Monthly Archives: March 2022

Day 61

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Day 61 came. Day 61 went. I slept through the end of it and am writing this a little late. That’s the trouble with Julia being on holiday, there is no bustle and packing of bags in preparation for tomorrow. It was one of then better things about lockdown and something to look forward to when we retire. That and getting up when I feel like it instead of when the clock demands it.

Counting the days is becoming more difficult now that I have three months to consider. I will, no doubt, get used to it.

In poetry terms, Obsessed with Pipework is out, and I am in it. I can’t point you to a link because it is not online and I can’t quote myself because I should give them some time before I do that. Not sure how long as, unlike some magazines, they don’t specify. I will do it in a couple of months if I remember. I like OWP because it doesn’t take itself too seriously. Nor does it let the process of not taking itself seriously become too serious, which is a fault of some magazines that try not to take themselves too seriously, if that makes sense.

Quality poems, captivating covers, laid back attitude and the editorial good taste to accept my work. That is an excellent magazine.

Today’s vegetable soup, which saw the end of several manky carrots, a fossilised parsnip and half a bag of ready cubed swede  from the supermarket, turned out to be quite good. It also had onions and chilli. It was golden beige in colour and quite tasty with little red spots from the chillies. I foolishly put my taste-buds out of commission during the cooking because the chilli didn’t seem to be flavouring the soup. I added more, then more again. Still no result. So I tasted a slice (I was using fresh ones from the shop). Turns out that the slice I tasted was a great deal hotter than the previous slices I had added to the soup.

Day 60

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Day 60. Also known, in more traditional terms, as 1st March. The first day of meteorological spring, Pancake Day and St David’s Day. It’s also National Barista Day and National Pig Day. If we were still on the farm I’d be all over National Pig Day, starting with a eulogy to the magnificent animal and following up with a bacon sandwich. Baristas, I’m not so bothered about. If you need a national day for people who make drinks with hot water why not have a National Tea Lady Day, or National Quercus Day – I can handle a kettle well enough to produce hot drinks. It’s hardly an unusual skill. As I didn’t even know what a barista was until a couple of years ago, I really don’t see why they need a day to themselves. It seems, after further digging, that it is a day started by a manufacturer of almond milk, another modern fad we can do without. If you can’t deal with milk, take it black.

It is also National Cornish Pasty Week and this is where the concept come undone quite badly. Cornish pasties are, it seems made with “shortbread crust or puff pastry”. In addition to this they are obviously written about by people who know bugger all about pasties. However, isn’t that the story of the internet and the content writers and influencers who inhabit it? It’s “shortcrust” pastry. Idiots. However, I’m ranting about the proliferation of national days and weeks, not about the half-witted population of the internet underbelly.

You can read the list for yourself here. There are some days that are more important than others but they are mainly trivial and set up recently by people wanting to push a cause or make money. In general, unless they include sugar or bacon, I don’t have much time for national anything days.

However, I can’t allow the day to pass without letting all my wonderful, intelligent and discerning readers know how important they are in my life. Even Charliecountryboy. Yes, it’s World Compliments Day.