Wind Cheater

With the wind expected to blow long and hard tomorrow I drove down to Salford a day early and instead of getting blown about on the M62 I instead got enveloped in low cloud over the Pennines and heavy rain beyond; still, I arrived safely and will have a rest day tomorrow before the return trip on Tuesday.

Swan Lake

Darlington and Ulan Bator (capital of Mongolia) don’t have many things in common but a couple are my daughter, who lives in one and works in the other (a hell of a commute), and the Russian State Ballet of Siberia who have performed Swan Lake in both, and having seen it over there my daughter bought us tickets to see it at Darlington Civic Theatre tonight; this being my first live ballet I am no expert but the experience was very enjoyable (once I came to terms with the leading men prancing in white tights) with the sixteen swans being particularly spectacular as they pirouetted to and fro across the stage as if on castors.

Free Beer

At a pub quiz I could not attend over the Christmas period, the team picked up a prize of a gallon of beer, or at least token for eight free pints at the same pub, and although I was not there to assist in the win I was invited to help down the booty tonight – and it would have been impolite to refuse.

One Good Turn

I am not generally prone to acts of random kindness, by the time I’ve hesitated to consider the potential consequences of helping someone - embarrassing an unwilling recipient, somehow making matters worse, the danger of becoming inextricably embroiled – the opportunity has usually gone as some more impulsive person has stepped in, however today in Darlington as I strode up Horsemarket I paused in overtaking a chap in a wheelchair laboriously propelling himself slowly up the hill and offered him a push; he accepted unembarrassed, I neither broke his wheelchair nor tipped him out, and he was quite happy to be left on level ground when we reached High Row.

Storm Kate

With my day job taking me to Skerne Park today I found myself in the eye of a storm, not storm Jonas blowing in from the Atlantic but media storm Kate, named for the Head of the school who wrote to parents asking them to refrain from wearing pyjamas on the school run (and even to school functions) and as a result found media crews queuing up outside for interviews, sound-bites and video footage; while I think her motives and approach are laudable, I also think she is spitting into the wind as ‘loungewear’ becomes sufficiently socially acceptable for some to think turning up to school in PJs is cool – my absent learner went one better and just stayed in bed allowing me to sit back unencumbered and watch the show.

James Clerk Maxwell

Despite spending significant undergraduate time in the JCM building at Edinburgh University all those years ago I had failed to register the man’s outstanding contribution to theoretical physics in the nineteenth century, so I found tonight’s BBC4 documentary on “Scotland’s Einstein” most revealing, setting out his work on discovering and mathematically modelling electromagnetic fields/waves that form the foundation of modern technology; and even the use of red, blue and green LEDs on such technology’s colour display screens utilises his earlier research into light that showed it is these primary colours of light (interestingly different from those for paint – green instead of yellow) that the eye responds to and combines to discern other shades.

Spell Check

I had not previously seen the Tarantino film “Inglourious Basterds” (sic), partly put off by the (presumably deliberate) misspelt title, but my sister sent me the DVD for Christmas and on Saturday night I watched (and enjoyed) it; it was only this morning when I ejected the disc and started to put it away that I noticed she had corrected the spelling on the case by judicious use of sticky labels - whether to assuage her sensibilities or mine I don’t know.

Big Fat Books of the Year

With my wife in bed, let us say indisposed, I had the run of the house for much of the day, so between chores I was able to finish off the blockbusting thriller “I am Pilgrim”, one of the big fat books (in fact probably the fattest at 900 pages) on the shelves that I have promised myself to read in 2016; I have already made a start on Nelson Mandela’s autobiography and the next of Trollope’s Palliser novels, to be followed in due course by biggies from Kate Atkinson, Stephen King, Zadie Smith, David Mitchell, Donna Tartt and Margaret Atwood – and who knows I could then get back to Stig Larsson’s Millennium trilogy or even pick up the first Game of Thrones volume and buy a new doorstop instead.

Football as Usual

After an extraordinary period of fixture cancellations, and during a frantic weekend dealing with problems not mine to disclose, I found an oasis of normality at Moore Lane Park, where a third round FA Vase tie between Newton Aycliffe and Marske United took place on grass (albeit muddy) at 3pm on a Saturday afternoon; the home team deservedly won 2-0 and so get a step nearer a Wembley appearance.

Meat Sale

Bolam’s, the locally based wholesale butcher with retail unit attached, does very well over Christmas and New Year with incredible numbers of turkeys and joints sold, and in January they return some of the profits back to customers in the form of a meat sale – generally in the form of buy one get one free – so today I felt I had to double up all my purchases of chicken, minced beef and pork sausages to get the benefit; all very well but back home it turned out what I also needed was a freezer sale.

Tuna Stocks

One of our staple evening meals is tuna pasta bake – tinned tuna, fusilli pasta, tomato based sauce, mozzarella cheese, peas and sweetcorn with toasted cheddar cheese on top – and with it on the menu for tonight I checked the cupboard for the stock of tuna; with twenty-five tins there, the stocks in the cupboard were fine, but I guess the implication for stocks in the ocean were less rosy.

Same Old No Show

Last week’s promising new learner became this week’s same old story with an all too familiar no-show; I spent the time planning (in outline) the next four weeks work, or at this rate of attendance, the next eight weeks work.

Fill Her Up

Twenty years ago when we moved into the village (where there was and remains no gas supply) the price of kerosene to fuel the oil-fired central heating was about 15 pence a litre, but over the years it rose inexorably (sometimes alarmingly) to reach about 60p during 2011 & 2012; the drop since then has been welcome and with today’s delivery costing just over 24p a litre there was only one thing to say to the tanker driver – fill her up.

Re-Hudled

As my defunct Hudl was due to be picked up today I turned it on to check it still wasn’t working, only to find it was - good news in that I could cancel the repair; the bad news was that the factory reset I performed was probably unnecessary, and I had to spend an hour or so reloading all the apps.

Free Tea Cup

January is clearly the graveyard month for garden centres, with the Christmas decoration bonanza over and nobody interested in venturing into a cold wet garden for a few weeks yet, so when we turned up looking for orchid pots it was pretty quiet in there with clearance stock items scattered hither and thither; after our customary visit to the café we browsed, failed to find what we’d come for, but did spot an outsize tea cup plant pot marked down from £10 to £5, that at the till was further reduced to £3, and as I paid for it with a loyalty card voucher of that value was effectively free. 

Lame Excuse

Recording video evidence for the boy’s college course should have been done and dusted during the summer sunshine but, due to his “that’ll do” attitude and a plethora of excuses for missing events, it proved insufficient, necessitating first us attending some indoor track meetings (inconvenient but at least warm and dry) and then some cross country races in mud, rain and today a frozen field somewhere near Durham where he pulled up lame (or so he claimed) with six and a half kilometres of the seven kilometre distance still to go; we still managed to get some footage to hopefully bump up the grade – a pity there is no A level in excuses as he would have a nailed-on A*.

Hudless

I am without Hudl – it lost its Wi-Fi ability last night and the fault remained this morning, requiring a call to the Hudl helpline, who couldn’t really help other than to take me down the factory reset route and chat pleasantly about the weather with me in County Durham and with them in South Wales while all my data was erased and the tablet rebooted, only to find the restart stalled due to the continuing inability to turn on the Wi-Fi; at least it is still under guarantee so will be picked up on Monday for repair or replacement.

Snow

The winter having been so mild, if wet, the arrival of some snow demands mention; fortunately it came on a day I planned to spend indoors on some freelance accountancy and snooker watching so I could watch through the window with disinterested interest as it fell, lay and slowly melted away.

Learners

The education centre have finally given up on my absentee learner (last seen in November), and have assigned me a new one, which also meant a change of day, and today’s first session went well enough in that the lad turned up and engaged with the process – for one week at least.

Coals to Durham

With their travelling fans shouting “come on Coals” Atherton Collieries FC took on Newton Aycliffe in their long delayed FA Vase third round tie, originally scheduled for 12 December but repeatedly postponed due to the home team’s waterlogged pitch, hence the move of the game to the plastic pitch at New Ferens Park in Durham; both teams struggled with the unfamiliar surface but it was a spirited game, tight and tense, and though Atherton brought Coals to Durham they brought no goals whereas Newton Aycliffe did, just the one, but enough to see them through to the next round.

Hug in a Mug

After a day keeping Dad company while my stepmum gallivanted round Bolton, I took off, on her return, for a walk round Walkden, which town centre is blighted by a giant Tesco and so contains little of interest, certainly not the conglomeration of Pizza Hut, Subway, McDonalds and KFC which sent me scurrying over the road to the independent Hug a Mug Café whose furnishings and clientele resembled a cross between a crèche and a pensioners’ day centre – so I fitted in quite well with one end of the demographic while I drank my latte and read a couple of chapters on the kindle.

Man in a Suitcase

He featured in the eponymous TV series of the sixties, a secret agent or private eye who travelled the world on assignments equipped, it seemed, only with carry-on luggage that nevertheless contained all the equipment he needed to overcome his quarry, and all the clothes he needed to look sharp as a tack; similarly I have my small wheeled overnight bag packed to the gunnels with all I need for my trips to Salford (another today) containing clothes - a change of shirts and underwear and most importantly my slippers - and vital equipment such as phone, tablet, chargers, puzzle book, notebook and, appropriately enough, a spy novel.

Lunch of the Day

FA Cup Third Round day gave me a choice of games at Middlesbrough or Hartlepool, but instead I opted for lunch in Yarm with my wife, which was cheaper (she paid), warmer (since indoors on a cold wet day) and more enjoyable (particularly as both Boro and the Pool lost).

Highlight

My daughter’s departure yesterday brought the curtain down on Christmas and a return to retirement routine, which on a Friday means putting out the bins, putting on a washload, supermarket shopping, and a quick dip into the library; the only highlight was the highlighter pen that found its way into the washing machine – fortunately its lid stayed firmly on and the clothes stayed the colours that the manufacturers intended.

Diversion

Needing to get my daughter to Newcastle Airport for her flight tomorrow morning, I decide to risk negotiating the extensive road works on the A1 Western Bypass, where to all appearance more earth has been excavated than during the building of the Panama Canal, and although the trip up north was hindered only by reduced speed limits, getting back south was more problematic; diverted off the main road, following diversion signs at best sporadic and at times misleading, we went wrong, crossing the Tyne three times (twice by the same bridge) and exploring Gateshead in great detail, before eventually emerging back on to the familiar motorway south only to get in the way of a siren-blaring ambulance whose intended direction was hard to work out.

Star Wars

Took my son and elder daughter to see the new Star Wars movie – Episode VII, which was appropriate given the inter-generational themes that persist and the series’ ancient history; I saw the first trilogy before I had kids, I saw the second trilogy with my then young daughters, and now my teenage son (an expert due to repeated viewing of the videos) can join us for the third – no wonder I’m looking as old as Harrison Ford.

Day Out

Although home, my dad is largely confined to his armchair, so a hospital consultant’s appointment is almost a welcome change; picked up from said armchair by the ambulance crew and transported to Salford Royal in comfort, pushed in a padded wheelchair (by me) around the bright and airy hospital (consultant – X Ray – blood test), deposited in a well-appointed patient transport departure lounge with a frothy coffee, and then another ambulance ride back to the armchair, it was, for him, as good as a day out.

Taking the High Road

Another day whose main feature was the drive across the Pennines, but not a bad trip in the middle of the day, avoiding the worst of the traffic, with the only delay at Saddleworth Moor where, as the sign proclaimed the M62 reached the highest elevation of any UK motorway, the carriageway duly disappeared into the clouds for a few miles.

Good Reading

As Jools Holland counted down to midnight on New Year’s Eve, I was counting down the remaining few pages of my fiftieth book of the year, which I finished with a couple of minutes to spare and so completed the 2015 reading challenge – not only 50 books read but ticking off the 50 criteria designed to add variation and novelty; on reflection it succeeded in that aim but now, a few of days into 2016, I am back in my comfort zone and picking my reads unrestricted.

Wet Auckland

With no football matches visited at all in December, due in part to family commitments but also to horrendously wet weather, it was good today to overcome both by taking my prospective son-in-law with me to one of the few Northern League matches to survive yet more bad weather and go ahead - at West Auckland Town, where the teams put on a good game despite the pudding of a pitch, especially the visitors, Shildon FC, who won scoring four good goals without reply.

Golden Nuggets

As is traditional, and advisable, on New Year’s Day we took in some fresh air with a three mile walk, just down the lane but pleasant enough and good preparation for the third feast in as many days, this time my wife’s signature dish of sweet and sour chicken that is so good that the golden battered chicken nuggets have to be counted out on to the plates to ensure that nobody gets more than their equal share.