where art collides

Ironically the outcome of Don winning the election is to increase my personal wealth with bitcoin hitting an all time high. It’s a bit like placing a bet on the person you don’t want to win so as to get a consolation prize if they do win.

Anything going on? I’m off for a covid booster jab this morning. Bailgate pharmacy. Hopefully there’ll be a parking spot right outside. Quick in and out, hopefully.

I’ll probably spend the rest of the day recovering. Lying on the settee, arm dangling limply over the edge, that sort of thing. Wonder what’s on telly? 😀

Not really. 

Maybs. Who knows. Have a book to finish.

Playing the Spotify Calming Classical playlist on the speaker in the kitch. Sometimes an appropriate start to the day.

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Really have to make an extra effort to not look at the news today. Bury my head in the sand. Now playing Vivaldi: The Four Seasons. It is currently autumn. In real life anyway. It’s winter in the music. Now is the winter of our discontent etc. It’s almost as if Vivaldi wrote the music to pair with Shakespeare plays.

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Didn’t make it to the shed until eleven o’clock this morning, fwiw. I realise this is not of interest to anyone but I’m telling you anyway. My wonderful chosen life partner THG has brought across a pot of tea and life is good. I am a lucky man.

The leaves continue to pile up on the deck. Those autumn leaves of red and gold. I am in no hurry to remove them. I quite like the colours. They can stay. It is still out. No wind. Nothing to blow the leaves into crinkly drifts for children in wellies to shuffle, rustle and kick. I assume children still wear wellies.

C’est une chanson qui nous ressemble
Toi tu m’aimais, et je t’aimais
Nous vivions tous les deux ensemble
Toi qui m’aimais, moi qui t’aimais

Mais la vie sépare ceux qui s’aiment
Tout doucement, sans faire de bruit
Et la mer efface sur le sable
Les pas des amants désunis

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Let forever begin tonight.

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Crazy world stay away
Stay focused on the important
Finish digging the bunker
Amass stocks of tinned foods

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Lot’s of negativity around at the moment. Let’s discuss the important things in life. Pizzas should be very meaty with hot chillies. Pineapples and rocket salad should not be allowed in the same room. You can have olives if you really want but it is optional. Thin crust. Served with good quality Italian red vino.

Waiting in front room for a plasterer to come and look at a job. He is running behind but at least it got me out of bed early. Trouble is cars keep stopping in front of our drive and make me look around to see if he has arrived. They are only stopping because of the pedestrian crossing and, presumably, the weight of commuter traffic.

The ped xing is quite handy for us. We live over the road to a school but the kids all cross at the lights and never make it as far as our house. They hang around in front of next door and have been seen sitting on their front wall. We have a hedge anyway so they wouldn’t be able to sit on ours.

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Plasterer came before brekkie this morning to size up a job. He was a good guy. Then a good breakfast of THG’s very excellent granola was taken.

Had to turn off the wireless yet again. Didn’t want to hear Don’s closing pitch, again. Just more bullshit.

Now waiting for a phone call. On my mobile. The ‘landline’ is never plugged in. I must cancel it sometime. Costs me three quid a month plus a twenty pound top up perhaps once every three or four months. See how it goze. THG never uses it. I rarely use it. The phone number that we have had for over thirty years no longer means anything to us. We live in a mobile world. Was a goodun mind you. 

The voip handset takes up space on the desk. It is tucked away behind a monitor and is only brought forward when it needs to be used. Probs could do with tidying the desk a bit as well. Manăna.

Excellent and somewhat long lunch with the golfers yesterday. I left after five and a half hours. Lightweight. Was picked up from the back of the bus station by THG and got home in time to watch the Imps beat Chesham. I may have fallen asleep before the end of the game.

Caught the Number 5 bus into town. The bus station is only a hundred yards or so from the Cosy Club where lunch had been booked. My transportation choices were taxi, £6.60, Uber £3.76 or bus, £2. Walking would have taken me too long.

I took the easy line and opted for an Uber but all the available cars were hovering downtown and none of the buggers wanted to come to our house for a measly four quid so I cancelled and left the house for the bus stop fifty yards up the road. 

This was a first for me. I’ve caught the bus home a few times. A relatively easy decis as there is a big hill, part of which is called “Steep Hill” between downtown and our house. However I rarely actually go downtown and catching the bus really felt like I was joining the great unwashed. I mean who goes downtown? All it has is chain shops and chain restaurants.

I guess the answer yesterday was that ‘I’ go downtown. Would have preferred to have had lunch up the hill in the Bailgate area but the vote went for the Cosy Club so that’s where we ended up. See how it goze for the end of season bash in December.

This morning we are out of milk. There is just enough left to service one cup of tea which I shall prepare next time I venture into the house. THG is sourcing some more on her way back from the gym. There is a milk shop opposite. They sell other things too. 

Soup for lunch.

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Soup was supped. As usual a top notch THG production. Roasted tomatoes.The phone call came in as I was heating it up. Sorted. Back at the shed face now. Might go swimming at 3pm. Wait until lunch has gone down innit.

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We are both back in da hoose. Me from da pool and THG from helping out at the old dears afternoon tea. She says it’s for all ages. Oo maybs I’ll see if the boys fancy going along one afternoon 🙂 . At least one of them is officially at retiring age next year. Afternoon tea at the church would be a marked contrast with yesterday’s all day drinking session.

Don’t want to do that too often. Next one is in exactly one month’s time with the end of season get together. Plenty of time to recover. Everyone will be in bed early tonight.

Snearly dark. Is dark really. The mood lighting is on in the shed. I have a cup of tea in hand. All good folk should be thinking about getting home to their warm front rooms or kitchens, slippers on, stroking the cat etc.

The shed TV remains off and there is no music playing. It is a slight downside of the system that when I stream Spotify over the Google TV Streamer all the track metadata is displayed on the screen together with my family photos (thousands of em) screensaver. 

The screensaver is quite a good feature as I am reminded of good times past that might otherwise have stayed buried. However I do quite like the idea of playing music whilst watching muted TV. Sport for example. There’s probs a way of doing it if I stared at it long enough. Spotify used to be able to pick up the amp as an option but for some time now it has played through whichever streaming device happens to be plugged in. Prefer it to go direct to the amp actually.

5pm exactly and I think I just heard a firework. If we had a dog it would be time to bed it down safely and draw the curtains

Had to switch the wireless off even before we got to ‘thought for the day’. Was full of US election crap. They seem to have more than their fair share of extremely gullible people in Amurica. Now I think about it, thought for the day is preferred listening.

Lunch out with the lads today. Lads who do lunch. Well it beats going to the bingo or the afternoon whist drive at the Derby and Joan club. Made that last bit up. Dunno if such a thing exists really. Derby and Joan club. Correct me if I am wrong. Were we hard core golfers we would be getting a round in beforehand but we ain’t so we ain’t. I dare say we will be getting a few rounds in with lunch.

Today is stardate November 4th. It’s a bit of a non date really coming as it does between November 3rd and November 5th 🙂The point being that the fifth is obvs quite a famous date in history and is typically celebrated with fireworks displays and bonfires and the third happens to fall on the Sunday before the fifth when people in reality hold these celebrations.

The fifth of November may well not be particularly famous outside the UK of course. Other countries will have their own prominent dates in the calendar. For example Bhutan abolished slavery in 1958. 1958!! I found that out when looking for prominent dates in a randomly selected country. Started with Brazil but didn’t find that interesting enough though, interestingly, slavery also featured there. The timeline of Bhutan was not particularly interesting either, at least to me soz Bhutan, but I wasn’t interested in spending any more time looking for other interesting dates so I’ve stopped.

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Got an email from Lancashire Cricket Club offering me tickets for Day 3 of the India test match next summer. I’m systematically unsubscribing from ‘promotional’ emails but I don’t mind getting this sort. 

Only thing is I can’t see myself going to all the faff of getting to Manchester for the day. Takes 3 hours on the train, changing at Sheffield, and I’d probs want to stay the night which starts to make it an expedition. Won’t be watching owt at trent Bridge next summer either as they only have Ireland playing a test match there. Soz me Irish bretheren. I guess we could probably decide at the last minute for that one as it is unlikely to be sold out.

Quite a few years ago now my trefor.net email address found itself on a PR distribution list. Agreeing to that was a mistake. It was when I was actively writing posts for trefor.net and was a bit of an ego trip at the time. Found myself inundated with totally irrelevant press releases from any company that might half describe itself as involved with tech. Took years for those to stop.

It isn’t as bad nowadays but I am slowly trying to weed unwanted mails out. Since I figured out how to stop LinkedIn notifications I’ve pretty much completely stopped getting ‘social’ emails.

Lots of no shows for the CIM awards yesterday. I wrote some of their names down. Mostly blokes due to there being a relatively small number of them there to pick up an award.

The first male no show was a guy called Amir Ahmed. Didn’t catch his surname but that matters not. I’m not here to pick on him. I am just writing what I observed and in fact lining up the second no male show who was a guy called Elvis. This brought a smile to my face. Elvis, if he had showed up at all, had left the building 🙂

As we left the Methodist Central Hall there was a long queue of tourists lining up to have a picture taken with a red phone box. Bit strange I thought until someone pointed out that the Houses of Parliament were in the background. Iconic tourist photo op. I’d have done the same, maybs.

Overall a great day out. The Royal Navy was in town bedecked in their Number Ones. Annual Submarine Service remembrance weekend. Chatted to one medal laden naval type in the Silver Star pub after watching the All Blacks game. One of his gongs, with bar, was for service in Afghanistan. You wouldn’t have thought there would be anyone from the navy there let alone the submarine service. I guess they were short on personnel.

We are now chillin’ in the room, glancing out the window occasionally at Nelson atop his column. A lofty stance. THG is off on a stroll to Buck House before we get a cab to Kings Cross for the journey home. I don’t currently do strolls down the Mall, largely because of my hips giving me gyp. Getting them looked at the week after next. Need sorting.

Bells ring out across Trafalgar Square. St Martin in the Fields calling the faithful to Sunday worship. I imagine they get some tourists in. Kill a bit of time before lunch at the National Gallery. Stuff like that. Famous gaff SMITF. Biggun.

Relatively few people out on the square. The bells have stopped. Praps everyone has gone into the church. Probs. Except the souvenir sellers. Someone has to keep an eye on the stalls. Otherwise those not in church would be nicking fridge magnets left right and centre.

When we get home there is an afternoon of sport in prospect. Spurs v Villa and Man U v Chelski. Mildly interesting. Someone at breakfast was wearing a Spurs hoodie. Amazing how people come from all over the place to watch a football game. This ain’t a cheap hotel so it is an expensive hobby.

Tomorrow Lincoln travel to Chesham in the FA Cup. Unsure as to whether I’ll be able to watch that as we have a golfing ‘lunch’ lined up with no real feel as to what time lunch will finish. Maybe sleep through the football. At least THG is available for a lift afterwards.

We were due to travel to the Hexham area for golf but the club has pulled the use of buggies because of soft ground so we’ve pushed it back until springtime. Lunch replaces that trip. Not walking 36 holes of golf.

Enough!

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Farewell to the dirty ground of London town. We shall return, soon enough. A contrast of bright lights, buzz and brazen wealth and poverty, homelessness, loneliness.

Bit daleky the pa on this train. Not quite but nearly. Muffled anyway. Lacking in crispness and clarity.  I only noticed because I’d removed my headphones at Stevenage and as the train left the station the announcement began. Didn’t really register what they were trying to say. Usual blurb. Gough. BlahblahPeterboroughblahblahseeitsayitsortit.

We pass a field of wind turbines. Power to the people. I am listening to Pink Martini Radio on Spotify. If you don’t have a crowd, there’s no parade. The everyday story of life in the year twenty twenty four. Now we pass a field of solar panels. Not sure I am a fan.

The windows on this train need a clean, honestly. It is a boring journey. Must be for me to start noticing and commenting on such things. I’ve finished the cup of tea and eaten the banana.

I’ve moved on from Pink Martini Radio to something a little more upbeat. The Tropical Trefbash playlist. Turned up the volume and got to restrain meself from dancing. The gin has arrived. It’s far too early for gin, especially on the Sabbath. Both THG and I have however taken our fair share and it is now packed away in my laptop  bag for consumption at a future date. We had a little bonus of a second serving as the steward made his way back to the crew area. May struggle to get the laptop in the bag before we get off at Lincoln! First world problems.

I just can’t get enough, I just can’t get enough. Depeche Mode. Not really my thang but was requested by a friend who is coming to trefbash. We aim to please.

Just passed what would appear to be the pleasant rural hamlet of Creeton. I looked it up on google maps. Church of St Peter, a few farms. Not much going on I daresay. If I spent all my time going up and down on the train I’d get to know all the places we passed. Norrapnin. A lot easier to just look them up. Tbh not reelly that interested. 

Just leaving Grantham. The Asda car park looks full. Good citizens of Grantham getting a few last minute supplies in for tea tonight. Foie gras, smoked salmon. Stuff like that no doubt. No sooner had Grantham disappeared into the rear view mirror we arrived in Newark and most of the carriage emptied. Platform three. 

A red coated station manager stands on the platform ready to blow her whistle. She is keeping people back from crossing the yellow line as a southbound train is just pulling in to platform two. Safety of the public is paramount.

The train now heads into the wilds beyond and to the east of the A1 Great North Road. The last leg of the journey and the point at which I bid farewell to this post, uploading whilst I still have a little signal.

The mark of a good hotel is whether the toast comes out right first time off the conveyor belt. In the case of the Trafalgar St James this was very much the case. I had ordered sourdough toast that was brought to the table but only two small triangles arrived hence the need to add to my toast total.

It’s a good breakfast although they do have a habit of overcooking the bacon. I very much like well rendered fat but the bacon still needs to be soft. At home this is achieved by standing the bacon on its side around the side of the pan whilst finishing off the egg/waiting for the toast to pop up etc. They also offer large flat field mushrooms as part of the breakfast buffet which is very much to be commended.

We are now back in the room with an hour and twenty minutes to go before we meet Hannah and George for her CIM Diploma ceremony at  Central Hall Westminster. Tis only a short distance from the hotel which is why we chose to stay here.

The rooms are v comfortable at this hotel. Great pillows. Very dark at night with the curtains closed. Pitch black actually. Quite refreshing. No bedside clock to throw its dim illumination across the void.

Up at the crack of about twenty to eight and headed for the kitch to switch on the patent water boiling device/machine/kettle. THG rang. She too was about to go down for brekkie after a long day out with old pals yesterday. We both opted for a full English. In her case a full Wirral. In mine a full Waitrose. Today we shall be reunited, yay.

Now it is twenty to nine. Ma belly is full and there is just enough milk left for one more cup of tea which I will have once I’m dressed. Mostly packed so not too much to do this morning other than tidy the house sufficiently to at least pass the minimum acceptable level of tidiness for THG when we get home on Sunday 🙂

On this occasion I have had to pack some number ones as tomorrow we are off to see Hannah’s graduation ceremony.  Diploma in brand management or simlar from the Chartered Institute of Marketing. She worked hard at it fair play and deserves the recognition. In the evening we are off to a posh Italian for a family meal.

Hit town last night with the golfers. Bit of an eye opener as half the people out and about were in fancy dress. Not all ghoulish. A few ladies in cowgirl outfits, a batman, stuff like that. One medal bedecked Soviet era military uniform! We started at the Straight and Narrow, then hit the Cardinal’s hat followed by a new gaff called the Tap and Tonic (I think) which has taken over the shop previously occupied by Patisserie Valerie (or Pat Val as I used to call it – never went in meself). We were the only people in the T&T. How do they stay in business? Probs wont. 

Three pina coladas (a bit sweet) and a dark and stormy later, between the four of us, and we headed out into the street. We finished the night off in the Slug and Lettuce before Adie and I left the others to it and Ubered it home. That’s my night out downtown over for another year or three or four or more. Rooftop Bar of the Trafalgar St James tonight if anyone is in the area. A quiet night in.

No trick or treaters last night. I checked the cctv.

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For your information, five red arrows just flew over in formation. 

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The train slowly approaches the station.

Man with flag, invisible.

The barriers open and the people flow.

Let the people flow.

The people. The masses. The great unwashed. Proletariat. Brainwashed. Yes master. Those who shop downtown. When you’re alone and life is making you lonely you can always go downtown. Break your online retail addiction.

We slide swiftly and surely past the Sarah Swift building. Seat of learning, healing. 

Sheep graze in a pale green field. Autumn has arrived in the hedgerows.

In seat E2 I am cocooned from the world. The E2 cocoon. Unlikely that E1 will be wanted. I will look fierce. E numbers.

I booked E5 which had noone else on the table at the time. However three temerity filled travellers have reserved the other seats from Newark. I don’t want to talk to them. That was my table. Mine I tell you.

I am on the eleven twenty seven express to London Kings Cross. Staying at Trafalgar Square, heart of empire. Where the sun never set. I expect they operated a 24 x 7 follow the sun support function. Driven by an express postal service protected by the Royal Navy.

A grey couple got on at Newark and took their place at my table. They look uninteresting but maybe that’s just a cover for a rock and roll lifestyle. On their way south for the start of their stadium tour. Dunno. I’d have taken the chopper.

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The grey lady is playing a word search game on her iPad. Fair play. Gotta keep that brain active. Can’t see what the rock star is doing.

We pull into the grey town of Peterborough. Peterborough has a cathedral so it must be a city. Dunno if the old fashioned ways of place identifiers are valid anymore. They seem to make cities left right and centre these days, very much devaluing the institution/accolade/noun.

What do you do for a living? I’m the Bishop of Peterborough. Either that or a ticket inspector on the Nene Valley Railway. Both very respectable occupations if somewhat very different. Took the kids on the Santa Special on the Nene Valley Railway once or twice. They used to dish out mince pies with whisky or brandy miniatures to the mums and dads. The bish probs just splashes the communion wine around. Same but different. Very different.

The grey mob (decided this was appropriate) are taking the Piccadilly Line to Leicester Square and then changing to the Northern line. I overheard him say. In theory could be headed to the same hotel as me. Bit of a faff though. You almost might as well walk from Leicester Square tube. Not worth changing to go one stop. 

I’m jumping in a cab at Kings Cross. Won’t offer. I don’t know them from Adam. They are now talking about the budget. Not really my thang. Unless it’s pensions but I have a while to wait for that 🙂

Just walked past their table. He is reading the Daily Mail. Nuff said.