The service was due to start at 2pm but by 1.40 if you weren’t already in you weren’t going to get a seat. We sat there in our Sunday funereal best biding our time. I was glad I had dressed soberly although I had considered doing otherwise. This didn’t stretch to a tie.
The Funeral Service
February 2nd, 2010The arm wrestle
February 1st, 2010I’ll not have any 9 year old kid beating me at arm wrestling thank you!
Fire
January 24th, 2010job lot of leeks
January 23rd, 2010Anne bought a job lot of leeks, boy,
From a little chap down some dark alley.
He said, “These will last you for weeks, boy,
Since I’ve heard your Tref’s from the valley.”
But Trefor’s too posh for such things, boy –
He’s moved on to mangetout and zucchini
In his dreams that’s the food that anne brings boy
Served up whilst she wears her bikini
Post Office Tower – the view from the top
January 22nd, 2010The view from the top of the Post Office Tower on a not very nice day in January. There were some snow flurries though I’m not sure these are visible on the video – take a look. The three videos represent a 360 degree tour.
It pelts down and the unwary get wet.
January 16th, 2010It pelts down and the unwary get wet.
forty days and forty nights seem like an eternity
all hail Saint Swithin and all who sail in her
flood alerts fill the wet air waves
another notch on the windscreen wiper control
oh no a leak, fetch a bucket
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The watched kettle does boil
January 16th, 2010sad music
January 13th, 2010Sad music fills my head knowing you are gone.
My heart, once light with the carefree pleasures
of our younger days when your nature,
spirited, excited and challenged,
was pleased to soak in the sunshine of your ways,
now weighs me down, the shadows growing long.
My friend I cry, my grief, your suffering and pain,
the tears, unleashed, flow freely down my face.
Proud girl bowed, broken, driven to an end,
washed back into our consciousness,
into a deep and final sleep. But you should know
the memories that remain are of good times,
where your beauty prevailed,
your irreverent laughter filled our lives
and we lived like there was no tomorrow.
RIP Angharad Jones, 12th May 1962 to 9th January 2010
One of my favourite people.
the violinist
January 13th, 2010There was nothing to distinguish the road from the others I had crossed on my journey there that day. I imagined the nearly identical front rooms in each of the identical terraced houses having little to tell them apart.
This one was different though. On the surface it looked the same and for consistency the everpresent seagull was perched on the rooftop of one of the terraces. But this road had soul.
the trip to casualty
January 12th, 2010the school
the daughter
the tap dancing practice
the double wing
the slip
the elbow
the sling
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the boy who lost all hope
January 6th, 2010He lay prone, face down on the pew in the kitchen, left arm dangling limply onto the floor. On his face was a look of utter hopelessness, the vacant stare of the condemned man, the innocent about to be consigned to an undeserved fate.
There had been a time in the run up to that moment where he had sat there earnestly, waiting for the good news to arrive. The radio was on in several rooms leaving nothing to chance. There was no way, when that announcement came, that he would not hear it. So there he had remained.
He displayed none of his usual appetite while he waited. Such was his concentration, intensified by an anticipation that told you the stakes were high.
The others had heard of their good fortune quite early on in the process and had already begun to celebrate. This did not help. In fact it was part of the problem.
As the kitchen clock ticked, the remaining time shrank away and the realisation that it was not going to happen finally hit him. His shoulders dropped and pure anguish radiated from the shapeless form.
His school stayed open whilst his older brothers and sister got to stay at home to play snowballs because theirs had shut!
I woke up
January 3rd, 2010It was a strange experience because one second I was asleep and the next I was not, as if someone had just pressed the “on” button on a remote control. I lay there motionless with my body in the position it had been in whilst asleep. Anne was dead to the world beside me. Nobody could have seen that I was awake. In fact I’m not even sure that I opened my eyes but I was totally aware of my surroundings and I knew I was definitely no longer asleep. I considered that my own snoring had probably woken me, I could almost hear the echo of the last reverberation, subliminal. After an unspecified amount of time I drifted off again.
sore throat
December 30th, 2009seriously large lumps of catarrrrrrrrh
coughs that reverberrrrrrate
cracccking ribs and
bending me double.
whisky and water, not really any help but
sounds good. probably needed
the hot lemon accompaniment.
the alcohol makes me wake up
in the night to go to the toilet.
in the morning I am tired and
still have the cough.
Premier League Positions 30th December 2009
December 30th, 2009
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the Christmas excess 2009
December 30th, 20094th December – Lincoln Christmas Market Friday – few pints in the Victoria, bag of chips on the way home, not too late
5th December – Saturday – party at our house, gawd knows what to eat and drink, plenty of singing and music
9th December – (my birthday) lunch with business partners at Belton Woods Hotel, Grantham, Tom’s parents evening at school followed by a few pints in the Morning Star and a takeaway Chinese at home
10th December – ITSPA awards, House of Commons followed by a few pints in the Red Lion and a Moroccan meal somewhere in London
11th December – first class Virgin Train to Liverpool – couple of free beers on the train followed by a couple more in the station bar at Lime Street.
12th December – family meal with Grandma and Grandad at the Dibbinsdale Hotel in Bromborough
15th December – Anne out
16th December – Timico management night out at Olive Branch in Clipsham – mega bender
17th December – Christmas concert at school
18th December – lunch with supplier in London Docklands – boys night out in Lincoln at night – Thai
19th December – out at Carol and Andy’s party
21st December – Pizza Express with Anne and the kids
22nd December – pint on the way home and wine with the meal
24th December – early doors at the Morning Star – it’s a tradition
25th December – Christmas Day!
26th December – Lizzie Slingsby’s traditional Boxing Day birthday bash – unlimited champagne! – out with Tom for early doors for his first legitimate pint on his 18th birthday. Back for steak and chips and a bottle of wine
27th December – down to Holt, Wiltshire for a family bash, champagne, G&T and wine
28th December – glass of red wine with cheese and Ryvita
29th December – quick pint with Robert to discuss Jeeps then off to the panto at the Theatre Royal with Cannon and Ball.
30th December – a beer in the Victoria on way home from work with Terry and the gang
31st December – more food, beer and wine!
1st January – musical afternoon at our house with Joe on trumpet, Ervin the Hungarian concert pianist and Steve on trombone.
2nd January – collapse trying to fit into clothes!
fat bastard