Hosework

 

Very enjoyable Monday evening last night.  The SPAM meeting, the St Paul's Men's Meeting, took place in the usual dwelling and we spent an enjoyable couple of hours putting the world to right.  I must say that no politician arrived to consider and accept our opinions, mostly ignorant, but none the less we made them clear, and indeed loud!  Russia, local public houses that no longer exist, traffic congestion, and who's round is it anyway?  

At this point I left for home.

Home was clean last night.  As my niece is expected to arrive soon I have been forced into a Spring Clean, we canny have the baby in the usual routine dusty atmosphere.  So I began the tidy up yesterday morning.  This included sorting out the shelves of foto albums, re-aranging them, amending the tv, which I never watch layout, fixing the VCR which does not work, and still doesn't, hoovering, spider web removing and falling exhausted to the floor.  So, one corner of the room is finished, but smells a bit, today I fix the stuff under the desk.  

I may be a while...  

I fixed the stuff under the desk, well, most of it.  I hoovered the couch, finished the floor, moved this and that, packed bags for the charity shops, and my aching back decided that this is indeed a job for women!   

Lions, often referred to by the name Leo you will note, have the right idea.  They pick the best woman, she takes the girls hunting, Leo eats most of it, then sleeps for 14 hours a day, interrupted only by the kids.  

Now that is my idea of life...

 

 

Wednesday Wittering

 

 

Hmmm... I think I have found the result of following all the diet advice I have received.  My diet has changed today, at least up till now, and I am hungry I can tell you.  The bag of oven chips, not much loved recently, pleads to be opened as I scribble.  

To divert attention I worked.

Yes, that shocked me also.  I thought my stiff back might ease if I did something to make it move so I sorted out the mess in the bedroom, hung up things lying around for yonks, and then grabbed a wet cloth and removed eons of dust from the shelves, doors, window...  It all looks much improved, though I wonder if I will find anything when I look for it.  

I noted while inside the cupboard that I was going to Spring clean it two years ago and that I failed to achieve my aim.  I looked at the masses of stuff in there and did what any man in my situation would do, I closed the door.

That reminded me of other things not sprung clean in recent days, such as the files beside me.  Last time I sorted the 'important papers' file I had items going back four years, maybe tomorrow for that one.

Hmmm... I could not waken this morning and have been half asleep all day, I just cannot wait for tomorrow to come and see how wide awake I am then...

 

......................

 

You realise just how age catches up with us all when even the Rolling Stones begin to pass away.  Charlie Watts, the unsmiling, suave drummer, he actually preferred Jazz I heard, leaves us at 81 years.  Mick and Keith must be looking in the mirror now, though with all the drugs consumed I reckon Keith has a dozen more years to go yet.

 

Work Never Ceases...

Man alive!  I was at it early today.  Rising at 7ish, I was almost awake by 9.  Listening carefully I realised the house was quiet, all had gone out to earn large amounts of cash and pay towards my pension increase, not that many hours would be required for that!  So, I stuffed the next blanket into the washing machine and set it going.  Three days in a row!  This is costing a fortune in water.

Then in quick order I sorted out the rubbish for the bin men tomorrow, forgetting that it is 'Good Friday' and they will not come till Saturday, did some exercise to ease the pain from yesterday's exercise and then hoovered the house!  

What is wrong with me?  

Coming in from dumping the rubbish I began to pick weeds from the front of the house, a tedious and difficult job for someone who does not bend easily.  Thismay please the landlord but I wish he gave me a stick to use!

I then began my study time, three hours late, failed to understand a word, and all the while contemplating wandering across the park.  

By lunchtime I was dead.

No majorwork could be done as I had to check the budget!  So, I then struggled through the afternoon until near six.  It was then I stopped planning for tomorrow's work when I remembered it was 'Good Friday,' all would be holidaying, the sun would go in, clouds arrive and there is a church 'Stations of the Cross' online at 3 pm.  This meant my cupboard cleaning was out, under the bed remains under the bed, and the need to sort my files continues to grow. 

There again as it is a holiday, visiting Sainsburys early in the morning is also out which saw me hobbling up there tonight, much against my will, to collect what bread I could find for the weekend.  This meant eating late, being out of joint and catching up on emails.

What does it all mean?  

Energy and desire to work, exercising daily?  Housework rather than laziness?

I must be ill...  

Laundering Blankets and Baby.

 

Lock Down fever has hit me!  I returned to Spring Cleaning!  Yesterday I washed the bed cover, a large object that filled the machine.  It turns out it is actually white!  For years I thought it was a kind of magnolia colour.   Impressed with this, knowing the neighbours are all out, today I washed the big blanket.  This remains mostly black but some colour now shows in various regions.  Hopefull all are out tomorow and I will do the orange coloured one, I think that is orange...

The thing is I have to ensure folks are out or the whole building shakes, depending on which spin speed is used.  Luckily the large objects were done on 'Duvet,' though I have not the courage to wash my duvet itself, much easier to buy a new one possibly.  How many years should they last...?

The thing is large objects only get washed rarely, in this house years have passed by since the last time and the covers have done their work well, so why bother say I?  Fussy people may grumble about the smell and the somewhat tinged covers but these people I refer to as just 'woke.'  

After this I must clean out the cupboard I began Spring cleaning, oh about two years ago.  Then there is 'under the bed,' which may produce many lost items as well as a wee bit of dust.  I am in no hurry to look under there.  Worse may be the trays on my desk.  The last time I cleared the paperwork I had stuff going back four years, it creaks a bit now so there may be a similar outcome this time.  Time!  Where is a lazy person like me going to get the time to do all this, or indeed the energy?  Oh, I begin to feel weak at the thought...

 

 

I had not heard from my favourite, intelligent, beautiful and talented niece for a while and was under the impression her work was keeping her busy.  l ought to have known better!  ln fact she was not keeping a social distance between herself and her husband and while forcing him to do all the cooking, even choosing the ingredients, and they have been working on child production.  So now I have my favourite, talented, good looking, highly intelligent great neice/nephew to look forward to spending money on.

Her intelligence has ensured the birth will arrive in September, thus ensuring several gifts and avoiding them paying for same while Christmas approaches.  Then the family will pile more on the spoiled genius to be.  

Still, I suppose they had not much else to do in Lock Down...

 

 

Annoyed by Blogger!

This new Blogger layout is not good! 

Slow awkward, difficult to find things and designed by a 14 year old.

Not happy!

However, I did come across, by accident, old pictures I had forgotten all about.

No wonder, they are gash!

This one is not too bad mind.

I was happy before starting this.  I had cleaned out the drawers, done the washing, fixed part of the genealogy, and was planning tomorrows work.  This is Spring cleaning continuing, mind you it began last year, in Spring!  I may finish it next year.

Oh to get out and about again.  To get on a train and go somewhere.  To see sights missed, to pass open fields and dingy towns.  To visit London just so I could hate the sight of it!  Lock Down is one thing but while I cope with most of it I would like to visit somewhere soon.  Even the free bus does not run, not enough people using it as most shops still shut, or at least queues make life difficult for many.

I may slowly wander round to Tesco in the morning, just to see human life again.

Actually these pics are better than I thought.

At least proper football is near.  In spite of the mistreatment by the SPFL/SFA we begin a new season hoping soon to wipe smug grins of faces.  I suspect the Heart of Midlothian will feature on many Friday nights.  Something to look forward to.

Spring Ceaning, Football Programmes and Boris!

Yesterday afternoon I took a break from sorting my important paper file and stared out at the 30 degrees of heat seen through my dirty window.  The view was marvellous, sunshine improves the most hideous of places, the rusty leaves beginning to appear reflected the light, near naked people sweated across my view, I remained indoors half hidden behind piles of ripped up old papers.
The afternoon previous had seen me deep inside the store cupboard, the one full of things kept 'just in case.'  The reward for that afternoons work was four bags of recycled items dumped outside and one of total rubbish!  Why did I keep these things?  The electric kettle that did not work properly but remained just in case was dumped after several years of space filling.  Cardboard boxes, useful for sending things north, were dumped as nothing goes north these days bar birthday cards and store cards, piles of plastic bags kept for wrapping things going north, a sisters idea, have found where the recycled stuff is collected from and just what to do with a computer keyboard that came with my first computer in 1997 I have no idea!
However the store cupboard now contains important things, a box full of various electric cables which must be useful one day somewhere, recycled bags awaiting use (where did they come from?) and proper 'must keep' items that now have plenty of space, apart from the huge roll of bubble wrap that I kept - just in case I send things north!
There is a satisfaction in sorting out a cupboard.  In fact I was so impressed that before I began the huge file of urgent important papers going back four years I cleaned out the 'Brexit store' cupboard also.  Now the gleaming kitchen stands in contrast to the filthy oven which also demands work.
I looked away.

For some time I had wondered what had happened to old reserve team football programmes that I once possessed.  Monday Holiday in that store cupboard explained that.  In the bottom of a box filled with now recycled items there lay a pile of stored programmes, once at the centre of my heart, not at the bottom of a box! 
Naturally I cried as a man ought to do in such circumstances.
Some ten years ago when my mother died I had a large box filled with programmes collected over the years.  Most concerned the Heart of Midlothian from the sixties and on but there were many odd jobs in among them also.  What to do when clearing the house?  The answer was easy, I put aside some which meant something to me, a cup final, first 'big game,' and the like and we passed the rest, including a scrap book or two, onto the neighbours grandson who at that time played for the Heart of Midlothian under 12's.  I am unclear as to whether he made it, if so are free tickets abounding? but I do know he was delighted to have that box dumped upon him.  A quick look though those programme seller websites reveals it is probably he who is still trying to sell them at £3 a go.

The football memories mix with historical realities as we peruse the programmes.  The fact that the Hearts (pronounced Hertz at that time) produced programmes at 2d a go for reserve games in the 'North Eastern League and for 'A' team games in the 'C' Division indicates just how many people would turn up at Tynecastle Park in 1950 to watch. 
1950, a time when my mother had discovered an 'accident' was on the way, offered my dad just under £7 a week to deliver milk by horse and cart.  A time when the huts, used by the Royal Navy during the war and now abandoned, in the school field behind the tenement in which we lived were filled with people, often young couples, desperate for proper housing.  1950, five years after the war, was also a time of confusion for many as they fought to re-establish their lives after service overseas and with children who grew up while they were away.  People were grateful for the NHS and other improvements that arrived at the time yet managed to grumble against the government constantly, how unlike our time today?
The programme for December 2nd 1950 calls all Hearts supporters to attend the ANNUAL BALL on the 11th at the New Cavendish Ballroom. Dress informal, which means lots of demob suits put into action, while at 15 shillings a ticket just how many Hearts fans with pregnant wives and children could afford to attend that? 
In the middle of the page between the team line ups we see an add for RED HEART RUM an Edinburgh favourite while inside an add claims

BOOZE
       Doesn't Help
       It Just
      Bamboozels  
   
This did not stop the programme editor taking cash from Red Heart Rum however.
Two banks advertise, The Bank of Scotland proclaims £115 million in assets while the Edinburgh Savings Bank claims the best Defence is to open an account with them and save regularly.
On the other side is stated

A
GOOD SUPPORTER
IS LOYAL
     DO YOU
     SUPPORT 
     YOUR CHURCH?
Church of Scotland 

They would not advertise like this today, especially playing Celtic!
(Interesting however that so many football teams grew out of churches up and down the country.)
I wonder if William Scott, Gents outfitter still exists today?  Leith Street has changed too much for that.  Certainly THORNTON'S once a pricey sports outfitter in Prince's Street has long gone.
Also advertised was the 'Pink News,' the coloured paper that brought reports of games played every Saturday.  Rushed out at high speed they often contained mistakes, reports mixed up and some times in places upside down, but were the first with the reports of games played far and near, a must read in every city that produced them.  Indeed throughout the country sports 'Pinks' and 'Greens' were devoured each Saturday night and remain much missed though modern technology has done away with them today.
Incidentally the young winger playing in that game was one Cumming.  This was the great John Cumming who went on to dominate the midfield alongside Dave MacKay during the 50's earning more medals in his time than any other Heart of Midlothian player so far.  His comment when suffering a head bleed in the 1956 cup final v Celtic was 'Blood does not show on a maroon jersey' and he returned to the field carrying a sponge to wipe away blood.  This is now a much loved Heart of Midlothian slogan.
In 1963 I attended the Heart v Raith Rovers game,  game in which the great Jim Cruickshank allowed a feeble shot to run between his legs giving hope to the enemy.  We won 2-1 and I have collected the autographs of Roy Barry, Alan Gordon, Danny Ferguson and several other Hearts greats even if I canny read their writing today.  This makes me wonder what is the point in autograph hunting?  What did it do for me?  Nothing really but it might increase this programmes price by 50p.  This was a game Hearts had to win as previously at Paisley goalkeeper Gordon Marshall had been taken off with a head injury and Willie Wallace the kind of small centre forward took his place.  The ten men lost by 7 goals to 3. The 60's programmes reflect the growing wealth, 'we never had it so good' indeed, we never had it at all and I have kept that line up ever since.  The better quality programme, still with adverts for beer, banks, and Thornton's, now included photo's and much more information, mostly as such info always is, irrelevant.   
With the news that Bury FC have lost their place in the English league I find a programme featuring Bradford Park Avenue a club which also died during the 60's in similar fashion.  I believe such a club exists again today taking the name and is somewhere in the northern leagues hoping to recover their place one day.  The league table for December 1965 however shows this club in 10th place in the 4th Division, now League Two.  Not bad for a struggling club?  However the list is interesting as several clubs listed died later, Aldershot disappeared, Barrow are now somewhere in the Northern Premier,  Stockport County have just been promoted from that division, Halifax and Wrexham along with Hartlepool all reside in the National League today.  Several others also faced death by relegation or chairmen's ineptitude.  Several Scots clubs went through similar in recent years and have now sorted themselves out, well except Rangers of course, and more sensible accounting takes place now for the most part. 
We have to ask why such clubs disappear when often they are healthy enough when new men take over?  Inept management, bad luck, injuries or corruption all play a part.  However surely there must be a way to ensure such clubs do not die?  A football club has an emotional appeal business cannot compete with.  Once it has a hold little can remove this.  If only we had a government interested in what the people require...
Having collected these programmes I never look at them yet I am unwilling to let them go.  Part of me in in many of them, games I have attended, important events elsewhere, historical events recorded, all have a meaning as they lie in a box unattended.  Indeed I wonder if there is one from the first game I saw, it appears not but if one came along would I buy it and add to the pile?  
As I ponder this I notice the oven looking at me, I ignore it...

WHAT?