where art collides philosoperontap

countdown to year end

Another very relaxing start to the day. Toast with M&S spiced seville orange marmalade for breakfast with glass of milk and a second cup of tea. Radio 4 and the dulcet sounds of Desert Island Discs on in the background together with the dishwasher. The dishwasher is just running a “self clean” routine and is a little louder than normal but it doesn’t detract too much from the ambience.

All I really need to do today is fix some of the kitchen chairs. The joints are loose and need glueing. Happens every few years. Crap really but there you go. The furniture in the conservatory also needs a bit of a once over but that will wait, if only because it’s bloomin cold in there.

Did some initial work on turning the diary into the book yesterday and came across a little issue. It’s already around 183,000 words. That would result in a 700 or so page book even without images. I’m going to have to turn it into a 4 volume set I think. Winter, Spring, Summer and Autumn. That works for me. The eBook can just be the one volume. Also realised that at 83,000 words the 3rd Law is also big enough to publish. I had thought it needed to be a lot bigger but I can get on with that. It needs editing to take out some of the very time based (ie obsolete) stuff like references to the use of the Nokia N97. I wrote it a few years ago now.

Cold start again. Looking out of the kitchen window it looks like drizzle but it may just be the mist. Today is very definitely a day for staying inside in the warm. Also feels like a Strugglers early doors day. Fire going in the hearth, chink of glasses, great atmosphere etc. Timothy Taylor’s Landlord beer. Nuff said.

Was late to bed last night on account of watching Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. When it came to the news at 11pm and the realisation that the film didn’t finish before 12.30 I decided to call it quits. We have it on DVD so I may watch the rest this morning. Been meaning to have a Harry Potterathon sometime. Must get around to it.

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Very refreshing shower and shave. Needed to get a wiggle on because I have had a request from the favourite daughter for a lift to her bezzy mate Lois’ at 10.30. They have some shopping planned. This is following their stint downtown yesterday, albe that a cultural visit to the Usher Gallery followed by lunch at Cafe Portico. And then the shops. And then dinner somewhere. Wildwood. Do it while you can I say.

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Made some filling to go in a pie for New Year’s Day using up the last of the Christmas Day beef. Looks ok. Simmered it for two or three hours. Then watched the end ot the HP from last night – on DVD. Couldn’t play again on ITV. Then glued some of the kitchen chairs, oh and posted a card. Post Office in the Bail. Lots of people around although it really is damp and miserable out there. Also have compiled an album entitled Food of 2016. Totally unedited at 1026 photos but I may go back and trim it down a bit. 1k+ pics is somewhat over the top. Hey

Am thinking Struggs for early doors but none of the boys have replied to my text. Perhaps they are trying to tell me something. Coops did answer that he is in Chester so that’s no good. I said if he set off now he’d get there in time. Problem with the Strugs, and particularly in this yukky weather is that it’s a 20 minute walk. If I set off there and find that none of them are in then that would be a waste of time. Of course it isn’t likely to happen. For example the chance that Ian won’t be there is pretty miniscule. It’s his second home.

pic is the beef pie before it became one.

fine cold morning

Late up. 9.15. Luxury. Cold out there. Minus 3. Made the tea at 7.45. Good kip assisted by the few pints I had with Tom and Nige at the West End Tap last night. Lift down off anne, taxi back. Hansom Cabs. Been out to get kindling from the bottom of the garden and fire is going. 9.44 and put the two remaining sausages on the stove. There is also bacon. Still holiday season.

Today is a day of relaxation. Nothing on the agenda. The odd job has been written on the back of a brown envelope. An emerging list. Not looked at it but can’t imagine it will be anything too onerous. Going to do some Anne’s Vans website stuff today – get the pricing sorted for the new season. Plan the marketing campaign. So on and so forth. Etc. ac yn y blaen. Quiet time in prospect tonight. We have venison burgers with a bit of salad. TV probs. Family time.

Deep mid winter it very definitely is. The sun is at its lowest. Doesn’t get very high in the sky and difficult to drive into. We missed a turn on the M62 when going to pick up dad from Liverpool John Lennon Airport at Speke. A while ago now. Sue made the same mistake taking him back. Slife. Garden is frosty though melting. You could clearly hear the ice cracking on the trees as it melted in the sun. Almost like Spring in Yosemite, I imagine. Naked trees.

A breakfast of bacon, mushrooms, tomato and fried bread with toast has been consumed. At this time of year it is the right thing to do. Fuel up the boiler. Fight the cold. Stay warm in front of the fire. Doing it all. Luxury. I’m sorry if this is not you. Not everyone has a fire, or food or home even. Lunch is a chicken dish that Hannah is preparing and I am delighted to eat with her.

The kitchen is now awash with soups, so to speak. We still have beef and ham stock left. More pea and ham soup is in hte making and it looks like carrot and coriander too. The roasted tomatoes (4 pence from the reduced counter – bargain) look as if we might also be in for a tomato soup. All very warming.

So yesterday’s group hug was successful. Almost 40 likes/loves and 74 comments plus replies to those comments. It didn’t work perfectly. I did consider that there might have been a scenario where lots of people hugged others not already in the thread and it snowballed into a big event. People tended to hug back but not propagate the hug to others. I didn’t want to make it too obvious that hugging others was the thing to do. It was fine. Had lots of hugs off friends. A good thing to have at this time of year.

The fire is slow going. Not enough medium sized bits of wood. It will be ok. Just a matter of time. In the meantime I am wearing a thick pullover. Pullover, jumper. Good words. Sweater just isn’t the same. It’s nice that it is cold enough to have to wear a nice warm pullover, although it wouldn’t be necessary if the fire properly got going.

We live in a big house. Joe is away at Charlotte’s at the mo but there are still five of us here and although I occasionally hear the others, especially Anne, they are invisible. This is partly because the living room door is closed. Ok entirely because the living room door is closed but I’d probably not see them anyway. Enough.

It may be seen that the fire did get going in the end.

Facebook group hug

Nobody wanted to go out for a beer last night. I guess it was everyone’s first quiet night for a few days. Nige set off from Brighton at 1pm and had only made it to Heathrow by 5. M25 was stationary. In the end stayed in and watched some TV with Anne. Christmas University Challenge, a documentary on Elephants, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire again.

Bed at 10.30 but woke at 3am and only slept fitfully after that for some reason. Now down having breakfast.

Downtown with Tom to the bank and now home watching my group hug develop.  This is an idea I had a few days ago. Lots of people getting involved. People hugging people. There’s nothing quite like a good hug. Tucking into the box of Fox’s Chocolate biscuits and mince pies.

After lunch we had a family spin out to Chambers Farm Woods. Was quite late in the day when we got there so we did a short route. Not a nice afternoon after the brilliant sunshine of the morning. Now doing stuff whilst watching Kelly’s Heroes (again) on Channel 5. It’s a classic.

all is well

It’s been a great family Christmas. Waved goodbye to dad and Sue last night after another successful meal (gammon chips and peas for 9 – mass catering that amount of chips takes planning) and now up at around 8 for a bacon sandwich. Taking Sarah back to the Wirral this morning.

Sarah’s hostel is within spitting distance of the Cheshire Oaks outlet village and it would be a shame not to drop in there for a skeet. CO is famous for providing good stuff like Timberland for not a lot of money. Otherwise it’s a long day. At least 3 hours each way. Joe is also going away for a few days at Charlotte’s in Storth in Cumbria. Her dad is a season ticket holder and is taking him to watch Liverpool play Stoke at Anfield.

It’s looking like a colder morning out there. Been very mild over Christmas. Currently 1℃. As it should be at this time of year. We want cold. We want well wrapped up and come home to sit around the warm fire. Don’t do chestnuts mind you. Noses should glow.

We are still holidaying, it being only the 27th December, but are already looking forwards to the relative austerity and sensibleness that January brings. The belt tightening, making sure that our supplies make it through to the next harvest. Etc.

George Michael’s Careless Whisper has just turned itself on the SONOS next to my ear in the living room. It was almost certainly Jose. It’s OK actually. Not too loud. The 2 new SONOS acquisitions have been results. Made an impulse buy on the 23rd and they arrive the next morning thanks to Amazon Prime. One is in the kitchen and the other in the TV room. My plan is for the TV room SONOS to be ceiling mounted in the bathroom but we shall see how we go with that one. I don’t have a bath that often and my idea was that it would provide me with tunes whilst in the bath.

The low sun is blinding me through the conservatory windows. We have moved on to some Norah Jones, Tragedy. V relaxing fair play. Playlist put together by Jose. Funnily I can only hear the others in the room. The sun is so blinding that I can hardly even see John who is sat next to me on the settee. I am almost touch typing.

That’s it fer now. Gotta get ready to head NorthWest. More later if there is any.

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Back at 5pm. Anne drove the return leg. Sarah got more excited as she approached Meadow Lane and was off like a shot once her bag had been lifted out of the boot. Anne and I had a sandwich in the Horse and Jockey down the road and then headed for Cheshire Oaks outlet village. That didn’t last long. The queues to get into the car park were horrendous. We called it quits, turned around and pointed the car towards Lincoln.

early up on Tom’s birthday

It’s that time of day again. 06.24. Precisely. Went to bed at 9 o’clock so no wonder really. I wasn’t the first to go. Sue and dad went and then Tom. I was knackered after cooking the lunch. Fortunately there as help at hand to clear up afterwards. The beef was a big success as were the parsnips in parmesan and the honey glazed carrots. Only niggles were the fact that I over did the yorkshires and totally forgot to cook any peas. Trivia.

We had a great Christmas Day overall. Tom invented a new board game called Chinese Exchequers that proved to be great fun. Joe, John and Hannah entertained us with Christmas carols on the joanna, sax and flute. The TV was brilliant – Morecambe and Wise Christmas Special 1976, Blackadder Christmas Special and the Dad’s Army where they accidentally shot a turkey. All repeats but all totally watchable.

Santa was good to us all so we must have been good during the year. Now the space around the base of the tree is bare again. Today I’ll be wearing my new FatFace campervan socks.

I’m picking dad and Sue up at 9.30 this morning. A little later than yesterday. We are unlikely to do a big breakfast as we did yesterday. For one I am still feeling full and we finished lunch at 4pm yesterday. I expect I’ll manage a bacon and mushroom sandwich (on white with HP obvs) and a glass of milk, with perhaps some fresh orange and a little grapefruit:) Oh and tea of course.

This afternoon it will be roast gammon plus the leftover beef, of which there is plenty. It will also go in sandwiches over the next few days. There’s nothing quite like leftover roast beef as long as it’s not too overdone. Leftover gammon is also great. I over calculated on the veg too yesterday in order to make some available for today. Maybe I’ll cook some peas too 🙂

It will be Sarah’s last day with us. She asks about when she is going home around once every half an hour. Sarah has down’s syndrome and lives at a hostel on the Wirral. The hostel is great and she loves living there which is good. She has easily slotted into the team at Wragby Road whilst she’s been with us.

I can hear cars on the road outside. There were none yesterday when I went to pick up dad and Sue. A couple of female runners out in their brightly coloured lycra. Makes a lorra sense to me.

The news on the wire this morning is that George Michael died yesterday, or last night. A lot of famous people seemed to have gone in 2016. He was only 53. I am 55. Brings things into perspective.

I like the number 55. It’s a nice round number.

Only 5 more diary entries after this one. I’ve got into the routine of doing it now. Don’t know whether I’ll continue into the new year.

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The kindling has been sourced and the fire lit again. Really roaring in the grate. Means it will have warmed up by the time I go and pick up dad and Sue. I’ve not had to use matches for a few days. Only burning wood too so the ashes will go well on the raspberry patch. Also written Tom’s birthday card. A double celebration over Christmas and Boxing Day. He’s had some sort of posh light bulb for use when he does his vids. Sarah is up and awaiting beans on toast. Someone is in the shower, we know not who.

There will have to be a trip to Tesco this morning. We need eggs for a birthday cake and we will need more bread. No doubt something else too.

Featured image is the meat thermometer in the beef – slightly more medium than perfection demands but the meat turned out well.