where art collides philosoperontap

and the coathanger that never was

Clean out grate and reset fire – bring logs and kindling in
Move office stuff out of conservatory (Tref)
Shift conservatory table to side and set up PA (if considered necessary)
Move settee around in front room and set out chairs for party in conservatory and front room
Move tables in kitchen
Clear away worktops in kitch (move intrays out of way upstairs)
Move all coats to landing upstairs
Bring stella fridge down
Buy eggs
Buy booze and ice

It’s all goish in the Davies house. Actually quite a slow start but it will build up. Wearing my new Black Yak cardigan/hoodie/whatever you call it today and shortly off to Tesco as alluded to in the above jobs list (see last two items).

Goish is a good word innit. It obviously has to be correctly pronounced and would benefit from a hyphen but from an artistic perspective it is better that the reader be left guessing. I doubt it will ever make the Oxford English Dictionary but you never know. I’d quite like a copy of the OED but don’t want to shell out the hundreds of pounds it costs. I bought the Shorter OED about 30 years ago and it is still perfectly useful. Not that I ever use it. Tinternet. Now waiting for Jose and Charlotte to get ready to go to scote (anag). I may be waiting a while.

Had a very pleasant day out yesterday as guest of Wright Vigar at the lincolnshire IoD Christmas lunch. Most of the attendees were either lawyers or accountants with the accompanying grey suits. I noted only 7 or 8 people out of 150 at the lunch were wearing the party hats out of the Christmas crackers on the tables.

Afterwards met up with Matt Russell, Daniel, Plia and Dean at the Strait and Narrow. Had 4 pints of strong lager whose name subsequently escapes me and then walked through the rain up Steep Hill. Did a quick round of the market, looking for a bag of chips and curry sauce.

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Back from Tesco. Sussed the champagne deal. Veuve Clicquot £5 off at £30 plus a further 25% off for a case of 6. £22.50. Not for tonight but we will consume most of it over the Christmas holidays. Also bought some disgusting looking strawberry and lime Rekorderlig cider. I’m told the yoof like it.

Hannah back and off with her to Waitrose for more stuff. The house is now busy and noisy, I have to sit quietly out of the way. Next to the fireplace where the coathanger burns. It will soon disappear from our consciousness. The coathanger that never was. Despite the video evidence clearly displayed in this post  there will be conspiracy theories about this coat hanger. Is the video faked? Is it a different coat hanger? Was it ever a coat hanger. Where is the coat proof? Let us move on…

In the kitchen tonight’s chili con carne is in preparation for tonight’s pre party meal. Dunno how many people we are expecting. Between 35 and 70 if previous years are anything to go by. We don’t feed them but there will be plenty of booze. Even have a £12 bottle of vodka bought with our last Zlotys and brought back from Polska.

Tesco trip.

1. Ended up not buying the booze due to time pressures – these things don’t want to be rushed. Instead will get it with the kids tomorrow morning. Having the kids help you buy booze doesn’t sound right does it? 🙂
2. Greenhorn yooth behind the customer service desk ignored me for a while whilst he was fiddling with his till. When eventually he decided to begrudgingly acknowledge my presence it was with a “what do you want” or some such remark” I smiled inwardly.
3. Said youth, in response to my observation re their insistence on cash as a deposit for the glass hire that it was lucky I’d just been to the cashpoint  because I didn’t normally carry £45 around on me, said it was more cash than he had in total.
4. Returning to my car I waited with the full trolley for a person to reverse in front of my car. It was a high pressure sitch because the driver knew that I was watching as their car approached mine. No incidents, I’m pleased to report.
5. Taking the trolley back to the trolley park area I noticed that someone had left a banana skin in the one in front of me. Nice.
6. Had intended to chat to a baker at tesco to discuss dough rising techniques but there wasn’t one in sight and was not sufficiently bothered to hang around given my time constraints. The smaller 8 ½ inch tin is making a difference.

Now home, unpacked, writing diary entry and then a quick change in time for the car that is booked for 11am to take me to the Wright Vigar offices on Newland.

and more logs

Some repetitive tinny music grating down the stairs from the phone at the top. Oo it’s stopped. The phone is trying alternatives. “It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas”. Michael Buble. Interesting to see how MB is this generation’s choice. We have finally moved on from Bing Crosby. Probably not a bad thing. I have to move on myself. For a swim…

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Not too bad a swim although for some reason the local traffic was worse than normal. There’s no telling why these things happen sometimes. Was the same last night when I dropped John off at Jazz Vehicle. Ended up coming home via Brant Road.

So right now I have two bags of logs being delivered. £135. Should see us for a reasonable while as we don’t have a fire that often. As soon as the trailer has gone I’ll light the fire. Petals Hardwood Logs. Looks like a good bloke. He is unloading and stacking them for me – thought I was going to have to do that myself.

Anne is busying herself in the kitch making stuff for various functions. One is a Christmas event in Market Rasen fundraising for John’s forthcoming Easter hockey tour to Amsterdam. They want people from the Lincoln contingent there but this is totally impractical this weekend because we have so much on.

The kids are starting to get excited about coming home for the market. Joe and Charlotte get here at 8pm tomorrow, Tom at 9 and Hannah at 11 on Saturday. In anticipation I’ve been down to Fosters on Monks Road and purchaysed 3lb of finest spicy Lincolnshire sausages and 2lb of dry cured back bacon. Curtis’ sausages and Fosters are neck and neck in quality in my opinion but Fosters’ dry cured bacon is top dog. I don’t think they cure it themselves mind you. We will also be getting the Christmas joint from Fosters and bought all the food for JoeFest from there. Especially as the Butcher in the Bail has thrown in the towel.

The main weekend (inc party) shop is Tesco tomorrow at 9.30am where I’m picking up the loan glasses, booze and other bits and bobs so I’ll bulk out the breakfast stuff with shrooms and tomaytoes then plus some bread. I’m not going to rely entirely on homemade bread this weekend as we will need quantity.

Coming back to the Christmas thing, it is now December so I’m ok with the season having officially started even if we don’t put the decs up for another week or so.

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You need to know that the first of the new batch of logs is burning in the grate.

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Made another loaf using a smaller tin. I’m optimistic about this. Will let you have the results before close of play. In the meantime popped out to Tesco for a couple or three ingredients. We need more milk and I’m making leek and cauliflower gratin so needed more cheese and some double cream. Anne will not approve but hey…

In the Tesco car park noticed a couple of old blokes sat in the front of a K reg car chatting away. Presumably the wives were in the store shopping. When I got back the car was still there but the old men were not. Got bored waiting so went for a stroll. Tesco have a caff but they would probably do well to have a small pub in there for partners to while away the time.

in the life of Trefor Davies

Due to high demand, you are in line to buy tickets.

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Tickets for this event are currently: still available.

Last updated at: 10:20:32

My first experience of queuing to buy tickets for a “pop concert”. I was there on the dot of 10. In fact earlier. There are clearly lots of people wanting tickets. I can understand it. Adele is probably the biggest singer going these days. Even I’d go and see her. I feel a weight of responsibility. Hannah is relying on me to get the tickets, although there will be another opportunity to buy coming up. She had work commitments which prevented her from being able to sit staring at a counter wondering when your turn was going to come up.

I’ve had to move to the considerably colder office so that can use multiple screens and not be trapped by the Adele ticketing system. The only consolation is that at least there are a lot of tickets for sale. Wembley is a big gaff. Let’s hope the internet connectivity stays up (tempting fate I know).

Gotta stay concentrated. Can’t afford to not notice the screen change. Since I’ve been waiting we have had two separate Amazon deliveries. Anne is also back and I have cup of tea. Also a year has gone by and it is winter again. My hair has grown as have my fingernails. The room around me is dusty as I refuse to have it cleaned in case I get distracted and miss the purchase opportunity. The world has just pulled back from the brink of a nuclear confrontation brought about by having nutters in charge of the most powerful countries.

Whilst I am waiting, and despite the need to stay focussed I can at least console myself that we have a great weekend in prospect. The Lincoln Christmas Market est ici. We get more excited about the market than it merits probably. Because it has always been there it has to a certain extent lost its allure. I think we live on the memories of the early days where it was still exciting and a fun thing to do. When the kids were small maybe. They got rid of most of the fun things the kids liked to do on the pretext of “making it more up market”. I’m talking the fairground rides.

There are still rides there but not nearly as many. We still like to do some fave things like chucking the small red rings to see if we can land them around the just fitting necks of green bottles. That one is a gold mine. It’s easy to shift a tenner in a few short minutes and there are a few people doing that at the same time. One year I won a giant stuffed panda. Carried it around on my shoulders.

Traditionally whilst I used to help out in the Westgate School cafe on the Friday afternoon I would be allowed out to the pub afterwards. We are talking 5pm. A crowd of boys would gather to drink our rewards for helping (self funded obvs). When the kids left that school we moved on and now the cafe doesn’t operate. Someone came a long and dangled ten thousand pounds for the use of the school hall. Easy money. Bit of a shame but it was always a tough gig to staff. It needed 16 people per shift with maybe 6 shifts or more a day. Unbelievable how unwilling parents are to help their kids school. Were it not for the fact that my own kids were there my attitude was &*%$ them. It’s their own kids that suffer unfortunately.

One hour eleven minutes in now. The conference call is in 19 minutes. Global warming has in the meantime resulted in our house now being at the edge of Lincoln Marina. Those of us living at the top of the hill are ok. The rest of them were washed away by the tsunami that powered in from the coast at Boston. That’s life Jim, or was. I’ve always wanted a boat and now I can keep one at the bottom of the garden.

After 90 minutes I got in. 2 minutes and I had 4 £75 tickets for £334. Hey. 2 mins late for the conf call but got away with it.

nads still intact

What can you write that is new about the cold. The frozen winter. Poets eloquent have already said it all. I think my fave is the Darkling Thrush. Thomas Hardy. Most of his novels were morbid and I suppose the poem is too although I think that he puts it across in a way that rolls off the tongue that is really what poetry is all about. It’s about how the words fit together. That doesn’t necessarily mean how they rhyme or how they stick to a meter. It’s about the interplay of one word with the others around it.

Anyway you may have gathered that it is another cold morning. It must be so because tomorrow the Lincoln Christmas Market starts and it is usually cold for that. One year it was so cold it was buried under a blanket of snow and had to be cancelled.

The reason it is cold during the market is two fold. Firstly they sell more gluhwein that way. Secondly it is nature’s way of killing off a few old people stood in bus queues waiting for their coach to come and pick them up. The wind slices viciously through those queues and those without the armoury to parry it’s lethal advances are hewn. They crumple unceremoniously like sacks of potatoes dumped onto the pavement. By the time the ambulance, stationed not so far away in anticipation of this very occurrence, has arrived their living souls have moved on.

After that joyous passage let us move on. The Christmas present purchasing is making its annual onslaught on the credit card and we have a delivery or two planned for today. I am also under instructions to be on hand at exactly 10am to buy Adele tickets for Hannah. They go onsale to “members” at that time. It’s a huge responsibility. Wouldn’t mind going myself but you can only buy four and that’s how many she wants. Friends before family. I guess if all of her mates were also successful in buying four there might be a few going spare.

Ordered a couple of loads of logs yesterday. Being delivered tomorrow morning. Just in time for our party at the weekend. Got the details off the husband of the woman who runs the fancy dress outfitters in Waddington. Needed some period authenticity for next week’s party in town. Logs were £135 for two builders bags worth. Mixed hardwood. Should see us beyond Christmas. Fancy dress was £23 for a tailcoat, waistcoat, pocket watch and cufflinks. I’ll use my own shirt and kecks.

Also may have partially sussed why my bread isn’t rising as much as I’d expect. I think i’m using too large a tin. Will try it in a smaller tin next time or make more dough. I’m using 500g of flour and 300ml of water. On that basis I’d expect a large 800g loaf but perhaps it doesn’t work that way. I’ll weigh the loaf the next time. Later…

Philosopherontap, philoSopherontap, philosopher0ntap, philosopherontaP, phiLosopherontap, ph1losopherontap

Another 5am shift. Wasn’t particularly early to bed but I’m awake now and better off downstairs that lying there in bed wondering if I’m going to drop off again.  I think I’ve just had enough kip that’s all. Even though I went swimming yesterday. Exercise during the day normally gets me off to sleep.

Today I may switch to the gym this afternoon instead of swimming. I’m off to Waddington for a ten o’clock appointment with someone who hires out theatrical costumes – gotta get my outfit sorted for #LONAPBASH. “What I was wearing when the Titanic went down”.

Had a pleasant surprise last night. A couple of people who know Dad from the Dolgellau days had heard me on the radio and contacted me via Messenger. They were both very sorry to hear that Mam had passed away and were most complimentary about her. Dad was quite overcome with emotion all of a sudden when I passed the messages on.

Fyi those three sentences have idled away ten minutes. Only another hour and ten before I take up a cup of tea. That means there is a distinct possibility of an hours worth of drivel in this diary entry:) There is a fine line between this year’s diary entries and the 3rd Law series which I think got very biographical although it wasn’t meant to. Probably unavoidable. I had meant to write quite a bit more 3rd Law before turning it into a book but I think I’ll just do it as is, after a bit of tidying. Will have to wait until this year is out.

What is quite amazing is that the year is actually almost out. Witness the screenshot from my google photos folder on drive. New folders have been steadily creeping into view as the months go by. It will have been a pretty eventful year and not a bad one to choose as a book/diary.

One job I do have to do is look into the php sitch on the site. The current server has too old a version for me to run the text extracting software I want to use to make the creation of the book a lot easier. If I can automate the whole process it will be much better than manually copying the whole lot. It will be approaching 400 posts, if not more. Will keep you posted obvs.

The one thing I’ve noticed this year is my increase in use of modern colloquialisms (had to get the spellchecker to fix the spelling on that one). I’m sure it isn’t just me. The language is evolving at seemingly an accelerating pace. Almost monthly with the kids.

Btw as it springs to mind I’m thinking maybe I will do some crafty type project. Not crafty in the scheming sort of way. Crafty in that it should make use of tools and my bench. I have a magnificent workbench in the garage. I’m sure I will have posted pics of it in the past. Custom built for the space between the fridge freezer and the wall. This space is somewhat arbitrary as it would have been easy enough for me to saw a bit off the shelf the other side of the freezer and make the bench wider but it is still ok as it is. Fairly compact but still an useful size.

The only downside to the notion of such a project is that the garage is very cold at this time of year. I think I may already be talking myself out of it. Perhaps a culinary project instead. I already have a few ideas for the next Philosopherontap events which I might share very soon. One in particular will take some organising. The jazz video during the last one got 426 views. Not bad. Obvs not the millions of views of the big hitting viral vid or that of the online celeb but fine for a small obscure Online Arts Festival.

I still haven’t settled on whether Philosopherontap should have a capital letter or not. philosopherontap/Philosopherontap. Hmmm mmmmH. After all these years. Perhaps it can be dynamic. Change randomly. Maybe different letters can change. Philosopherontap, philoSopherontap, philosopher0ntap, philosopherontaP, phiLosopherontap, ph1losopherontap. I think that’s it. That’s how it should be. There are many permutations. I could probably work it out but sometimes it is better to leave it to the reader to do. Let me know when you have worked out the answer – how many variants are there. You are allowed to juggle cases and where a letter can be swapped for a number then that too is ok – eg e = 3, a = 4 etc. I’ll leave you with it.

Getting a bit hungry now. 6.01 am. Dinner last night was some sort of leftover vegetarian lasagne out of the freezer. Didn’t totally hit the mark although I did eat it all. John left his. Ah well. Can’t win em all. Might squeeze in a slice of toast whilst I am waiting for the kettle to boil If I watch it boiling there should be enough time to make the toast. Geddit?

Gonna have to make another loaf today. Still using up the wholemeal flour. It makes for nice bread. Will have to experiment with different flours. Find the best combo. This weekend will have to revert to shop bought bread as we will have a houseful. At least 9 of us including all the kids, Charlotte and apparently Harry Scott and his girlfriend.