where art collides philosoperontap

on granite

It’s warm in the house. I’ve turned the heating down. There’s a fire blazing away in the front room and the oven is on so plenty of sources of heat. Gone for the stuffed rolled pork with trimmings. Have some white wine left for the gravy. The Radio Cymru prog went well. I listened to it the whole way through. Dad had to leave to go out to lunch halfway through so when he got back I helped him get it up on “listen again”. Had a few people touch base on Facebook with some positive feedback.

Now banging out some tunes in the kitch whilst I supervise the chef (ie me). The sun is over the yardarm and we (I) are (am) planning a nice evening ahead. Going to get the leeks in orange and thyme sorted out in a min. I like leeks. I like cheesy leeks particularly but can’t be bothered to go that far. Plus I’d have to look up the recipe. Maybe I will. Seasyenough.

Popped out earlier btw. Lincolnshire Showground for the Craft and Food Fair. When I got there I found out it was six quid entry fee. Couldn’t understand why people would want to pay to go to a shop so I turned around and went home. Picked up some milk en route so not a wasted trip.

Monday

Sunday dinner was a result. Everything turned out great including the cheesy leeks assisted by a splash of beer, wine and some wholegrain moutard. Feeling the effects a little this morning as I not only sampled the various alcoholic ingredients prior to the meal but also opened a bottle of read to have with the meal. A swim before breakfast partly atoned for the wine.

This morning I’m doing some work. Hard to believe innit. Got an outline proposal for a customer over to Netaxis for comment. The house is cold this morning but I have the fan heater on in the office which makes it just about ok. I’ll be popping out after lunch to avoid being in whilst Anne has some people around. First is an estate agent – we got a leaflet through the door offering free valuations. We aren’t planning to move so I think it’s a waste of time but hey… Second up is someone to give us a quote for a porch door. Something I think is  waste of money but I am not in charge around here so I just go with the flow.

Hunk of homemade wholemeal bread with cheese and tomato soup for lunch. Didn’t spot Anne’s carrot and coriander in the fridge until it was too late. Homemade is best. Less salty for one.

Busy afternoon of it and then we found out that the Council Offices had been evacuated because of a suspected bomb. My goodness that was a close run thing. I’m sure I drove past there over the weekend. Fortunately it proved not to be a bomb. We can all breathe easily again.

Featured image is pumpkin on granite:)

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In other news “we” have started on the Christmas cards. Finished the letter A. Long way to go clearly. Also ordered John a 16 – 25 Railcard online, v efficient, and filled out a bank mandate form online for The Friends of William Farr.

with no name

Lying in bed listening to the Sunday service on the wireless. Not really listening. It’s just on. I woke up several times during the night and sometime after 5 remember lying there wondering why on earth I couldn’t get back to sleep. Next thing I knew it was 7am. That sleep you get when you finally doze off again is wonderful. Very refreshing. Made meself a cup of tea for the second day on the trot without Anne being there.

The Sunday service is very soporific. It’s a shame that most of the hymns they choose are dirges. There’s a choir on now singing something reasonable. I like a good hymn. It’s nothing to do with religion. It’s about a good tune with good words.

Am on the wireless today. Rhaglen Beti George. Not sure how it’s going to turn out but it’s in the can and what’s done is done.

Popped down to the West End Tap for a couple of beers at around 5pm whilst John was away playing hockey in Doncaster. Horribly cold and inhospitable night out there. Lewis’ mum Mandy gave me a lift home and I stuck the bread in the oven. Bit disappointed with the rise this time. Will find out at breakfast how it’s turned out. Turns out they had already fed John with lasagne and chips at the hockey so I ate alone. Plans changed for today as we still have most of the chicken left. We can eat the pork during the week.

Advent Sunday today, or so I gather. No advent calendar here unfortunately:)

The heating came on automatically this morning thankfully. I’ve got it on the “all day” setting so it won’t kick off after breakfast. This morning I’m going to go out and saw up some wood. Something useful to do today. Especially as it’s going to be another cold one. I’ll light the fire later. Bit of a treat eh?

Some irritating bloke has come on the radio with “A Point of View”. Cue get up to make breakfast.

…

It’s now just after 10am and I’ve finished breakfast. Last night’s wholemeal loaf turned out ok and I’m now having a leisurely cup of tea whilst listening to Classic FM. Relaxing, at least until the Radio 1 fan comes downstairs. Sunday mornings are classically slow starters. One of the great institutions of life.

The ideal Sunday also involved a boozy lunch with perhaps a gentle stroll beforehand. We don’t often do the boozy lunch bit but will definitely be doing so next weekend on the Sunday of the Xmas market. We have a table for 11 booked at the Taphouse and Kitchen at 2pm. That gives us time to recover from the party the night before, do some of the market and maybe even have a couple of cheeky ones before moving to the Taphouse.

We will have a full set of Davies’ back home for the weekend which Anne and I will no doubt get very excited about nearer the time. In fact they are bringing friends but no idea how many we will have in the house. At least Joe’s girlfriend Charlotte who is always very welcome.

Radio 1 man has stirred. The bread has been given the thumbs up and the laptop, not with Radio 1 but some cricket, has disappeared back upstairs to the mancave (pic below).

Couldn’t think of a title for this post btw:)

In other news Anne won a bottle of Gordon’s gin at Sarah’s Christmas fair in Bromborough yesterday. Yay 

start to the day

Actually got up and made a pot of tea this morning just for myself. Anne is in Birkenhead at cousin Janette’s. Today is Sarah’s “centre’s” Christmas Fair. Meanwhile it’s just me and John again. Don’t normally bother getting up to make tea if it’s just for me. Also had the Farming Today programme on Radio 4. Normally we don’t have the radio on that early. Bit of a treat.

We had steak and chips last night. John is off to Doncaster this afternoon to play hockey for Lincoln 4ths. When he gets back I have a chicken for dinner. Going to use the rest of Shannon’s jerk rub and have it with a salad. Probs. This morning we have ingredients for a cooked breakfast. It’s the weekend.

Fidel Castro just kicked the bucket btw. Fwiw. These diary entries need some contemporary reference points innit. Another major happening in a year of unusually bad news. Most news is too depressing to comment on. One good bit of news is the possibility that Nigel Farage is contemplating moving  to the USA. Good riddance. Occasionally thought about going on holiday to Cuba.

Christmas is coming up hard on the rails. Next weekend is Lincoln Christmas Market. Always the beginning of festivities despite being at the start of the month. Also been invited by Kevin Shaw of Wright Vigar to the Lincolnshire IoD lunch on Friday. I’m always knackered by the time Christmas itself comes along.

The guy didn’t turn up to look at the Micra last night. Due at 4.30 I called him at 5. He was in Newark and now wasn’t even setting off until 7. We have rearranged it to this afternoon “sometime”. Better in daylight anyway.

Now on my second cup of tea in bed. Normally I only get one as the pot only does three and Anne gets the third. What luxury. Mind you I’d swap the cup of tea for a cuddle. It’s the best time of day. Normally when I’m on my own I don’t bother. Part of the making of the tea is doing something for Anne. Plus we take it in turns anyway, ish. When she gets back from her trips she normally says “it must be your turn” because she has had to make her own whilst away:)

John appears to have moved into Tom’s old room. His bed was knackered so he took to sleeping in the double bed and using his bedroom to store clothes (largely on the floor). I’d do the same if I were him but it does use up our “guest” bedroom. He can always move back if we have visitors. Next weekend it will be in demand.

Just been texting with Anne. She had a night out with Cousins J and A last night. A is a teacher who has just walked into the head’s office and told him she was going home and not coming back. Wow. The stresses of teaching are that bad! Not sure why kids want to go into teaching nowadays. Or medicine.

Had to switch the radio off. They were covering paedophilia in the football world. Shudder. Back on now. Gonna get up in a minute and stick the bacon on.

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Excellent breakfast. Used some of the remaining home baked white for the fried bread and yesterday’s wholemeal for toast. Heston’s thick sliced streaky bacon cured in beer and maple syrup (or some similar combo) and Curtis’ spicy Lincolnshire Farmhouse sausages together with a couple of chestnut mushrooms and a tomayto. It’s 09.35 and now sat in the North facing living room where it is a little colder than the South facing kitchen but the settee is more comfortable. I have 21% battery left.

In other news the sink in the kitchen is a bit gunged up. Need to find out whether we have any unblocking stuff in. I’m sure I used up the last lot on the sink in the utility room.

A beautiful cold crisp day out there. WIll see what I can so to shift the last pile of leaves. I know I was talking about getting garden refuse sacks but I may be able to push the bins down a little more and squeeze the last lot in. It’s what Anne would do:). Not sure I have any other jobs. She went off without leaving a list. Shouldaknownbetter:)

Saw a picture of myself in a school photo dates circa 68/69/70 ish. Was posted by Nest to commemorate someone’s death. I don’t really remember most of the folk from that school but it was amazing to see the pic.

enjoy every day:)

Early morning and dark and I am still somewhat stiff after yesterday’s walk. Anne is off to the Wirral this morning leaving John and i to fend for ourselves again. How will we cope? I shall make some more bread of course, using one of my newly acquired sachets of dried yeast. At 4.30 we have someone coming to look at the Micra which is on offer at £300 and which John has posted somewhere on Facebook. After that I shall quite possibly nip to the pub. Maybe yes, maybe no. I had enough on Wednesday to last me a while. John is playing for the 4ths away at Doncaster tomorrow and I have to decide whether I have a night out at all this weekend or stick around to cook him dinner. He eats relatively early. I say night out but these are normally only partial nights out. Early doors really. Back by 7.30 at the latest. Maybe I’ll have a browse around Waitrose and see what’s fresh in the market. Get some inspiration for meals. We only have wholemeal flour left btw but that is fine. There is also half a bottle of white wine in the fridge so I may use that as a base for some posh French onion soup. Maybe even cook a roast chichen on Sunday for Anne when she gets back and use some wine in the gravy. It’s so called Black Friday today btw where the shops have sales with notionally hugely discounted goods. Will have to see what’s what. I do have something in mind I might buy. John has moved into tom’s room for the moment because the slats in his bed keep falling out. This is because the design is rubbish. Curved wooden slats slotting into plastic ends that constantly break. Over the years we have returned to the shop for replacements on a number of occasions. This time Anne tells me that the shop has discontinued that sort of bed although they did have some of the plastic sockets left. We too the lot of them. I’ll sort it out today and in the meantime Anne is looking at getting him another bed. Bread making btw I have decided is an essential life skill that everyone needs to master. It doesn’t take long. I have already assembled the ingredients for today’s loaf.

…

Many of today’s jobs already done. John’s bed fixed, emails sent, Pylons tickets purchased for 7th Jan gig, Mike Portillo tix purchased for 20th jan at the Drill Hall (not for me). I was online as soon as sales opened for the MP gig and have bought  Anne 3 tickets in the middle of the front row. Bread dough made, knocked back and now in the tin waiting for the second rise – remember this is my first use of a sachet of dried yeast so going to be interesting to see the results. Pylons gig tickets here btw if you want to come. Next up will be a trip to Waitrose once the bread has been made. Gotta get stuff in for me and John for the weekend innit. The big job for today is to clear up the piles of leaves in the back garden. We have two empty green bins for the purpose. Whether they will all fit in is another issue but we shall see how we get on. I also have to go and pick up John and Matt from school and then be around for 4.30 when someone is coming to look at the Micra.

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Leaves mostly collected and put into green bins. Didn’t quite have enough green bin space for them all. Might supplement with black bags when the battery runs out on my laptop (John has taken “our” charger to school). Bread risen and in the oven. It never seems to rise above the top of the tin but perhaps that’s just the way it is. Didn’t want to wait any longer. Featured image is the result. Gotta say it was totally delicious. A real result. I had warm wholemeal bread with mature cheddar cheese and Anne’s home made carrot and coriander soup which was also delicious. It’s the way to roll.

…

New cooker bought for one of the rentals and a load of stuff from Waitrose for John and I to survive on whilst Anne is away. Butcher was just reducing a stuffed pork joint as I got there. Took that and told him that I really wanted was steak and he said he was just about to reduce to fine looking sirloins so bagged them too:) Now waiting for someone to come and look at the Micra at 4.30pm £300 to you my friend.

keeps you warm in winter

A bleary Wednesday morning and the train is trundling through dull waterlogged November fields. I was initially going to use the word hurtling instead of trundling but that’s not what it feels like.  A steady pace which is just too fast for the bloke out front with a red flag to keep up with. Outside, horses wear coats and inside I have my Harris Tweed jacket to keep me warm. Perfect for winter and obvious to me why the garment is worn by the good crofters of Harris.

There is a reason why the train is slow between Lincoln and Newark, being charitable. We are currently stopped on platform 3 in Newark waiting. It is ever thus. They allocate too long for that leg of the journey, presumably to allow other mainline trains through. This service takes just under two hours Lincoln to London Kings Cross but it could be quicker without the,  waiting. Note comma inserted there to slow down your progress through the sentence.

As we steam south the big landscape is barren with poor visibility through the early morning mist. It almost doesn’t matter. The only thing to see is big field after big field, devoid of growth and with the occasional stack of round straw bales ready for collection. These round bales don’t have the romance of the old rectangular ones but are presumably quicker and easier for a machine to put together. What price old haycarts eh?

Today I am in London for a working lunch. There is wine involved and later a meeting in a pub in the London Bridge area. It should be a productive day. Don’t be deceived by the wine.  My lunches bring like minded people together and we get things done. Today’s involves a discussion about voip network testing. Interesting I hear you say. Well you are right:)

Visibility outside is nearly down to zero now. I’m tempted to remove my Harris Tweed. It’s quite warm onboard the train. Now pulling into Peterborough. Quite a few people will get on at this station. It’s commuterland. No life, commuting from Peterborough. We pass a goods train in the siding. There is a driver in the cab so it is obviously waiting for us to go by. I like counting the wagons on a goods train. Don’t ask me why. Maybe it harks back to when the kids were small. Maybe it’s me regressing. Probs.

Yesterday afternoon a installed a new app to enable me to extract post content from philosopherontap into a word document. this is the precursor to putting together the “Book of 2016”. Figured it would make the process easier if I could automate the process. Unfortunately the php version supported by the host is older than that required by the plugin so it doesn’t work. Will have to consider my options. Copying and pasting 365 posts is not a trivial task.

Below Peterborough, as we approach the deep South, the early morning mist is lifting exposing black earth.  Idon’t think it’s a case of burnt stubble. Don’t think they are allowed to do that anymore. Rhe soil is just dark. A few sheep graze in a field. Unusual for this part of the world. It’s mostly arable. Where the money is.

The school back car park was chaotic yesterday afternoon. Someone had parked in a silly place and kept having to move her car back and forth to let others pass. Why she didn’t just park next ot me at the side I wil lnever know. This caused a log jam and someone else reversed right in front of me whilst holding her mobile phone to her ear. In a school car park for goodness sake! I took a photo of her which clearly shows the phone to her ear and her face looking at me doing it. Not worth my while showing you the pic.

I’ll save posting this until later. Be aware that i will have had some wine by then. Have decided that it’s better to post at the end of the day instead of at the start as has been my recent habit. That way I can consolidate more than one post.

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V good lunch. Ended about 6pm. We sat in the bar for a bit. Hit the tube to get to Kings Cross. Unbelievably busy. What’s more the train out of Kings X was cancelled and there were several trains worth of people in the 1st Class carriage of the alternative 19.03 which was itself delayed. It was further delayed by the fact that the train was so overcrowded that it refused to leave the station until a load folk were offloaded. The fat bloke sats next to me got off. He had initially complained that I was sat in his reserved seat. F*&k him. There were no seat reservations. As soon as he got off we got going.

Got a taxi picking me up from Newark. There is a replacement bus service but it will only take me to Lincoln Central. I’ll still need a cab from town to home. Lets not mess about.

and the cost of a loaf of bread

Warwick beat East London in University Challenge last night fwiw. Anne is good at UC. I’m not particularly. Spent the evening watching BBC 4 stuff using the chromecast. Jeff Lynne’s ELO at Hyde Park and 2 railway documentaries. It’s how I roll.

In between I threw together some flour, yeast, salt, butter and water and made a white loaf. Single rise in the tin. My knocking back efforts have not resulted in an adequate second rise so I thought I’d bypass that bit. It was based on reading about other people’s efforts on tinterweb so it wasn’t without forethought. It’s still down to the yeast I think. This single rise loaf got an extra amount of initial kneading to maximise the distribution of yeast which is why typically they suggest a second knead and proving. Seems to have come out ok.  Now bought sachets of dried yeast and will see how that works.

Swim this morning and then swung by Lidl to pick up some basics. Porridge, bog roll, yeast. You know, every day standard stuff. Yeast was 59p for 8 sachets. That’s 7.4p per loaf. Flour is 75p for 1.5Kg from Aldi (based on some comparison website) which is 25p per loaf. Call it 5 pence worth of butter and you have a loaf of bread for 37 pence. Plus energy obvs but I’m not about to try and work that bit out. Let’s say you bake three loaves a week. That’s around £1.10 for freshly baked bread for the entire family for a week. Depending on the size of the fam obvs.

Featured image is the car park at the Carlton Centre  just outside Lidl where I went to buy the yeast. It is a very mundane image. To the right may be seen the building that was formerly a McDonalds but which is now being refurbished. Maybe a newer better MaccyDs?;) Then on the left you can just make out the shadowy form of Lincoln Cathedral. Voila.

My Partial Keyboard post got a bit of traction on Facebook:

I prefaced it with the words “a prize for the best piece of writing done using this partial keyboard”

Comments

Raza Rizvi It will have to be one word as there is no space bar

Trefor Davies ok how about who can get the highest scrabble score ? 🙂

Ma Zipan thunders

Trefor Davies how many points would that get you? assume no double or triple words and letters 🙂

Ma Zipan according to this calculator online it’s 12. I’m changing my word to ‘knights’ instead, it gets me 15 😀

Ma Zipan Nope, I’m changing it again. Heightened 18 points!

Trefor Davies hang on it’s not your go 🙂

Trefor Davies this does suggest we need to firm up on the rules here because you have used one letter more than once despite the fact that it only appear once on the partial keyboard. However I can’t be bothered so keep them coming 🙂

Ma Zipan Haha, I didn’t realise only once. If that is the case then stick with one of the others. You can actually make lots of words from there but I haven’t found one to beat heightened yet

Trefor Davies there aren’t really any rules. just like mornington crescent

Ma Zipan 😮

Jennifer Spencer Okay, but heightened has ten letters. By scrabble rules the highest score i see is knights.

Ma Zipan I used a scrabble calculator online but I wouldn’t have a clue if it’s accurate or not. Whichever is actually correct can be my answer…lol

Trefor Davies Jennifer is right. In a real game there could be other letters already in place to reuse but not in ours (not that there are any rules remember)

Simon Wade Rejustify

Trefor Davies points?

Simon Wade NFI. I’m still at work!

Simon Wade Skybridge?

Jennifer Spencer Okay with no rules does that mean letters can be used more than once, like an attenuated typewriter?

Trefor Davies I don’t know. I need someone to step in at this stage to run the game. I’m just a concept guy 🙂

Jennifer Spencer 😏 visionary

Trefor Davies yea yea

Dyson Wilkes · Friends with Raza Rizvi

My^5^cents^is^here

Jennifer Spencer Cucumberdoughnut

Jennifer Spencer Retracted because theres no o

Trefor Davies supacalifragilisticexpialidocious – I make that 485 points

Rob Mitchelmore “regicide is my thing”

Rob Mitchelmore aaand I’m on the few watchlists I wasn’t already

Steven Poulton This is the end

Trefor Davies amen

Eileen Gallagher Finger sucking is unhinged?

Trefor Davies I have checked this and can confirm that it only uses letters visible in the image. Clearly it uses letters more than once but it is a mould breaking entry and merits the rules being modified to make it acceptable. Not that there were any rules.

Eileen Gallagher This feels like a FB version of Mornington Crescent

Trefor Davies we can only dream…

Steven Poulton I have checked this… and it is factually incorrect lol

Jennifer Spencer Harder to play mornington crescent here than you would think. Seven Kings is okay.

Eleanor Rose Bland Fingering 3456789 chickens is highly disturbing…

Eleanor Rose Bland I am now quite disturbed that I even came up with that!!!