where art collides philosoperontap

A grand day out in London yesterday. Did have a bit of sorting to do when we arrived at the restaurant as someone was sat at our table. I’d booked a table for five in the window for one pm and a different five people had rocked up at twelve thirty and plonked themselves down. The waitress just assumed we had turned up early. Fortunately she was able to move them to another table downstairs. Downstairs is no good. No windows. Turned out ok in the end. My steak was a bit on the tough side but a good time was had by all. 

Busy busy busy today. Got a carpet fitter coming at ten to put down the vinyl flooring in the workshop. Could have done it myself but figured that for the sake of a few quid we might as well get it done professionally. After that we can start making it look like a workshop. Exciting eh? Don’t worry, pic to follow.

This pm is if it’s Thursday it must be golf. Not everyone can make it but we should have three of us there. We do sometimes have up to six of us which makes it quite a lot longer a round. At the end of one summer we played the top course as an eightball. We were last to tee off so didn’t hold anyone up. Problem was it got dark before we managed to finish. It wasn’t helped by the fact that on one hole we played down the wrong fairway and ended up playing a couple of holes twice. Then we took a short cut to the eighteenth where I then appeared to have lost my ball. I stuck another one down but when we got to the green found that someone else had played mine by mistake. I just played my first ball from where it lay on the green. He he he.

Very autumnal feel out there. Still shorts weather but I have a fleece on in the shed. I like the way that nature eases us from summer into autumn. This year we have a few outdoor bits that still need doing before the full force of winter arrives. One of the potting shed windows needs replacing and another needs a new sill splicing in. At least it’s dry. I should be able to finish off putting away the gazebo. Need to wipe the bird poo off the canopy first! The biggest question is will the canopy fit in the pocket of the bag? It looks as if it is supposed to but not sure I’ll be able to pack it up compactly enough. Soon find out innit.

Ee five on the oh seven thirty London bound express. Not yet left the stayshun. I’m looking forward to me bacon roll. Hopefully they will bring the tea in a timely manner. It is a bit annoying if you’ve finished the bacon roll and have nowt to wash it down with.

They’ve printed new menus, I note. Same food. The menu does tell me that in twenty twenty five we are celebrating two hundred years of train travel. Reminds me that we are off on a jaunt to Yorkshire next week and will be stopping by the railway museum there. They have a research library there that THG wants to visit. Her grandad was a fireman on the railways and she is hoping that they will have a record of this. Whenever we’ve been there in the past the library section has been closed.

So today is my annual jolly day out in town whereby I meet some pals and we indulge in a longish lunch. Need to be back in Kings Cross to catch the sixteen oh six. The restaurant is near Green Park tube station which is just a few stops away so we shouldn’t have to rush.

I’ll be v early into town. This is deliberate as it gives me time to buy a shirt and get a haircut. However I am back in early September so that may be better timing. Needed for Hannah & George’s wedding on the thirteenth. If I had the haircut today It would be long again by the thirteenth.

In theory I have to do some work and had kind of planned to do this on the train down. Weelave to see. I find it hard to get motivated these days. Once I get going I’ll be alright.

The train is leaving the stayshun…

Monday yanow. The clock on top right hand side of my monitor says Mon therefore it must be so. Got to force myself to do some work today but not until I’ve been for a swim. Typically leave to go to the pool at around eleven or ten past.

Bit overcast today and you feel that it is threatening to rain. Obvs I’d be happy were it so but the metoffice computer says no which means it might well now rain. I particularly need it to be dry this pm as we want to pack away the gazebos whilst we have Hannah and George still here. They are cooking us a wedding anniversary meal tonight. Tomorrow we are celebrating thirty seven glorious years of marriage. Not yet decided what form that celebration will take. Maybe even beans on toast and an early night 🙂 

We have done a lot of eating and drinking over the past few days. What’s more I have my annual long lunch in town to look forward to on Wednesday! I some time ago set a “tradition” rolling whereby I meet a bunch of mates in London in August for a serious business discussion over lunch. August was always a dead month anyway. Half the population goes on holiday for the first two weeks and the other half for the second two. Means you could get sod all done in August so I then started to take the whole month off.

Did rain a bit but all dried off now. Met Ajax in the pool and had a good catchup. Sue was at a Body Balance class. Cup of tea afterwards.

Sitting on the deck after breakfast and a down feather floated in front of me. It showed no interest in landing so I reached for my camera to catch it on video. It chose that moment to drop into my empty tea cup. Missed another photo opportunity. Had I been wearing a pair of specs with inbuilt camera I’d have caught it and the bytes would now be streaming in front of you as you read this post.

The lake has begun to attract woodpigeons that stand on the stony edge and lean right down dipping their beaks fully in the water. Woodpigeons ain’t my thang. If I’m patient enough maybe a kingfisher or two might drop by. They would be disappointed as the lake is not (yet) stocked with fish but that’s not my problem. 

In reality I can’t see me getting any fish for the lake although I do like the concept of sitting on the deck while dangling a rod and line into the water. Not really interested in catching a fish but the act of fishing is very relaxing. Perhaps I’ll get meself a cheap fishing rod for the purpose. We’ve just flogged a load of fishing gear on Facebook Marketplace! No rod though. THG suggested I invest in a fishing gnome which sounds like a good idea to me. I looked and there are loads to choose from. Watch this space.

I think I’m going to start collecting the windfall apples. It’s a few weeks yet before this year’s zoider making session commences but the apples are coming down in serious numbers. We haven’t yet started on last year’s batch. My cider adviser Adie tells me we do that the same day as making the next lot. We will this year also be able to use apples from the tree at the bottom of the garden. This was inaccessible last year because of all the logs around its base but the log pile has now been tidied. That tree produces nicer eaters.

Cooler morning but still nice enough to sit out on the deck before breakfast. I topped up the lake yesterday by discharging the not insubstantial dregs from the bottom of the defunct water butt into it. Waste not want not. Does make me realise that lakes, if they have no natural flows of water (ie rivers) running into and out of them do need maintaining. This is fine but special care needs to be taken with this during what are becoming the traditional long hot summers we always think we remember from our childhood but now appear to be reality. If I ever get around to putting in an irrigation system for the borders then an additional feed into the lake would seem appropriate. 

THG and George are off Park Running this morning and I have delayed a decision on breakfast until after my sojourn on the deck. We have all the gubbins in for a full English but I’m still quite full after a very good steak supper last night. A cut down full English is where my thinking is currently at. A solitary sausage, a brace of bacon and a slice of sourdough toast. No egg, shroom, beens or tomayto but I’ll say yes to a glass of milk which for me is part of a full English, cut down or otherwise.

Removed the masking tape from around all the electrical bits in the workshop this morning and will pop out to Wickes for a small tin of white satin paint in order to do the woodwork. THG needs some as well for a paint job she has in mind for elsewhere in the hoose so the fact that I won’t need much for the workshop won’t result in wastage. Our recent clearout saw the disposal of a load of old tins of paint, long since dried up. I’m not saying they haven’t come in handy for the occasional touching up job but they are now gone. Gone I tell you.

The main tasks for today however are the completion of the installation of the replacement water butt and the erection and cleaning of three gazebos that will be stored out of the way discretely in the corner of the workshop, on the left behind the door. We don’t use them v often but they are handy to have when we have friends around for a barbie or similar. This is the case for both wet and sunny weather. I will at some point have to invest in a new stainless steel fire pit as our kadai firebowl had rusted itself to a state of uselessness and was disposed of in the skip that has now thankfully been removed from our drive.

Looks like the apple harvest will be early this year. Lots of bright red fruit dropping already. They do seem to be a little on the small side though which is a result of the dry weather we’ve had and me not getting round to thinning them out which does make a difference. Next year…

Hannah has joined me on the deck which is v nice. A bit of dad and daughter time.

Actually I’ve just moved in to the shed from the deck as my phone told me there was rain around. There are two ways a phone can be used to tell you this sort of thing. One is to look at a suitable app eg the MetOffice, other apps are available. The other, which is how I found out on this occasion, is because it is easy to see raindrops when they land on the screen. I was prompted to look because I thought I felt the occasional drop but couldn’t be totes sure.

Inside the shed I’ve taken the opportunity to look at my various posters with a view to deciding which ones are staying and which ones are going to be moving into the workshop. It would appear that my posters are mostly either travel related or something to do with music. A decision has been made to move the travel ones and keep the music. The reason for the change is because I happen to have a variety of framed prints and maps that need to go up on the wall. I’ve been holding off doing this because I didn’t want to put holes in the plaster but the time, I can tell you, has now come. Otherwise I’ll be ending up with more pictures propped up on the floor than on the wall. I think I’m going to invest in some new picture hooks while I’m out buying the paint. Makes sense innit.

The other news from yesterday is that my new steel shelving unit arrived. It doesn’t look like a shelving unit right now as it is contained in two flattish cardboard boxes. Heavy flattish cardboard boxes. The downside of the flattishness is that I will have to assemble said steel shelving unit. I don’t normally buy things that need assembling but on this occasion it makes sense as it would be an impractically large object to “post”. Also I am assured that the assembly process involves no bolts or screws and as such should be relatively straightforward. I’ll find out on Thursday which is when it moves into the workshop.

Thursday is the day the vinyl gets laid which is the trigger for moving the bench into the workshop which will actually make it look like a workshop. I might put the shelving  unit up first as the bench currently has a load of plastic tool boxes underneath it which would be better on the shelves.

Gotta go. I am now officially hungry and a small English with a glass of milk beckons.

Up even earlier today. Five fifteen. When yer awake yer awake. I’ve decided to join the Dyfed Family History Society fwiw. I used to be a member but stopped because their website really only helped as far back as the first census of 1841. Now I’d quite like to get my hands on their “Monumental Inscriptions” database but you have to be a member and fork out twelve quid a year to access it. Don’t worry, I won’t rush into such a monumental purchasing decision.

I’m not overly optimistic that their database will provide me with much info but it’s worth a punt. When I visited a few cemeteries in Carmarthenshire earlier this year I drew a blank on many of the gravestones I had hoped to find. Before 1800 they were few and far between. It isn’t that the graves weren’t there. It’s just that the headstones tended not to survive. Fingers crossed that the DFHS will come up with the goods eh?

Another eventful day ahead. Dropping off a load more books at the Oxfam Bookshop in the Cornhill at nine, popping round to the Smiths to look at their kitchen extension, a visit to Fosters on Monks Road for some steaks for the barbie on Friday, a swim, supply run to Waitrose and at four o’clock Mark the joiner is coming round to look at a few bits of work we need doing. All go innit. I even have a conference call at one thirty. Just remembered that one. No golf today. Everyone else is away on holiday. Plus it’s too hot, man.

The house pongs to high heaven this morning. Darryl the plasterer came at the end of play last night and put some bitumen type paint down on the new workshop floor in preparation of putting down the insulation and plywood. Can’t see that it will have dried by the time he comes this morning, especially as it is supposed to have a second coat before he starts work but we shall see. I am not the expert.

It’s going to be the hottest day so far of this particular spell of fine weather. The media are calling it a heatwave but they like to be a bit on the dramatic side innit. I don’t envy Darryl having to work in it though. We will be glad when the work is finished. At least the skip went yesterday. When I got back from the pool it had been replaced by an electrician’s van. All the electrics are now sorted, at least in the workshop.

Up at five thirty as is quite often the case at this time of year. Best time of day. Have come out onto the deck to enjoy the early morning feel. There is that light misty feel to it although it’s not really mist. Hazy. Still slightly damp.

Reminds me about the time I slept on a beach in Greece. I had hitchhiked from Bangor with no real idea of destination other than a cardboard sign emblazoned with the words with St Tropez. I had just finished my first year at uni and wanted to do something with the summer. I walked to the edge of town and a few days later believe it or not ended up in St Tropez! St Tropez was too expensive. I think I must only have had a couple of hundred quid for the whole trip, if that. So I left St Tropez and at a roundabout outside the town bumped into someone going to Greece. Seemed like a good idea so there I went.

I can’t remember the stitch that found me kipping on the beach but I woke up at dawn, partly due to the nuisance of the insects, and strolled into a village where I bought some bread and jam for breakfast and then stuck my thumb out. It took me six hours to get a lift during which time the sun rose higher and higher and I ended uop having to hug a wall to stay in the shade.

I did eventually get a lift off a guy who took me a good distance and dropped me off in a layby. I stuck my thumb out again but before long a police car rolled up and a fierce looking Greek cop with dark glasses and a gun got out of the car. Ey oop I thought. However he ignored me and proceeded to pull cars over in a seemingly random way. Omg I thought again. Who the hell was going to stop to give me a lift with the cop car there. Nobody.

It got worse. Next up three green buses pulled in and out poured a load of soldiers in uniform. I now couldn’t even see the road! I sat on the kerb to contemplate the sitch when a squaddie stopped to talk to me. He understood the awkwardness of the situation and had a chat with the cop who proceeded to pull in the next car and asked (told) the driver to give me a lift. Fair play to him. I must dig out my diary of the trip and digitise it.

Back to the present I’ve now moved inside the shed because insects were beginning to take an interest in me on the deck. I am an insect magnet. Avon Skin So Soft for the win. Also it is all of a sudden nearly twenty past six. Time to make the tea…

There must surely be someone called Brian working at the Met Office. If not a Brian then there will definitely be a John. Anyway if you believe in the great weather god Brian the temperatures today are going to be up to thirty degrees Centigrade. This is v hot for around ere and I’d like to suggest that your best way of surviving this extreme heat is to not consider doing any manual work. I certainly won’t be.

Really the sensible thing to do is to find a nice bar with a deck looking out between colourful flowery bushes (pick your own brand) onto an azure bay bordered by ivory beaches and palm trees. Stay in a shady spot but drink lots of liquids to keep you hydrated. Watch exotic birds flit in and out of the shrubbery in front of you.

I was thinking particularly of Jambe de Bois on Pigeon Island in St Lucia. John and I came across the place by accident. We had been dropped off at a private beach by the boat from the Hilton in order to do some snorkelling. The snorkelling turned out to be great with hundreds of fish swimming around us near the reef.

After a while we strolled up to the lookout point to see whether any men of war were coming into sight and then continued around the island until we found the bar and decided we could go no further.

This weather reminded me of that place. I would go back were it not for the fact that google says it is temporarily closed (fingers crossed it reopens) and that there are lots of other places to go and see in this little ole world of ours. It isn’t quite as close as Skegvegas or Maybo. It must be said that the only advantages that Skegvegas has over St lucia is the fish and chips but I couldn’t see me wanting British stye fish and chips in da Caribbean, man.

It is currently quite cloudy but in Brian we trust. As I speak I am taking tea on the deck, between the shed and the lake. The lake needs plants which we plan to source from a garden centre called Waterworld or similar on the Wirral. It’s a long way to go and buy a few plants but we are going anyway sometime in the autumn, when the worst of the Lincolnshire summer heat has abated, and will find it convenient to stop by. They also have a caff, natch.

My day is mostly mapped out. A few admin type bits this morning followed by my now customary swim. Did a PB of 51 mins front crawl yesterday. It’s a tradeoff between how long do you want to stay in the pool versus getting a good amount of exercise. I am certainly feeling the benefits especially with the strengthening of the hips although it isn’t going to stop me needing the other one done, planned for 28th October.

Kristian the electrician has moved his slot at ours until this afternoon which is fine for us though he will find it a bit warm. 2nd fix. I was in there this morning opening the windows and am thinking that the steel shelving could go on the left hand side as opposed to the right which has been my initial thinking. I’ll only really know when the floor is down and we move the bench into place. It will all happen next week, if it is the will of Brian. 

I will need to build an extension to the bench. I have some scaffold planks in mind that should do the job. When it comes to benches size matters. Pondering putting some metal sheeting in the corner as a place where I can let sparks fly. I’ve got a little used grinding wheel, picked up for next to nothing in Lidl years ago, that rarely gets an outing. Its time has come 🙂  Those kitchen knives won’t know they’re born.

In the meantime the cathedral bells have heralded the hour of nine, I have finished my tea and will now move into the shed to do that admin job. 

Ciao amigos.

Sat out on the deck after breakfast, pot of tea a brewing. Another perfect day in prospect. A black cat has strolled nonchalantly into the garden. It’s after birds. We have wrens, robins and blue tits tweeting away merrily. I’ll be cross if it gets one. It has now moved through the beech hedge to next door. Dunno who it belongs to. It wears a collar.

I’m not a cat person. I don’t mind them but not a big enough fan to want one meself. Same goes for dogs. I like the idea of a dog but they are too much hassle to look after.

I have decided to redo the wildflower meadow after this year. There is still too much grass in it and no wildflowers. Well I did have one tiny flower appear early on in the season and there is a clump of bluish coloured ones right at the far end, near the greenhouse. Didn’t do a proper job preparing the ground. I just ran a scarifier over the area and raked in the seed. This time I’ll dig up the turf.

I have half an eye on installing an irrigation system for the borders to be ready for next year. THG not massively enthused with the idea but I’ll develop it and see how it does. Put the design in front of the committee. Run it up the flagpole. That sort of thing. We are also going to put in a few more raised beds. I’ve never been a gardener but there is no harm in getting involved in a few projects. Especially now that we will have a workshop.

Back in the pool this morning. Work off the weekend excesses. Not that it was a particularly excessive weekend. Next weekend we will have Hannah and George with us and a trip has been arranged to the curry house in Burton Waters. It gets good writeups but we’ve never been so I’m looking forward to it. Also having afternoon tea at the Teahouse in the Woods in Woodhall Spa. On the Sunday.

Ciao 4 now.

…

bought a new water butt innit. replaces one of the ones serving the greenhouse that had gone out of shape in the heat. no way we can get it back on its stand so we’ve left it to be emptied gradually by the irrigation system which has now been turned off. Far too hot to do it this pm so will sort in the morning. we have a bonus extra stand which we can use to prop up the water butt now by the potting shed.

Oh em ef in gee tis another stunner out there. Have moved early to the shed so that I can, with doors flung wide open, enjoy the morning. Breakfast was a simple slice of wholemeal toast with half an avo, smashed, as they like to describe it in restaurants although really just mashed up with a fork, half a chilli, a few chopped walnuts and a squirt of lime juice. On the side was a single rasher of bacon. None of this supermarket rubbish. Even Waitrose can’t come up with bacon as good as you get from a butcher, in our case Fosters on Monks Road.

THG is checking her empire. I dare say I will do some watering this morning whilst she attends to her devotions. I also need to nip to United Carpets down the road behind Tesco to look for a bit of vinyl for the new workshop floor. Darryl the plasterer finished last night. Quite late as he was still smoothing away with his finishing trowel (I looked it up) when I was tending to the barbecue. The chicken thigh kebabs marinated according to some Japanese recipe THG came across in the Waitrose weekly publication (paper?) proved to be succulent and deelish.

Today’s breakfast conversation included the fact that Monty had recommended I now mow the wildflower meadow, taking care to remove the clippings. Reality is that wildflowers have been few and far between this year. I am going to reseed it. Plenty left in the box. There are patches of bare soil around the shores of my lake that are also an obvious target for the scattering of flower seeds. I shall imitate the effects of nature 🙂 

It is going to be a week or more before the workshop becomes fully operational. Kristian the electrician is coming on Tuesday to do the second fix and the floor and skirting are going down on Wednesday. I think it is Wednesday. The dates keep changing. Then we can paint the walls and finally put down the vinyl.

I will be under some pressure to start using the workshop having gone to the effort of getting it done. Every bloke should have a workshop, and a shed. 

It’s looking like a beautiful day, as the song goes. Got a few jobs on the list today. Two of them involve calling an insurance company and the Lincoln City Council, both of which are classically a ball ache.

I did try calling the council three weeks or so. The phone was answered quite quickly which both surprised and impressed me. Then I realised I’d been diverted to a receptionist who couldn’t help at all other than to forward me to the right department. Having been second in the queue for fifteen minutes I gave up and took their “music on hold” advice to email them. The autoresponder told me they would be in touch within two weeks. Three weeks later they haven’t bothered. I did try calling a few times last week but their number was “unobtainable”. Sigh.

It is only on occasions like this that I switch on my “landline”. This is really a PoE driven VoIP phone associated with our long time Lincoln geographical number. It stays unplugged most of the time as it would otherwise ring persistently with spam and scam calls.

I am early to the shed. The shed is currently a temporary home to two bikes as they would have got in the way of Darryl the plasterer who passes through the garage to access his van and the skip. He only has a day or so left to do so the bikes will soon be back where they belong and, quite importantly, the skip removed from our lives. We have made good use of the skip, having ordered a bigger one than Darryl needed knowing that we had a lot of crap to shift.

A few other items have found their way into the shed including an axe and a pair of boots. These may bide a wee while longer until I think I’ve done everything I want to do re the log pile.

Today, btw, in case you didn’t know it, is Friday. That’s good innit? It has no real significance per se other than the fact that I give myself two days off from the pool over the weekend. This is because their off peak hours change for Saturday and Sunday and I can’t really be bothered to go to find out whether they are busy or not. I like to avoid busy times. When I arrived yesterday I took a peek through the windows looking onto the pool from the caff area and it did look quite full. By the time I had changed there was only one person left in and she soon got out so I had it to myself. I did 45 mins front crawl and then hit the spa for ten minutes.

On my way home I dropped in at the Mercedes garage as I have been toying with getting a car. Although these cars are quite luxurious, and if I got one I’d be after comfort, it put me off to a certain extent. The big push as you might imagine is electric/hybrid. I’m not ready for electric. For one thing they have small boots and massive depreciation and they are v expensive. I was more interested in diesel but these are very much on the way out apaz. I drove off in THG’s entry level Peugeot 208 thinking that my current strategy of borrowing her car occasionally was still fine.

The whole subject of cars confuses me. I’m not really a car person. Years ago I went to a “VoIP Executive Retreat” in Sophia Antipolis on the Cote D’Azur. Arriving at Nice Airport I swung by the car hire desk to pick up a machine. I only needed a car to drive about 10 miles there and ten miles back. During the conference the car would sit in the hotel car park.

So the girl behind the desk said they had a few different makes in and that I could choose. She rattled off a few different models and I stared back blankly at her. Then, to try and help out, I sked what colours they had available. This confused her. Finally she came up with a proposition. They had a really great deal on an Audi A8 going on right then. I took it without really comprehending how much it was going to cost. Ordinarily I didn’t think an Audi A8 was the kind of car the company would hire for me but if it was then ok and I said yes. I should have been a bit suspicious when she asked for two different credit cars as a guarantee in case of any issues.

I drove off to my hotel ten miles away thinking to myself that I had better not use the phone that was built in to the dash. After returning the car I was somewhat stunned to note that the bill for three days and twenty miles was around £550. Remember this was more than twenty years ago. It was a lot of dosh for a hire car in those days.

Back in the office I called the travel agent and explained the sitch. There was no way I could put £550 for a hire car through my expenses. At the time we were going through a few years with layoffs every Christmas. Didn’t make sense to stick your head above the parapet.

The travel agent got Avis, or whoever they were, to refund my car, put it though their own account and laundered the transaction somehow.

There is a follow up story to that. Once a month I used to fly to Canada for meetings. On one occasion I got a deal on an upgrade to the hire car and drove away in a big posh Lincoln Town Car. It actually made sense as there were five of us and we could all get in the one car. The slight embarrassment came the next day when I rocked up at HQ in this very big posh car and parked in front of the entrance. As we were getting out of the car our MD got out of his hire car which was something like a Fiat Punto. I could have fitted it in the boot of the Lincoln. Ah well.

Gotta go. A few more logs to sort out 🙂 

Golf last night wasn’t a disaster as I did win one of the longest drive comps. However I did add up the scores incorrectly whereby we paid Ajax a quid each for winning the front nine whereas it was really a tie. They will ask me to do the scoring! Afterwards to the Horse and Groom for a burger. Left my Tilley hat in the buggy so will need to retrieve that. Might pop over today before my swim.

We do need to find an acceptable post golf dining solution. We’ve been going to the Woodcocks which is on the way home but where the food is rubbish but cheap. Trouble is the low cost fare attracts lots of customers and nowadays there is usually an hour wait for nosh which is unacceptable. The H&G is more expensive but has a better burger and the food comes quickly.

Only three of us around for the golf as others were either busy or on holiday. Meant we had quite a relaxing afternoon of it.

No Darryl the plasterer van in the drive today as he has a wedding to go to but he is coming back Saturday morning just to apply the finishing touches. We are quite looking forward to getting rid of the skip and having the whole drive back. It’s a big drive for just one little Peugeot 208 but space equals convenience. We can get six or seven cars in at a push when we have visitors.

Today is going to be a pottering around day. Get a few little jobs done maybe (THG’s eyes suddenly light up). I can envisage a little more tidying up of the log pile which ain’t on her list but is on mine. I started a week or two ago but did not finish. The axe is in place in the shed as are the boots and the helmet/eye protector. The latter might be overkill but I can’t find my goggles. Does make me look a bit like a lumberjack. What’s not to like?

August is traditionally a quiet month. 

The great book clearout continues. Over the past four decades I’ve spent thousands of pounds on books but have reconciled myself to the fact that I’m not going to read most of them again. Some classics stay. I’m talking stuff like PG Wodehouse. It all comes with only a small tinge of nostalgia. Time was I’d read a book from start to finish on the settee. These were mostly pre world wide web days. Nowadays I have other things occupying my time.

Still got a few boxes of books in the attic to sort out. The decision process with those will be fairly rapid. If they have already been relegated to the attic to free up shelf space for more books downstairs then a degree of prescreening has already taken place. 

The news is I’m getting my left hip done. Had a good chat with the surgeon yesterday and am going to arrange a date with his secretary. Severe osteoarthritis. I feel quite good about it as the right hip hop was a real success. The left hip doesn’t stop me swimming, which is generally quite good for the hip but also for the rest of me, but it does stop me from walking properly. I will need to find an excuse other than the hip as to why my golf has been so crap but leave that with me. Maybe golf will improve 🙂 

A side effect of swimming is that I get fairly tired of an evening which can’t be a bad thing and I guess will diminish as I get fitter. The old pool at Yarborough has now reopened. It’s pretty cheap for an off peak membership but the pool is mostly given over to family fun swims so the few lane swimming sessions are likely to get busy. I’m unlikely to move back even though it’s a lot nearer our house. Once the summer holidays are over the family fun sessions are likely to morph into school swimming lessons which I guess is fair enough but just as inconvenient for us committed swimmers.

We’ve been having some work done on the house. The old single brick garage which is attached to the house since we did the side extension has only ever been used for storage. Now Darryl the Plasterer (for that is his name) has waved his magic trowel and we have a proper cavity wall with insulated lining. He is coming back next week to add a floor and once Kris the electrician has finished his bits we will be able to move my workbench in from the garage. The garage has no natural light and isn’t a place conducive to bench usage and creativity.

I already have my first project in mind. One of the drinks tables in the shed has two crates as a base and a couple of bits of scaffold planks glued together as a tabletop. These are going to have some sort of fixing that keeps the top in place on the crates and are then going to have various old tickets and leaflets glued to it as a funky cover. 

The other table, which is round and uses a coffee bean barrel as a base, has lots of old rum bottle labels stuck on it. These came from THG’s dad who used to collect them as part of his job as a customs and excise inspector. I scanned the originals and reprinted them. Wasn’t going to glue the real thing down. No way José.

I’m thinking I might also stencil something onto the side of the crates. Château Pétrus, or Corona or something. We shall see. Never tried Château Pétrus believe it or not. They’ve never had it on the wine list in the Woodcocks pub after golf on a Thursday. I have consumed Corona, yonks ago. Is it still a brand? 

The next job after that is to cut to size a piece of wood and affix to the end of the shelving unit in the shed so that I can conveniently position a drink (diet coke, milk, water, tea etc) when sat on the sofa. All good stuff.

When I built the shed my original thinking was that it would be a multifunction space that could accommodate a bench as well as a shed. However this doesn’t really fit with the serious work ethos of the building and so having a separate place for manual creative activity makes sense. During the first lockdown we had three of us working out of the shed and the spare desk remains for the use of any visitor requiring a temporary spot to plonk down for a conference call, spreadsheet manipulation or business planning. Yanow the sort of thing. Maybs.

The good weather seems to have returned for the moment and the shed doors are once again thrown wide open.

One good byproduct of having the new workshop is that I will need to review my collection of tools. A bloke can never have too many tools although I may take the opportunity to rationalise my collection of screwdrivers of which I have far too many in the red plastic box in the garage. I will also be moving my “History of the Adjustable Spanner” book from its place in the shed to the steel shelving unit that is going to run down the side wall. The wood recognition book that I bought from Axminster Tools can also go in there. Makes sense to me.

Unfortunately Axminster Tools in Cardiff closed its doors earlier this year. V sad. They do have another branch but I believe it may be in Axminster and thus nowhere near anywhere I am likely to be anytime soon. The Cardiff branch was always worth a bit of a pilgrimage. Almost a reason to go to Cardiff by itself. That and the beer in The Corp which is around the corner from our Sue’s.

Anyway gotta go. I’m rereading “Hanes Plwyf Llandyssul” by Y Parch W.J.Davies. Several relatives get a mention and it reveals more everytime I open it.

Sbeen a great summer of test crikit innit. Ordinarily I head to the pool at around 11ish but am going to delay it today to catch the end of the game. It’s reignin ere but I think the forecast is clear for the Oval so we should see a conclusion this morning.

It’s one of those dilemmas. The game could go either way today and we only need a draw to win the series but I guess both sides would prefer a win so we do need the rain to stay off the Oval. Exciting eh?

Got a nice quiet week ahead of us. A couple of quiet ones actually which is good. Get some swimming in. Bit of golf. Stuff like that….

Raining again, just after I hung my swimming trunks and towel on the line. It’s quite nice rain and I don’t particularly have anything on this pm so a relaxing afternoon in prospect. Bit of reading, bit of research. Also need to make a fresh batch of vinaigrette as I finished off the last of the previous batch over the weekend. Bought some more vinegar speshully.