Wimbledon All England Lawn Tennis Club or simlar. Safe from floods. A gentle rain has started and the first claps of thunder rent the air. Now the rain is coming down heavier and a frisson runs down my spine. Vertical heavy rain beating on the shed roof. No drummer could match this intensity.

The shed doors are wide open to the garden. The lights are on. I need to go in for lunch. Umbrella have I. An old Timico branded job kept in the shed for this very purpose.

Sat in a room waiting for a video call to start. Video is my preferred means of communication these days especially as everyone has access to all means of video calling. I like being able to jump into the ‘room’ and just sit there doing other things whilst waiting for the other party/ies to rock up. On this occasion the guy at the other end has messaged me saying he is going to be another five mins. Sokay.

It is a Friday. The height of the British summer. Mens semi finals on at Wimbledon, the Ashes in full flow, golf last night, and it is raining.

We had the video call btw. Also had my very first sports massage. In the shed. Wow worra difference. Had v tight muscles in my legs. Now they are a lot less tight. I am almost bounding up the stairs. Amazing. Already booked the next massage. Tuesday afternoon when I get back from London.

I had a dream. Problem is I can’t remember it. How many great ideas have been lost like this. If you don’t wake up and write it down immediately it is gone. Gone I tell you, gone.

Then I awoke, pondering the great question of the day. Do I stay in bed and try and get a bit more kip or shall I just get up? I headed downstairs. Now I’m sat quietly in the TV room. The light is different here in the early morning compared with the conservatory. North facing. Quite a nice diffused light.

The road outside is quiet, helped by the double glazing we had installed last year. The whoops of the pesky wood pigeons, often quite intrusive when sat at the back of the house, are barely audible here at the front.

For some reason the TV room does not inspire the flow of words in the way the conservatory does. Perhaps it is because here I am sat in front of a wall as opposed to surrounded by the greenery of the back garden. Verdure. Verdant, verdamus. A new Latin declension? Dunno what it means. I’m a rookie here. Green.

Blue sky up there. I’m looking for two or three degrees warmer than it has been. Not complaining but just that little bit more makes all the difference. Shed doors wide open versus slightly ajar.

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In the shed the noise of the birds in the garden is loud.

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In the shed, they don’t remember your name

I wonder how long Monday will stay as the start of the week? I realise that in many countries, not all, offices close on Saturday and Sunday. This is based on a combination of hard fought trade union victories which we don’t want to discard lightly and the oppressive rule of law that forbade working on the Sabbath forcing people instead to attend church where they could be controlled with establishment propaganda. 

Monday therefore has always been the start of the working week. I am now sat in the shed contemplating the day ahead. I have a newsletter to work on. Shouldn’t take long. Someone else already wrote it. I just need to improve the English and make it more readable. Chuck a few lines of poetry in. Stuff like that. Not really poetry. It’s a techy audience across many countries. If they start seeing us being a bit flowery with the prose they will wonder what’s going on. 

This is the last couple of weeks before lots of good folk start going on holiday. Schools here break up on Friday 21st July. I always think the the start of the school summer holidays means the clock has started ticking for the end of summer. Enjoy it while you can. Cram in those summertime activities. Wear shorts.

It is certainly a good time to avoid travel. Ferry ports will be rammed. News programmes will already have scheduled stories about the length of the traffic jams backing up the motorway out of the Port of Dover. Times to get through passport control lengthening. Government ministers blaming the French.

We have a couple of ferries booked. At the end of August it is Holyhead to Dublin and then after that weekend Dublin to Cherbourg. Am optimistic that we won’t see the same problem as the south coast. I have no idea when I’m coming back from France which will be fun.

In the meantime it is a Monday morning and newsletters don’t write themselves you know…

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Sixteen forty nine and tools have been downed for the day. Got quite a bit done including packing away the gazebos from the weekend. Still need to find out what I did with the peg bags though! Problems problems. These are industrial strength pegs for industrial strength gazebos. Also found Adie’s specs that he left behind after the barbecue on Saturday and managed to squeeze in a swim. 

All this as well as ghost writing some stuff. I quite like the idea of ghost writing. Yonks ago when I started the philosopherontap.com website I wanted the nom de plume of Hugh O’Rourke for my poetry but some bugger, presumably called Hugh O’Rourke, was already using it. I just stuck with Tref and actually I’m totes ok with people knowing that it’s me wot wrote something.

Gorra take me daughter Han and her boyf George to the stayshun in a bit. They stay until they’ve eaten everything and then go back to London. Only kidding. We like having them up. No sooner will they have gone when another kid will arrive. It’s John. Will need to restock the fridge 🙂

A tea-long post. THG has just delivered a piping hot cuppa. I like to leave tea to cool a little before imbibing so figured it would be interesting to write a post. The time spent writing will be the amount of time it takes for the tea to cool and for me to drink it.

This is not a particularly scientific activity. I don’t have an optimum temperature at which I like to start drinking. Also the time taken to finish the cup will be a combination of the size of the cup together with how engrossed I get with the writing. If I am in full flow the drinking time could well be longer, to the point where the tea might go cold and no longer be particularly drinkable.

It is lunch at Headingley and the test match is finely poised. At lunch I had decided to clean the gazebo canopies which might yet get done. However the rest of the household has also decided that they want a curry tonight so I do have to devote some time to that. We shall see, rhymes with tea. If I can I also want to squeeze in a swim but that may depend on how the cricket is going.

When it comes to cooking a curry it is important to put in the right amount of effort. It is too easy to rustle up a dish that fits the description of curry but is not a good example of the genre. We are after tender meats in rich gravy with just the right amount of spice and flavour.

I also quite like the idea of knocking up some naan breads but that’s a bit of hassle. Well worth it if you can be bothered. They only take ninety seconds or so to cook on a bakers steel on the barbecue. It’s the prep time that is the issue.

A simple curry with pilau rice will suffice. One lamb and one chicken. Washed down by a cold beer and perhaps some red wine that is left over from last night’s barbecue and which needs finishing. Back on the diet tomorrow.

Thassit. Tea is finished and I have jobs to do. 

Ciao.

Back on the LNER, 
You don’t know how lucky you are, boy
Back on the LN, back on the LN, back on the LNE are.

Not set off yet but weirdly looking forward to my bacon roll. Bey a con as we say in the dialect. They don’t do butter on the train but hey…

I will leave the flatlands of Lincolnshire for the great metropolis that is the City of London. Heart of empire. Beating heart. In times gone by, pre empire, this would have been an arduous week’s travel on horseback. I would have to have found some companions heading in the same direction and would be carrying a sword. Egad.

Now it is two hours by Azuma with a bacon roll, a cup of tea and a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice (joking). I get there earlier than necessary. On these occasions I am wont to repair to the British Library whereupon a lah tay may be consumed. You are welcome to join me. The treasures room is well worth a visit.

…

We race by large golden fields of wheat that suggest harvest time is nearly upon us. Our tomatoes are nowhere near ready 🙂The onions are coming along ok though.

At Cottage Lane the cars line up at the crossing whilst the train speeds by and we, in turn, wait at the signal outside Newark for the go ahead to roll into Northgate station. A few people board at Platform 3 and someone slides into the seat opposite. I have already put on my Bose phones and put up the shutters. It is too early for conversation.

Carriage E is unusually busy. Not full but only one or two seats showing availability on the journey to Kings Cross. Everyone must be cramming in the meetings before the summer break.

I get mixed signals about how the economy is doing and therefore people’s willingness to spend. The telecoms business is doing well but other sectors are definitely showing signs of slowing down. Campsites, for example, are very much down on bookings for the summer. Phones have stopped ringing in the automotive business. People hunkering down trying to pay their mortgage and energy bills.

Food as well. Four tins of Heinz Baked Beans costs four quid in the supermarkets. Wasn’t so long ago they were going for two pounds fifty. Can’t say I’ve noticed other prices because I never really look at the cost. Just for some reason remember the price of beans 🙂

My attire today is Hawaiian shirt and shorts. Summertime and the living has to be easy. I also have a track record of this at industry events which is where I am off to this afternoon. Folks would be disappointed if I rocked up in a suit. I do own a linen suit which is what I will be wearing for a funeral tomorrow. Not today though. It is the summer for goodness sake.

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Hit the ‘burbs. Nearly there now. Meeting Tom for a cawfee off the train. British Library probs.

All is well in the house of Tref. Avocado toast with a side of bacon consumed and now sitting in the conservatoire with a cup of tea. The door is open to the garden where a gentle breeze flutters across the border. THG has been out surveying her domain. It is good drying weather and the clothes line is already loaded.

The luxury of the Sabbath. My first Sunday at home in ages. What do others do on a Sunday morning? Wash the car? This is what the hand car wash around the back of Tesco is for and there is always a queue on Sunday morning. Did those queuing used to do it themselves on the drive? Is washing the car on a Sunday morning a compulsive thing? Mine gets done perhaps three or four times a year. Defo need to get the inside valeted. Don’t think it’s ever been done, properly at least. In three years! Will get it done before our big trip to France.

It is only the beginning of July. Height of summer but plenty of summer left to go at. The holiday season very much approacheth. I went through a phase of not bothering to take holiday during the summer. When I used to work in an office the month of August being in the office was very much like being on holiday. Half the people would take the first two weeks off and the other half the last two weeks. In consequence there was never anyone around to get anything done.

Now I work, albeit part time, with a Belgian company they don’t take two weeks off. It is practically the whole month. Cool. People need to have a good break. They work hard. I try to do as little as possible although there are times when I do get v busy. Not in August though.

Wimbledon starts tomorrow. I like this. I never used to be a Wimbledon fan. It was always this thing on the telly for a couple of weeks every July. Then I took our youngest son John and discovered that it was a great day out.

John was a member of the Eastgate Tennis Club and used to get tickets every year out of their allocation. It was a little hit and miss but most times we got something and it was usually Centre Court. Anne and I used to take turns to go with him, except for his last membership  year where we both went and stayed the night in London.

Instead of paying a pound a strawberry I used to buy a large punnet or two together with some double cream from a supermarket en route. We would then pinch a couple of pint glasses and plastic spoons from the catering concessions inside Wimbledon together with some sugar and have a pint of strawberries and cream each. Retail value about fifty quid from official Wimbledon sources. It wasn’t so much the money. Who on earth wants only five strawberries 🙂

Over the years we saw all the big names of the era: Murray, Nadal, Djokovic, Venus and Serena. Loads of others. We were even there the day that the longest lasting set happened where it went to a ridiculous number of games. Didn’t see that one but saw the scoreboard. It was on an outside court.

A slightly disappointing day was the ladies semi finals. Serena won in around 52 minutes. Both matches were quite short. Best value is men’s semi finals where you likely get to see two matches lasting a good four hours each.

I would consider going to Wimbledon on a corporate jolly if someone else was interested in going. Not this year though. Too much on. July and most of August are our quiet months during 2023 and we need the time at home. Anyway I will have Wimbledon tennis on in the shed in the background. It is something I can occasionally glance up at whilst doing other stuff.

Something else I’d consider going to is the British Formula 1 Grand Prix. Never been. The problem, I understand, is the traffic getting in and out. Still I’d quite like to go once. A helicopter could be the answer. Find somewhere local ish to stay down. I typically don’t watch F1 as apart from the start I find it quite boring. The start is only interesting because anything can happen. Crashes, overtaking etc. Maybe next year. Already a lot in the plan for next year!

So Saturday has arrived. Samedi est arrivé as the revolting French would put it. Who knows what the day will bring. A dramatic about turn in the England cricket team’s performance on the pitch at Lords! Hopefully. Not sure I can look. I’m a lightweight like that. Hide behind the sofa. A bit like when Dr Who was on when I was a kid.

Got a bit of shopping to do this morning Fosters for a chicken and some lamb then Waitrose for posh balsamic vinegar, asparagus and a few other bits and bobs. Also need to take my linen jacket in for cleaning. The one I wear to go and watch cricket matches. Not sure it’s ever been cleaned! About time.

Some days a jacket can be seen as over dressing, especially in these times of unusually hot summers, but I have to have somewhere to keep my wallet and phone n stuff.

The French are indeed revolting, again. They do have form when it comes to revolting. All I can say is just get it over before the Rugby World Cup in September. Regime change, whatever. We don’t care who is in charge as long as the bars remain open for watching the rugby. And the restaurants and the little boulangeries down the street where we will be nipping out to buy our pain and croissants for breakfast.

I’m currently researching duffel bags. I have got a big North Face one somewhere that I used for the Coast to Coast walk but I’m blowed if I can find it. It must have been left somewhere. Worranuisance.

I’ll be away for six weeks so need some storage capacity. Not that I have six weeks worth of underwear so will have to get some cleaning done en route. Can’t imagine I’ll be wearing the same pair of shorts for six weeks either. Or t shirt 🙂

This will be the longest trip we have undertaken. Timewise. Kids are taking it in turns moving into our house in the meantime. At least someone will benefit from the tomato harvest, and the raspberries, apples and anything else going. It’s a bit of an adventure and although still two months away we are starting to get excited.

Everything is planned for the first month. Then Anne flies home with some of the girls and I hang around  for a couple more weeks, at least until after the Japan v Argentina game in Nantes at which point us lads will amble back at a comfortable pace.  I daresay you will be hearing a lot more about this trip when it happens.

Ciao for now mes amis.

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The morning shop has been done. Some fresh produce from various markets as previously discussed.

I feel I need to do something today although the criquet is on. At lunchtime i can trim the bits of lamb shoulder purchaysed from the butch. They didn’t have fillet but tbh what we have is fine. Spending time cooking is one of the luxuries of the modern society. 

Back in the cave man days the time would have been spent looking for the food but obvs that isn’t the case nowadays. Not totes true as I do like to meander around the aisles in Waitrose checking out the food action. If you get the timing right you can pick up some good reductions though that is not my primary motivation in Waitrose. 

I do sometimes stop for a coffee but am very conscious that most of the people in the caff are old farts with whom I don’t really want to be associated.In their old caff I used to occasionally treat meself to a bacon roll. When they opened this new one they changed the bacon from back to a few measly bits of streaky so I stopped that. They may well have changed it again now but I’ve not tried it out to see.

Bought a book yesterday: The Living Mountain (Canons): A Celebration of the Cairngorm Mountains of Scotland: 6 by Shepherd, Nan. Arrives today. It was mentioned on a TV programme about the river Dee. See how it goes. If I don’t order these things there and then I forget. 

I don’t always read all of a book. Sometimes i just read a few early chapters and decide the rest of it can wait on the shelf. My recent purchases about the Manx Electric Railway are good examples. There is only so much you can absorb about changes to the per way between 1906 and 1914. Nice to have though.

Someday soon I’ll sort my bookshelves in the shed. A quick glance to my left identifies the follow books on display:

• The Fighting Ship of the Royal Navy 897 – 1984
• The adjustable Spanner (definitive guide)
• Manual of Seamanship Vol 1 1932
• The Great Eastern Railway, Cecil J.Allen
• The London & North Western Railway, O.S.Nock
• The Ultimate Guide to Knots
• Llyfr Y Tri Aderyn, Morgan Llwyd
• The bartender’s guide
• Spitfire, Portrait of a Legend
• Collins Bird Guide
• Blacksmith
• Bradshaws 1863

I think you will agree there are some gooduns in there. I have yet to open the book of knots. It includes some bits of string/rope with which to practise my knot tying. May happen 🙂

Meanwhile the cricket is trundling along nicely, for the Aussies.

Sgonna be an adminny kind of morning. Throwing a dinner in London next Wednesday and need to finalise menu choices for the punters and seating plan etc. You didn’t think I’d let people rock up and choose where they wanted to sit did you? 🙂

I periodically chuck a dinner. Hire a private dining room and invite a few bods. This time I’m using the Ivy Market Grill in Covent Garden. Have used it before and it is ideal for this sort of thing. No noise and can seat 26 persons in comfort. We eat well and drink well and generally have a good time. It is also useful for business obvs otherwise I wouldn’t do this sort of thing.

I did use the Savoy Grill a few times. They have a really cool room looking down over the entrance. There was a round hole in one of the plate glass windows and the story goes it was done by a bullet fired from below by a jealous husband or simlar. Not that I believed that one. Since they put the min spend up massively (like 5x the previous one) I stopped using it. The room was also closed for refurbishment for a couple of years. Clearly they are trying to recoup the cost of the new wallpaper.

My special guest next week is @Jeff Keni Pulver who was an early pioneer of the VoIP industry and has some great insights into where it is all going. No space left if you suddenly decided you want to come. Soz.

After the dinner we are going to head for the Phoenix Arts Club. Long time home of trefbash and of which I am a life member 🙂. The beauty of this club is that it is on the eastern side of Charing Cross Road which puts it in the Borough of Camden. The other side of the road is in Westminster. Camden has far more relaxed licensing laws and closing times than Westminster. Trefbash finishes at 2am. You need stamina for trefbash.

It’s Friday today, thank God. It isn’t TGIF. It’s TG I’ve made it to another day 🙂 Right, off to buy some small black screws. Catch ya later.

Another blissful day in the shire. A female blackbird is poking around the vegetable plot looking for a second breakfast. She probably thinks it is more like lunchtime.

What a great time of year. It rained overnight and the sun is now out. This is as it should be. Off to Stretch And Flex class later this am. Need it every day really!

Last night I booked one of the last free spots in a campsite called Cae Mawr next door to the Eisteddfod field in Pen Llyn. It’s a caravan field with toilets, showers and electric hookup but looks as if the campervan I was going to take needs a new clutch. None available in the country at the mo so will be taking a tent in the Defender. 

The Defender will be a lot more comfortable on a 250 mile drive anyway and it seems reasonable that the 3 man tent that is ideal for one person purchased last September for the Scout camp gets a second outing.

I have all the gear and just ordered a teppanyaki grill so the electric hookup will still come in useful for that together with the cool box. Regrettably a few nights alone in a tent in Wales does not constitute a business case for buying the expedition roof rack, side boxes and ladder for the Land Rover. We can but dream.

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I have decided that week commencing 10th July is a big one. I have a long standing job to clear out the garage. This is not a small task. It will involve emptying everything onto the front drive in order to decide what stays and what goes and then putting the keepers back a lot more tidily than is the current state of affairs.

One of my objectives is to find the decorative brass label holders that I need for my chest of drawers in the shed but it will do no harm for me to find out what we have and to sort the tools out tidily.

Once the garage is sorted I can put some stuff on Facebook Marketplace. Some of this might not need to wait until then. The Halfords top box, used only a few times before we invested in a trailer, is ready to go really. Just needs some pics taking and spiel writing. Same goes for the plethora of roof bars that we have collected over the years.

Then it will be the annual wood treatment for the shed followed by finishing off moving some junk up to the attic. I daresay The Head Gardener has other jobs in mind for me as well.