where art collides philosoperontap

Will the flying fishes ever play again? Where the dawn rode up like thunder outer China ‘crost the bay. The news, which I don’t like listening to at the best of times, is not good from Mandalay. The romantic image of the place has been shattered by an earthquake. Shaken out of a dream. A dream that almost certainly never matched reality anyway.

This morning I had gran o’la and berries with yo and a whole grapefruit which needed eating as Joe and I bought it last weekend on our walk to Tesco. Well Joe did the actual shopping while I finished a pot of tea in the caff.

This weekend I have determined that the walk should take me to Lincoln’s Historic Bailgate area where there are other cafes frequented by locals and tourists alike. THG has said she will meet me there after church tomorrow. I don’t have a favourite cafe so not sure where we will end up. Perhaps the one in the cathedral. 

The Cathedral Visitor Centre is a click from our place so two km there and back, the return leg being very gradually downhill. Doable especially with a break for a cuppa at the halfway stage. Will find out soon enough. Tomorrow.

Some of you will have noticed that I’ve just joined a Facebook group for brick lovers. Fans of the baked clay. This feels very complementary to my growing collection of books that include Wood Recognition (or something like that), the History of Railway Signalling and The Adjustable Spanner.  I must have a clear out of the bookcase in the shed so that I can keep all these worthy tomes in one place. “The Religious Census of 1851” will sit well in the collection as will “The Methodist Church in West Wales between 1737 and 1754” or similar.

It is quite exciting to see that the AGM of The Carmarthenshire Antiquarian Society happens to be on the weekend that I am in Llanllwni in April. How cool is that? Perfect timing. I just joined the society this month. They are also putting on a lecture “The Rise and Fall of  A Gentry Family: The Lewis Family of Pantyrhaidd, Conwil”. Conwil Elfed is on my list of places to visit, or more precisely Cwm Duad, which is just up the road. We lived in a farmhouse called Tir Shimau before Benjamin Davies moved on to own a woollen mill. Another objective in that part of the shire is to find out in which church our Ben was a preacher. Plenty to be getting on with.

Today’s news is that the woolly socks have been consigned to the back of the cupboard until next autumn. We are now into cotton socks plus a few bamboo ones thrown in for good measure. I have noticed that the pair I have on today, a black and burgundy design, has a hole in the left sock. This could be a hole in the right sock as they are interchangeable but a hole it definitely is. Shame really but in our throwaway society this pair of socks will no longer be on my list of socks to wear when the weather warms up. I daresay THG will repurpose them. 

This morning I’m doing some finishing off work for next week’s event in Antwerp. I had occasion to call the local printer but their voice messages are in Flemish and despite being a man of the world didn’t really get it. Pressed #1 and got put through to music on hold. Have emailed the guy. Waited a reasonable amount of time for a response and rang again. This time I pressed #2 and someone answered. The bloke I’m trying to get hold of isn’t in today! I got his mobile number and have now called and messaged.

Excited to report that the memory stick with all the scanned in editions of The Carmarthenshire Antiquarian Society publications since T0 on it arrived whilst I was in London. Unfortunately the Maesnoni stuff I want is in earlier as yet unscanned editions.

Sign in Antonio’s Barbers shop. No public toilets. Sorry for the inconvenience.

1.2km 32 min round trip including stopping at the lights in each direction and for a chat with neighbour Dale. Paused the clock when I was in getting my hairdo 🙂 Nice and short now. Couldn’t do a thing with it before.

Photos include a blue tit calling out other blue tits across the back gardens, the early emergence of apple blossom and a bloke running whilst juggling three clubs across the road from the barbers.

Mildly frustrated waiting for the lift this morning. I noticed one of the LEDs that indicate which floor the lift is at occasionally displays lots of writing. The second time I saw this I whipped out my phone to take a pic but wasn’t quick enough. The lift came and I went.

On my way back to the room I hung around for a short while in case the photo opportunity reappeared. Gave up in the end. I only have this morning to take the pic and I suspect it isn’t going to happen. Ah well. Worse things happen at sea. I suppose.

In other news the roof opposite my hotel window has a couple of loose slates. Doubt anyone has noticed. Looking elsewhere I notice that one slate is missing right at the top. I won’t mention it although there is a massively remote chance that the owner of the building will read this and jump into action. I’m on the 5th floor of the Doubletree in Pepys Street for reference. Glad to have been of help. Update: it’s the Crutched Friars building. The second and third floors do not appear to be in use.

I now have the whole morning to kill before the CCUK council meeting at 2pm. We are nobbut a stone’s throw/cannon shot from the Tower of London here but tbh I don’t want to spend the morning walking around. I’m not quite at that stage of recovery yet. The hips took a bit of a hammering being on my feet for much of yesterday. Left one mostly. No point in pushing it too hard at this stage of the game.

Have moved operations to the exec lounge. Some knobhead is on a conference call on his laptop without using headphones. I really can’t be arsed to transcribe the meeting for your benefit. It sounds v boring.

…

Sat down at the table for four but soon realised that the single seat opposite was going to be far more comfortable. The old guy who was sat next to me has put his coat on my vacated seat. Huh. Looks a bit of a boring scrote. Glad I’m not sat next to him. Biggest issue was legroom. Didn’t really want to play footsie with the guy sat opposite. I note his “golf” diamond pattern socks look a bit synthetic. Huh.

Everyone seems to be ordering soft drinks. I have a double gin and slimline tonic. One can of tonic. No messin. Got to finish my can of neck oil first though. Bag of ready salted crisps. Listening to “tref’s faves” on spotify. Everyone’s a Winner, baby.

Today I applied for a reader’s ticket in the Carmarthenshire Archives. I have the exciting prospect of a morning in April looking through leases and mortgage documents from the early nineteenth century. Living the dream. I am also a reader at the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth. This I like. 

After Newark the carriage is slightly emptier. The bloke with the socks has stretched his legs out into the aisle. My god they are long legs. Good job I moved. His shoes look a bit plasticky.

My God he’s just stood up. Having to bow his head inside the carriage he is that tall.

Looking out of the fifth floor window at the end of the corridor by the lift I noticed five TV aerials. Odd I thought. A sixth aerial sat a few yards away.  They were all pointed in the same direction through a gap in the surrounding tall buildings. This is the City of London.

Breakfast was taken by a window. Outside, mostly suited city workers hobbled unenthusiastically to their places of work. Smokers, vapers, backpacks, slim and stylish laptop bags. Tourists in trainers make their way towards the Tower. Deeply engrossed lovers, woman with greying bushy curly hair held down by headphones, expressionless bald slim bloke with Lenin moustache and beard ambles by in blue shirt and pink sweater under a green jacket. Blue shirt and jacket with cream kecks and a mackintosh slung over his forearm looks down as he walks. Blue jeans with hole, dark blue fleece with pink zip worn by sullen looking Mexican holding a bright red phone.

BUNZLl Catering Supplies, The Sausage Man (Always Delivers), Fresh Direct We’re the Plum, Reeves Butchers, Brakes Bros. It’s all apnin. Feeding the business world.

Hotel lobby. Loud background buzz of voices. Suits on the mezzanine. Outside the revolving doors is a taxi rank. 

On your farm today was all about legalized cannabis growing. I dozed off, totally relaxed. Then before I knew it the wireless was spouting war and destruction in the middle east. This woke me up so I switched off the news and will switch on again when the religious programming comes on. This is not a totally reliable stratagem as the religious reporters amongst us like to veer onto political topics that involve people of religion. Religious wars as well.

Strangely enough I’m OK with gory wars such as the crusades where Christian knights and Saracens clashed under the hot desert sun leaving blood and guts everywhere, helmeted  heads rolling loose left right and centre. Just not the modern stuff where people clearly haven’t learned from the mistakes of the past.

Switched on again by request. All about the old Pope who is not v well right now. Well he is the current Pope but he is old. Definitely. Everything medical science has to offer is being thrown at him. Metaphorically obvs. Nobody is picking up bits of kit and chucking it. It’s a saying. Obviously things that are not relevant to his ailment are not being used. One would assume.

Movin on. Online worship is now a thing apaz. Since lockdown. Anything to avoid chucking money in the collection plate. Covid has apparently reduced churchgoing in some denominations by up to 25%. Died off probably. It was ever thus. The debate has been raging for hundreds of years. Since Henry VIII upset the equilibrium. 

…

An element of the artistic in today’s Sunday Service. I’m ok with it. Quite relaxing. I left to go downstairs to the strains of  “Dear Lord and Father of Mankind”, I am reliably informed by the household hymn expert and of which I approve.

A fine bowl of gran o’la for breakfast with a couple of slices of wholemeal toast, President butter and orange marmalade. I like President butter. Has more flavour to it than most of the stuff you see in the supermarket.

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Another big milestone passed. Managed to get my right sock on this morning for the first time in nearly six weeks, ie before the hip hop. I can now officially dress myself. Don’t laugh. It might be you one day 🙂 . Put the left sock on as well obvs, for balance. Would have been odd walking down the road with only one sock on. One foot would have been colder than the other for one thing. Plus the height imbalance might have resulted in me walking in circles ending up in the same spot. Our house.

Big news. Made the tea this morning. Uhuh Tref, I hear you say, what’s news about that? Well making the tea involves going downstairs,  assembling the tea tray and then carrying it upstairs. This I did using both legs and without holding on to the bannister. I’ve not been able to do that for months. Maybe six months or more. Probably August or September. That, in my book, is big news. A visible sign of progress. Improvement. Wow.

Not quite running the London Marathon yet but headed in the right direction. Truth be told I have no ambition to tun the London Marathon. Never have. For one thing the training is a hugely lengthy process. You have little time for anything else. 

Also I’d need a new pair of trainers. I imagine you have to have a specific type of trainers for long runs. When it comes to running marathons, go fast stripes are not needed. It’s all about go longer stripes. The pair I have at the moment are fluorescent green and almost certainly need a wash. No idea what sort of stripes they have, if any. It’s been a while since I wore them.

Now downstairs having half listened to Farming Today. They carried the same hare coursing story that I’d heard in the week on the earlier programme. Clearly the expected audience on a Saturday morning is different to the early risers in the week. Mind you the milking needs doing whatever the day of the week it is. Saturday mornings probably attract weekend wannabe farmers and people like me who just like to hear about cows, sheep and carrot crops. Why not eh?

They don’t always cover cows, sheep and carrot crops so tuning in can be a bit hit and miss. Other farming subjects are available. It’s a risk you have to take. Does anyone else have a favourite farming subject? 

…

The robins and wrens were v vociferous as I walked, cup of tea in hand, to the shed this morning. They were joined by a starling just as I arrived at my destination.

…

16 mins round trip to the traffic lights on the corner of Wragby Road and Ruskin Avenue. 640m ish. Google says a fit person should take 8 mins so that ain’t bad in my book. When I can do it in 8 then we will all know things are back to normal. Mind you not sure I’ve ever walked at Google’s expected pace.

650m or so seems to be the range at the moment. The obvious next target is a km. The Morning Star is around 800m one way so pretty doable I’d say. With a lift home obvs. A round trip to the Star, at 1,600m feels still beyond what is sensible unless the stop for a rest with an accompanying drink would set me up for the return leg.

I’m away for most of April, one way or another, so I think a walk to the Star is a reasonable objective for when I get home. After all I‘ll have had a few walks along the prom in Peel under my belt together with a stroll from the Witehouse to the Royal to the Miller’s T’Ale to the Central to the Marine to the Peveril to the Creek. Fortunately we are staying in Charles Street near the prom. It’s also near to Davison’s Ice Cream Parlour. What’s not to like?

Almost tropical in the back garden. So much so the heater in the shed is switched off, the doors are wide open and the tropical trefbash sign has been switched on.

Quite refreshing to wake up to the news that LHR has been closed because of a fire in an electrical substation. I realise it’s a pain in the arse for everyone affected but it doesn’t offend my senses in the way that any reporting on the dangerous orange coloured buffoon does. 

I knew someone who was on their way to a Gartner jolly in Miami when the plane was diverted to Gander, Newfoundland. He was wearing attire appropriate to Florida in February he he he. I didn’t like said individual. 

It is somewhat surprising that Heathrow doesn’t have resilient power feeds, being critical national infrastructure and all. 

Gale warnings all over the northern bit of the map btw. Batten down those hatches. THG sez it’s cold out ere.

It will interest you to know that sea conditions for shipping in Trafalgar have improved overnight. The 00.48 Shipping forecast had a warning of gales in the area. Indeed Trafalgar had been the only bit of sea with said warning for at least the previous 24 hours. At 05.20 the warning had disappeared. All is well. Funny how the weather can change just like that innit. No chaotic scientific descriptions as to why this is the case please. We all understand really.

Other than the winds remaining mostly easterly and bringing with them the cold across from the Siberian steppes there was nothing else that stood out in this morning’s forecast. I did observe that Channel Light Vessel Automatic rolls off the tongue. V poetic. You may not have considered it in that light, so to speak. The whole bulletin is pure poetry. They are my capitalisations but it feels as if that is right even though they don’t contribute anything to the artistic value of the name.

After the Shipping Forecast I killed the news briefing as being of no interest to be but in the act of doing this noted that it was to be followed by  Prayer For The Day and Farming Today or similar.

The prayer slot was most relaxing, speaking as it was about tornadoes. Fitted in perfectly as a follow on from the Shipping Forecast I thought. The actual prayer bit was a single sentence right at the end and went something like “may you stay safe from tornadoes”. V good fair play.

Farming Today broke through the slumber with an introduction that focussed on the violence associated with illegal hare coursers. The rest of it seemed to be some inconclusive article on whether plants absorbed microplastics and which made me nod off again.

Finally woke up when the totally gorgeous THG brought the tea tray upstairs. You should know my admiration of her is not solely down to her having brought me a cup of tea in bed. There isn’t room on the page for me to cover all her good points 🙂 

We are up now and have breakfasted well on (THG’s) homemade gran o’la and I am presently sat in the corner of the snug nursing my third cup of tea of the day. The furniture in the snug was rearranged on Saturday morning in preparation for a houseful of rugby fans but we ended up not using the room with everyone preferring the cosy atmosphere of the shed.

The upshot is that my armchair, which is only a temporary resident of the snug, is right next to the TV rendering that appliance effectively unwatchable for anyone (ie me) sat in it. This wasn’t particularly a big deal for last night’s University Challenge as you don’t actually have to be able to see the TV to enjoy the programme. I may have got one answer right btw. I’ve concluded that I’m not really bothered whether I can see the telly in here anyway as there is rarely anything on I want to watch, UC being one of the exceptions.

…

Another joyful morning to walk to the shed. Showered and shaved etc and feeling fresh. My only issue is that THG left for the gym before I was ready to put my socks on so that pleasure has had to wait until lunchtime. Not a biggie. I spend much of the spring and summer in sandals with no socks,

Finally fixed the printer. Worra palaver. I had to generate a new certificate for it then reboot printer then “forget” printer and add it back.

Today’s walk in the beeotiful lincoln sunshine was 19 mins 22 secs. Same route as yesterday but a bit further on past the Smiths’, past the lamppost and up to the silver birch tree. Passed a postman in his van smiling to himself whilst doing something on his phone. He was either smiling or his face was a little screwed up with the sun in his eyes. We shall never find out.

An ambulance came past going the other way and chose that moment to switch on its siren. Almost made me jump out of my skin. You wonder whether they do it for a bit of fun. Didn’t jump out of my skin as I would appear to have made it home safely. Left hip still giving gyp.

When I got back I set to preparing a mozzarella and tomayto salad for lunch but found that the cheese was still somewhat frozen. Nae botha. It will wait until after my 1 o’clock conf call.

In the shed for eight twenty this morning having finished breakfast. We were out of granola so I substituted it with oats. I am more active spending time in the shed than I was in the snug. I tend to get up and do more moving around plus there is always a reason to nip back to the house for something. Already done one of my exercises, the standing on one leg, whilst brushing my teeth. Efficient or what?

Eight or so camping chairs still in the shed awaiting putting back in their bags. At least I finally managed to trip the wire suspending the Tropical Trefbash sign from the ceiling. Had to order a pair of industrial strength wire cutters as nothing I had did the job. Ditto the ones Coops lent me. Got a great pair now that I’m sure will come in v handy next time I need some wire cutting. There is something very satisfying about having good tools.

Listened to both Shipping Forecasts last night plus a David Attenborough programme on fireflies. Living the dream. Didn’t make it to the end of the SF at 1am or whatever time it was. How do you expect me to remember at that time of day?

My cowd in da dose continues this morning so I have plentiful supplies of liquid to hand plus one of those large blue rolls of paper towels. Nose tends to get a bit sore with all the blowing. Not sure there is much that can be done other than to sit it out. Blow it out.

Meanwhile I have some work to do today. Getting some graphics done. Off to London next week and decided to head down the night before. I could have caught the seven thirty and just about made the meeting/conference but that early a start is just a step too far at the moment. A ten o’clock meeting in the shed would be alright 🙂 

Will be setting off for a walk in around thirty mins. Going to cross the pedestrian crossing, turn right down Lee Road, past Auden Close and on a bit further. Must make sure I am well wrapped up as it is cold out there. The northerly has swung round to become an easterly which ain’t any warmer. No gales forecast though other than in Trafalgar which is a long way away. Not talking Trafalgar Square ere.

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Made sure I remembered to put a coat on for this morning’s walk. Crossed at the pedestrian crossing although I didn’t bother pushing the button as there was no traffic. Said hello to the vicar’s wife going the other way, past the bus stop and turned right at Lee Road and past the vicarage, past the house on the corner of Auden Close that we nearly bought after brexshit but our buyer pulled out. Dodged a bullet there as their heating bills would be ginormous in winter. Built the shed instead. Past the house we also looked at but decided not to go for and which had its roof missing for a year because the builder went bust. Past the Wheatleys and on to the Smiths’ whereupon I turned around and started back.

At that point Mandy Wheatley came out of their house and set off towards me wielding a card for someone. Stopped for a brief chat and continued my journey home. Eighteen minutes forty seconds. Slow going but Rome wasn’t built in a day. My goal for Thursday is to make it to the end of Lee Road whereupon I have a date with a cup of tea at the Whitbreads. Perfectly doable innit.

Bit of a lie in this morning after my first day on the pop yesterday. Fourteen rugby enthusiasts in the shed worked very well. I was sat at my desk at the back as the chair there is the right height. Whenever I wanted a drink from the fridge I just had to ask Zara, who was propped up on cushions on the floor next to said appliance, to pass something back. The giant cushions were fabricated from old coffee sacks and are v handy either as a footstool or for leaning against as was the case with Zara.

So was out of the shower and getting dressed by nine thirty. In the meantime THG had been out clearing bottles and glasses from the shed, fair play. Back in the bedroom I hung my dressing gown on the hook on the back of the door but it dropped. Blast, I said. Seeing it THG said there are worse things that could have happened. I of course agreed. The melting of the polar ice caps for example,

The process of bending down to pick it up is still a slow one as I’m still in the “don’t bend more than ninety degrees at the hip” phase of recovery. I get around this by stretching my right leg back and just bend at the left. Tis still a bit slow but hey…

Ordinarily I’d have used the grabber but this was still downstairs from yesterday. Now this is where human ingenuity comes in to play. When I get dressed I’ve been using the grabber to pull up my underpants and kecks. Without the grabber I figured out that I would work both feet through the appropriate holes and then hoick the relevant article of clothing up with my left leg until it was at a height that I could grab it. Simples really. I guess it gets easier as my recovery progresses.

The crowd we had in yesterday are our camping pals and will have seen the various stages of hip replacement from being a near cripple unable to walk to me immediately after the op with crutches and my feet up on the stool in the snug and then yesterday with the walk to and from the shed unaided. The miracle of modern medicine.

Gonna make it brunch this morning instead of breakfast as I am currently still not hungry after yesterday’s between games feasting. Bacon and egg. Don’t got no sausages. Might stick some extra bacon in to compensate. A bit of toast. The fourteen of us decamped from the shed to sit around the kitchen table. Works well. Great atmosphere. Very noisy. They are a good crowd. We have a weekend away somewhere north of the Humber planned this summer.

I am now sat in the snug typing away. THG has gone off to church. She is on meet and greet duty today so went a bit early to catch the briefing. Only joking. The meet and greeters used to hand out the hymn books but all that stopped during lockdown and the words are now projected onto a screen for all to see. Not the same is it? For me a church is not about religion. It is about tradition 🙂  

I realise this is not the commonly perceived function of the facility but everyone is different aren’t they. I like looking at the stained glass and the list of hymns up on the board and the list of past vicars dating as far back as 1088 or similar. And the carved memorials to people positioned on the walls. I have a similar stone memorial of some family members to visit in Llanllwni when I visit in April. I’ll stick a pic up when I get there.

Before setting out for her devotions THG put my right sock on. I’ll do the left meself. When I get around to it. When my left foot starts to get cold which won’t be long now. Otherwise all is calm in the house of Tref and THG.

Burned the toast this morning doh. Was doing it under the grill with the bacon. I have a bit of a bunged up nose so didn’t detect the early warning signs. Stuck a couple of new slices in but scraped off the burnt stuff and had those pieces with butter and marmalade. Brekkie bonus.

Ate at the butcher’s block which has temporarily been moved into the corner as the kitchen table has been extended using trestle tables to accommodate a crowd for the rugby. Dinner is served between games two and three. By then Wales will have walloped England, fingers crossed. I’ll be the only Welsh fan there 🙂

Enjoying a cup of tea now in the snug. Noises come from the kitchen as THG busies herself before heading out running. If it’s Saturday morning it must be Park Run. I have a few smallish jobs to do whilst she is out.

Caught a mouse in the kitchen a couple of days ago. Then found out this morning the little bastard had eaten the tassels off a table runner we had stored under the butchers block. I guess if that is all the damage it did we got away lightly. Anyway the mouse is no more. If it had stayed outside where it belonged it would still be ok. Dunno how it got in but ours is an old house so I guess there are ways and means.

The house was built in 1939 as the storm clouds were gathering over Europe. They had been gathering for some time but I guess 1939 was the year the deluge happened. Our previous house in Greetwell Gate was built in 1870. There was a date on the end house of the terrace. Ours was the middle of three. Seventy six paces from the Morning Star. V convenient. Did it through the snow in just slippers and cardigan once, just to prove a point. Had other clothes on as well, I should point out.

The heating is on for the moment, at least until I’ve had a shower. It is cold enough out to act as an overflow fridge for the shed. I already filled that with bottles of Peroni and a litre of gin. Will need to squeeze in some tonic as well. There is room on the shelf but not being allowed to bend more than 90 degrees at the hip makes it difficult for me to get down and reach to the back of the fridge.

My morning will be spent putting the finishing touches to preparation for the rugby (moving the rest of the booze into place) and carrying on with the book research. There was a time when I could only find the right Davies in the census because I was looking for Ministers of Religion. Now by the same token I am able to prove that I’m looking at the right person because the vicar conducting marriage ceremonies was family member John Jones the Rector of Llangynllo. Fair play to him.

You can picture the scene each time he heard of the imminent nuptials of a nephew or niece. “I assume you will be wanting Uncle John to marry you”. It’s helped me out no end. I have also been able to find clues from hints in other people’s family trees and sometimes noticed that they have made big mistakes in saying who is related to who. I am very fussy in finding the right proof/evidence before committing individuals to the tree. Sometimes I add a question mark to a person’s name to say I’m not sure about this one – it needs a bit more work.

John the Rector did not marry. It is interesting to compare his will with that of his brother David who had inherited the estate. John shelled out a few tens of pounds to his nephews and nieces whereas Dave splashed the cash big time. Dave’s only son, also a John, sadly predeceased him.

I am gradually making sense of the different Johns and Daves. It wouldn’t have been Dave in those days. Would have been Dafydd or Dewi. Or Mr Jones 🙂 These guys were Mr Joneses to most.

Gotta go. Sink to unblock. Again.

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13.06 to corner of lee road and back. Slightly delayed at the ped xing and stopped to take some pics at the Lee Road sign. Left hip giving gyp but had a good session with physio yesterday. My new set of exercises is all about strengthening the right glutes so that they can take the strain off the left. This sitch is not untypical apaz and she said it could take 3 months to settle down. There’s also the issue if the body readjusting to the fact that my feet are now both pointing in the same direction ie parallel. This was not the case before. Before even the right hip started to play up.in fact all my life.

Correct me if I’m wrong but aren’t black cats lucky? Just see one in our front drive. Better buy a lottery ticket. Well I would if I was going anywhere near a shop but I’m not. Except to the junction of Wragby Road and Queensway. 10 mins 18 secs round trip.

Had intended to go at least as far as Curle Ave but very soon realised it was bloody cold out.  I should have paid heed to the SF which told me the north wind was still a blowin and whilst everyone else seemed to be wearing a coat I was not. Hey…

This morning an old bloke on a mobility scooter that had so much chrome I thought it was a Harley Davidson at first. Zoomed by. I thought he’d pulled up at the bus stop but as I got closer I realised it was someone in a motorised wheelchair. Had an empty B&M shopping bag hanging off the back so obviously off into town for a few bits and bobs. Toothpaste maybe. Just guessing 🙂 

As mentioned I tuned in to the SF this morning as I just happened to be awake but after that came the news bulletin which has no interest whatsoever to me so I looked for something else. Found a programme where someone was talking about the writer Robert Louis Stevenson and his penchant for travel. She discussed his book “Travels with a donkey in the Cevennes” and I thought to myself, hey I’ve read that. It was an enjoyable book. I switched the snooze from 15 mins to “end of programme”. Nodded off after that.

As it is a Friday there is no work today although I will need to do a couple of things. If it’s Friday it is cook a chicken casserole day and then nip to see physio Claire in the Bromhead. Plenty to discuss with her. THG is going to drop me off. Walking to the Bromhead, whilst ordinarily doable, is a step too far at the mo.

Up, dressed, breakfasted and at it by eight ey em. Gosh. There was a time, in the far reaches of my memory, where I would have to leave the house to go to the office. Eight thirty if I wanted to get in before nine but could have been any time of  the day if I was heading somewhere for a meeting. Swindon, for example, where we had offices.

If I have to be somewhere for a meeting nowadays I as often as not go down the day before. Usually London. I remember sitting having breakfast in the window of a hotel in Westminster somewhere. Victoria it was. Outside was jam packed with commuters pouring out of the underground station heading for their desks. Wrote a poem about it at the time. Tagged it on to the end of this post. The queue to get into the station was longer than at the taxi rank.

I’ll be in the shed early today though with hindsight I made the schoolboy error of turning off the heat before I left yesterday afternoon. Hopefully there will be some residual warmth to keep me going until the radiator kicks in.

Ordinarily I should buy a lottery ticket today. This is because I just picked up the teapot to pour and banged my elbow on the back of my chair. This caused a spurt of tea to shoot out of the spout and land perfectly in my cup without spilling a drop. How cool is that? Clearly today is going to be a lucky day. I wonder what else might happen? 🙂 No rabbit’s feet or other lucky charms neccessary.

Here’s the poem. It’s called Journeymen and is from 12th Dec 2008.

I sit in the window enjoying breakfast at my leisure,
Taking in the traffic on the pavement outside.
It is cold out there and
The anonymous scurriers are
Wrapped up against the biting December wind.
They have been up early to get there
Though I am now just sitting down to start the day.
Full English, tea and toast and then
I leave the warmth of the hotel and venture forth
Looking for my destination,
Unsure of my options.

Heading for Victoria Station I swim against the flow of office fodder,
Miserable looking people subjected daily to discomforts of the commute,
Crushed into compartments,
Standing within sweat smell of strangers
Trapped on the treadmill of the city.

Trapped.

I take the taxi option.
It is the only one available
As the voluntary queue for compression
On the Underground looks longer than the taxi rank.

A good meeting and later I do take the tube
For a lunchtime get together.
Plenty of time to people-watch.
A mother speaks Spanish to two young girls
Who reply in both Spanish and English
As they see fit, lucky girls.
Otherwise few speak.

A busker enters the compartment
Complete with bedroll and survival gear.
Tattooed, with shorts and worn leather gaiters
He entertains poorly with a penny whistle.
The carriage ignores him with a practised survival instinct.
But I give him a pound as I leave at the next stop
Poor pickings, and all he got.

Homeward bound
On the train a phone sings out “swing low sweet chariot”
And a voice answers “hello?”
Others doze or are sucked into their laptops,
There is little talk as the chosen ones
Head home after a long day at their machines.

…

A few stats from this morning’s walk.

Pedestrian crossing 1min 25secs

Queensway 4mins 25secs

Curle Ave 6mins 30secs

Round trip total 14mins

Bit slower on way back due to left hip starting to play up but overall better than previous and I think these timings are a significant improvement on what has gone before.

On the way back I saw a bloke taking in his grey bin and a Chinese woman on an electric bike with two large containers of veg oil and a shopping bag in her basket. She may have had more oil on the other side but I couldn’t see. Another Openreach notice of their intention to add a new pole near to Curle Ave was also spotted.

It began to rain quite heavily. When I got back I couldn’t press stop on the timer when I got until I’d dried the phone screen so the end time is approximate.

Before heading out my pole testing pal Steve swung by. We were going to have a look at the pole I thought would be being replaced. However it was chucking it down so we didn’t and Steve said that looking at it as he drove by there wasn’t a red D sign indicating it was a bit dodge and needed replacing. Instead it was the normal yellow which is meant to be gold apaz.

The new pole is likely to be in addition to the existing one. They put metal ones in if it is near a spiked fence which is the case with us but also if the line needs to cross a road as in those situations the pole needs to be at least 5m high which the wooden ones ain’t. I’m sure there are other reasons as well. Our pole is metal as indeed it is near a spiked fence. These metal poles have to be accessed using a cherry picker. They don’t want engineers climbing the pole and slipping to their deaths on the spiked fence.

The new pole near to next door is unlikely to be used for lines to cross the road as we are opposite a school which is served by underground ducting. Steve had no idea why therefore the pole was being installed but tbh he didn’t care as he is now retired. I don’t really care either. There we go.

Yay tis a Wednesday. Wednesdays are good. Moreover it is a bright and sunny Wednesday although I suspect it is cold out. Brrr.

The big news this Wednesday is that I didn’t listen to the Shipping Forecast. I was briefly awake shortly before it was due to broadcast but resisted the temptation to click on the BBC Sounds app. Have decided to wean meself off it. Let’s face it its only real purpose in life, other than to give relevant stakeholders the weather forecast in their bit of sea, is to be repetitively boring. Doesn’t mean it hasn’t got class but there is a limit to how much listening good radio will stand.

Let’s move on. The big decision of the day is how far to walk. All of my turning points up until now have been obvious and progressive destinations. The pedestrian crossing, lamppost, tree in front of next door’s drive, bus stop, tree between numbers 66 and 64, Queensway and Curle Ave.

The problem is what lies beyond Curle Ave. No obvious landmark comes to mind. Trees at this point become too anonymous. Too many of them. Not good enough a landmark that the reader of this post will instantly recognise the extent of my progress.

The Lindum Sports Association is a bit too far in my mind at this stage of the game though I may have to consider it and in which case would cross the road at the pedestrian crossing. In the other direction Tesco is also too far and the traffic lights at the junction of Wragby Road and Ruskin Ave are unattractive. Noisy and actually only the same distance as Curle Ave so why would I choose them?

At this point I don’t know the answer. If it was warmer I might find it easy to decide that the Lindum was achievable. It has lots of benches arranged around the cricket pitch that would be a good spot to sit and recover before turning for the journey back.

In the summer it is quite nice to stroll there and sit enjoying a bit of cricket of a Sunday afternoon. The thwack of leather on willow is somehow the sporting equivalent of listening to the Shipping Forecast. V relaxing. The occasional bout of clapping and the occasional cry of bad luck as a batsman loses his wicket and turns to make the lonely, lingering walk back to the pavilion.

I recall in the days of the Marconi Product Engineering cricket team there was only one chap with whites and his own bat. Two games running he was out for a golden duck and walked off around the boundary, bat dangling limply by his side with a forlorn expression on his face. He shall remain nameless but I know he reads these posts sometimes 🙂 Twas a long time ago.

On reflection, and after poring over the map, the corner of St Giles Ave and Wragby Road might fit the bill. This is half as far again as Curle Ave but is the only obvious turning point without choosing another unmemorable lamppost. St Giles Ave, as you could easily find out if you didn’t already know, has the Lindum Sports Association at the far end. It is a cul de sac for motorised traffic but has a useful cut through for pedestrians and is the route I would take if walking to the Bromhead hospital.

Stay tuned…

…

Just left the shed to go for walk but it started to rain. All of a sudden it is not v nice out there. It isn’t heavy rain. Intermittent really so I suppose I could go. Doesn’t look as if it will improve much today. Can’t let a drop of watter get in the way can we. Maybs 🙂 

…

Did the walk. Turned right and headed in the direction of Tesco. Wasn’t nice enough to stretch it as far as St Giles Ave and anyway my left hip is playing up a bit. Fingers crossed for that one!!!

So this walk took me past the lamppost that no longer has the Openreach notice on it. Blown away I assume. I made it as far as the next bus stop near the traffic lights. I figured there was poetry in having walked to two bus stops. The bus goes past our house to get to the one I’ve been mentioning on my perambulations.

On the way an unshaven bloke in a blue beanie cycled towards me. There was plenty of space for him to fit between me and the hedge but he stopped pedalling and let the bike roll through the gap just to make sure there was no collision. Fair play.

Then a young blonde woman carrying an equally blond baby in a papoose type carrier on her front smiled at me as she walked by. She was swinging a bird feeder in her left hand.

As I got nearer the bus stop a red car with blazing blue lights turned out of Ruskin Ave at the flights and blazed by followed a few seconds later by a fully staffed fire engine. All the firepersons were kitted out in their fire fighting gear. The engine had its siren on until it turned the corner and then resorted to just blue lights.

My return leg included seeing a man and his adultish daughter come out of their house and into a car. He in the front and she in the back behind the driver’s seat. I wasn’t totes sure whether she was his daughter or partner but then another older woman came out who looked very like the younger one. That answered that then. She stood on the pavement whilst the bloke edged the car out of the drive. I heard her get in but didn’t see it.

Thennn a middle aged bloke wearing just a t shirt and carrying his coat crossed at the pedestrian crossing by our hoose. Flippin eck I thought, he must be cold. Or well ard. He was not only carrying his coat but a fair bit of timber as well and I wondered whether he’d been building up a bit of a sweat on his walk. Hey. Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.

So back in the shed now and taken more paracetamol. Effin left hip. Lets hope it settles down. Tbh the right hip feels brand new, which of course it is, so if I needed the left one doing I’m pretty confident that all would be well. Trefor Davies, a man barely alive…

Conf call in five (wot?!). Gotta go.

…

That’s my calendar free for the rest of the week yay. Except for the physio on Friday pm. This afternoon will include cleaning and tidying the shed with my bezzie mate THG. She has had to change her plans for the afternoon as I got the day of the Tesco Click and Collect order wrong doh. It’s tomorrow not today. Honestly. What are we going to do with me!

Had a perfectly acceptable bacon sarnie for lunch.

…

Big nuze. The shed has been tidied, cleaned, hoovered and mopped Some stuff that has been hanging around for years has been thrown and some stuff put to one side for Facebook Marketplace. Emergency Exit signs for example. I have loads of em left over from Beyond The Woods. Couldn’t have done it without THG. 

The door is now wide open to speed up the floor drying. Nearly done. Half a hoover full of dirt came out of the carpet and floor. Twas clearly overdue but I’ve not been physically up for it for a few months. No problemo today innit. With, as I said, a little nay a lot of help from my friends.

I’ve also begun the process of putting up the neon tropical trefbash sign. Markings made – just need to get some screws. Twill either be done later today or tomorrow morning for sure.