where art collides philosoperontap

Quite autumnal out there this morning. Apples are dropping in droves. I have an apple press and masher on order which are with Evri for delivery. This does concern me a little considering Evri is the new name for Hermes who were absolutely crap in my experience. I got an email from them yesterday saying the gear was at their hub but this morning it is still there. I’d have expected it to be in a van and on its way by now.

Our John is home with us for a few days. Joined me on the 19.06 last night. A somewhat boozy day out. I arrange a long lunch in London with some pals every August. Quiet time of the year for business so a good time for a long lunch. We were at St John Bread and Wine. Apparently I’ve been before but I didn’t particularly remember it. A very different menu.

I have started keeping a food diary as part of the plan to shift some weight but I won’t bother writing anything down about yesterday. At least I won’t mention the beer and wine. Oh and the gin on the train. Ate some dishes I’d never had before such as eel and ox heart. Can’t say I’d rush back to order either of them again but at least I’ve had a go. It’s like snails. Tried em once but tbh they just tasted of rubbery garlic and I couldn’t see the point. 

Back on the granola this morning but we have old school pal Paul Shimmin from the Isle of Man coming this evening so will be sticking something on the barbie. THG is making her very excellent brown rice salad and I would appear to be a dab hand at potato salad. Struggling with deciding on meat options though. Don’t worry I’ll get there.

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What’s life all about?

I’ve ordered a Fitbit Charge 6. I did use a Fitbit years ago but stopped, partly because I don’t wear a watch and the fitbit irritated me by clanking against the keyboard, bedside table and other inanimate objects with hard surfaces. However with an important wedding next year to trim down for I figure I have to give it another shot.

I also use Myfitnesspal. My account last saw the light of LED somewhere around 2018. Six years in the wilderness including long periods where survival was more on our thoughts rather than weight loss. Milk chocolate hobnobs were an essential part of the survival process. Doubt the Charge 6 will arrive in time for me to go swimming this morning but no matter. 

I’m following a combination of the Fast 800 diet and the 5+2. This is because I have a life and there are occasions in life where 800 calories of low carbohydrate sustenance is not going to cut it. Tomorrow’s (long) lunch in London is one example as is half of next week when a visit to Trent Bridge will be followed by a weekend in the West Country. This coming Bank Holiday weekend should be ok though.

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The next job on my to do list is to cancel my Vinci Autoroutes account and return the device that I’ve never used. I won’t bore you with the details but they are incredibly difficult to deal with. I tried cancelling a few months ago but their response said either I had to return their device or be charged for it. I figured it was a lot easier for them to just charge me than to faff about sending it back to France and informed them as such.

Now the annual “not used my account” charge has just been imposed and of course they haven’t charged me for the device which means the account is still open. This is despite emails from them saying that unless I uploaded proof of my identity they would cancel the account anyway.

This is in my mind going to take most of the afternoon, sigh.

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Been out blackberrying again. Sbeen another fab year for them. The frustrating thing is there are loads more too high up to be able to reach. The birds’ share. Plenty of purple coloured droppings around the shed. Our avian friends clearly don’t know that blackberries are for crumbles with custard. Cold custard.

Now sat in the snug with ma phones on to avoid having to hear celebrity marseterchef. More specifically cheeky chappie Greg Wallace. As usual have never ‘eard of any of the celebs. I could go on marseterchef. I do a very nice ham, chips and peas 🙂. I saw John Torode in Smiths of Smithfield once. Must have been ten or eleven years ago because I was still at Timico.

Since You’ve Been Gone by Rainbow blasting away in my ears. Then Life in the Fast Lane. Sure to make me lose my mind.

Tis getting dark out and it isn’t yet nine o’clock. These things happen obvs. The natural order. I’m ok with it. Need to decide whether to wear shorts or jeans tomorrow. I’m headed to Laandan for a bit of a day out. I don’t normally consider longs until the clocks change but there is an autumnal feel about the place and I’m not sure I have a clean pair of shorts. Not ironed anyway though that isn’t a reason not to wear them.

I’m not taking my Macbook tomorrow but may well need to take a man bag as the one thing I do need on a day out in London is somewhere to keep my headphones which I typically use on the return journey. Half tempted to take the ipad to use to write stuff but the user interface is pretty crap for that sort of thing. Mind you our John is travelling back with me so I guess we could, err, you know, talk to each other. He will have his phones on being very musically oriented so perhaps I will take mine.

I did have some beats which would fit neatly in a jacket pocket but I donated them to THG who uses them for running so I’ll leave them with her.

On this day in 1988 I woke up with a slight hangover. Actually a fair old sore head. I had made the mistake of staying up late in the Thornton Hall Hotel bar drinking Stella with Uncle Mick. 19th August 1988 was the day of our wedding. I went for a walk in the morning to clear my head. It was raining but as we drew nearer the time of the ceremony the sun came out and fine weather stayed with us for the rest of the day.

We moved to the Ship Hotel in Parkgate for the night of the wedding. I drove. Didn’t touch a drop after the speeches and toasts. Was high enough on the experience of getting married.

The Head Gardener wasn’t known as THG in those days. She was a Webster. In fact I don’t think we even had a garden at our mid terrace house in Greetwell Gate in Lincoln. Just a back yard with, believe it or not, a small pig sty. The deeds of the house stated that we were allowed to keep a pig, just as they kept a pig at my dad’s home in Blaenhirwaun in West Wales.

We never did keep a pig. It was a lot easier to buy bacon etc from the butcher. In fact the pigsty was demolished to make way for a barbecue area which was much used in those party filled pre children days.

So this morning at around six twenty I made it downstairs, with a clear head, and took up a pot of tea to my wife of thirty six years. Thirty six! How can such a thing be possible ? 🙂 The amazing thing about THG is that she grows lovelier with every year that goes by. I am a lucky bloke.

Now being married to THG is not without its downsides. She regularly leaves me a jobslist but I figure this comes with the territory of married life and is a small price to pay. Obviously a jobslist needs to be stared at for a suitable length of time before attempting any of the tasks. The successful completion of a job is down to 95% planning and 5% execution. Everyone knows this. Sometimes even more planning than that.

We have nothing in particular planned for our wedding anniversary. A nice quiet night watching University Challenge at which THG excels. She has a bit of fish for supper and I have some lamb chops. Chuck in a bit of salad and some sweetcorn blackened on the bbq and we have a feast.

The milkman came at 03:47. Mostly always the same guy. Does he ever take a holiday? Maybe he coordinates it so that he is away at the same time as us. That must be it.

Nearly time  to harvest the eating apples. Noticed a lot of windfalls this morning as I took a pot of tea to the deck. Feels as if this should be happening in September not August. In my mind the eaters are not as useful as the cookers which can be gently stewed and then frozen in batches ready to make apple and blackberry pies and crumbles over the winter.

Tis the sabbath and as such I might get a job or two done. Not picking apples. Trim the front hedge a bit. It has a few rogue branches sticking out the top. Also need to nip to Waitrose for bbq supplies. We’ve run out of good quality white wine vinegar. Vinaigrette essentials.

If you’ve never tried it you need to use the best vinegar and olive oil that you can afford for making salad dressing. Makes a huge difference using high quality ingredients.

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Norrabad day. Gentle start, a light lunch, a swim, bit of chichen on the barbecue with a corn on the cob, asparagus and a salad and a stroll out blackberry picking.

As I write the bells of the cathedral have struck ten. Very handy if you don’t wear a watch. Even if you only get a notification every quarter of the hour. The famous clock in Rouen only shows the hour so even less resolution. Works for me. Why do we need to know it is twenty three minutes past the hour? 

I gave up on watches perhaps thirty years ago. I would break them or lose them. There is always a clock somewhere if you really need to know the time. I recall once going to a meeting at Marconi Defence Systems in Stanmore. The meeting was at half past the hour and the pool car I had had a broken clock in it. Hmm. I couldn’t even rely on the news at the top of the hour to tell me the time. I stopped at a garage and bought the cheapest watch they had. It still cost something like fifteen quid.

Made it to the meeting on time but the watch broke in a matter of days. Never bothered again. I’m certainly not going to lash out on a piece of trophy jewellery watch that many of you seem to go for. It would be like pouring money down the drain 🙂

So this morning I am sat on the deck in front of the shed. An avocado on toast with poached egg and some streaky bacon has set me up for the day and I have made a start with tidying up the grape vine. It almost certainly needs pruning but I am inexpert in that art and have therefore for the moment settled for tying the various loose vines up with cable ties. 

I’m roughly half way around. In the process I came across a bunch of grapes. Well it is a grape vine, I hear you say. However we thought we hadn’t got any this year. Cold spring or similar. A result. I shall at some stage clean out the grape treader and get the barrel ready.

Really I should find someone who knows what they are doing with these things and get it done properly but that can wait until winter. So now I am enjoying the back garden while THG is out at the Park Run.

In front of the deck the strip of flower meadow has been a success in its first year. The first batch of blossoms are very much turning to seed and there is evidence of new growth coming through. The packet said to expect flowers from July to October so hopefully plenty more to come.

Thirty five minutes until breakfast. A Premier Inn breakfast. I recall it being better than a Travelodge breakfast but in the great scheme of things it will probs still just be crappy hotel fare. I will be happy to be proved wrong. Just can’t be arsed to go out and find a good caff.

We have a large, quiet bedroom on the third (top) floor looking out over the rooftops of Tooting Bec. I almost expect to see Dick Van Dyke emerging with a gang of chimney sweeps and performing a dance routine in front of us. I doubt there are any chimney sweeps left in London. If there are they would definitely need more strings to their bow. Uber driver maybe 🙂

Interestingly when I went to Waitrose in Balham yesterday afternoon there was a not insubstantial gathering of delivery riders waiting for jobs to come along. What is the collective noun for delivery people. A fleet? Doesn’t sound right in this case. You can just imagine the conversation. “I’m only doing this to fill in while I wait for my next chimney sweeping gig”.

There is a lot of hustle and bustle about the place. Drivers need eyes in the back of their heads with bikes and pedestrians coming at you out of nowhere.The pedestrians are particularly dangerous as they usually have their heads buried in their phones. 

En route to the Rose and Crown yesterday at about six o’clock there was a noticeable constant stream of people walking up from the tube station. They seemed to be mostly in their twenties and early thirties. Good pub the Rose and Crown but nine pounds thirty for a pint and a packet of nuts. Welcome to London.

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Farewell to the south east of England. The nose of the silver bullet points north and is instinctively returning us to the shire. A busy week over. It is a Friday and the weekend beckons.

The harvest in the golden fields of Hertfordshire is well under way. A patchwork of brown stubble emerges next to lush green meadows full of grazing sheep. The next crop is already down in one field and a giant water sprayer quenches the thirsty soil.

A nice old church appears through some trees. We have been  diverted off the Great North Road by the great god Waze. Around the corner there is a sign: “historic church”. A long tailback of traffic is to be seen on the A1. Result!

Bbq tonight in Tooting. Ce soir. Vey tawk loik vat in Tootin. Actually I have no idea. Starting to ramble a bit. It’s a sign! Of something.

I have a shopping list. Someone else will do the cooking. I have three sons and a future son in law who will happily take up the mantle. I expect/hope. Should do anyway, leaving me to relax in a camping chair with a beverage.

There is a Waitrose in Balham. Gateway to the South. One might expect there to be a sign to that effect but I suspect that nowadays most residents of Balham and its environs will have no idea what I’m on about. Peter Sellers. A timeless classic. Look it up.

The diy is finished for now. A highly successful three and a half days of it. The girls excelled as a team at the painting and I did all the bits that required drilling n stuff like that. All is calm on the deck, except for the usual police car siren. Could be an ambulance I suppose. We never get to see. Sounds of the city.

We are not far from the Essex cricket ground here. As a member of Notts CCC I get in for free but Essex are playing away this week. Probs wouldn’t have had enough time to go anyway. Two weeks today I’m off to see Notts v Surrey at Trent Bridge. If anyone wants to come along let me know. I can get guest vouchers for the members area. 29th August. First day.

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Exam results day today. We no longer have an interest in this but having seen four offspring through the system I know how stressful a time it can be. 

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Must be years since I’ve driven through London. Central London at least. On that occasion I got stung with a congestion charge fine. Totally escaped my mind that I needed to pay the charge. It hadn’t been a thing when I’d last driven through London the time before that.

This time I discovered that everywhere had a 20mph speed limit. No idea whether there will be repercussions as I only noticed this after passing through a speed camera at twenty six mph. Hmm.

No idea why people drive in London. The Premier Inn has no parking. When we got here I parked in a staff parking bay and went in to scope the sitch. The manager said I  was fine to park there whilst unloading. Bringing the bags in the person who checked us in was not as confident as the manager so I left the girls to it and went in search of a D3 zone where our Joe had secured us a parking permit.

The nearest D3 parking was only two streets away but this was easier said than done. The high street has traffic lights every 100m or so making progress painfully slow. Streets I had intended to turn down turned out to be one way, the wrong way.

Anyway I’m ere now, in the room. When I found D3 parking there were plenty of spots so that’s ok then. The girls have gone out to find a sewing shop. The largest in London apaz. Then we are off to tooting Lido for a shiver. 90m unheated open air poo!l The things that you do for the love of a good woman 🙂

THG’s finest home made granola with yo’gurt and berries on the deck this morning. THG makes great granola. I bought the yo and the berries. My contribution. Slooking like another fine day ahead although slightly overcast right now. About five degrees warmer in Chelmsford than at home. Deep south innit.

Had a good afternoon out in the city yesterday. Work but nothing too onerous. Ended up in City Spice which apparently is the best curry house on Brick Lane, so they tell us 🙂. I had a lamb madras. Was good fair play.

Our last operational day here before moving on to Tooting tomorrow. Tooting has an open air swimming pool, the Lido, which is apparently 90m long and unheated! We are booked in at something like 3.30pm. Joy 🙂. 

We are staying at Tooting’s finest Premier Inn. It is quite a few years since I stayed at a Premier Inn. There are few options in Tooting. I seem to remember them as being a bit of a step up from a Travelodge.

I always stayed at Travelodges when at Timico. The company policy meant that Hilton’s et al were excluded on the basis of price. Senior managers would sometimes whinge about this but I would say if it was good enough for me… Haven’t stayed at a Travelodge since packing it all in ten years ago. They are pretty crap really.

Our Joe lives in Tooting hence the visit. There is a bbq in prospect with a full Davies and partners turnout. Shud be gud. Should be gould. Something like that. We are gathering in the pub ovver the road first. What’s not to like.

But that is all for tomorrow. Today is another roll up the sleeves job. Well I’m wearing a tshirt so not rolling up the sleeves per se. The sleeves are already rolled up in a tshirt aren’t they?

I have to put up some corner shelves in the bathroom and cut down some knobs whose screws are too long for their intended purpose, apaz. Tbh I’m not sure about that one yet but I haven’t really sized it up. Brought a junior hacksaw with me. The shelves will be ok. I bought some tungsten carbide tipped drill bits specially for the job. It’s always good to find an excuse to buy more tools. There is also a Sam Fender picture frame to put up and a mirror. Eat yer heart out Bob the Builder 🙂

BTW I haven’t mentioned it for a while but lots of you will already have clocked the fact that this year’s trefbash is going to be the last one. Jodie the extremely excellente graphics designer from Fuse2 is working on some options for a logo and I anticipate next month putting it to a vote aka last year.

The theme is “tropical”. I figured tropical would allow for lots of colourful creativity when it comes to fancy dress. Also lots of good music. This year the band is going to have a bigger lineup. There will be lots of dancing, tropical cocktails and great food. Not worked out what the food is going to be yet. Thoughts?

Just been to the shop. M&S food hall. Nearest gaff to where Hannah lives apart from the corner shop. The strange thing is when you hear people talk vey towk loik vis. Just like on the telly but far away from my normal experience. I am not tempted at all to imitate them.

Defo a summer in the South East smell to the morning. Clear blue sky and a hot day in prospect. We are at Hannah and George’s to help with some decorating n stuff. I’m out on their deck enjoying an early morning cuppa.

The soundtrack to the morning includes police sirens, a magpie, blue tit and a robin plus what sounds like a jet airliner. Don’t think we are all that far from Stansted here though I wouldn’t expect to be able to hear the planes. The police car has moved on.

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Had a stroll to M&S food hall in Chelmsford. It’s only around the corner. A bit more limited than my usual stomping grounds Waitrose but it did a job and I settled in to a pot of tea in the caff before checkout.

Got some lunch stuff in but tbth not sure I’ll be wanting lunch wot with the day warming up an all. The others may well do.

There’s a bright golden haze on the meadow. The first year’s planting has been a success and bodes well for subsequent seasons. I have loads of seeds left in the box and I’ll need to consider where they might be scattered next year for further meadow growth. Meadows are defo where it’s at. Maybe I’ll distribute some in the hedgerows around the allotments. No rush.

Meanwhile the sun is out and it promises to be another glorious day in the shire. Aaaargh. We are having a leisurely breakfast. Not even started mine. Some bacon and sausage to use up. Stuff like that. Mind you not sure I really want a hot breakfast when a hot day lies ahead. Needs must.

Now sat on the deck surveying the empire. THG informs me the fire pit is still hot from Friday night so that’ll stay where it is for now. It’s a 2 man job to move it anyway. The deck is perfectly shaded at this time of day. At nine o’clock It is already a perfect temperature but will get hotter. The birds sound happy

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Well that’s the Olympics more or less over for another four years. Time to move on. Doubt we will watch the closing ceremony. If it is anything like the opening ceremony it won’t be worth bothering. There is a really good documentary from the footplate of the Flying Scotsman I can watch again 🙂The disappointing thing is that the football season is now starting. I’ll be concentrating on the cricket over the next few weeks. The football will wait.

Excellent bbq last night fair play. The Kadai fire pit got its only outing of the year so far. We have plenty of wood to feed it. Last night’s list included a bench, toilet seat and a chair as well as the usual bits of old fence that we have been gradually working our way through.

The bench had been in use earlier around the table on the patio. This is when we found out it was rotten and no longer much use for its originally designed purpose. It burned well.

So now I’m sat on the deck in front of the shed surveying a relatively tidy garden scene. Some of the camping chairs around the fire pit need putting away but the pit itself is still far too hot to touch.

Breakfast this morning was two cold sausages.

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Dinner this evening was two cold sausages. In a piece of baguette. With the leftover potato salad wot I made yesterday. And the last piece of apple tartine we bought in Carrefour in Ouistreham with some double cream.

Now watching the last evening of the Olympics. Taekwondo. Not very interesting tbh. Soz if you are a fan. THG is washing blackberries in the kitch. We did another hunter gatherer expedition earlier. A goodly haul again this year. Nature’s bounty. 

Salso going to be a good apple crop. There will be apple and blackberry crumbles to keep us going through the long winter months when fruit is scarce. Vitamin C. That is a way away. Don’t really want to think wintery thoughts when we are approaching potentially the hottest day of the year. Must stock up on fluids.

I have a really good bbq marinade recipe. Works very well. Problem is I have to look it up every time and am never sure which variation it is. Involves garlic, worcester sauce, soy sauce, honey, stuff like that. There are so many variations on this main theme I suspect I end up doing my own take on it.

Up early again. The dawn chorus is a little disappointing today being seemingly mainly wood pigeons. Pesky wood pigeons. Clear blue sky up there but some rain is forecast for later, apaz. Rain being “forecast” could well mean we are in for a lovely summer’s day.

The ability to forecast is a relatively modern discipline. A hundred years ago the science would have been an art whereby a farmer would have checked to see whether the cows were standing or sitting. Ok there have been such things as barometers but not in common circulation I suspect. I might be wrong. Anyway there wasn’t a metoffice website to check, or the beeb or similar. We all have our own go to sources.

Maybe I should get a barometer for the shed. Just looked em up online and there are plenty available. I think I’ll wait until I come across one in a junk shop. Not that I go to many junk shops.

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I would like to describe to you the very excellente breakfast wot I just had. I mashed up an avocado, added lime juice, half a very finely chopped shallot and a chopped chilli with some seasoning. Then I toasted some white sourdough and griddled some bacon, both from Lidl. Although the Lidl bacon has quite a few “bits” in it it is actually far tastier than the Tesco or Waitrose low cost equivalent with far less white crap. The whole dish was assembled with a little Belazu aged balsamic drizzled over the avocado and I broke out a new bottle of Mr Vikki’s Harry’s brown sauce. Also sliced up a couple of home grown tomatoes.

The evidence has all been eaten so no pics. I am now enjoying an espresso cawfee in the shed afore getting ready for the day.

That is all.

PS I don’t usually buy supermarket bacon but this came with a veg box and I’m not complaining.

Lots of noise coming from the allotments. I popped out yesterday or the day before and it was people from the council trimming the hedges. Hadn’t expected them to still be at it today. Might pop out there to take a peek later.

It is certainly disturbing the peace of this Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday/Friday/Saturday/Sunday morning (delete as appropriate). I’m sat in the conservatory in full sunshine with a fresh cup of tea by my side. There was a little drama as I tried to lift a coaster off the table to a position suitable to accommodate my mug but the varmint wouldn’t shift.

In the end a fish slice did the job. Turned out the coaster was stuck on with candlewax. No idea how that happened unless someone had put a candle on top of it. An unusual act in our house.

We do have a supply of emergency candles somewhere in the utility room or at least we used to. We have only ever had to resort to them once which was during one of our annual Christmas carol singing parties. Was the most atmospheric singsong we have had. Carols by candlelight genuinely due to a power cut. We rarely get power cuts nowadays. At this time of year we don’t need candles anyway as it is still light until quite late.

Milkman came at 03:01. V early. Can’t work him out. Maybe he varies his round times to avoid making it easy for ambushers. We still have a pint and a half in the fridge from Monday’s delivery!

Step ladder
Long pole
Spare paint?
Roller paint things
White spirit
Sandpaper
Floodlight bulbs
floodlight?
Painting clothes 
Plants
Garden tools