where art collides philosoperontap

cue fast moving music

Bit of a melodramatic title. It’s either one of those comedies along the lines of Monte Carlo or Bust or a real life drama in which a bloke attempts to get to  Burton Waters against all the odds.

Reality is it was just one of my 10 mile training walks in preparation for the Coast to Coast. I’m assuming that the more of them I do the easier they will become. My feet have been getting quite sore so this morning I dropped by Bob the Chiropodist for a consultation. In the first instance he said that at the age of 54 I might expect to have sore feet at the end of a long walk.

In the second instance he observed that I had a slightly protruding metatarsal joint in the foot, the left being slightly worse than the right. It’s my left foot that’s been getting particularly sore. The solution, if there is one, was to provide me with an insole with more padding.

I continued on my walk. The feet still hurt by the end but your mind does play tricks and you imagine all sorts of situations going on down there. I think the new insole has worked but it effectively means I have to wear in the boot again so it will be a few trips before I really find out. Have a new blister so this is definitely the case.

In Burton I passed the infamous yew  hedge that made the national news because it’s owner had been served with a writ to cut it right back. You could spot the bits that had been trimmed as a compromise. It’s in the album here.

Made it home via Blacks Outdoors shop at the bottom of Steep Hill. Went in to buy a mat to use for sitting on wet grass whilst hiking. Came out with a micro towel and a pair of binoculars! The binocs were half price 🙂 I already have a micro towel that doesn’t get used but hey…

Pleasant enough walk back from Burton Waters along the towpath. Wind behind and occasionally sunny. Pretty cold day though. Northish wind. Met a Community Support officer patrolling the towpath. Only a few people there though until you got to the built up area coming in to Lincoln. Han’t realised there were so many houses down there. It was the old GEC site.

Saw a rat running across from Carholme Golf Club to the water’s edge. First I’ve seen on all the walks this year. Ideal conditions in the ditch along the side of the course.

Now I’m back, cup of tea in hand and waiting for the bathwater to heat up. The more of these walks I do the quicker the recovery time I’m sure.

grab her, hug her and tell her you love her

It’s Mother’s Day. We have two cards out of three possibles from children not present in the house. The last one is still in bed and therefore hasn’t yet revealed the extent of his affections 🙂 I have undertaken to affix some old garden tools to the wall of the utility room and will thereafter make an attempt at the front hedge. There is also swimming to fit in as well as the preparation of this evening’s roast beef. A smaller joint than usual due to the absent 50%.

This Mother’s Day is somewhat poignant because both Anne and I lost our mothers in the intervening year.  It is very sad but just thinking about her also makes me glow with warmth knowing what a wonderful Mam I had. Enjoy your mothers whilst you still can kids.

Our house this morning is one of real contrasts. I am sat in the kitchen listening to Classic FM. A relaxing Sunday morning sound.There is a loud squeaky noise coming from a radio in the utility room where Anne is busy painting the cupboards. Finally there is no noise from upstairs. The step ladders move.

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I’ve sorted all the veg for the roast. Made me think of the occasion where we had, Elise, a French exchange student staying with us over Mother’s Day weekend. On Sunday morning we went for a walk and ended up in Bells Tea shop/cafe at the top of Steep Hill. Notwithstanding the fact that we had a table out of the way upstairs next to the door to the kitchen the service was appalling. We were out of the way and forgotten. I will never return and cannot recommend it.

That afternoon we went to the Tower Hotel for a late lunch/early dinner. Actually there was nothing wrong with the service or the food really, although they had clearly had to come up with a mass producible menu for what must be one of their busiest weekends. What impressed me was the readiness with which our young French guest tucked in to everything put in front of her. She, at the tender age of 13. clearly had a sophisticated palate.

In my view it’s much easier to cook at home on occasions like this as restaurants will just be too busy for a comfortable experience.

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I am pleased to report that whilst I was out at Tesco some flowers have arrived from Anne. That would appear to be a full complement of tokens of love from the absentee children 🙂 What’s more the one remaining kid (ie John) has also delivered a handmade card which is always well received.

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I am now sat with a cup of tea in front of the fire. A bacon sandwich has been consumed and having tidied up the garage and moved my golf clubs in under the shelf  the only real chore remaining before I cook dinner is to make the Yorkshire pud batter.

Pics from the day here.

Vid below

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drip drip,,, drip

There is something very relaxing about a wet Saturday. The dishwasher is quietly churning away, or whatever noise a dishwasher is supposed to make. Radio 4 is on and I’ve had bacon and egg for breakfast.

If I was playing rugby today I’d be looking out the window thinking urgh, 80 minutes of running around in the cold wet rain. Always ok once you got going but the getting going is the difficult bit.

I do of course have the never ending jobs list. That is fine. When it is written down it is under control. Not spring at me out of left field, as they say in the colonies.

Anne is about to make some soup. Parsnip with ginger and leek and potato. That’s two lots of soup. Not all in one pot. Obvs. Anne is a dab hand at soup making fair play. Radio 4 has just gone off. Monty Don and gardener’s world is now on. One dulcet tone swapped for another. Monty is reviewing the damage in the garden after the winter. Very topical. It’s been a very wet winter for some although not in our part of the country.

Monty talks about spring being here but the weather forecast is for the coldest Easter in living memory, or some such dramatic weather statement. It will provide for interesting conditions in Llanberis when we go there for Easter. I took a look yesterday and there are really two forecasts for Llanberis. One for the bottom of Snowdon and one for the summit. The temperature difference is about 7 degrees centigrade between the two. Also it’s the difference between snow and rain. If Snowdon is snow topped we won’t make it to the top.

Last night’s concert was great. John did a solo on his saxophone which was top notch. Very proud of him. The Dawkinses came with us. Jeremy was a bit worried about sitting through a kids concert all evening but he went away really pleased he’d come.

Anne is chopping up her leeks. Two biguns cost 6 pence in Tesco! Barg.

It’s duck tonight. I’m cooking. I’ll have to look up a recipe – not cooked duck in years. It isn’t that I don’t know how to cook duck but I just thought “hey, why not check out a nice recipe”. Simple really.

In years gone by there was a restaurant called Seelys in Lincoln. They used to make the most fantastic duck breast in ginger. Even if it wasn’t on the menu they always had some in reserve. I never used to have anything else. That and the garlic chicken livers starter. We had some great evening there. Unfortunately the chef/owner died and the restaurant became Gino’s Italian. Long time ago now.

Having gardener’s world on the ipad has reminded me that I need to put the wax band around our pear tree. We haven’t seen a pear on that tree for the last few years so this year I’m going to try and do something about it. The wax band (or whatever it is) is to stop certain pests from climbing the trunk and doing damage. The tree has been getting yellow brown leaves which obviously ain’t right.

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The weather has fined up and I popped out to encircle the pear tree trunk in the waxed band. Very sticky stuff. Took me several goes to wash my hands afterwards but it is done now. Next job, once I’ve sank a cup of tea is to screw the bookcase to the wall. This is a fairly hefty task as it involves emptying the bookcase first. It is a big bookcase and there is probably around 5metres of shelving that will have to be emptied and then restocked.

As I sit here Anne’s phone occasionally pings. It does so whenever she gets an email or a message. I have most of my notifications turned off. One of the few I have switched on is the scrabble app but Joe takes his go so infrequently there doesn’t seem much point in even keeping that one on! He is being walloped which is probably why he can’t be bothered to go.

In other news Anne has decided to chuck some of our old pots and pans. It has meant going out and buying new ones yay. As it happens Biggar of the Bail are in the last few days of their closing down sale. This is sad as the shop has served the people of Lincoln for the last 72 years. It does however mean that we have been able to buy a new set of Stellar stainless steel saucepans for a discounted price – £140 reduced to £90. Photos of the pans in this link here together with the shoot from the garden this morning and miscellaneous other vistas.

the hour before dawn

5.20 am. It’s dark out. I’ve been awake since 4am off and on. More on than off I suspect. Took me a while to drift off last night too. Nothing going on. I was surprised that I wasn’t more tired after yesterday’s walk. Just stiff really.

The weather forecast isn’t particularly good today although it’s worse further North and to the West. Looks like we are going to avoid snow. Shame. I sometimes find myself checking different websites to see whether the forecast for lincoln is better or worse for any one of them. They must all take their base data from the same source, surely.

It’s not a bad time to be up. The time goes quickly enough when you are tapping away. I am hungry. Last night’s vegetarian shepherd’s pie can’t have done the job. The exercise will also have upped my metabolic rate. It’s a good thing to be getting hungry before meal times. Not hungry in the way the starving millions in Africa are hungry. Hungry because the body has been using up energy.

Today is going to be a day of getting some work type jobs done. Sort out the VAT return. Do the finances etc. Also got to nail the next UC Exec dinner.

I can hear Anne moving about upstairs.

Tonight we are off to Gainsborough to see John play in a concert. It’s the Tuesday Night Band. I’m sure it probably has a more formal name. The City of Lincoln Youth Orchestra, or some such moniker but it’s known here as the Tuesday Night Band. Before hand we are having supper at the Dawkinses. It’s Clare’s birthday. Spag bol I’m told. Not had spag bol in a long while so that is good.

I might try and get a session in in the gym beforehand. Will certainly go for a swim before breakfast. Gotta keep the momentum going. I’m in Lincoln every day next week so that should help. The following week is busy and contains two big nights out.

At 6.25 I will boil the kettle to make the tea. If you think that is somewhat precise you are right. It’s because for the last 20 years or so our alarm clock has been set for 6.30 am and then one of us would get up and make a brew. A 6.25 boil would enable me to take the teapot upstairs to Anne ready for 6.30. The fact that we often don’t use the alarm these days and then it’s at 6.45 is another issue. I won’t want to hang around downstairs beyond 6.30.

March 4th be with you.

Canal walks r us

Did a circular walk today with Stuart Heathershall. Stu is a bit of an expert at this kind of thing and I’m pretty sure would have done it faster without me. We did ten miles in four hours. two five minute stops and 20 mins for lunch meant that effectively we were doing 21 minute miles. Ideally I could do with building up to being a bit faster as on the coast to coast we will have some long days where we will need to cover a lot of miles.

Definitely improving though and not nearly as knackered after this one compared to when I walked to Wragby a week or two ago. Feet still giving gyp though so I’m booked in to see Rob the chiropodist next Monday. May be something as simple as a little support insert will do the job. It may also just be that I need to get a few more miles under my belt. V shall c.

One of the handy thing about walking with Stuart is that he he turns out to be an expert bird watcher. He could identify birds from their sounds and therefore knew when to stop and look. We saw quite a variety en route and in particular a number of woodpecker’s holes. Didn’t see a  woodpecker but apparently we could hear them.

Back home now and typing away in the conservatory. Vegetarian shepherd’s pie for dinner apparently. Not sure shepherds are vegetarian but hey… I’ve built up an appetite and I’m sure it will go down well.

Photos here

Vids below

slowly grows the day

Slightly sluggish start to the day due to the post European VoIP Summit entertainments. Ended up in a pub called the Mary Jane and thence to the Kings Cross Tandoori with Wayne Mills Kidals and a few others. Only problem was that by the time we got there it was nearly ready for me to catch the train so I took the lamb balti as a takeaway and legged it. Funny thing was that Wayne then realized his train was a lot earlier than he’d thought and so he and his engineer Rob also had to go leaving the two people from TalkTalk on their own at the table.

Ate the balti on the train – fortunately not many people in the carriage. Taxi picked me up from Newark Northgate and home to bed.

So this morning I passed on a swim and am getting on with some admin of sorts. Also set the fire in anticipation of Richard Irving and Ian Cleary from Google coming this afternoon for a LONAP meeting.

Spoke to dad. He is walking further afield and yesterday made it up to Shoprite in Peel for some essential supplies. Wine and fish. Very biblical. Don’t know if there was any bread in there but it would have been appropriate 🙂 I’ll have to see when I can next pop over to the Isle of Man. January seems a long way back now although it is only about 6 weeks since we went.

On an associated subject I will be picking up the Peugeot this afternoon. Dad’s old car. Finally got the registration, tax and insurance sorted. We will then be a four car family! My Citroen C4, Anne’s Nissan Micra, the Peugeot and the campervan. Might get rid of the C4 when the year runs out.

It’s been a quiet morning in the conservatory. I’m popping out to Waitrose shortly to get some supplies in for tomorrow’s walk with Stu. 12 miles along the canal near Chesterfield. Probably wait until its stopped raining. A shiver of relaxation has just run through my shoulders because of the sound of the rain on the conservatory roof. It’s almost like wet hail.

Featured image is of a Waitrose van – the driver was being assessed for which they had partitioned off some of the car park. Video is a live report from the car park 🙂

Oh and note the new contributor to philosopherontap today – Mark Raybould. He has posted 5 poems today.

the dawn chorus

06:08 and the birds are singing away outside. Polly put the kettle on, probably although I can’t quite make out the tune. Awake early meself so I thought I’d come downstairs and read for a bit before the alarm goes off and I have to get ready to go to London.

Currently re reading The Time Traveller’s Guide To Medieval England. V interesting and can be dipped in and out of – useful in today’s short attention span world.

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Later on the train they have rolled out the new interior livery. Check out the video. V smart, at least whilst it is new. I’ve had a spot of breakfast, published a trefor.net post on my 20GB bundle experience and and now relaxing somewhat.

It is a miserable day out there but I will be spending most of my time  indoors so it doesn’t really matter. I just have to get to the Uber in each direction and walk from the conference to the pub in London. It’s Matt Townend’s European VoIP Summit 2016.

Don’t expect much more out of me today unless I add some gibberish on my way home.

green fingered Tref – ish

45 minutes swim to start the day. It’s an obvious thing but I do find the more I swim the more I find myself wanting to do more. Trouble is getting to the pool earlier is hard – the bed is nice and cosy and it’s frosty out. I would have been able to get there earlier had I not had to deice the car (s).

I feel as if I’m back in the fitness and healthy eating groove this week after last week’s trip to Barca. I do have a couple of day’s meetings that will end up in the pub to survive. And don’t go telling me I’ll just have to resist temptation:)

at 10am I started clearing yesterday’s trimmings into the green bins. This took me 90 minutes. It involved using the clippers to get most of the small green stuff off the branches so that they were easily compressed into the bins. The stick sized bare branches were put in one pile next to the woodpile and the bigger stuff onto the woodpile itself. Not a bad morning’s work really.

Had a chat with Dad, did some tripadvisor reviews from Venice and then had pea and watercress soup for lunch. All in all not a bad morning of it.

You do notice more when you are out in the garden. This morning I had a chat with a robin. He didn’t seem to have much to say so it was a little one sided! Flew off when my back was turned. Ah well.

After lunch went downtown to do a few chores, market, bank, vodafone shop. Signed up with Voda for a plan that includes 20GB data for £20 a month. It also included sky sports mobile. Tonight I rang EE to cancel their account and they matched the offer. Later I tried to install the sky app on my oneplus 2 phone only to find it is incompatible. Forced my hand really. Called EE back and accepted their offer.

Tomorrow I’ll call Vodafone and cancel their order. You have a 2 week period of grace in which to do it and in anycase they are unable to fulfil their side of the deal. The EE offer also included free EU calls and texts!

Featured image is a little in the shade but if you look carefully it shows some of the hedge trimmings I got rid of today.

Thassit for now. London tomorrow. See ya there.

PS I offer you a short video showing sparks flying at a building site at the top of Lincoln High Street.

thou shalt rest

My 4 x great grandfather the Reverend Daniel Davies, founder of the baptist church in Llandysul, was for a number of years ejected from his church because one of his farm workers was found to be working on a Sunday. Shows how religious views were strictly held at the turn of the 18th century. His nephew William was the first Welsh baptist missionary to die in Africa. William’s father was the Rector of the Church of Wales in Llandysul and Bangor Henllan. He would have been shocked that his son crossed over the the protestants.

These are stories for elaboration at a different time. They sprang to mind as I sit here tapping away in the kitchen listening to Radio 4. They have just broadcast an article on the growth of the Manx language which was nice to listen to. What they didn’t mention that this was very much boosted by my dad Alun Davies who was the Director of Education who introduced the teaching of Manx in primary schools. He is retired now but as a native Welsh speaker he could see the value in learning Manx.

The other story, quite near to home, unusually, was an interview with Radio 2 DJ Tony Blackburn who has been fired from the BBC for disagreeing with the party line over child molestation cases in the 1970s. Our son Tom works at the Beeb and said that the mood in the office was terrible. I won’t bore you with the details but it sounds to me as if the Beeb have got it wrong on this one.

Being a day of rest one would think I would be sat around all day “resting”. In my case this will involve getting the chicken casserole ready for tonight’s tea. Also I’ll be out the back using my new ladder to prune the fruit trees. They haven’t been done for years and the pear in particular hasn’t fruited for a long time. Every year it gets brown leaves – there is something wrong there  that I may also sort today (to the best of the guy at Pennels Garden Centre’s abilities.

Anne and I are also going to the cathedral to look at an exhibition of “Lent Art”. It’s free entry so it is a way of getting round the armed guards that normally look down from their barbed wire towers to make sure that you pay the entry fee.

I may thereafter continue for a bit of a walk – the training restarts after the week of hard indulgence at MWC in Barca.

The breakfast of  bacon, eggs mushrooms and tomatoes is part of this training. No bread of course. I need to start looking at longer walks now. Thursday may be a good candidate.

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Didn’t go for a walk. After the arty stuff Anne and I hit a caff on Steep Hill for a cuppa and then I went home to crack on with the back garden. The new ladder is a real result allowing me to reach and destroy foliage hitherto protected by its elevation.

Trimmed until 4pm and then came in to wax my jacket. This is now done and the coat has had a blow dry using the hair drier. It’s a little waxy so hopefully will dry off after a while.

I here offer you some photos from inside Lincoln Cathedral.

Also some vids:

the shelves are up!

It is Saturday and I do have a few jobs on the list. I have already, with almost uneasy haste, glued the two end bits of velcro back onto the wooden pelmet of the kitchen blind. It’ll go back on when the glue is set. It’s quite an old tube of glue so there is a possibility I guess that it won’t set. There is also a chance that I read the instructions wrongly – glue isn’t just glue these days much in the same way that a TV isn’t just a TV.

I have also already refilled the by now nearly empty bird feeders. One of them was I’m sure emptied by squirrels but I did see some birds at it too so on the basis that they do get some benefit I don’t mind putting out the nuts.

All this is before 10am on a Saturday morning!

The jobs list does contain some long standing items, one of which could very well get done today. This is the replacement of the bulbs in the two front floodlights. I can do this now because I purchased some new tall step ladders. These are currently jobs list virgins but it’s a state that will not continue beyond this morning:)

I may try and get a walk in this afternoon although it wouldn’t do any harm to rest the body following the efforts of Mobile World Congress and there are after all two rugby matches on today.
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Replaced the bulbs in the floodlights. I think I have to wait until night-time to see if they work because the motion sensor is also light sensitive. If it still doesn’t work it can only be the fuse or the actual detector. I don’t think it’s the fuse because that fuse also services two sockets in Hannah’s bedroom and they apparently work ok. It will be a real pain in the neck if I have to replace the detector.

I the meantime I’ve tidied up the bench and have even stuck some shelves up in the garage to take the odds and sods. I recently bought some plastic “pods” from JTF which are a little on the small side but will do. It’s to put things like electrical tape, tape measures and other miscellaneous bits of useful stuff that you need to have to hand. Reused a shelving unit for the shelves. Retrieved it from the woodpile and cut it down a little. Works fine and was less effort than making new shelves.
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Been out to pay the deposit at the Bronze Pig for the LONAP board dinner on 17th March. They wanted a tenner a head. Ok. Freezing out so we have the heating on all day. Now watching the Italy v Scotland match on the box. It’s only of marginal interest so writing this at the same time. The biggie is England v Ireland at 16.50.

chill out weekend in prospect

Back on the train headed Nowf out of the Cross of Kings. Chap talking loudly on the phone – asking “you and Dick to do the specimens on Monday”. At least it was a short phone call. He’s stopped now. I see he is editing a spreadsheet with “Consultant fees to Crane for year” as a topic. Can’t quite make out how much he’s charging:).

Somewhat tiring week in Barca. Living in Lincoln doesn’t help really because it adds a lot of journey time. That said I was sat next to a chap on the plane who lived near Wimbledon and he had a 90 minute journey home from Gatwick. 

I have a couple of phone calls booked in this pm then after that it’s chill out time methinks.

I was the only person in for breakfast at the “Club Lounge” at the hotel. Had a sausage sandwich, glass of milk and a cup of tea. It’s the first cup of tea since leaving for Spain. I don’t bother when abroad. Needs to have proper fresh milk with it. My guts feel iffy after the sausage sandwich mind you! Hotels rarely understand sausages. Or bacon for that matter.

Joe is keeping me waiting on our online scrabble game. Keeps claiming to have rubbish letters:).

The featured image btw is of a sticker on the wall in one of the gents loos in MWC. I thought it was a bit of an odd/dodgy place for people to be invited to get their phones out to scan the QR code so I whipped it out and took a pic! I haven’t bothered trying to scan the code.

PS It’s bloomin cold back in Lincoln – bring on the spring.

Great couple of days at Mobile World Congress

Using the voice rec on the Chromebook. Not sure it’s as good as it might be because of the background noise in the business class lounge so lots of manual corrections. Been sat here for a good couple of hours already having a beer with my old mate Adrian Knowles. I found out that we were both at Mobile World Congress and heading back home at different times but too much so and so we were able to catch on old times. Carriage return newline (not sure how to execute those commands in voice rec :))

Catching the 20 past 8 plane tonight. Going to stay in Gatwick Airport because I won’t get there early enough to catch the train back to Lincoln. Still I’ve had a good couple days and get home about lunch time tomorrow ready for the weekend.

The great meal and with the Genband boys last night. We ended up at the restaurant called Los Caracoles. We were sat right by the kitchen.  Food was great, wine was great. Big thanks to Stuart and Tony from Genband.

Not much on this weekend which is a good thing. I’ll be able to get on and the trim the front hedge and I’m sure Anne will have one or two other jobs ready for me. Wales vs France tomorrow night so something useful to do for Friday night.

Dictation stop into it really well I gotta go back in this stupid if Edison connected but actually it’s going to help cut along. Especially since I was coming for security I took the day off the end of month finger index finger when I was getting my liquid sound to put into the clear plastic bag cursor on the razor but you know but very nice to experience so tell me when my fingers tell me wrapped in tissue paper.

Left that para unedited for your entertainment:

Vids since last ones yesterday:

Doncha just love Barca 🙂

Mobile World Congress in Barca today. Had a good lie in as we didn’t finish at the Michael Collins Irish  bar until around 1.30. They do very good measures of shorts here in Spain. Can’t really call them “shorts”.

We hit the bar after an unusual fish restaurant called La Paradeta near Sagrada Familia. It was more like a cafeteria. You queued up by the fish counter pointing at what you wanted, paid and went and sat down wherever you could find a spot. At some point they announced your number over a dodgy pa and you went to collect the cooked goods from a serving hatch.

Don’t get me wrong it was good food and I had a good time there with the Netaxis boys.

It’s back to the MWC show today after finding a spot of brekkie in the Boqueria. It’s just around the corner and will have some great photo material so stay tuned.

Yesterday’s vids not posted yesterday:

Barca bound

Arrived at the lounge at 11.10 for a 13.40 flight. Problem is if I don’t give the journey time lots of contingency it can get a bit risky as is witnessed by the slight delay on the way down due to there being a dead body on the track after Peterborough. On this occasion the delay was only around 15 minutes and I made good connections on the tube and Heathrow Express. Hand baggage only, online checkin and business class fast track added to the ease of the journey.

The downside of course is that I am now going to be sat in the lounge for some time and without imbibing at that. Doesn’t make sense with a long day ahead. I’ll save it for a glass of wine with the meal on the plane although the meal is generally not worth having.

The upside of being sat in the lounge is having time to sort the photos I scanned last night. The sorting involves cropping, mostly, and filing into relevant folders. Lots of old pre-digital camera pics – family in IoM, nana, Paris trip with Anne.

The upshot of all this is that I haven’t got much to say. Featured image is of my grandmother “nana”. Pic below is a view of the coal tips/slag heap in front of her house.

I’ll leave you with these videos:

Si si senor

Off to Barcelona in the morning. Looking forward to it. Moreover I’m flying business class so it will be a bit more comfortable and on the way home it’s an 8pm ish flight which will be perfect timing for a couple of glasses of champagne on board. Staying at the Crowne Plaza at Gatwick when I get back to the UK because it will be too late to catch a train home and it’s a darn sight cheaper in Gatwick than in Central London.

Today was a day of getting ready for Barca really. Walked to Tom Visconi’s in the Bail for a haircut. Then after lunch (a few salad bits) walked into town to pick up a train ticket. 4.7 miles all told which on top of the swim this morning was a reasonable amount of exercise.

All I have to do now is decide what to wear. I don’t want to take much stuff. It’s all got to fit in my Osprey bag. Problem is the weather in Barca is a lot nicer than here so I need to set off in winter clothes and arrive in what will almost feel like the height of the British summer. It was 20 degrees C in Barcelona today.

The diet will to some extent go out the door this week, if only because of the booze that will inevitably be consumed at the trade show, or more specifically in the evenings. Will be doing a lot of walking though so that may offset the excess.

Check the video out – also discusses Brexit.