Category: general

constitutional

I took this morning’s daily constitutional (3.21 miles, starting at 6.15 a.m., thanks for asking) accompanied by two Desert Island Discs podcasts – Fay Weldon, and about half of Rob Brydon, so the remainder of the latter is a treat waiting for next time.

I was fascinated to hear Ms Weldon say that one of her best ever moments was sitting *on the stage* at a Grateful Dead concert; apparently they invited her to do so, although I don’t think she said why. Fascinating woman.

I came home through the cemetery – I don’t know when they unlock the gates, but they were not open the other day at 6.15, and were today at about 6.55.  Lots of birds singing, and squirrels running about, including some baby ones.

gosh …

I bought this Hobbs skirt from eBay – I’ve never had Hobbs before, but now there’s so much less of me …

It’s arrived, it’s gorgeous, it’s a size 14.  And it’s *too big*! But it’s so lovely, and cost a fiver including postage, that I’m going to have it altered.

weekend 22-23 May 2010

eagle owl

Both Pete and I have a great fondness for birds of prey, so when we saw there was a falconry display on today at Burnby Hall Gardens, in Pocklington, we decided to visit; it’s a pleasant drive of about 25 miles from here.

It’s a really nice place – two ponds chock full of water lilles (although they’re not out yet) and some of the fattest koi carp I’ve ever seen, together with an occasional duck. The place was packed out with families, and yet had a really nice tranquil feel to it; lots of people had chairs, blankets, picnics, the Sunday papers etc, and were clearly set in for the long haul. We’ll be visiting again, I think.

The falconry display wasn’t great – it’s just too hot for the birds to want to work, and the gyr falcon really didn’t want to play and kept flying away – and who could blame him? Still, an enjoyable afternoon sitting in the (too hot) sun – we took a small picnic, and indulged ourselves in an ice cream too – I couldn’t decide on flavours, and so was Bad, and had a double of ginger and cherry; delicious.

Tonight there will be feta stuffed chicken breast, Yorkshire asparagus and Jersey Royals, although I’m dreading actually cooking, as it is Far Too Hot.

Yesterday afternoon was spent in the Zacharia Pearson pub with a subset of Hull twitterers for the #hullmeetup, and most enjoyable it was too. We may have made some business contacts as well. However, too much wine (in my case) and beer (in Pete’s) was consumed.

shrinkage

Regular readers will know that, after a threat, then a diagnosis, of type 2 diabetes, I’ve been trying to lose weight. In fact, I’ve been shrinking steadily for some months, but it has been accelerating of late, and I’ve dropped two full sizes.

This morning, I had a rummage through the trouser drawer, and put six pairs into a box under the bed, as they are all so loose that an Embarassing Incident might occur should I wear them.

Then I decided to look at the skirts; I don’t often wear skirts, and not at all this winter after the unpleasant interaction with the wheelie bin, which rendered my left big toe nailless for a while, and exceeding painful. It transpires that I have precisely 1 skirt now that fits me; even my lovely East brown velvet one has gone from being too tight to too loose without me even getting one more wear out of it …

The one that remains is sage green corduroy, and not even slightly suitable for summer wear, so I suppose I’ll have to go shopping. Most women would go “yippee!”, but I hate shopping. eBay, I think don’t you?

telephone support

I nipped (or popped) out for a pint^H^H litre of milk first thing – it was a beautiful morning, so I went the long way round; up Princes Avenue, round the corner to Springbank West, and through the cemetery, and back via the minimart I always call JLS (it’s some other TLA starting with a J). About 1 mile, all told.

There was quite a queue in there, which turns out to have been because the proprietor was sitting in front of his computer screen, phone in hand. The screen was displaying a list of options, with “3. Safe mode” highlighted; as I watched, the chap – whose English was less than fluent – was insisting it said “safe modem” to the unfortunate support droid on the end of the line, and then the screen flashed up a missing file error, proceeded to try and boot *Windows 98* (!) and returned to the boot options screen. This happened a few more times before he was instructed to power it off – standard support instructions, but I don’t feel that it would have been of assistance.

I very nearly offered to help, and then realised that way lay madness. So I paid for my milk, and some yoghurt, and came home to consume half a ruby grapefruit, and bran flakes with blueberries – a far more tranquil start to the day.

gardening

garden after blitzingWe used to have a nice garden in Long Ashton – not huge, but south facing, with big patio and a fish pond that Pete dug. Here, we just have a rear yard, north facing, with high walls. It’s not very big, it’s not enhanced by the sodding palm tree that Gavin planted (so appropriate for an urban yard, don’t you think?, but the cats do like climbing it), and it was quite overgrown, which has of course just got worse since what has been passing for spring arrived.

It was getting hard to do anything out there – even hanging the washing out was a bit fraught – but every time we looked at it, we thought it was going to take ages, and somehow we just couldn’t make a start.

But yesterday, I suddenly snapped – I’d walked over to Aldi for some shopping, made a huge vat of meatballs for the freezer, and slumped for a couple of hours, and then just decided to go and make a start at about 3.45.  Pete came and joined me, and between us we emptied out all the old pots, scraped out the weeds from the cracks in the paving slabs (front and back), pulled up all the dead stuff, Pete laid two of the slabs Gavin had taken up to plant the aforementioned sodding palm tree (thankfully, he left them), and we rearranged all the Japanese Acers in pots that we’d brought with us (and the black grass, and the heuchera, and the gargoyle is now in place).  I also cleared up the empty wine bottles and jars that were stashed out there (they’re still stashed, but tidily now).

The compost bin is full, and four bags of garden waste are in the car ready to go to the tip, and the extraneous plastic plant pots went on Freegle, and are being collected in about 15 minutes (gotta love Freegle).

The acers will go in the ground, but it’s the wrong time of year, I think – we’ll do that November-ish when they’ve stopped growing. And I can plant some bulbs, and put something climbing against the walls and fences. And now there’s enough room to sit out, so I’ll keep an eye on Freegle for garden furniture, because the corner is a nice sun trap in the morning.

We have an outside light that can go up, we’ve moved the old table round the corner out of the way, and it generally looks a whole lot better. It only took 3 hours, too – lord knows why we left it so long 🙂

a day out in Hull

pirates

Yesterday it was Hull Carnival – a parade, some street stalls, etc. The weather was nice, so we set off early (for us) into the city to have a look at the festivities.

There were stalls in Queen Victoria Square, Jameson Street and in Queens Gardens (where there were baby moorchicks on the pond). Majorettes and Boys Brigade and Army cadets and cyclists and folk in costume and police on bicycles, to mention just a few, all took place in the parade – lots of people who have worked *incredibly* hard for this one half hour in the year; hats off to them all.  It was lovely to watch, and you can see a set of photos here, should you be interested.

After that, we sat in Queens Gardens and ate a small picnic that we brought with us (eating out is very fraught if you’re trying to manage your diet, and it’s expensive too), then a mooch round the shops, something we hardly ever do.

Went into Primark and bought a pair of red skinny jeans in a size 14.  Yes, that’s what I said. I knew I wouldn’t fit into them, but they were so lovely I bought them anyway, on the assumption that I *have* to keep losing weight, so no doubt they’d fit in time. They do fit. They do up. I can breathe in them and sit down in them. Gosh. We also managed to purchase a pair of smart(ish) trousers for Pete, as we have A Wedding to attend shortly, and he had nothing suitable.

Then we went and had a look at the Maritime Museum, which is in the old Dock Offices, where they did themselves very proud indeed – lovely building, with very fancy plasterwork.

Then we walked home again (I reckon we did about 6.5 miles in all), via Tescos (sorry) for some bits and pieces, and some strawberries and cream, Indian food out of the freezer, Dr Who and slumping.  A nice day out.

it's been a long day …

… and it ain’t over yet.  Was up at 5.30 this morning, and at the polling station at 6:50 a.m. to do telling.  I was first to vote, of course, but only just!  It was busier than normal, according to the warden at the church hall, but not so busy that I couldn’t cope. No Labour teller, which struck me as odd given it’s a Labour seat with a 7+k majority.

I was frozen – really, really cold.  I took a flask of tea, but couldn’t find Pete’s fingerless gloves, which I’d commandeered for the occasion.  I texted him but he couldn’t find them at home, so I rummaged once again in the many and varied pockets of my backpack and there they were. When he came up to vote, he fetched me a hot pastie [fnaar] – that and the mittens sustained me till the end of my shift at 11 a.m.

When I got home, we set out on a day off (or what was left of it).  We were heading to York, and stopped in Market Weighton and Pocklington for strolls, before arriving at our planned destination.  We had a nice wander round the city, walked about half of the city walls, looked at a lot of shops (but bought nothing), ate tea in Bettys (overpriced, over twee, won’t go there again), before pitching up to The Duchess to see Show of Hands (yes, again – what’s it to you?!).  The Leeds gig was the best we’d seen; the York gig was much, much better. We had a cracking evening, and my voice is croaky from the singing.

Got in the car about 30 seconds before the first Sunderland result was called, drove home to Mr Naughtie on the Home Service, and now we are sitting in the living room, whisk(e)y to hand, waiting to see if the true horror of a Cameron government comes to pass, and waiting with huge excitement for the result in Hull North.

Thinking back to 2005, all we really had then was IRC; this year, I have Twitter, LJ, Facebook – too much stuff to parse, really. I shall do my best.

p.s. Despite the ridiculous farce of the polling stations being unable to actually, you know, allow people to vote, I’m hugely encouraged by the turnout figures so far.  And if you think you can extrapolate a government from the the results so far, you’re a better statistician than I, Gunga Din.