where art collides philosoperontap

July 10, 2023

start the week

Filed under: diary — Trefor Davies @ 9:28 am

I wonder how long Monday will stay as the start of the week? I realise that in many countries, not all, offices close on Saturday and Sunday. This is based on a combination of hard fought trade union victories which we don’t want to discard lightly and the oppressive rule of law that forbade working on the Sabbath forcing people instead to attend church where they could be controlled with establishment propaganda. 

Monday therefore has always been the start of the working week. I am now sat in the shed contemplating the day ahead. I have a newsletter to work on. Shouldn’t take long. Someone else already wrote it. I just need to improve the English and make it more readable. Chuck a few lines of poetry in. Stuff like that. Not really poetry. It’s a techy audience across many countries. If they start seeing us being a bit flowery with the prose they will wonder what’s going on. 

This is the last couple of weeks before lots of good folk start going on holiday. Schools here break up on Friday 21st July. I always think the the start of the school summer holidays means the clock has started ticking for the end of summer. Enjoy it while you can. Cram in those summertime activities. Wear shorts.

It is certainly a good time to avoid travel. Ferry ports will be rammed. News programmes will already have scheduled stories about the length of the traffic jams backing up the motorway out of the Port of Dover. Times to get through passport control lengthening. Government ministers blaming the French.

We have a couple of ferries booked. At the end of August it is Holyhead to Dublin and then after that weekend Dublin to Cherbourg. Am optimistic that we won’t see the same problem as the south coast. I have no idea when I’m coming back from France which will be fun.

In the meantime it is a Monday morning and newsletters don’t write themselves you know…

…

Sixteen forty nine and tools have been downed for the day. Got quite a bit done including packing away the gazebos from the weekend. Still need to find out what I did with the peg bags though! Problems problems. These are industrial strength pegs for industrial strength gazebos. Also found Adie’s specs that he left behind after the barbecue on Saturday and managed to squeeze in a swim. 

All this as well as ghost writing some stuff. I quite like the idea of ghost writing. Yonks ago when I started the philosopherontap.com website I wanted the nom de plume of Hugh O’Rourke for my poetry but some bugger, presumably called Hugh O’Rourke, was already using it. I just stuck with Tref and actually I’m totes ok with people knowing that it’s me wot wrote something.

Gorra take me daughter Han and her boyf George to the stayshun in a bit. They stay until they’ve eaten everything and then go back to London. Only kidding. We like having them up. No sooner will they have gone when another kid will arrive. It’s John. Will need to restock the fridge 🙂

July 9, 2023

A tea-long post

Filed under: diary — Trefor Davies @ 1:36 pm

A tea-long post. THG has just delivered a piping hot cuppa. I like to leave tea to cool a little before imbibing so figured it would be interesting to write a post. The time spent writing will be the amount of time it takes for the tea to cool and for me to drink it.

This is not a particularly scientific activity. I don’t have an optimum temperature at which I like to start drinking. Also the time taken to finish the cup will be a combination of the size of the cup together with how engrossed I get with the writing. If I am in full flow the drinking time could well be longer, to the point where the tea might go cold and no longer be particularly drinkable.

It is lunch at Headingley and the test match is finely poised. At lunch I had decided to clean the gazebo canopies which might yet get done. However the rest of the household has also decided that they want a curry tonight so I do have to devote some time to that. We shall see, rhymes with tea. If I can I also want to squeeze in a swim but that may depend on how the cricket is going.

When it comes to cooking a curry it is important to put in the right amount of effort. It is too easy to rustle up a dish that fits the description of curry but is not a good example of the genre. We are after tender meats in rich gravy with just the right amount of spice and flavour.

I also quite like the idea of knocking up some naan breads but that’s a bit of hassle. Well worth it if you can be bothered. They only take ninety seconds or so to cook on a bakers steel on the barbecue. It’s the prep time that is the issue.

A simple curry with pilau rice will suffice. One lamb and one chicken. Washed down by a cold beer and perhaps some red wine that is left over from last night’s barbecue and which needs finishing. Back on the diet tomorrow.

Thassit. Tea is finished and I have jobs to do. 

Ciao.

July 5, 2023

Back on the LNER

Filed under: diary — Trefor Davies @ 5:48 pm

Back on the LNER, 
You don’t know how lucky you are, boy
Back on the LN, back on the LN, back on the LNE are.

Not set off yet but weirdly looking forward to my bacon roll. Bey a con as we say in the dialect. They don’t do butter on the train but hey…

I will leave the flatlands of Lincolnshire for the great metropolis that is the City of London. Heart of empire. Beating heart. In times gone by, pre empire, this would have been an arduous week’s travel on horseback. I would have to have found some companions heading in the same direction and would be carrying a sword. Egad.

Now it is two hours by Azuma with a bacon roll, a cup of tea and a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice (joking). I get there earlier than necessary. On these occasions I am wont to repair to the British Library whereupon a lah tay may be consumed. You are welcome to join me. The treasures room is well worth a visit.

…

We race by large golden fields of wheat that suggest harvest time is nearly upon us. Our tomatoes are nowhere near ready 🙂The onions are coming along ok though.

At Cottage Lane the cars line up at the crossing whilst the train speeds by and we, in turn, wait at the signal outside Newark for the go ahead to roll into Northgate station. A few people board at Platform 3 and someone slides into the seat opposite. I have already put on my Bose phones and put up the shutters. It is too early for conversation.

Carriage E is unusually busy. Not full but only one or two seats showing availability on the journey to Kings Cross. Everyone must be cramming in the meetings before the summer break.

I get mixed signals about how the economy is doing and therefore people’s willingness to spend. The telecoms business is doing well but other sectors are definitely showing signs of slowing down. Campsites, for example, are very much down on bookings for the summer. Phones have stopped ringing in the automotive business. People hunkering down trying to pay their mortgage and energy bills.

Food as well. Four tins of Heinz Baked Beans costs four quid in the supermarkets. Wasn’t so long ago they were going for two pounds fifty. Can’t say I’ve noticed other prices because I never really look at the cost. Just for some reason remember the price of beans 🙂

My attire today is Hawaiian shirt and shorts. Summertime and the living has to be easy. I also have a track record of this at industry events which is where I am off to this afternoon. Folks would be disappointed if I rocked up in a suit. I do own a linen suit which is what I will be wearing for a funeral tomorrow. Not today though. It is the summer for goodness sake.

…

Hit the ‘burbs. Nearly there now. Meeting Tom for a cawfee off the train. British Library probs.

July 4, 2023

bright day in prospect

Filed under: diary,early one morning — Trefor Davies @ 9:34 am

A bright day in prospect. Not looked at the weather forecast but I can tell you that at the crack of sparrowfart there is nary a cloud in the sky. That is not entirely true as from my perspective in the conservatory I did spot a solitary wisp but glancing back up to double check even that has now moved on.

I was going to say that wisp of cloud ‘evaporated’ but that didn’t feel right. Clouds are surely the result of evaporation in the first place. Or are they condensed. I dunno. It matters little. Only perhaps to Michael Fish and his pals at the meteorological office. Where is he now? Michael Fish.

It is still out there. Nary a breath of wind. A magpie just flew by carrying some nest building material. You would have thought any construction would be finished by now. Perhaps a bit of maintenance. It flew to the top of next door’s pine tree the other side of the fence to the greenhouse. Will keep an eye on that treetop. Magpies are pretty vicious birds. I saw one attacking a blackbird in our garden earlier this year. The magpies are also relative newcomers. I don’t mind a bit of avian variety although small birds would be preferable. I need to sort out the feeders.

A variety of packing to do today. I have, as you know, a shindig in London tomorrow. On thursday morning I hot foot (by train) it to Liverpool for a family funeral. Then Friday it’s back home across the pennines with THG in her car. So that’s three different clothing requirements.

The dress code for the funeral is ‘funeral’. Fair enough. When I go I want the dress code to be ‘hawaiian shirt’ 🙂We were all particularly fond of this uncle who did live to a ripe old age so Thursday will very much be a celebration of his life.

When mam passed away we had a packed church followed by a very good reception at Peel Golf Club where she had been Lady Captain. Then there was a hiatus where some of the family wandered down to the beach and the breakwater. I strolled to the Whitehouse pub and had a couple of quiet pints before meeting the core team for dinner at the Creek Inn whereupon we had a great singsong.

Dad died at a time when lockdown restrictions were still being eased so numbers were constrained. Actually the constraints included the age and infirmity of his friendship group as well as the fact that the funeral was in Cardiff rather than the Isle of Man. We did have a great wake afterwards. They were both celebrated appropriately.

Dad once told me he had been to a funeral of a teacher in the Isle of Man where only a handful of people were present, including the widow and small family. He recalls contrasting this with his own father’s funeral. My grandfather was a miner in South Wales. Miners never lived to retirement age and when they died, prematurely, the whole community would turn out to pay their respects. There were hundreds of people at his funeral.

Enough of this funeral speak. My grandmother, Eluned Davies (nee Lewis) was born in 1907. A hugely different era. It is hard to get your brain around the difference in complexity of the world then and now. No TV, no telephone. A coal fired range instead of gas or electric cooker. Very little English spoken, at least in Cefneithin.

I remember visiting one of dad’s cousins with him a few years back. We spoke in Welsh but I had to seriously concentrate to understand the local dialect. As pure as it came. Rooted in the countryside. Our house was a miner’s cottage in a row opposite the Blaenhirwaun pit.

The evidence of the pit has long since been obliterated, the slag heaps, or tips, reburied underground and the area restored to the parkland it once was. Nothing lasts forever.

When I was a kid we used to spend our summer holidays visiting nana. Highlights of the week would include visits from the Coop van and from John The Baker’s van. We would go on the bus to the market in Llanelli. Mam and dad would head up to the Farmers Arms for a few. There was also a now defunct pub across the fields at the back of the house whose name, disappointingly, escapes me but where at 1am of an evening the local bobby would pop in for a pint and mingle with the farmer who had recently won the Welsh sheep dog trials. Different times…

…

Our Andy is on Centre Court shortly. At one time it was our Tim and I daresay it was someone else before him. I can’t remember that far back. Our Sue? Wimbledon mania comes to the UK for two weeks every July where people who have never picked up a racket let alone played a game become instant armchair experts.

If I watch any tennis during the rest of the year it is probably because I’ve accidentally clicked on a TV channel. I have played the game and do possess a racquet, somewhere. Whenever I played tennis I would basically always lose my service game as I’m totes crap at serving.

Our son John, on the other hand, has played since he was a little lad. He can play tennis. No point in me playing our John 🙂 

I would consider joining the Local Eastgate Tennis Club as a social member. They serve Beavertown Neck Oil, which I like, and membership there gives you the chance of getting Wimbledon tickets in the draw out of their allocation. Wimbledon is a good day out.

Not this year though. I’m probably going to join Notts CCC for next season. The West Indies are coming next July and I being a member would not only give me early access to tix but also good tix. 

I used to be a Country Member of Glamorgan CCC but they stopped that membership category and wanted two hundred and fifty quid for the privilege. Considering that in three or four years of being a member I went once, that does not represent good value for money. I didn’t mind shelling out sixty quid. Notts membership is cheaper and they get test matches. And it is only thirty miles or so away.

July 3, 2023

Awake at five thirty

Filed under: diary,early one morning — Trefor Davies @ 9:32 am

Awake at five thirty so thought I might as well get up and stick the kettle on. Windy out there this morning. That’s nature for you eh?

Yesterday I cooked a chicken on the barbecue using the rotisserie. First time I’d used it with the new granite worktop setup. The turning mechanism only just fitted but fit it did and the new outdoor electrical socket proved its worth. Roasted the bird in a piripiri rub which came out well and we now have plenty of meat left over for consumption this week. Not that I’m around all week.

One specific result from yesterday’s barbecue was that I have now worked out the right gas setting to maintain a constant one hundred and eighty degrees Centigrade which is what most meats need for spit roasting. Dunno why it took me so many years but now it is done. Means I can just set the barbecue going and walk away without having to faff about tweaking different burners. 

Using it again next Saturday as we are having a few pals round though not worked out what to cook yet. Boned leg of lamb maybs.

My brain isn’t totes in gear at oh five thirty but I guess it doesn’t really matter. Not much to think about anyway. Not much I chose to think about. I’ve been through my usual routine of checking Facebook, WhatsApp and reading the papers. They aren’t really paper anymore I know but that’s a more interesting way of putting it than saying I read the online media outlets. The BBC never was a paper anyway.

On Wednesday I’m taking the early train down to London, fifty acorns tied in a sack. No not really although I am thinking about taking in the Paul McCartney photo exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery as I do have some spare time in the morning.

It’s a bit of a nuisance catching the seven thirty train as it is about half an hour too early for my body clock. I can’t rely on waking up at five thirty every morning. It’s the first direct train so much easier than changing at Newark. Problem is the next direct train is at 11.27 or similar which gets me in too late for the shindig I’m off to that afternoon.

Catching the seven thirty means leaving the house at seven which makes it too early for a decent breakfast and the measly microwaved attempt at a bacon roll you get on the train ain’t much cop. Better than nothing I suppose. I’ll be in seat E5 if you happen to be catching that train. Look me up. I always go for that seat if I can. Sitting at the same seat every time is not much use if I am trying to avoid being kidnapped I know but it is a risk I am prepared to take 🙂

I think on Wednesday I will leave my laptop at home and buy a paper to read on the train…

July 2, 2023

the house of Tref

Filed under: diary — Trefor Davies @ 9:31 am

All is well in the house of Tref. Avocado toast with a side of bacon consumed and now sitting in the conservatoire with a cup of tea. The door is open to the garden where a gentle breeze flutters across the border. THG has been out surveying her domain. It is good drying weather and the clothes line is already loaded.

The luxury of the Sabbath. My first Sunday at home in ages. What do others do on a Sunday morning? Wash the car? This is what the hand car wash around the back of Tesco is for and there is always a queue on Sunday morning. Did those queuing used to do it themselves on the drive? Is washing the car on a Sunday morning a compulsive thing? Mine gets done perhaps three or four times a year. Defo need to get the inside valeted. Don’t think it’s ever been done, properly at least. In three years! Will get it done before our big trip to France.

It is only the beginning of July. Height of summer but plenty of summer left to go at. The holiday season very much approacheth. I went through a phase of not bothering to take holiday during the summer. When I used to work in an office the month of August being in the office was very much like being on holiday. Half the people would take the first two weeks off and the other half the last two weeks. In consequence there was never anyone around to get anything done.

Now I work, albeit part time, with a Belgian company they don’t take two weeks off. It is practically the whole month. Cool. People need to have a good break. They work hard. I try to do as little as possible although there are times when I do get v busy. Not in August though.

Wimbledon starts tomorrow. I like this. I never used to be a Wimbledon fan. It was always this thing on the telly for a couple of weeks every July. Then I took our youngest son John and discovered that it was a great day out.

John was a member of the Eastgate Tennis Club and used to get tickets every year out of their allocation. It was a little hit and miss but most times we got something and it was usually Centre Court. Anne and I used to take turns to go with him, except for his last membership  year where we both went and stayed the night in London.

Instead of paying a pound a strawberry I used to buy a large punnet or two together with some double cream from a supermarket en route. We would then pinch a couple of pint glasses and plastic spoons from the catering concessions inside Wimbledon together with some sugar and have a pint of strawberries and cream each. Retail value about fifty quid from official Wimbledon sources. It wasn’t so much the money. Who on earth wants only five strawberries 🙂

Over the years we saw all the big names of the era: Murray, Nadal, Djokovic, Venus and Serena. Loads of others. We were even there the day that the longest lasting set happened where it went to a ridiculous number of games. Didn’t see that one but saw the scoreboard. It was on an outside court.

A slightly disappointing day was the ladies semi finals. Serena won in around 52 minutes. Both matches were quite short. Best value is men’s semi finals where you likely get to see two matches lasting a good four hours each.

I would consider going to Wimbledon on a corporate jolly if someone else was interested in going. Not this year though. Too much on. July and most of August are our quiet months during 2023 and we need the time at home. Anyway I will have Wimbledon tennis on in the shed in the background. It is something I can occasionally glance up at whilst doing other stuff.

Something else I’d consider going to is the British Formula 1 Grand Prix. Never been. The problem, I understand, is the traffic getting in and out. Still I’d quite like to go once. A helicopter could be the answer. Find somewhere local ish to stay down. I typically don’t watch F1 as apart from the start I find it quite boring. The start is only interesting because anything can happen. Crashes, overtaking etc. Maybe next year. Already a lot in the plan for next year!

July 1, 2023

Saturday has arrived

Filed under: diary — Trefor Davies @ 9:30 am

So Saturday has arrived. Samedi est arrivé as the revolting French would put it. Who knows what the day will bring. A dramatic about turn in the England cricket team’s performance on the pitch at Lords! Hopefully. Not sure I can look. I’m a lightweight like that. Hide behind the sofa. A bit like when Dr Who was on when I was a kid.

Got a bit of shopping to do this morning Fosters for a chicken and some lamb then Waitrose for posh balsamic vinegar, asparagus and a few other bits and bobs. Also need to take my linen jacket in for cleaning. The one I wear to go and watch cricket matches. Not sure it’s ever been cleaned! About time.

Some days a jacket can be seen as over dressing, especially in these times of unusually hot summers, but I have to have somewhere to keep my wallet and phone n stuff.

The French are indeed revolting, again. They do have form when it comes to revolting. All I can say is just get it over before the Rugby World Cup in September. Regime change, whatever. We don’t care who is in charge as long as the bars remain open for watching the rugby. And the restaurants and the little boulangeries down the street where we will be nipping out to buy our pain and croissants for breakfast.

I’m currently researching duffel bags. I have got a big North Face one somewhere that I used for the Coast to Coast walk but I’m blowed if I can find it. It must have been left somewhere. Worranuisance.

I’ll be away for six weeks so need some storage capacity. Not that I have six weeks worth of underwear so will have to get some cleaning done en route. Can’t imagine I’ll be wearing the same pair of shorts for six weeks either. Or t shirt 🙂

This will be the longest trip we have undertaken. Timewise. Kids are taking it in turns moving into our house in the meantime. At least someone will benefit from the tomato harvest, and the raspberries, apples and anything else going. It’s a bit of an adventure and although still two months away we are starting to get excited.

Everything is planned for the first month. Then Anne flies home with some of the girls and I hang around  for a couple more weeks, at least until after the Japan v Argentina game in Nantes at which point us lads will amble back at a comfortable pace.  I daresay you will be hearing a lot more about this trip when it happens.

Ciao for now mes amis.

…

The morning shop has been done. Some fresh produce from various markets as previously discussed.

I feel I need to do something today although the criquet is on. At lunchtime i can trim the bits of lamb shoulder purchaysed from the butch. They didn’t have fillet but tbh what we have is fine. Spending time cooking is one of the luxuries of the modern society. 

Back in the cave man days the time would have been spent looking for the food but obvs that isn’t the case nowadays. Not totes true as I do like to meander around the aisles in Waitrose checking out the food action. If you get the timing right you can pick up some good reductions though that is not my primary motivation in Waitrose. 

I do sometimes stop for a coffee but am very conscious that most of the people in the caff are old farts with whom I don’t really want to be associated.In their old caff I used to occasionally treat meself to a bacon roll. When they opened this new one they changed the bacon from back to a few measly bits of streaky so I stopped that. They may well have changed it again now but I’ve not tried it out to see.

Bought a book yesterday: The Living Mountain (Canons): A Celebration of the Cairngorm Mountains of Scotland: 6 by Shepherd, Nan. Arrives today. It was mentioned on a TV programme about the river Dee. See how it goes. If I don’t order these things there and then I forget. 

I don’t always read all of a book. Sometimes i just read a few early chapters and decide the rest of it can wait on the shelf. My recent purchases about the Manx Electric Railway are good examples. There is only so much you can absorb about changes to the per way between 1906 and 1914. Nice to have though.

Someday soon I’ll sort my bookshelves in the shed. A quick glance to my left identifies the follow books on display:

  • The Fighting Ship of the Royal Navy 897 – 1984
  • The adjustable Spanner (definitive guide)
  • Manual of Seamanship Vol 1 1932
  • The Great Eastern Railway, Cecil J.Allen
  • The London & North Western Railway, O.S.Nock
  • The Ultimate Guide to Knots
  • Llyfr Y Tri Aderyn, Morgan Llwyd
  • The bartender’s guide
  • Spitfire, Portrait of a Legend
  • Collins Bird Guide
  • Blacksmith
  • Bradshaws 1863

I think you will agree there are some gooduns in there. I have yet to open the book of knots. It includes some bits of string/rope with which to practise my knot tying. May happen 🙂

Meanwhile the cricket is trundling along nicely, for the Aussies.

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