Monthly Archives: June 2022

Day 160

11 Replies

I went to use the toilet whilst I was in Bakewell this afternoon (we were taking the visitors on a quick tour of Derbyshire). I’m told, having spent much of the afternoon discussing linguistic differences between English and Canadian English, that this expression is considered indelicate in North America. It seems that “use the bathroom” is the polite alternative, as “use the toilet”, which falls into the category of too much information. However, there are two things to consider here. One is that the room with the toilet in is called “the toilet” by most people I know. We have a toilet in our toilet. We have a bathroom with a bath and wash basin in it. Believe me when I say you wouldn’t want me to get confused and “use the bathroom” for what I have in mind.

Anyway, after having fish and chips by the bridge I nipped round the corner and offered my card to the reader on the public toilet entry system. It took some effort as I was using two sticks, which needed steadying as I fished my wallet from my pocket.

“Cash Only” flashed up on the screen.

I had to move at that point, to let someone out. I was tempted to rush the doors as they opened for him, but the presence of a cleaner prevented me. The presence of the cleaner also prevented me using a trick one of the Bakewell market traders showed me several years ago.

Juggling card, wallet and two sticks I struck up a conversation with the cleaner.

“Excuse me,” I said, “is there a toilet around here that doesn’t require payment?”

He looked at me suspiciously.

“The card reader isn’t working.” I said.

He checked.

“Have you any cash?”

“I have a £1 coin but I don’t really want to use that for a 20p payment.”

I also wanted to add that if I had 20p I would have used it and not have juggled with card, wallet and two sticks. But I remained polite and charming.

So he let me in free of charge. They are very nice toilets, and well worth 20p. They are probably worth £1 if you need them, but I don’t feel like paying £1 when they only want 20p and can’t keep their system in working order.

Photographer at Bakewell

 

 

 

Day 159

6 Replies

We went out for tea, which we had at a carvery. Or dinner, depending on what you call your evening meal. We had reservations for 6.30, which I always think of as tea time. Dinner should, I feel, be a little later. I’m also inclined by class and geography, to call it tea.

They had food on the floor under the table, no desserts to eat in and no horseradish sauce. The absence of dessert was probably due to external problems. The food under the table was sloppy. But the absence of horseradish sauce, in an establishment that centres round the eating of meat, was unforgivable. They did have mustard (from a plastic bottle) but I had to ask for that.

The meat choice was beef, gammon or turkey and they had cranberry sauce and stuffing for those but no horseradish or mustard on display. They even had mint sauce (but no lamb) and apple sauce (but no pork). But no horseradish. Unbelievable.

As for the Yorkshire puddings – they were impervious to knife wounds. They could sell the recipe to the Ministry of Defence as a cheap alternative to Kevlar. You could protect soldiers and policemen from explosions and knife attacks quite cheaply, though they would, of course, be left vulnerable to an attack by a violent criminal armed with a jug of gravy.

Number Two Son was in good form on his first trip back in just over three years. He currently works in a bank call centre, sorting out customer enquiries, and describes customers in much the same way that I do. He doesn’t get enquiries about “rare” coins, and says it’s important to be helpful as he’s dealing with people who are generally having a bad day.

You can afford to be nice to customers when you have the ultimate answer – the ability to put them back in a queue that can take up to 45 minutes to get back to them. He doesn’t use it often, but he was happy to use it in one recent case. Someone told him they wouldn’t deal with him, they wanted someone who spoke proper English. He pointed out that, having been born and brought up in England, he considered his command of the language to be sufficient.  Then he put the man to the back of the queue.

His girlfriend is very much like Julia – patient and with low expectations. It has worked for us for many years, and looks like a winning combination once more. It is nice to see him, albeit for just a few days, and amazing to find that the tiny baby I remember as a small, wrinkled Winston Churchill lookalike is now a grown man with a job and a girlfriend. Life is such a strange thing.

The picture is the closest photo I have to a meal at a carvery.

Day 158

8 Replies

Only a few parcels today, but the calls and a steady stream of customers kept us busy. The owner rang this morning – he got his holiday plans confused and tells me he won’t be returning until Thursday. This is a nuisance because it means I am needed in the shop on Thursday, the day I had planned for a trip out with Number Two Son.  He has to cram a lot in to his UK trip – sightseeing, friends and parents – and things are tight regarding time. We will open the shop as usual on Thursday and close early so that we can get the bulk of a day’s work done and still have time for a trip around the Peak District.

Fortunately the weather forecast for Thursday is warm, sunny and generally dry. It is quite wet at the moment and has been colder than usual. In fact we both thought about putting the fire on last night, as it was a touch autumnal.

Rang for an appointment for a blood test today – I have made a mess of the organisation, due to the Bank Holiday, but got a time for my INR (Warfarin test). It seems I can’t book the other test at the same time. I have done before, and when I asked if the system had changed, was ignored by the receptionist, who seemed to be doing something else at the same time. She says I will have to ask the nurse if she can fit it in as a favour. It only involves an extra tube of blood once the have the needle in , and presumably an extra form to fill in, but they have refused before when I have asked.

At other times they have taken samples I didn’t realise were due, so they can fit them in when they want to. It’s another sign that the NHS is returning to normal after the trials of Covid. I can’t see that it’s efficient for them to drag people down for two separate appointments, and it definitely isn’t efficient, or convenient for me to go down twice when once would do.

However, I won’t go on.

Reading that back, I have become aware that the blog as a diary of my trials and tribulations, revolves round a small number of grievances with the world. I might try to convert to being one of those thought-provoking bloggers that always has a subject to discuss, preferably one that doesn’t involve doctors.

 

 

Day 157

6 Replies

Two acceptances today. One magazine but two editors dealing with two different forms – one haiku, one tanka. I did a count, just out of interest, last night, and, with these extra two, seem to be hovering just under the hundred for published poems. They haven’t all been good, and I’m not really sure what the number tells me.However, it’s a nice round number and despite it meaning nothing, it’ still nice to know I’m getting there.

I suppose it tells me that I can produce words in quantity and that I can be industrious when needed. It also tells me that some editors seem to take my work consistently, whilst others reject it with enthusiasm. It also tells me that I should keep better records, as I’m not 100% sure what the number really is.

When I started, 15 years ago, I’m sure I had 12 published, but I can only recall 9 of them. I do have a list somewhere, but can’t remember where I put it. Same for my restart, I have a list of the early ones from a few years ago, which I must find. In the meantime, I can remember 10, but have a feeling there were a couple more. As time went on I kept better records on the computer (which I must back up) so I can be more certain about the last few years.

I originally thought it was about 98, but on recounting think it’s probably 96. It will do.

At the moment I’m finding a home for haiku, tanka and tanka prose, but am having trouble with haibun. This is annoying, as I consider it my main format. I will sleep on that thought.

Today was my first day back after bank Holiday – 27 parcels,

Four buyers – three of whom bought something.

Five sellers. We made an offer on one lot, which we didn’t get. Two lots were things we didn’t want because we don’t deal in Pokemon cards or comics. The other two were accumulations of recent coins taken from pocket change and we already have plenty of them. In fact we have so many, we actually gibe so-called “rare coins” out as change. Then there were the normal dozen phone calls, which stop me packing parcels and almost inevitably end in disappointment.

Getting home, I photographed some bees on the front garden flowers, watched TV, ate a pasta bake Julia had cooked, wrote and answered emails. Judging by the legs, it had been a successful day for at least one of the bees.

Buff-tailed Bumblebee on Devil’s Beard or Jupiter’s Beard – more interesting names than Red Valerian.

Buff-tailed Bumblebee

Day 156

12 Replies

I’ve just put the pizzas in the oven. Nothing special, just two veggie pizzas on ready-made bases. We will have leftover supermarket coleslaw (Julia insists on buying it rather than making it) and a basic green salad with it. Very basic. The urge to cook has deserted me today.

This might have something to do with me being force to watch the Jubilee Parade today. Well, not exactly forced, but  after preparing lunch and flopping in front of the TV I was unable to resist.

We had soldiers and military bands, followed by members of the Commonwealth, and then the flood gates opened and the detritus flowed.

I have no objection to community groups in costumes, or with massive puppets, as they have all joined together and done a tremendous amount of work to get there. Some of the work was impressive, some less so. Some of it was relevant to the Jubilee, some, quite honestly wasn’t. To the best of my knowledge Brazil hasn’t joined the Commonwealth yet, so I was perplexed by the Brazilian theme of many of the dancers. It was, let’s face it, a case of having some carnival costumes and a desire to use them. Even that was better than what came next . . .

I do have an objection to the same tired mob of B List Celebrities being trotted out and throwing themselves in front of TV cameras with false grins. There were several bus loads of them on the parade – one bus for every decade. I know it’s a fine line between a national treasure and a washed up has-been (or even a washed up never-was) but I could have done without most of them.

And that was how my Jubilee Bank Holiday ended. Four days of relaxing, ending with me in my normal Sunday night mood – back to work tomorrow in an imperfect world after an overdose of poor quality TV. I really need to alter my habits or one day my head is going to explode in mid-tirade.

 

Day 155

19 Replies

Another day, another list of things that are uninteresting to anyone apart from me, and not even that interesting to me in the main..

I passed today mainly drinking tea and watching TV. Also did a few exercises whilst sitting down watching TV and made a few notes on the4 pad next to my chair. Today isn’t really a Bank Holiday but as the Post Office was closed we had the day off as a bonus. Monday is going to be busy as we catch up with four days of orders and nonsensical emails, but it’s been nice having time to wind down.

Number Two Son is in the same country as us for the first time in nearly three years, but is currently sightseeing in London before coming up to Nottingham. I’m not by nature a nervous parent, but it’s always nice to know he’s landed safely.

Highlight of the Platinum Jubilee for me, in fact probably my favourite thing this century, was the TV clip of the Queen having tea with Paddington Bear and producing a marmalade sandwich from her handbag.

Finally, an email accepting two tanka prose. They are like haibun but use tanka instead of haiku. They also have fewer rules and are more about writing than about following rules. The “rules” aren’t actually rules, but the imaginings of several editors who see themselves as more important than the form. However, as I said yesterday, I won’t go off on one because, apart from a discussion about scansion, me talking about imaginery rules is one of the most boring subjects in poetry.

Tomorrow we have clotted cream to eat on our scones. My days tend to have fairly low-level highlights . . .

The photo is one I have on file – Paddington Bear on a gold 50p coin, outside St Paul’s Cathedral.

Paddington Bear at St Paul’s in box etc

Red Valerian

Day154

10 Replies

The second day of the Jubilee Bank Holiday. One of the neighbours has been flying bunting originally used for the Coronation in 1953. It was flown on the same house as in 1953 too, as the house has been in the same family since it was built in 1928 (or thereabouts).

Julia went to the park with one of he friends last night for the beacon lighting, but there was some confusion over the timing of the events so they came home without seeing much. They did meet the lady who walks her tortoise, but he wasn’t there.

The only interesting feature of the day was a rejection from an American haibun magazine. I could write a few hundred words on the subject but I’ve decided not to bother, as I’ve said all there is to say on the matter and I’ve forced you to read it several times. Well, actually I did write several hundred words on the subject, but it wasn’t very original or interesting.

Tonight we are having hoisin meatballs for tea, and I am about to make them from scratch. It’s one of those kits from Gousto, a birthday present from Number One Son. It’s nice to try new recipes, but it’s a bit of a culture shock to start slicing garlic again. Over the years I’ve adapted my cooking style to use garlic out of jars and ready chopped veg, as it gets round the problem of having stiff fingers. I can still use a knife, I just can’t be certain I’ll still have all my finger tips by the end of the slicing.

So, to sum up. I’m going to go and cook and while I slice vegetables I’m going to try not to think of editors . . .

Day153

15 Replies

It’s actually day 154 because I’m late again. And I’m going to talk about  Day 138. That seems to have been 16 days ago now, how time flies.

We went to Gibraltar Point, as I said, and had tea and cake in the visitors’ centre. It is quite new and has extensive views of saltmarsh. OK, that’s not really selling it, is it? Saltmarsh is dull stuff in quantity. You can’t see the sea and even the masts of boats moored in the creek don’t add much interest. The whale bones are slightly interesting, but we’d seen them before. The framework is new but the bits of dead animal are much the same as they were last time I saw them, just arranged as a sculpture instead of being laid out on the grass.

Cup of Tea

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anyway, we had tea and cake. The tea was good and the cake was better. Julia had elderflower and something cake, I can’t actually remember what the something was, though it was additionally decorated with flowers. I had chocolate and cherry. There were several juicy cherries in the slice, which was pleasantly chocolatey without being overpowering. Both were nice and moist and were of satisfactory size.

Chocolate and Cherry Cake

I should have written it all down before my memories began to fade, so sorry about the vague nature of the review. We ate inside, but you can eat on the balcony too. If you eat outside you don’t get people blocking your view, which is what happened to us when a couple came and sat at a table on the balcony. I had been looking at miles of dull saltmarsh when suddenly the view was replaced by expanses of sunburn and a big straw hat. There were other clothes too, but I forget what they were like. Garish, I do recall. And not big enough.

Elderflower and Something cake

Day 152

12 Replies

I seem to have mislaid the first half of this post, but as I fell asleep at the keyboard, this is not unusual. I now have a dilemma. Start writing a new blog post at 4.30 am or straighten my aching limbs and go to be. A few years ago I didn’t even know it was possible to fall asleep sitting up, but it’s amazing what you can do if you have to. I say “have to” but in fact it’s a choice, and, let’s face it, a bad choice.

The truth is that the habit of daily blogging has taken hold and I can’t settle if I don’t write a post. It’s only 250 words after all, and that shouldn’t be difficult. Even the 250 words is a self-imposed lower limit. I could write 150 if I wanted, there is no law against it. I really ought tom be writing 500, as it seems a serious amount of wordage, but I’m lazy and I settled on 250. When I actually read a post of that length I’m always struck by how short it is anyway. IT would be difficult to write less and still call it a post. It would be more like an anecdote, or a caption.

We went to TESCO tonight to pick up the shopping – you don’t have to order so much if you use the Click and Collect service. They didn’t have the pork pie I had ordered and they hadn’t substituted anything. This is annoying as the pork pie was the basis of a couple of light salad lunches over the Jubilee Weekend. If you are having salad you really need something decent like pork pie to anchor it. I am now going to have to rethink the menu.

The photograph is a reminder that I still have to blog about eating cake at the coast. Time passes and I forget . . ,