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All the pictures are from yesterday's WoW and you can see what a pretty village Alport is. Unspoilt is the word which spring to mind. It is unfortunate that people have cars but they need them there more than we do in the Eastwood/Brinsley area.
Picture 1 is mine (some more chocolate box for Bungus) but I'm relieved he doesn't necessarily use the phrase as a term of disapproval. Picture 2 is by Helen and shows me trying to capture the pretty cottage (shown yesterday) in some decent light. My leather coat is genuinely distressed and at 40+ years old is entitled to be distressed. Y has never liked it and calls it my gestapo coat. But yesterday with such a cold wind it was just what was needed. The coat repels wind and water with equal panache and is extremely comfortable to wear.
Picture 3 is again by Helen and shows Reg and Denis (incy wincy) discussing the finer points of Mill-races, weirs, and charming country bridges.I have achieved a lot today. Carphone Warehouse were given an ultimatum. Either fix my phone so I can receive calls and all other functions, or give me my money back.
They chose the former. The girl who had originally served me had messed things up. I daren't go into detail because it becomes confusing. Basically by putting my old Sim card into my new phone meant that I retained my old number.
So I had to spend time this morning circulating to everyone who I had informed that my number had changed, that it hadn't. (see what I mean about confusing) Not straightforward because I got several 'mailer daemons' but I hope things are now sorted. I'm pleased because I really like the phone. It has a pleasantly solid and well-made feel.
Another, more pleasant task has been to install my recently arrived Photoshop Elements 7 on the Office PC. A genuinely user-friendly piece of software more suited to my needs and abilities (sounds like the Communist Manifesto dunnit?) than the full grown-up version ! And it installed in a straightforward and intuitive manner which should save me from becoming a 'Reg-botherer' again.
I decided on an early blog because it's doubtful that I shall feel up to it when return from Eastwood. A 'volunteers evening' is planned and I have offered to 'do' something about Picasa, Picasa Web Albums, and Blogs, if anyone is interested. My guess is they will all want to concentrate on Photoshop anyway - their choice isn't it ?
Denis (incy wincy) has offered to bring prints and talk about them till tea-break. I've asked him to be sure to bring the infra-red 'dunes and life-belt stand' picture because I am keen to see the actual mounted print rather than a digital image on a computer screen. Reg sounded a little worried that not enough people would bring things - but I feel sure that it will be like an adaptation of the 'Peter Principle' i.e. that 'work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion'.
The other reason for an early blog is because neither of us has started packing yet. I also need to download some 'podcasts' etc., onto my MP3 player and DAB radio so I have to hand something to listen to. From National Service days I remember that Deutsche Welle was a bit heavy going (but now, having found a link, the script is in English). I don't expect the radio will be though. Nordwest Deutsche Rundfunk was easier on the ear but, having found a link, I note that it closed down in 1955 !
Comments
bungus ...... Interesting about Jessica's homework. Is the 'cupboard' referred to, the 'naughty cupboard' ?
The grandchildren never cease to amaze. Millicent, speaking on the phone with great confidence, told me a few minutes ago that Grandma isn't very good at the card game 'pairs'. (The cards are dealt face down, randomly, on the floor) You can turn one over but then if it doesn't match, you have to replace it face-down and try to remember where it is. If you get 2 matching, you pick them up and score 1 point. At 3yrs, Millicent beats Y every time, and genuinely, because Y doesn't 'let her win' - there's no need to.
Re 'energy saving'. And there's me thinking that plug-ins are software extensions to Firefox and similar open-source programmes.
Re chip-cobs. There were, under the mountain of first-class chips, rather nice wholemeal seeded cobs.
Re Ann's picture. I may be 'unkind to seal pips' - I don't know because I've never eaten any. Don't they get stuck behind your teeth ?
Re 'taste-less fish'. If all there was to eat was some obscure, easily farmed fish, that didn't have any flavour, I would join Helen and Sandra and become vegetarian. I wouldn't go as far as 'no animal products' because I would be happy to get my protein intake via the cheese-board.
Like you I can sleep almost anywhere - when I can sleep at all, that is. As soon as we are back from the Rhine, I aim to tackle the cake-recipes.
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A conversation yesterday about English weather brought to mind a J. B. Priestley quote but I'm damned if I can find it. It was to do with putting his hand on the wood of his desk and knowing the tree had experienced March winds, snowy Februaries and the July sun....... Ah well ! This one will have to do ..............
“If there is one thing left that I would like to do, it's to write something really beautiful. And I could do it, you know. I could still do it.”
Addicted to Priestley's essays before moving onto the novels, I had a good grounding. And I consider 'An Inspector Calls' perhaps the most powerful play of the 2oth Century. He was responsible I think for my early lurch to the left, from which I have never straightened. There is a connection to the currently popular "The Suspicions of Mr Whicher" by Kate Summerscale.
Might catch you later - Might not !
I like chocolate box pictures, as you know. I have been tryng to grow that creeper (virginia?) over a wall here, so far I have one solitary length, but it is a lovely colour (on a cream wall).
ReplyDeleteAnd I am a JB Priestley fan too, 'The Good Companions' is one of my all-time favourite books. I agree with you about 'An Inspector Calls' too.
I do intend trying that cake, but owing to a lot of dental work I cannot eat anything sticky or crunchy until all the permanent bits go on next week, so will wait until then. It isn't too difficult, the one thing I really miss is toast, not only for breakfast but we often seem to have things on toast for the meal that isn't our main one. Bread and butter just isn't the same....
That card game and three year olds, Roxy can beat me and Rudi (six) without appearing to concentrate at all......Rudi gets all upset and throws the cards on the floor, but I'm past that stage (just) fortunately.
I have a leather jacket but I don't find it nearly as warm as a 'proper' cloth (wool and alpaca)coat. Perhaps some leathers are warmer than others....mine is lined.
Don't pack too much - we find that clothes don't seem to get at all grubby while on holiday, like they do at home. And it is not really dressy in the evening (unless you have been told differently) tell Y to take lots of necklaces and earrings and scarves, you only see the top half of people at dinner.....
DIARY
ReplyDeleteThe Ultimate Driptrip.
Ready for 10.00, picked up at 11.30(I had got it wrong, my appointment 13.00 not 12.00). After a very windy, squally wet journey, arrived City, via Mansfield pick-up, at 12.45.
In for treatment at 13.45, and out 14.30.
After fond farewells a short wait, and home for 15.15.
Jessica made a cheapskate at school today (my spelling).
COMMENT
On Pictures:
1) Lovely Virginia Creeper. Straight to Bournville, that one – or perhaps some superior Swiss company.
2) No offence, but I am surprised you can still get into the jacket. I certainly had to part with the one Sandra bought for me in the 80s.
And please don’t get me into an argument with Yvonne but I thought the Gestapo had below knee length leather coats?
3) Denis doesn’t look in the slightest ‘IncyWincy’, does he?
I would rather like to be behind the scenes at Carphone Warehouse. ‘Oh how we laughed!’ I’ll bet the girl who served you wet herself.
I’ll text you just to make sure it is your original number that you now have reinstalled!
I await the saga of Photoshop Elements 7, ‘installed in a straightforward and intuitive manner…’
As the song said, ‘Here it Comes Again…’
I hope your exposition on Picasa worked.
I find a lot of people are a bit sniffy about it, preferring to spend a lot of time ‘boggering about’ with something like Photoshop (which I do not deny has a place).
I always thought 'work expands to fill the time available’ was Parkinson’s Rule?
I still do not understand this (to me strange) need to carry music about.
But then, although I enthusiastically went (and will still go) to listen to bands, and I watch Jools on telly, I dislike background music, never owned a record player and seldom think of listening to a tape or disc.
I positively do not want an I Pod or whatever.
Jessica's political homework 'cupboard' is - obviously I thought (as did Stephanie but it took Sandra a bit longer) - The Cabinet.
‘Plug-in’ might well be the wrong term. What it suggests to me is a plug as you plug in.
What this one is is one of those plugs wot you plug in that used to be considered dangerous into which you then plug 3 other plugs. But this one has the uncanny ability to shut down everything completely, thus saving energy.
I like the ‘seal pips' allusion.
As for seal PUPS, I do not brave the wind and weather of Donna Nook but I have enjoyed watching them at the Skeggy rescue place and from a boat off Blakeney.
'Taste-less' is perhaps going a bit far (I would describe veal and most turkey as tasteless, but they have a place, as does Pangassius).
I must point out that to very many people (Sandra included) ‘vegetarian’ means ‘non-animal meat eating’, ie, fish is allowed, as is cheese (although for S, having become lactose intolerant, the latter, has to be from sheep or goat milk).
I have never read JB Priestley and never felt the urge to. The first time I saw 'An Inspector Calls' I felt cheated at the ending and I do not think it compares with the best of Tennessee Williams or Arthur Miller.
I would say that the most powerful British play of the 2oth Century, AT THE TIME IT APPEARED was ‘Look Back in Anger’ and the most powerful and enduring, IN English, probably ‘Death of a Salesman’.
Jill:
I had forgottenit it was you who stood up for the chocolate box. And I think the concensus was that it didn’t necessarily mean ‘bad’ (in the traditional sense of ‘bad’, ie, not ‘good’) any more than ‘corrugated’ or ‘concrete’ or ‘red brick’ do.
As the poetess said, ‘I Wish I‘d Looked After Me Teef’.
I did my best but ultimately it wasn’t good enough.
Nevertheless, as Vera Lynn so memorably sang, ‘We’ll Eat Again’.
I agree that leather lacks the warmth of wool. And it is also heavy.
But I have always had a fondness for sheepskin. In the 60s I eventually spent £70 on one in Huddersfield after looking at it some seven or eight times in the shop window over a period of several months. The fleece was a mix of brown, black and off-white and I loved it.
My worst buy was a wax jacket – so heavy that it was like FSMO.
Should I know what FSMO is? or is it another coded Midlands expression?
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