Today is Tuesday 1st December 2009 and, as is to be expected at this time of year, winter has arrived with a great show of frost and fog. Well, that’s how it is at the marina and, I daresay, on the canal.
Tomorrow I’m off to see my old friend John barefoot in Weston-super-Mare and will be staying overnight with his youngest son Colin and his wife Sue.
John, as I have no doubt told you, now lives in a Nursing Home because, suffering from Parkinson’s Disease as he does, he is unable to care for himself now. According to Colin, John has his good and bad days but, he assures me, he’s looking forward to my visit. I just wish it wasn’t so far away, but at least it’s mostly motorway and shouldn’t take me more than about 3 hours or so.
On Thursday, as the Emperor has its fortnightly jamming session, I’ll be staying with Alan and coming home Friday morning, after I’ve done a bit of Christmas shopping.
Tuesday 8th December 2009. Is it really a week since last I wrote to this blog? So much has happened since then that I’ve been rushed off my feet.
Last Wednesday was the start of 470 miles of driving over a three day period. My first stop was at Weston Super Mare in Somerset, as I have already mentioned. Colin and Sue have an upside-down house overlooking the valley and the Mendip Hills beyond, which is a quite spectacular view.
John however is confined to a nursing home in town and doesn’t seem too happy about it. For the most part he’s surrounded by people who seem to need far more care than he does, and who don’t have much to say for themselves. For a man who still has all his marbles, but still needs full time care, this situation must be boring him to tears.
After a most enjoyable stay with Colin and Sue, along with a pub meal, which was quite unexpected, it was off to Harlow the following morning. Although only about another 20 miles further than Weston is from the marina, the trip took me at least an extra hour than that trip. The M4 was mostly to blame for this delay due to heavy traffic and the M25 was no better. My drive was followed by a bit of shopping, which I really didn’t want to be messing with on Friday morning.
In the evening Alan and I enjoyed the jam session at the Purple Emperor. I have to say, my ears are not used to the deafening noise these days, but I simply can’t resist watching semi-professional musicians giving it their best. On the wall opposite the stage is a decibel monitor which, for the most part, was sitting in the red zone. I love it!
My first introduction to really loud music was many years ago, when my sister Carole took me to the Roundhouse at Chalk Farm. I don’t know if it is still standing, and I certainly don’t remember who we saw, but my ears were ringing by the time we left. For those of you who have never been there, The Roundhouse was built as a Shakespearian Theatre and, as the name implies, is round with the stage in the middle; well, it was then.
When we were still living in Harlow, and when Joy owned the Emperor, Alan and I spent most Thursday evenings there when they held live music sessions. Those sessions were never quiet, Folk or Country, always heavy Rock. Great times were had by all.
While I’m still in the mood for reminiscing, The Greyhound Pub in Harlow or, as we liked to call it, The Inn on the Park, because that’s where it lived, used to put on a three piece Jazz band at Sunday lunchtime. That’s where we headed after an early morning swim. Great days, sadly life ain’t like that any more, and more’s the pity.
Friday morning and it was off to the Shiralee which, despite using the A414 as far as the M1, I managed to complete in less than two hours. This journey, via the M11, M25 and then M1 would normally take a little over the two hours, so I was pretty lucky that day and I was home by 11 am.
Today we’re off to Melton Mowbray to buy some decent meat pies and such. The sausages are second to none and, it being market day, we’ll be bringing home some really strong Cheddar cheese.
After a few upsets with my book compiler, which actually refused to work for me yesterday, leaving me with no alternative than to re-install it, I’ve now started it from scratch. This is because, unbeknown to me when I purchased it, the programme is incapable of handling my 340 pages of recipes. I have therefore had to break it down into four volumes.
I have also discovered that, rather than have to convert my Word documents to web pages, they really need to be copied into Notepad and then transferred to the book compiler. This is a bit of a pain because, rather than Times New Roman as a font, which is the default in Notepad, I prefer Comic Sans. But, I’ve just thought, Notepad can be reset to an alternative font as a default, so I really must get that sorted. I’m afraid my little grey cells take a while to see the obvious these days. Youth really is wasted on the young.
Ah, but, it’s not Notepad that’s at fault, it’s the compiler that has TNR as its default. I must look into that and see if the template default can be altered.
Wednesday 9th December and I arose from my pit at 5.45 am, but only to turn the heating on. Our poor wee pooch was, at the same time, throwing up a messy white goo and, by the time I had cleared it up, I was wide awake. Besides which it was pretty obvious she needed to go out and I was pretty sure Wifey wasn’t about to undertake that task. We really must get our Rusty to the vet as soon as possible, if only to have her checked over and given a clean bill of health. We are pretty sure she’s getting a bit hard of hearing; some mornings she doesn’t even hear Sheila rattle her food dish.
Yesterday, at Melton Mowbray we managed to find a few more books that we haven’t read, which came courtesy of the Age Concern charity shop. This shop has recently been extended to include a café and, soon after sitting down, I was joined by a very nice man, who had popped into town to have his car serviced. We touched on several subjects, including boating of course, which he has some experience of as he lives close to a river. It’s not often that a complete stranger sits beside you in a café and strikes up a conversation.
Friday 11th December 2009 and winter has arrived again; outside it is foggy and frosty, which is just as the forecasters predicted. There are times when I wish they would get it wrong, with my knees I’m going nowhere on icy wooden pontoons. What I think I need, is a pair of those spiky overshoes that they use in the good old U S of A and Canada. I rather suspect that the lane leading from here to the main road will be a wee bit slippery this morning too, so the daily paper is a no-no until later.
Now, I’m sure I’ve mentioned before about my love of the guitar, goodness knows I’ve owned one for long enough, but have never been very successful at learning to play it. Probably as a result of frustration more than anything else, I’ve left it alone for a while, but I have now picked it up again and am practising for at least an hour a day, but I’m doing so in three short sessions.
At present I am using a book by Frederick Noad, which goes back many years, and is by a man who is considered to be one of the better teachers of Classical Guitar. However, the style of guitar that I also have a fondness for is the Blues, which really requires a steel strung instrument, but they come with a much narrower neck. Unfortunately the first two fingers of my left hand are somewhat bent, and I am probably the only person in the universe who can give a two fingered salute without actually spreading them. You do see my problem?
Anyway, last time I was in Harlow I called into Gig Gear, which is a shop down near Tesco and The Range, and I asked why there are no country and blues guitars with wide necks like those on a classical, nylon strung guitar. The answer came back, quick as a flash and without any hesitation that it is probably because there is only one person in the whole wide world who wants one, and that’s me.
So, it looks like I’m stuck with the classical version, at least until I am a little more adept at playing the thing and can play in higher positions where the neck is wider. Incidentally, it’s my first digit that’s bent and that’s due to a touch of arthritis. It can also become quite painful if I play for too long. Learning to play left handed is not an option because that would simply increase the pain, because I would then be using that finger for plucking the strings. Perhaps I should try learning to play a wind instrument instead but, then again perhaps not as that would probably drive my neighbours potty. Can you imagine me sitting here blasting away on a trumpet? No, me neither!
Tuesday 15th December and Christmas is only 10 days away and the weather looks all set to be much colder. I suspect though, that it will only be a covering of frost that will give us a white one.
Yesterday was our usual shopping day and off we went to Morrisons, which is further away from us than either Tesco or Sainsbury, but certainly has a far better range of goods. Their in-house bread, pies and cakes are a vast improvement on the other two and that’s for sure. They do a particularly delightful meat pie that’s in the shape of a triangle with rounded corners, filled with good sized chunks of meat.
For the past couple of visits we have had to take a detour around the housing estates to get to it due to road-works, but it’s always worth the trouble. This week the road was clear, we think they’d been strengthening a bridge for the past few weeks.
Today we have to go into Quorn or Barrow for drawing pins so that we can put up the pretty lights that we bought yesterday. What a deal that was, 100 bulbs on wire and with a mains plug, for just £4, so we bought two sets. We’ve even got a Christmas tree which stands about a foot high, is covered in snow and has flashing lights. Of course, other boaters have gone a bit potty with their decorations, Dave and Jackie have a Santa and reindeer along with a chimney stack and a snowman, so we’re small beer compared to them.
As it happens we didn’t need the drawing pins because, living on a boat, which is covered with timber boarding inside, all we had to do was to wedge the wiring between joints. With just two hooks screwed into the ceiling we were able to loop the lights across the middle, job done.
Yesterday we received a text from our old pal Pixie, who’s still at Bulbourne, to the effect that our boat is on the front cover of Canal Boat Magazine. Hopefully you will all have received an email with attached photo, if not then please let us know and we’ll re-send it.
Wednesday 16th December and, despite dire predictions from the Met Office, it is only wet out there, rather than a thick frost. However, since it’s only 7 am, that situation has lots of time to change.
Wifey is off for a boob job today. No, not an implant or reduction, just a scan, which has been set up by the NHS in Morrisons car park. I tell you this just to remind you ladies that a regular breast screening should be carried out every three years. So, if you haven’t done so, now’s the time to make that appointment.
Now, with just nine days to go to the festivities, if I post this blog some time today, I’ll just have time for another one before then. Sadly I am unable to do so tight now, because my lady Wife is about to surface and so later will have to do, if I think of it!
Cheers for now.
Well, I’ve said it many times before, this b….. modem is pretty darn useless, and today is one of those days, I simply cannot connect to the Internet and, until I can; hopefully later today or tomorrow, I can’t post, so there!!
It is now Thursday 17th December and, at last, I am able to get online. So, without further ado, and hoping it doesn’t drop out before I go there, here goes.
Hopefully I’ll get another blog in before Christmas but, just in case I don’t, here’s wishing you all a very happy one. Especially Big Ian, who is not having such a great time of it right now. We’ll all be thinking of you.
Love and Stuff
Dave, Sheila and Pooch
xxx
PS Sorry folks, still no photos 'cos this modem is running right slow - again!
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