where art collides philosoperontap

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

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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.

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

…

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!!!

stays mainly in Lincoln

It’s horrible wet day out there. Opted to go to the gym this pm rather than a swim first thing. Healthy fruit and fibre for breakfast. Working on a quote on behalf of Netaxis and also trying to sort out the DNS for joefest.co.uk. Email account is working but struggling with the A name redirect for some reason. On live chat with Namecheap person right now.

The beech hedge is looking decidedly rusty. The hedge doesn’t lose its leaves in winter. They just turn a rusty brown which is a good thing. Not only is it a nice colour but it means it never loses its opacity. Never thought of a hedge in terms of opacity but that is what it is for. Cover. Privacy.

Quiet morning in the house. Mondays alway are. Anne has her Monday Group and she listens to kids read at Eastgate School. After that she is off downtown. She has a very full schedule. DNS sorted btw. natch.

yawn

Another 5.30 am start. Sat here in the TV room doing a bit of work on JoeFest. Had a glass of wine at the Southwells when I went to pick up Anne, Erica and John last night. Then got home and set up the JoeFest email account. Had forgotten to do so during the day as promised to Tom and Joe. Done now.

Dinner was successful. Burgers, chips, peas, caramelised onions and mushrooms. Bread didn’t rise very well in the tin though. Need to continue practising. Lamb casserole however is looking like a hit. I stuck it in the garage fridge before hitting the hay last night so the flavour will be even more developed. Just got to do the dumplings now plus Cyberdoyle has recommended slicing some onions and soaking them in vinegar. I will give it a whirl.

Finding myself hungryish sat here on the settee but it’s too early for breakfast. It’s even too early to make the tea although time will pass quickly enough.

The capital of Albania is Tirana. Do readers have any other interesting capital cities to share?

There’s been a bit of cricket action over in India. India got 455 in the first innings with England at 255 in reply. Unless I am very much mistaken india could have enforced the follow on. Just. India were 204 all out in the second innings leaving England with 405 needed to win. Ain’t gonna happen. There are 5 sessions left to play. That’s a day and two thirds.

Updates as they happen. Tea time now. Time for tea. For two. T 4 2.

…

08.49 and it is chucking it down in Lincoln. I’ve probably mentioned it before but I like the rain. The best perspective is gazing out at it from the window of a warm and dry room mind you. There is nothing wrong with a nice walk in the rain with the caveat that the specs have to stay dry somehow. This can either be achieved by the wearing of a waterproof wide brimmed hat or by taking the specs off. Contact lenses may be used if desired. The experience is only pleasurable in the absence of wind which ruins the effect.

I will make the dumplings in a bit. Took a look at recipes and was amazed to find that almost every one was different and often didn’t use suet. Will use the one on the Atora pack. Simple and safe.

…

16.42 lamb casserole was brill. John’s team won 7 -1 in the U18s hockey v Boots. Bit of a yucky pm but back in the hoose now before heading out to the Morning Star with Anne.

2rly for that sort of question

8 teams in the pub quiz at the Eastgate. We came joint 3rd. I think we were only 2 points or so behind the winners. As usual I didn’t get many answers. I’m totes rubbish at “pub” quizzes. Wasn’t on top form anyway and drank orange juice instead of wine. The late night the previous evening did for me I think. My virulent cough seems to have abated though which is good news.

Today Anne is off with Rachel to the borough of Pete. She is also going out tonight and I am taxi driver both ways. Doesn’t seem unreasonable although it will feel strange for me to have a quiet night in on my own on a Saturday night. Won’t do me any harm. A few quiet nights wouldn’t do me any harm. Next timetabled “occasion” is Wednesday in London for my Working Lunch.

Downstairs pre dawn again. Eyes are somewhat sleep filled and the heating hasn’t yet kicked in so it isn’t exactly warm. Not quite refrigerator like but that may be only because I have two blankets draped over me. I’ll get up and make the tea in a bit. It’s a Saturday so it doesn’t need to be quite as early as a school day. On the other hand Anne is being picked up at 8.45 so she will be wanting to be up and at it.

Some of these early morning posts might be getting a bit repetitive but they do represent the state of play at this time of day. All quiet in the house, the sound of the clock ticking and the occasional car on the road.

In other news my droid upgraded its software last night. I woke up at just before six and entered the passcode which prompted it to then upgrade all the applications. I quite like it when that happens. At least when it happens without a glitch and I have to say I don’t seem to have ever have had a glitch. Fingers crossed eh? Makes me think the great god Google is looking after me as I sleep:)

Tea time…

Featured pic doesn’t really do justice to the red sky this morning.

…

Back in bed and having a lie in. Anne is up and sorting stuff. Our bed is very comfortable. Today it has been determined that I will cook a lamb stew for tomorrow. This task has been accepted and will require some consideration. The issue is how to make the liquor in the stew thick and tasty. Lamb stew can turn out quite thin. Root vegetables and leeks will be involved. Also dumplings. A stroll around Waitrose beckons. What’s the hurry?

Good word btw don’t you think? 2rly – twirly – too early.

…

My last shave was Wednesday morning. Just realised. It is Saturday. Not going to shave this morning. It is a Saturday. Historically I have never shaved on a Saturday. All down to the days when I played rugby. Shaving on a match day was weakening the skin. It was also normally a sluggish start after a night on the pop on a Friday night. I would shave after the game before the Saturday night out.

…

Lamb casserole prepared and in the oven at gas mark one. Next up ham sandwich or simlar. This afternoon breadmaking followed by Wales v Japan at the Millennium Stadium.

still the leaves fall

Gentle start to the day. Anne has taken John to school and is then off downtown so I am going solo this morning. Her parting shot was “there are some sausages that need using up”. What a wonderful wife:)

There is also bacon and tomato but no bread and no mushrooms but a quick sortie to Tesco soon rectified that sitch. Going ot make some bread today but the breakfast couldn’t wait for that. I considered investing in only a small loaf at 70p but the large sandwich loaf was only 30p more so that’s where I ended up. We can always use the bread for breadcrumbs if nec. It won’t go to waste.

Ole Nathaniel Rateliffe was good at the De Montford Hall in Leicester although we didn’t know any of his songs. Competent entertainment anyway. Great Italian meal at Oggi beforehand. Was stuffed afterwards so glad we had seated tickets and weren’t down in the moshpit.

In other news ripped a bit of my jeans at the crotch. There was a small hole and it is now a bigger hole. Levi 501s button up fly. Bit of a nuisance as they cost $40 in Orlando but will be £70 or more here. Will consider the position.

…

Breakfasted and now in the office/conservatoire with the heater on. It is cold outside and there have been reports of snow in Sheffield. Not much here. A few little jobs to do today. Also need to chivvy people up to sign up for the LONAP workshop and Xmas bash.

The back lawn is now mostly leaves. Still they come. Not sure when they will be cleared up either. Anne does it and tomorrow she is off to Peterborough with Rachel to meet Alison McD. Check out the video – Still Live. There is some action at the 14 second mark.

…

4.40 pm and it is pretty much dark out there. There is still some light in the sky but it will not stay long. I’m sat in the conservatory with only the light from my laptop to see by. Feeling ok. Done some work and had a video call with Tom and Jose. Now considering popping out t’pub for a swift one. We are off out tonight to the Eastgate school quiz night. Yes you heard right. I’m rubbish at quizzes but hey… Before we go we will be having a pizza. Simple fare, with lots of hot dried red chillies. I like a bit of zing to my pizza.

Radio Cymru

Nice int with Beti George (@bethdimoyn) yesterday at BBC Radio Cymru although my my Welsh vocab wasn’t really good enough to explain my position on politics and religion. Never mind. It’s going out a fortnight this Sunday. I’ll let you have a link nearer the time.

Afterwards met Steve Jones in the Halfway at the end of Cathedral Road in Cardiff. I had a couple of hours to kill before Nest got back from work. Time killed, Nest and I went out for Tapas at Bar 44. Just had 10 days of Tapas in Madrid but hey no probs 🙂 Afterwards Nest fixed me a hot lemon and honey with Lagavulin as a cure for my cough. She is a doc so it must be right.

Chucking it down this morning so I abandoned my plan to go in search of a croissant and headed straight for the motorway. Home in time to take Anne to her saxophone lesson at 2pm. Laptop straight out to catch up with some jobs that included sorting out two lots of menus for various bashes and publish an interview with Matthew Hare of Gigaclear. Blow me down if I didn’t discover that I’d left my laptop charger in Cardiff.

Shortly off down the West End Tap for a 4pm meet prior to going to see Nathaniel Ratcliffe (saw him at Latitude) in Leicester. Here we go again…