once proud wall
now a fraction of it’s former self
October 8, 2016
The Chainsaw
shut your eyes and listen
I can hear it. It is in a back garden three doors up the road. No idea what it is doing. Just the ebb and flow of its loud noise cutting through wood. Low heavy rumble and then the high pitched near scream when it comes into contact. Shutting my eyes to block out all other stimuli. A man in a white helmet, goggles and blue overalls. Drowning out the sounds of the cars that whizz by on the road. Carnage? Wanton destruction! Power. Aggression. In your face anger.I retreat to safety.
Breakfast calls.
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.
…
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.
…
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.
October 7, 2016
that time on a Friday
when loud music flows
The hour is almost upon us. That hour on a Friday afternoon where responsibilities are discarded and all compasses point to the pub. It’s a strange concept where you look down at the device in your hand and the in built compass steers you towards a beer. Of course the path is well trodden and the compass is unnecessary. Nevertheless its presence is comforting. Makes you believe that were you in a strange place on the Friday afternoon the compass would see you alright.
On this occasion I have some rock classics blaring out on the SONOS courtesy of Spotify. I have been housebound for much of the day and feel the need for release. Hawkwind, Silver Machine, AC/DC Back in Black. I was never particularly into heavy rock as a youth. I can’t say I am now really but this afternoon it is working for me. This new appetite is partly in response to the the fact that I’ve played my Spotify Fave playlist to death. It needs new blood.
For all I know the phone may be ringing or there could be someone at the front door. Well they are too late. The house should be able to make people aware of the receptiveness of its occupants. It would range from yes come on in the door is open to total obliviousness that anyone is there. People could make their own decisions based on this information. Use visual means of communications perhaps instead of audible ones. Or inaudible as the case may be.
The Blind
I had faith
This project has been on my list longer than any I think. It’s been one of those “when a man says he will do a job he doesn’t need reminding every six months” situations. To be fair Anne hasn’t given me much grief. The blind has however been a persistent line item on the list for much of this year. I knew I would get it done eventually. I had faith in myself.
It took me approximately 90 minutes to put up this morning. I didn’t record my exact start time but I finished shortly before noon. Whilst doing the job I had the Ken Bruce show on the wireless in the garage and the front garage door open to let in some natural light.
You can see that the blind is largely cosmetic as the wall of the kitchen extension blocks out much of the light anyway and certainly the window is not in a position where privacy is required. Nevertheless if Anne want’s a blind she shall have it and I think that the end result looks attractive.
The room is the former garage that is used as a gym and store. Not much time is spent in it.
three thirty four am
why am I awake?
3:34 a.m. and Anne is up and ready to set off for Ferrara with the girls. The alarm was set for 3:30 and so we’ve been waking up off and on all night. Claire is picking her up at 4.
4.08 and they have set off. Let’s see if I can get back to sleep.
4.53 still not asleep. Urgh.Dictating this.
Why am I awake? What’s it all about? Certainly gives you the opportunity to think about things. There is an empty space in the bed beside me. It doesn’t feel right. There was a time when Anne going away meant throwing off the shackles of family life and going out with the boys. I will still do this but I’ve arrived at a point where it feels right to be calming down. The problem is that 54 3/4 years of training means it is difficult to slow down the pace of things. Especially when you consider the semi international nature of my life.
…
Finally dropped off and awoke at 7.40ish. Now 8.05 and downstairs making a bit of toast. It’s cold and wet out. Will have the Dyson fan heater on in the office today, probs.
The overnight news if of a change in name of a Facebook Group. “Your probably from Lincoln if….” has changed its name to “You’re probably from Lincoln if….”. Bit of a shame really I always thought the grammatical error was quite quaint. It has 24,558 members. That’s a huge proportion of the people living in Lincoln plus a ton of ex-pats now living away. It matters not.
New router arrives today, if it is the will of Allah. Anne will be getting ready to board the plane now (8.27).
…
School run dun. Waitrose shopped. Kettle on for first tea of the day at 09.34.
New tripod for the phone ordered yesterday from Amazon and being delivered today.
Also a Virgin router being delivered today. However (from the Virgin website): “Where’s my self install pack? Your self install pack has not yet been allocated a tracking reference number. When it is, you can check your self install pack’s progress right until the time it’s delivered to your door. Your pack will be delivered by our trusty partners, Yodel. Come back here closer to your delivery date and you’ll be able to link straight through to the Yodel website and track your order.” Doesn’t seem right that it’s being delivered today and has not yet even got a tracking order.
12:20
New router has arrived. The guy from Yodel said they usually have a tracking number giving a one hour delivery slot. Turned out I heard him at the door which was lucky. The doorbell is still not extant. Let’s hope it fixes the crappy wifi issue. Fingers crossed eh?
16.02
Back from school run. Router up and running, NAS box IP address changed, printer back online, weekend starts soon.
October 6, 2016
Online Arts Festival by philosopherontap
everyone is invited – bring cheese and wine
This is it. The first Online Arts Festival by philosopherontap. It is being held on Facebook and there is no limit on how many people can exhibit or just come along and see what’s going on.
The idea is that people leave a post in the event page and stick around to discuss it with others who can ask questions by commenting. The post can be a picture, painting, poem, prose and even other things not beginning with p. Could be a live piano performance (dang it p again). You can set up a live stream as a post using your phone.
Notionally the Online Arts Festival lasts from 7.30pm to 9.30pm on Tuesday November 15th but in reality you can hang around for as long as you like. If people are looking at your stuff why wouldn’t you.
Bring your own cheese and wine, or whatever floats your boat. Also feel free to tell your pals and promote the event, especially if you are going to exhibit.
Check out the Facebook event, see what you think and if you like what you see sign up.
goodbye fly
perhaps you’ll die
There is a fly. It is irritating. Constantly buzzing around the conservatory trying to find a way out. I have opened the door. The fly has flown through the open door and is now out in the garden. What does this fly want out of life? Inside the conservatory the conditions were benign. Comfortable. Outside the autumn is under way and soon the conditions will not be very conducive to being a fly. The fly obviously thinks otherwise. It knows better. Goodbye fly.
A night at the Strugglers
with Ian Stobie’s band
Nice night at the Strugs last night watching Ian Stobie’s band play some tunes. There were five of them in the band. Got cab home about 10.50 – was already past my bedtime so it saved me 20 mins walk. Taxi driver was a real miserable bugger. Had I had the exact money I wouldn’t have given him a tip.
Today is a day of jobs around the house so I’m getting this post done early. Not being helped by the appallingly intermittent wireless connectivity in the house.
Also taking John down for a jab at 12.20 – the docs rang and said they had had a cancellation. It’s a tetanus type booster. He had an appointment some time into the future. Picked John up from school yesterday. Good job Anne warned me about the building work. It’s made the carpark smaller and I went early to make sure of a spot. It was good advice. I spent the time reading.
I’ve finished one of the books that got delivered yesterday – “Protestant Dissenters in Wales 1639 – 1689”. V interesting. I’m doing some background reading as part of my family tree research. It’s 8 years since I last looked into it and ground to a halt in the 18th century with three brothers who were ministers of religion for the Church of Wales, The Baptists and Unitarians.
It’s Anne’s last day before she heads for a long weekend in Italy with her pals. It’s unusual for it to be this way around. It’s normally me doing the jetting off.
Toasted bacon sandwich for breakfast this morning. Streaky bacon. HP sauce, of course. John and I will have free rein to eat what we like for the next four days. WIll focus on healthy stuff obvs. A boys trip to Waitrose must be in the offing. Lunch yesterday was at the Burton Road Chippy btw. Ranked in the top ten in the country. I noted this morning a comment thread on the Your probably from Lincoln if Facebook group where there was a strong debate going on as to the best chippy in Lincoln. Interesting what gets people excited.
The band isn’t called The Ian Stobie Band btw but Ian is one of the guitarists. Andy is the singer.
…
Bit annoyed. Our doorbell has given up the ghost. It’s pretty ancient and didn’t look worth trying to fix so I bought a new one from B&Q. They only have one or two wired options available and all the ones that I wanted, the battery operated ones, had had their packages opened. I thought this was a little suspicious but bought the one in best nick and took it home. It doesn’t work. Worra pain. Now I have to take it back. I’m going to have to run with a wireless option. They had millions of those.
In other news my thunderbolt ot Gigabit Ethernet adapter has arrived. Works fine out of the box so I’m alright at at my desk. In fact it’s a breath of fresh air having internet access that works as it should do. New router arrives tomorrow.
Lights in the back garden at the strugglers
October 5, 2016
On my way home from the gym
I bumped into two guys…
So I went to the gym yesterday afternoon and thought on the way home I’d swing by the Taphouse and Kitchen for a pint of lime and soda. Turn’s out it was closed – new winter opening hours. So I swung by Ian Stobie’s at Colonia, had a bit of a chat with him, and was moseying back to the car when I bumped into Adie Smith and Ian’s brother Gary on their way to the Tower Hotel. At about 3.30pm.
Went along with them, the car was parked outside the Tower, and popped in for the aforementioned lime and soda. The lime and soda morphed into five or six pints of beer and a chinese at the Newport Arch and I made it home just after 9.30. Fortunately early on in the proceedings I’d moved the car around the corner to a spot with no time restrictions. So shortly I’ll be walking back to the Bail to pick it up.
…
Car retrieved. It’s a beautiful morning out there and it was a very pleasant walk to the Bail. Plenty of spare parking as the road closure associated with the resurfacing of some of the Bail’s cobbles is putting people off coming to the area.
Today I am having lunch with a couple of Timico guys then this evening it’s the jazz vehicle run followed by going out to the Strugglers to watch Ian’s band in action. Two nights out on the trot in Lincoln!
There is also the possibility of going to watch the Swallows and Amazons film at Bishop Grots but I’m not yet sure about that one. I hear good things about it and am a big fan of the books but in my mind, going to the flicks in the middle of the afternoon on a weekday is quite possibly the beginning of the end. I’ll let you know if I go.
Pic below is of a leaf that blew in through the car window whilst I was reading my book waiting for John to come out of school. The book was “Protestant Dissenters in Wales 1639 – 1689 by Geraint H Jenkins. It arrived in the post this morning together with “A Social History of the Nonconformist Ministry in England and Wales 1800 – 1930” by Kenneth D Brown, a notification of a VAT refund and a copy of mam and dad’s marriage certificate.
Oh and I’ve ordered a new router from Virgin. The superhub 3 which will replace the superhub 2 that is giving me serious grief with its wifi performance. I tested it this morning with both a wired connection and wireless right next to the router. The wireless connection took a lot longer to load the page. Speedtests were the same for both.
October 4, 2016
A line of clothes
how’s it going Sigfried?
There’s no denying we all have to wash our clothes at some stage. What was clean becomes soiled. The dirt must be expunged. There are a number of techniques for doing this. My own preferred way is to discard relevant items of clothing in the laundry basket and they reappear cleaned and pressed for me to put away (tidily). Occasionally one gets a glimpse of the process involved and the images in this post represent such an insight into the domestic situation of a “normal” household in the 21st century. There is much that can be gleaned from a picture of a clothes line. I leave you to do your own gleaning but will finish with the observation that when I look at the photograph below I keep thinking I can see the clothes swaying in the gentle Autumn breeze.
I used to own a laundry…
but I’m window cleaning now
Felt as if I needed to get out of the house yesterday afternoon but didn’t. Instead got on with sorting out the organisation of the Christmas party in London. It’s coming along. Going to be another raging success I feel.
Had leeks wrapped in bacon in cheese sauce & fried shard for tea. Delicious.
Watched a bit of BBC4 – the story of HMS Hood. V interesting. I like that sort of thing. Then went to bed and got on with my John Wesley book. I’m quite fascinated by the machinations of religion. People set up new churches for reasons that bemuse the unreligious bystander. I have two more books on the way.
Didn’t go swimming this morning but have stated my aim of hitting the gym this afternoon. Hmm sez Anne. Renewed the car insurance on the Micra. Removing Joe and Hannah knocks £700 off the cost. The car is only worth £50. It’s going to go as soon as Coops finds a suitable replacement. There is no point in us running three cars. Anne just needs one that we also let John learn on. The Micra is Y reg and a real beast to drive. It isn’t really fair for him to expect to have to learn on it (even though Joe and Hannah did). Insurance for me is £170.
Also went live with our Christmas Market party on Facebook. Invitation only for this one.
52 minutes on the phone to Student Finance England. Urgh.
Featured image is of Mo our window cleaner hard at it this morning outside the conservatory. Not sure that Mo owned a laundry btw. Just thought it was a catchy title:)
October 3, 2016
Little Lincoln Imp Cheese and other musings
Little Lincoln Imp Cheese
Up bright and early and ready to go for a swim. This hopefully will be a theme of my two weeks at home and in the absence of jury service. Just having a sit at the kitchen table before I go. No point in getting there too early. It’s a question of timing. Too early and the pool is still quite full. My ideal time is to be getting into the water at 8.25 and to have half an hour of lane swimming before they kick you out.
It’s still a fine bright autumnal morning. Still a good time to get the last fine weather jobs done, although I think all of ours have been done. Now it’s about tidying up the garden. I’m not really a tidy up the garden sort of person but I don’t mind doing a few things such as trimming a bit of hedge. Maybe even gathering the cuttings and putting them in the green bin.
…
Went out to the Bomber Command Memorial to see the Lancaster flyby. Couldn’t get near the memorial itself as it is largely still under construction and fenced off but parked up near the allotments at the top of South Common to watch with a crowd of enthusiasts. I had been given 10.35 as the flypast time but word came that it was still at RAF Conningsby having work done to its undercarriage so this seemed unlikely. A coach departed the official site so I gave up and went to do an errand Lloyds Bank in the Bailgate instead.
Now home and having a cup of tea. Featured image is a Little Lincoln Imp cheese, some of which I shall be consuming for lunch with some white bread purchased this morning from Curtis’ in the Bail.
Btw the Bail is having some of its block paving redone. It’s been falling apart. Doesn’t seem like long since they put it down. Expensive. Also whilst I remember I ordered a couple of books off Amazon last night: “Protestant Dissenters in Wales 1639 – 1689” By Geraint H. Jenkins and “A Social History of the Nonconformist Ministry in England and Wales 1800-1930″ by Kenneth D. Brown. Will look forward to reading those. I discovered recently that John Wesley was responsible for starting the singing of hymns during church services. People had previously only sung psalms. Who knew? Note they both have a middle initial. Convention amongst authors of religious histories maybe? 🙂
Little Lincoln Imp cheese is nice btw but quite expensive for what you get. Not sure I would buy it again at that price (£6.50 ish for a relatively small chunk).
October 2, 2016
Online Arts Festival by philosopherontap
Be there or be absent 🙂
Sunday morning with Classic FM. Very relaxing. Just had a cooked breakfast. 2 slow cooked spicy Lincolnshire sausages from Curtis’ butchers in the Bailgate, 3 rashers of streaky bacon, one fried tomato, fried egg, fried bread and two slices of toast. I’m having another relaxing day. It is the sabbath after all.
Got the History of Llandysul Church booklet through the post yesterday. One of my great uncles was vicar at the end of the 18th century. Turns out there was also a rector. This is interesting. David Davies was also at some point rector of Bangor Teifi. He may even have been the last rector of that parish. I need to dig into it a little more. Was he promoted from vicar at Llandysul to rector of Bangor Teifi? I may have the deets but would need to plough through them and now is not the time.
Another observation this morning. Lots of spider’s webs around. The window cleaner is coming on Monday.
…
Picked a load of apples. My new 10 foot ladders makes a big difference although one of the trees hasn’t done particularly well this year. Small apples. Martin left some leeks and other leafy stuff from his allotment. He’s been very generous this year so I took one of the bags of apples around to theirs.
Took John and Matty to some church youth group laser quest event in North Hykeham and then stopped off at the West End Tap for a swift beer with Nige before coming home for Anne’s excellent paprika chicken. Nige is booking us in as a table for 10 at the Lincoln Taphouse and Kitchen for the Sunday of the Christmas market. Graham and Carol are coming together with Terry, Nige, Hansk, Joe and Charlotte. A good time should be had.
Now I’m sat in front of the open fire. It’s the first time I’ve lit it since the summer. Not really cold enough but it is a very nice luxury.
Btw I’ve announced the first Online Arts Festival by philosopherontap. Check it out and come along, whether you have something to display or just looking. Should be interesting.