where art collides philosoperontap

The house pongs to high heaven this morning. Darryl the plasterer came at the end of play last night and put some bitumen type paint down on the new workshop floor in preparation of putting down the insulation and plywood. Can’t see that it will have dried by the time he comes this morning, especially as it is supposed to have a second coat before he starts work but we shall see. I am not the expert.

It’s going to be the hottest day so far of this particular spell of fine weather. The media are calling it a heatwave but they like to be a bit on the dramatic side innit. I don’t envy Darryl having to work in it though. We will be glad when the work is finished. At least the skip went yesterday. When I got back from the pool it had been replaced by an electrician’s van. All the electrics are now sorted, at least in the workshop.

Up at five thirty as is quite often the case at this time of year. Best time of day. Have come out onto the deck to enjoy the early morning feel. There is that light misty feel to it although it’s not really mist. Hazy. Still slightly damp.

Reminds me about the time I slept on a beach in Greece. I had hitchhiked from Bangor with no real idea of destination other than a cardboard sign emblazoned with the words with St Tropez. I had just finished my first year at uni and wanted to do something with the summer. I walked to the edge of town and a few days later believe it or not ended up in St Tropez! St Tropez was too expensive. I think I must only have had a couple of hundred quid for the whole trip, if that. So I left St Tropez and at a roundabout outside the town bumped into someone going to Greece. Seemed like a good idea so there I went.

I can’t remember the stitch that found me kipping on the beach but I woke up at dawn, partly due to the nuisance of the insects, and strolled into a village where I bought some bread and jam for breakfast and then stuck my thumb out. It took me six hours to get a lift during which time the sun rose higher and higher and I ended uop having to hug a wall to stay in the shade.

I did eventually get a lift off a guy who took me a good distance and dropped me off in a layby. I stuck my thumb out again but before long a police car rolled up and a fierce looking Greek cop with dark glasses and a gun got out of the car. Ey oop I thought. However he ignored me and proceeded to pull cars over in a seemingly random way. Omg I thought again. Who the hell was going to stop to give me a lift with the cop car there. Nobody.

It got worse. Next up three green buses pulled in and out poured a load of soldiers in uniform. I now couldn’t even see the road! I sat on the kerb to contemplate the sitch when a squaddie stopped to talk to me. He understood the awkwardness of the situation and had a chat with the cop who proceeded to pull in the next car and asked (told) the driver to give me a lift. Fair play to him. I must dig out my diary of the trip and digitise it.

Back to the present I’ve now moved inside the shed because insects were beginning to take an interest in me on the deck. I am an insect magnet. Avon Skin So Soft for the win. Also it is all of a sudden nearly twenty past six. Time to make the tea…

There must surely be someone called Brian working at the Met Office. If not a Brian then there will definitely be a John. Anyway if you believe in the great weather god Brian the temperatures today are going to be up to thirty degrees Centigrade. This is v hot for around ere and I’d like to suggest that your best way of surviving this extreme heat is to not consider doing any manual work. I certainly won’t be.

Really the sensible thing to do is to find a nice bar with a deck looking out between colourful flowery bushes (pick your own brand) onto an azure bay bordered by ivory beaches and palm trees. Stay in a shady spot but drink lots of liquids to keep you hydrated. Watch exotic birds flit in and out of the shrubbery in front of you.

I was thinking particularly of Jambe de Bois on Pigeon Island in St Lucia. John and I came across the place by accident. We had been dropped off at a private beach by the boat from the Hilton in order to do some snorkelling. The snorkelling turned out to be great with hundreds of fish swimming around us near the reef.

After a while we strolled up to the lookout point to see whether any men of war were coming into sight and then continued around the island until we found the bar and decided we could go no further.

This weather reminded me of that place. I would go back were it not for the fact that google says it is temporarily closed (fingers crossed it reopens) and that there are lots of other places to go and see in this little ole world of ours. It isn’t quite as close as Skegvegas or Maybo. It must be said that the only advantages that Skegvegas has over St lucia is the fish and chips but I couldn’t see me wanting British stye fish and chips in da Caribbean, man.

It is currently quite cloudy but in Brian we trust. As I speak I am taking tea on the deck, between the shed and the lake. The lake needs plants which we plan to source from a garden centre called Waterworld or similar on the Wirral. It’s a long way to go and buy a few plants but we are going anyway sometime in the autumn, when the worst of the Lincolnshire summer heat has abated, and will find it convenient to stop by. They also have a caff, natch.

My day is mostly mapped out. A few admin type bits this morning followed by my now customary swim. Did a PB of 51 mins front crawl yesterday. It’s a tradeoff between how long do you want to stay in the pool versus getting a good amount of exercise. I am certainly feeling the benefits especially with the strengthening of the hips although it isn’t going to stop me needing the other one done, planned for 28th October.

Kristian the electrician has moved his slot at ours until this afternoon which is fine for us though he will find it a bit warm. 2nd fix. I was in there this morning opening the windows and am thinking that the steel shelving could go on the left hand side as opposed to the right which has been my initial thinking. I’ll only really know when the floor is down and we move the bench into place. It will all happen next week, if it is the will of Brian. 

I will need to build an extension to the bench. I have some scaffold planks in mind that should do the job. When it comes to benches size matters. Pondering putting some metal sheeting in the corner as a place where I can let sparks fly. I’ve got a little used grinding wheel, picked up for next to nothing in Lidl years ago, that rarely gets an outing. Its time has come 🙂  Those kitchen knives won’t know they’re born.

In the meantime the cathedral bells have heralded the hour of nine, I have finished my tea and will now move into the shed to do that admin job. 

Ciao amigos.

Sat out on the deck after breakfast, pot of tea a brewing. Another perfect day in prospect. A black cat has strolled nonchalantly into the garden. It’s after birds. We have wrens, robins and blue tits tweeting away merrily. I’ll be cross if it gets one. It has now moved through the beech hedge to next door. Dunno who it belongs to. It wears a collar.

I’m not a cat person. I don’t mind them but not a big enough fan to want one meself. Same goes for dogs. I like the idea of a dog but they are too much hassle to look after.

I have decided to redo the wildflower meadow after this year. There is still too much grass in it and no wildflowers. Well I did have one tiny flower appear early on in the season and there is a clump of bluish coloured ones right at the far end, near the greenhouse. Didn’t do a proper job preparing the ground. I just ran a scarifier over the area and raked in the seed. This time I’ll dig up the turf.

I have half an eye on installing an irrigation system for the borders to be ready for next year. THG not massively enthused with the idea but I’ll develop it and see how it does. Put the design in front of the committee. Run it up the flagpole. That sort of thing. We are also going to put in a few more raised beds. I’ve never been a gardener but there is no harm in getting involved in a few projects. Especially now that we will have a workshop.

Back in the pool this morning. Work off the weekend excesses. Not that it was a particularly excessive weekend. Next weekend we will have Hannah and George with us and a trip has been arranged to the curry house in Burton Waters. It gets good writeups but we’ve never been so I’m looking forward to it. Also having afternoon tea at the Teahouse in the Woods in Woodhall Spa. On the Sunday.

Ciao 4 now.

…

bought a new water butt innit. replaces one of the ones serving the greenhouse that had gone out of shape in the heat. no way we can get it back on its stand so we’ve left it to be emptied gradually by the irrigation system which has now been turned off. Far too hot to do it this pm so will sort in the morning. we have a bonus extra stand which we can use to prop up the water butt now by the potting shed.

Oh em ef in gee tis another stunner out there. Have moved early to the shed so that I can, with doors flung wide open, enjoy the morning. Breakfast was a simple slice of wholemeal toast with half an avo, smashed, as they like to describe it in restaurants although really just mashed up with a fork, half a chilli, a few chopped walnuts and a squirt of lime juice. On the side was a single rasher of bacon. None of this supermarket rubbish. Even Waitrose can’t come up with bacon as good as you get from a butcher, in our case Fosters on Monks Road.

THG is checking her empire. I dare say I will do some watering this morning whilst she attends to her devotions. I also need to nip to United Carpets down the road behind Tesco to look for a bit of vinyl for the new workshop floor. Darryl the plasterer finished last night. Quite late as he was still smoothing away with his finishing trowel (I looked it up) when I was tending to the barbecue. The chicken thigh kebabs marinated according to some Japanese recipe THG came across in the Waitrose weekly publication (paper?) proved to be succulent and deelish.

Today’s breakfast conversation included the fact that Monty had recommended I now mow the wildflower meadow, taking care to remove the clippings. Reality is that wildflowers have been few and far between this year. I am going to reseed it. Plenty left in the box. There are patches of bare soil around the shores of my lake that are also an obvious target for the scattering of flower seeds. I shall imitate the effects of nature 🙂 

It is going to be a week or more before the workshop becomes fully operational. Kristian the electrician is coming on Tuesday to do the second fix and the floor and skirting are going down on Wednesday. I think it is Wednesday. The dates keep changing. Then we can paint the walls and finally put down the vinyl.

I will be under some pressure to start using the workshop having gone to the effort of getting it done. Every bloke should have a workshop, and a shed. 

It’s looking like a beautiful day, as the song goes. Got a few jobs on the list today. Two of them involve calling an insurance company and the Lincoln City Council, both of which are classically a ball ache.

I did try calling the council three weeks or so. The phone was answered quite quickly which both surprised and impressed me. Then I realised I’d been diverted to a receptionist who couldn’t help at all other than to forward me to the right department. Having been second in the queue for fifteen minutes I gave up and took their “music on hold” advice to email them. The autoresponder told me they would be in touch within two weeks. Three weeks later they haven’t bothered. I did try calling a few times last week but their number was “unobtainable”. Sigh.

It is only on occasions like this that I switch on my “landline”. This is really a PoE driven VoIP phone associated with our long time Lincoln geographical number. It stays unplugged most of the time as it would otherwise ring persistently with spam and scam calls.

I am early to the shed. The shed is currently a temporary home to two bikes as they would have got in the way of Darryl the plasterer who passes through the garage to access his van and the skip. He only has a day or so left to do so the bikes will soon be back where they belong and, quite importantly, the skip removed from our lives. We have made good use of the skip, having ordered a bigger one than Darryl needed knowing that we had a lot of crap to shift.

A few other items have found their way into the shed including an axe and a pair of boots. These may bide a wee while longer until I think I’ve done everything I want to do re the log pile.

Today, btw, in case you didn’t know it, is Friday. That’s good innit? It has no real significance per se other than the fact that I give myself two days off from the pool over the weekend. This is because their off peak hours change for Saturday and Sunday and I can’t really be bothered to go to find out whether they are busy or not. I like to avoid busy times. When I arrived yesterday I took a peek through the windows looking onto the pool from the caff area and it did look quite full. By the time I had changed there was only one person left in and she soon got out so I had it to myself. I did 45 mins front crawl and then hit the spa for ten minutes.

On my way home I dropped in at the Mercedes garage as I have been toying with getting a car. Although these cars are quite luxurious, and if I got one I’d be after comfort, it put me off to a certain extent. The big push as you might imagine is electric/hybrid. I’m not ready for electric. For one thing they have small boots and massive depreciation and they are v expensive. I was more interested in diesel but these are very much on the way out apaz. I drove off in THG’s entry level Peugeot 208 thinking that my current strategy of borrowing her car occasionally was still fine.

The whole subject of cars confuses me. I’m not really a car person. Years ago I went to a “VoIP Executive Retreat” in Sophia Antipolis on the Cote D’Azur. Arriving at Nice Airport I swung by the car hire desk to pick up a machine. I only needed a car to drive about 10 miles there and ten miles back. During the conference the car would sit in the hotel car park.

So the girl behind the desk said they had a few different makes in and that I could choose. She rattled off a few different models and I stared back blankly at her. Then, to try and help out, I sked what colours they had available. This confused her. Finally she came up with a proposition. They had a really great deal on an Audi A8 going on right then. I took it without really comprehending how much it was going to cost. Ordinarily I didn’t think an Audi A8 was the kind of car the company would hire for me but if it was then ok and I said yes. I should have been a bit suspicious when she asked for two different credit cars as a guarantee in case of any issues.

I drove off to my hotel ten miles away thinking to myself that I had better not use the phone that was built in to the dash. After returning the car I was somewhat stunned to note that the bill for three days and twenty miles was around £550. Remember this was more than twenty years ago. It was a lot of dosh for a hire car in those days.

Back in the office I called the travel agent and explained the sitch. There was no way I could put £550 for a hire car through my expenses. At the time we were going through a few years with layoffs every Christmas. Didn’t make sense to stick your head above the parapet.

The travel agent got Avis, or whoever they were, to refund my car, put it though their own account and laundered the transaction somehow.

There is a follow up story to that. Once a month I used to fly to Canada for meetings. On one occasion I got a deal on an upgrade to the hire car and drove away in a big posh Lincoln Town Car. It actually made sense as there were five of us and we could all get in the one car. The slight embarrassment came the next day when I rocked up at HQ in this very big posh car and parked in front of the entrance. As we were getting out of the car our MD got out of his hire car which was something like a Fiat Punto. I could have fitted it in the boot of the Lincoln. Ah well.

Gotta go. A few more logs to sort out 🙂 

Golf last night wasn’t a disaster as I did win one of the longest drive comps. However I did add up the scores incorrectly whereby we paid Ajax a quid each for winning the front nine whereas it was really a tie. They will ask me to do the scoring! Afterwards to the Horse and Groom for a burger. Left my Tilley hat in the buggy so will need to retrieve that. Might pop over today before my swim.

We do need to find an acceptable post golf dining solution. We’ve been going to the Woodcocks which is on the way home but where the food is rubbish but cheap. Trouble is the low cost fare attracts lots of customers and nowadays there is usually an hour wait for nosh which is unacceptable. The H&G is more expensive but has a better burger and the food comes quickly.

Only three of us around for the golf as others were either busy or on holiday. Meant we had quite a relaxing afternoon of it.

No Darryl the plasterer van in the drive today as he has a wedding to go to but he is coming back Saturday morning just to apply the finishing touches. We are quite looking forward to getting rid of the skip and having the whole drive back. It’s a big drive for just one little Peugeot 208 but space equals convenience. We can get six or seven cars in at a push when we have visitors.

Today is going to be a pottering around day. Get a few little jobs done maybe (THG’s eyes suddenly light up). I can envisage a little more tidying up of the log pile which ain’t on her list but is on mine. I started a week or two ago but did not finish. The axe is in place in the shed as are the boots and the helmet/eye protector. The latter might be overkill but I can’t find my goggles. Does make me look a bit like a lumberjack. What’s not to like?

August is traditionally a quiet month. 

The great book clearout continues. Over the past four decades I’ve spent thousands of pounds on books but have reconciled myself to the fact that I’m not going to read most of them again. Some classics stay. I’m talking stuff like PG Wodehouse. It all comes with only a small tinge of nostalgia. Time was I’d read a book from start to finish on the settee. These were mostly pre world wide web days. Nowadays I have other things occupying my time.

Still got a few boxes of books in the attic to sort out. The decision process with those will be fairly rapid. If they have already been relegated to the attic to free up shelf space for more books downstairs then a degree of prescreening has already taken place. 

The news is I’m getting my left hip done. Had a good chat with the surgeon yesterday and am going to arrange a date with his secretary. Severe osteoarthritis. I feel quite good about it as the right hip hop was a real success. The left hip doesn’t stop me swimming, which is generally quite good for the hip but also for the rest of me, but it does stop me from walking properly. I will need to find an excuse other than the hip as to why my golf has been so crap but leave that with me. Maybe golf will improve 🙂 

A side effect of swimming is that I get fairly tired of an evening which can’t be a bad thing and I guess will diminish as I get fitter. The old pool at Yarborough has now reopened. It’s pretty cheap for an off peak membership but the pool is mostly given over to family fun swims so the few lane swimming sessions are likely to get busy. I’m unlikely to move back even though it’s a lot nearer our house. Once the summer holidays are over the family fun sessions are likely to morph into school swimming lessons which I guess is fair enough but just as inconvenient for us committed swimmers.

We’ve been having some work done on the house. The old single brick garage which is attached to the house since we did the side extension has only ever been used for storage. Now Darryl the Plasterer (for that is his name) has waved his magic trowel and we have a proper cavity wall with insulated lining. He is coming back next week to add a floor and once Kris the electrician has finished his bits we will be able to move my workbench in from the garage. The garage has no natural light and isn’t a place conducive to bench usage and creativity.

I already have my first project in mind. One of the drinks tables in the shed has two crates as a base and a couple of bits of scaffold planks glued together as a tabletop. These are going to have some sort of fixing that keeps the top in place on the crates and are then going to have various old tickets and leaflets glued to it as a funky cover. 

The other table, which is round and uses a coffee bean barrel as a base, has lots of old rum bottle labels stuck on it. These came from THG’s dad who used to collect them as part of his job as a customs and excise inspector. I scanned the originals and reprinted them. Wasn’t going to glue the real thing down. No way José.

I’m thinking I might also stencil something onto the side of the crates. Château Pétrus, or Corona or something. We shall see. Never tried Château Pétrus believe it or not. They’ve never had it on the wine list in the Woodcocks pub after golf on a Thursday. I have consumed Corona, yonks ago. Is it still a brand? 

The next job after that is to cut to size a piece of wood and affix to the end of the shelving unit in the shed so that I can conveniently position a drink (diet coke, milk, water, tea etc) when sat on the sofa. All good stuff.

When I built the shed my original thinking was that it would be a multifunction space that could accommodate a bench as well as a shed. However this doesn’t really fit with the serious work ethos of the building and so having a separate place for manual creative activity makes sense. During the first lockdown we had three of us working out of the shed and the spare desk remains for the use of any visitor requiring a temporary spot to plonk down for a conference call, spreadsheet manipulation or business planning. Yanow the sort of thing. Maybs.

The good weather seems to have returned for the moment and the shed doors are once again thrown wide open.

One good byproduct of having the new workshop is that I will need to review my collection of tools. A bloke can never have too many tools although I may take the opportunity to rationalise my collection of screwdrivers of which I have far too many in the red plastic box in the garage. I will also be moving my “History of the Adjustable Spanner” book from its place in the shed to the steel shelving unit that is going to run down the side wall. The wood recognition book that I bought from Axminster Tools can also go in there. Makes sense to me.

Unfortunately Axminster Tools in Cardiff closed its doors earlier this year. V sad. They do have another branch but I believe it may be in Axminster and thus nowhere near anywhere I am likely to be anytime soon. The Cardiff branch was always worth a bit of a pilgrimage. Almost a reason to go to Cardiff by itself. That and the beer in The Corp which is around the corner from our Sue’s.

Anyway gotta go. I’m rereading “Hanes Plwyf Llandyssul” by Y Parch W.J.Davies. Several relatives get a mention and it reveals more everytime I open it.

Sbeen a great summer of test crikit innit. Ordinarily I head to the pool at around 11ish but am going to delay it today to catch the end of the game. It’s reignin ere but I think the forecast is clear for the Oval so we should see a conclusion this morning.

It’s one of those dilemmas. The game could go either way today and we only need a draw to win the series but I guess both sides would prefer a win so we do need the rain to stay off the Oval. Exciting eh?

Got a nice quiet week ahead of us. A couple of quiet ones actually which is good. Get some swimming in. Bit of golf. Stuff like that….

Raining again, just after I hung my swimming trunks and towel on the line. It’s quite nice rain and I don’t particularly have anything on this pm so a relaxing afternoon in prospect. Bit of reading, bit of research. Also need to make a fresh batch of vinaigrette as I finished off the last of the previous batch over the weekend. Bought some more vinegar speshully.

Had a bacon sarnie for breakfast and am now sat in the snug with a cuppa. Figured, with it being a Sunday, I’d sit and read the paper just like we used to do in the good old days. The paper is on my laptop but the principle is still the same.

The only problem is there is bugger all of interest. Didn’t take long to read the sporting news. Not particularly positive coverage of the British and Irish Lions nor the cricket. At least the Imps got the season off to a good start with a two nil win at home against Reading. Far too early to start the football season though.

So this morning I think I’ll ease into some more jobs. Firstly I’m going to dismantle the compost bin I started yesterday. Turns out you aren’t supposed to use blue pallets as the paint is not good for the compost, apaz. Will be easy enough to find more pallets. The blue one can go in the skip. Also going to have another look around in the attic to see what else we might be able to discard.

At some stage I need to stuff the chicken. I do a good stuffing. A skill learnt from me dear old mammaa. Bought a white sliced loaf on Friday especially. It was reduced to 85 pence and I had a 50 pence off voucher so it only cost 35 pee. Barg, especially as it didn’t matter how fresh it was, going as it is into the cavity of a chicken. There is no rush for any of this although a few drops of rain are forecast for this morning so it might do to get the compost bin sorted before then.

Too late. It’s started to rain. I heard it before I saw it as the conservatory roof began making pitter patter raindrop sounds. Quite relaxing. It is the sabbath so I shouldn’t come down too hard on meself if I don’t get some jobs done. Manãna Tref, manãna. The forecast is nice for this afternoon anyway. 

We in the UK seem to spend an inordinate amount of time talking about the weather. Makes you wonder what they have to talk about in places where it is always sunny. “Apparently it is going to be sunny this afternoon,” or “I wonder what the weather is going to be like today? Can I hang the washing out?”. V boring I’m sure 🙂 

Ciao amigos.

The tidying at the bottom of the garden continues. You know, the bit behind the greenhouse, next to the side of the shed. My objective is to have a compost heap in place by the time THG gets home tomorrow. Lots of old crap to extract from the ground. Rotting bits of fence that need to go on the skip whilst we still have it. I have two pallets, one old hardwood garden table top and a bit of fence panel to use. The fence panel is a bit flimsy but we’ll have to see how we get on with it. The biggest ball ache is carting the rotting old bits of wood to the skip. Will be foine. Taking a short break to consume a can of diet coke and watch some cricket.

We used to have a compost heap in the corner where the shed now stands. It eventually made way for the wendy house that became a garden store when the kids stopped playing with it. The wendy house made way for the shed. We still have one of the panels, now used as a wall for the “secret” garden. For a number of years now the compost heap has been one of those plastic jobs purchased from B&Q but we really need one that will take all the garden detritus, much of which goes in the green bin.

Found some useful slabs of York stone in the ground with the rotting fence which is a result. You can’t have too much York stone. A few years ago we bought a load leftover from a job on Facebook Marketplace. I had just taken delivery of the brand new Land Rover Defender and one of its first jobs was to bring back half a ton of stone with the rear seats laid flat. What’s not to like?

We now have stepping stones across the meadow. Next to the lake in front of the decking by the shed. Visitors have been taking a shortcut across the meadow to get to the shed ignoring the sign that says please keep to the path. Actually there isn’t a sign but when I see people taking the short cut I call out (shout) to them but they don’t always take any notice, especially if they’ve had a beer or two. 

I did once spot THG doing the same when I was stood in the kitchen window. I had a quiet word after that incident but have bowed to the inevitable and put down a couple of small slabs of york stone. It’s all about managing the environment.

The stone which has simply been laid on top of the meadow grass should bed down nicely in time. Merge into the landscape. It will be as if they have always been there. I am under some pressure to build THG a couple of raised beds just in front of the existing one. That can wait until the workshop has been finished. She needs to let me have a spec anyway.

Our friend Jen from Geralds Close over the back has promised THG some aquatic plants to populate the lake. She has seen some degree of success with her pond (as they like to call these things in Geralds Close). I wonder whether at one time it was Gerald’s Close and has suffered from dumbing down at the council. I refer you to The Jamjar of Apostrophes.

This morning we are going to reattempt to deliver books to the Oxfam Bookshop in the Cornhill. Yesterday’s post 4pm attempt was called off by THG who reported hordes of the great unwashed public milling around the pedestrian areas in front of the shop. They are perfectly at liberty to do this despite vehicular access being allowed after 4pm (and before 10am hence this morning’s trip) but I have never been able to understand why anyone would want to go there.

I guess without the apparent public enthusiasm to walk around the shops, drink coffee, eat lunch etc the very existence of the Oxfam bookshop would be under threat. Second hand bookshops are one of the few types of shop I like to visit. The trouble is I struggle to find anything on my specialist subject of interest in Lincolnshire, to whit Carmarthenshire local history.

Had a bit of a result yesterday when flicking through a book on “Welsh Methodism and the International Evangelical Revival, 1735-1750” I came across a letter written by Hywel Harris whilst staying on our farm Maesnonni in 1748. HH was gushing about the fact that he had raised a load of dosh for an orphanage after preaching at the farm. Fair play. At the time we had 12 “members” gathering there for meetings. My 6g gf David Jones had died in 1743 so the meetings would have been hosted by my 6g gm Elinor, widowed at quite a young age. Strong woman.

Gorrago. Books to deliver.

…

Mission accomplished re books. There are more to go but THG has informed me that the rest of the sorting can wait as “we have lots of other stuff to sort out that are of higher priority”. Rome wasn’t built in a day you know.

Proper zonked after a couple of nights away in the campervan. It isn’t so much the nights in the van. It’s the full on nature of the weekend away with our pals. Gawd knows what time we finished last night. I keep an eyeshade in the van so that the light mornings don’t wake me up. Although the van has curtains we ain’t talking blackout grade here.

THG is now on her way back from the metropolis and last night’s Oasis gig. Trains are all up the spout due to an electrical problem somewhere between London and Stevenage. I watched a Robbie Williams/Take That tribute band. I did recognise some of the tunes but not really my thang. The audience had a good time. Lots of people up boogying.

This morning a very kind pal did me a bacon sarnie and we eased into the day. Campervan Betty has had her engine reconditioned and did us proud although we found a few bits and bobs that need sorting. We haven’t used Betty for three years.

Somewhat sluggish start to the day. Had a great night out last night at The Phoenix Arts Club where our son Tom put on a quiz. It was a hilarious evening. We did badly on the music section where the answers mostly seemed to be artists still in their twenties. Not a single question about the Beatles. When I looked up it was twenty to midnight. Waaay past my bedtime. Taxi back to the hotel in Angel.

Bussed it this morning to Kings Cross. It’s one of those lovely mornings that announce a hot day ahead. Now on the train home. THG picking me up from the stayshun then it’s packing to go to the Heckington Show in campervan Betty. If you are going let’s meet up.

Bit bleary eyed this morning. Catching the seven thirty to London. Whenever I catch this train, which ain’t that often these days without any compelling reasons to get to London early in the day, I never sleep well. Sorrite. A bacon roll and a cuppa will perk me up.

I’m in London as I’ve entered a team for our Tom’s Fairly Substantial Quiz. A few tix left if you are in London and fancy a fun evening. The quiz is on tonight but I’ve booked a table at the National Archives in Kew for the day. Got some old docs relating to Llanllwni I want to take a look at. V interesting hopefully.

I’m trying to establish the pattern of Landownership in the Parish. Some of it will have been owned by the Prince of Deheubarth at the time, some by the church and some by freemen. In 1291 a guy called Walter Wynter gave half his stake in Llanllwni church to the Bishop of St Davids. In 1330 Walter gave his half to the prior and canons of Carmarthen Priory. In the process, 44 local “comportioners” or the freemen who had a stake in the gaff had to be sorted out. Walter was Archdeacon of Carmarthen and a crony of the English king.

I can’t see that the archives will give me the detail I’m after, ideally names of freemen and their farms, but you never know and if you don’t ask… The people’s names themselves are of secondary importance as in those days they would probably not have had surnames so almost impossible to tie to my own family. However the farm names could be interesting. I doubt people would have moved farms in those days.

I’ll stop there but be assured if I find anything interesting I will let you know asap :).

It’s quite miserable out there. I put on a fleece at the last minute just in case although all I’ve packed is a clean pair of pants and a shirt. The fleece is handy for keeping wallet and phone in zipped pocket. We are talking London. Big bad city. Eyes in the back of your head etc.