30 - Up around 8am. Much rain. . . drove to walk . . left Sally at home and drove to Sainsburys to do a 'big' groceries type shop (still actually driving just a little carefully in case the front bumper should suddenly decide to fall off as a result of last night's collision). £91.86 plus another £72.35 on a 250g box of Golden Virginia and a full 50 box of liquorce Rizlas!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ouch - especially the smoking bit!!!!! :o( Sat in the car in the car park breifly for a cigarette once the hell of the actual shopping was all done. As I sat there, the car next to mine reversed out and drove away leaving a space. A woman soon after returned to the car in front of that space and thought she'd simply drive through it and out, rather than reverse out of where she was parked. What she'd not noticed was a protruding kerb of bricks from around a nearby tree/flower border, which extended just in front of one of her wheels. As she went to drive forward past my car, her front wheels hit the kerb and her car lurched over towards mine, only 'just' stopping within an inch or so of my front wing!!!!! Jeeze what IS it with my car? Is it invisible at the moment? Couldn't get home quickly enough (or actually - rather slowly and carefully) just to get the car off the road and not risk fate having yet another go at me!. . eventually back home all headachey with the stress of the endeavour as usual . . ate ham, mayo, onion and lettuce rolls with crisps and chocolate. . napped until around 6pm . . drove to walk again in showers . . TVd and actually watched the 'Time Machine' film that was on. A fancy CGI laden re-make of the good old original. Clever CGI and all that, but I really don't know why they bother with all such re-makes (which seems increasingly common as time goes by). Are they SO short of new and fresh ideas? Despite its quaint, 'old-filmness', there's no beating the original in my opinion. Nothing was added by re-making it all fancy like that. . touched base with BB . . ate pork pies, crisps, bowls of co-co pops, chocolate and jelly babies!! . . to bed around 2am.as
29 - Woke earlier, snoozed on then up around 8am.. . walked . . mowed the lawns again and trimmed some of the hedges with the hedge trimmer. Had a damn good go up a little step ladder at giving a serious 'hack-it-down-so-at-least-I-can-reach-it' trim to one particular large hedge in the front garden, and was all but finished doing it when I realised from nearby bird activity, there was quite probably a nest in there! Oh NO!!!!!!!!!!!! Damn!!! Hope I haven't messed that up for them! I feel terribly guilty and responsible! :o( The birds look like blue tits, but with a much longer tail. Kindof a cross between blue tits and wagtails. . de-weeded the border alongside the path, on my hands and knees - at length, and a terribly overgrown weed covered raised bed in one corner of the front garden before calling it quits late afternoon. . showered off the muck and blood from all the scratches on my arms! . . PCd/TVd. Oh dear - there were plenty of news reports that a case of swine flu has emerged in Paignton! Some school kid recently returned from a holiday in Mexico (jeeze - ain't kids spoiled these days!) had got it, and as a result they'd closed the school for a week or so and were giving out antiflu medication etc. Hmmm? Wonder what that'll do for the local tourist trade what, with the bank holiday (and local Pirate Festival) just coming up and all. That's not good timing is it! Also, in a funny way, seems a bit weird to give all the kids the week off like that. Assuming they are potentially infected and carriers, seems weird to encourage them to go out into the community, do their own thing for a week and infect everyone! If this really WAS a 'liable to kill everyone' type worldwide epidemic (which I'm pretty sure it's obvious already it isn't - although I DO accept that it probably IS only a matter of time before such a virus emerges and gets instantly taken around the world, decimating the population - which in the grand scheme of things I can't help thinking would be a 'good' thing in terms of population reduction!) the authorities obviously really don't have ANY realistic way of containing it do they!! I think they should be a little more honest about that, instead of suggesting we are well prepared for such an event. Frankly, I am of the attitude that there really is nothing you can do to protect yourself from such a thing, so just get on with your stuff and go about your business, and if it gets you and kills you, so be it. Somethings going to, sooner or later. . . drove to walk. I was just setting off walking after having parked my car, when a dog walker returned to the car parked in front and promptly reversed straight into mine!! My poor little car kinda lurched up on its suspension in a backward direction as the big mercedes or audi or some such hit it!! Oh no!! Quickly hooked Sally back up and headed out to see what damage had been done. For just a second there it looked touch and go whether or not he'd just make off - but the driver pretty soon stopped and got out to walk back and inspect the damage. As extreme luck would have it, as far as either of us could see, there wasn't any damage to either car. WHAT a relief. His excuse was, he'd been distracted by his dogs. Humphh. Rather than get ugly, I kinda begrudgingly made a joke of it and suggested he should quickly make his getaway - which he promptly did. . had a much better look at my car when I'd finished the walk, before carefully driving home (in case the front fell off!) and then having another good long inspection when I got home. All ok as far as I can tell. Suprising really - I thought these new cars were designed to always fall to bits with the slightest of impacts. SO glad it didn't. I bet spares for that funny little 'noddy car' are hard to come by and expensive. . returned her ansaphone message and touched base with Mum . . TVd . . ate bacon sandwiches and biscuits . . touched base with BB . . TVd until bed around 12:30am. s
28 - Up around 8:30am. Walked the woods in the sun. Full bluebell display now. Sat around in the woods, on the beach and then in BGdns in the sun. A big racing type offshore powerboat was breifly roaring up and down the coast across the bay by Torquay. . PCd this . . ate corned beef, onion, mayo and lettuce sandwiches with crisps and then some chocolate biscuits . . napped until around 6:30pm! . . drove to walk and ended up sitting around for ages just watching the sunset . . PCd/guitarred . .ate (too much!) the last of the chilli with four bread rolls. . touched base with BB . . TVd until bed around 2am. s
27 - Woken earlier by the sound of the rain on the window, snoozed on then up around 8am. .walked in light rain which had pretty much stopped by the time we returned . . pretty severe down mood again and just sat around, TVd, PCd the day away . .lay down to nap but pretty much just tossed and turned for an hour or more, actually feeling rather cold. . . drove to walk and got caught out in a shower. The 'no entry/danger' sign and tape across the main gun emplacement entrance has now turned into a steel barrier chained and padlocked in place! I guess they mean it then! A dog walker suggested he'd seen a surveyor looking over the place the other day! That sounds like bad news to me. If the lunatic health and safety brigade have suddenly arbitrarily decided it's dangerous after all these decades, that could really be bad news for its continued survival. There ARE a couple of acro props visible wedged under the main front supporting concrete lintel! :o( . . ate a huge bowl of microwaved chilli with four bread rolls again. . TVd . . BB called . . to bed at midnight.
26 - Up around 8:15am. .all walked. Passed 'K' on the way to BGdns who announced he had some more left-overs for Sally/me to pick up on the way back. Carried on down to a harbourside cafe for another english breakfast. Almost the entire time we were sat there at the pavement table, a car was parked next to us in a no parking area with its hatchback open, obviously 'pretending' to be unloading. During conversation we both expressed the opinion that if we were traffic wardens we would have HAD that guy. Remarkably, a short while later a young traffic warden appeared and DID duly ticket the car. This resulted in someone from the cafe shouting out to a guy in the next shop along saying he was getting a ticket. He duly came out and started protesting that he was just unloading and started getting a bit unpleasant towards the young warden, who politely just carried on doing his job (which as is apparantly the case these days, included taking photos of the car, where it was parked, the no parking sign right next to it, etc, etc). Why the guy who'd tried to get away with parking there (actually a vital clearway/dropping off point for coachloads of tourists) insisted on getting so ugly is beyond me. It even had me start to reach for my camcorder! I'm not sure anyone else saw it, but I noticed the poor young warden was visibly shaking as he held up his camera to take one of his shots. He eventually issued his ticket and carried on his way, with a little abuse thrown after him. The car owner took at least another ten minutes or so parked there before he eventually drove away. Idiot. . . we were just finishing our meal when there were a lot of sirens as two ambulance vehicles raced around the harbour and headed out along the upper road in the direction of the breakwater. A very short time later there was the sound of a low flying helicopter. It soon came into sight hovering low over the marina before descending out of sight, obviously landing somewhere over by the breakwater beach. (Damn - we should have walked out to the breakwater bistro for breakfast!) Despite the urge to do so, it seemed pointless racing all the way out there to rubberneck, so we quickly headed for the raised seating area at the edge of the harbour, in an attempt to get a slightly better view in the breakwater direction (as did many other people!). It was impossible to see what was going on, other than confirm something WAS happening at the breakwater beach.
It was just possible to make out in the
distance the ambulance parked on the edge of the car park, a
small crowd of people watching, and poking up from behind the
breakwater wall the antennae of the lifeboat just offshore. A
short while later a much larger rescue helicopter arrived and
slowly circled overhead before heading away. Soon after, the
smaller helicopter reappeared in the sky, confirming it HAD
indeed landed on the beach!! As it climbed away from the beach
and quickly headed over the bay and low inland out of sight, I
made some inane comment about 'your life in their hands'. News
reports later confirmed a diver had got into difficulty and been
found floating after a suspected heart attack. He'd been given
emergency treatment by the coastguard/lifeboat paramedics who
were out on a training excercise before being flown to Derriford
hospital - where he was later pronounced dead! :o( . . walking
back along the outer harbour, I once again spotted a water skiier
I'd seen the other night and felt obliged to attempt to video him,
although was unable. What was particularly of interest about this
guy, was the speed he was going. He was clearly being towed
behind a high powered racing boat (which actually left the water
on a couple of occassions with a roar of the engine/propellor) on
a long, long rope at an incredible speed!! Amazing. Training for
some sort of speed skiing race maybe? . . back via BGdns and then
breifly stopped in at Ks to pick up the left overs he'd said he
had. Turned out to be a pastie and a bunch of meat bits for Sally
and a big tupperware of left over chilli for me! Lots of it! . .as
we walked back home and for a while after, a trio of jet aircraft
in close formation were doing wide circuits over the bay and
surrounding area, giving a bit of an impromptu air display! . .
caught the start of the Bahrain grand prix on TV and then bid PS
farewell . . UTTERLY exhausted! Napped for a couple of hours walk.
. - and would rather have done so for MUCH longer!. . drove to
PCd/TVd/guitarred just a little . . BB called breifly . . ate a
large bowl of K donated microwaved chilli with four buttered
bread rollsThat's pretty good stuff, acceptably mild, and plenty
left for 'at least' . another two big meals! . . to bed around 11:30pm.
s25 - Up around 9am. .all walked and carried on out to the breakwater bistro for an english breakfast watching the masses of divers that were thronging the beach. . walked the breakwater in the strong cold wind . .PS seemed quite happy and full of energy as usual. By the time we were heading back, I was in quite a bit of pain from aching legs, back and particularly my right hip!! With PS giving me someone to make a comparison with, I really do seem to be prematurely ageing!! . caught out in a shower on the walk back from BGdns. .
PS decided he wanted to go and explore Totnes!?
As usual, I didn't really want to bother and was feeling utterly
worn out and exhausted, but eventually I summoned the energy and
suggested we all go in my little 'noddy' car. Breifly checked
maps and then all drove the short distance to Totnes. Weird roads
through the place - absolutely tiny and used by the pedestrians
as if traffic wasn't supposed to drive up them! My tiny little
car seemed about right for the place. . parked up for a couple of
hours in a PS paid for pay and display car park, and because he
wanted to have a look at it, started along the busy streets
heading for the castle. . spent quite a large amount of time on
the way, looking in a second hand/antique type shop (actually had
a full sized old aeroplane fuselage on the roof!!) which was
absolutely full to bursting with all manner of rather interesting
stuff to look through. Could have spent even longer pawing
through all that stuff, although it did appear to all be rather
expensive. . eventually found the castle and PS paid the £3 each
(enough to have seen me walk away without bothering!) to go in
and have a look around. I don't know why I expected more, but
perhaps because we'd had to pay £3 for the priveledge, I found
it all rather disappointing and lacking somehow. There really was
nothing much there other than some grass, some neat old trees and
the rather empty featureless ring of wall on the hilltop. There
was nothing to see inside the wall so it was a quick walk around
on the top looking at the view and that was that. Just as we were
leaving, right next to the entrance ticket office, Sally
embarassingly decided to have a squirty poop - which kinda summed
it all up I thought! . . wandered along the busy streets looking
in various shops before eventually reaching the river and
stopping for a breif sit and a cigarette before heading back.
Funny place - had a rather 'Glastonbury' feel about it all to me.
Lots of people wearing weird outfits, busking with guitars, shops
full of expensive buddhas and joss sticks, and signs about angels
and such nonsense. . .ended up in a little side alley for a PS
paid for coffee before breifly popping in a nearby supermarket
for a couple of pizzas etc to eat later. .got back to the car
five minutes before our time was up and headed home. Stopped off
to quickly walk Sally at BGdns on the way . . TVd . . ate pizza .
. BB called . . TVd until bed around 1:30am. s24 - Broken sleep then up around 9:30am!!. .walked late. A couple of big ships have anchored in close in the bay. Bit of a storm forecast I think.
Actually turns out from the local news that
one of them is a big 20,000 tonne, 50-strong crew American
military 'roro' supply ship, 'The 2nd Lt John P. Bobo' (known as
the Bobo)! Known to carry an assortment of military hardware from
tanks and ammunition to bulldozers and other working vehicles it
is taking some local 'r.and r.' before leaving for northern
Europe and a NATO exercise next week! . .According to a dog
walker, I missed all the action again yesterday. A trawler had
hauled up 'a missile' which had to be detonated safely by the
bomb disposal people off the breakwater! Damn. I've yet to see
that happen, although it does seem to a couple of times a year or
so, although not usually 'a missile'. Local news reports made it
sound as though it would have been worth seeing, for the 'comedy'!
Apparantly according to the report, the bomb disposal team boat
couldn't get started and they had to be towed back in by a ferry
- then their vehicle which was parked low on the slipway being
threatened by the incoming tide wouldn't start, and they had to
borrow a fork-lift from the construction site to drag it away
from the water! lolol . . did a little laundry, dish washing
chores and tidied up around the place just a little . . ate
corned beef, mayo and lettuce sandwiches with crisps . . napped .
. drove to walk. Weird - the upper gun emplacement had a piece of
red tape across the entrance and a sign was laying on the floor
which said 'danger, no entry'. I of course ignored all that and
went in to have a look, and as far as I could see there was
absolutely no reason for the warning at all. .PCd breifly . . PS
arrived . . TVd/chats . . ate a PS donated corned beef pastie and
crisps . . to bed around 3:30am. s23 - Up around 7:30am. .woke up with coffee and cigarettes at the PC while surfing lawn mowers! . . walked . .straight back home to do more laundry and carry on with sorting out my accounts and paperwork where I abruptly left off yesterday (determined NOT to answer the phone if Mum should call again! :o| ) . .ended up PCing this for hours (just to get it off my back before PS comes down and I forget it all) as a sea mist hung grey overhead!! . .drank a splash of wine and cooked and ate two cheeseburgers and chips . . napped for maybe only an hour or so . . drove to walk. As I was parking, a car with a couple of guys in it (40s+?) was stopped a little way up the road behind me and I'm pretty sure they were stood by it having a pee through the railings into the gardens! As I proceeded with my walk the two guys headed down to the main upper gun emplacement carrying boxes of tins of beer, and then set about drinking it in there (and alternately having another pee against it at intervals!). I found it - um - 'disturbing' (not for the obvious reasons, and not because of the loud foul mouthed conversation they insisted on shouting - much of which was quite audible from my smoking seat) because in my opinion based on what I'd witnessed, the driver was clearly already or at least soon going to be, WELL over the drink drive limit! :o( I cut short my sit and returned home quicker than usual, just to get away from them. . .guitarred/TVd . . ate a defrosted pastie, crisps, banana and chocolate . . TVd/PCd until not far off daylight before bed. s
22 - Up around 8:15am. .walked . . did laundry chores . .mowed the lawns - AGAIN!!! Hardly seemed to make much of an impression. I've GOT to get a better mower!!! This is ridiculous. . Mum called in the middle of me balancing my accounts having just received her water bill! It was rather a lot and she'd been on the phone to the water company. The person on the helpline agreed her bill was high (the monthly bill more akin to what an 'average' househld would expect for a quarter!) and suggested she check the meter for leaks! (And her kitchen taps had gone all stiff again!??) . .dropped everything, left the washing machine running and walked with Sally up Mums to have a look at her bill and do some serious meter reading/tests. .knelt out in the street for ages looking at the meter checking there were no leaks before getting Mum to one by one go through most of what she does with the bath, toilet, washing up etc etc. - and after each activity I recorded the meter reading. The only thing we didn't do was run the washing machine because she'd already used it twice this morning, had nothing else to wash, and it would have taken a good hour or more to run through a cycle. With some figures to play with I sat in the sun in the garden with a calculator (and a Mum donated corned beef sandwich and crisps - even a sandwich made especially for Sally!! lol) and had a go at working out and estimating what usage 'could' be expected-ish. In short, I was able to come up with a figure in the region of a good two thirds of the bill Mum had received. Under the circumstances, my unsettling conclusion was, Mum really HAD probably used that large amount of water during the billing period!!!! (16 cubic metres in 41 days!) Oh dear. After EVERYONE saying she'd save money by having the meter put in, which she finally reluctantly did, it rather looks as though she isn't going to save anything at all ('maybe' just a few £s over the year - or even not!). Mum wasn't very happy. As she put it, she just wants to be able to carry on as she has done all her life - at her age she doesn't suddenly want to be having to worry about whether or not she can afford to turn the tap on! I must confess, I rather agree with her. It really does seems like outrageous profiteering by the water company down in this part of the country. Breifly popped up a step ladder and removed just some of the debris in her rainwater guttering (grass was actually growing in them!) before eventually returning home. . . lay down for a nap (actually next to Sally who unusually came up and lay on the bed for a bit) but couldn't and somehow just half snoozed for an hour or more . . drove to walk . . ended up eventually returning home feeling a bit sick and unwell. Sat in front the TV all fragile, not moving for a good couple of hours, feeling really quite ill . . PS called to say he'd be down on Friday for a couple of days. Shame about the deteriorating weather forecast after these week(s?) of sun. . TVd . .eventualy felt a little better . .forced down a couple of ham and lettuce rolls and just a couple of squares of chocolate around 10pm. . touched base with BB . . TVd until bed around 12:30am.
21 - Up around 7:45am. .walked . . left Sally at home and drove to get the reinforced concrete lintel from the garden of the house round the corner. Bit of a squeeze getting it in the back of the car but managed it in the end. Unloaded it and decided to temporarily just leave it laying on the floor of the carport. It serves as a pretty useful 'stop', up to which I can just back the car, and not worry about reversing into the pile of stone and bricks I have up there. . with a bit of superhuman effort, I somehow managed to force myself to pull up the carpet and start having a look at the top of the stairs where the floor seems to have sunk and which was making the awful creaking noise. Based on the layers of dirt and old paint etc, it would appear to have been like that for many years! In fact, it doesn't so much appear as something has gone wrong rather than it was simply not built well in the first place! Took ages but I eventually managed to scrape away all the old grime and paint sufficient to be able to make enough of a gap beneath the skirting, to be able to knock the short pieces of floorboard up a little with the lump hammer from the cupboard beneath. I then fashioned a wooden wedge from an offcut piece of timber and eventually screwed and glued it in place between the joist and boards. It's improved things a little. It feels more solid underfoot, and has taken 'most' of the creak out of it, but it still needs more work at some point. . sanded a bit of the new bannister and put some more undercoat on it here and there. Part of the reason I haven't pushed on with that and got it 'finished' and gloss painted is all to do with how much OLD paint is on everything. Where I've done the carpentry work, some adjacent areas of old paint have flaked off leaving a DEEP scar. It isn't at all possible to remove all the old paint, so somehow I have to attempt to fill those scars before I can paint it all. I've tried a dab of filler, but that doesn't really work because of how thin it ends up being. It just comes back out when you try to sand it down! I have a horrible feeling the only way I'm going to be able to do that, is to laboriously paint on tiny amounts of undercoat and build it up over time!!! Really fiddly/annoying/time consuming. :o( . . cut my hair/beard etc. . drove to walk. . ate defrosted and microwaved beef, roast potatoes, stuffing, peas and gravy . . touched base with BB . .TVd . . ate bowls of cornflakes . . to bed around 1:30am. s
20 - Woken by Sally barking at the postman around 9:15am or later!!! . .
it was so late,
I called Mum and asked if she wanted to do the woods walk. (The
bluebells are out and she'd said she wanted to see them if
possible, "while she can still get around", what with
her bad feet and all.) Drove with Sally and picked Mum up and
then walked the woods. It was perhaps a little early with many of
the bluebells still to fully emerge, but it was still worth doing
I think. It IS always a magical time of year to be in the woods.
Walked on through to the cove and then back to the other cove for
a Mum bought coffee at the little cafe overlooking the beach and
view out across the bay. Actually, Mum treated herself to an ice-cream
instead of a coffee. Such a shame I'm the person I am, and don't
want to run around doing this and that and risk being around too
many people. I think Mum really misses Dad and would really like
to be able to 'do' just a few things (locally) and 'live' just a
little and have their modest treats etc like they used to. :o( .
. eventually headed back along the lower path and then up into
BGdns. As we came up the path near the gun emplacements, a couple
of people looking a bit flustered said they were glad we'd just
come along (to kinda be their witness) because they'd just come
across a pushchair and someones belongings, just apparantly
abandoned on the side of the path, which they couldn't simply
ignore!?? They were really concerned for whoever it may have
belonged to, and were tempted to start looking through everything
for some ID, but were uncomfortable about doing so. I FULLY
appreciated their position. Wow - thank goodness I'd not been out
walking Sally and come across that on my own.
It WAS VERY weird. Unlike absolutely would
have been the case back in Bristol, it somehow did NOT look like
a 'stolen/dumped'. It was just sat there fully intact, complete
with some childs toys in various pockets and a couple of
different hand/shoulder type bags, zipped and fastened and neatly
hung on the handles etc. It really did look as though whoever had
been wheeling it had just suddenly disappeared!?? With Mum and I
as encouraging witnesses, the guy started having a bit of a look
through the bags in search of some ID. There was none, but WAS a
neatly stowed packed lunch in one bag and even a digital camera
in a side pocket!!? VERY weird. On reflection we'd only seen two
lots of parents with young children during our walk, and both of
them had been down at the beach. It seemed reasonable to suppose
it 'could' have been one of theirs (in particular a dark skinned
lady and her young daughter who had looked just a little out of
place at the waters edge for some unspecifyable reason - perhaps
dare I say, because you don't see 'that' many coloured people
down here believe it or not!!? Make of that what you will!) I
volunteeered to do the running, and left Mum with the couple at
the pushchair and ran all the way back down to the beach. I
breifly exchanged words of explanation with the cafe owner and
confirmed that it didn't belong to anyone on the near deserted
beach - and was informed the coloured lady and child had walked
off up such and such a direction. Headed back up the shortest
route towards the gun emplacement and lo and behold, just coming
back down the path AWAY from where I was heading was the lady and
little girl. She didn't look particularly unhappy, but we made
eye contact as I approached and I asked if she was ok. I can't
recall what she actually said, maybe she was a bit lost, but it
turned out it WAS her pushchair. She said something about it
being a bit difficult to negotiate the steps and she'd just
decided to go for a little walk and then couldn't find her way
back to it! Something like that - which all sounded pretty damned
weird to me- to just leave all that stuff behind like that. In
this world? Where else would you get away with doing that and
still get it back afterwards? She's lucky there are some good
people down here. I quickly escorted her back to the pushchair,
explaining that there were some worried people there with it. I
left her to exchange words with the concerned couple and quickly
headed off with Mum. All VERY weird. Wonder what sort of a world
she comes from? . sat on a seat in BGdns a short while later, Mum
recounted the 'amusing' tale about how the concerned couple in
conversation during my abscence, had assumed I was her husband!!!!
Jeeze!!! I HAVE become aware that people seem to assume I am much
older than I am (retirement age!) - but really - THAT old???????
Humph! :o( . . dropped Mum off then home to sit around in the
garden for a bit before eventually eating a couple of ham rolls
with crisps and then laying down to nap . .JK called to touch
base soon after I'd laid down! Grrr. . poor fitful sleep then
back up around 5:30pm . . drove to walk again. .TVd . .ate
kipling apple tarts . . BB called breifly . . ate a tin of hot
dog suasages with four pieces of bread and butter . . to bed
around 1:15am. s19 - Up around 7:45am. .walked the woods. Bit early but many of the bluebells are out. Sat around quietly down there for quite a while before eventually returning via more sits in BGdns (after having cleared up a carrier of cans and bottles) etc. Breifly popped in the local store for milk on the way back and finally had an opportunity to talk to the owner of a house nearby. Must have been about a year ago I'd spotted a pile of rubble in his garden on top of which was a reinforced concrete lintel which appeared to be surplus to requirements. I asked if it was maybe up for grabs and he said he had no objection and I could have it for nothing. (I can envisage needing 'at least' two for above the access holes in the supporting walls beneath the floor. One large access hole has already been poorly made by someone in the past, and the bricks above it are just hanging worryingly in mid air! It's going to be an absolute bugger to do the work - which is why I haven't already bought a lintel and done it!) He had no objection to me just turning up sometime in the near future when with the car and just taking it . . .moodwise I really seemed to struggle today!? The last few weeks really have taken on the characteristics of some sort of 'bi polar' episode - and I'm currently deep in the dark side, which seems a terrible waste of some good weather!?? The recent 'guitar thing' is perhaps an interesting guage of how this particular 'episode' has manifested itself. The period of 'up' kinda crept up on me almost unnoticed at first. I DO recall suddenly being able to find an occasional film on TV actually mildly interesting, sufficient to actually sit through the entire thing and even take an interest in the plot. More usually, I become bored and overwhelmed with the irrelevance and pointlessness of whatever I'm watching and end up constantly surfing channels in a desperate, always failing bid, to find ANYTHING which can capture my interest! Around the same time, all of a sudden the guitar seemed to make a lot more sense. I could suddenly actually 'hear it' (even tune it pretty well) and started that business of making up little sequences (dare I say 'tunes'?!) and practicing with it at length every day (and even had the nerve to take it for a walk!!!! EEeek!). Specifically on the evening of 4th of April I had a real 'up mood' (dare I say 'manic' ?) event with it and even dabbled with writing some song lyrics etc, and even had absurd visions of being able to make up my own tunes for videos etc. (The lack of normal realistic objectivity during such 'up' events is particularly unsettling/worrying to me!) Well - all that has now passed. If I ever do now pick it up, it just sounds stupid, out of tune and 'dull', and no amount of sitting thinking brings forth any lyrics or twiddles whatsoever. Hard to explain here, but a VERY significant indicator to me of how my 'moods' can work, and how utterly debilitating that actually is!!! :o( . . . sat around in the garden and in front of the TV feeling increasingly dark before reaching for a glass of wine and cooking a bunch of roast potatoes and stuffing. . eventually ate a HUGE plate of defrosted beef, potatoes, stuffing and peas with a pint of gravy. Enough left overs bagged in the freezer to scrape up two smaller meals again some time . .lay down to nap but couldn't, what with the noise of neigbourhood lawnmowers etc. . drove to walk. . located my 4.5 tog summer duvet and put that on my bed already. I'd been starting to overheat in bed pretty bad on various occasions . .touched base with BB . .ate a couple of kipling tarts and some chocolate . . TVd/PCd until around 4am before bed! assd
18 - Up around 8:15am, tired out. . walked . . did dishwashing chores until Mum arrived with the paper and food donations. In conversation she casually dropped in that her kitchen taps had become all stiff!!!??? . They are brand new fittings! How can that be possible? That really bugged me (and I was in a dangerously short tempered 'down' mood to start with!) . cut short the usual chats and grabbed tools and went back with her to look at the taps! Nothing I can do! I can't really understand how they can be getting stiffer over time like that (unless they are actually just 'slightly' different in size to what should be on that tap! If it were mine, I'd have a go at slightly reducing the thickness of the rubber washer inside, because it is THAT which is putting pressure on the actual moving parts when its all tightened in place! I just daren't with Mum - being Mum and all! It was eventually agreed that somehow she's going to just have to bite the bullet and have a new tap and have it fitted by a plumber! God knows when or how. :o( . . ate ham and lettuce rolls with spring onions and crisps . . napped . . drove to walk . . TVd/guitarred . . PS called to touch base and suggest a visit next weekend . . touched base with BB . . ate bowls of cornflakes . .TVd until bed around 2am. s
17 - Up around 8:45am. . walked and carried on down town to buy pizzas which were on special offer for not much more than a pound each. Bumped into JK who sat outside with Sally while I was in the store. Had to get one of the store assistants to go look in the stock room for more pizzas because all that were on display were just cheese. Waited ages while she went up in lifts and sorted through stock rooms until finally she reappeared carrying just two pepperoni and more cheese ones. Poor woman - she had to go do it all again because I wanted four pepperoni! lol . . mowed the lawns and pottered in the garden trimming a few things . . ate a defrosted pastie with crisps . . TVd/PCd the rest of the day way . . walked with the tripod and actually went all the way out to sit by the breakwater beach, with the intention of filming the sunset, because with some light cloud in the sky it looked as though it could have been a good one. Sat around on a high seat overlooking the beach and breakwater for well over an hour, with the camera running for a timelapse. Actually ended up being a complete waste of time. The sunset WAS spectacular, but not particularly so, and the way I'd set up the camera made it look even less so. Felt strange and uncomfortable walking back home around the harbour nightlife so late. Eventually back around 10pm . . cooked and ate pizza and then two out of date buttered hot cross buns and a little chocolate. . touched base breifly with BB just before sleep around 12:30am. s
16 - Up around 8:20am. . drove to walk because I just felt SO tired . . guitarred/PCd the day away again trying to find some lyrics (and largely failing)! I'm gonna have to stop trying to do this. It isn't easy for me (why IS it SO easy for so many others?) and seems to make me feel headachey and ill!! . . drank a splash of wine and cooked and ate two cheeseburgers with chips followed by a little chocolate. . napped until around 6:40pm . . drove to walk. Sat around for quite a while watching the sailboats . .PCd . . BB called . .TVd . . ate biscuits and then Mum donated chicken and stuffing slice sandwiches with crisps and some chocolate . . TVd until bed around 2am. sa
15 - Up around 7:30am. . PCd this, rolling over the month and messing with the archive links at the bottom of here. That has to change - it's become far too unweildy. Just not sure how to change it for the best. If I start getting clever with drop down list boxes and such, I run into trouble because of the script and how everyones browser seems to block/stop it working these days for security reasons and all that. . walked. On the way to BGdns with Sally I spotted one of the dog walkers ('T') little dog running loose down the pavement on its own. It appeared to have something in its mouth and as it got closer, it became apparant it was a full sized big dead rabbit!! As it rounded a corner and headed off up a potentially busy street, I figured it may be best to follow.
Turned out it was actually just going home.
After a bit of hesitation and to and fro in the front garden of a
house, it eventually managed to stand on its hind legs and push
open the yellow side gate and disappeared into the back garden.
Carrying on my way, I eventually came across the owner on his way
home alone. Turned out the rabbit was already dead, and the dog
had seized its chance and made off with it! The walkers wife had
just called him all horrified on his mobile, to say the dog was
looking all pleased with itself knocking at her back door with a
dead rabbit in its mouth! lol . . guitarred and then somehow
spent much of the day lost in a world of my own, trying to come
up with some more lyrics for a 'song' (YIKES!) I've been playing
around with. In fact, I have several bare bones twiddles that now
require words!!! Sadly, the little bluesy riff which goes with
the title and words "(We're Gonna Have Some Fun) Don't Care About The
Recession" (my rough 'Memo'
- 568KB MP3) is a real mental block for me. Chords/twiddle wise,
the ENTIRE song (repeating loop) is just sat there waiting, but
for the life of me I can't seem to put (in any way half decent -
to me) words to any of it! (E.g. "We're Gonna Have Some Fun. Don't
Care About The Recession. We're gonna have some fun, in Brixham
down by the sea. We're gonna have some fun, ain't got no time for
depression . . . "!!!!!
EEyuk!) SO frustrating cause it really does seem pretty cool I
reckon. I guess I just can't do words about having 'fun' !
Depression - oh yes. You should see the words I've been writing
all day!!! I guess you just do what you know about huh? lolololol
. . . ended up on the PC (during a big thunderstorm late
afternoon) and eventually, amongst other things, had a good prod
at the Google street view thingy. Oh wow. When I finally realised
it was just that little overlookable icon, and sussed out how to
use it, I was blown away. Incredible! WHAT a shame there is such
limited (relative!) coverage so far. Everything I really wanted
to have a look at (in Bristol - nothing local - YET) wasn't up
and running yet. Nevertheless, just incredible. My hat is
definitely off to whoever realised that idea. I don't have a
problem with all the 'privacy' issues, but do have a niggling
concern about what illegal use it WILL most definitely be put to
by someone, somehow, sometime. Can't wait to see the local area
on it - and back where I used to live of course. . Wasted a good
hour or more looking at all that. People have even made videos of
'highlights' of embarassing captures from it, and others have
used the imagery to create animated 'drive through' type videos.
Utterly amazing - all of it! . . drove to walk . . PCd this . .
guitarred/TVd . . touched base with BB! . . 
One of the guys from the nearby Battery
museum was all dressed up as a Home Guard(presumably to advertise
the place being open to the tourists - but those guys DO seem to
like to dress up and play! lol) and I couldn't help trying to
take a couple of (rushed/poor) shots. Having him dressed there
like that (and even the small 'fleet' of tankers at anchor in the
distance) really DID seem to bring home what that place is all
about, and made you try to imagine what must have been the reality
of being there back during the war. Goose pimples on the back of
your neck stuff! (Just imagine - a barbeque there one evening,
Glen Miller music, fancy dress, a big old searchlight. It'd be
cool wouldn't it? They should do it to raise funds! Even I'd go!
) The brainless yobs who drink in, vandalise and graffitti those
gun emplacements just don't get it do they! . . . PCd/guitarred
transferring footage from the camera to the PC. . headed back out
with Sally and camera to just walk around a bit and see what was
going on in terms of the bank holiday . .mostly overcast and
actually quite cold at times. Actually quite suprised at how it
was relatively quiet about town. Found very little worth filming
(a few neat bits here and there) but somehow managed to use up
all the film in the camera anyway by the time we were done
walking out to the breakwater. . headachey and hungry. . stopped
at the store on the way back and blew £3 on one of their
homemade 'meat feast' pizzas, because I needed food fast and
couldn't face preparing anything. Added extra cheese and half a
chopped onion and had it cooked and was eating it within a
quarter of an hour or so. Actually pretty damned good despite it
being only a thin base (I prefer deep crust - simply because
there is more of it!). . TVd eating Mum donated chocolate rolls
and biscuits. . BB called . . TVd/guitarred until bed around 12:30am.
sa
guitarred. It
was SUCH a nice sunny day, and with a silly video idea in my head,
I eventually ended up daring to walk the woods with Sally, the
guitar, tripod and camera, stopping all over to do silly filming.
Oh wow - just past BGdns by the holiday camp was that Google car
that's been going round doing all that filming for their Earth
website or whatever it is (I've actually not looked it up - yet!),
that's been on the news having got people all irrate about their
privacy being invaded. I don't think it was actually filming at
the time (I got the impression me stopping to take the photos
made the driver uneasy) but wouldn't it be funny if me, Sally and
the guitar were on it! lololol I wonder how their system deals
with the different topography - like does it park and take shots
on a slant, half way up a hill? It must do all over the place.
How does that work I wonder? I'm gonna HAVE to have a look at all
that on the PC one of these days. . . Poor Sally really is
getting older all of a sudden, and can't do the long walks
anymore. :o( She seemed to be suffering a bit as I did my silly
video idea, which entailed pretty much walking the whole way
TWICE, stopping - going back - forward - back etc etc!!!!
Eventually called it quits and headed home - the both of us
pretty damn tired and hot and thirsty!! Funny thing was - on the
way up from the cove, I passed a group of youths all heading down
to make the most of the weather, and two of them were carrying
guitars! . .ate ham. cheese, lettuce mayo sandwiches with crisps
. .While making the sandwiches I became aware of the noise of a
crying whimpering dog, coming from next door (the side that DON'T
have a dog - and who were all out at the time). Wow - I wonder if
they've got another dog? From the distressed noise it was
obviously a VERY young puppy. Agonising to me to be able to hear
it crying like that. I would have baby sat if they'd asked,
rather than have it so distressed. Poor little thing whatever it
was. God - how I can't STAND witnessing ANY form of suffering! :o(.
. touched base with Mum (much better)/JK/PS/BB . .TVd/guitarred
eating biscuits and then bowls of cornflakes . . ended up surfing
YouTube play-guitar videos until bed after 3am! (If YouTube is
good for nothing else - it's a brilliant resource for guitar
learners. If only I could apply myself and put in the time (there's
the rub), it could probably teach me all I'd ever want!)s
ate beef
sandwiches. Carved the rest of the joint into pieces, bagged them
and put them in the freezer (despite the risk of re-freezing
already apparantly more than once re-heated meat!!!) There's just
SO much of it, it's just too good to waste. I haven't been ill
yet. Just astonishes me how much that place he works, throw out.
It really is a crime. That load he gave me in a bin bag, was one
of THREE he had to give away!!!!! Outrageous! A whole great big
joint (££?), the like of which I could NEVER justify the
considerable expense of buying (even though I'm actually now in a
position with my new oven and all, to actually cook such stuff if
I dared to). . . .lay down to nap but managed less than an hour
before being woken by the phone ringing - more than once, but no
message left! Grrr. Couldn't get back to sleep. .JK called to
touch base . . walked and carried on out to JKs. All the way
along past the marina I was pretty much following a seal as it
swam along! Chats and a coffee while watching the
sunset from his window. Eventually
back via sits in BGdns. Very clear and pleasant evening. .
guitarred . . touched base with BB. .cooked and ate pizza with
extra grated cheese before to bed after 12:30am. s