Work in progress

Caitlin and Andy have now been the proud owners of a house for just over two weeks and the progress in the refurb is incredible. Still a lot to do but the roof being sorted this week will be a huge step forward.

In the last couple of weeks Caitlin and Andy have stripped all the walls, have had a new bathroom installed, had a door created and another blocked up, and nearly the whole house rewired. Makes you tired just thinking about it.

Here are a couple of pics.

Ghostly view into the roof void. Note, that's the second time I've used the word "void" in consecutive blogs.

Back parlour.

Back parlour with blocked up arch into the living room.

After we got back from the house - and we spent ages discussing how beautiful it will be - I made something almost as beautiful. Nigel Slater's Frosted Marmalade Cake.

Nommity nom nom, McNom.

Touching the Void

After a slow day - admin bolix - we had a lovely piece of steak for tea and then went up to the Guild for "Film Club".

Our current 'theme' is "Snow". Last time out we had Fargo, and this time we had a film that I had seen three times before, "Touching The Void". This is a drama-doc of the true story of two English guys climbing a new route up Siula Grande, a peak in Peru. It's a terrific film, and even though it's clear how it ends from the start (the two climbers involved narrate the story) it holds your attention. It will make you grimace, and you will be in awe at the strength and determination shown. Recommended.

Ha, ha, ha, bonk

I laughed my head off.

Thursday morning saw my regular bi-weekly coffee with NC and M, except M had gone to Aberdeen and forgotten about us.

That's fine. NC and I can talk bollocks at each other so it was a nice visit.

In the evening I met up with Fej, clownf1st and some geordie bloke for a curry and a trip to Manford's Comedy Club. Jason Manford has established a monthly comedy event at The Garrick in Alty. For £15 we got Jason's kid brother Colin compering Barry Dodds, Penella Mellor and Steve Shanyaski. Reet good evening. Recommended.

Cold

No, not the temperature. I have a cold. All through Caroline's chemo, she remarked that she was being pumped full of poison, and that infection could be very dangerous, but she never had a cold. Not a sniff. And apart from being a bit tired (and going bald during the second cycle) pretty healthy. And that seems to have been the case with me.

Not that this isn't very scientific, as there wasn't a control "me" against which I could test. I can't tell whether the chemo was in some way killing off the 'cold' germs as well as everything else, or whether it's just a coincidence. Maybe being out of contact with large numbers of infectious people... Now, however, a month after the last cycle of chemo I am sitting here with a runny nose and a sore throat. Damn.

Big news in the house this week, however, is the phased release of les chats into the wild.

Boo didn't need to be asked twice, but Poussey did and was v-e-r-y cautious about entering the big wide world. They've had brief forays into the outside, and we've tempted them back with food, but now comes training about using the cat flap.

We have taken out some insurance for them, now that they are having their first visit to the world beyond the glass. I guess there's more chance they might do something stupid and get hurt in this first month. I am not wildly impressed with the insurance company so far. Of three names supplied to them; Boo, Poussey and Geraldine, they have managed to get two of them wrong.

So Jeraldine has insured Poussey and Moo. He's not wild about being called Moo. Especially when it's Poussey that looks more like a cow.

Tuesday - Bike Ride Day?

No this Tuesday. Which was a bit of a pity as it was a glorious start to the day. However, on Sunday I did my usual ride (usual-ish as I stopped at Sainsburys on the way home to do some shopping), and then carted some logs around. Some really heavy logs.

Something twanged in the top of my leg, I think I described it in the Monday blog and by Tuesday it still wasn't right. It didn't seem sensible to go out yesterday. As it happens I also have a sore throat and am a little wary about going out if I'm going down with a cold.

So instead, having had a coffee with Gel, and sorted out some admin, in the afternoon I went for a gentle walk (overall yesterday: 18,000 steps and 13.48km) with Gel, Running Dave and Sally Dog.

Running Dave and Gel walking through the Peat Beds.

Sally having a swim in Rossmere.

Sally must run 4 or 5 times further than we walk and is in constant motion. It is very wet and muddy underfoot and by the time we'd reached the lake she was filthy so Dave managed to encourage her to take a bath. Several times. I think we could have been there all night if she'd had her way.

Sally is a rescue dog, and came into Dave's life after his previous dog, also a Collie, passed away. Skip had been everywhere with Dave and it was a terrible time for him, so Sally appeared at a good time. It's not been easy though as Dave has really had to work hard on ironing out a few behavioural issues. She's not bad, just a bit naughty. Recently though there seems to have been a significant improvement which has justified all the work Dave has put in. She still pulls like a bugger when she's on the lead, but off it is much more manageable.

And shake off the water.

It was a splendid walk. Cold and yet bathed by the sun. We finished around 5 o'clock and the sun was dipping down and you could already feel the cold creeping in. So a couple of hours later when we walked to downtown Wilmslow with C and D for a curry, it was freezing. So a curry was the right solution.

It was a great end to a good day. C and D were great company, and added to some lovely food, it was a good day.

Turned stick-up kid, but look what you done did....

Got sent up for a eight year bid.

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Yesterday was spent in a turmoil of anticipation and stress leading up to the cup tie v Shrewsbury.

I've not gone to see United on a regular basis since 2004, and yet I am still affected by their results. This season may explain why I'm such a miserable git. It certainly explains why my dad is a such a miserable git as he actually still goes to watch them. :0))

It was a pleasant morning so Gel and I went out together to pick up stuff she'd sourced on t'interwebs. In the afternoon I used some leftovers from Sunday lunch and produced a variation on the Leek and Potato soup that I will now call Leek and Potato and Brocolli and Pork soup. Rolls off the tongue doesn't it?

Around tea time Caitlin arrived for a haircut (it was a "Jean" Monday). I scuttled off and watched the mighty reds. Although they were the mighty "whites" last night. I guess that was in case their red shirts clashed with Shrewsbury's yellow and blue kit......go figure.

A workmanlike performance saw off a team struggling 60 places below them in the leagues. Utd were in a no-win situation really. It was only made worse when LvG poked himself in the eye with a pencil while trying drink some water.

Bring on West Ham.

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Random pic to decorate the blog. Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester.

Busy, busy, busy

So I was going to write about how I'd been a busy bee yesterday, but failed to get out of the house. That, however, would have ignored the 20mile bike ride I did in the morning.

I suffered towards the end of the day because of the ride. I found my legs were a bit tired (understatement) and also I had some pain in my left groin. Made sleep a bit awkward, just trying to find that comfy position that didn't stretch the muscles too much.

Anyway. On the day before (Sat) I was in the house in the afternoon and had a look out at the garden, and the pond in particular. I did so because it suddenly popped into my head that out frogs ought to be making an appearance sometime soon, but the pond was quiet and nothing was to be seen.

Twenty four hours later, however, and it was like a bacchanalian scene from a premier league footballers christmas party with frogs writhing around in the pond and on the lawn. Here is the result.

We've had a visitor to the garden over the last few months. A rather handsome thing we've come to name Sand Cat (and don't tell me you don't name garden visitors.....). (S)He was also in the garden with a large frog in his/er mouth. This I did not like. So I ran out of the back door, but Sand Cat managed to pick up the frog and disappear into the undergrowth. I knew that all Sand Cat was going to do was play with this poor creature until it was dead. I ran out a few times until I finally caught him/her off guard and put the frog back with his mates in the pond.

During the day when I wasn't bike riding, or cat chasing I cooked a nice bit of pork very slowly. I also had a a go at Lemon Drizzle Cake with a twist. I put some dark chocolate in. Pretty off the wall, eh?

It tastes pretty good, but most of the chocolate sank to the bottom. I'm sure Mary Berry could tell me why....

In the evening was watched the first episode of the new series of Gogglebox (yay), and the for the first episode of that John le Carre thing about hotels (yay).

Saturday

Yesterday morning I dropped Gel off at the Didsbury Parsonage for a day school on gardening. Seeding, seedlings, planting etc. I headed off into the city centre to shoot some pics and suss out a few locations for a project which is in the early stages of planning.

It was wet as a wet thing. After wandering around for a few hours with my camera sheltered under my arm to keep it dry I gave up and headed home. It was thoroughly miserable.

Here are a few of the pics I managed to capture during the short time I was there:

Oldham Street.

Tib Street. The street was closed yesterday as there was a huge crane lifting some building stuff into a site. This guy was watching the crane at work.

Bus Stop. Church Street. I liked the separation and change in height of the women waiting for the bus.

Market Street. I used a slow shutter speed to blur the shoppers while keeping the buildings sharp.

The Piccadilly Rats. Any Manchester-based street shooter will have at least one shot of this lot. They are an institution. A guitarist/singer and a drummer, and then an assortment of old blokes dancing.

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A few days ago, I regaled you with tales of the Bicycle Safari Rally me and my mates used to have. My dad scanned in a few pics of the actual rally.

Richard Herring is the unfunniest comedian I've seen this year

But by some strange Schrodingian quirk of logic, he's also the funniest I've seen this year. I think I need to see at least one more comedian so I can start a proper comparison.

He's currently touring with his new show, "Happy Now?" which discusses whether he's happier now he is married with a child, or whether he was happier in his carefree single days. I laughed like a drain, it was a great evening. Herring is a clever comedian who tells stories that demand a degree of intelligence from his audience. Much of the fun is from us filling in the gaps, not him spoon feeding laughs.

Herring is known for his work with Stewart Lee - "Fist of Fun", "This Morning with Richard not Judy" in the 80's and 90's. He also wrote for Armando Iannucci, Chris Morris, and Al "Pub Landlord" Murray.

More recently he has been writing a daily blog - 4,000 consecutive days without a break - playing himself at snooker (and recording a commentary), and his really successful RHLSTP (Richard Herring's Leicester Square Theatre Podcast) in which he interviews comedians and actors. It's really good and features regular items like the emergency question - "what would you rather have, a hand made of ham, or an armpit that dispenses suncream. Seek it our on iTunes, it's free and really interesting.


Then we went home and I had the strangest experience of the day. I was lying on the bed, partially clothed, when Poussey arrived, had a mooch around and then leaned over and bit my nipple. Not quite sure who was most surprised but my howl of pain sent the two moggies hurtling out of the room and down the stairs. No sign of an apology thus far.

Jump Start

Drawing back the curtains yesterday morning revealed a beautiful clear sunny day, and ice on the car. For a split second I thought about abandoning my regular ride, but then I could see that while the car was icy the road wasn't and it would be pathetic to do so.

And I'm very glad I didn't. The roads were fine, and the ride was great. I felt quite strong and enjoyed myself in the sun.

Gel tried to start her car the other day and found the battery was flat. Not a great surprise since she last drove it before Christmas, but I didn't have any jump leads and after my ride decided it was a good time to go and source some.

I went to our local Halfords, picked some leads, and at the till was asked if I wanted to provide my eMail so they could send me an electronic receipt. They promised that they wouldn't use the eMail to bombard me with spam. This seemed sensible. Why waste paper which I'd very likely lose, so I gave them the address. The assistant completed the transaction on the till and then gave me a paper receipt......which did rather seem to nullify the eMail receipt....

I watched the first half of United's Europa League tie in Denmark, and then went out for a lovely curry with some workmates at The Tiffin Room in Cheadle, which I can heartily recommend. It was there I learned that we'd been beat. What a season. What a pants season. Poor old LvG seems like a dead man walking. 

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Copper shortage

These ladies were working in the Victorian Kitchen at Attingham Park. They use whatever produce is brought to them and on this day were finding uses for tons of celeriac. The pies in front of the picture are salt dough, and so not for eating. 

Looking at this picture, I was impressed by the enormous amount of copper on display. Must be a bugger to keep polished.

Tuesday

As you must know by now, Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday are my regular riding days. I have managed to go out for a bike ride on most of these days over the last few months. Even if the weather looks dreadful, I force myself out. Most times I come back glad that I did.

I am also a member of the Wilmslow Guild Photo Soc, and over the last few years there has been a noticeable increase in the number of female members. This is very welcome. A few of them have banded together and have regular outings and meetings outside the club nights. Last year, and planned again this year, they had a trip to Arles where there is a famous photo festival.

When I first started my treatment, I had a very nice invitation to join their regular meetings. On Monday this week a text came through from Pat inviting me to this weeks event, which I didn't read properly as I assumed it was in the afternoon which I couldn't attend.

However, when I actually looked I realised the invitation was for the morning, but I'd already committed myself to my regular ride.....hang on. Why not ride over to Hale for the meeting and then ride back afterwards? That would be a nice change, would allow me to go to the meeting, and would still mean a bit of exercise.

The ride there actually took less time than I had anticipated, about 30 mins. So after a cup of coffee, a (ahem) brownie, and a nice chat, I set off back deciding to take a slightly circuitous route. The day was cold, but bright, and there was a strong wind into my face all the way from Hale to Mobberly. It was a bugger. However, I guessed that the wind direction meant that if I could struggle to the end of the Alderly Edge by-pass I'd get a free ride home. And so it was. I felt I was flying.

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Wednesday

We'd had a visitor on Tuesday evening. AW is someone both Gel and I have known for many years. She is lovely company, but has one really terrible character flaw. She is a Liverpool fan. That aside, it was lovely to see her. During our conversations, and I can't recall how it cropped up, it turns out she know one of the team of architects responsible for the Whitworth Art Gallery extension that opened last year, but AW hadn't seen it, so we decided to go for a look before dropping her off at the station for the next section of her northern jaunt.

This is AW enjoying the 'cafe in the canopy' at the Whitworth.

Art installation? No, its the buggy park for the mums and toddlers group.

I don't know how it was for you yesterday, but it felt like it pretty much pissed down here all day. So after we'd dropped AW at Victoria Station (and that in itself was a trek of huge proportions given the building work going on in Manchester city centre just now) we trundled over to Costco to fill up on industrial quantities of kitchen roll, marmalade and eggs.

Saggar-Makers Bottom Knocker

I've been away, which I why there's been a few missing entries.

On Thursday morning I went for a ride and verily, it was reet cold. Not icy, but cold and, once again, my feet were complaining. I need to buy some thicker socks, but also some new trainers. These are knackered.

After my ride I went for a coffee with a couple of buddies, one of whom (NC) is off to Alabama in April to ride in the "Bo Bikes Bama" cycle event. There are two events on the day, a 20 mile and a 60 mile ride and raises money for the Governor's Emergency Relief Fund. The event is run by the former NFL and MLB player Bo Jackson.

NC has finally been able to book everything as he has now found somewhere to hire a bike from.

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Friday was the first in a number of trips out for Gel and I. This time it was a trip for a Friday night in The Mytton and Mermaid, a hotel we'd stayed in a couple of times before. It's a big rambling old building with no two rooms alike. The food is wonderful, and they do a Friday Night "Special". For £120 you get bed, lovely evening meal, and breakfast.

Before we got there, however, we meandered our way there through Staffordshire, which is where my maternal grandparents were from.

We stopped at a few places, but by far the most interesting was the Middleport Pottery.

This pottery was established in 1851 and is now the only place you can get underglazed transfer printed wares. The factory still produces wares, but also acts as a museum and there are parts you can wander round.

At the height of the pottery industry in Staffs, there were over 4000 bottle kilns (in which the pots were fired). These were made redundant as a consequence of the Clean Air Act and now there are barely 40 left. One of them is maintained - at some expense (£500k) - as part of the factory.

The wares (plates, cups, saucers, teapots, soup tureens etc) were fired in the ovens, and to protect them from the smoke generated by the coal used to create the heat, were put into containers called Saggars. These were eliptical pots, about a foot and a half deep, a foot and half wide and three feet long. These had to be made on site, and lasted for about 40 firings. A Saggar was made from two components. A flat bottom, and a sidewall of clay. The bottom was made by taking a lump of clay and beating it into shape - it had to fit within a size defined by a brass hoop. The device used to make the bottom of a Saggar is called a Saggar-Maker's Bottom Knocker.

The Saggars were then fired, and when they were used were stacked high into the kiln. Firing pottery is not without problems. The pots can crack, or fire unevenly. It can be a lottery. Workers at the factory were paid by the number of pieces that successfully came out the kiln unscathed.

There was a video showing the construction of these Saggars which looked back-breaking. The fellow in the video did the job for 47 years.....

Middleport Pottery. The structure on the left faces onto the street and is the home of the managers offices, and the designers offices. The manufacturing areas are on the right.

Middleport Pottery: A display of old equipment.

Middleport Pottery. A worker carries some mugs to be fired.

Middleport Pottery. The bottle kiln.

Middleport Pottery: This is the mould store. Middleport have never thrown away a single mould and so can reproduce any form from the last 150 years.

We then headed off for another highlight, the London Road Oatcake Shop. Staffordshire Oatcakes are a thing of beauty and are delicious. This small shop makes 125 doz oatcakes a day, all by hand.

London Road Oatcakes. The surface on which these oatcakes are being made is over 100 years old.

Apparently people as famous a Nick Hancock and Pixie Lott have visited. It is also on the Staff Heritage Trail so tourists wander in with some regularity. I had one (an oatcake, not a tourist) with bacon, cheese and mushrooms in it....nom nom nom.

We then headed to Shrewsbury, stopping off at Market Drayton for a look round.

The food at the Mytton & Mermaid was, as ever wonderful and after a good nights sleep....

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Saturday

Mytton and Mermaid: Full Shropshire Breakfast.

Across the road from the M&M is a Nation Trust property called Attingham Park. So after breakfast we went for a good walk through the grounds and up to the house.

Attingham Park

We arrived at the house just before a free tour of the house was due to start, so we got the opportunity to walk round and hear all about it. And it was an interesting story. Man makes a ton of money, buys a seat in Parliament, buys a peerage, builds a big house. He then dies, and his son inherits, who makes more money but dies young and leaves everything to his 17 year old son who then marries a bit of a tart, and it pisses all away. Family has to auction off the contents of the house to avoid bankruptcy.

This is what he spends the money on:

Attingham Park: On the 'ladies" half of the house.

Attingham Park: On the "chaps" side of the house.

Attingham Park: The picture gallery.

We then went on a wander "below stairs" where the Victorian Kitchen was in use.

The servants dining room.

We then drove into Shrewsbury and visited the Abbey

Where I had an interesting chat with a guide about Non-Conformism.

After scooting around for we visited the market hall, which showed how careful the burghers of Shrewsbury are. The market is indoor, yet they still feel the need for covers for the market stalls.

We then headed home.

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Sunday

Ride. A visit to Caitlin and Andy's new home. They took ownership on Friday, and had worked their butts off and stripped almost all the walls by Sunday.

BAFTAs.

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Monday

I picked up a van and drove Andy and I to Stoke to pick up a wardrobe. It was great fun. Andy is good company. The van was prepaid, we opted to buy CDW insurance for about £30, so was a little surprised to be presented with a bill for over £500 when we got back about 5 hours later.

Computer error. Phew.

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Apologies to all my loyal readers for the pitiful performance in the blog department over the last few days. Hopefully things will be back to normal. It's been a bit hectic.

Have you missed me?

Crikey. Missing a day means I have to (remember) cram in TWO days worth of exciting antics into one bumper blog.

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Tuesday

Bike ride. Cold but not wet. Hands ok in my warm "lobster" gloves, but feet like blocks of ice when I got back. However, I was able to slip into a lovely warm bath with my muscle relaxing crystals that I got as a lovely Xmas present.

For those of you anal enough to check out my times on FB you'll see a distinct improvement recently. That, unfortunately, is due to the fact that I'm using a new App - Strava - which has autopause enabled so it stops recording when I have my drink stops, rather than me actually improving.

In 1981 I joined TSB England and Wales Computer Services as a trainee operator. Two years later I moved into TSB Group Computer Services to work with Mike B who saw the promise in me, and helped appoint me as a Junior Programmer. I was actually employed to do technical support on the PDP 11/70 running RSTS/E and the VAX 11/780 systems running VMS with a bit of programming. I was utterly pants at programming, and slightly less pants at support, so quickly stuck to support full time.

PDP 11/70: This isn't the actual one, but looks pretty much like it.

Mike and I did almost everything on the systems and it was great fun. By doing everything you learnt an awful lot about how computers worked (switch them off and on again, basically).

The PDP was already a bit on the old side when I started supporting it, but if I remember correctly it ran our entire mortgage ledger, some product called Maxiyields (needed £10k+ to invest so there weren't many of them), and some accounting products (which we called Nominal Ledger and Purchase Ledger), all with less than 1Mb of memory, and two 30Mb disks. Try telling that to the kids of today....

Why am I telling you this? Well on Tuesday afternoon I caught up with Mike and spent a good hour or so drinking coffee and catching up. For a city fan, he isn't that bad.  :0)

In the evening I met up with two mates for a curry at the Great Khatmandhu, where I had a feast of paneer with Jeff and Matt.

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Wednesday was taken up with a trip down to Coventry to see Bridie (my mother-in-law) who was 90 last month and was in great form. We sat with her and her buddies in one of the lounges listening to a CD of 1940's songs - "Roll Out The Barrel", "White Cliffs of Dover", "Painting the Clouds with Sunshine", "Sing as You Go", "Der Fuhrer's Face" all of which were greeted with glee and variously sung or whistled along to. It was a nice happy place.

Just before we left, all those who wanted were then taken down to the "other" lounge where a priest conducted an Ash Wednesday service for the residents and staff.

On the way home, Gel and I did the crossword and got a little stuck on "Cain and Abel's father", which we really should have known. When we filled in the other answers we had A_A_ which Gel rightly identified as ADAM, but only after I confidently said AHAB and then (less seriously) ALAN. Not sure how many Alans there are in the bible. Not many I'd guess.

We had Shrove Wednesday pancakes when we got back, and then I went off to Camera Club for our competition night. I had an image held back, but not placed, in the general colour section, and then had another placed 3rd in the "Body Parts" theme comp.

And so to bed.

Superbowl Monday

This time, 19 years ago, I was half way across the Atlantic. What I had forgotten was that this was the holiday where I met Brian and Patti Lux.

Caroline and I had been on a "backstage tour" of the Walt Disney Wilderness Lodge and went to the bar for a drink afterwards. Sitting at the bar were Brian and Patti, who had also been on the tour, and we fell into conversation.

We've kept in touch and have met up - if my memory is reliable - three times. Twice in Boston, and once in Dublin.

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I think staying up late didn't agree with me much. I'm not sure it ever did actually. Anyway, the weather was pretty foul, so staying in wasn't such a hard decision.

For tea I roasted some chicken breasts, Hasselback potatoes and peas. I didn't roast the peas, that doesn't sound like a sensible option.

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I like to garnish my blogs with pictures. Usually pictures that I've taken, and I have a stock of lovely cat pictures to use if I haven't anything relevant.

Irrelevant cat picture #34