Between the wars

I was a miner, I was a docker
I was a railway man between the wars
I raised a family in times of austerity
With sweat at the foundry between the wars

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During one of our visits to Costco I picked up a bag of "Wonder Berries". These were to be used in my porridge once the raisins ran out. A change is as good as a rest.

On the back was a recipe for Wonder Berry Flapjacks, so I thought I'd give it a go.

Full of berry goodness, full of seedy goodness, full of datey goodness, full of oaty goodness....but, set against 200g of butter, 50g of honey, and a tin of condensed milk. Probably a draw (ahem).

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A couple of weeks ago, you may remember we went to the TUC march in Manchester. On the day I took a load of pictures of Billy Bragg who opened the event. I really quite liked a few of them and thought I'd get one printed up on really nice art paper, and mounted. Having had that thought, I had another, I wonder if I could get Billy to sign the mount for me.

A few eMails between me and those nice people at Bragg Central (http://www.billybragg.co.uk/index.php) and ....today I went to Frames in West Didsbury to pick up my signed, mounted and framed Billy Bragg concert pic. Thanks to Tracey for modelling it.

 That Billy Bragg is a very nice man.

Leon's

This morning dawned wet and windy. The weather wasn't much better either...Boom, Boom!

However, it was rather warm, which I found out when I realised I'd over dressed for my morning ride. Still, better than the other way. Much like the first ride after the first chemo, this first ride after my second chemo found my legs lacking in oomphness. I got round ok and actually wasn't far off my usual time for the route, but there was a bit of a struggle going up the minor inclines I encountered.

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After lunch I took Pheebs down to Leon's in Chorlton to pick up samples for her textiles homework. Bit of a struggle getting there and back due to a big crash on Princess Parkway (on the way), and a burnt out car (on the way home). Leon's is a bit famous as the place to pick up fabric. It's floor to ceiling fabric.

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For our tea, Gel tempted me out to start my bday weekend with a spot of tea at Pizza Express, and very nice it was too.

Not Yet(i)

Yesterday afternoon I took the opportunity to knock off a culinary classic, French Onion Soup

I hope this was nice for Gel to return to after a visit to her mum in Coventry, who has not been very well recently.

When it comes to cooking, I'm from the "find a recipe and follow it slavishly" school. Where that doesn't work so well is if there is a little je ne sais quoi missing. I don't immediately know what might be a good addition....

Still, this one was ok, and went down well.

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We arrived home in nearly new Skoda Yeti today. But not our Yeti. Due to a, ahem, clerical error, our car was not ready when we expected it to be, so we were offered an interim Yeti. Newer than ours (only 200 miles on the clock), and a 1.2L petrol rather than our 2.0L diesel but nice nonetheless. 6 gears however, which seems a bit like having an amplifier that goes to 11...."It's handy when you get to gear 5 but need to go to 6...."

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Hat of the Day

111.9p a litre. Costco are doing it at 101.9p.

Anyway, that's deviation, as Nicholas Parsons would say. Today's hat is my San Diego Padres Spring Training hat. I went to Arizona in 2005 to see Phoenix, to see Sedona, to see the Grand Canyon (yes it is grand), and to visit the Peoria Spring Training home of San Diego and (if memory) serves Milwaukee Brewers.

We went to two games, and during one as we wandered around the outfield, Pheebs was very surprised when we were watching some pitchers warm up in the bullpen, and one of the catchers came over at the end and gave the ball to Pheebs, rather than all the young boys shouting for the ball. She had no interest in it. I traded her for it. A small toy I recall. It's in my Baseball Museum in the attic.

Over the intervening 10 years I've had regular eMails from the Peoria Training Complex asking me if I wanted to buy Spring Training season tickets. It seems they've sold on the eMail list as the Mayor of Peoria has also started sending me eMails.

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We now have a dog as well as two kittens

they seem able to coexist quite nicely.

Pearlies

Can you guess where me and Pheebs went this morning?

Yes it was that time to go and face the music. The dentist. Actually it was fairly painless. Not actually painless, because I have a couple of sensitive teeth that complain about the 'sucking machine' that cleans the spit from your mouth as you can't swallow. But neither of us needed any treatment so good news.

I remember when I was a kid, our dentist was down Ford Lane in Didsbury. One day I was told to go after school on my own and was given 4p bus fare. At the time it was 2p anywhere in Manchester. Except it wasn't. I walked to school every day, and so hadn't been on the bus for a while and the fare had doubled at some point, so I had to blow my 4p on getting to the dentist and then walk back home.

Having said that it wasn't that far home, so don't worry, I didn't really suffer.

I think that counts as a non-story.

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I've felt a bit tired the last couple of days so settled in for an afternoon of watching Game 1 of the World Series. Without wanting to spoil it for any of you who don't know the score, the game went to extra innings. I had recorded the game, but the recording ended before the game did......doh!

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Cat Update

I was worried that (don't laugh) the cats might not want to come and sit on us.

Ha!

Culture Vulture

Today Pheebs and I had a day in Manchester.

We started in the Whitworth Art Gallery where we very much enjoyed the exhibit of Richard Forster. He specialises in pencil on paper drawings.

When we saw this large triptych (5' x 3') we both assumed it was some low grade photographic reproduction. It shows three waves lapping up the beach at Saltburn. However, a check on the attached explanatory note, told us that it was pencil on paper. Stunning.

There were a fair few other images from Richard and if you're local I'd make an effort to go and have a look.

Here is Pheebs enjoying the view from the back window out over the park

Having been to the gallery a few times now, I think I visited a part I'd never been to before. I rather likes the view which made me think the abandoned bags looked echoed the fallen leaves outside.

Ok. Maybe not.

We then sashayed up Oxford Road to the Manchester Museum. We visited this because I thought there were would be material for Pheebs half term Art project about marine biology. And very nicely it turns out I was right. She produced a very nice lightning sketch of the sperm whale skeleton hanging in the natural history hall for use later on. We both took a few pictures of the other specimens in the display cases which she'll use for the project.

The museum, it being half term, was rammed, so we decided to hop on a bus and find somewhere else to eat. The main museum cafe looks like it is being renovated so options were limited.

I asked Pheebs where she fancied eating and she suggested the same place she ate with Caitlin yesterday, The Cosy Club. It's one of a number of new eateries in the Corn Exchange (the Triangle).

It has an olde-worlde gentlemen's club feel with terrible paintings and deer heads adorning the walls. We wondered whether there is a stock of these awful paintings, or whether art students are being paid to produce them as 'post modern' items.

Anyway, I had a very nice macaroni cheese with spinach, mushroom, and chorizo.

There were games provided and we had a game of draughts (checkers for my US readers) which ended in a draw.

A wander through the Northern Quarter and home. Tired.

Missing Gel who is in Coventry visiting her mum who has been having a hard time recently.

Little Pleasures

When this blog first started in 2007 (!!!!) it lasted only two editions. One of the (two) posts talked about the little pleasures in life. Without re-reading it, I think the gist of it was that life is measured not in the big things that happen - although given my current predicament, I'd be a fool not to think they had an effect - but in the aggregation of smaller things. As we trundle through life, things happen; a stubbed toe (-1), a lovely sunrise (+1), seeing a plane on the runway above your head as you cycle to work (+1), falling off your bike the day before your holiday and ending up in A&E because you looked back to see the plane on the runway above your head as you cycle to work (-3).

I'm sure you see. The knack is to ensure that the sum total of the positives are greater than those of the negatives. Sometimes you need a knack of seeing something optimistic in a less than optimistic situation to 'spin' the figures.

One of the (really) small pleasures I get is when I see a sign with the name of somebody I know. The closer they are to me the greater the frisson. So every time I see Curzon Mews on my regular cycle route (Mr Curzon is a work colleague and friend) and have a nice smile.

But when this happens:

Ding, ding, ding.

This lovely little thoroughfare is in Monton, near Salford. We were paying a visit as Caitlin and Andy have been checking out the property market. It's close enough to Salford Quays for an occasional walk to work.

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Gratuitous kitten shot of the day

What can be cuter that two kittens in a basket? The reality is that Boo was the victim on an assault by Poussey. He was quite happily chasing his own tail, when she launched an unprovoked attack on him having sneaked up while he was otherwise engaged. Awwwww, sooo cute.

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Hat of the Day

As you now know, I only bring you a 'hat of the day' feature when there really is something exciting to share I've actually worn one.

Oakland Athletics. If you've been paying attention, you'll know that the Athletics started out life in Philadelphia before moving to Kansas City in 1955, and then on again to Oakland in 1968. The team owner/manager for the first 50 (!) years of its existence was a guy called Connie Mack. Actually he was called Cornelius McGillicuddy, but you can see why he was happy to have a slightly nippier day-to-day name.

I've never been farther west than Phoenix, AZ, and I'm pretty certain I haven't seen the A's at their Spring Training home in Mesa, AZ, so this hat was bought for me by my good friend Phil. he HAS been farther west than Phoenix and in fact has been to the Oakland Coliseum to see a game.

Thanks mate.

Aldi Ninja

One thing that really helps cold weather cycling is making sure you have warm clothing. Kinda makes sense, so it does make me wonder why it took me so long to realise this and do something about it.

Today it was cold enough - but I only realised half way round my ride - to wear my "lobster" winter gloves. The gloves I was wearing are ok but just a little too thin, and my hands weren't comfortable.

Since realising that keeping warm is really handy I've invested in a few items of "base layer" clothing, plus a couple of snoods, but one problem I've had for a while is keeping the top of me bonce warm. Then the other day when I was in Aldi, I came across a basket of assorted cycling wear (including the lobster gloves) and found a wee hat that you wear under your helmet.

Here I am modelling my Aldi "ninja" look.

I felt rather tired when I set off so decided, bearing in mind the advice I've had to not overdo it, to take it easy. At then end I realised I was only 5 minutes slower than normal (1:25min vs 1:20min).

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Hat of the Day

National League franchise for Chicago, the Cubs. In 2002 for a belated 40th birthday present, we spent some of July in Chicago and Milwaukee as I'd bagged a ticket for the All Star game at Miller Park. The first part of the jaunt was spent in Chi town where we saw the Cubs beat the Reds thanks to a Sammy Sosa HR. The roar from the crowd woke Pheebs up who, up until that point, had been oblivious to the 'friendly confines' of Wrigley Field, and was comfortably asleep on my shoulder. It was very hot and we were all jet lagged, so I have some sympathy with her decision to have a wee snooze.

This was my second visit to Chicago and my second to Wrigley Field. The first time I actually spent some time wandering around the outfield after a stadium tour. It's a beautiful place (*for a sports arena).

When we went to Milwaukee I was mistaken for - recently retired Orioles SS - Cal Ripken Jnr. I suspect it's just that, like me, he was an a slightly overweight, grey haired, middle-aged man. I don't think it was the athletic figure I cut. With the All Star game in town, it wasn't unreasonable to expect Mr Ripken to be there too.

I don't know if Cal reads this blog, but if he does, I was quite flattered at the mistaken identity.

Barry Bonds hit a HR in the All Star game so I saw homers from two of the most famous, and notorious, hitters in the modern era in consecutive games.

Hasselback

I had been doing some research into getting a new car. Having been a VW driver for many years (Golf, Bora, Passat, Passat) my recent car is a Skoda Superb. It was my old company car, and had the company not stopped doing Skoda (I know) I would have renewed for another one. As they didn't, I bought it off them.

It's been great. It's huge, and the mileage very good from the 1.9 TDI diesel. I once got 71.1mpg on a trip back from Anglesey. However, it's just started to exhibit a few signs that money may need spending. The climate control fan has started getting very noisy and, more worryingly, the clever boot/hatch mechanism is starting to fail.

So I went off to a Skoda dealers and bought a slightly smaller car that Gel is comfortable driving. I can see that the Superb is a bit on the big side for her. Next week I will go and pick up a Skoda Yeti which I understand is based on the Golf chassis. Second hand, but with some nice bells a whistles; sat nav, DAB radio, bluetooth for phone integration. Very excited.

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Hat of the Day

There is no hat of the day, as for some reason I opted not to wear one, even though it's a bit parky. It would be dishonest to have a hat merely for blogging purposes. One must have integrity in this game.

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Hasselback potatoes. Named, I believe, for the Swedish restaurant that popularised them. Actually, I've seen then called Hedgehog Potatoes so they probably exist under many other names too.

Made them for lunch yesterday with some baked salmon fillets and peas.

Thinly slice the potatoes, but not all the way through. Baste them it hot oil/butter and roast. Half way through the slices should have opened up a bit, and you can rebaste. Just before the end I sprinkled a small amount of grated cheese and allowed it to melt into the gaps. Dead simple. Aren't potatoes great?

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Spent a couple of hours yesterday in the company of a very nice man, G. Happened to be in town for a while and took some time to say hi. Thanks G, it was nice spending time with you.

You wanted to know what the 'other' New York picture was:

I call it "The Newsstand". I think if you click on any of the images you get a bigger one to look at. Worth it in this case. There's plenty of detail.

Diamond Car Wash

A reader was very kind about one of the photos I took a photo of and posted on a previous blog. They requested a better version to be shown.

This was taken on Day 2 of our New York jaunt in summer of this year. We rode the subway from near our hotel to Brooklyn and then walked back across the bridge to Manhattan.

New York offers so many subjects for photographers, but so many that have been done and done well. What's an old hack like me to do? Well, I'm not not going to take a pic. The version I printed and had mounted didn't have Gel's head in the bottom left like this one.

As we walked across the bridge I notice that it was festooned, as is the modern way, with padlocks put there by people wanting to mark a special moment. A token of love, the loss of love, special moments in their lives. About half way over we came across two workmen in helmets and hi-viz vests, a large bin on wheels and a pair of bolt cutters. They were taking away people's tokens of love, their tokens of a special moment in their lives and putting them in a big NY council bin.

A woman walking towards us saw this taking place and described how these guys must relate their day's work to their families when they returned home. "Good day honey?", "Yeah, we spent the day removing people's hopes and dreams..."

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Hat of the Day

Toronto Blue Jays St Patrick's Day hat. This hat is special as I bought it on my honeymoon in 2011. I went to a couple of game, neither of which was on St Pat's Day, but unable to resist a bargain I picked it up in the team store. I did buy another Jays hat on the same trip which you'll see later.

The selfie was taken at Diamond Hand Car Wash while my regular guys were buffing up my Skoda.

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Terrible nights sleep again. That dexamethasone really buggers up your system. Glad I'm only on it two days out of 21.

The Lakeland Flying Tigers

My man crush on Matt Damon is maintained - gratuitous abs and buttock shots are fine with me. The Martian is a great yarn, if not a great film. It isn't going to usurp Apocalypse Now, or It's A Wonderful Life, or The Godfather (Parts I and II), or The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, or several others from my all time top 20.

But it was a thoroughly entertaining SciFi yarn which was funny, exciting, tense, uplifting. My feeling is this isn't a date movie, unless, like me, your date is another nerdy bloke. Don't tell Mark Kermode, but we saw it in 3D and other than it being slightly dark, it's the sort of film that I'm sure would be fine in 2D but worked well in 3D too.

I have a strange relationship with Ridley Scott. I feel I should dislike his approach to film making. He seems macho, and overblown, and he comes across rather arrogantly (and stepping back I guess you need some arrogance to be film director). But then I look at the list of films he's made and there are some absolute stonkers in there - Blade Runner, Alien, Thelma and Louise, Gladiator to name but a few.

I don't know if Ridley is a regular reader of the blog, but if you do then I apologise for not giving you the benefit of the doubt.

So last night was a win for the Martian and a draw for the Martial as United come home from Moscow with a Champions League point.

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So here I am live blogging from the Oak Road Treatment Centre at The Christie. Some readers have expressed interested in the process of how the chemo is administered. And it's fairly simple and quick (about an hour) in my case.

First I have a canula inserted into my lovely fat veins:

and then the drug, which comes in a plastic bag is put up on a drip stand and pumped into the vein via the canula.

Then at the end a saline flush is pumped in to make sure all the goodness if used. If you look up Docetaxel, you'll find it's also used for breast cancer treatment too.

One downside of the process I've found is that I am given Dexamethasone the day before, and the day of, the chemo treatment, and this is making me a little bit hyper and as a consequence I'm knackered through lack of sleep. I also think it kicks off hot flushes a bit more too. Luckily it's only two days every three weeks. The dexamethasone is designed to ward off any immediate impact of the chemo, allergic reactions and the like.

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Hat of the Day

The Lakeland Flying Tigers are a minor league team in the Detroit Tigers farm system. Their home is the Joker Marchant Stadium, Lakeland, FL, named for local Parks and Rec administrator Marcus "Joker" Marchant, was opened in 1966 and holds 8500 people. It is the Grapefruit League Spring Training home of the Detroit Tigers. In mid-1990's and early-2000's I came to Florida for Spring Training and saw the Tigers play here. I didn't buy this hat. This hat was bought for me by my good buddy Phil who came to see the minor league team last year (?). Where possible Phil and I by each other baseball hats because we can't buy enough of our own (ahem). You'll see a lot more of Phil's gifts over the next few weeks.

Phil is a happy man just now, as his team, The National League Franchise Team for New York - the NewYork Metropolians - have reached the World Series. I'm not rooting for them, but Phil knows why.....(I'm a Jonah).

Martial vs Martian

Tomorrow is a chemo day, so today was a (hopefully) routine visit to take bloods, wee, and to chat with the medics. Bloods were taken without too much kicking and screaming. But then the system "lost" me and instead of a 14:00 chat with the doc, we had a 15:45 chat......grrr

And it wasn't much of a chat after all that because basically I feel pretty ok and haven't yet had much in the way of side effects, although he said that will likely change.

He asked about hair loss, and I said I thought all that had gone so far was some of my beard. He said it would probably go soon, but there's a very small chance the rest might not go at all, which is a bit of a bugger as last night I had a very short cut to further lessen the impact when it does go.....or doesn't:

Not a great picture, but there isn't much to see. Move along please.....

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Hat of the Day

Thinking I'd need hats, and this is true whether I am billiard ball like or not, I had a quick sort out of my hat cupboard, and thought I'd bring a recurring section to the blog, "Hat of the Day"

Philadelphia Phillies circa 1977. I bought this hat when I visited The Vet (Veterans Stadium) in 2003 to see the Phillies lose at home to the Oakland A's (who started out life as the Philadelphia Athletics) in an interleague match. It was the last season of The Vet (opened in 1971) and locals didn't seem to think they'd miss it. Rat infested they said. On the outfield wall they had a large countdown clock and in the 7th inning stretch the Philly Fanatic drove a buggy out the clock with Robin Roberts (HoF RHP, Phillies, O's, Astros, Cubs) who tore down the sheet showing the number of games left before the old place was replaced by Citizens Bank Park.

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Tonight many people will be wondering whether to stay in and watch Anthony Martial's Man U in Moscow, or find some other entertainment. Andy and I have chosen the latter and will change one letter of our French striker to go and see MATT DAMON in The Martian. Review to follow. Along with Ryan Gosling, George Clooney and Brad Pitt, I do have a bit of a man-crush on Matt D. I wonder if he's following my blog....I hope this admission of mine doesn't embarrass him.

Today there is no news.....

Oh, I did that title yesterday.

So kitten update: there was a small amount of chaos in the utility room this morning. They are currently housed there overnight. Litter tray had been used, food consumed, apron on the floor having been 'interfered with' at some point in the night.

Poussey was asleep behind the hoover again, while Boo found the back of the washing machine was a good place for a zizz.

Having retrieved them from their respective hidey holes, they quickly relaxed and a day of playing and petting has ensued. As I type they are both spark out on a cushion next to the settee.

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Today has been quite quiet. I picked up a couple of NY pics I had framed, and signed another mount, which I promptly sent off to have something else appended to it. I'll let you know when I get it back.

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I also embarked on a minor frenzy of cooking, producing a beef stew with dumplings and creamy mashed potato:

and a Date and Walnut cake:

"There is no news today"

I'm reading Nick Robinson's book "Live From Downing Street" at the moment and he discusses the early years of the BBC news reporting. Originally the BBC was forbidden from gathering it's own news and depended on news agencies like Reuters and AP for it's material. Occasionally they wouldn't have anything to send and the BBC news bulletin would simply say, "There is no news today".

I, on the other hand, am gatherer and presenter.

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So another 18 mile flapjackless ride this morning followed by an alarming lack of kittens when I got home. I searched as much as I could before I had to go off for my Flu Jab. I get a free one because my immune system is compromised.

I then came home and had another fruitless search before heading off for a "how to insert and remove a contact lens" lesson.

When I got back, Gel found the kittens in about 10 minutes. I had spent the best part of the day looking for them.

Pheebs played with them for a while and they seem to have lost a little of the shyness then had when they first arrived. As I type this they are wandering around chewing bits of cable like they've been here forever.

Poussey

Boo

Both of them.

Here's a picture from the weekend.

Cats Cats Cats

So after a most relaxing weekend in Cumbria, we set off home via Pets Life Line in Keswick to pick up the two new members of our family.

Welcome Boo (L) and Poussey (R)

As you can see they are starting to feel at home.

Tarns, crags, fells etc (23,299)

Having arrived and knocked off a quick blog, we were able to settle down to the matter in hand; some convivial company and some lovely food.

The night was cold and clear, and it wasn't beyond the bounds of possibility that there might be a nice misty start to the day. I slept quite well, but found myself awake sometime after 6:30, so decided to nip up to the lake to see what's what. I had to scrape some ice of the car, but a two minute drive and I was lakeside.

And splendid it was too. Very still, just the sound of a couple of swans to break the silence. The sun never really broke over the water, and lumps of cloud rose up in the sky obscuring it, at least until I gave up and went back for breakfast. 

After breakfast we followed N's directions and went for a walk around the lake, and up a fellside at the left hand side of the picture above. A little winded, we stopped at the top for a grand view across the lake, and a Tunnocks Caramel Wafer to provide a much needed energy boost.

L-R: J, A, Gel, J, J, P, N and with his back to us, A. The white dog is B and the black one I.

We got back to the house just after 3 and, according to my iPhone, 23,299 steps later. A good walk, but my feet were just starting to complain. This was quickly put to the back of my mind with a nice cup of tea and a buttered slice of J's fruit cake (and she's promised us the recipe).

Nom nom and, indeed, nom.

Jam and Soup

Today we set off for the Lake District. We picked up R - a friend of Pheebs - on the way and I had a chat with her dad about the worst thing to happen on a long journey is to head straight into a traffic jam......

Bugger. It's a bit of a grainy shaky picture of a traffic jam on Barton bridge. Took us over an hour to get from West Didsbury to the start of the M61.

Anyway, we're here in Ennerdale - through some lovely if slightly alarming fog patches - with a beautiful clear sky. Stars as fas as the eye can see.

What is much more impressive is that my industrial quantity of Leek and Potato soup survived the journey. Thank you duct tape.

I wonder if we'll actually be able to get in it...........you'll have to wait.

Dates, dates, dates

Asda had an offer in their 'baking' section. Two bags of chopped dates for £3.

Now I know we probably aren't in imminent danger of running out of dates, but these are "Best Before" June 2016, so I'm sure we'll use them. Can't ignore a bargain, I'm afraid. One of my many faults.

In fact having bought them I do fancy knocking up a Date and Walnut loaf this afternoon. Have to fit that in between the gallons of Leek and Potato soup I need to make for the weekend.

One weekend in October for the last three years, a group of people, bonded by the fact that many of them were at Sheffield Uni in the late 70's/early 80's, rent a very large house in the lakes. We eat, drink, talk and walk and take photos (in my case). I think there will be 16 people present at the peak over this weekend.

The first two years the house we had was located a couple of hundred yards from a MOD Artillery range, and a few miles up the coast from Sellafield. This, and last, year we are near Ennerdale Water which, for the nerds among you, is the most westerly lake in the lake district. It's a lovely remote spot.

This is the point at which real nerds point out there is only one lake in the Lake District, with all the rest being Meres, Waters and the like.

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Another 18 miles on the bike this morning, which was still and dry, although clouds have started to appear so perhaps this spell of great weather is on the way out. Boooo! The winds are still from the east, northeast as the planes arriving at Manchester Airport are coming in over Mobberly, rather than Stockport.

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I do like to give you a picture on each blog, so here's one that shows where I'm writing today's. I had to drop off a couple of prints to be mounted/framed (one special one which I'll tell you about in a few weeks), and to sign a couple of mounts I'd dropped off last week, at Frames in West Didsbury. So I've wandered across the road into The Metropolitan for a coffee and a cake.

It's a splendid spot, and a far cry from the dark and dingy dump I walked into when it was called The Midland in the mid-1980's.

in regione caecorum rex est luscus

When I bought the house we currently live in, it had been extended at the back (kitchen) and side (garage with extra bedroom above) in the typical way that 3-bed 1930's semis are. There are two more on our road - attached to each other as it happens - currently undergoing the same process.

Because we are at the end of a cul-de-sac, the shape of the plot the house is like a piece of Trivial Pursuit "pie". The angle that the house is at relative to the angle of the shared fence with our neighbours, is such that I doubt I could have ever actually got my car in through the door. if it got it in, it could well have stayed there.

As it happens the garage was always full of "overflow" from the house, so in about 2007 I asked a local builder to take out the garage doors and convert it into an office and a utility room with downstairs loo. He did a great job and the office is where Gel and I conduct our work and play. 

When I moved from being an Operator to being a Trainee Programmer at TSB in the early 1980's I had to take some 'aptitude' tests. Turns out my spatial reasoning is pretty good. This explains why I can fit so much stuff into our office. 

While this might seem a useful skill, and in many ways it is, the downside is that it means we can hoard more old tat than we should, and so periodically we clear out the entire office (no mean feat given the amount of tat I've managed to shoehorn in there), shuffle the furniture about, and fill it up again.

Yesterday afternoon and this morning were given over to this task. As always, on completion, the office looks fab. We did, ahem, reassign quite a bit of tat to the charity shop, the tip and the attic, so some of the hoard was reduced.

A job very well done. Couldn't imaging doing it with two kittens around our feet (OMG OMG OMG CATS CATS CATS).

Here are a couple of shelves from the office. Can you tell who they belong to?

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This afternoon I had an eye-opening experience. If you look at the few pictures of me on the internet from the last few years (yesterday's MOMA shot is a prime example), I am either wearing glasses, have them on a string round my neck, or perched on the top of me bonce.

This is because I'm getting old and need glasses to read. My arms are too short. I can't hold the reading matter far enough away. 

Today I went to a local opticians and tried a single contact lens in my right eye. The lens had my reading prescription in it. I have never even considered contacts before.

The optician checked my eye and deemed it very healthy, and then popped a lens in - "look down, look left, there we go".

My eye watered a little. I felt a scratchy mildly irritating sensation for about ten seconds then nothing. I picked up my phone, and by crikey I could read it. It is a miracle. Now the reading wasn't as clear as with my glasses, and the distance was compromised a little, but the optician explained that it would take a few days for my brain to balance the two completely. But within seconds of popping the little blighter in, I could read without glasses. 

I now have to have another appointment so they can teach me how to put them in and take the out, and after a trial period, I can take them home.

It was a genuinely astonishing incident. Is it too strong to say life changing? Probably, but I have to say I'm very excited about the prospect of not having to glasses to read ALL the time.

" in regione caecorum rex est luscus" - in the land of the blind the one eyed man is king

Hair

(Yet) another simply gorgeous morning. Clear sunny skies, and sharp nip in the air. Light breezes so no mist or fog to speak of and all of those breezes seemed to be in my face as I ventured out on another 18 mile loop on me bike.

Before I set off I had a bowl of porridge enhanced with walnuts, raisins, chia seeds and manuka honey. I've become a real porridge fan over the last year or so (milk, not water, since you ask) having spurned it ever since I had an experience that scared me off it when I was having my tonsils out as a young child (mum will remember how old I was, 5 maybe?). When I say real porridge, I should say that I use the measured pouches into which you measure your milk/water before microwaving it. I don't go for the old skool 'pan on the hob' method.

Thoroughly enjoyed the ride. Felt very strong again, with none of the oomphlessness I had last week.

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By now, I'd been expecting my hair to start coming out - not that I'm wishing mind - so I thought I'd treat you to another selfie.

A rather intense stare - I need to soften that a bit for fear of scaring off readers - and you will notice that the hair is shorter than the first pic and that's because I asked Pheebs to shave it for me. I think it'll be less of a shock to go from short hair to no hair. Here's hoping  :0)

To finish off, here's a random pic from my flickr stream to try and lessen the impact of the fearsome one above.

From L-R: Frida Kahlo, Pheebs, Me, Gel, back of Gel's head. MOMA, NYC 2015.

Secrets of the Blog

What I didn't tell you was that while I was sitting in Costa Coffee using up all their bandwidth to provide you with the latest edition of this literary work, there was a lump of pork sitting in the over slow roasting it's way to loveliness. This time I tried something different and in addition to roasties, individual yorkshire puds, and broccoli, I also provided some orange glazed carrots, which went down well.

Gel provided the pudding of Apple, Pear and Plum Crumble.

Pheebs, Gel and I enjoyed our Sunday roast in the company of Caitlin and Andy, who have just embarked on the tortuous journey to buying their first house. We get all the pleasure of criticising other people's taste in home furnishing, they have to actually find somewhere to buy.

After tea, I rang Pets Life Line in Keswick, to find out how our two kittens are doing, and to arrange what time we'll pick them up on Sunday (OMG OMG OMG).

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If you remember back to the "No Underpants" edition of the blog, I had got up early and headed off to Derbyshire to scout out some photo locations for later in the year. However, the weather was atrocious and it wasn't much fun. So I decided to have another go this week as there weather forecast was very much better.

This time I went directly to Castleton to see if I could get a shot of the valley in the early morning mist. I realised I was WAY too late as I arrived at the location just as about 8 photographers were returning to their cars. Still, it was worth going to see the view so that if I do go back in the dead of winter I'll have some idea what to expect.

And very nice it was too.

Tomorrow should start with another flapjackless bike ride. Let's hope the weather plays ball.

Where's Wally?

Manchester University was founded in 1851 as Owens College, named after John Owens, a textile merchant, who left a bequest of £96,942 for the purpose.

Manchester Museum is owned by the university and is the UK's largest university museum and serves both as a major visitor attraction and as a resource for academic research and teaching. It has around 360,000 visitors each year.

The university too k responsibility for it in 1867, it having existed independently sice its formation in 1821.

I remember going there as a child two very strong memories stand out. The first is the structure of the main Victorian exhibit hall complete with whale skeleton suspended from the ceiling.

On the first and second floors, the railings you can see were lined with display cases with wooden lids, underneath was a huge collection of bug, butterflies and moths. Although the display cases remain, many of the insect collection has moved on.

The ground floor was the location for my second strong memory of visiting there. In one case, they had a huge Japanese Spider Crab. It was mounted on the wall so you could easily see that it was longer than you were tall. This is no longer in this exhibit hall, and is in a case behind the tea/coffee stall in the main entrance. It has also been display horizontally and isn't nearly as impressive as a result.

There are still plenty of stuffed animals to marvel at. And if they are displayed in numbers according to their popularity, then I can report that foxes and duck-billed platypusses are top of the charts with the public.

Including Gel

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Where's Wally? - hidden in the next two images are myself and Gel. See if you can spot us.

After a sit down, we turned right out of the museum and headed south towards the recently reopened Whitworth Art Gallery. Before we got there we bobbed in to the MU Students Union building. A location for nights out for both us over the years. Joe Jackson, The Slits, The Damned being bands I'd seen there. And how it had changed. Soft chairs and lattes now. Not the formica tables and plastic pint pots I remembered.

Moving on we arrived at the gallery and had a very nice chat with Emma who was helping out in the newly opened "Art Textile". It is a really nice place to go now, with some beautiful spaces.

Gel then had a wizard idea that since we were on the doorstep of the curry capital of the world, we could pick one up and take it home for tea. So last night we had a VERY nice meal courtesy of The Sanam which, again, we have both frequented many times over the years.

All in all, a really pleasant Saturday, finished, for me with the "billy bonus" of free car parking all day. Yesterday, it turned out, was Manchester University open day so Oxford Rd was awash with Year 13s checking what university life would be like for them. A lot more luxurious than in our day, was our conclusion.