where art collides philosoperontap

My first gin and tonic for a week. Been a good boy innit. Sat here in the shed sipping away whilst dad has a cuppa tea. He has had both biscuits so seems fair.

Mega busy day today. After breakfast started the dough for tomorrow’s bread bake. It is now in its tin ready to prove overnight in the fridge. Actually a bit of a rush this pm as not only had lots of work on but took dad to the surgery for his flu jab. Had to call my regular pharmacist to ascertain that he would be happy to make up the dosset – dad’s medication is complicated – 8 pills first thing then three other lots over the rest of the day. At the docs they said few pharmacies are doing that now due to workload but seeing as I was a regular they agreed to do it for dad (phew – would have been pretty complicated for me to do myself otherwise).

Back to the hoose afterwards, dropped dad in front of the South Africa v England T20 then in to make the pancake mix followed by putting the bread dough in the tin (skipped the dusting/tensioning stage and just bunged it in tin). Now in the shed meself with my gin, as previously mentioned.

We are officially in Tier 3 which ain’t good. If you look at the national covid infection rates map Lincoln glows bright red so it comes as no surprise really. Ah well. 3 weeks into Lockdown 2. At least the gyms are reopening so will hopefully be able to get back into the pool.

Now sat in shed with dad watching “Cofiwch Dryweryn” with Huw Stephens on S4C. It is dark outside at 16.40. Quite fancy a beer but it’s a non starter. Dad would want one and not sure that would be sensible. Saving it for the rugby on Saturday. Wales v England. Might be England v Wales. Will find out soon enough.

Swung by Fosters this morning, now reopened after their covid scare. Purchaysed some sausages, bacon and a rib of beef for Sunday dinner. Dad came for a spin and we did the sights of Lincoln. Brayford, Castle and Cathedral. Usual things.

Back at home we had sandwiches for lunch. Home cooked ham on homemade sourdough bread with president butter. This evening I made bruschetta with the sourdough – v tasty fair play to me.

We finished watching Huw Stephens in dad’s room after dinner then a substitute carer rocked up (early) due to the planned person’s daughter being ill. I’m quietly laughing here as she seems nearly as old as dad 🙂 He was certainly taller than her and dad, in his old age, is shrinking not growing.

Wow where did that one go? Got going on a new loaf today and that is now in a tin in the fridge proving overnight. It’s looking promising and I am optimistic of the outcome. Also made a celeriac remoulade a la last night’s Mastercheff. Turned out great – served with pan fried salmon fillets, sauteed spuds and asparagus tips. Not too heavy and v delish.

Been busy with customer proposals today. Getting set for 2021 with lots of new projects coming out of the woodwork, notably from South Africa. In the afternoon had dad in the shed – stuck some S4C Welsh language programmes on iPlayer for him. Some good stuff fair play although the documentary on the river Ganges was a bit on the boring side.

Today Tom moved into his new flat with BBC Radio 1 colleague Jacob. Near the Arsenal ground and a 20 minute walk from Hannah which is exciting. Won’t be long before they are all home for Christmas. The Christmas lockdown rules published yesterday tell us they are all ok to come home. The biggest issue now is whether Lincoln will be in Tier 1 post lockdown on 2nd December. Influences what happens on my birthday on 9th December.

Nipped out this morning to get some supplies. Fosters was shut. There were some notices on the door but didn’t stop to read. WIll pop down tomorrow now as I need a joint of beef for Sunday and some bacon and sausages for general weekend breakfasting.

Once the carer has been and gone we are going to settle down to watch Liverpool v Atalanta in the European Champions League (European Cup)

First day for dad with carers today. They can’t come until 8.50 so I’m sat here somewhat nervously waiting. Looking like a nice sunny day out and most of the leaves appeared to have dropped. Fairly busy day ahead with Netaxis meetings and the arrival of the carpet fitters to do John’s bedroom. It will be our main guest bedroom although John is clinging on to ownership which is fair enough. We effectively have two spare double rooms plus two singles.

Currently in the front room so that I can see the carer arriving. Will set the fire for the weekend in here. It’s a lovely room to sit in and a perfect size for the fireplace. 

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Carer here. Charlotte. Very cheerful and dad seems to get on with her. Whether 45 minutes is enough remains to be seen. Charlotte is a Lincoln City fan. I now have the carer schedule. There are a few of them lined up to come which isn’t ideal but I guess we are lucky to be able to get them.

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Ended up a busy day with conference calls left right and centre (so to speak) including a chat with Joe re Anne’s Vans website. Had lunch with dad and Anne and have since been in the shed with the occasional cup of tea being delivered. In other news Sue has booked herself into the White Hart from 23rd to 28th December. She has booked a double room so will be able to entertain one guest for breakfast each day. There will not be a shortage of nephews and niece to do breakfast with her. Also there is the cocktail bar!

Nice mediterranean pork casserole for dinner tonight.Then GBBO with Anne and dad after carer had been and gone.

First time I had to get up and get dad ready for the day. Not going to go into details but I’m glad we have a carer lined up to do this on an ongoing basis. It is tough enough having to do the day job without also having to sort out your elderly dad as well.

In other news it is a nice crisp day out. Temperature dropped to just above freezing overnight. Cosy enough in the shed. Had a meeting rescheduled this morning so the afternoon has a clear diary. Doesn’t mean I have nothing to do obvs.

Decked dad out in fleece, coat my best/warmest timberland gloves, my black yak himalyayan wooly hat, Tom’s scout blanket and the really nice warm woollen blanket stolen many years ago from Air Canada business class having ascertained from the flight attendant that nothing would be done about it if caught. Not seen any other airline blanket in the same league since. The BA First Class cabin ones are duvets not blankets and not only too large to pinch but also it wouldn’t have been appropriate 🙂

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Dark out now. Dad ensconced in front of back to back Lucy Worsley documentaries or similar. Anne on one of her regular zoom call with mates and I have done enough work for the day and am chillin a bit. Ordinarily would consider cracking open a beer but a) it is a Monday and b) I think having dad here is going to put the kybosh on that until Christmas. Need to have all my wits about me. Innit.

Today Boris announced the new tier system post this current lockdown. How it affects us is going to come down to which Tier we are in and there is no clue yet as to how they decide that. This morning when I looked Lincolnshire was 44th worst in the country for covid infection rates. I understand we will find out on Thursday. 

It is potentially going to affect my Land Rover experience Day out on my birthday in December plus we have one or two nights out planned with friends post lockdown. Need to be in Tier 1 but suspect Tier 2.

Cardiff. Out for beer and curry last night with Sue after picking up a few bits from dad’s flat. Collecting him from hospital at 11am this morning. I am glad he is coming home to Lincoln for a few weeks but there is an element of trepidation as I’m not sure yet how much looking after he will take. It will at least keep me off the gin for a while 🙂

Now just chilling at Sue’s.  Car is loaded up and I have just enough battery left on my phone to last until we set off and I can plug it in. Forgot to bring a charger with me innit. 

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Uneventful drive back to Lincoln and now unpacked, fed watered and settling down in dad’s room (the TV room) to watch the Liverpool v Leicester game.

Awake at around 5am so now downstairs. Still very much dark outside although the presence of lights everywhere are a noticeable feature of the hour. LEDs in the shed, bedroom, TV room, kitchen, bathroom and shower room and the streetlights on the road at the front of the house. Anne’s turn to make the tea this morning but I will do it seeing as I’m up and about.

Off to Cardiff later this morning to see Sue and get sorted for bringing dad back to Lincoln tomorrow. I may not have time for a diary entry tomorrow. Will see what can be done:)

Booked dad in for a flu jab next Friday. Last week when I called to register him with the practice I was on hold on the phone for 70 minutes starting at number 4 in the queue. Yesterday I started at number 6 so settled in for a long wait and began a festival meeting with Tom. Suddenly after 16 minutes I was through to the receptionist and caught completely by surprise. When I mentioned this to her she thought I was complaining but actually I was pleasantly surprised.

More anon…

Week 3 well underway. Doesn’t feel like the first lockdown although that might be because we had all the kids home for months. Outside temperature plummeted last night. Down to 1.69℃  in the greenhouse which is colder than the outside sensor – due almost certainly to the insulation of the Stevenson’s screen. Warm enough in the shed where the temperature varies between 18℃ and 21℃ depending on what I’ve set it to. It’s a good job we replaced the central heating this year.

We have been busy in the house. John’s room is being emptied in readiness for the carpet fitters coming to fit a new carpet on Tuesday. It isn’t a new carpet per se. It’s from Anne’s friend Ange’s front room but it is new to John’s bedroom. I was somewhat sceptical initially but it does look ok in fairness. 

At the same time we have been shifting furniture out of the TV room and installing Hannah’s bed. Dad is coming to stay with us for a few weeks starting Sunday. Better he was with us than cooped up in a care home over Christmas. Having him to stay won’t be without its challenges but we have carers lined up to help him first thing and last thing.

Today is a Friday which can be busy ish workwise. My first meeting is at 10am so I’m sat here just doing stuff before then. The blackbirds are being quite vociferous in the garden. Interesting to reflect on a year in the shed based on how wide open the doors are. Today they are closed but up until a few days ago they would be at least ajar and only closed if it was particularly noisy outside and I needed to make phone calls/video conferences.

Last year the term video conference was in common usage although the genre might have not been mainstream. It was enough of an event for it to have a specific name. Nowadays it would feel strange to call a zoom or teams meeting a video conference. It’s so last year!

Just had a bit of a shock. A female blackbird just flew into the shed sliding door glass. Fortunately just turned around and went back in the same direction as it had come. You can imagine the bird thinking “wtf was that!?”.

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Another bit of a shock came in the post at lunchtime – forgot to do my VAT return for September – oops. Looking at it there were transactions going back to July that I hadn’t reconciled. All sorted now. Phew.

A gentle rain falls in the back garden.

John has gone back to Brum on the train.

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Work is done for the week. I am now sipping a Tiny Rebel Cali Pale and chatting on social media. It is very dark out and midwinter is fast approaching. I think I will put some Christmas Carols on the music centre/hifi/speakers in the shed. Once in Royal David’s City…

Bought a wheelchair and an upright chair for dad in the tv room – his temporary bedroom for 6 weeks or so. Today has been a busy mix of sorting out the room, sorting out work emails and sorting out the Anne’s Vans campervan booking and marketing activity. We are signing up with Cool Camping to see how it goes. I like the brand association. Got a lot of work to do now as they are having a big launch on 15th December. Spin to Waitrose. Bought a few treats including a box of Tunnocks Tea Cakes, sourdough crumpets and a 4 pack of Tiny Rebel craft beer. I only went for a pack of smoked salmon and some milk but I knew there would be more to it than that. Now watching  programme on Ronnie Scotts on iPlayer. It’s a top gaff. Very inspirational for our own festival. Check out beyondthewoods.co.uk.

Overslept somewhat, if you can call 07.20 oversleeping. Woke to a dig in the ribs and a reminder that it was my turn to make the tea! Now cooking sausages on the George Foreman. Another busy day ahead.

It looks like a nice day out, as November goes. Not a bad month November usually characterised by the phased ending of Autumn and the approach of full on Winter. The build up to Christmas is well underway with parcels beginning to arrive and getting my brain around the food shop that tends to remain unaltered year on year.

Calling the doctors surgery to temporarily get dad on their books. In 27 mins of holding I’ve gone from caller number 4 to number 2 in queue. These probably are exceptional times. Just have the monotonous music on hold in background plus the repetitive message apologising and telling me these are difficult times. Got through after an hour and 10 minutes. 45 second conversation determined that I needed to pop into the surgery. Spoke to the receptionist through the letter box and now dad is registered!

Next stop is finding the right local support for his trip. Stay tuned.

V busy day workwise and homewise. Niece Lils has been tested covid +ve and is at home along with the rest of her year group. This gives us a problem as dad, who is currently in hospital was going to stay with my sister Ann and family for a few weeks but now can’t so we are switching to having him here which is logistically a little more involved but doable.

In other news John is temporarily home from uni. His housemates have all gone home so was on his own in the house during lockdown so baled out himself. Mental health is a real issue during this pandemic. For someone to be stuck alone in a student garret is not a good recipe. Bojo would approve of our actions.

Other than that it’s been a busy day. Work work work. 2021 budget prep time. Rarely talk about work here but it doesn’t do the reader any harm to hear about it once in a while. 

Dinner was cauliflower curry with banana leaves! Now it’s a quiet night in front of the TV watching University Challenge. Anne is v good at UC. Programme about the night Notre Dame Cathedral caught fire. Interessant.

The Sabbath!! In Abrahamic religions, the Sabbath (/ˈsæbəθ/; Hebrew: שַׁבָּת‎) is a day set aside for rest and worship. According to the Book of Exodus, the Sabbath is a day of rest on the seventh day, commanded by God to be kept as a holy day of rest, as God rested from creation.

Today I will be mostly resting. I have presumably one way or another spent the last 6 days creating and thus a good rest is called for. My 4xgreat grandfather the reverend Daniel Davies was excommunicated from the Baptist Church in Llandysul because he allowed a worker to do some farm work on a Sunday. A few years later he was reinstated. Apaz the worker did it without old Dan knowing. Musta caused a lot of consternation at the time. Not much open on a Sunday in those days either so you can understand why someone might have wanted to get out of the house and do a bit of tidying up on the top field. Or similar.

It is light out but I hear rain on the conservatory roof.

Today I am anticipating making the Christmas pudding. I say anticipating. I’ve never made a  Christmas pudding before. I have the ingredients afaik although every recipe seems to be a different variant. Will be foine.

Having walked to the shed I find that it is really chucking it down. Unusually for me I’m watching the F1 race from Turkey. I was in Istanbul maybe 7 years ago. One day must revisit outside the corporate cocoon that was the HP CIO panel meeting at the Sheraton.

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Picked the last few apples from the tree behind the shed. Could have harvested a lot more when we did all the trees but there are so many at the peak it’s quite a bit of work. It’s fined up whilst I’ve been watching the F1 hence the apple picking. Also did a customer proposal whilst the F1 was on. Wot?! On the Sabbath…

Saturday. Typically miserable British November which I quite like. Slow start actually apart from the fact that I had booked a slot at the tip for 08.15 which meant that I had to get up and showered earlier than would otherwise have made sense on a Saturday. Bought a steak from Fosters en route home. Tonight’s tea.

This morning’s loaf, a multigrain, came out a little flat. Smells ok so I’m sure the flavour will be fine but I think it was too hydrated and a bit of it stuck to the peel as I was “sliding” it into the oven. Ah well. You live but never learn.

Now sat in the shed watching the rugby build up whilst listening to Norah Jones. It’s a nice shed, mine. A shiver of relaxation has just run through my shoulders.  Quite fancy a cuppa but it will wait until I go in for a spot of lunch.  Outside, owl Solomon stands guard. Whilst Solomon watches over us all will be well.

Looking through the french windows the apple trees are mostly denuded of foliage. We are entering the time of the year when last preparations for winter are being made. I like the bunkered down feeling although we have had more than our fair share of it this year. There will come a time when I’ll be glad that Spring is about to arrive but we are not yet at that point. 

The build up to the mid winter feast, ie Christmas, is always a good one. Even this year where the likelihood of the usual calendar of events will not happen we still have some of the build up: present buying (mostly online as usual), food planning etc. No parties or booze ups. No trefbash (Google it) in London, no Christmas Market Party or Morning Star Carol Session. Even Capacity Yorkshire is unlikely to happen. This is a very private pub crawl attended by those who run the internet from their homes in and around Yorkshire.

I suspect it will be a relatively subdued end to a year the like of which none of us has experienced before.

It is quite still out. A very gentle movement of foliage in front of the deck. A pink flower sways a little more. The sunflower shaped bird feed holder on a spike stands motionless, bereft of bird seed. I haven’t been very good at feeding the birds this year. Perhaps too preoccupied with other matters.

A well as the trip to the tip I have another job I plan to attempt this pm. Anne has a small table that she wants some tiles sticking to the top of. Will sit nicely on the deck in front of the shed and be useful to put drinks on in the summer. Her own attempt last year was with some sort of white filler type of stuff that was rated for indoor only and failed over the winter. I purchaysed some bathroom sealant which I’m hoping will do the job. I couldn’t really see anything else that might fit the bill. So the table is in the greenhouse poised and ready to be tiled on the staging. The sealant has been moved from the garage to the greenhouse. All that remains is for me to brush off some accumulated debris and stick the tiles down. Easy huh? 🙂

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Times stuck on but ran out of sealant. The other tube I have is translucent rather than white which I will need to finish the grouting. 90% there anyway. I also cut a piece of foam to size for Anne to make a cushion cover for a chair in the main guest bedroom. That, I do believe, is the jobs list done for today. Tomorrow I am making a Christmas pudding for which I went to Waitrose this morning to buy a bottle of Remy Martin VSOP. This is the minimum quality of brandy I am prepared to consume and was on offer down from £37 to £30. Good deal.

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Dusk quietly moves in on an unsuspecting Lincoln. Where did that day go? The rugby is still on the telly and the lights are on in the kitchen. More because I left them on after half time than because there is anyone in there. I popped in to chip some spuds and chop a couple of banana shallots. Tonight’s dinner will be a classic steak, chips and peas with mushrooms, caramelised onions and some home made granary sourdough bread and butter. The weather in Twickenham is atrocious.I have cracked open a can of diet coke.

Day nine in the locked down Davies house. Tref and Anne are having breakfast. One of us has opted for bran flakes with granola and the other a bacon sandwich. I’ll leave you to decide who had what 🙂

The weather is not particularly nice this morning although there is an interesting autumnal light in the back garden. The apple tree behind the greenhouse has lost most of its leaves but still has quite a lot of ripening fruit left.

The cathedral bells are telling me it is 9am. I need to get dressed but there isn’t a driver to do this yet. I am sat comfortably in the conservatory and my first video conference is at 10am. I might try and squeeze in a trip to buy some steaks for tomorrow night’s dinner before the meeting but that may prove to be too much of a rush and there is plenty of time later. There is another pot of tea brewing in the kitchen.

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3pm and I’ve had enough for the day. Just have a lonap board call at 4 then it’s chill time. I already have the Masters golf on the box, although box is a misnomer in this day and age. To say the golf is on the flat screen panel doesn’t work quite the same way. Maybe it’s an age thing.

One of the downlights in the shed is flickering. This is somewhat annoying. I can pull the fitting down with a view to changing the light or tightening the connection but it doesn’t come all the way out because of the spring loaded latch thingy and I am concerned that if I pull too hard something will break. This will need some consideration.