… my musings on, er, "stuff"
Pic of the week 25/8/19
Yesterday was the annual gathering of the clan, in the main to celebrate Dad’s 82 and Rog’s 53rd birthday.
All the Grandchildren were there, at The Sheppey, Godney. The sun shone, it was hot, hot, hot – we ate indoors before being shuffled outside to a table alongside the river when our “dining” table was needed for the next seating.
Time to introduce a new category to my blog: Travelogue posts.
Have done quite a bit of booking today. Not a very exciting post (although it has been quite exciting arranging future travels) but I thought it’d be good to have somewhere to record all the details for future comparison.
Girona 19
Have booked three nights in Girona for Becky and I in October.
Flights: RyanAIr Bristol to Girona FR9336 dep 20:00 arr 22:50, ret: FR9335 dep 17:20 arr 18:20. Cost £142.65 (total) Take on luggage only – small bag + 10Kg bag 55 x 40 x 20 cm
Accommodation: Peninsular Hotel, Girona, 3 nights, booked through ebookers £165.78
Pollensa 20
Booked x3 flights today, same Thomas Cook flights as this year – Bristol to Palma, dep 1230, ret 16:55. Seats booked, + 20Kg hold luggage each, total cost £707.94 (base price £500.94 + extras – luggage & seat booking)
Accommodation in Pollensa, found through H&Away, but booking privately through owner. Total cost €1950, deposit of €950 sent today (cost of £900) via bank transfer, rest to be paid in cash on arrival.
Bon voyage!
Pic of the week
Sam has turned 17, and taken to life behind the wheel.
I haven’t been out with him (yet) but Becky’s taken him out a few times and he seems to be enjoying life on the road. They started in Strode car park, but have since graduated onto the levels back lane (that I run along) as well us driving up Downside Road, to Millfield car park (main & swimming pool) and back home, to reverse onto the drive.
Other than his birthday, the week has been a little non-descript: the inevitable come down after the highs of a week away. I’ve ref-ed a couple of games, done some more painting of hall and utility room, but not too much to write home about. The weather has not been brilliant – high winds on Friday and Saturday and today – after a bright-ish morning – we’ve had some torrential downpours, thunder and lightening:
Pic of the week 4/8/19
Just back from a great week in Soller, Mallorca. We stayed in a villa in the town of Soller – a great villa, with a fab pool, in a charming Mallorcan town.
We paid (about) £2.5K for the villa, flights were £1.5K – Thomas Cook: good times – 12.30 pm out 16.55 return (local times) but, unfortunately the outbound flight was three hours delayed. The skipper then opened up the gas, meaning we landed “only” 2 hour 40 mins late and were thus denied the 250 euro ahead compensation for a three hour delay.
I’d booked transfers via Hoppa.com – worked well, cost £118 in advance. Probably would have been cheaper to just book local taxis, but this saved a lot of hassle – would be happy to use again.
Becky has two much better blog posts that are worth reading:
but below are some photos and memories from me.
Home (casa) for the week
and its pool (piscina)
El nino and padre enjoying said piscina
Perhaps the most picturesque train station in Europe? Discovering the (small) Miro exhibition was cool. (“Jefe” means “Boss”. I think I might start mis-spelling my name with an e instead of f at the end.)
Becky, Sam & I took the bus to Deia, walked down the hill (30 mins) to swim in the beautiful, clear see, before yomping back up in the midday heat to get the bus back to Soller. (Fortunately, the bus was deliciously air conditioned and gave us a great view on the switch back roads through the mountains.)
The four of us had a day out in Plama (outbound via train – worth it, at 18 euros ahead, back by those wonderful air conditioned buses, 2.50 euro each). A lovely picturesque compact city, but hot, oh so hot! Becky & I will return for a city break – sin ninos – at some point.
Soller itself was beautiful. I think I particularly enjoyed being immersed in a Spanish/Mallorcan town and not some “All day breakfast” tourist resort. I’m trying to learn a little espanol, I must keep this up.
I enjoyed the whole holiday, but if I must pick a best bit, i think it must have been having a leisurely breakfast in the square with Becky.
Till next time …
Pic of the week 21/7/19
My (pre) season has begun, with games on Tuesday – Ashcott Reserves v Lantokay at Strode Astro, and a line on Saturday Bishops Lydeard v Exmouth Town, both Western League teams, Exmouth in the Premier Division and BL in Div 1, so Step 5 and Step 6 respectively. Enjoyed both games, am looking forward to the season to come.
On Thursday Becky & I went to see New Order at Bristol Harbour Festival – Lloyd’s Ampitheater – a great gig on a warm, cloudless night. Really enjoyed it, Temptation was, not surprisingly, my highlight. But their finale, Love Will Tear Us Apart was pretty good too (and better than Paul Young’s from earlier in the year)
And just for good measure, here is Blue Monday (the one New Order track that everyone knows, but by no means their best)
View this post on Instagram
Blue Monday for all you @neworderofficial fans @emmavictoriabridger @juliacherrill @tappers127
Update: Here is the official video of the evening
Running news: – Clocked up my 300th Km of the year today
Pic of the week 14/7/19
Yesterday afternoon, sat in the back garden whilst taking a rest from hall decorating (see below) I heard a deep, rumbling roar and looked up to see a Lancaster flying by. It flew round the back of the Tor before doing another circuit and then heading off to (presumably) Yeovilton Air Show. A magnificent sight.
Today I ran my 10K backwards. Not literally, of course, that would have been foolish, but in the reverse direction. On the whole, I ran it faster – was an interesting experiment that I must repeat some day.
Having decorated the upstairs hall & stairwell, my attention turned to the downstairs hall. Still to be finished, but looks a whole lot better than before.
On Friday, Sophie, Becky and I went to see Scouting for Girls at Frome Cheese and Grain.
It was chuffing hot, but it was, not surprisingly, brilliant.
We ended up about three back from the front, a jumping, thumping, pumping set of their favourites. A great night.
And Sam applied for his Provisional Driving Licence – not long now …
Pic of the week 7/7/19
Its been a busy week – no sitting with my feet up in the first week of the hols!
Fed up with the “Steptoe-esque” state of the top landing, I took it upon myself to strip and paint the top landing, stairs and ceiling. The initial stripping wasn’t too bad, but its all the fiddly bits that frustrate. Anyway, at time of writing, I have now applied 3 coats and its beginning to look like the finished article – another couple of coats tomorrow and I could be done (to then begin the downstairs hall and landing. And then there’s the tilly room to be done …)
The weather has been good, plenty of sunshine and blue skies to enjoy when I have ventured outside in between my stripping. The garden is looking good, first sweet pea flowers just blooming, daisies look magnificent, lawn holding up. I do like the swishy swashy grasses in the front, they help to break up the sea of brick that is the extension. Some pics:
Sam decided to update his computer – which was a little fraught when it didn’t go quite as planned, and wouldn’t boot up. But calmly revisiting the situation the next day, and some good troubleshooting and fault diagnosis on Sam’s part had it all working as planned the next day.
On Thursday I caught up with Marck Radford in Shepton, and then Becky, Sophie and I went to the cinema to see “Yesterday”, which was a good film.
And then on Friday we all went to Cardiff for the day, an open day to see if Sam was/is interested in going to Uni. He was inspired by the Chemistry labs and he definitely wants to continue with Chemistry post sixth form, its just where and how. Will be looking into Chemistry degree apprenticeships this holiday.
And in amongst all this busy-ness I’ve still run, spun and swum. No wonder I’ve had to multi-task whilst having my evening snooze …
Pic of the week 30/6/19
On Tuesday Becky & I went to see Paul Young, and he was great.
The voice wasn’t as powerful as it once was, and he struggled (i.e. couldn’t) hit high notes, but it was a great night as he belted out all the classics from his hey-day.
Still very much a showman, he interacted well with the audience (who, a little disappointingly, were rather passive – I don’t think we got out of our seats until the very end), a good an and a half set at the Octagon Theatre, Yeovil, and we were still home for five past eleven. (Although, being the last week of term, I was less worried about the dangers of burning the candle at both ends. I have since successfully navigated the last few days of term and am now luxuriating in the long summer holiday.)
My musical tour continues – I’m really enjoying “the live music scene”: the anticipation of the show giving me something to look forward to, the show itself and then a re-engagement with the music and musician long after the concert.
Here are a couple of videos of the 63 year old in action
And, from Instagram, Love Will Tear Us Apart:
Pic of the week 23/6/19
Last night I went to another OW reunion, mainly on the basis that we’ve all turned (or will soon be turning) 50 this year.
Good to see people again, although fewer this time than two years ago (no, not because everyone is starting to shuffle of this mortal coil, but perhaps because the novelty is wearing off?)
Particularly good to see Ed (Fuller), Andrew “Klebs” Kirby and Rachel (Willis) who weren’t there last time. We laughed, we joked, we rolled back the years, a good evening, even if it did, at times, feel like I’d wandered onto the set of a Richard Curtis movie.
In other news, did my referee fitness test today and passed, no smashed, it. To go from Level 7 to 6 I needed to do 2,000m (5 laps) in 12 minutes, I did circa 2,500 m (6 3/4) laps in the 12 minutes, more than I’d need to do to go from 6 to 5. (Also did x2 50 m sprints in under 7.5 seconds)
Pic(s) of the week 16/6/19
Father’s Day!
Up early and off for a run, to be met by the boy on my return. Later in the day, Sophie returned home from her first year at Reading University. Where has that time gone?!
Lot’s of presents from the pair of them – many food/snack related, but also a “Brexshite” mug from Sam and a book : “Zonal Marking” from Sophie.
Becky also gave me a card, writing in it:
“A fab Dad but hopeless at getting your son doing school work!!!
Whilst Sam had independently written in his card:
“Thank you for being a great Dad and helping me with school work”
I wonder who’s right?!
An an unrelated note, mention must be made of the dreadful weather that persists – the last two weeks have been little more than rain, wind and grey skies. Here’s hoping it changes in two weeks time …