Backblog week 2

Segway (Sunday 15/09/2013)

Son George and a pal had an hour’s fun on these oddball machines which look strange singly but slightly sinister when in a group of ten, not quite synchronised, heading across a field at Ripley Castle; I think it’s due to the lack of apparent movement needed in the human drivers, making them look superfluous and the Segway appear in control.

Brewery Field (Saturday 14/09/2013)

Attended a match at the home of Spennymoor Town FC, FA Vase winners last year, but today knocked out of this season’s (tougher) FA Cup in an entertaining and competitive first qualifying round tie by the higher ranking Lancaster City.

Haircut (Friday 13/09/2013)

“Hair cut Sir!” is the old fashioned sign in Matthew Jones’ shop window, but in the chair in addition to a professional trim you get a proper conversation; today we covered music, books, football and real ale.

Man Booker (Thursday 12/09/2013)

Today I saw the short list for this year’s Man Booker prize which in my experience generally contains books to steer clear of, however the inclusion of a book by Colm Toibin has caused me to reconsider my decision to return to the library, unfinished, one of her previous books ‘Brooklyn’ that, fifty pages in, seemed to be going nowhere; I’ll now persevere and renew it instead.

Plants (Wednesday 11/09/2013)

Pensioner Wednesday is our ironic name for the day when my (relatively) young spouse spends her non-working day pretending to be retired and accompanying me on a mooch around one of the market towns of South Durham and North Yorkshire; today though it’s just a trip to the garden centre to buy a few end of season, raggedly looking, bargain plants to nurture for next spring while of course finding time for a relaxing coffee and scone (cherry and almond) in the tea room.

Grassroots (Tuesday 10/09/2013)

England live on TV in Kiev to face Ukraine in a ‘vital’ world cup qualifier or Jarrow Roofing live in Boldon against Thornaby in the even more vital (being sudden death) 1^st qualifying round of the FA Vase was the dilemma; but the weather is fine and my annual attempt to attend a match in each round could be saved due to this rearranged tie, so I plump for grassroots and am rewarded by a fine competitive match, exciting to the 3-1 finish, in contrast to the reported 0-0 bore draw on TV.

Barn (Monday 09/09/2013)

The large, rather grandly named, outhouse in the back garden needs some serious DIY attention to prevent ingress of rainwater, so most of today spent up a ladder trying to figure out a way to solve the problem without taking the roof off; I have a plan but time will tell whether it is a cunning one or not.