AS: Cool Britannia (sort of): the British thread 2019

1394042444586

Comments

  • Day off today so it’s yoga class as usual followed by coffee with the ladies. This afternoon I’m tucking into a book on models of mental health.
    We’re going to a church prayer group this evening but will arrive late as the village history group is putting on a history walk of the old part of the village which we really want to go on.
  • BoogieBoogie Shipmate
    Day off today so it’s yoga class as usual followed by coffee with the ladies. This afternoon I’m tucking into a book on models of mental health.
    We’re going to a church prayer group this evening but will arrive late as the village history group is putting on a history walk of the old part of the village which we really want to go on.

    Busy day @Heavenlyannie!

    I’m picking my friend and her dog up from the station, then we are walking round the reservoir followed by lunch here (spicy chicken wraps and salad).



  • Another day of Admission Appeals for High School ... it's quite wearing but I did volunteer for it!
  • Boogie wrote: »
    Busy day @Heavenlyannie!

    I’m picking my friend and her dog up from the station, then we are walking round the reservoir followed by lunch here (spicy chicken wraps and salad).
    Lol! Thursday is my mental health day so I try to only have relaxing activities. My mania is triggered by stress and overactivity so I plan ahead to counteract that.
    All my week is highly structured as planning achievable activities reduces stress and anxiety. So I work three days a week (Monday, Wednesday and Friday), have an unpaid study day on Tuesday and a mental health day on Thursday. It doesn’t always work out as I have some busy marking and teaching weeks where I work more hours but I try to balance that out on other weeks. I plan in my diary what I have to do each week and don’t like surprises. I’ve taught myself to firmly decline social invites and projects that don’t fit in with my planning. It means I live a somewhat restricted life but it also means I can live without medication.
    A walk round the reservoir sounds lovely, I think I’ll go for a walk to our local water park this afternoon.
    I hope the appeals go smoothly, Baptist Trainfan.
  • FredegundFredegund Shipmate
    I used to clerk appeals for a Grammar School in this neck of the woods. It used to be moderately entertaining reviewing the excuses made for why little Johnnie was so far below the pass rate....
  • FirenzeFirenze Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    edited May 2019
    Only half eleven and we’ve been to Bathgate already.

    The only approved repair shop for Škoda is in a town 20 miles west of Edinburgh, so it was up betimes and down the M8. The garage then gave us a lift to the station, train back into town and a cooked breakfast in Cockburn St - in a cafe where the bacon roll was half the price of one in the City Arts Centre cafe a few hundred yards away.

    The Old Town is of course fettling up for the height of the tourist season. Suppress desire to shout at guided tour outside the Tron - ‘She’s making it up! Edinburgh was run up out of plywood in 1957! It’s all hollow I tell you!’
  • daisydaisydaisydaisy Shipmate
    I have had the gift of a free morning due to my confusion over my work schedule - I turned up nice and early to invigilate, only to discover I should have been there yesterday afternoon - oops :cry:
    So I came home and raked up some cut grass left by council workers and put it over my potato patch.
    Now waiting for my broken car to be collected for repair and a courtesy car to be sorted out, so while I’m car-less I’ll get a lot of “stay at home” jobs done.
    Meanwhile, the first of this season’s radishes for lunch.
  • Bishops FingerBishops Finger Shipmate
    edited May 2019
    Oooh - radishes! Lovely! I knew there was something I'd forgotten to buy in Tesco earlier.....
    :blush:

    Never mind - I have CHEESE...
    Firenze wrote: »

    The Old Town is of course fettling up for the height of the tourist season. Suppress desire to shout at guided tour outside the Tron - ‘She’s making it up! Edinburgh was run up out of plywood in 1957! It’s all hollow I tell you!’

    :lol:

    Go on - do it anyway!
  • PriscillaPriscilla Shipmate
    Just like Dartmoor prison is made of cardboard, according to the Goons (Tales of Old Dartmoor).
  • Mr. S and I have had a somewhat strenuous afternoon barrowing logs.

    Because we are due on a walk at 6pm (part of the very excellent Coleford Walking Festival) we decided to have Lunch rather than Supper, so I cooked a prawn cafreal with pilau rice, mango raita and a salad. As we sat down in our breakfast room-cum-conservatory-cum entrance hall, I remarked that this was just about when the postie would arrive.

    Cue postie with large parcel.

    We'd just got over that little disruption when there was a sound ominously like thunder, that turned out to be Phil the log man delivering the first tipper-load of 12" oak. Sadly the closest he can get is the gravel outside the courtyard, so we have to load the barrow, wheel it 50 yards through the courtyard, gate, and over grass to the log store; then unload the barrow log by log so that I can stack them neatly.

    This would have been easier if Mr. S hadn't got a sore back already *sigh*

    So, I'm giving thanks and praise for the elderly wheelbarrow (~ 50 years old, I should think?) which makes this job even possible. <notworthy>, oh inventor of wheelbarrows! Also that we had the good sense to dip out of this morning's walk :lol:

    Mrs. S, thinking of a new career in dry-stone walling...
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    It's been a lazy day chez Piglet - we both slept very late. My excuse is all the faffing-about yesterday with those blessèd forms, and I'm sticking to it.

    Lunch was beans on TOAST, as we'll have something to eat after choir practice - we're lucky that the Choir Pub does food that would give a lot of restaurants a run for their money.
  • ThomasinaThomasina Shipmate
    My brother in law went to Moscow many many years ago and says that, on an official tour by bus, he managed to spot that the ancient looking street fascia were in fact plywood, hiding the poverty and grotty conditions behind. He was a civil engineer, on som sort of official business, so I suppose his eye was caught by something not quite right.

    In order to keep up All Saints tradition, I must report that I had a sea bass fillet quickly fried in butter with finely chopped kale ditto, well seasoned and boiled salad potatoes (well, that's what Tesco call them!)
  • HeavenlyannieHeavenlyannie Shipmate
    edited May 2019
    I went to the dentist first thing to have a root canal filling and ended up having a molar extracted. It was half an hour of cutting and pulling and I am now feeling sorry for myself indeed. I’ve just got home and taken some pain killers so hopefully they will kick in soon as the anaesthetic is beginning to wear off.
    I have a student telephone tutorial this evening so that should be fun!
    I will not be having anything for lunch.
  • Hope you feel better soon.

    We had an entertaining interlude yesterday. Part way through the morning the radio died, the laptop shut down and everything electric died following a main high voltage cable dying underground. The locality and almost certainly the tube were shut down. Checking the power was expected to be restored around 2pm, so with a shrug and a some replanning of lunch to avoid opening the freezer and cook only using the gas oven, we got on with it. Otherwise no big deal.

    After lunch, so over an hour later, we wandered down for my daughter's constitutional to find the downstairs neighbour, L1, and her dog, Henry, outside, joined by my next-door-neighbour, L2, looking as they were picnicking. Henry is a very small wire-haired terrier-like yappy dog - some Yorkshire terrier in there, but very small. Chatting, L2 had taken her recycling out and stopped to help L1 who couldn't catch the dog or persuade it to return home. The dog had escaped when he who I characterise as the idiot neighbour panicked at the failure of his TV, J, rang on L1's door for explanations and calming down. (J probably couldn't get anyone else to respond: electric doorbells.) When we arrived they had been down there for over an hour, so we joined in trying to catch Henry. Well, I took photos first - part of sitting down and trying to encourage him to me. Then chased him around for a bit, although that felt like a game. Eventually, 15 minutes or so later, I did catch him, without too much grief, bundled him into L1's arms and continued on our way. He actually came to me to be stroked and I scooped him up.
  • Bishops FingerBishops Finger Shipmate
    edited May 2019
    Well done, O Dog-Whisperer!

    A quiet, dull, grey, day here - no sign yet, though, of forecast r**n.

    Chicken, roast POTATOES, and gravy for a (very) late lunch. My coalman* has deserted me for a while, I think, so the Stove of the Episcopal Ark is being temporarily sustained by the remnants of last year's coal bags, plus a modicum of pine logs from a local garage.

    In a couple of days, I guess, it will be time to let the Stove go out for the 'summer'...

    (*he turns himself into a 'Children's Entertainer', and a layer of turves, for the summer!)
  • Jengie JonJengie Jon Shipmate
    I had the joy of telling my father that there are sand martins along the Mersey in the centre of Stockport. I am not sure I was at their actual nesting site but the number of them in a relatively small space seemed to indicate to me that there may be one nearby. There was no sign of them further down the river as I walked along but plenty of flies.
  • Mr RoS and I took ourselves off to visit Standen House and Garden (National Trust property in W Sussex) this morning.

    By the time we arrived the "mostly dry but cloudy" weather had changed to cold and drizzly, so we gave the garden a miss this time and did a tour of the house. It is a quite delightful "Arts and Crafts" house, designed by architect Phillip Webb, and decorated with artifacts by many well known names of the A&C movement.

    I usually give the houses a miss on these occasions, preferring to walk in the gardens or grounds but was delighted that the weather drove us indoors this time.
    We have been to this property on a couple of previous occasions, when the weather has made the gardens a more attractive proposition, and will no doubt visit again.

    The bowl of curried vegetable and coconut soup we had for lunch there was just the thing for a cold & drizzly day :)
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    Poor Heavenlyannie - tooth extractions (and their aftermath - the last extractions I had both resulted in dry sockets, which I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy) can be horrid!

    At D's organ recital today, he discovered that he'd left the programme a bit short, so as I'd pointed out earlier that today is Norway Day, he finished up with an improvisation on Ja, vi elsker dette landet, their national anthem, which went down very well.

    The weather's a bit more springy today - it got up to 13° - although it's suddenly got a bit dark and lowering, and I've had to put on the lights, even though it's not yet 7 o'clock.
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    I've been meaning to investigate an accessory shop called Fancy That for ages, and finally got round to it today.

    Now you all know how much I like a bargain: I got a pair of tall boots and a pair of little "shoe" boots for just over $100 (£60). By the operation of Murphy's Law, that should ensure a prolonged dry spell - but at least I'm now all set for next winter!

    It's been a nice day here with just a few showers, so I had my first amble across the bridge this year, and very nice it was too.
  • Right place, right time, Piglet. I have bought two pairs of boots this year and am so glad I did. Just short, but very comfortable and they will be great when the cold really kicks in here. The collar around the top is padded and there is a V-shaped nick centre back which makes walking easy. I bought one pair, bright red, and then bought another, almost identical in style, in blue. I have always liked colourful shoes.
  • finelinefineline Kerygmania Host, 8th Day Host
    I also got some walking boots in the sale a couple of weeks ago, reduced from £90 to £25, and turquoise coloured. Very happy, because I'd needed some new ones for a while, and the ones I'd bought initially were expensive and hurting my feet, so I returned them and got a refund, and then got these turquoise ones that are much cheaper and comfier. I like colourful shoes too. Partly because then I don't have to worry too much what else I wear - I can wear simple greys and blacks, and my shoes can be the colourful part.
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    I just like shoes ... :blush:

    Actually I love colourful shoes - at the moment (apart from black, which is useful if you're going to look sensible in a cassock) I have: red, turquoise, bright blue, teal (a sort of darker turquoise), burgundy and denim.

    The ones I bought today are black (the long ones) and navy (at D's suggestion - as he said, they looked nice with denim jeans). I suppose now I'll have to look for a navy handbag ... :mrgreen:
  • BoogieBoogie Shipmate
    I’m going to be an Omi! (Granny in German)

    Very excited!

    I love colourful boots - I’ll be looking in the sales for a pair soon. Last year’s were bright red. :smile:
  • I’m still taking regular painkillers but the pain is improving so no sign of dry socket yet. I’ve had an premolar extraction before (and all 4 wisdom teeth as a child) with no problems but this is a molar so I expect it to take longer to heal.
    We stayed up to watch Eurovision and I’m really tired today so might skip church along with my eldest who is revising for his physics exam tomorrow.
  • Boogie wrote: »
    I’m going to be an Omi! (Granny in German)

    Very excited!

    I love colourful boots - I’ll be looking in the sales for a pair soon. Last year’s were bright red. :smile:
    Great news, but there seems to be a bit of a non-sequitur there.

  • BoogieBoogie Shipmate
    Very true - maybe baby will grow up to love colourful boots too. :mrgreen:
  • Wesley JWesley J Shipmate
    Boogie wrote: »
    I’m going to be an Omi! (Granny in German) [...]
    Oh my! Congrats! :)
    [...] We stayed up to watch Eurovision and I’m really tired today [...]
    Yep, same here. For me, I think it wasn't so much the music as the visuals with their constant quasi-psychadelic light and colour explosions! Truly ghastly stuff.

    And in other news: I've had, among other foodstuff, some very tasty marinated Feta cheese cubes for breakfast - which reminded me of tiny little Dalmatian dog cubes! Endless fun. :D

    Wishing all and sundry a relaxing Sunday!
  • PuzzlerPuzzler Shipmate
    Relaxing at home instead of going to church, after singing in a brilliant concert last night and preparing to sing Evensong in an unusual venue this afternoon, augmenting a local church choir.
  • finelinefineline Kerygmania Host, 8th Day Host
    The shoes/boots I have are black jungle mocs, turquoise walking boots, red DM shoes, and multicoloured flowery DM boots. Oh, and some bright pink crocs that I wear to do gardening and mowing my lawn. I am thinking I need to get some proper smart black shoes as I'm going to a funeral next week, and I don't think jungle mocs would really do. And maybe some smart clothes too - I'm not sure if I have anything suitable. I nearly always wear comfy casual clothes, and my smarter clothes are colourful.
  • Brown boots might be acceptable at a funeral, under certain circumstances:
    https://youtube.com/watch?v=VAfb1HaZ0Mo
  • finelinefineline Kerygmania Host, 8th Day Host
    Heh, I've never heard that song before, Bishops Finger. I like it.
  • Quite moving, in a gentle way. Holloway's other monologues (not all written by him personally, BTW) are perhaps more amusing (if still rather wry).

  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    Boogie wrote: »
    I’m going to be an Omi! (Granny in German)

    Very excited!

    I love colourful boots - I’ll be looking in the sales for a pair soon. Last year’s were bright red. :smile:
    Great news, but there seems to be a bit of a non-sequitur there.
    Not really - my post just above Boogie's was about coloured shoes and boots.

    Congratulations, Boogie - an excuse for lots more trips to Germany? :smiley:

    Glad to hear you're not suffering from a dry socket, Heavenlyannie - whenever I had them, they happened pretty much straight away, so with any luck you'll escape! The first time I had one, I went back to the dentist a couple of days later, as I was in such pain I was convinced he'd left a bit of my tooth behind! He put some stuff on it that looked like dulse (dried seaweed) and the speed with which it worked was mind-boggling - as soon as I could taste it (ugh - it tasted absolutely disgusting) the pain disappeared.

    We did some rather good singing this morning - it was the first time D. had done Bainton's And I saw a new heaven with this choir, and they were a bit apprehensive about it, but it went off beautifully, and he was grinning like the Cheshire Cat at the end!
  • Good point: I decided to cut the grass this afternoon. Now (an hour later) it's raining.

    Bad point: I was unintentionally and publicly rude to a leading church member in the service - a joke that fell flat. I think she's forgiven me (my wife hasn't!)
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    Sometimes you can't rely on someone else's sense of humour coinciding with yours, eh?

  • O, ain't that the Truth!

    I recall our former priest (not noted for his subtle humour) making a clumsy, but well-intentioned, and actually quite funny quip, at the expense of our 95-year old Devoted Old Gentleman. This was over tea and CAKE after Benediction one Sunday afternoon, when you would think CAKE (if nothing else) would be a beneficent influence.

    The said DOG took it in good part, as it was meant, and with his usual GSOH - but later that same day I had an Irate Phone Call from another member of the congregation, threatening to report the priest to the Bishop for all sorts of real (or imagined) Crimes and Misdemeanours....

    ...as it happened, we never saw that Member again. I know TIACWS, but he was no great loss.

    ION, a rather cool-ish, grey-ish day here. The Episcopal Ark's coal/wood stove is being keep going for a few days more, but the PIE, roast potatoes, and gravy, seem to be taking an inordinately long time to cook.

    I blame Trump.
    :grimace:
  • PriscillaPriscilla Shipmate
    Still recovering from a late night - we went to see Bill Bailey in Cardiff last night as an anniversary present to ourselves. He was BRILLIANT - really funny without being crude or using bad language. He's also an extremely good musician - playing heavy metal on handbells, amongst other things!
    We've got another, more intimate, concert tomorrow night - a Welsh folk group in a lounge of the St. David's Hall.
    Then no more concerts till July (Spooky Men's Chorale) and September (Fishermens Friends).
    We're doing well for concerts this year!
  • I'm not even trying to get to concerts as I can't get out more often than not, but I'm really jealous about Bill Bailey, the Spooky Men's Chorale and the Fishermen's Friends.
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    ... The Episcopal Ark's coal/wood stove is being keep going for a few days more ...
    What do you do about cooking in the Episcopal Ark when the weather gets too hot for the stove?
  • First Communion today during our usual mass. Went off without a hitch and was a lovely service for the 19 children involved and their families some of whom travelled over from Poland. The rain held off and it was warm enough afterwards that some of girls were chasing each other with a garden hose in their white dresses.
  • Piglet wrote: »
    ... The Episcopal Ark's coal/wood stove is being keep going for a few days more ...
    What do you do about cooking in the Episcopal Ark when the weather gets too hot for the stove?

    The Cook Ing is provided for by a full-sized Calor gas cooker with oven, 4 x rings, and grill, and also a Nuke Machine (aka microwave). Calor gas heats the water for the Wash Ing, and if the extra Warm Ing is required, I have an electric heater, and a small portable gas heater, too.

  • la vie en rougela vie en rouge Circus Host, 8th Day Host
    I also did the unintentional offence thing yesterday, although I maintain it wasn’t entirely my fault.

    Returning from a walk with Captain Pyjamas*, I arrive in the building. A neighbour is next to the lift with his three children, and stuff all over the floor – their shoes, some outdoor clothes, toys, the works. I start putting my pushchair in the lift, assuming he doesn’t want it yet, because they really, really don’t like they’re going anywhere in a hurry. And then he looks offended, because apparently he’d called it for them and I’d gazumped it. But seriously, who removes children’s shoes before they even get inside the apartment? And it was going to take at least five minutes to pick up all the crap that was lying all over everywhere. I plead mitigating circumstances m’lud.

    *Who woke up Much Too Early from his nap, refused to go to sleep again, and consequently needed not to be left yomping about the place all afternoon. If you remember that movie Gremlins, the effect of Captain Pyjamas not having a proper nap is rather like feeding Mogwai after midnight. :wink:
  • My son has just left for his first A level exam - arrgghhh! I’m panicking on his behalf!
    My missing tooth site is much improved today, far less painful. And I’m having a very quiet work day as all my students are busy writing dissertations.
  • Wet KipperWet Kipper Shipmate
    edited May 2019
    Priscilla wrote: »
    Still recovering from a late night - we went to see Bill Bailey in Cardiff last night as an anniversary present to ourselves. He was BRILLIANT

    we have tickets to see him in Edinburgh at the end of the month. I'm really looking forward to it.

  • daisydaisydaisydaisy Shipmate
    Priscilla wrote: »
    Still recovering from a late night - we went to see Bill Bailey in Cardiff last night as an anniversary present to ourselves. He was BRILLIANT - really funny without being crude or using bad language. He's also an extremely good musician - playing heavy metal on handbells, amongst other things!
    We've got another, more intimate, concert tomorrow night - a Welsh folk group in a lounge of the St. David's Hall.
    Then no more concerts till July (Spooky Men's Chorale) and September (Fishermens Friends).
    We're doing well for concerts this year!
    I agree about Bill Bailey - a talented man.
    I saw Spooky Men’s Chorale a couple of years ago - I laughed until I cried! Looking forward to seeing them at Sidmouth. I’m hoping to catch Fishermen’s Friends again too some time. Anyone seen the film?
  • Yes, we have. We enjoyed it, though it's a bit cliched. We too were at the folk concert last night (so had a mini-Shipmeet), and the group "Alaw" were great!
  • BoogieBoogie Shipmate
    Good luck to your son @Heavenlyannie - the first is the worst!
  • Boogie wrote: »
    Good luck to your son @Heavenlyannie - the first is the worst!
    Luckily his first exam was in one of his better subjects (physics) and he came home very positive about it. He’s now got a couple of days before the second physics paper.
    Lazy day for me, I’m off to the shops and then catching up with some reading, with a student tutorial this evening.
  • daisydaisy wrote: »
    I’m hoping to catch Fishermen’s Friends again too some time. Anyone seen the film?

    I have a ticket for tomorrow's showing at the monthly film night in the community hall .
    I just hope I remember to go, the last time I bought a ticket for a film I really wanted to see I completely forgot about it until the next day :blush:

  • sionisaissionisais Shipmate
    Not a Shipmeet, but we went to a school reunion, meeting people, mostly a few years older ourselves, that I knew through school rugby and drama. It was great to meet again after 45 years: we have lost a few over the years and others are scattered to the four winds, but the school was in Cyprus, mostly for British Army and RAF Brats, so we have a lot in common and nobody is afraid to travel. A good day.

    Congrats to Boogie! I'm contemplating the Hawkwind 50th anniversary tour which has a date in Cardiff: it might just finish off what remains of my hearing.
This discussion has been closed.