where art collides philosoperontap

Awake as usual from around 2am. After a period of trying to get back to sleep I resorted to what has on occasion been a banker and switched on “In our time” with Melvyn Bragg. Don’t get me wrong I like the lad/lord but with 1,700 episodes some are likely to cover less interesting topics than others. I chose the one about the goddess Kali which very much turned out to be an uninteresting subject but not sufficiently so to get me off. I think it was the hour long shipping forecast paired with lapping waves that did it in the end. Took a while though. In one week I’ll be able to sleep on my side which will hopefully represent the beginning of normality again. Tomorrow is the last day on the blood thinners.

Beeootiful day out there. Not an ordinary day. We have a Waitrose delivery coming at 5pm ish. Mostly wine with a few bags of crisps. I played Waitrose off against Tesco and found Tesco to be significantly cheaper on the beer front but not the crisps. Gave up Tesco wine many harvests ago. Our annual carol singing party on Saturday. The regulars should all have had their invites.

Although there is no time pressure this morning I figured I’d get up earlier than I have been doing. The only real deadline is THG’s departure for the Pink Ladies running club before which I need help with my left sock. Will have to see if I can get the sock putter onner contraption to work.  Bought it before before Hiphop1 but it was quickly discarded as being of no use whatsoever. Next week I’ll be on my tod for two mornings so need a plan. The contraption must be it. I shall make it work.

There is other news. Yesterday afternoon THG and I went on a jaunt to Branston. She had purchaysed two wooden bar from an address in Branston stools off Facebook Marketplace. Eight quid for the pair. Not bad. I need one for the workshop. The location of said stools turned out to be an isolated farm cottage a few hundred yards down a rough farm track. THG did a good job negotiating the potholes. A tractor wouldn’t have blinked obvs 🙂 

Afterwards we dropped in to the Old Library caff for a swift hot beverage. It was closing in 25 mins but that was plenty of time for us to swig back a cuppa and chat about our fave caffs. I don’t really have one. I do/did have a fave greasy spoon which was Silvas on Shaftesbury Avenue but that one did not survive lockdown and is now a Lebanese joint, so to speak. Never been back.

Just had the solitary muntjac last night at 00:53. I reckon it must be the stag. Lonesome creatures obvs.

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The life expectancy of a muntjac deer in the wild is 10 – 14 years. At 14 it would be an old deer. Ours are wild. Free to roam. Fences no barrier. Dunno how old they are. Well the stag anyway. Less than 14 I’d guess buteye don’t reallyknow. No idea what made me think of that. I think I just wanted to use the pun old dear.

Now listening to some Christmassy sounds on youtube, Bose phones on. Only because Marseterchef is on. They already got rid of lewd Greg but this one still has the Australian. Also has Grace Dent who I like. What’s more it features Alun Wyn Jones who is a legend but it isn’t enough to get me to watch. Soz.

It is officially ok to talk about Christmas now that we are in to December. Dropped into THG’s church this pm as it was at the furthest extent of my current walking range. She was there helping with the old dears afternoon tea. Different old dears. Anyway was chatting with Robbie the vicar who mentioned that he was coming to my Morning Star carol singsong on the 21st. 6.30 for 7 start. All invited. No religious bits in between the carols. Just drinking. The setlist is on philosopherontap together with the lyrics. Not in the same order that we sing them on the night but let’s not worry about that. Deets. All the bangers are there.

The kids all normally make sure they are back for the Morning Star gig but two of them are spending Christmas away at inlaws. Swatappens.

Returned home from London yesterday totes knackered. I like the occasional trip to town but it’s always nice to get back to the state of calm that is the shire. This morning we wake up to the sound of rain lashing against the bedroom window.

Walking by the lake yesterday pm I found that too to be calm. Nary a ripple with mirrored reflections of surrounding trees. Later a sudden storm blew through with near horizontal driving rain but it soon moved on. The weather can change in an instant around a lake with its own microclimate.

This morning I have woken up somewhat refreshed although very much looking forward to a week on Tuesday, that being the day I get the go ahead to sleep on my side. Taken my compression stockings off for a brief moment of relief. They go permanently after next Tuesday. 

Was at the physio last week and the other guy in the waiting room had had a knee replacement op and was also wearing stockings. He was a bit of a whinger but I did find out that his wife couldn’t drive and he drank a bottle of wine a day which he bought in bulk from ASDA. If you take advantage of all the offers and the multi-buy deals he can get it for as low as £5.49 a bottle. Result. Nyway that’s by the by. He told me that during his first physio session after the op the physio found that his lower leg was badly swollen and she called in a doctor for an opinion. The doc thought it could be a blood clot and that he should go straight to A&E. Ooo. Unfortunately after waiting for hours in A&E he was sent home and asked to come back for a scan the next day. Couldn’t have been that much of an emergency. The end result was that he did not have a blood clot. Phew. Didn’t stop him whinging though.

Today is going to be slightly different to the usual Saturday. Ok THG is still off to her park run but we do have visitors. Joe and Lucy, however, didn’t get in from their night out until three am so we won’t be seeing them until nearer lunchtime. Fair doos. Work hard play hard Londoners. This PM I am a bit worried about the rugby. Wales 2nd XV versus world champions South Africa. Even the firsts would probs get hammered. Dunno if I want to watch it.

This evening we are off to the big church up the road known as Lincoln Cathedral. St Barnabas Advent carol service or some such titled event. As long as they do carols I like I’ll be ok. Unlikely to get the modern happy clappy rubbish in the cathedral. If they do I’ll leave early and go and wait in the pub. This has happened before when we went to a gospel concert at the Terry O’Toole Theatre in North Hykeham. There’s me thinking it would be some touring American gospel choir but it turned out to be some local bloke singing his own compositions. He had some real fans in the audience but bloody hell it was boring. In the extreme. I informed THG that I would go and wait for her in the bar. This did not go down well, as to do so I would have to ask the whole row of people to stand up to let me out. Wouldn’t have been embarrassing for me but others felt differently. At the interval our party agreed with me and we finished off the night in the Morning Star.

Shouldn’t be the same in the cathedral tonight. Fingers crossed eh, especially as I think it may even have been my idea!

No fox news to report but we did have the pair of deer swing by at ten past three which is good. I worry if I just see the one.

Back on the 07.30. Sbeen a while. E5 booked but moved to E2 as the table is full and this first row is more comfortable and secluded. I try to avoid the 07.30 as it means getting up far too early but I have a board meeting in London at 10am so here I am. THG dropped me off and has now gone to the pool to continue her training. Worrawoman.

Brain is still somewhat frazzled. Will be another early night after the Christmas lunch (1 – 5pm). How early remains to be seen. CCUK always used to hold their lunch before trefbash and everyone would rock to the party up already paralytic. I couldn’t do that, what with responsibilities an all so I haven’t been for perhaps ten years. Looking forward to it especially as our Hannah will be there, being in the same line of business.

I have ordered a bacon roll with brown sauce and butter and my cup of tea has arrived. I may be slightly more compos mentis after that.

My phone, laptop and headphones are fully charged. I may not need to charge them again before I get home tomorrow lunchtime but probably will. Seehowitgoze. I also brought a book with me. Life and Tradition in Rural Wales by J. Geraint Jenkins. Read it before but it is v good, if yer interested in that sort of thing.

As the train speeds towards Newark, dawn pokes its nose through the trees that line the track. Up before dawn. The trees are really just overgrown saplings. No forest here. Tractor ruts gleam with low lying water in the fields we pass by.

One of the catering crew has just made an announcement. Unfortunately due to a power problem there are no catering facilities in standard class. However the free drinks and breakfast service in first class is unaffected. How to run their noses in it. It annoys me when I plan to have breakfast on the train but no breakfast is forthcoming. Once I joined the southbound Edinburgh service at Newark Northgate planning to have a full English. However the buggers travelling from Edinburgh had eaten it all. The steward said all they had left was a bit of toast which I grudgingly ordered only to find, when he checked, that that too had gone.

I mentioned that the train was speeding. Bit of artistic license involved there. It doesn’t speed between Lincoln and Newark but trundles along at a relatively sedate pace. I have normally finished breakfast by the time we get to Newark which is the case today. The carriage filled up a little at Newark but not enough to suggest there could be demand for the empty seat next to me. We are still at the platform but I am now on my second cup of tea (soz standard class peeps)

You will all want to know that I’m wearing my Christmas themed Tommy Bahama Hawaiian shirt today. Bought it in a Macys sale somewhere in Florida some years ago (you wouldn’t catch me going there nowadays). Not worn it much as it never seemed appropriate for the time of year one normally wears Hawaiian shirts. Especially when I have so many to choose from. I’ve never counted but it must be over twenty. I had seven made in one go at a tailors shop in Shanghai once. All Tommy Bahama copies with my own choice of material. The only problem with having shirts made in the far east is that the material is usually very light. Perfect if you live in a hot climate but no so much for the UK. I’m not complaining.

Anyway I’m gonna leave you for now. I have a book to read.

Takes two years to train to be a butcher. Apprenticeship. I was listening to “on your farm” on the wireless and the subject of butchery arose so I looked it up. Half thought of doing it as a hobby. “Half” somewhat overstates it. Fleetingly perhaps. Easier to nip to Fosters and ask them to do it. I do like the idea of having a proper set of knives though. We do have one Wustoff chefs knife but the others are not in the same league. I’ll get around to it one day. When the boat comes in.

Good phrase that. Just rolled off the tongue. Metaphorically. I don’t sit here mouthing every word I type. Would be a bit odd innit. For me anyway. Does anyone have a fave phrase I wonder? Or just another good phrase. Was hoping one would appear before me but the muse has gone out for the day. Skegness.  Why a muse would want to go to Skeggy on a wet and ‘orrible day like today escapes me. Butlins I suppose.

This being the sabbath I intend to do no jobs today. The one exception is that I’m making an aloo gobi which I don’t consider to be a job. It’s a labour of love. Had planned to do it yesterday but somehow ran out of time, and inclination. The rugby got in the way. At least it won’t take half the day. If I’m doing a sunday roast, for example, most of the morning seems to be consumed with prep. I do need to peel the spuds for the aloo gobi. And chop the onions and “floret” the cauli, if that is how you put it. Will do it when THG is out at church.

You don’t have to wind the clocks back all that far to be in a time when the sabbath was a v boring day. It’s all very well imposing a day of rest but people would look forward to Monday just to alleviate the tedium. It was like that as recently as my childhood, particularly in the winter. The highlights of the day would be the black and white cowboy film in the afternoon and the 30 min comedy on BBC Radio 2 at six thirty. Hello Cheeky springs to mind. At least these days we have fifty million TV channels to watch. Or not. There’s never anything on worth watching  🙂 Today we are going to watch the rugby round at Ajax n Sue’s.

Breakfast today was a simple bacon sandwich and there is no fox news to report. Hiphop2 +26. Two days to go until I’m down to one crutch.

Hiphop2 +25. Good night out with the boys in the Strugs last night followed by food at the Duke. Didn’t think much of the nosh tbh but the place was rammed so that may not have been everyone’s view. Might just have been because they were so busy. Thick triple cooked chips ain’t really my thang and they had no alternative (ok I daresay they could have whipped together a bit more garnish and called it a salad but…). A trip to the pub is not that common these days.

Lots of lakeside action during the wee small hours. Muntjac at ten forty three, wildcat at eight minutes past midnight and Reynard the fox at oh one thirty six. I assume it was a wild cat, the lake being quite a remote body of water and all that. Unless it had wandered by from a log cabin somewhere. Wonder how Brian is getting on in da Caribbean maan. Usually you can rely on him to send a postcard but not heard owt recently. Maybe it’s the hurricane season and the planes can’t get out.

Away from the pressures of the week I sense a relaxed, take it easy kind of day ahead. I’ve nearly finished my Paul McCartney Wings book so will polish that one off. Watch a bit of rugby. Mighty Wales v the All Blacks. Wonder how that one will go. The criquet has taken a turn for the worse so I am avoiding that other than the occasional glance at the score. Cmon lads.

I am going to make some aloo gobi and saag aloo this afternoon as our contribution to the nosh when watching England v Argentina tomorrow. I like aloo gobi. I also like cauliflower bhaji. Both are on my list of side dishes to order with a curry main meal. Only problem is we always order too much food and one way of stopping this is to cut back on the sides. It is nice to have leftovers mind you. A curry tastes even better once the flavours have had time to mature, if that’s the right way of putting it. Infuse. THG makes a mean onion bhaji though it always works out better when friend rather than baked which is I suppose the “healthy option” <top tip.

THG has already donned her decorating gear to start painting the back hallway and I haven’t even had breakfast yet. Bit of cooked in prospect. No rush. Today is after all a day of rest. It’ll cook itself when it is ready. Still feel full after last night.

One thing I have noticed is that I need a hair cut. Can’t do a thing with it and have even found some tangled knots at the back. How does that happen?! Odd that it has taken until nearly the end of my sixty fourth year on the planet to have that as a problem. Had to borrow THG’s hairbrush yesterday! If your hair is long enough to need combing it needs a cut. My classic benchmark is whether I can grab hold of it at the back and I can certainly do that. I might go for a number two back and sides next time. It’s not as long as when I was growing a pony tail during lockdown but I’m never going to grow it that long again. Not my thang. I sense that a walk down to Antonio’s barbers on Wragby Road will be in the plan for next week. Not today though. They are usually busy on a Saturday.

My walking is getting better all the time and I could really go down to one crutch but the doctor’s orders are wait until Tuesday. Tbh he is such a brilliant surgeon why would I not just follow what he says. He knows best, probs 🙂 Not long now.

Hiphop2 +23 and all’s well, as it can be. Btw the hiphop2 hashtag gets retired after +28, time served. Not that it’s ever been used as a hashtag. That would imply a continued interest in using twitter which I stopped doing over a decade ago which in some respect was a bit of a shame as my handle was @tref. Still is, I suppose.

Slightly better night’s kip. Finally woke up at 06:28 which is good. The clock on the bedside table is currently fairly accurate since I reset it to Greenwich Mean Time and adjusted it a bit.

Thought for the day is on. Talking about Bach’s organ works, so to speak. I’m not finding this one bad enough to switch off. The religious bit was slipped in with great subtlety. In fact it’s not the religious aspect that makes me switch off thought for the day. I don’t mind that. It’s the fact that most speakers have a very dull delivery. Ya gotta make it interesting folks. 

My next task is to decide if it’s warm enough to get out of bed. The heating is on but it is v cosy under the duvet. I’m not in a particular rush especially as Thursdays are THG gym rest days and I know she is going to be here to help me put on my socks 🙂 I know that some people “in my condition” manage to do this on their own but it’s a lot of faff. I did spend good money before hiphop1 (or should it just be plain hiphop?) on a contraption that is supposed to help but it was a waste of good money. Would have been better spent on a nice bottle of plonk or something.

Tis cawd out there. The app says zero degrees but feels like minus four. Quite keen to get to the shed to see whether the lake has frozen over. I’ll hold off posting this until I’ve done so. When Reynard paid a visit at ten thirty last night it was already minus one out there so there is a chance. The metoffice weather map suggests that Lincoln will just miss out on snow. It’s a good job these forecasts are not 100% reliable. I like snow.

I also like the cold. Yesterday was one of those crisp winter days that bring a glow to your cheeks and clear the nostrils. Sunshine very much helps. Leaving the heating on in the shed also helps.

In other news THG came back from town yesterday with a big bag of tomatoes, two leeks and a large beetroot for three quid. Market stall. Also got a large cauli for 50p and some nice small carrots for the same money from the greengrocer in Mint Lane. The tomatoes were a fantastic bargain at only a pound for the bag. Makes you realise how expensive supermarkets are. People should support market stalls. I suspect that greengrocer is one of the few decent stalls left. The council has done a terrible job with the market and half the stalls are empty with very little there to attract you in. The tomatoes are being prepared for roasting as we speak. Nice tomato soup in the offing. Perfect for this cold weather. THG is a dab hand on the soup front.

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The news from the lake is that yes, it is frozen over. What is more, it started to snow just as the camera was rolling to show the icy surface. Lets hope no one is daft enough to try skating on it. Brian the fishing gnomad knew what he was doing when he went off to St Lucia for the winter season. Blue marlin apaz.

The side effect of the snow, pictureskew as it is, is that the deck will be very slippery. Perhaps I should ask THG to come out and spread sand over it. Or salt but we’ve only for a bit of salt in the cupboard. We don’t have a bunker full of the stuff like they do on the side of the road. I’m pretty sure we have some sand. Maybe it would be pushing it a bit asking THG. Was only joking obvs 🙂 Anyway hooray for snow. The shed is nice and warm and having had a better night’s kip I feel a productive day ahead of me.

Hiphop2 +21. Three weeks in. One week to go to crutch removal, so to speak. Slightly better night’s sleep helped by being knackered. Listening to podcasts helps. I know they must get me back to sleep as I don’t think I’ve heard the end of any of them. Started listening to TMS in the run up to the Ashes on Friday. Last night’s was particularly boring as they just wheeled some commentators in, including Tuffers fresh off the plane, to talk about how lovely a place Perth is and the fact that England Captain Ben Stokes (Stokesey) was seen playing golf doesn’t mean the side isn’t completely focussed on winning. The TMS team is expert at chatting for hours about nothing but that almost made me switch off. As it is I nodded off which I guess was the whole point of listening. The cricket starts at one thirty am on Friday. If I am awake I’ll tune in but otherwise  twirly man twirly.

Back in the snug. It’s a more comfortable seat than the church pew in the kitchen. Quite a bit earlier than yesterday as there is no evidence of kids on their way to school and not much traffic. Yet. Ironically the end of the pew is everyone’s fave place to sit at the kitchen table. A seat bedded in over hundreds of years by faithful backsides. Just not enough padding for my current requirements. I also occasionally sit on the stool next to the butcher’s block. Sometimes have lunch there. Easier for me to put stuff out there than to carry it to the table when using crutches as I can reach the fridge, the sink and the cooker without having to move much.

The guys and gals from the metoffice tell me it is going to rain for most of today. This might put the mockers on the idea of another walk. Will have to see. Bit dodge trusting a wet pavement covered in leaves. I’m making excuses here. Walking is good. I still have to negotiate the wet deck en route to the shed. V slippy.

Three weeks in from hiphop2 I do feel as if life is starting to get back to normal, ish, notwithstanding the crutches and the sleeping on the back. Feel less of a need to eat comfort food. Although last night’s fishfinger sandwich might be put in the comfort food category all I had was two fingers and one slice of bread and butter. Felt too full to have anything more substantial so I didn’t. 

It used to be, I think, that you were expected to walk straight away after a hip replacement without the need for crutches. This might have been in the days when they cemented the new hip into the thighbone. Nowadays they just bang it in with a hammer and let the bone knit with the metal spike over time. The crutches are there to help keep the weight off the leg whilst metal and bone are getting to like each other. Sorry if I’m going on a bit here but this is my diary and it does reflect my life at the time it was written.

I don’t put everything on here. Especially nothing about,,,, oops nearly said it there 🙂 That were close.

All this inactivity does make me realise how important it is to get off your bum and do stuff. In all fairness to me, pre hiphop2 I was doing a lot of swimming and also dividing my time between shed, kitchen and workshop. Need to get a second stool to leave permanently in the latter instead of having to move it back and forth from the kitchen which is impractical when using crutches.

Hiphop2 +20. Another week dawns. A cold one in prospect with the mercury dropping. Mind you I don’t think they’ve used mercury in thermometers for a v long time. I did once come across a mercury arc rectifier. V impressive. It was in the Regal cinema in Douglas, IoM. We had only just learned about it in school and, hey presto, I found one. They knocked down the Regal in 1984. Saw one of the Pink Panther movies there as I recall. When I were a lad Douglas used to have three cinemas not including the one in Summerland where I worked as a projectionist one summer. I saw “The Spy Who Loved Me” 50 times in a two week run. It’s all changed now. They don’t use reels of film anymore. One movie was six reels.

Traffic on the move outside our house and kids making their way to school. I’ve decided to have a leisurely start to the day as THG is not going out until ten. She is off walking around Navenby with her mates. I’m glad we don’t have the mad rush in the morning anymore trying to get four kids up, fed and out of the house.

Hiphop2 +20 is a point where light begins to appear at the end of the tunnel. At Hiphop2 +28 I get to put weight on the new hip and discard a crutch. Keeping one crutch will be mostly for balance so that one might well go before Hiphop2 +42 when I am officially “cured” 🙂 I’m off to London for lunch on Hiphop2 +30 which should represent a big step forward, so to speak.

The biggest difference this time around is that both hips are now fixed. After the first hiphop I still had a second dodgy hip with which to contend so I never achieved particularly good progress with my walking.

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Beautiful crisp November morning here. I’m sat in the shed listening to an AI regulatory conference. A couple of magpies have just landed on the lawn and are turning over old leaves looking for nosh. I am wearing my thick Himalayan woolly pulley. Cold out.

Tuned out of the conference. Went for a walk to Queensway and back. Tried picking up the pace on the return leg. I could easily walk a lot further. Need a bit of company.