where art collides philosoperontap

Chicken dinner, chicken dinner, chicken and leek pie. It died that we may eat three meals although not sure how much chicken will be left for the pie. Twillbfine. 

In other news I have to tell you that Waitrose does not sell cheesy balls. Wot! Why is this? Are cheesy balls considered to be too down market? Tesco (maybe there’s yer answer) has three offers in that line including something called “free from cheese flavour balls”. Yuk. Mind you I daresay the actual cheesy balls have never seen an udder. Udderly cheesy flavouring.

I’ll be buying my cheesy balls this year from Tesco. We are due a big shop, mainly festive booze, and I will be checking prices online before deciding what to buy where. Except cheesy balls obvs. I doubt there will be that much price difference but ya never know.

Waitrose does sell Essential Cheese Puffs at £1.10 for a 100g bag. Well firstly cheese puffs are not cheese balls and the bags aren’t big enough. Tesco sells 300g at £1.75. We are after volume here. Mind you I may buy a bag of each just as a comparison taste test. Makes sense to me. 

Cheesy balls have never really been the same ever since I moved from the rose tinted memory filled childhood phase of life to the harsh reality of adulthood. They taste crappy but we still buy em. They do come with the benefit of being easier to chuck in the air to be caught in the mouth which is nigh on impossible with cheese puffs whose aerodynamic properties are totally inadequate. 

That is all I have to say on the subject, for the moment…

…

It’s one of those calmish December afternoons. At three thirty the sun is desperately trying to slip over the horizon. The bar lights are on in the shed. They provide a bit of atmo. This doesn’t mean the bar is open although if someone happened by on a social call there are refreshments in the fridge. I have made a pot of tea. That’s not in the fridge, obvs.

There is beer but don’t particularly drink it that often. I’ll have the occasional tonic and gin. On occasion. I took the bottle of Leffe out. Don’t like the stuff. Someone must have brought it along on one of my occasional gentlemen’s get togethers in the shed. Not had one for a while. A get together that is. Maybs over Christmas.

All is quiet. I spent the afternoon reading History of Carmarthenshire Vol 2. At least the bits about church history. Nothing in there of particular interest although it is all good background reading. I was half tempted to buy the same volume for Cardigan but looking at the index it seemed to have even less material of relevance.

I bought the two volume Carmarthenshire set in the antiquarian bookshop in Carmarthen a few years back. It’s been on the shelf in the snug as a curiosity. It’s a first edition from February 1939. Only now being read, by me at least. I have the modern paperback version of Vol 1 but they don’t seem to have published Vol 2 like that. Probably only published one edition of the hardback. Dunno.

At four o’clock it is getting dark. Just over a fortnight to the winter solstice. A time we should be dancing around the fire pit and roasting a wild boar whilst drinking lots of mead or whatever they did in those days. Don’t like mead meself. I’m sure they had other hoochy options.

At four thirty it is dark. Shut the curtains and bolt the front door. There are monsters out there. We have plans for the evening. A repeat of Sunday’s chicken dinner with leftovers then watch the mighty Imps playing away at Rotherham. Almost a local derby.

I once played against Dinnington RFC in the Rotherham area. It was a bloomin cold day with freezing fog and in the days before sat nav we really struggled to find the place. None of us really wanted to play but hey, a commitment is a commitment. The game is the game. 

Anyway we changed and ran out onto the pitch and waited for the opposition to arrive. It was so foggy that the only way you could see both sets of posts was by standing on the half way line. We were on the verge of going back in to wait when we realised they were already on the pitch. Don’t remember the score (conveniently probaby) but I seem to recall enjoying a good pie and peas supper after the game. I’m sure I’ve told you this before but it is a good story 🙂

It is now ok to start thinking about Christmas, it being Monday 2nd December (2024). In an ideal world I wouldn’t give it any thought until the week before the festival but let’s be realistic here. Not only will we all be carried along on the hype which is now in full swing but actually I like the run up to Christmas.

If Christmas has a feelgood factor to it why not have that good feeling for the whole month. In reality it is only just over three weeks anyway.

It is my job to get the tree. This year it is made somewhat harder by the fact that I no longer have a car. The Land Rover Defender was the perfect vehicle for picking up a Christmas tree. It almost didn’t matter how big the tree was, we would get it in the back. 

Now, with only THG’s little Peugeot to transport it the sitch is a little different. We will need a seven footer, Norway Spruce. I’m going to take a tape measure to the car but I may need it delivering which I believe you do @William Rose (I’ll get in touch). Probably on Tuesday 16th. Don’t want it too soon. Apart from anything we are full on before then with not much time to spare for decorating.

My job is just to get the tree to the house and erected in its stand. I also have to get the decs down from the garage. Everything else is taken care of. It is a good system.

The festivities start this coming weekend with our annual Christmas carol singsong. We’ve held this for over thirty years. It used to be billed as the Christmas Market Party timed to coincide with the event of the same name in Lincoln. Since the city council in its infinite lack of wisdom chose to end the massively popular market that attracted a quarter of a million people each year and brought in a lot of money to local entities such as schools, sporting clubs and the Scouts we can no longer call it by the same name.

Last year was the first time we didn’t hold the singsong since its inception. I can’t remember exactly when it started. Was defo before 1992 as I remember that year I was in Anything Goes at the Theatre Royal and the cast came along for the party. Probably the best singing we’ve had. CAODS. This year it is back as the Not The Christmas Market Party. I need to get some supplies in this week. Refreshments.

Then it’s my birthday. Same date as Donny Osmond, @John Staz Storey and @Chris Weston. Also the same date as John Smith the erstwhile landlord of the Morning Star who passed away some time ago now. After he had retired, to a bungalow around the corner, I would swing by on our birthday for a chat and a beverage. Gin with a splash of tonic. John knew how to mix a G&T.

No idea what we will do this year. For my 60th birthday the date coincided with a trefbash so I effectively held a little soiree with 200 of my closest pals 🙂Good timing. This year I’ll probably just don a comfy pair of slippers and settle down in my favourite armchair to watch University Challenge with THG. Cocoa anyone?

The kitchen is awash with noise. Kettle boiling drowning out the sound of the Sunday service. The latter is just nice relaxing background music and words anyway. The boiling kettle signifies a second pot of tea in the making. Glug, glug. Glug. Good word, glug. I bet it was one of Shakespeare’s.

No rush to prepare breakfast. A variety of ingredients are available and I am sure that a satisfactory breaking of the fast is in prospect. Bagel is on the menu. I am able bagel. Tinned grapefruit. No preparation required other than opening the tin 🙂.

An organ bashes out a tune unknown. Unrecognisable at least. I can’t imagine they have an organist who isn’t able to play the instrument. Must be based on an actual piece of music. Turns out they were playing us out. Dee dee dee da dee…

Went to see an organist at the Cathedral last summer. He was famous for his improvisation skills. The programme had one ten minute piece of improv. I timed it, partly because I was getting bored with the entertainment. His piece of improvisation lasted thirteen minutes. That’s three minutes longer than billed. I mentioned this to him afterwards. Went right over his head 🙂 

A programme called Point of View has come on. It’s as bad as Thought for the Day. V boring. Sorry love. Monotone delivery. When you think about it the titles mean the same thing. Problem is I can’t be bothered to get up to turn off the wireless. Update, apaz we have to put up with it because Paddy McConnel is up next and THG likes him. Fair enuff.

…

The wireless is off and a cup of tea in hand in the snug. I like to finish off breakfast this way. Call it a routine. At least during the darker months. In spring and summer I tend to sit in the conservatory, sometimes with the doors open. Enjoying the outdoors indoors. Sometimes if it’s warm enough  I’ll even take breakfast out to the patio. Not today. The snug is warmer than the conservatory right now.

This morning the lawn is a lawn of two halves. One half has the leaves cleared and the other hasn’t. Significantly the football that has been there most of the summer is still in the middle of the lawn. Game of two halves. Hasn’t even been rolled by the wind. Hopefully the leaves will stay put until THG gets the rake onto them.

This afternoon we have a plethora of sporting choices to entertain us. The highlight is the key top of the table ish clash between the Peul and Man City followed after dinner by the snooker final. There are a few other games of lesser interest such as Man U v Everton. These bottom half of the table matches are of little interest to the majority other than perhaps as an opportunity to smile condescendingly at the performance of United in a mildly disinterested manner. Bless. An ongoing tale.

This morning I have a couple of jobs to do. I need to stuff the chicken. I am an expert at making stuffing. Then I have a bit of a craft job to do for THG who has made some small decorative Christmas trees but need a base making to enable them to stand up. I am happy to help here. It’s what you do innit. I’ve known the girl for thirty eight years, married for thirty six.

Mind you she does sometimes put highly ambitious things on the jobs list without understanding the implications. I’ll say to her that is a half a day job or a one dayer or it will need two of us as I can’t do that on my own. Or even that is physically impossible or we will have to pay someone to do that. The base for the little Christmas tree provides just the right mix of the amount of time needed and creative input required. 

Plus skill with hand tools. I was, being of an age, going to say “blokey type of things” but actually that would not be right. Our Hannah is impressively skilled with tools and diy. When I was at school boys did woodwork and metalwork and girls did cookery and sewing, or similar. That division of skills has quite properly been cast into the dustbin of history. 

Anyway it is after ten o’clock and I’m not dressed yet. Got a chicken to stuff. Ciao amigos.