Category Archives: pleasures

books, food+drink, medical, nudism, personal, photography, pleasures, quotes, science, thoughts

Outlook for 2010

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Jilly over at jillysheep has prompted me to think about what I might want to achieve in 2010. This is not something I normally do, as I have always been content to drift with the tide and see what washes up.

But in 2010 I would like to:

  1. Win the lottery jackpot (minimum £2m)
  2. Lose 50 kilos (I keep telling you I’m hugely overweight)
  3. Do all the cooking (like I used to)
  4. Get the bathroom rebuilt (probably requires as a prerequisite)
  5. Get the house rewired (also requires as a prerequisite)
  6. Get the whole house tidy, uncluttered and clean – and keep it that way
  7. Get the two-thirds of the house which badly needs it redecorated (another that requires as a prerequisite)
  8. Go on at least three 2-week holidays, one railway-based, one to Europe and one naturist in the sun
  9. Travel from Thurso to Penzance by train.
  10. Have a good sunny summer and be able to walk skyclad all summer around my garden

That list was a joke! Yes, I would like to do all those things but the chances of achieving them are at best 1 in 14 million (ie. the chance of winning the lottery at any one attempt. If I win the lottery (odds over the year probably 300 in 14 million) all except , and #10 become relatively easy.

OK, so let’s be realistic. What do I stand some chance of achieving?

  1. Lose 15 kilos
  2. Get out to the shops (even the dreaded supermarket) at least once a week (ought to be easy now I’m retired)
  3. Cook 3 meals a week
  4. Go out to take photographs at least once a week (also should be easy)
  5. Write 2 weblog posts a week
  6. Get the heating fixed (like Jilly, we have an annoying intermittent and unsolved problem)
  7. Grow a year’s supply of chillies – on the study windowsill (given that we use a lot of chillies and said windowsill space is limited this will need a very prolific variety)
  8. Get my Anthony Powell Society work up to date, and keep it that way
  9. Get the sitting room and dining rooms properly tidy and inhabitable
  10. Rejuvenate my fish tanks
  11. Go away on holiday for 2 weeks
  12. Make some major progress on my family history (yes that’s vague; first I have to take stock of what I’ve got)

And if I actually manage to achieve half of that lot I should be satisfied.

I don’t make New Year’s Resolutions – that’s just setting oneself up to fail, because they are always so unrealistic – so I’m not going to start this year and I’m not even going to commit to trying to achieve any of the above. They are what I would like to achieve. It’s a “wants list”, not a “must achieve or else list”. One reason I took early retirement was to get away from the incessant round of unachievable “must achieve or else” objectives. That way come madness and depression. 2010 is about relaxing and finding a life again.

Happy New Year to everyone!
Please don’t go out celebrating and get frostbite. 🙂

arts, environment, history, photography, pleasures, topographical

Lowestoft Tiles

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Lowestoft Tiles, originally uploaded by kcm76.

This is a mosaic of shots I took when Noreen and I were in Lowestoft for the day in September 2008. Round the edge is a selection of tiles used as part of the paving in London Road, Lowestoft. There is a line of tiles each side of the street (which is pedestrianised) some 10 feet from the shop fronts and spaced a few yards apart. Some were extremely dull; these caught my eye. The local planners, despite all the other dire things they’ve done to an interesting Edwardian seaside resort and port, should have credit for these tiles as they certainly are an unusual and interesting touch to an otherwise boring shopping street. All the tiles appear to have local themes: Lowestoft pottery, fishing industry, holiday resort, marshland, boating, etc. These are just round the corner from the decaying railway station (shown centre). It’s original buildings are approximating to semi-derelict (although still in use) but they retain some of the old decorative arcading and the original 1950s(?) BR station sign overlooking the “town square”.

You’ll get a better idea of the tiles if you follow the links to the individual images:
1. Tile 1, 2. Tile 4, 3. Tile 7, 4. Tile 6, 5. Lowestoft Central Station, 6. Tile 8, 7. Tile 2, 8. Tile 5, 9. Tile 3

Created with fd’s Flickr Toys

memes, personal, photography, pleasures

Summer Dreaming Meme


Summer Dreaming Meme, originally uploaded by kcm76.

This week’s Flickr meme was to choose 12 things you would find at the beach (or round the pool). Here are my selections …

1. Seaweed
2. Plastic Bottles
3. Seagulls
4. Nubiles
5. Rocks
6. Used Condom
7. Ice Cream
8. Groins
9. Dog Shit
10. Shells
11. Broken Glass
12. Fossils

As always the photographs are not mine so please click on individual links below to see each artist/photostream. This mosaic is for a group called My Meme, where each week there is a different theme and normally 12 questions to send you out on a hunt to discover photos to fit your meme. It gives you a chance to see and admire other great photographers’ work out there on Flickr.

1. The Green Weed of Pembroke, 2. Beach Garbage 1, 3. Heal the World, 4. Tina Atina, 5. Today’s sunset, 6. Consumed, 7. Flickr meltdown (I need a fucking ice cream!), 8. ..: Sand Water Wood :.., 9. kackender hund wartet auf ballwerfendes frauchen, 10. some of the other ones, 11. heart of glass, 12. Urban Relics

Created with fd’s Flickr Toys

books, current affairs, pleasures

Apologia Americana

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First of all apologies for the non-existence of postings for most of the last 3-4 weeks. Yes, you guessed we’ve been away and have struggled with the quantity of the work fore-log and post-log.

Almost 3 weeks in Washington, DC – partly at the 5th Biennial Anthony Powell Conference – was certainly different. I liked Washington; I didn’t expect to. Apart from a couple of areas of high-rise office blocks it is a small and fairly human-scale city: most of the official buildings of the US government are 100+ years old, so usually only 4 or so (substantial) floors and built of light coloured stone. The public monuments are, as befits America, monumental. The streets are wide, often tree-lined, light and airy with an almost continental feel. The White House is a lot smaller than I expected and, err, white; you can stand at the railings in full view of, and not many yards from, the building and protest – unlike in paranoid London. Georgetown is full of very pretty late 18th century houses (a bit like the best parts of Chiswick, Kew or Richmond), but it is expensive!

The food was excellent, especially recommended are Papa Razzi and Mr Smith’s. The beer was cold. The weather was hot – we didn’t have a day under 75F – and humid but mostly dry. American service was not everything it is cracked up to be: the 50% of the time it was good it was excellent; when it wasn’t the customer care was equally as bad as anything you’ll find in Britain. And contrary to expectations, and warnings, the airport staff (immigration, security and customs) were polite and friendly – although immigration on the way in through Dulles Airport did take 90 minutes even at a quiet time, thanks to too few checkpoints open and a plane-load of Far Eastern tourists with large complex family structures in front of us in the queue. The taxis were friendly, efficient and much cheaper than in the UK; the metered cabs were 40% cheaper than I pay for a minicab in outer London, which makes them half the cost of London black cabs.

We even got taken to Colonial Williamsburg (thanks Alden!) which is rather delightful: interesting and a lot less Disney-esque than I expected; it isn’t cheap though, but then it is a theme park of sorts. It was a bit too hot and humid for comfort though – but a good excuse for some extra traditional cider! But why does an historic attraction like Colonial Williamsburg need not one, but two, 18-hole golf courses? It beats me!

All in all a good time was had. The flights were fun, out over the spectacular fjords of Labrador and back over night. Photos to follow on Flickr when I get some time to sort out the decent from the dross.

current affairs, pleasures

Graduates to get gap-year money

This is the headline on a BBC News item this morning.

The [UK] government is to pay for graduates struggling to get a job to go on trips abroad […] It will pay for 500 young people under the age of 24 to travel to places such as Costa Rica and India to take part in projects such as building schools […] A government spokesman said he would not go into details about funding ahead of the launch.

OK this keeps them off the unemployed register. However, I have just one question. With what are the government going to pay for this? Cork buttons and rubber cheques?

Sounds to me like another NuLaba initiative which will turn out to be just empty promises. Let’s hope so anyway; the country can’t afford to pay kids to go jollying round the world.

memes, personal, photography, pleasures

Travel Suitcase Meme


Travel Suitcase Meme, originally uploaded by kcm76.

This week’s Flickr meme is to list 12 things that you would put in your travel suitcase; 12 things you’d never travel without! Having excluded the obvious (like clean underwear) here’s my list:

1. I never leave home without a camera (if only my tiny Fuji)
2. Mobile Phone (or two if I’m travelling for work or on call)
3. Laptop
4. Breathing Apparatus (otherwise known as my CPAP machine)
5. Moleskine Notebook & Pen
6. Dirty Water (aka Diet Coke)
7. My pretty coloured pills (at least 5 varieties currently required)
8. Passport (unless I know I’m staying in the UK and won’t be getting on a plane anywhere)
9. Waterproof (if only a light nylon one)
10. Swiss Army Knife (you never know when you’ll have to remove boy scouts from lions’ paws)
11. Window Cleaner (for my glasses)
12. Reading matter (if only a couple of magazines)

As always the photographs are not mine so please click on individual links below to see each artist/photostream. This mosaic is for a group called My Meme, where each week there is a different theme and normally 12 questions to send you out on a hunt to discover photos to fit your meme. It gives you a chance to see and admire other great photographers’ work out there on Flickr.

1. In-Camera HDR (Guam), 2. MobiGates with unique mobile phone, 3. laptop_lunchbox 2007.04.04, 4. Breathing Apparatus, 5. Manet Inspired in my Moleskine, 6. Coca Cola Roberto Cavalli, 7. Horse Pills, 8. British Passport 1857 Boucher-inside, 9. Aaah look at this coat now, it’s all ruined and they said it was waterproof!!, 10. 2009 0616 Army Museum 15, 11. Squeegee Girl Mona, 12. Reading

Created with fd’s Flickr Toys.

natural history, personal, pleasures, science

Death on the Ranch

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Well not really on the ranch, more in the fish pond. This very hot, humid and airless weather has taken a toll on my pond fish. Over the last 3 days I’ve lost 8 fish, most of them koi carp. None of then were of any great monetary value, but of course as with any “pet” they are of sentimental value. And we are not talking small fish here; we’re talking koi the size of a damn good salmon!


These were my fish last year; the three big ones in the centre of the picture are amongst those I’ve lost in the last few days. The golden orange one was almost 25 years old and one of my very first pond fish.

Coldwater fish do not like this weather. It is well known that water gets starved of oxygen in warm, sticky, stormy weather. This last few days has been especially bad; I don’t remember anything so hot and humid for many years. and of course it hits the largest fish hardest. They have a larger body mass to support, and their body mass to gill are ratio must be higher than in smaller fish. So the big fish get hit first. But then I do also partly blame myself as my pond maintenance has probably not been up to scratch recently.

It’s a timely reminder not just of the fragility of life but of the old adage about fishkeeping: We are not fishkeepers, we are water keepers.

Fortunately it has been noticeably cooler today, and the forecast is for it to get cooler through the weekend and for rain from Sunday; both of which will help.

photography, pleasures

H Asleep – Join the Dots


H Asleep – Join the Dots, originally uploaded by kcm76.

Harry the cat asleep on my study chair; he was so dead to the world he didn’t even twitch a whisker while I leant across for my camera and took photographs until I moved the chair slightly; even then all he did was open half an eye! The cropping was a bit of an experiment.

history, pleasures

A Practical Use for Cats

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Another snippet which interested me (as an ailurophile) this week is from the May 2009 issue of Subterranea*:

A Practical Use for Cats

An unsubstantiated item of Derbyshire folklore claims the application of a cat to useful purposes, in connection with the development of lead mining at Bole Hill, near Wirksworth. Here shafts had been sunk, and lead ore raised, to considerable depths, until the water-table was reached necessitating expensive pumping if mining was to follow the ore deeper.

From 1772 a drainage tunnel (the Meerbrook sough) was driven under the hill from the valley of the river Derwent, intended to connect with a shaft then of the order of 200 metres deep. The tunnel was not in one straight line, as it made diversions from time to time to follow veins of galena as they were encountered. After 26 years or so, when the tunnel was getting close to the shaft, the question arose how to effect the meeting of the two with least wasted labour.

The solution, local legend has it, was provided by a cat, taken along the very wet tunnel into the heart of the hill. Boring was commenced at the bottom of the shaft at a predetermined time. The cat in the tunnel turned to look in the direction of the sound, thus indicating the exact alignment needed for the final length of the drainage tunnel. This was repeated several metres further along the same tunnel, allowing the determination of the shaft’s location by triangulation.

* Subterranea is the magazine of Subterranea Britannica, the “society devoted to the study of man-made and man-used underground structures and the archaeology of the Cold War”.