Lost Cherry

The Siesta café where I while away the hour between driving shifts was unusually busy when I arrived today with the two visible staff (equipped with headsets, possibly just cosmetic to exude an air of modernity as it did not seem to improve efficiency) rushing to service the queue, which haste led one of them ramming the cake tongues into the pile of bakewell tarts, dislodging the cherry from at least one; when my turn came I volunteered to take a cherry-less bakewell off her hands, thus relieving myself of the decision whether to eat it or leave it, even though it did mean foregoing a potential one of my five a day fruit & veg.

Picture This

Birthday cards can be a telling indicator of people’s perception of the lifestyle of the recipient; mine used to picture footballers, bicycles and fast cars but this year featured an armchair, newspapers, a mug of tea, biscuits, a TV remote control, someone asleep next to a shed amid gardening equipment, and someone sleeping in a hammock above long grass and an unused mower.

Talking Up

For some reason all three of my offspring got in touch today, the far flung daughters by Skype and the closer son in person; when he arrived we had to talk up to him as he seemed several inches taller than last we saw him (though only a month ago), until he removed his latest pair of shoes, the soles of which were thick enough to have qualified as ‘platforms’ in my day.

Blackwell Meadows

Today I made my first visit to Blackwell Meadows, the new home ground of Darlington 1883 FC, their fourth ground in the relatively short time I have followed their fortunes, but hopefully one that will support their climb back into the Football League; however that possibility took a knock today with a 3-2 defeat to Harrogate Town, due mainly to playing with just ten men for over an hour after their captain was sent off for a tackle both late and high. 

City Walls

Met my walking pal Pete in York today and we stretched our legs with a stroll around the city wall, much of which remains intact and from which some unusual views of the familiar buildings are to be had; we followed up the circuit with lunch in King’s Manor, a post prandial walk along the river, and a couple of hours in the Old Starre Inn where we nearly racked up as many pints as miles covered earlier.

Calm Centre

In the midst of an eventful half term week, today provided an oasis of calm with nothing more exciting than visits to the library and the supermarket; similarly we seemed to be in the calm centre of storm Doris which raged all around the country but left us with just a bit of rain and a stiff breeze for an hour or so.

Match of the Month

What with waterlogged pitches, swollen knees and family events it has been over a month without a football match, a situation rectified this evening with the rearranged Shildon v Morpeth fixture, though even that looked in doubt at one stage with the visitors stuck on the A1(M) behind a traffic accident, which meant a very late kick off and an even later finish.

Barters

The return from Bamburgh, as always, included a stop off in Alnwick and a visit to Barters Books, whose enormous selection of second-hand volumes fills the former station building; however I must be getting more choosey as despite a lengthy browse around the shelves I came away with only a couple of books.

Beach Walk

Day three and we took advantage of the mild if breezy weather to walk the three mile beach to Seahouses, which was quiet but where we managed to spin out its facilities for an hour longer than planned, due to a cock up on the bus timetable front as I had downloaded the summer schedule (hourly buses) instead of the winter one (two buses a day); eventually the 15:19 arrived and got us back to the Mizzen Head for another fish based feast.

City and Coast

Day two of the mini break saw the transition from the urban architectural splendour of Newcastle-Gateshead (Quayside, bridges, Baltic and the Sage) to the coastal beauty of the Northumberland seaboard, as we took the scenic road north to Bamburgh, stopping en route at the little fishing port of Amble for an amble round its familiar attractions – harbour market, craft pods, and Spurreli’s coffee shop; the restraint we exercised at the café enabled us later to more thoroughly enjoy the specialist seafood dishes on the menu at our hotel, the Mizzen Head.

Sage

Day one of our half term break took us to Gateshead for the Sophie Ellis-Bextor concert at the Sage which the songstress delivered in fine voice and with surprising energy over the ninety minute show featuring tracks from her last two albums, a disco finale of old favourites, and a spellbinding acoustic encore performed from the balcony; less memorable were the support group Lock (three rock chicks whose enthusiasm outstripped their talent) and the post show drink at the Piano & Pitcher across the Tyne on the Quayside (whose price for a round of two drinks outstripped the tenner I had optimistically fished from my wallet).

Kitchen Island

A big day for the kitchen with the delivery of matching fridge, freezer and washing machine, and though I paid the extra charge for the connection and disposal of the weighty washer the other two items were just dumped in the middle of the kitchen providing, for a few hours at least, a temporary worktop island, or more realistically a traffic island round which we needed a one-way system as we prepared our evening meal.

Poolside

A new minibus driving job today with the short trip from school to the swimming pool for the gala practice session, and there was no sloping off for coffee as my attendance was required poolside (such presence being purely cosmetic given my propensity to sink in water) where the echoing sound and chlorinated smell took me back to some of my worst schooldays; however these kids were confident and proficient, their only problem being exiting the pool for which the steps were needed in most cases, whereas I was the opposite – useless in the water but the quickest when it came to getting out.

Flat Head

That today felt a little flat was partly due to my hair that in the shower last night suffered from a double dose of shower gel as I mistook the Lynx for the Head & Shoulders and wondered why it wouldn’t lather; it was only as I tried to apply shampoo to my body that I realised my error, which may be due to advancing senility or more likely too much Rhucello in the Prosecco.

Saints’ Days

Two saints to remember today - first St Valentine, whose day it is and whose patronage of love and happy marriage my wife and I celebrated with the M&S meal deal consisting salmon & asparagus mousse, coq au vin with chunky chips, and chocolate pudding, washed down with Prosecco (laced with Rhucello – our own addition); as for the second saint I was going to name-check St Michael for providing the excellent meal but it appears the Marks & Spencer trademark that characterised my early underwear and later work shirts was decommissioned in the year 2000, so his day is well and truly over.

Senior Monday

I took advantage, for the first time, of the Senior Monday offer at the cinema - £5 entry for any film starting before noon – that luckily included the one I wanted to see, T2: trainspotting, which proved as enjoyable as its precursor; not a dull moment in the two hours as the interplay between the old gang of four subtly played out the tensions between old friendships, betrayals that end them, and the ache to achieve redemption.

Raining - Cats and Logs

Cold, wet and dreary hereabouts, such that the fire was lit early and my only steps outside the house were to empty the cats’ litter trays and fill up the log basket; and it was the cats who came out best all round, provided with both a clean toilet and a hot stove to lie in front of.

Guess Who’s Come to Dinner

A meal out with friends to celebrate one’s sixtieth birthday and another’s retirement from work (been there, got both t-shirts) was given extra interest by the request for each of us to bring along a photo from an early birthday (18 or 21) and from the start of our working lives; naturally the hair styles (in some cases just hair) and clothing from the 70’s and 80’s were entertaining as we played a game of guess who.

Library Dash

A book near to the top of my to-read list is “Billy Lynn’s Long Half Time Walk” and I had seen a copy in Stockton library on my last few visits, but with the film on release from today I thought it wise to grab it before the publicity rendered it popular and unobtainable; my dash to the shelves was in time to secure the volume and four weeks in which to read it.

Unforgotten

A day spent in the house so the highlight was the evening’s TV, in particular the final episode of ‘Unforgotten’, which has been a great six-parter on ITV providing a unusually good combination of authentic police procedural and rounded characterisation of victims and suspects; another thing not to be forgotten in these interesting times was aired later in the night on BBC4 - ‘The Nazis, a Warning from History’ – which is starting to show some worrying parallels.

Prawnless Pie

Cooking for two has meant my signature fish pie is now made infrequently, but today I decided to try to make a small one, which was quite successful but still generated more than two whopping portions – and that was without the prawns in the fridge that, with lack of practice, I forgot to add.

No Siesta

After a three month career break I was back on minibus duty today ferrying between primary and secondary schools and, with over an hour free in between dropping off and picking up, I tried a new café on the Newton Aycliffe industrial estate; despite that unpromising location the “Siesta” outlet was quite swish, enabling me to spend the time (and my wages) comfortably recharging my levels of caffeine and sugar to ensure I did not succumb to the name’s suggestion while later behind the wheel.

Overtime

Superbowl LI provided dramatic early morning viewing, though at half time with the Atlanta Falcons well out in front and Lady Gaga about to take centre stage it may have been tempting for some to go to bed; not so a seasoned watcher like me who knows how quickly scores can be made, particularly with Tom Brady and the New England Patriots on the field, and once again the game delivered a terrific and scarcely believable climax – the first ever Superbowl settled in overtime.

Passing the Oval Ball

As tonight’s Superbowl signals the end of the NFL season, the commencement of rugby union’s Six Nations contest gets under way to provide a seamless transition for the oval ball; both sports make for good TV viewing, even on terrestrial channels, and though the NFL is only a weekly highlights show it is excellently presented and occupies just an hour, while on the other hand the coverage of the rugby is live but this week ate up six hours of my weekend.

Pitch Imperfect

On a day of blue sky and winter sunshine, perfect for watching football, I arrived at Shildon’s Dean Street ground for the big game against Morpeth only to find the match had been called off due one corner of the pitch being judged imperfect at a noon inspection; my quick dash to nearby grounds at Bishop Auckland and West Auckland were in vain with both teams playing away, leaving me matchless for the third consecutive Saturday.

India Rubber Man

Today at the library I ended up sharing a table with someone whom I soon nicknamed the India rubber man, not because he displayed an extreme flexibility of limb but as he spent most of his time vigorously rubbing out his pencilled attempts at a newspaper puzzle (possibly a Sudoku – though difficult to tell under the growing mound of debris so produced), and with his efforts constantly shaking the table my own writing soon developed a pattern of (normal) scrawl punctuated by illegibility.

Waxing Lyrical

One of today’s jobs was to apply some finishing wax to the up-cycled school desk, a fairly monotonous task made light of with the accompaniment of a run through my playlists – as I sang along was it a case of waxing lyrical?

Piece of Cake

This teaching lark has been a piece of cake this week – my private pupils’ mothers providing a slice of lemon drizzle on Monday and some Victoria sponge on Tuesday; on Wednesday it was time for my publicly funded work but the arrival of my learner one hundred minutes late made that session easy to the point of being metaphorically similar.