where art collides philosoperontap

I woke up this morning, it looked as if it rained all night, oh yeah,
I woke up this morning, it looked as if it rained all night,
I woke up this morning, it looked as if it rained all niight
And it looks as if it will rain all day, oh yeah.

There ya go. You know the tune. You can substitute the “oh yeah” for “oh no” if that is your personal feeling or mood. I don’t mind the rain meself. It isn’t actually raining as I write, in Lincoln. Don’t get complacent though.

I do feel a bit sorry for our friends who have gone to the Isle of Man for a long weekend break. Sgonna rain on their parade. Still I daresay they will pull their hoods up, bow their heads into the wind (and the horizontal driving wet stuff) and soldier on. We have pictures every year of the kids sheltering under the canopy of Laxey Railway Station booking office canopy, waiting for the next tram. Our friends alternative is to spend the day (well an hour or two) in the House of Manannan museum in Peel where they are staying, visit any of the other museums on the island or maybe indeed go for a ride on the electric railway and/or the steam railway. When they get back to Peel they can ensconce themselves in the Creek or similar and have an evening on the pop and tuck in to a hearty meal. They do a good queenies dish and the pie and chips at the Creek is also good. Tomorrow they can try the Marine which also does good nosh. Anyway it’s up to them. They are grown ups and don’t need me to tell them what to do. Just a few pointers here.

On more than one occasion we have had to extend our stay on the Isle of Man due to the weather stopping boat sailings and have returned early a couple of times. We would fly and hire a car but the flight times are not particularly useful for us, being either too early or too late. Fine if you are just heading to IoM or UK for a day’s business trip but no good if you want a leisurely start to the day.

THG has gone off to the gym leaving me with a jobs list. That is fine. I’ve already looked up the fix for the blocked washing machine pump which seems straightforward. YouTube ftw. I’ll let you know how I get on obvs. 

I also need to find some photos of each family member as a baby. We will have loads but they are fairly likely to be mostly in physical albums considering our kids are aged between 26 and 34 which predates the age of the digital camera. That’s fine. I can scan them in. This is all for Hannah’s Baby Shower organised for next weekend. A major family milestone (nowadays) that has to see some proper organisational effort put in to it.

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Sorted the washing machine. Took 45 mins as there was a lot of watter to flow though the little black drainage pipe. I found the culprits: £4.85 in loose change. It’s all good now. I’m sure THG will put the cash to good use. Money laundering at its best.

Spent much of the day sorting out synchronisation between my macbook pro, mac mini, Google Drive and my NAS box. All sorted now. I’ve previously not bothered with a Time Machine on the macbook as the mac mini is my main machine and if owt happened to the former I would just restore the image on the latter. However I’ve been working on stuff that has been all consuming and from multiple locations so synching has become important.

Had a brilliant idea this morning: Statue of Libertea. They just take the flaming torch off and replace it with a cup and saucer, or a mug if you prefer. Would solve many of the world’s problems.

Radiator testing has commenced btw. We don’t quite need the heating on yet but THG quite rightly noted that last year when we did we couldn’t get the radiators to come to temperature and had to employ the services of Lincoln’s finest plumbers, Lincoln Plumbing and ‘eating.

This morning I rang the dentist as a chunk had fallen out somewhere in my mouth. Amazingly they had two cancellations for this pm but I wasn’t able to use either of them as I’m playing golf (if you can call it that). Now I’m having it sorted next thursday morning.

Tis a lovely afternoon for the golf. Not shorts weather though (I know I know worrawimp).  Didn’t play last week as (we) was en route to Burlin.

Dear diary, today is Wednesday 31st October 2026. As an inanimate piece of paper you will not have known that and it would be important for me to write it down (probably). As an online document you will know both date and time. Bit of useless waffle for you that I’m pretty sure will never come up as a question in a pub quiz. Feel free to prove me wrong.

Yesterday the Lincoln Wine Producers Coop team held its first pressing and as a result have thirty litres of fine red wine now in barrels. Still a long way to go but it is all heading in the right direction. Gawd knows what the wine will taste like when finished. We remain optimistic. Afterwards we repaired to the Strugglers to consume other fermented products. Unfortunately the heavens opened and Adie and I were forced to stay there a little longer than initially planned. Pete, who had the transport, having already departed. Later, I fell asleep “watching” Liverpool v Villa Real in the shed with THG.

Back in the shed this morning. The sun is shining in the sky. This is good as we are off to the Cathedral this afternoon to see a lecture on how cathedrals survived the Reformation. Or simlar. This is of interest. The Bishop of Lincoln was granted the Advowson of Llanllwni church after the dissolution of the monasteries. It’s on my jobs list to find out when and how/why.

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Turns out a king, Edward VI, fancied some of the land held by the Bish (including Newark Castle fwiw) and took it. In recompense he gave the Bish some of his own less wanted property he’d come by as part of the dissolution of the monasteries which happened to include the advowson of Llanllwni, previously owned by the Carmarthen Priory.

THG drew back the curtains this morning. I was going to say flung them back but THG doesn’t fling, she draws. Anyway, looking out from my prone position in bed, the song Les Feuilles Mortes came to mind and Edith Piaf started singing in the corner of the room. I thought I’d drop a line from the song into this post but they don’t make it easy for you to find the lyrics online as the song, written in 1945, as the echoes of WW2 cannons had just died down, is still in copyright. Whilst looking I came across the original Yves Montand version which I think I now prefer to that of Edith. Nowt against Edith obvs. I thought copyright only lasted 80 years. What do I know!

Dropping THG off at the Pink Ladies meet this morning as I need the car to go and buy some footy tickets. You can buy them online but it is easier to get them from the club shop.

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Tix purchaysed. Premium seats Rilmac Upper or similar.

Nice lie in this morning, even taking the hour’s time difference into consideration. Well it felt like it. In reality we went for breakfast at 09:30 local time which being 08:30 UK time is our normal hotel breakfast time. We won’t want to leave it any later tomorrow as we got one of the last free tables in what was a fairly big breakfast room. As we left a long queue had formed.

Having so many people in for breakfast had the beneficial side effect of fresh fried eggs being available. I don’t normally touch fried eggs in a  hotel as they have often been sat there for some time but here there was a high turnover.. Breakfast was generally better than the average Hilton though not in the top echelon. Top hotel breakfasts are few and far between. Considering this hotel is costing us perhaps a third of the cost of most Hiltons in London it seems very good value for money.

Not such a nice day out there today and an extra layer might be called for. Trouble is it isn’t quite cold enough for warm gear. Problems problems. I am looking forward to crisp mornings where a tshirt and a warm sweater are the order of the day. I’ve been thinking about investing in a Barbour jacket but tbh I already have so many coats I really don’t need another.

Woman opposite has been on the phone ever since we sat down. She is not holding the actual phone but is chatting through her earbuds. This looks v strange, borderline disconcerting. She is listening intently, occasionally altering her pose and stares and emitting the odd mhmm and sometimes even making a remark. Now the person at the other end has had an interruption so is going to call her back. They called back. Now she is leaning forwards, hands clasped together. Then she leaned back, left leg slung over right knee, right elbow on next chair and hand behind her head. Her buds died so she has packed them in their charger and picked up the phone.

Pleasant enough flight. Our concerns over having a bulkhead seat with emergency exit were allayed as it wasn’t an emergency exit row and there must have been four or five feet gap between seat and wall. Upon arrival my passport didn’t work at the egates which made me divert to the manual one. This proved to be a bonus as I realised I could take THG with me. Saved her (and me) at least an hour queuing. Taxi to the Hilton was a smooth enough journey as was the checkin. However when we got to the room we found it was already in use – a Calvin Klein robe was displayed on the bed and there were a few small bags there.

Back at the front desk we had to wait whilst they assorted things out and they gave us some drinks vouchers to use while we waited. Took a while to sort but all’s well that ends well. Out with our John for a perfectly nice wiener schnitzel and then early to bed.

Oh eight twenty five. My bags are packed and I’m ready to go. Actually only the one bag. A flying visit to Berlin in prospect for a meeting with our video production company plus seeing Stefan and Katya. The taxi arriveth at oh eight fifty as we are catching the oh nine twenty express train to London Town. Meetings (lunch and dinner) this pm and one at breakfast tomorrow with a highly interesting looking board games company.

The house is calm with the only noise coming from the dishwasher doing its work in the kitchen. Scrubbity scrub, slosh slosh, rinse rinse. You heard it from me. 

Long experience has told me to finish packing the day before to avoid stress on the morning of departure. As a result I am not stressed. No last minute panics to find the (trusty Irish) passport or wallet. Check in will be during lunch today so I will try and remember to down irons momentarily to do this. It annoys me that as a lowly Exec Club Blue member I have to pay to reserve a seat so I don’t bother. In consequence the seat allocation is a bit of a lottery and it is worth checking in as soon as you are allowed on the off chance you actually might get a choice. If it was a long haul flight I’d pay the money as seat choice is far more important there, particularly on overnight flights. No long haul currently planned.

We are staying at the Hilton Berlin. Not stayed there before. It’s in a good spot apaz and handy for the Berlin Sound and Light Festival. Did look at the Kandinski as that is meant to be the iconic gaff in Burlin but the Hilton was offering such a good deal it was impossible to ignore. Also I’m only several gnats whisker widths away from regaining Diamond status and this will help. I decided some time ago that while Hilton continued to give us free holidays, breakfasts, upgrades etc I would continue with them but when that stops, that is when the Kandinski comes into play. While the money lasts 🙂 

The wine fermentation continues apace. I press the grape cap back into place three times a day. It is typically up to two inches thick. Impressive to see the yeast in action. Adie, as one of the founding members of the Lincoln Wine Producers’ Cooperative, is standing in as grape presser downer whilst we are away and this process should in any case be over by Tuesday when we plan to press the grapes. Exciting innit.

Oh joy. The bloke sat opposite has haptic feedback on his phone keyboard. There is a spare row behind me but that would mean leaving THG on her own next to the happy haptic. Don’t get me wrong, He seems to be a pleasant enough guy. Already polished off a max bag of Walkers punchy paprika flavoured crisps. He has bought a split ticket. You can tell as the seat reservation indicator above him shows the seat is booked between Lincoln and Newark and then from Newark to London. He’s put his phone down now, phew. Hopefully he is not as addicted to his device as I am to mine. I’ve ordered a bacon roll with butter and brown sauce. He opted for a vegan sausage roll with brown sauce.

The train has adopted a very sedate pace between Lincoln and Newark. Presumably local byelaws still insist on them having a bloke with a red flag walking out in front of the engine. Dangerous things, trains, particularly if you are the carrier of the red flag.

The 09:20 is a perfect train to catch if you are heading down for lunch. The earlier direct train is at 07:30 which is fine if you are going to London to actually do some work but it does mean getting up unreasonably early. THG is off to see a show later on so I’ll drop her off at the hotel first before heading to Aldgate. We are staying at the Hilton Angel Islington. Convenient to get to from Kings Cross, not too far from where our Tom lives and about 100 yards as the crow flies from my place of birth, over the back wall.

Just seen two women with long blonde hair and bright orange hi viz Network Rail outfits walking along platform two at Newark Northgate. Northerly direction. Fwiw.

I’ve decided that I don’t want a second cup of tea on the train. Tastes a bit stewed, or metallic. It isn’t always thus but they were slow to bring it out today. 

Another busy day in prospect. Bit of packing for Berlin trip. Adie swinging by with a spare freezer they don’t use anymore, old farts history group meeting in the community room at Waitrose and then a person from Starglaze swinging by to look at conservatory roof maintenance. If there’s any time after that, which I doubt, I’ll see if I can finish off the compost bin construction. Currently transcribing a load of docs I photographed last year at the National Archives. They will be legible for the first time once Claude finishes with them, hopefullyment. Taken almost an hour already. The lad is working hard. It wasn’t easy to photograph a lot of them. V delicate medieval docs written in secretary hand on vellum or similar. V old paper anyway.

I now have to plan a visit to the National Archives in Kew, Carmarthenshire Archives and the National Library of Wales. I’m at NLW in November but the Carms gaff is shut when I’m in the area so a separate trip will be needed.

Claude has been v productive already this am.

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In the shed time stands still. The clock has been stuck on 6:30 most, if not all of this year.

Da big news is the fermentation has started. Feels as if we are adding continuity to millennia of wine making. There is science added to the process nowadays but that is just us taking advantage of the learnings of recent times.

The likely timeline:

• 20 October: press into demijohns.
• Early November: fermentation finishes and we do the first racking off the sediment.
• January–February: second racking. The wine should be clearing by now, helped by a cold winter.
• March–April: a third racking if there’s still sediment dropping.
• April–June: bottle once it’s clear and a gravity reading stays steady.

Then it will be a long wait until the wine is ready in the bottles. Don’t want to rush these things.

Anyway today we are doing the Mindful Mile walk. Three times around the Cathedral being mindful of things. There is a meetup for a cawfee in the cathedral caff at 11:30 before heading to the west front to start deep thinking. I imagine we will avoid much brainwork in the caff so as not to use it all up too quickly. Americano or latte? ummmm.

Also this evening I have a meeting of scout group chairs and treasurers. Not been able to go to any of the others which has engendered a certain degree of regret. Hey…

Hoping to make some more progress on the compost bins. It rained for much of yesterday but I did move some wood pallets into place to see what it might look like. A meeting is planned with THG for after lunch to make sure the positioning and config is right.

In the meantime the wind is getting up and rain is on its way. Unfortunately the weather god’s plan is pour down when THG is out running with the Pink Ladies. Tough nuts one and all but with soft inners and hearts of gold 🙂 

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Compost bins 75% complete. They now look like compost bins. Just the removable front to do. A good afternoon’s work.

The leader didn’t turn up for the Mindful Mile. Same thing happened before the “summer break”. V poor tbh.

V nice night out at the Lincoln Jazz Café with Richard and Diana Sands. Tiny venue and not full but the 17 of us there (I counted) felt fine. The nice thing about it is the early doors start and 8.15 finish. Suited us down to the ground as we thought we might get back to watch Liverpool v Manchester Criminals. However the men in stripy shirts and masks won 0 – 3 after the sending off of Ryan Gravenbach so we didn’t bother.

For an hour or so yesterday the kitchen was a hive of activity as the members of the Lincoln Wine Producers Coop descended for the next stage in the production process. The adding of the sugar and the yeast.

D’aujourd’hui I’m going to make a start on the compost bins now that son in law George has helpfully moved some of the the log pile to a less inconvenient spot. Also have a few errands to run and perhaps even get a haircut.

Nipped to B&Q for some light bulbs. They were putting out all the Christmas stuff. Blimmin eck! Gordon Bennet! Etc etc. Also picked up some Oxi powder to clean the dozen or so wine bottles we brought back from the Jazz Café last night. We didn’t drink them all, obvs. Well perhaps not obvs 🙂 Light bulbs now in place. Also started the cleaning but in doing so discovered two things. We won’t be bottling until the spring so no real rush. Then we need to only have corked bottles – screw top ain’t no use.

Dunno about you but I’m rubbish at cracking open eggs. I can crack em open ok but perhaps one in three breaks. There is obviously a knack as you see chefs in hotels do them by the dozen but it’s a knack I don’t have. Not sure I’ll ever get it now. Anyway a good breakfast was had and now I’m sat in the snug with a nice cup of cawfee made for my by ma gal THG.

There are jobs on the list for today. I have something to buy from Wickes, a large mixing tray of some sort for THG and I need to buy some cord to secure the bottom of the patio furniture cover. The cover arrived on Friday and now all the hardwood furniture is under it but string needs threading through to stop it blowing away during the approaching winter storms. I do have some gorilla cord but not enough of it so will get a new reel whilst I’m in Wickes, assuming they sell it. While I’m out I’ll get some milk but not from Wickes obvs.

I also have to put the furniture cushions away in the cupboard in the utility room aaand make a beef casserole for tomorrow night. Blimey O’Reilly.

This evening we are off to the Jazz Cafe with Richard and Diana. Not been before. They’ve put us to shame by beating us to it despite having only been in Lincoln a few months. I used to work with Richard at Marconi on Doddington Road and it is good to see them back in town. He was the year below me at Bangor.

The Lincoln Wine Producers Cooperative had its first harvest today. Activity began soon after dawn (9:15 ish). The wine harvest is typically a long hard day where the whole family gets involved. On this occasion, because it was our first and we were very much in learning mode, the sheilas kept away leaving the men to get on with it. We realised later that many hands make light work and that more people on the job would have been better. A lesson learned for 2027.

Pete arrived first and after the traditional welcoming brew we headed out to the vineyard to pic the grapes. Leaving a few bunches for the table we harvested around 15 Kg. Pete had brought with him another 2 or 3Kg. His grapes had been ready for a while and the birds had got most of them. Adie’s grapevine brought the total up to around 40Kg.

As you’d expect at a high grade wine producer we have pretty much all the equipment needed for the full production process although we still need to source a fair number of bottles. Today we sterilised the fruit crusher and the barrels we are using for the initial colouring process. We are after red wine where the grape juice needs time to be infused with the colour of the skins. The barrels are really a big plastic home brew bucket and a trug.

Separating the grapes from the stalks and discarding the bad ones took the best part of the morning, including a tea break when THG came back from the park run and stuck the kettle on. We eventually ended up with around 40Kg of crushed grapes with a great deal of juice already in the barrels. Quite pleasing. Still a long way to go. Tomorrow we add the sugar and then (if my memory serves me right) the yeast and we have another week or so in the barrels before the press.

All in all a good morning’s work. It’s a learning process and the team done good, as they say (somewhere where their master of the language is not as complete as it might be).

Some of you have expressed an interest in joining the Cooperative and I’ve noted that for future harvests. If you have a vineyard and want to participate let me know. One vine maketh a vineyard as far as I am concerned.

It’s ten past eight in the morning but I am not hungry. I might wait and “do brunch”. Will have to see how it goze. I want to pop to B&Q sometime this am. Might grab a bacon bap whilst I am there.

THG has already one out for an early swim. She is off to lunch with the girls later so wanted to work off some of the calories beforehand. Build up an appetite. These lunches can get messy. White Hart Hotel. Prosecco… Don’t really like prosecco meself. They drink it because it is cheaper than champagne.

The heating is on in the shed.

Rain has returned to this land. Sat in the conservatory listening to the steady drumming on the roof. It isn’t a cloudburst but a decent fall of wetness which should soak the garden. Good job I got the golf in yesterday. Beeootiful afternoon. THG is off to the gym and is taking the car instead of going on her bike as she usually does.

Not totes figured out my schedule for the day. Half thinking of hitting the gym and pool meself this pm. Been very neglected over the summer months. The summer is surely over. It still isn’t quite long trousers weather. The noise on the roof has got louder.

Sitting under the canopy on Sue’s deck. This being a green and pleasant land it has been raining but right now the sun is out with blue skies up above.

Sbeen an action packed weekend and we did say that we should set off back to Lincoln by about 10am but can’t see that happening. It’s almost 9.30 already. I am packed though.

On the way down on Friday I messaged Carys to say we would be in town and she responded that her dad, me old mate Rhys was down for the footie. We arranged to meet in the Mochyn Du at six ish for a couple of sherbets before Carys, Rhys and Iws set off for an event that she had organised. We (THG & Sue) went to the Purple Poppadom for a v nice bit of supper. Can’t remember what it was I ordered but Sue noted that I order the same thing every time we go there. Why change a winning recipe.

Saturday morning we breakfasted at The Tuck Inn before THG hit the charity shops (she is a very charitable person) and Sue and I visited her fave hardware shop. I bought a load of miscellaneous washers and springs. Always come in handy. I spent the rest of the morning on book research and in the afternoon hit the Cardiff University Arts library (or similar) where I eyeballed a number of v interesting tomes. Took hundreds of pics for Claude to look at but it really killed my battery. Realised a bit late that I was backing up my photos over cellular. Switched that off and had to husband my battery usage until I met up with THG.

We met outside the castle and took a taxi “down the bay” whereupon we had a fairly mediocre dinner with Sue before kneading over to the Millenium Centre to see her play with the Cardiff Philharmonic Orchestra.Vgfp.

We did have a funny incident. There was a performance of La Boheme going on in the next auditorium and found ourselves in the wrong seats waiting for the wrong gig to start. I did think it was a bit strange that you couldn’t really see the orchestra. Five minutes before the start of the show the safety curtain went up and the words La Boheme appeared on the screen in front of us. We were in the wrong place! Funnily enough a group had turned up with tickets for the same seats as us but we shoed them off and the left to try and sort out the confusion. We buggered off before they came back.

Sue’s concert was great and we went home happy and tired to meet our Tom who was just arriving from London. Back at Sue’s we found the gate to be locked and I didn’t have a key! No problemo. We directed Tom to meet us in the bar of Chapter, the local arts centre around the corner. Having ordered a pint I was told they were closing in ten minutes!!!

Fortunately Sue rocked up as we were headed to another pub, the Corp, and so we went home. Ya gorra laugh.

Sunday was the big day. Joe running the Cardiff half marathon. The lad had a terrible cold so it wasn’t ideal for him but he bravely battled through it fair play. THG, Sue, Tom and I saw him at mile 1 and then at mile 8 where we met up with the Bradshaws. The area around the finishing line was rammed with the supporters of 28,000 runners but we managed to meet him and Lucy’s pal Catherine and went off to a pub for a prebooked Sunday lunch.

After that I figured might as well keep going and met Rhys and Iws in the Corp for a few slurps before the game. Wales lost 0 – 1 to Denmark with a solitary penalty.Home to bed.