where art collides philosoperontap

alone in the darkness

5:15 am and I’m downstairs sitting in the darkness. I am not alone. I have my laptop open so it isn’t true darkness. There are also three lights: the TV, the extension socket below and the printer in between the two. There is also the glow from my keyboard by which I am able to write.

There was a time when I would have had to light a candle to do this. Sharpen my quill. Now, as long as I have electrical power I am fine. My battery is at 65%. I’m ok until my world wakes up around me. I’ll plug in later.

I hear the occasional car go by outside on the road. People on their way to work or in taxis on their way home from a night club maybe. That’s a different world. One in which I play no part. I am in my pyjamas and dressing gown and I have a throw over my legs. Cosy.

Upstairs Anne has stirred, momentarily. I probably woke her up coming downstairs. I’m sorry about that. She deserves a good sleep. In an hour or so I’ll take her a pot of tea. I like doing that. She does a lot for the rest of us, often without thanks. A pot of tea is the least I can do.

For now you just have me and my thoughts. We are never in total darkness nowadays. It would be good to experience that. I’d have to switch off the bedside radio. Our curtains are fairly heavy and dark so not too much light would get in.

Leave the phone switched off or downstairs. There is very rarely a night where I don’t wake up and look at my phone. Not good. Perhaps I should get into the habit of switching it off for periods of the day and certainly overnight. Why not? It’s on Do Not Disturb between 10pm and 8am as it is.

I’ve just discovered another LED. It’s the DECT phone over my left shoulder. These lights do serve a purpose but I could manage without them. There are lots of things I could manage without. It wouldn’t do me harm to try it for a while. Live life simply.

Simply doesn’t necessarily mean frugally. I’m a strong believer in having the good things in life. Good food. This could mean walking everywhere. Simply probably means no TV. I wouldn’t deny myself the internet or my laptop. Maybe the phone would be in a drawer for periods of the day.

I think a week of that beckons. When I get back from my next lot of travels. I have Madrid and Krakow upcoming in the periscope. After that nothing.

05:47 and the milkman has just been. 4 pints Monday, Wednesday and Friday. We used to have a lot more when all the kids were home. 4 or 5 pints a day. We still occasionally top up with additional milk from Tesco. Now I’m really the only milk drinker. Anne has it in teas and coffees and a minimal amount with her cereal. When I was a student I’d drink three pints of milk a day – breakfast lunch and dinner.

We have five more years of having a student in the family. Joe is at Newcastle and John is in the lower 6th. Not sure they still call it that but it matters not. I know what I’m saying. There is  a scenario where nobody else ever reads this so it really doesn’t matter. Dunno what made me come out with that student sentence. I guess it was the reference to the kids being home.

I wouldn’t want them all home now. They need to stretch their wings which they are doing in all fairness to them. It’s very exciting as a parent to see it happen. Very satisfying. They are all great kids:) John came down and sat a while with me on the settee last night.

Next week Anne and I are having a night out with Tom and Hannah in London. They’ve booked us a table at some speakeasy type place where you have to know the password to get in. The password isn’t a secret. That wouldn’t make for much of a business. Suspect we will go for a curry afterwards. I still have a 10% discount card for the Delhi Brasserie next to Ronnie Scotts. Will be my last real meal for 9 days. No offence to Spanish food of course.

We will have at least 3 of them at home for the Christmas Market and then a full set for Christmas itself. Good times.

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swim followed by Fruit & Fibre with added banana, peach and blueberries – see 2nd vid below.

passport photos

Chucking it down again this morning. At least first thing. Forgot a flu jab appointment at 8.35 so called them and rearranged it to 9.48 and was then late for that. Bad traffic and no parking spaces!! They seemed to be running late anyway so I got away with it.

Whilst I was in the waiting room Anne rang to say she’d scraped the car on the gatepost. Ah well. These things happen and visibility ain’t so good when it’s raining. Coops will sort it out.

In the news this morning is the fact that Tesco is no longer stocking Marmite because Unilever has jacked up the wholesale price. We had better get ready for some big rises in the cost of living. Price rises are happening right across the patch. We are off to Madrid next week that’s going to be a more expensive trip than it might have been. The following week it’s Krakow. Ditto.

I’m sure that most of the people voting leave in the referendum will not have understood the consequences. I’m also sure that a great many of them will be people least able to withstand price rises.

In other news I’ve just filled out the form to get Anne and I a two together railcard. Very coupley:) Only problem is we need passport photos. I’ve printed some out on glossy paper. It’s only a railcard. I’m sure it will do. Probably.

rainy day in Lincoln

Night time and the two of us are sat in the tv room tapping away on our laptops. The tv is switched off. The radio is switched off. Only Slovenia v England playing football. It’s enough to switch anyone off.

Anne is doing her eBay stuff. I am not. Just booked flights to Brindisi. Ryan Air. Urgh. Only direct flight. Jezzer and Clare have booked a villa in Puglia. 6.20 am flight so staying the night before at the Radisson right at Stansted airport. At least the return flight is at a more sensible 10.45am. Obviously the outbound plane turning around to go back. At least it will get us there before lunch.

All very domesticated. I’ve read my new book. The Baptists in Wales. At least I’ve read as much of it as I want to. Not interested much beyond the 1830s. It does mention two relatives: JP Davies and William Davies. The well known orator and the missionary. William Davies died in Grahamstown in South Africa. I hadn’t realised that he hadn’t gone out there on an official Baptist Missionary Society ticket. That does explain the fact that when I spoke about him with someone at some Baptist research gaff in Cambridge a few years ago he hadn’t heard of him.

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Wednesday: Awake early and up to make the tea. Rich is coming up for our monthly LONAP 121 today. Usually a useful and productive time. Today, if you’re interested, we are talking budget spreadsheets.

Off for a swim and now feeling refreshed whilst the bacon sandwich cooks. Amazes me how many people stop to chatter when swimming.

Still raining out – compare today’s featured image with that of yesterday. The new guttering is working much better than the old although the downpipe didn’t cope yesterday. I’ll ask Phil whether cleaning it out would help. Once the rain had stopped you could see the water disappearing so it is draining. Just not quickly enough under pressure.

Only a week before we head off on our short break to Madreeed before the RIP conference. Looking forward to it. John also starting to get excited about his Russia trip although you will never see any external evidence of this.

Got email and text from the Royal Mail saying they were delivering a Just Kampers package. Hmm I thought. Not ordered anything. Looked it up on their website and no there were no orders. The last order had been delivered to Coops’ garage. Turns out this one did too. It was a brochure. Ah well 🙂

Oh say can you see by the dawn’s early light.

Anne is home, Yay. She got back at around 10.30 last night after a long journey. I went to bed but she stayed down to catch up  on The Archers!

It gave me great pleasure to go downstairs this morning to make the tea. The featured image is the view of the morning light through the landing window looking up the stairs. I saw the silhouette and had to put the tea tray down for the photo opportunity.

Been busy with work related stuff this morning after returning from the school run. I had planned on swinging by the Post Office depot on Firth Road to pick up a book that didn’t get delivered yesterday but the roads into town were rammed. A combination of the roadworks around the new bus station and rain. Turned the car around and went home for a Weetabix.

It’s now 11.15. The hoover is working in the hallway and there is already a job on the new jobslist. Return the old printer cartridge for recycling. Done. Hey. Gotta keep that list down:)

The rain is very relaxing today. It is intermittent. Springlike really.

Home alone x

Took John and Matt to school and did meself a bacon sandwich when I got back. Also washed the dishes and emptied both kitchen bin and recycling bin into their appropriate bins out the front. It’s the no jury service effect. Having two weeks where I thought I’d be doing jury service but am not has made life mind blowingly boring at times. I think if I was totally retired I’d have to have a routine that filled the day in order to get through the day. As it is I can’t see myself stopping work fully for years. I’m too young.

This week I do have some work to be getting on with although much of it is still awaiting input from 3rd parties.

I still have the doorbell to sort out and the trapdoor for the attic. Maybe that is what I’ll do today.

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Made some progress with the trapdoor cover, albeit slowed down by the fact that the battery on the cordless drill has run flat. Funnily enough I had just been wondering to myself how long do these batteries last and hey presto, it ran out of juice. So now it’s charging. I only have the one battery. I got the drill at a reduced price because someone had stolen the second battery from the kit.

I’ll nip down to B&Q later (or Boris and Quack as the kids used to call it). I have to return some items (batteries and doorbell push/button/whatever they call it) and will look at a wireless doorbell when I’m there. They seemed to have a large selection of wireless doorbells. Actually they are called chimes now. Why can’t we just buy a simple old fashioned doorbell!

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Doorbell installed. Wow. The build standard isn’t very high on these things though. Had to employ bluetac to keep the bell push housing in place but it will be ok. Also a cover placed over the trapdoor. It doesn’t cover the whole opening as the ladder gets in the way but it will stop people from falling though which is it’s main purpose.

In other news my birth certificate has arrived which allows me to confirm that I was born. It should also be the last piece of the jigsaw that I need to get my Irish passport sorted. Yay.

to do jobs or not to do jobs

Good morning all. It’s 8.43. I’m up showered and downstairs. Looks like a lovely Autumn day out. Not in a rush for anything today. Breakfast will come when it is ready. No tea made yet either. John is upstairs still in his room. Presumably asleep but quite possible on his laptop.

Today is Sunday. The sabbath for some religions. First day of the working week for others. Why it is different I know not. Competitive sabbaths? Anyway the point is that one can choose to adopt the religious rulings of not working on a sabbath. If one so chooses. I do whatever I feel. Sunday for me has traditionally been the day to get jobs done whilst Anne is at church.

I still have to do some stuff in the garden and also create a cover for the attic trapdoor for when the ladder is down. It’s a bit of joinery that I’ve had one go at with the results being rejected by the customers, Anne and John. It is therefore a longer term project than they might have hoped for. I suspect that the week ahead will see it done.

Just hear the sound of someone climbing the ladder into the attic. John is awake.

V pleasant afternoon yesterday watching John play hockey in Hull. He scored a goal. Yay. They lost 5 – 3 but only because they tired towards the end and they had a few youngsters playing in the side. The pace is pretty fast in a game of hockey. Hull fair was on next to the pitch. Huge. Never seen anything like it. Check out the video. When Lincoln turned up it turned out their kit was very similar to that of Hull so they had to kluge together a red strip to play in. Bibs and odd bits of kit that they had brought along.

Back in Lincoln I dropped John off, popped to get some salady bits from Waitrose and had a swift un with Ian Stobie and his make Mick in the strugglers. Pleasant dinner and early ish to bed.

new router is a huge improvement btw. bliss.

Stay tuned.

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10.27 loud music has moved into the kitchen.

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Waitrose shop and a stop off at Yarborough Leisure centre to join John up for gym membership and it is now raining. Oh no. No gardening this afternoon now. We are having lamb and chorizo burgers with apricot salsa. Could only get dried apricots. What’s Waitrose coming to?

Ordered a couple more books: “The Foundations Of Modern Wales 1642-1780” by  Geraint H.Jenkins and “Trieste and the Meaning of Nowhere” by Jan Morris. Look forward to reading those. The history book was £25 new but only four quid second hand. Nobrainer.

first pot of the day, and the second

The full monty is in prospect including some fried potatoes seeing as I deliberately and with great foresight boiled too many last night. But first a reviving cup of tea.

I momentarily debated with myself, not out loud, whether that last sentence deserved to be a paragraph on its own. It seemed to stand out. Emphatically. The argument against is that the process of making the tea is not instant. The kettle has boiled and the water poured into the teapot with one tea bag (small teapot) but the tea now needs to stand a few minutes to brew.

It might be worth discussing what constitutes the ideal cooked breakfast. This is however a lengthy discussion for which I do not currently have the patience or attention span so I will leave it for a stand alone post. Also the news is full of the death and destruction left in Haiti in the trail of hurricane Matthew so it perhaps isn’t appropriate to discuss food this morning (although I know yes life does go on).

I don’t normally discuss politics either but this was the subject of debate at the Morning Star last night. The labour Party is in meltdown, UKIP is falling apart with suitably derisory and unseemly fighting amongst it’s MEPs in Strasbourg leaving the Tories drifting further to the right with no opposition and with the not impossible prospect of the whole country being totally buggered. Bring back the Liberal Democrats.

In other news England are playing Malta at Wembley today. I may even watch it for a laugh. It would be really funny if Malta won. Eh?

This afternoon I am going to Hull to watch John play hockey. Looking forward to that even though it’s a bit of a trek.

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Breakfast over. The day to get one with once the (second pot of) tea has been consumed. Ito ay oras para sa isang shower. Tandaan google ay walang isang Pilipino salita para shower.

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Sounds like there is a digger working away in the back garden of someone two or three doors up the road. Problem is I can’t see what’s going on. V frustrating. Might nip upstairs to look out of a back window. Ah it’s a chainsaw.