- get up early
- study BBC online weather forecast – observe white fluffy cloud symbol and yellow sun symbol and assume the day is set fair
- saw logs so as to make them more woodpile-friendly
- create new border in the garden
- go to nearby farm to purchase a sack of well rotted cow poo for said border for one of your fine English pounds
- apply poo to new border
- get changed from poo-ey clothes
- welcome brother-in-law to house
- drive to extremely nice nearby public house
- park car
- strap small child to chest in slightly bizarre harness device
- walk in opposite direction to public house wiuth a view to making a large circuit, returning to said public house with hearty appetite for fine ales
- observe rapidly deteriorating weather conditions
- wade through mud, fight brambles, attempt to pacify child – all in steady rain and a cool breeze – whilst cheerfully reassuring one another that the weather "will blow over in a minute and surely improve"
- reach a farm with a large barn
- take shelter in said barn
- change child’s nappy and then eat sandwiches whilst heavy rain continues, whilst regretting not bringing any sort of waterproof clothing for anyone other than small child – the same small child who, whilst being only 12 weeks old, has already developed the ability to laugh and point at his soaking wet father from within the warmth and dryness of his red waterproof
- decide that the rain is not going to stop
- run back through the mud and rain to the car, leaving brother-in-law, wife and child in barn
- drive back to collect rest of party and then home, to glorious sunshine
- head to the pub next door for a pint or two
- return home, eat pie
- search for hotel for stay in Budapest – realise that no hotel there has been renovated since 1967. Decide to seek advice from the only person I know with much experience of the Hungarian capital.
- read the best post in ages on Parallax View – end the day contented
Winter
April 10th – 1.5 to 2 inches of snow. Hmm.
Lacking fruit
What a fruitless day. A large chunk of it was spent trying to track down the correct brake parts for Hels’s car – ultimately I gave up searching the interwebnet and went to my local garage where they, helpfully, assured me that they were as confused as I am and suggested that the best thing to do was to take the old ones off and take them as patterns to a motor factor. Hmm.
After that, I went seeking some transparency film. Call me old-fashioned, call me a luddite, but don’t call me late for tea (very old family joke – sorry). "Why do I want transparency film?" I hear you ask. Well, the answer is that you don’t want it, I do. The reason is that I need to update my slide collection that I use when I’m giving presentations, particularly with new pictures of some of the plants that I look after in my work. But does anyone sell transparency film any more? Nope. Finally, I tracked down a particularly obscure old-fashioned photographic shop in a particularly obscure corner of NearbyTown (which is obscure in itself) and purchased two rolls of Konico-Minolta 100ASA film – not my preferred brand (always been a FujiFilm kind of guy), but given a choice of that or nothing, that will do.
I’ve also purchased a new (25 year old) lens for my (equally old) Olympus OM2N – my current one is not in the best of health and, for the sake of ten quid, the new one might just be better. Of course, the camera is not technically mine, as it really belongs to my brother, but as it has been in my possession for a considerable number of years now and he hasn’t asked for it back, I’m claiming squatter’s rights.
Subsequently, I’ve discovered that the camera had a part-exposed roll of film inside. So I’ve squandered the remaining frames on pictures of plants, of Tom and of the cats (Monty is so much better at posing than Treacle) and dropped it into Boots. I’ll be able to collect it on Saturday and, as I’ve asked for a CD of scans, you might get to see some pictures from it too. Of course, since it must be at least three years old, there is no telling what is on the first 23 frames of film. I suspect that it may well feature ex-girlfriends, which could make it, um, interesting. Hels has already said that she will delight in destroying any such photos as soon as possible. I’ll keep you posted.
60A is not dark red
Today, I shall mostly be spending getting on for £150 on one of these. But at least I’ll be able to tell you what colour it is.
Redesign and upgrades
I’m currently redesigning my work website, moving the whole thing across to WordPress and using the Pages feature to generate the non-blog content. So far, it’s been a mostly enjoyable experience, with only the discovery that forms break TinyMCE to spoil the party. I’ll let you know when I launch it.
Meanwhile, I notice that there is a WordPress security update. How tiresome. Guess I’d best get it.
In other news, we had a builder pop round this morning. He actually turned up when he said he would. Amazing.
Small successes
Avid comment readers will know that we have introduced formula feeding for Tom as a supplement to boob-milk. It allows us a little more flexibility, in that I’m the one responsible for preparation and application of the bottle, giving H a well-earned rest. The plan is also that it allows us a bit more sleep, as a bottle tends to leave baby feeling more full and less inclined to snack.
Well, based on just two nights’ experience, it seems to have worked. Sunday night was reasonably good but last night was the best yet – bottle at 10pm, then a feed at 3-ish and another around 7am. H and I are both feeling much better for getting something approaching a decent night’s sleep – we’re probably better able to cope with the demands of the day. Spectacular smelly orange poo is the downside, but we can cope with that with the aid of a gas mask and full chemical protection suit.
We plan to keep using the free mum-milk for at least another month and then make the transition to 100% formula feeding, although that depends on how things go over the next few weeks. At the moment, we’re using just one bottle a day. But we think that now is the best time to do this – six weeks of 100% boob-milk has been good for Tom and good for mother-baby bonding. And boob-milk is free, whereas formula is about £7 per tin, plus sterilizing costs.
In other non-baby news, it looks like we might make some progress on finally getting the repairs done to the leaky lead flashing around our chimney. I’m slaving over a hot laptop, trying to keep/catch up with work, including installing a blog on my work website to replace the news page (obvious really – should have done it ages ago). And I’ve been doing some work on the garden, clearing dead trees, trimming the hedge and psyching myself up for attacking the major project that is the front garden. Maybe this weekend?
Dark day
Most long-term readers of this site will be aware that I’ve never really been a fan of television and, for many years, I didn’t have one. Since meeting Hels, TV has been around a little more and I must confess to avidly devouring episodes of The Simpsons as well as food programmes and the occasional documentary. However, yesterday we had a dark day – Dad gave us an unwanted digital receiver box thingy. We now have all the free channels – Three, Five (digital only here), More 4, Even More 4, More 4 Than That, As Much 4 As You Can Take and 4 The Love Of God No More 4 Thank You. I think we’re on a slippery slope unless I can programme it so that only BBC Parliament comes on (the world’s most boring TV channel).
Sunrise over Ruralville
Busy busy
In recent days:
- lots of work
- major works in the summer house with the aid of Dad and Tim in order to convert it into my new Global Headquarters – still in progress
- as a side project, major works to improve the shed as a new super deluxe drying room – possibly the only shed for miles that is fully carpeted
- parents, brother and brother’s other half to stay
- wife with a heavy cold
- other boring minutiae that you really don’t want to read
Ok, I’ll admit it – I was beginning to feel guilty for the lack of posting around here. That’ll teach you (or something).
Clear out
We are very pleased with ourselves after yesterday. Not only did we have a lie-in, but we also managed to clear out not only the shed but also the summer house as well. Two car boots full of rubbish later, we can actually get in there and move around – important preparation for the forthcoming upgrade from summer house to global headquarters building for my business. More on that as we go along, possibly with pictures if I feel like it.
Meanwhile, anyone want to buy a really lovely dining table or a very large wall mirror?