Author: mac jordan

why do I never write anything here any more?

Because it’s quicker and easier to put it on Facebook, I guess. So here’s a status update.

We had a splendid visit from daughter and grandToad at the end of October; did lots: beach, The Deep, fish shopping, etc.

The bathroom now has the shower in, and it’s splendid.

I am just, I think/hope, starting to recover from a vile cold which has flattened me since  the beginning of the month.

We just went up to vote for the ridiculous Police Commissioner wossname. Here in Humberside, the esteemed Lord Prescott is once again trying to shove his snout in the public trough; I was minded to not vote at all, and spoil my paper but, you know, it just felt *wrong*, somehow. So I voted for Simone, the LibDem candidate, with the least loony of the independent candidates as second choice.

We went to see Skyfall; it was brill. We went also to see Fascinating Aida, who were also brill. And Celtarabia, who are always fab. We are going to see Show of Hands next week, and [waves tickets elatedly] Bill Bailey in May next year.

I put the laundry out this morning; it hangs there, sullenly – there is no breeze, and the air is damp. I don’t know why I bothered (although a smidgen of blue sky is appearing as I type this). There were 22 almost, but not quite, identical black socks in the wash; Pete can sort them, as they’re mostly his.

I want a new kittin, and Pete won’t let me have one.

Here endeth this update.

well, at least the dining room floor is clean …

Pete called up to me that there was a “flood in the dining room”. This seemed … odd, but I went down to have a look. And indeed, there was. The hose coupling wossname on the pipe from the outside tap to the water butt we use for fish water had come apart, leaving the tap on full, and the hose pointing at the patio doors. Which were open.

It’s *amazing* how much water a tap can produce in half an hour, and of course as it was coming through a hose it sprayed everywhere. The mat by the patio doors is utterly sodden, and is currently draped over the aforementioned water butt. The cheap but large Ikea rug under the dining table is also sodden, and is now draped over the back yard wall – I doubt it will recover, to be honest.

We moved all the furniture into the living room end, and I mopped and mopped the floor, then dried it with a towel. We also dried off bookcases, wine racks and other sundry wet items of furniture.

Thank heavens the weather is warm and sunny, and forecast to stay that way for a while. Pete was wet through, but he changed his clothes rather than be draped over something outside.

We’re now going to go out for a sandwich, as I don’t want to keep walking on the wettish floor through to the kitchen.

[edited to add]
As a friend points out, if we’d been out the patio doors would have been closed. So it’s a shame we were in, really.

a weekend in Lincoln

Untitled

For Morris teams in the East of the country, the Lincoln Morris Festival is one of the key dates in the calendar, and Rackaback were pleased to be invited to perform once more. Pete and I booked a family room in a B&B. and our daughter Clare brought our grandson Harry up to watch his granny dancing, and his GrandPete playing.

A splendid time was had by all concerned, including dancing, sightseeing, 10 minutes of Doctor Who (“don’t want to watch any more thank you”), Lincoln Castle, a huge hot chocolate with marshmallows (for the boy), and more besides. Somewhere on Sunday morning I lost my nice black cardigan, but never mind.

My Doc Martens and, more importantly, my feet, held out fine on their first all day joint appearance, Rackaback acquitted ourselves splendidly, and I hope we all get invited again!

That marks three weekends away in a row, so we have decided to give next weekend’s camping a miss, so we have time to draw breath, not least as here is a *big* site launch looming next week.

gouging of the insurance variety

We changed our car this week – the GermanBarge sailed through its MOT without a murmur, and we thought it a good time to get something new.  The Merc, though solid, had a bizarre footbrake arrangement that I couldn’t master; fine around the flatlands of Hull, but hopeless for me if I encountered a hill start, and also I found the driving position very uncomfortable.

So we went car hunting, and whenever we saw something promising I went to confused.com and got a rough estimation of insurance costs. We settled on a 1999 Saab estate (one whole year younger than Das Barge!), and i organised a temporary cover note at iniquitous expense while we sold the Merc. And when it was gone, yesterday, I phoned Budget Insurance to swap the cover.

I took the insurance out in February, at a cost of £335.89. And the premium for the Saab was to be – wait for it – £778.98. Plus a £30 admin charge. This seemed odd, as I had fed the registration number into Confused at the weekend, and got quotes of between £250 and £350. I asked for a price for cancelling, and was given £75. I said I’d call back.

I went back to Confused – on there, Budget (my insurers) were quoting me £259.70 (WTF?). I settled on another company, bit more expensive but lower excess plus recovery services. I phoned Budget back and asked why they felt it was OK to charge me three times as much to upgrade. The girl said it was because the site assumed I was a new customer. I told her I was now an EX customer, and we went through all the details again for me to cancel.

At the end of the conversation, I said to her that I realised that this was in no way her fault, and that I was more than happy with the way she personally had handled my calls, but I would like her to pass up to her superiors that I felt that their gouging of existing customers was iniquitous, and that nothing on God’s earth would ever induce me to deal with Budget again. She said she would, with what sounded like a muffled snigger in her voice 🙂

All joking aside, it really is revolting the way insurance companies deal with this sort of thing, don’t you think?

Freaks in the … Moors

We took ourselves off to Howarth on Friday, for another Freaks in the Peaks weekend, and utterly splendid it was too. The journey there, however, less so, as the radiator died in the roadworks on the M62. The heroic RAC man found a garage who would replace it, and towed us in. We arrived at 4.45, and were away again by about 5.45, so we really couldn’t grumble, but the bill of £245 was a bit of a horror, especially as the car is being MOT’d on Friday, and we have no idea what other horrors may ensue. Ho hum.

We went from the garage to Keighley to pick up Ken – we had planned to drop Jamie in Howarth first, but there was no time, so poor Ken had to be squodged in with his accordion, snare drum and luggage, but we managed. Booked in at the B&B, then off to the pub for smoked haddock fishcakes (for me) and a few [ahem] glasses of wine.

Saturday morning was rehearsing, then dancing in three or four places in the afternoon. Communal cooking in the hall in the evening (we were on chopping duties), then dinner and a lot more dancing. My skeleton was a bit battered by Sunday morning, so we took a drive over to Hebden Bridge and found a lovely food market, then came home right across the top of the moors – beautiful. More dancing then ensued at the Wuthering Heights* pub in Stanbury, before we broke up around 4 and went out separate ways.

We came home via Doncaster (as you do), as Ken wouldn’t have to change trains from there (he has very poor sight), dropped Jamie off, unpacked and slumped with tea, bread and cheese from the market, then had a very early night!

*Everything around there has Bronte names.And did you know that Heathcliffe Mews?

Quick reminder to self: surgery appt this morning. No changes at all, which is good, but thyroid test shows very slightly increased (or decreased or something) so that’ll be retested in three months. Now back on six monthly checks for the diabetes, which is good.

dyeing

So I booked a taxi (because parking can be a bit fraught at HRI) for 8.35 from 60-60-60 cars. Which didn’t turn up until 8.45, the driver complaining all the way in about the traffic. In the rush hour, dreadful traffic – who’d have thought it, eh? Back to 57-57-57 in future.

Appt was at 9 and was seen dead on time – quick chat with consultant, sight test and drops, then a short wait until they did the dye test. In typical fashion, my veins just disappeared at the sight of a needle, but they got the cannula in at the third (!) attempt, and the two nurses were very kind and sympathetic.

Then then pumped some dye in, and I sat in front of £120k’s worth of brand new eye photographing kit while they took photos. Then they took the cannula out again, and I waited to see the consultant once more.

There are indeed deposits on the retina, and they will be lasered off on 9th July. Something else to look forward to.

I am now yellow (from the dye). In other news, we stopped for a recuperative coffee on the way back from the hospital, and it transpires our favourite café, Mustard, appears to have changed hands. This can only be bad news, I fear.

The taxis cost a total of 7.20, which was probably cheaper than taking the car and parking.

eyes

I had a routine retinopathy scan in the mobile van clinic thing a few weeks ago, and the technician said everything was fine. So I was a bit taken aback to get a letter from the Eye Hospital saying they needed to see me. In fact, I had four separate letters, all moving the appointment a little bit, but off I trundled (after phoning to make sure that I had the right time).

It transpires that I have Macular Oedema, which is a side effect of diabetes, and they want to pump me full of dye, and then give me laser treatment for it. To say that I am not looking forward to this Friday would be a bit of an understatement.

I phoned the surgery and got a prescription for some Valium – no idea if I will take them (probably not), but at least they are there. Aaargh.

so that was Easter …

We did a bit of desultory work on Good Friday (heathens that we are), went to Beverley on Saturday to collect new! pasta! dishes! (as one of our beloved and venerable ones broke last week), and a few other places for chores. I photographed loads of stuff for eBay and got it listed during the free listing weekend.

We picked up a nice piece of lamb in Morrisons, rolled with gremolata, so had that on Sunday with roast veg – quite delicious. Other than that we did absolutely nothing, apart from trundling down to the Minerva in the rain on Monday afternoon, in an attempt to do some dancing out with Rackaback. It really was remarkably wet, but we gave it a go when the torrents eased off a bit. After that, we came home to home made sossidge rolls, and an utterly appalling Nick Cage movie, Knowing. It was so dire, we turned it off after about half an hour.

This morning, I had a diabetic review at the surgery; I was expecting a lecture, as I have been far from well-behaved, lifestyle-wise, over the winter, but my levels are down to 7%, I have put on only a kg, and everything else is tickety boo. Next blood test is July, when they’ll test for thyroid as well, as I am suffering occasional night sweats, and I am so far past menopause that it cannot possibly be that. So all in all, quite pleased with that.

more Morrising

these boots were made for Morrising

I don’t know why I’m not writing much here any  more – lots of posts in my head, but actually putting fingers to keyboard seems beyond me right now.

Yesterday, we (as in Rackaback) did our first proper dance out of the year, down by the Minerva pub in Hull. It’s a nice space, on the old docks, and there were a few people around. I rattled the bucket and people actually paid us (possibly to stop), and we had lots of compliments too. It was an ideal time to test out my purple suede boots – sheepskin insoles and two pairs of socks, and they were dead comfy. But they do make me look like Nanny Ogg …

Last weekend (not yesterday, but the one before), we took ourselves off to the badlands of North Lincolnshire. An all to brief stop in Louth, which is a lovely town, but they hide the long term parking, and then down to Mablethorpe for fish and chips by the seaside, and a long walk along the prom. Beautiful day, and it was most enjoyable.

And that’s it, for now.