One Man & His Bike

Amazon

The other day I mentioned the need to acquire a new 'Can't put down book' and soon afterwards had several in my possession.  This was indeed one of those 'can't put down books,'  "One Man and His Bike."  The story concerns a Guardian travel writer with problems, (I spelt Guardian wrong, that's irony) and he works through these by accident while cycling around the coast of the entire United Kingdom.  This is the type of book I like, it covers places I know or would like to know, the type of people and situations I have known and would like to or not like to know, and takes me out of the world around me and into a far flung land at least for a time.  It also makes me want to get on the bike, when fixed, and travel down country lanes enjoying the quiet sun filled backwaters.  It also makes me wish to write a similar but different version of the book.  One of these is possible...

The book is unputdownable!  Divided into relatively short chapters rather than a long slog Mike Carter cycles off traveling through Essex keeping the Thames and later the sea on his right and the land on his left.  Here we find his first surprises, London and all large cities are full of grumpy miserable people yet before he has passed out of the conurbation he is given a map book by a friendly Asian shopkeeper, something that did not surprise me but did him, as he learned here that not all in London are gits, just the majority.  His second surprise is the vast difference that appears when out of the metropolis.  Another world awaits just a few grossly overcrowded roads away from the M25 circular.  Mike was to learn from his travels just how kind people in this island can be and just how wonderful the island is outside of the city.  

Mike cycles for a total of five months camping or staying in bed and breakfast places, his descriptions of the people encountered ring a bell with anyone who has passed this way before.  The dragon at one camp and the off hand kindness at another, the B&B's with friendly hosts as they all appear to be and the people he meets on the way who become friends overnight.  Indeed the people he meets are as important as the coast itself.  His descriptions of the land and the conversations of the people made me wish to travel out and meet similar, but we can all do that daily nearer home I suspect.  After all I have met you on here and that has been good for me in similar manner.  

Occasionally he meets with rebuff, indeed slight violence, but the majority of the time and people are good to him.  His problems with the bike required help from occasional bike shops but these allowed him to delay and consider the place in which he stopped.  The sight was not always good.  The collapsed towns where Thatcherism had removed the old industries reeked of decay, even worse nobody appeared to do anything about it.  It brought to my mind Cowdenbeath during the General Strike, both then and afterwards the vast majority made the best of it, no vandalism, no graffiti or smashing empty homes, instead the men grew veg for the pot and people worked together, I found myself asking why can they not do this now?  His meeting later in his journey while in Wales with the 'DO' conference made a very different impression, that was worth reading.   

So much of the west is wealthy, and many middle class towns with Couscous and Adoki beans for lunch rather than chips, incense from shop doorways and Laura Ashley dresses came under his wheels, in some the Guardian man felt at home seeing there a vivaciousness where I would have seen people far from the real world.  The contrast throughout the book reveals Britain as it is today in a manner those passing through in a car or train would fail to notice.  When his bike fails he struggles get a bus into a town with a bike shop, deregulation means several bus companies but each travelling at limited times.  A journey to Castle Douglas and then Dumfries to the bike  shop takes 13 hours, he could have ridden in an hour - if the bike was fixed.  Thatchers legacy is everywhere.

Others come into the picture, the many he passes riding from Land's End to John O'Groats, others like himself riding around the coast, one great man in his seventies and faster than Mike! Characters all who bring the trip to life and who encourage the cyclist on his way.  I was going to say weary but his weariness came as he became fitter by the day, my weariness is unlike his!  Cafe owners, cyclists, B&B folks, camp site owners, all had a story, all covered life, almost all were good to the passing cyclist. Such travellers find temporary friends everywhere,  could we find them if we were more permanent I wonder?

This is a great book!  It is enjoyable, covers a lot of ground, several thousand changing miles, takes us out of ourselves into other worlds and other lives, reveals the beauty of the land and at times the beauty of the people.  It affected the rider, changed his life for the better, it might change you also.  Read this book if you like travel writing, it's worth it.   

Another Day of Joy...

 

As my technical abilities are way beneath my intellectual ones you can gather I am in quite a fix at the moment.  With a day or two to myself, although I almost had to work today and might tomorrow, I intended to fix some of the broken bits.  "Life is what happens to you when you are making other plans" sang John Lennon and he is right.

I brought the wheel up to fix the puncture, then I began to seek my grandfather and his first wife through Ancestry.  This meant I forgot the bike, except when I fell over the wheel, until today.  So I removed the tyre, pulled out the inner tube, discovered the puncture in a strange place and checked the tyre.  No wonder I got a puncture where there ought not to be a puncture, the tyre is falling apart, I thought it felt thin!  Anyway I reached for the new inner tube I was going to insert, then fix the punctured one as a spare, when I realised the new one had one of those 'Shrader' car type valves, eejit!  I took action, I dumped the lot and will visit Halfords tomorrow, it was too late today.

The other jobs, let alone the ironing and the trip to somewhere nice, must wait.

So it was back to granddad and his missing children.

He was born on a farm and ended up driving steam trains by the 1880's.  He also drank and this cost him his two marriages.  Plenty of kids from the first one, three from the second, from which I come somewhere down the line.  

I have found it difficult using both ancestry and Scotlands People to find any trace of some of them.  One poor lass is born in 1891 and disappears, I don't think she lived long but she might have gone to relatives in Newcastle with an older sister. Travel would be cheap as I think railway families went free and the journey would not be long.  One man is found in the Royal Naval Reserve but I have yet to get his record, another becomes a jeweler in Cheshire and his sister joins him later but what happens after that?  One daughter marries well, he had money, but she appears to die at 45 sadly.  So many stories but so hard to uncover.

There is a problem in that dad never spoke of his father, or at least so rarely I canny mind anything he said.  His mother moving them out affected him in that he determined to be a good father and look after his family, which he did and at some cost.  Not that I understood that for any years.  

Naturally I got involved in this and suffered yet another burnt dinner.

So tomorrow I may be working, i may be in Halfords and I may be grumbling on genealogy sites!

Summer Drizzle

Stupidity some say is inbuilt.  I disagree.  Stupidity of a sort is inbuilt, with slow thinking, inability to consider all options, a lack of concentration or care but this is not enough!  Oh no I can assure you this is not enough!  I inherited the family trait of stupidity but this was not early enough to enable me to fail so spectacularly as I have down through the years, oh no, I had to work at it and work hard.  Anyone can make it through life by being stupid, only those who practice can manage to grasp the wrong end off an electric cable, spray an aerosol on a fire or look down the barrel of a gun to work out why it was jammed -then pull the trigger.  These things take practice.

Anyway I have not down these things, recently anyway, but I did run about the town looking for tools for the bike and fail to find them.  This morning, as the Bank Holiday rain teemed down, I got myself ready to travel on the free bus to Halfords to spend money.  As I did so it crossed my mind there was a yellow tub with bike things somewhere under everything else, so I took a look.  Inside I found the yellow box filled with bike bits.  There was no tool to turn the nut however, that remained missing.  However removing from the box I discovered a mass of small items that once had a purpose and many that had been used once and forgotten, among which was a double headed spanner for turning wheelnuts on bikes!  This had disappeared an eon ago and now I knew why.  That said I still journeyed down to Halfords on the bus in spite of the now drizzle like weather.  A cloud lay over us, hovering just above the tops of lamposts drizzling on those who dared to walk out.

A wander through Halfords, being ignored by the surly chap playing with a very expensive bike, this revealed the tools I might need in any off a hundred situations if I was cycling far, not that I will be these days.  I bought nothing as I could not remember the size of inner tubes I need or much else about the bike.  Technical things were designed only to expose my stupidity.  At least I now know where to find things, the local shops being useless.

I wandered through the shopping centre, famous for the 'outlet shops' those who sell the stuff proper shops failed to sell, and was struck by the prices on offer.  Barbour for instance sell jackets worth £250 for £179, shoes retail at prices well upwards of £80 and more, other shops know suckers when they see them and even that early in the morning, drizzle or not, the place was full of families seeking goodies!

Yet did I see a happy face?  No I did not!

There are people in the UK who depend on foodbanks, there are many striving to survive on disability allowance or some other meagre benefit, always considered 'scroungers' by the 'Daily mail' and other Tory media.  Yet there is vast wealth in the UK and that could be seen by the cars queuing up to get in the car parks, the fat men bulging through their T-shirts (English men in shorts & T-shirts in spite of the damp!), and the miserable people buying things they do not need. 

Wealth makes us happy. That is, if we have enough we can be satisfied but always and ever there is something else we MUST HAVE even if it really is just a shiny thing that passes in a moment.  The eye sees more than the stomach requires, but we go for it anyway.  Our houses are full of things, things which have not been used for years perhaps, items that cost loads yet we never use, now we complain we have no money!  

Having endured a long period of pauperism, missing out on Christmas, travel, holidays, and new things I now find myself with a bit more in my new state of mere poverty.  The temptation to buy things because I can was real today, as was the sickening feeling when too many things are bought.  What I need, and there are many requirements that must be met, are not the same as what I find I must have.  Things for the bike were required, books I bought were more or less required, the jacket was required but did I need to consider that thing I pondered on this morning (a thing that I cannot now remember what it was!)?  The money was there so the object became important.  Maybe we have too much money floating around, maybe we would be happier if we wanted less and spent less?  People smile more in India and Africa so I am told, what does that tell us if true?

Meanwhile...

     

 Summer continues as it has always done...

Slow Sunday

It has been a slow Sunday indeed today.  Rising early for breakfast I retreated to bed to finish my sleep awakening only in time for the football.  Since then much time has been taken up with attempting to fix the other laptop (again) and downloading slowly things required which then do not work.  I have tried several times to buy memory for the beast from 'Crucial' but although I have changed the password they will not let me in!  Grrrrr!  Not a lot has happened elsewhere I suspect as the cloud overhead has blanketed the world and a dreich day has resulted.  Tomorrow is the bank holiday Monday and you bet this cloud will stay hanging around.

This reminds me of the two or three years I spent in a somewhat larger version of this van happily wandering all over London.  The drivers I worked with were on the whole a decent lot, not that all of them liked work of course, and when the sun shone I could sit back while he struggled with the traffic and I enjoyed the view.  I got to know a great deal of London, bar the north east part which for reasons unclear we were not allowed to deliver in.  The furniture vans certainly went there, why not us we did not ask as we preferred the better class areas anyway.
When living in the centre it was always good on a Tuesday or Thursday to find ourselves so far out of town that we could occasionally find potato fields.  I must say the one we did drive into was a wrong turning, but I blame the driver!  On one occasion while in an aged green van used as an emergency backup we missed a turning of the A3, that is a main duel carriageway this driver carrying billions of vehicles in and out of town.  The simple answer was to drive to the next roundabout and return but no, this lad stopped the van and reversed back the way we had come!  There was an opening in the road designed for the turning, one we had missed, and eventually we arrived there and turned into it.  However the van stuck out a wee bit into the outer of the two lanes, that is the fast lane, and while awaiting a break in the traffic on the other side we heard the approaching screeeeeeeeeech of brakes.  This interesting sound continued for what appeared to be an awful long time and eventually a Lancia car, containing a red faced man waving towards us appeared to our left.  Maybe he was the man we were delivering to I wondered, but then we moved on.
This driver was generally capable which was more than could be said for the temp one who parked the van in Kensington High Street, one of the busiest of streets, in a bus lane, on a no parking area, and went for lunch.  When he returned the van had been removed by the police and an almighty fine was awaiting payment.  The lad returned to work the next day but was shown the door before the boss upstairs came down and found him.
One man was a bookmaker and his life was horse racing, or at least the bets to go with this.  A good man who was forced by a wife to earn money he stopped off at various places to either borrow money, repay money, lay bets with friends, cash in bets with friends or on Mondays stop of at a bookies (owned by a man called Stallion) for a coffee early on.  This bookie by the way informed us of a man with a gun trying to rob him not long after he had opened.  It took a wee bit of persuasion  to get the robber to remove himself and "come back later when we have taken some money."  We came down Balham High Street on our homeward journey one afternoon and stopped at the lights.  I glanced around me as we stood in the long line of traffic and suddenly realised the driver had disappeared!  I looked all around the van but he had vanished.  he had noted a bookmakers shop over the road and ran in to check the results!
One of the best was a Spanish chap called Joe.  He and I worked well together for some time especially so as he was friends with a man in a restaurant who provided us with large slices of apple pie and coffee at the start of the day.  Well we had a large round up through St John's Wood and Golders Green etc.  There we encountered many Jews, mostly women, all neurotic to some degree, some of whom had seven or eight locks on the doors.  Many had originated in Austria and Germany and seen sights we would not wish to see and possibly lost relatives shortly after.
On that round another driver and I encountered a man from a competitors shop.  He had a better van but never smiled.  Day after day it became a thing with us to get a greeting from him, something other drivers never failed to offer, but this one never answered and never smiled.  Each time we passed our greetings got louder and more obvious until one day a tired response brought cheers.  That was a day of a Jewish feast which meant lots of chocolates, flowers and fruit baskets were being sent round to folks everywhere in the normal Jewish manner.  The vans were overloaded and he was on his own, how we greeted him and how we laughed.  He must have hated us!
All good things come to an end eventually however. 

 .

Hullo Old fruit!

This is a bank Holiday Weekend, you can tell by the 'pitter-patter' of rain on the window.  I worry not but the dafties who drive off to the coast or other holiday spot to get away from it all soon join with thousands of others getting away from it all and fail to get away from it all.  It is however a change, apart from the rain.  
I am going nowhere.  The past weeks activities have worn me out.  Once you stop work it is very hard to start again.  For too long I have sat around on my behind and now I am so unfit that running around for a few days on the trot leaves me very tired at the end.  This week has been busy at the museum as so many are off sick, have to look after relatives or have disappeared that I and others have to cover up a wee bit more than normal.  Next week I am only down for Tuesday morn so that should make this week easier, unless another decides to run off.

For a start my knees were not keen, the weather too keen and last time I was out all was well however the other day I noted the tyre was flat!  How did that happen?  Something wee, like a bit of glass from the kiddies beer bottles round by the recreation ground, has got in there again. 
So having slept much of yesterday yet still found myself knackered today I eventually got round to finding the bits to remove the wheel.  They have disappeared!  The one tool that always turned the nut was not to be found.  I have a feeling it may have been licked under the skirting board and gone down into the messy depths that lie beneath the flat below, a messy 'Somme' like place that it impenetrable.  Nothing in the tool box fits to turn the nut! Nothing!  So this afternoon instead of my much needed siesta I went searching for bicycle tools.   I obviously went to the cheap shops first to see if any Chinese made equipment was available for less money than they were worth but I was unsuccessful.  This meant I had to wander round the two cycle shops in town and search the racks on the wall, this also was unsuccessful.  What can be the deal when two shops selling bikes have limited equipment that go with said bikes?  Possibly these tools are hidden away behind the profit making things like shorts, saddles, and er, bikes, but in one several items were marked 'SALE' but the label hid what the item on 'SALE' was!  How does he survive?
Two cheap Chines supplied shops failed me, Tesco had loads last week all removed to make space for CHRISTMAS stock, and two cycle shops had nothing on show that helped.  This means a trip to 'Halford's' where I suspect upstairs plenty of suitable odds and ends will be suitably overpriced but I canny go there until Monday, and as it's a Bank Holiday I suspect it will be chock a block with bargain hunters spending money of overpriced stuff they do not need, just like I sometimes do but will not admit to myself.  

I decided on a fruit and healthy pasta lunch, I thought it would keep me on the run, and it did!  On Wednesday at work one of the trustees and I compared beer belly's and it was not a nice sight, almost like one of them maternity gatherings most men rightly ignore.  The problem is coming home after a day out I am not in the mood to fuss, just eat and sleep I say.  It is only with free time a proper diet can be made available.  Of course once I get the bike fixed, if I get the tools, and by means of a sensible diet, if I bother, I can exercise, unless the rain comes back, and eat well, if I have time, and then I will lose weight, be healthy and enjoy winter and the cold, wet, rain and snow with eastern winds driving hail into our faces for months.
Sometimes I wish I was not so optimistic.

  

Laptop Tribulations

 

In an attempt to remove needless items on the laptop I searched through everything and removed those I thought no longer required.  This pleased me and helped the laptop breathe again.  

Yesterday I opened up a strange item on the desktop, it was a dead 'Word' item!  

Fool that I was I had deleted all the 'Office' items (an aged office at that) and now nothing worked.

All my museum stuff is on Word and now all was dead!

After a search I found the old disc and after a struggle (why are these things so difficult?) I reinstalled all I needed and now it works.  Relief ran through me and next time I will be a wee but more careful.

An item in the ever trustworthy and reliable (sarcasm eh?) 'Daily Mail' tells us that women are getting fat because they are not doing enough housework.  Clearly this university study has been money well spent as a look around the streets shows this to be the case.  To many devices making a women's life easy, once the work is done there is not enough work that requires exercise for a woman, all this sitting around gossiping and coffee drinking has got to stop.
I have found a way to enable any volunteer among you to quickly lose two stone, come clean my place and do the ironing!  That should make you lose weight.

 

 

Rain

We have in this country a thing called 'rain.'  Not all nations have it, we do.  Recently a series of weather 'Lows' have circled around the nation dropping water all over the place.  Normally we say this would please the farmers however it fails in this as they wish to harvest their crops and the rain hinders this.  Combine harvesters catching fire also hinders as one found out last week.  Today we stood at the window wondering whether we could reach Tesco without drowning, bread and milk was urgently required and some of us wondered if we would eat tonight!  The rain came down in monsoon impersonations for a long time.  I knew it would not last and I was of course wrong!  As you note we were inside and had no reason to rush out but closing time came near and hunger was beginning to call.
Programmes have appeared on radio wondering what is wrong with the weather.  Is it climate change, could global warming have moved the 'Jet stream?'  People shake their heads and wonder.  So do I.  A few years ago my mother, then about 90, grumbled about the weather, I mentioned that it had been like this for the 90 years she had lived and wondered if she had not noticed.  We had to laugh as it always rains in July and August, it is the British Isles after all.
It is possible that the weather is worse than before, only weather men with the facts can say, and the intensity of the weather is greater than before but this could be a passing phase.  Today a report of a house damaged by a mini cyclone, roofs blown off flats elsewhere and off course the rain.  Maybe it is indeed changing, maybe indeed it will get worse worldwide, maybe after all Jesus is returning soon and this is a mere forerunner of worse to come.  That is worth considering as well as checking the Met office reports. 

Tuesday Tattle

I walked into work in a chill breeze but with the sun shining on me this morning.  I splashed out money for milk for the fridge and entered the museum by the back door, the best way I find.  There I set things up, cleared the mess around the sand pit (archaeological digs for kids) and filled up the stickies (a trail for wee kids) and cleared space on the desk while I tried to sort out what to do.  The main feature of the day was the approach of a herd of children and attempting to picture some of the stock just in case we need to post pics somewhere.
When things got going I was busy, I was on my own today, and I never stopped except when I stopped and even worse I never got any tea!  It's a disgrace I say.  However in between taking pictures and watching the mum's leave, when the kids are settled indoors many run off to shop or sit gossiping in the cafe, I dealt with lots of grans and granddads bringing the kids to fill in a couple of hours.  They all appear to be happy with the museum but fail to spend enough money in the shop!

The beauty of the rain hammering down yesterday meant I was forced to remain indoors and attend to things that required attention.  Some corners of the house have been cleared and the spiders inhabiting the area removed.  Next time I finish a few repairs and clean out the corner under the desk, that has been waiting for a year or so.  In fact I was so busy I accidentally cleaned parts of the oven!  At least the removable bits, the rest can wait until Spring.  

However I am so knackered after a day running around and have not had time for my siesta yet!  Here I am trying to watch the Champions League, scribble this and keep my eyes open, life is so hard for some of us...
oops second half beginning....

 

Rain Stopped Play

Rain stopped play.

Sunday Smile

Saturday Meandering

What a brilliant sunshine day today.  Naturally I stayed inside, I don't want this to become a habit or I might start enjoying life.  It has been a restful few days, I only went into the museum for half an hour on Friday, I came out two hours later, these women do talk, but it was less busy than I expected.
For some strange reason having had almost no books to read a few days ago I appear to be finding them everywhere, I landed two in the museum, and there appears to be a growing pile in, er, well several places.  Three by my bed, a couple here, a few in the loo, and several on the shelf waiting patiently.  Funny how few in the family read anything but a tabloid paper.  They have the brains, why do they waste their lives like this?  

As you are asking yes the Heart of Midlothian still top the league.  A win against Partick Thistle today by a mere three goals to nil was the least we would expect.  I listened on the Hearts radio but it is not as good as seeing pictures.  Indeed the Hearts radio output has never been good since Donaldson left to make money in far of USA.  In those days the three men worked well together, it was like being with your mates at the game.  Today the commentator does his job, Jimmy Sandison also but there is no 'spark' no humour, no life to it.  This is a shame as it would be good if the element of enjoyment of sharing the game with mates returned.
Still we are top of the league and doing OK all things considered.

 

I'm annoyed.  Indeed I am somewhat peeved.  The media are showing video clips of an aircraft crash at an airshow.  A Hawker Hunter jet, once the best in the world, attempted a loop the loop and the pilot misjudged his angles or had a problem on the way down.  The plane crashed into the ground near a roadway and several are believed dead. 

That in itself does not irk me, such tragedy's do occur though rarely at UK airshows these days.  The problem is the video taken at the time is shown complete until the moment the aircraft hits the ground then the picture 'stutters' and restarts moments after the crash.  Why?  Are we not supposed to see the plane hit the earth?  Is this a legal thing?  Could it be considering the victims on the ground?  I wonder.  It appeared to me to be yet another of those 'nanny' like things which bedevil society today.

There are warnings on almost every packet saying 'This could contain nuts,' things that get heated warn 'This could be hot' and signs everywhere say 'Mind the step' or 'Slippery when wet.'  What happened to common sense?  

I agree some situations warrant a warning sign but most are posted just because daft folks sue simply to make money, the majority are not required.  I doubt hindering the death of an airplane requires a two second blurring of an accident.  Good grief I came into this world just after a war, fifty million died yet nobody held up a warning notice. Would it have helped to erect one on the Polish border? 'War making can be dangerous, contact your solicitor.'  Plane travel is safer than any other form of transport these days but in the fifties accidents, even at airshows, were common.  Why have we become so namby pamby these days?  

It is time for a return fo some 'stiff upper lip' and some 'common sense.'

     

I Have Nothing to Say

I have nothing to say.  Nothing worth mentioning has happened, nothing worth noting in the diary.  The world has gone on its way with me ignoring it for the most part and in turn the world has gone out of its way to ignore me.  I ventured into it, a haircut from a nice young lady, a fruitless search for bargains in charity shops, a walk around town looking at the girls shops, a few dirty looks from people practicing to live in London and listening to one neighbour describing the illness of another.  So I saw the world and went back home again.  
There was a ten minute exercise session after hearing a Radio 4 programme on the brain informing me how much exercise improved the mental faculties (don't ask!), and then several gallons of tea to return me to normal afterwards.  I helped one woman find her dead relatives online, after informing her those names mean nothing to us I found they did!  I ironed enough shirts to last a month!
See, nothing happened.
Quite nice after doing too much last week.

I've been ignoring the papers, merely glancing at the headlines, none of which are startling, and feel better because of it.  I did take the opportunity to read blogs, not your lot which I read anyway, the other ones from your other readers.  A journey through them was stimulating to the mind and I found some interesting people.  I must look at some more.  
This is the best of the internet, research which finds answers and new blogs which finds new people worldwide.  I hasten to add these people are not quite up to the standard set by your good selves and will never replace you in my admiration and love (cut the slush! ed.) but it opens new doors and I hope you try likewise.

  
   

Write, Right!

I came across a few files on 'Dropbox' and cleared out the old, the repeated and unwanted files.  Some of them surprised me as they were so old I had forgotten them.  I added them to their respective folders and checked the contents thereof.  Among them were several books I had started, one even going as far as seven pages, and I wondered how I had failed to be famous by now.  The answer was not long in coming- illiterate!  
The books vary in subject, reflecting my mood at the time, and I suggest only 'Living Death in the Museum' will ever reach a small audience, this however might lead to a black eye or two.  Another problem appears to be that I have lost it!   Shame as one or two ideas on there were quite useful.   Today gave opportunity for more as crowds came in, phones rang, questions were asked, kids tantrumpted and the funeral parlaour grumbled about our leaky guttering pouring water on their garden seat.  I dealt with this magnificently, I moved the seat!  
The trouble is I read a book and find it exhilarating and wish to copy it, half way down the page I realise things are not so easy and the steam eases off and I fall over a cliff.  After the day we had today I am not in much of a thinking mood anyway, I'm not use to work, I am in the mood for closing my eyes and listening to something interesting on the wireless so I am off to Radio 4 on the iplayer to search for an old programme about country views or waling through interesting places.

    

Daily Trials...

 

The problem about having a busy week is the Monday afterwards there is so much to put right around the house.  For a start I had to run up the road for bread at half seven this morning (the term 'run' is not to be taken seriously) then I had to eat, find my head, decide on the plan of action and begin the day slowly.

  

First there was study to get the day going.  This I now decide is not a good idea when half asleep and crumbs from breakfast litter the laptop!  Someone said the morning is the best tim to think, they I assure you were not getting into bed at eleven at night and waking up at five in the morning to listen to the Shipping Forecast!

As I attempted to cogitate i also did the washing.  Note how I call it 'washing!'  This is unusual as these days I have picked up the English way of calling this 'laundry.'  Scots always refer to the 'washing.'  What is the difference, none at all as these days Mr Zanussi does it very well, especially when I remember to put that liquid stuff in.  

 

After this I also hoovered the floor and cleaned the Loo!  Those wire scrubbers come in usefull at a time like this, I suppose I should do that more often...  There again i would not like to get washday hands would I?

 

As I did so I took advantage to read some of the books piled up in there and it was then that I realised it was her birthday.  My great niece is 18 tomorrow, eighteen, my great niece!  18!

It was bad enough her Mum becoming fifty but she is now 18!

At this point I sat on the floor and wet silently as my life passed me by.

Then to make matters worse, if it could be worse, there was no card suitable.  I had to trail out into the great outdoors and search for a cheap card suitable, naturally there was none available so I had to choose something and paid the vast amount of gold coins required.  I also went into the women's clothes shop where a man worked the desk.  Normally I get the girls vouchers for Xmas in here as this pleases the older ones who then feel young and displeases the younger who see mum in their fashion!  The man was not such a man as I thought, his purplish long nails I thought made working the computerised till difficult, he was however efficient, pleasant and helpful which is of course not what I had been finding in the big towns last week.  So armed with my card, my gift card and my debt I returned home and posted off the black envelope.

   

Much of the rest of the day has been researching people.  The boss is trying to find a relative of someone who donated stuff years back so it can be returned or whatever and we have a contact address but from the eighties!  We have been doing our detective work very badly and going round in circles.  I must Google 'How to find people' and see what I can learn.  The family appear to be still alive, there are as yet no death notices around, I just hope they have not emigrated.

 

Then all that remained was to prepare for the morrow.  Gathering everything bar intellect in one place helps me remember what to take with me.  I often forget to pick it up mind, but age does that. 

 

Ah then there was lunchtime! 

 

Now most of the day is like me, done!  It is time to watch football, any football, from anywhere, featuring anybody, good bad or indifferent, just let's relax and do nothing for a while. 

.

Books & Charity

It is not that long ago I noticed I had nothing to read.  The books shown above had not taken long to get through others had come and gone and yet only a few days ago I found I had nothing to read.  That is I was plowing my way through one or two rather turgid books, had one or two I had to read and the 'can't put down books' had run out.  
This morning I was given a book for free and indeed could have taken several more if I wished and having just bought two on Friday I placed this one alongside them.  Then I realised the pile of books was getting rather high again!  Where did they all come from?
One day there was nothing and now they are all over the place.  Not a 'Kindle' in sight I may add!  None of that technical stuff, I mean you canny read in the bath with one of those, you might drop it.
This I must say is a good situation.  How we can pass the time without a few books lying around I fail to understand. Occasionally I wander through the charity shops looking at the books and round here they are almost all wimmens fiction or aged 'coffee table' books.  I reckon the girls buy them at one shop and dump them at another.  They appear to be the same books that were on the charity shelves when I first came here 19 years ago.  Mind you they are the same women reading them.  How I miss London charity shops, those in 'regenerated' areas always had decent books on offer, even if a bit pricey.
The only real bookshops these days are 'Waterstones' and 'Oxfam' bookshops.  I understand they need money but it appears to me 'Oxfam' charge too much for old books.  'Amazon' have reduced book prices but killed off bookshops.

A Wedding Today

One of our attractive and intelligent young ladies got herself married to her Knight in Shining Armour today.  I mean Knight as he turned up at the museum one day on a horse, wearing armour, with a Paige to accompany him, got down on one knee and proposed!  At first she thought it was someone trying to sell their services to the museum but eventually understood who it was when he removed the helmet, just as well she said 'Yes.'
So today, in front of a supportive crowd, they became man and wife with all the full palaver of an Anglican wedding service.

Bridesmaids abounded, women scrubbed up well, men in suits, even I had a bath!  Two people didn't recognise me!  The hymns were mumbled, the prayers followed, the address was short and the people stood outside for ever as the photographers, at some cost, made the video and took pictures.  

As you can see all were entranced by the proceedings, their eyes constantly on the bride.  On the left sat the brides side, mostly the grooms on the right.  As she arrived as one the woman looked at the dress and murmured, the men murmured also but differently.  One side wondered what she saw in him, the other how he got his hands on her.  All wondered how dad was going to pay for this lot! 

This is a proper Low Anglican church, evangelical and a wee bit middle class.  It has stood here for around 800 years and who knows how many are buried in the grounds?  It is thought the Saxons ans even the Romans buried folks around here so the archaeologists of the future will have a great time digging in this hill.

Some began to find time dragging, we were twenty minutes late when we actually began as the photographers fussed around outside.  Some began to look for alternative enjoyments.

Soon my women and I tumbled out to greet the happy couple one by one, this took some time!  Then more pictures were took and almost everyone had a camera or fancy phone to picture the individual groupings lined up, even us lot were in one alongside the happy couple, in spite of him saying " OI! Keep away from her you" just because he knows me.

 Having arrived in style, the happy couple departed in style.

Drawn by two white horses.

As we speak they are now dancing the night away at an expensive wedding venue, although the happy couple may well be on their way to the honeymoon of their dreams.  I suspect Honolulu, Guam and Skegness have been considered for this but where they go I know not.  I asked about the reception but was told they already have a drunken uncle, from 'his' side, a lecher, from 'his' side, two or three for the fight, from 'his' side and as there appeared no opening for me I came home to listen to the football results and burn my dinner.

How unusual to attend a wedding!  I have not been at one for around 25 years now and there used to be one a month at one time.  As always it is interesting to note how people behave, to recognise those who doubt the worth of the bride or groom, the one scared to be in a church, those who meet the family only at such events, and to watch how Englishmen, and these were almost all Englishmen, behave.  This lot behaved well, the couple are happy, the couple are popular and everyone appeared content to be here today. 

I enjoyed my day as the lass was happy and I am glad for her.  All will be well here.