Sun 1	The dawning of the new year celebrated with the usual bottle of Champagne and too little sleep. And later with a very nice, large, piece of roast beef and a bottle of Brouilly.
Mon 2	One of my Christmas presents was a bottle of our local Ealing Gin. It’s a hand-crafted, small batch, London Dry Gin, distilled in the Borough of Ealing. As a London Gin it is juniper led, although the other botanicals come through well, but not too strongly. The lovely bottle design is inspired by the iconic Art Deco buildings (especially the Hoover Building) scattered across the borough. This could well become another favourite.
Tue 3	For the first time in ages we had a crow in the garden. They often sit right at the top of the silver birch, riding the wind apparently just for the fun of it. But we don’t normally see them down on the lawn, as this one was today – I suspect they feel it’s too enclosed to get airborne easily in any direction. Anyway this one spent some minutes obviously hunting out little treats, probably buried by the squirrels.
Wed 4	So, another deadly exciting day on which nothing happened. The most notable thing was that I slept well from about 01:00 to 09:00, with a short awakeness at 04:00. This meant that I was at least half awake when I got up. Result!
Thu 5	Spent a joyous afternoon at the dentist. I got a small filling, but N got a whole new crown – in one visit. This used not to be possible, but our dentist now has some very whizzy tools. First they can scan your mouth in 3D to get the shape for the crown – no longer do we have to suffer impressions. Secondly they have a fancy machine which will cut the crown from a ceramic blank using the aforementioned scans; this takes about 10 minutes (plus a few minutes setup). As the machine is in the waiting area, I was able to watch N’s new crown being created; it was very impressive.
Fri 6	So there we have it. Another pay day. And another month where the current account might just manage to survive intact. Supermarket prices seem to have gone through the roof; I’d say that the estimate of annual food inflation running at 13.3% in December is a gross under estimate; it certainly feels more like 30% than 13% – I can certainly point at things where it is definitely over 50% in the last year.
Sat 7	Culinary experiment for dessert this evening which didn’t quite work (at least for me). Fresh pineapple cut into small pieces, with a good handful of broken walnuts and the same amount of chopped candied peel, tossed with a couple of tots of Malibu. Dress with some flaked dark chocolate at the last minute. It was OK, but not superb. I think it would work better with flaked almonds and Amaretto (or Amandine) in place of walnuts & Malibu; add a little colour by way of 3-4 chopped glace cherries or quartered strawberries; and serve with some double cream. While pineapple and Malibu (coconut) works well, the Amaretto would be sweeter and fuller flavoured. And the red colour would (psychologically) enhance the flavour as well.
Sun 8	Despite the grey, wet, miserable day we undertook the first salad of the year: pan-fried duck, with a mixed salad and hot steamed potatoes. Washed down with a bottle of 2019 Tavel rosé. Eaten a bit late while watching Digging for Britain.
Mon 9	How is it that every hospital in this country looks alike inside: dingy, grubby, ill-used; poorly signed, poorly lit and poorly ventilated – although at least now the price of energy has rocketed they’re no longer so over-heated. All the waiting areas are plastered with strange, dog-eared prohibitions & posters Blu-Taked to the walls, not even straight; and they have a miscellaneous assortment of chairs which have seen better days. I had an appointment at Ealing Hospital this morning and I have to say it is one of the worst examples of the genre I’ve seen; Hillington is little better. At least Hammersmith and St Mary’s do try with their waiting areas. It all comes down to three things: underfunding, no-one looking, and no-one being empowered to do anything.
Tue 10	What’s happening? What day is it? Feeling really “Meh!”, despite lots of sleep. Down and miserable. This awful grey, wet, cold weather doesn’t help. What’s to be done – except hibernate?
Wed 11	A beautiful bright sunny, blue sky morning to complete my 72^nd circuit of our local star. Just a shame it had clouded over by lunchtime and the start of my 73^rd circuit. Completed by a bottle of champagne with dinner.
Thu 12	We’ve had so much rain recently that we’ve had standing water in the garden again today. Lake Constance manifests down near the pond, and this despite the ground level having been raised 2-3 inches over the last few years. It drains away fairly quickly once the rain stops, so it’s obviously groundwater flowing off down hill (to the south). We suspect there’s an old field ditch across the garden which was filled in with rubble when the houses were built, so there is still water flow (I can find it by dowsing) which is now impeded. It’s no danger as the water is only ever an inch deep, and anyway the house is actually 2-3 feet higher.
Fri 13	Three green parrakeets queueing up for food.
Sat 14	Awoke convinced that it was Sunday and to the realisation it must have been peeing with rain again all night because Lake Constance has returned to the garden, and much increased in size. It doesn’t though stop the squirrels running about. One does zoomies round the lawn, dashing to and fro, and in circles, at supersonic speed. Heaven knows what it’s on!
Sun 15	My it was bitter outside today. I went out to unload the pictures from the trail camera, and change the batteries. This took well under 5 minutes, and I was frozen – though I admit I was wearing only a t-shirt and slobbing legs which is usually OK. It took a good 30 minutes and a sweater to thaw me out. And they reckon it’s going to get markedly colder in the next few days.
Mon 16	While N went halfway round London this morning for a haircut, I managed to kill off all the bits of work which I had expected to take all day. The result was that I spent the afternoon buggering around to little effect.
Tue 17	Really good Zoom meeting of the doctors’ patient group this morning, with a few more faces that usual. We had the Office Manager deputising for the Practice Manager; she was very helpful as well as being incredibly patient with one ranty member. But dear God, writing the minutes takes longer than the meeting – not only do you waste time reformatting the document but you have to think carefully about how to word things!
Wed 18	Yet another interesting Anthony Powell Society talk this evening on Powell’s last novel The Fisher King. Good that these talks are now a regular feature and getting 40-50 attendees every time, mostly from Society members. And I enjoy hosting them.
Thu 19	Today happened, I think. There doesn’t seem a lot more to say about it. It’s still cold, with a very heavy frost last night, so we both slept late in our warm bed.
Fri 20	A light dinner of vegetable crumble, followed by apricots in Amaretto. Nice bottle of Rioja with the former. With the latter we opened a bottle of Chambord Black Raspberry liqueur N was given for Christmas. And wow! It was out of this world! Not heavy and syrupy, but light and about the strength of sherry. Just sweet enough; lots of raspberry flavour, with chocolate, vanilla, and just a hint of almond. One of those things which has to be savoured in small doses – or over ice cream.
Sat 21	Spring must be on the way, if yet still distant. I noticed the catkins on the silver birch are just beginning to grow. They’re still small, but definitely on the move.
Sun 22	We’ve now had a week of very heavy frosts. Every morning the roofs, and even the road surface, have been covered in white. At least this morning is bright and sunny – and lovely and warm in the sun. And … Oooo … the Boy Cat so nearly got that squirrel.
Mon 23	Oh bugger. Woke up at 03:00 with vertigo/labyrinthitis (again). Definitely very unstable by 08:00 so had to cancel the dentist – fortunately only to sort the crown I’ve lost (again). By mid-morning everything was literally spinning; not just waving about a bit. Spent the day under the duvet.
Tue 24	Feeling a bit more stable; reasonably OK if I keep still. But feeling smacked on the head. It’s a bit like when you were spun round at children’s party games, just that it doesn’t clear in a couple of minutes.
Wed 25	Gorgeous golden crescent moon lying on it’s back in the evening sky yesterday. Then before dawn the freezing fog descended – outside and in the head. It lasted all day too. Really dismal.
Thu 26	Still feeling smacked on the head from the vertigo, although so, so much better. Still failing to get anything useful done though, and so much to catch up on. I could do with whatever our squirrels are on: we still have one that does zoomies round the lawn, for no apparent reason, while the others go sedately about their foraging.
Fri 27	These cats really do have the right idea. Boy Cat has been in this state effectively all day.To the extent that late this afternoon I had to ask N if he’d actually surfaced enough to have had breakfast! Mind you, he pretty quickly woke up when he smelled his Friday night fish supper cooking. PS. That’s 6kg of cat!
Sat 28	At last I’m beginning to feel like I might be getting rid of the dregs of this vertigo/labyrinthitis. Definitely feeling better as the day wears on: struggling until lunchtime and then improving through to bedtime. Good food helps. This evening: pork steaks in olive ciabatta followed by strawberries & cream. Washed down with a very pleasant 2016 Wine Society Claret and after a drop of Chambord Black Raspberry liqueur.
Sun 29	OK so we didn’t put the lights out until almost 01:00 last night – which is not unusual. I quickly descended into deep sleep, and awoke shortly after 05:00 for no more than 15 minutes. And the next thing I know? It’s gone 11:00. I must be reverting to being a teenager! (I wish!)
Mon 30	What a lovely sunny day to lift the spirits. So I finally got round to doing a job I’ve been putting off for two weeks. Then I celebrated by cutting my hair. Such decadence!
Tue 31	Hi, ho! It’s off to the dentist to see about the crown I lost 10 days ago. And no, I don’t have the crown; I wasn’t aware of losing it! Gulp! Anyway young lady dentist says I get a new ceramic crown, not gold. (She also say, any more trouble with this tooth and we take it out.) Three advantages for the ceramic crown: (a) they can make them on the premises, so quicker, (b) they can bond the crown on, rather than just glue it on, and (c) its cheaper – because not gold. An hour later the prep work is done and my mouth scanned; as I leave the tooth fairy is designing the crown on her CAD/CAM system. I return in two days to have the result of the incantations fitted.

amusements, personal, photography

Self-Portrait, January

11 January 2023 Keith

Here’s something else I’m going to try new this year: take a few self-portraits. They may turn out to be interesting, or deadly dull. I don’t know, as it’s not a photographic genre I’ve really had a go at before. They’re not intended to be “selfies” in the popularly understood form, although no doubt they’ll be construed as such. Anyway I’m intending to post one a month. So here’s the first …

Bathroom Cabinet, Mirror Doors
[Click the image for a larger view]

personal

Happy New Year

1 January 2023 Keith

Wishing everyone a Happy New Year.
May you have a successful 2023.

memes, personal

Unblogged December

31 December 2022 Keith

Thu 1	Why does one wake up at 05:20? It was clear and starry – well as starry as it gets round here for the light pollution. And why is one still awake at 06:15? I got up, knowing I’d feel smacked on the head later; but knowing if I resumed slumber I’d sleep the morning away and feel smacked on the head anyway. So I figured I’d may as well do something useful.
Fri 2	Two interesting calls with my GP today. Piecing together all sorts of things, she now thinks I didn’t have cellulitis back in October (and of which I still have the remnants), but Erythema Nodosum – which I had as a kid. It all fits, but of course is one of those things which is going to be hard to prove. Luckily she’s actually finding this very interesting – as am I.
Sat 3	Meh! A pretty meh day – grey cold and miserable, so no wonder that’s how I felt. Gave up and retired early to bed to read and try to relax.
Sun 4	Spent the day clearing up the house – and made absolutely no impression on the accumulated silt of 40+ years. Consoled ourselves with roast guinea fowl & roast veg, washed down with a lovely bottle of Greek white, and followed by still warm from the oven apple crumble and cream.
Mon 5	Cometh the gardener. Cometh the pond man to do a winter clean and check over. Remaineth the depression and the work.
Tue 6	Good chat with our lovely GP this morning, mostly about advance care planning, but also checking on my not-cellulitis. But unfortunately (for us) she’s going off on maternity leave next week; she promises to return, but small people do have a habit of changing priorities.
Wed 7	04:30. Bright silvery full moon behind a veil of gossamer cloud skidding across the sky going south. Really pretty and enjoyed for 5 minutes after a trip to the bathroom.
Thu 8	Wow! What a wonderful hard frost; the first of the year I think. Everything is covered in white, and looks really pretty – especially when followed by a glorious sunny morning. Just a shame it’ll have knocked back all the plants.
Fri 9	Had an excellent bottle of more expensive Domaine Maby Libiamo Tavel with dinner; like a really good, full-bodied, Chablis or Macon with a hint of red summer fruits. It went especially well with prawns & mushroom in tomato sauce with linguine. Followed by alcoholic fruit salad. Hic!
Sat 10	Another lovely moonlit night with a heavy frost, followed by an sunny alpine day. It looks beautiful, but it’s bitterly cold. Mind the sunshine does wonders for the mood.
Sun 11	Blimey! What a wonderful hard frost. Everything covered in rime. And today a nice little fog to go with it – not thick, but enough to hold the temperature down. I probably have seen harder frosts, but this must be up there with them. And it didn’t obviously get above freezing all day.
Mon 12	Snow! Late yesterday evening, suddenly there was a decent covering of snow; not a lot, maybe 2cm at most. Although initially it looked pretty, it’s been above freezing for some of the day so the snow is clearing, and the bird bath wasn’t frozen solid.
Tue 13	Oh the fun of taking 3 cats to the vet for their annual jabs & check-up. Always take them fasting in case the vet wants blood from any of them. “But why can’t we have breakfast? We’re hungry kittens.” And then round them up to basket them; you’ll never make a sheepdog! You can always get one. The second, not so easy as she slips past and is hidden – but found. Meanwhile number 3 has become invisible. The house is searched from top to bottom and she’s eventually found in the depths of the shoe cupboard. After that they all three get a clean bill of health despite putting on weight and the vet removes a rather obese monkey from one’s pocket.
Wed 14	A day of … what exactly? Getting little done and the AP Soc online talk this evening cancelled as the speaker is indisposed.
Thu 15	Another day of doing bits and pieces. They have to be done, but it always feels so unproductive. But at least I did cook tea. Mind the cats have it right; they’ve spent the day nested, like Queen Cat.
Fri 16	No wonder our bedroom has been unusually cold. Noreen realised someone had turned the radiator off. And it wasn’t either of us! Fingers of suspicion are pointing elsewhere. At the same time I discovered the study radiator needs bleeding, but I cannot budge the bleed valve. For that I definitely blame the guy who serviced the heating at the end of May.
Sat 17	Another good Anthony Powell Society social call over Zoom, with a select group from UK and US. What was supposed to be an hour turned into 1¾ hours. Not just an opportunity to chat, but also to raise a glass in Powell’s memory as it’s his birthday in fours days time.
Sun 18	I’ve had a trail camera trained on the garden, timed to work overnight, for the last 3+ years. I unload the memory card most Sundays – it’s usually a sequence of cats and foxes, with the odd squirrel and pigeon at dawn. But for the first time when checking this week’s stills I had 3 shots of a rodent: a rat scurrying across the upper lawn about 2½m from the camera. Luckily there was no cat or fox around at the time.
Mon 19	Rain! We have rain. And wind. And it’s warmer. All the snow is gone, finally. It’s grey; dark; depressing. But we have rain. We need rain.
Tue 20	Started late, but still managed to make leftovers soup in time for lunch. Stock from the end of the lamb casserole and an end of pasta (tomato) sauce. Augmented with onion, garlic, mushrooms and cooking tomatoes. Plus seasoning, sherry and cream. Not fine dining but it went down warmingly well with chunks of bread.
Wed 21	Good to see a couple of friends over the last few days. It’s feeling odd now to have to be worrying about shielding, wearing masks etc., but I’m still at high risk and probably a good candidate for Long Covid – so I’m continuing to be careful. But how I wish it were not thus.
Thu 22	Christmas supermarket delivery this morning, with an earlier slot than our usual which threw out the internal clocks somewhat. Amazingly they got everything right, bar the odd couple of substitutions, and that our Christmas pork and large “free range” chicken both came up on the small side – adequate, but small. Oh and I ordered 1kg of banana shallots, but was sent 2.5kg! I don’t have a problem with this, though it would have been better if I’d not been charged for the extra! But, Duh!
Fri 23	Spent a chunk of the afternoon and evening catching up on writing letters and emails to family and friends. I’m the world’s worst correspondent; if I don’t reply to an email or letter almost immediately it sinks to the bottom of the ocean, never to resurface: I still have one email outstanding from this time last year! The job’s not yet finished, but I’ve broken the back of it, I hope.
Sat 24	A day of odds and sods jobs pre-Christmas – although it doesn’t feel very Christmas-y. I finished all the email writing; just my three “girl” cousins on my mother’s side to go, and that has to be letters, so no point rushing for a few days. I also cooked dinner: the chicken which I spatchcocked and roast with lots of lemon (juice & zest), tarragon, garlic, butter and brandy. Yummy!
Sun 25	Christmas Day. On our own as usual, so we can please ourselves. I was awake and up at a sensible hour (08:30), Noreen surfaced about 90 minutes later. Did nothing until lunch of smoked salmon & cream cheese rolls, washed down with large G&T. Presents in the afternoon included a couple of IOUs for things that hadn’t arrived in the post. Then roast pork, garlic roast potatoes, roast Jerusalem artichokes; sprouts & fennel; stuffing; apple sauce for dinner – this time washed down with a bottle of Champagne. Followed by total lethargy. ZZzzzzz.
Mon 26	Traditional Boxing Day lunch of cold meat, mashed potato, bubble & squeak, pickle. Washed down with a beer. And still we haven’t attacked a Christmas Pudding!
Tue 27	Typical British Bank Holiday weather: cold, grey, windy and damp. So a day largely spent “jellivating”** in between a few odd jobs.
Wed 28	It is November, isn’t it? It’s dark grey, peeing with rain, blowing half a gale, and not very warm. The end of December isn’t usually as dismal as this. Pull up the drawbridge, throw another peasant on the fire, and break open the Christmas Pudding.
Thu 29	This day in 1170 saw the assassination of Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, in his own cathedral. Formerly Lord Chancellor, Becket was made archbishop in 1162 despite not already being an ordained priest. Putting the church before the state be became a thorn in the side of Henry II, and spent 6 years exiled in France. He was canonised, as a martyr, in February 1173. Thomas Becket is my patron saint.
Fri 30	There’s a UNICEF advert running on the Smithsonian channel at the moment. It states that a £10 donation could provide live-saving food for a child (by implication in a third world country) for a week. Wouldn’t it be a fucking good idea if we ensured all the kids in this country were properly fed and nourished first? Government: note and action.
Sat 31	The year ends grey, windy and wet. A fitting end, and good riddance, to a fairly crap year. 2023 has to be better, or I suspect the whole country is going to go stark raving squirrelled.^^

** Jellivate (v). To sit around like a lump of mindless jelly, doing nothing and with no inclination to do anything; thumb in bum and mind in neutral.
^^ As in that memorable line from Steptoe and Son: “My old man’s a nutter; he’s gone squirrelled”.

personal, photography, pleasures

Happy Christmas

24 December 2022 Keith 2 Comments

Happy, Healthy & Peaceful Christmas

and a

Calm & Successful New Year

to all our family, friends and followers

*Letterbox Flowers*; photograph by Keith Marshall, 2022
Click the image for a larger view

personal

Unblogged November

30 November 2022 Keith

Tue 1	Another month. Another Prime Minister, but the same old faces round the Cabinet table, although having played musical chairs. And the same old obfuscation, deceit and self-interest.
Wed 2	Definitely much better and taking hardly any painkillers. GP pleased with progress when we talked yesterday, but prescribed a fourth round of antibiotics just to be on the safe side. Cellulitis is a real bugger to get rid of and is prone to recur.
Thu 3	A knackering day of work, trying to catch up on stuff I’ve ignored. How did I ever manage to do this every day?
Fri 4	What is wrong with the universe? It’s Friday. And for once it doesn’t feel like Saturday, but more like Monday or Tuesday – and anonymous ones at that.
Sat 5	Remember, remember the 5th of November, when you can easily flash a demi-singe (which you can’t really afford) up in smoke and scare the bejesus out of every living thing within 5 miles. And all in celebration of a terrorist! When are people going to realise that this is just another conspicuous consumption which does nothing but wreck your finances and the planet?
Sun 6	It’s no wonder we get depressed and suffer from SAD when you look at today. Grey, dark, dismal, wet – I’m not even sure it got properly light all day! Well what do you expect in November?
Mon 7	It’s monthly household finances day – again! And it was one of those where everything was awkward and nothing would reconcile easily. Still at least we’re still solvent, despite splashing money on a new laptop.
Tue 8	Not liking that Elon Musk has made Twitter his private fiefdom. Been exploring Mastodon, which seems the most popular alternative. But it’s impossible to see how the hell it works for the average Joe User. It’s just too convoluted and opaque.
Wed 9	Left on my own for much of the day, as N was out at dawn for check-up at Royal Free Hospital. She wasn’t back until getting on for darkrise. So I had to wear my hearing aids all day (can’t hear the doorbell otherwise), and for once they were not being uncomfortable.
Thu 10	Is it just me (well both of us, actually) or is it bloody cold, even for mid-November. I’m not normally cold – never have been – but I’m definitely feeling colder this year than I remember previous years. I suppose I must be getting old. 😟
Fri 11	I can only think that the people who pick the grocery orders can’t read, can’t see (poor lighting?), or are just slapdash. We order 5 Bramley apples. How many do we get? One! Just one! What use is that, pray?
Sat 12	“Crazy plants! During the summer we bought two small plants of Pineapple Sage, Salvia elegans. It is a sage, but not of the stuffing kind; more of the add it to your Pimms kind. One plant was put into one of the raised beds (about 1m square); the other in a large pot. They’ve gone mad. The one in the raised bed has taken over the whole area, and the potted one is trying to catch up with it. And now, in late autumn, they’re rampant with spikes of bright red flowers.
Sun 13	Awake early, so got up, and left N sleeping until 09:30 gone. Then had to rush round to make ourselves decent and have some breakfast as we were expecting the gardener. But the gardner didn’t show, and as usual didn’t bother to tell us! Gah!
Mon 14	What a wonderful misty/foggy morning; in fact its been like this most of the night. It isn’t very thick, visibiliy probably 2-300m – not really quite dense enough! I love fog; and I remember enjoying foggy mornings as a kid – mind they were thick then and nastily smoggy — but they were great at muffling the sound. And that’s part of what makes fog so mystical and magical.
Tue 15	Afternoon trip to the dentist for check-up and hygienist. First time I’ve worn shoes & socks in 6 weeks. Pleasantly surprised at how well the feet survived – nowhere nearly as uncomfortable as I expected, although I had acquired a pair of soft shoes. Definite progress.
Wed 16	Squirrel antics. There’s a tray hanging under the birds seed feeder to catch debris; otherwise pigeons trample the grass to death. Squirrel wants to get on the tray. Up the pole and down the seed feeder – cheeky nibble on the way down. Tray tilts precariously. Rinse and repeat. Until one of the hanging chains detaches. Tray now at 45° angle. Squirrel tries again: down the feeder, but ooops it can’t grip on this tray and falls off. And again. And again.
Thu 17	CT scan this morning. Why is everywhere in every hospital a 5 mile hike from the main entrance, with a single glacially slow lift in the middle? Just as well I arrived 15 minutes early. Once at Imaging, the scan took literally seconds – conjunction of canula and hand took longer than the actual scan! Appointment at 10:00, out the door before 10:30; as it should be.
Fri 18	Actually managed to cook tea tonight – for the first time since mid-September; that’s how bad I’ve been. It was a bit of a trial, especially as I’ve lost some of my touch – but I did it! And we shared a bottle of wine for the first time in 7 weeks. Now to recover the touch etc.
Sat 19	We’ve got a fixed rate, fixed term bond maturing in a couple of weeks time. It’s earning a pathetic amount of interest. But roll it over for a couple of years and we get something approaching a decent rate: almost 5%! Well, that’s before the Chancellor gets his hands on it.
Sun 20	I blame November for another Meh day. Dark, grey, drizzly and not very warm. As observed before, it’s no wonder so many of us have SAD. Light therapy is supposed to be the fix. Not here it isn’t.
Mon 21	Small (5x3cm) bruise in the crook of my right elbow from where I had the catheter inserted for my CT scan last Thursday. Beginning to fade now, but has been all sorts of pretty shades of black, blue, purple, and yellow.
Tue 22	Had a couple of crusts of garlic bread left last night, so they were thrown out on the lawn. Surprisingly nothing purloined them – I can only assume foxes don’t like garlic! – and they were still there this morning. That was until squirrel hopped along!
Wed 23	A very odd light this afternoon: obviously sunshine, but not obviously sunshine; very dark but golden; really showing up to autumnal leaves on our trees. And it was raining, that very fine but persistent rain. So the most magnificent rainbow I’ve seen for many years; really bright with clear colours, although my eyes could only just see the violet. (Photos taken through some rather grubby glass.)
Thu 24	Saw a brilliant trick for peeling apples quickly using a power tool and a vegetable peeler. For once, not too good to be true; I tried it; it works a treat. With not much practice you can peel an apple in under 5 seconds. OK you still have to core and slice it, but that’s relatively quick. Great if you need to do a lot of apples. Video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1hTKfkJtzM
Fri 25	Adnams New England IPA. I’ve had a few small cans in stock for a while – I think it was a one off brew last winter. It’s a curious beverage. A cloudy beer which tastes a cross between very bitterly hopped and (pine) loo cleaner. I don’t mind the cloudiness, but loo cleaner isn’t really my taste. But Adnams do lots of other fab beers: Southwold Bitter, Ghost Ship, Dry Hopped Lager to name but three.
Sat 26	Sat for a long time over dinner with a bottle of good wine and a liqueur. Mostly spent discussing the eccentricities of all our friends’ kids. They’re an interesting bunch; all very different; but all delightful and slightly eccentric in their own way – as are their parents.
Sun 27	While it is lovely to have the Tilly Cat on my desk – stretch, wriggle, chirrup, purr – it does hamper work because she’s almost invariably lying on the papers I need! Find me a cat owner who doesn’t understand this!
Mon 28	About 100 yards up the road, at the bottom of a garden, is a large tree – I think a sycamore – about twice the height of the houses. Right at the very top, on a long straight branch, is a tree rat. Said squirrel then decides to run, full speed, down the branch, in similitudine a ball-bearing down a steep slope. A few minutes later the Boy Cat was out hunting down by the pond. He sat on the path edge; quite conspicuously white. But there’s a squirrel, scurrying to and fro, not 10 feet in front of him, sure in the belief it was quicker than the cat. Squirrel athleticism and agility just defies belief.
Tue 29	Zoom meetings can be brilliant, in many ways. But hybrid meetings, with some in a room together and some joined by Zoom, really don’t work. The remote people get excluded, if only because they can never hear the room conversations fully and clearly. And two hours of it is exceptionally painful.
Wed 30	A magnificent golden, autumnal, oak tree (and silver birch) bathed in sunshine this afternoon. The photo really doesn’t do it justice!

personal, ramblings

Advent Announcement

27 November 2022 Keith

Marvin, The Paranoid Android Today is the first Sunday in Advent, so it’s that time when I, like many others, would normally be running an Advent Calendar of blog posts. And then for a few days either side of New Year have a series of posts summarising the year past and looking forward to the year to come.

However I’ve decided that this year I’m going to do none of that. I just don’t have the stomach for it this year, and cannot make myself invest the time in something I see as increasingly pointless. What price predictions in this increasingly dystopian world? I’ve also struggled to find a suitable and interesting subject for an Advent Calendar – at least in terms of something that sufficiently captivates me and which is not hemmed in with copyright etc. restrictions.

At the end of the day that’s probably all down to depression, and having the brain frazzled by recent illness.

Life! Don’t talk to me about Life!

Nonetheless my monthly posts are planned to continue through next year. So you’ll still have regular quiz questions, quotes, links to interesting items and my unblogged month. In addition, next year I’m adding, on a single (variable) day each month, an “On This Day” post for 100 years ago – yes, just one day a month something from 1923 that happened on that day.

So, sorry, but whatever the reason, the brain isn’t going to hack it all this year. Hopefully at least the Advent Calendar will return next year.

personal

Unblogged October

31 October 2022 Keith

Well folks, apologies for the radio silence but most of October has been a complete write-off due to a rather nasty cellulitis infection in both feet and ankles. Not just a bacterial infection making one feel really yeuchy, but so incredibly painful that for several days I couldn’t stand without serious assistance.

Sat 1	I wonder what horrors this month will bring? Last month we had: been ill (twice); death of the Queen; 2 PMs the latest having less clue (or care) than the previous; and a Chancellor the same; mini-budget which wrecked everything except a handout to the richest; £ fell to $1.03; another interest rate rise; promises of fewer environmental controls.
Sun 2	Had horrid indigestion for last week. Feeling rough; totally flattened and unable. Frightened, panicky & depressed – some of the worst I’ve known. Call doctor tomorrow.
Mon 3	A day trying (again) to catch up and organise the junk on my desk; some success, tho’ not enough. But gradually feeling a bit better.
Tue 4	This is getting tedious; not at all a collection of odd and interesting snippets as I’d hoped. Depths of depression today, culminating in meltdown halfway though doing the grocery order: why am I even bothering; what’s the point; I won’t be here by then. I suggested N just put me down; which she declined on the basis that it’s illegal.
Wed 5	Finally a call-back from GP. She’s not very concerned; might just be a nasty viral infection (not Covid). But concerned enough that I’m on 2 week referral for endoscopy – just in case! Bugger, but wise.
Thu 6	Blimey! Talk about a quick response. Hospital called this morning to arrange appointment. And more … I was offered an appointment at o’God o’clock on Sunday morning. At least that’ll get it over with.
Fri 7	Blood taken by nurse at GP’s this morning. Also saw GP: have painful cellulitis in foot = antibiotics. Slept most of the afternoon.
Sat 8	Totally stressed and panicky about tomorrow. Cellulitis f***ing painful; cannot put weight on it without painkillers. Doesn’t bode well for tomorrow.
Sun 9	Full moon which I actually saw was no. 888 since I was born.

Mon 10
to
Wed 26

And then everything was a write-off. As my GP expressed it, I was quite poorly with the cellulitis in both feet and ankles. Unbelievably painful even with strong painkillers and strong antibiotics. Lucky not to be hospitalised with it; largely due to calm, pragmatic and determined GP.

Thu 27	Finally beginning to surface. Feet still painful, but a lot less so; have to stop every hour or so for a lie down as that’s the most comfortable for the feet. Can walk about home, but not stand for any length of time. Now on third course of antibiotics, and still on the painkillers.
Fri 28	A day feeling dopey. Check-in with GP who is pleased with progress. Still trying to catch-up and build my new big laptop (got fed up with struggling with the old small one which won’t take Windows 11).
Sat 29	Good grief! It isn’t even November and already the BBC are making all their presenters wear a poppy. Gah!
Sun 30	Arrggghhhh!! Yet again we have to bugger around changing the clocks. It really winds me up! We should stay on GMT – it’s our heritage innit! Or at least decide what time zone we want to be in, stay there, and stop wasting time changing everything twice a year. Gah!
Mon 31	It’s the end of October, and still almost every tree is in full green leaf. A few species are already bare, and some are starting to turn autumnal; but many still look as if it is high summer.

amusements, personal

Unblogged September

30 September 2022 Keith

Thu 1	Blimey! What a day! It’s surprising how much work a new credit card makes, what with activation, PINs, update all the finance apps, insurance etc. – and that’s before you start updating all the places you use a card online. That was just one part of a never ending stream of emails and things needing to be done NOW! How did I manage to do this every day at work?
Fri 2	Poorly pussycat. Not eating; being sick. V.E.T. tomorrow morning.
Sat 3	N takes Boy Cat to the V.E.T. who thinks he has an infection especially as the other 2 also off their food at bit. I stay home because the gardener is coming – but he doesn’t!
Sun 4	A day of deep depression; weepy and struggling to do even the minimum. Even a really nice chicken curry not restorative.
Mon 5	We’re getting a new treasurer for the literary society. So, as I’m the one who brings in most of the money (memberships & shop), I had to dust off and update my finance processes. It’s surprising how much it had changed in only 3 years – so much more being done online.
Tue 6	Rain! We have rain! It absolutely poured down for a large part of the afternoon. But it had stopped by 19:00 when I went to feed the pond fish, and it was actually a nice, warm and fresh evening.
Wed 7	It was another of those instances where you need to do a job, but find you don’t have the necessary materials to hand. In this case, flash drives. Fortunately Mr Amazon came to the rescue with same day delivery.
Thu 8	It’s raining again. For at least the third day in a row. This is most unusual for the first week of September, which is usually dry, sunny, and warm – so much so that we have often taken holiday at this time. Today is our umpty-n-th wedding anniversary; this day in 1979 was indeed dry, sunny, and rather warm, as were the preceding and following few days.
Fri 9	Well what should one do on the day after the death of the Queen? I don’t know, but basically we did bugger all apart from jellivate and studiously ignore the continual morbidness on TV and radio.
Sat 10	Picked an enormous quantity of runner beans. The gardener took half, and we gave some to a neighbour and still have enough for us for tomorrow. That’ll not be the last of them, but they’re beginning to wind down, so maybe only one more picking. Not bad for last year’s plants – yes they’re perennials, not annuals as we always treat them.
Sun 11	Afternoon cookathon. Bread pudding. Salmon (for cold tomorrow). Marinated pork slices for dinner (with jacket potatoes & veg). Alcoholic summer fruit salad for dinner.
Mon 12	Well that certainly needed doing … Comes the gardener to relay half the front path which was in a dangerous state with several lifted slabs due to the encroachment of roots etc.
Tue 13	I really struggle to understand why people are so disorganised. You send out an invitation to a (free) talk, followed by a reminder two weeks beforehand. But at least 20% won’t book until the day before, after you’ve sent out the Zoom link to those who’ve already booked, thus causing extra work.
Wed 14	Guy next door gets a so-called tree surgeon in to cut back my trees on his side of our mutual boundary – which he’s entitled to. But he doesn’t have the courtesy to bother to tell me. Have to get out of pram with said tree surgeon who is straying over our side; and working unsafely; with the wrong tools. And because all the trimmings are technically mine they get thrown over the fence, onto my lawn, for me to clear up, without any “by your leave”. Very not impressed.
Thu 15	I can’t believe* that the queue to walk past a flag covering a box (even if it does contain the mortal remains of the Queen) in Westminster is almost 5 miles long, stretching along the South Bank back to Southwark Park; and that if you join the queue now (about 20:00) you might just get through by sunrise – or is that sunrise on Saturday? [* Well actually I can believe this because the British people are sufficiently stupid and gullible.]
Fri 16	Day totally disrupted by a supermarket delivery which was 90 minutes after the booked slot. How can they send a driver out with paperwork not having the crate numbers for every delivery? And then apparently do nothing until I ring up to find out what’s happening. We eventually got to have lunch around 14:15, so basically ended up writing off the afternoon as well as the morning.
Sat 17	At last, and sooner than expected … we got our 4th Covid jabs this morning at our local chemist. We were a bit early so had to join a short queue – 5 chairs rather than 5 miles long. They really are good; well organised and efficient; and they automatically deliver our prescriptions at no charge.
Sun 18	Eddie Butler, rugby player and commentator, died a couple of days ago. I bumped into him once, almost literally, maybe 20 years ago on Reading station. I’m a pretty big bloke, but he absolutely dwarfed me.
Mon 19	I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised at it being a weird day, what with ER funeral and all … but I felt really out of sorts all day: cold, miserable, depressed, and totally unable to settle to do anything at all. I am though in awe of the logistics which have gone into the whole of the last 10 days; I know it is all planned out in advance, but there’s so much that can’t be fixed until the time comes – like selecting and training guardsmen to carry the coffin, naval ratings to pull a gun carriage, transport & detailed orders of precedence for dignitaries, rehearsal and final timings. And that bearer party were (at least in what I saw) nigh on faultless – at least two were still teenagers! – and commanded by a young Second Lieutenant, the most junior of junior officers – what responsibility, and deserving of something more that just kudos. Equilibrium partly restored later with cold chicken, sauté potatoes and champagne.
Tue 20	Oh God! Spent the day horizontal and cancelled everything. Vertical hold totally buggered by vertigo. Effectively motion sickness; dizzy and nauseous.
Wed 21	Still flattened, though slightly better. Very annoying, especially as I have a couple of things which I needed to do urgently yesterday.
Thu 22	Managed to be semi-upright. Trying to catch up on that which should have been done in the last few days. Doctor she say want to see me when it happens again; may need ENT referral.
Fri 23	Slowly improving, but still in catch-up and rest mode.
Sat 24	Nice literary society zoom meet at lunchtime with fun discussions about Dornford Yates, George Orwell, Tolkien and others; plus totalitarianism, healthcare, fishing and Scotland. Never let it be said our meetings are dull!
Sun 25	What’s happening? Has everyone died? It is just so quiet around here; even our usually noisy neighbours are pretty quiet. Mind you they can’t say the same for us today; the gardener has been here shredding, mowing and strimming all day!
Mon 26	After a dull, wet and miserable day, some glorious evening sunshine on the top of the silver birch tree. The wild rose has climbed right to the top of the tree and is a riot of bright glowing red hips in the sun. No photo can really do it justice, but here’s a shot! Click the image for a larger view.
Tue 27	How computers waste time! Spent 2½ hours this morning while N was at the hospital trying to fix several (mostly minor) glitches on her PC. Failed at all but one; and even that took some wrangling.
Wed 28	Well that wasn’t quite as scheduled. I missed Jupiter’s close approach on Monday night, because as usual it was cloudy. But at 04:15 this morning it was an unmissable bright light in the SW sky. I was too asleep to go get binoculars, but impressive all the same.
Thu 29	I’ve had so little alcohol recently that this evening’s half bottle of red left me feeling distinctly unsteady.
Fri 30	It’s flu jab day! I wonder if it’s going to knock me out for 24 hours like it usually does? Luckily I’ve managed to keep the weekend free.

Zen Mischief

Category Archives: personal

ChatGPT writes Haiku

Unblogged January

Self-Portrait, January

Happy New Year

Unblogged December

Happy Christmas

Unblogged November

Advent Announcement

Unblogged October

Unblogged September

Eccentric looks at life through the thoughts of a retired working thinker