Idle thoughts

The weather yesterday morning was absolutely glorious, chilly but really bright, so we took advantage of it and went on a rather longer walk than usual to some woodland we don't visit all that often. As it was uphill most of the way we felt very well exercised when we got home. It's not so nice today but we went for another walk in our usual park this morning. It's starting to get really muddy in parts already so suitable footwear is a must from now on.

In our continuous efforts to declutter our house we have started to try and sort out our theatre programmes. These were in two large boxes and a pile on our dining room floor (don't ask). Thanks to our sorting efforts they are now in two large boxes, two piles on our dining room floor, another pile waiting to be scanned by the printer and another very small pile waiting to be recycled. Possibly it would have been better to leave them alone but it has been nice looking through some of them and remembering some wonderful shows. What was a bit alarming were the things we didn't remember going to at all!

Thanks to kazzy_cee alerting me to the NHS website taking advance bookings I have now booked my booster jab for the end of next week and J's is booked for the week after. Hopefully, we might feel more like going back to the theatre after that, though at the moment there really isn't much on that I want to go to. We have got one thing rescheduled from last year to go to in December so that may cure us of our disinclination to sit with lots of other people in a crowded and often uncomfortable space!

Back to the meme.

1. Have you ever been caught outdoors away from shelter during a thunderstorm?

Yes. We were blackberry picking last year and didn't notice the dark clouds building up until it was too late. We were soaked through to the skin by the time we got home, but the blackberries were fine.

2. Did you ever build furniture forts as a child?

Yes, I think so. I was particularly fond of hiding behind the sofa but I think I tipped a few chairs up to shelter behind too.

3. Do you use any medicines daily?

Yes. I take a very low dose blood pressure pill and another pill to control acid reflux. I was a borderline case for blood pressure medication and my doctor didn't really want to treat me for it but in the end he had to as my "white coat hypertension" makes my blood pressure sky rocket when taken by a nurse.

4. When was the last time you used a disposable camera?

I have used one but I really can't remember when.

5. When was the last time you flew on a plane?

February 2019 coming back from Amsterdam. I hate flying and would rather have gone by train but at that point the Eurostar had an outward train to Amsterdam but not a return one and coming back would have taken ages, so we flew both ways.

6. How many first cousins do you have?

I had two first cousins in America but now I only have one as one of my first cousins sadly died a couple of years ago. We exchange cards at Christmas and my brother is in touch with her on Facebook so she gets most of the family news from him. I have masses of second cousins, both in the UK and the US, but I only know a couple of them.

The rest of the November questions are behind the cut.
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It is quite hard to keep cheery at the moment with the infection rate here climbing upwards and prophesies of doom for the winter. Luckily I had a Zoom exercise class this morning and then J and I went for a walk and discovered a new bit of the park we visit most weeks. It really seems to be like the TARDIS, bigger on the inside than the outside. It was really pleasant to be walking in the sunshine in what could have been the depths of the countryside.

Another cheering thing is that our garden is looking quite pretty at the moment. Our spindly Cosmos which we thought were going to keel over and die have turned into a small forest


Back to the meme

19. What was the first song you ever memorized?

It was probably something like Incey Wincey Spider which I definitely remember singing when walking along in the rain before I went to school. Our neighbours had a baby in February and we can sometimes hear C singing to baby N, which is very sweet, and Incey Wincey Spider is one of the songs she sings, as are other songs I remember knowing as a child. As C is half-Austrian, was born in Brazil and grew up in the U.S. the fact that her repertoire closely resembles my mother's is rather odd.

20. What’s your favorite kind of bread?

One of the pleasures of lockdown has been the fact that J has started making bread and the bread making courses I sent him on have finally paid off. He enjoys making it and I enjoy eating it so it win win. I should loyally say that his is my favourite bread and it is really good but my absolute favourite is cheese bread, which I love. As I love everything involving cheese this is not a surprise. Now I just need to persuade J to make some cheese bread and it is even more win win ( and possibly a lot more walking will be needed).

21. What’s a big pet peeve you have?

To be honest at the moment it is more what pet peeve don't I have! My usual one is cyclists who think they own the roads and the pavements and don't understand the meaning of the highway code or traffic signals. More recent ones are covidiots of all sorts including those who wear masks and then just drop them instead of putting them in litter bins. A very recent one is our post which appears to be being delivered once a week. We get the Radio Times delivered and it used to arrive on a Tuesday but last week it appeared the following Monday which was not really very helpful. It's not the fault of our postman who is excellent but all the rules and restrictions mean he can't cover the area and they won't employ any more staff. If we were waiting for something important it would be even more annoying.

The rest of the September questions are behind the cut
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Sorry I’ve not been around for a bit. We’ve had a few up and down patches with my mother which are always rather draining. There have been good things going on though.

We actually managed to go to our local indie cinema (resurrected by volunteers after the council closed it) to see A United Kingdom. This was the story of Seretse Khama, first president of an independent Botswana, and his British wife Ruth. They met when Seretse Khama was studying in London. He was born to be chieftain of the tribe that ruled Bechuanaland and she was a London office worker so their marriage caused difficulties from the start both from her white father and his family in Africa. They faced not just racism from both sides but also the hostility of the British government who were trying to placate South Africa. How they fought their way through all these problems, stayed together despite all opposition, and eventually triumphed was an inspiring and moving story solidly directed by Amma Asante and well played by David Oyelowo as Seretse and Rosalind Pike as Ruth The film hasn’t had a particularly wide release but we both enjoyed it very much.

(Side note: this film has done very good business for our local cinema as at one point when the Khamas were living in exile from Botswana they lived in our area. My mother can remember seeing Seretse Khama when they lived quite close by and even knew which house they lived in.)

One of J’s Christmas presents from me was a voucher for a London in Four Drinks walk and as with the chocolate tour I nobly volunteered to go with him. Also as with the chocolate tour we booked for a day that proved to be absolutely freezing. I was wearing two thermal layers, a sweater and a coat and was still cold. Fortunately, Emma, our guide, took the cold weather into account and we spent more time in a coffee shop, a pub and a gin distillery than we actually did outside. It was great fun and we learned a lot about the importance of coffee to the founding of some of the most important institutions in the City of London as well as other odd facts about London, such as the pineapple craze of the late 17th century. After a stop in a pub for beer (or in my case wine as I don’t like beer) we ended up in the City of London’s only gin distillery. This was the drink that ruined people’s lives in the 18th century but a gin and tonic proved very warming on an icy day. We had a really great time despite the cold and came home to a warming hot chocolate.

And behind the cut because it's rather long one of the most fun things we've done recently was go to the Theatre Royal, Haymarket to see the double bill of Love's Labour's Lost and Love's Labour's Won (otherwise known as Much Ado About Nothing).

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More fun was had on Monday when I met kazzy_cee at Ikea and we had an excellent time doing much more chatting than shopping. Next week is hopefully quiet and the week after we're going away for a much needed short break. And that was the good bits of February :)

It's been very sad on my LJ for a while so in an effort to cheer things up a bit here's a holiday pic spam.

First we went to Cambridge to meet my American cousin again and saw some slightly weird things

If you look closely you will see there's a man in that bin. I heard the music, looked round for someone with a ghetto blaster and then saw him. He's called The Singing Binman apparently. Each to their own!


( Slightly less weird )

After Cambridge it was off to Wales again. We'd stayed in The Mumbles briefly two years ago and really liked the B&B and the very brief glimpse we got of the Gower Peninsula so we decided to go back for more.

( Lots of cliffs and a Worm )

The weather seems to have taken a serious turn for the not so nice today as it is grey and rather cold but we had a glorious day out yesterday.

It started well when we had one of these each for breakfast. I'm not usually a fan of odd flavours for Hot Cross Buns but these sounded so wacky I just had to buy them and they were a taste sensation. Now I know why my brother's Very Large Birthday with a Zero On the End present from my sister-in-law was a meal at the The Fat Duck at Bray! The point of the day though was not to stuff ourselves with food but to get some exercise so we went for another walk along the Thames. The original plan was to start at Kew Bridge, where we left off last week, and walk to Teddington. Unfortunately we'd neglected to check on the engineering works going on this weekend so we got to Clapham Junction to discover we'd just missed the train to Kew Bridge and there wasn't another one for half an hour. As we didn't really want to hang about on a platform at Clapham Junction Station we got the next train to Richmond and started our walk from there. We weren't really cheating as we had done a walk from Kew to Richmond a few years ago and no-one says you have to walk the Thames Path in order.

The weather was about 10 degrees colder than it had been when we were walking last week, but it was still glorious.

( Pic spam behind the cut )

I'm sure better walkers than we are would have walked back, but we decided that maybe the train was a better idea!

Happy Easter everybody :)

Brrr...it's rather colder today than it was yesterday. Lucky we chose yesterday to go for a walk along the Thames rather than today. J had the day off (last day of leave to use up) and we need the exercise so we decided to do a bit of the Thames Path from Putney to Kew. Basically we were walking along the route of next week's Boat Race...and then a little further.

J used to live in Putney so walking down Putney High Street was an exercise in nostalgia, except it had completely changed. About the only things that were recognisable were the pubs and Sainsburys! The recession doesn't seem to have hit Putney though and I couldn't see any empty shops, in fact the whole of our route oozed affluence and I think I even saw one woman working out with her personal trainer! It was busy when we first started walking and we were being continually overtaken by runners and people on bikes but as we went further on the numbers of people decreased and the runners got less keen. Near Putney there were rowers being coached on the Thames and we could hear the instructions of the coaches over their megaphones, but again further along the sound decreased to the quacking of ducks and some beautiful birdsong. It was so peaceful we could have been in the middle of the country rather than close to the middle of London. We made it to Kew without too much difficulty and it was only when we stopped in a pub that we both realised that our legs were rather tired! As we hobbled out of the pub we decided that maybe the train back might be a good idea.

( The River Thames and unexpected Beverly Brook )

I've been back for a while but as J has time off we've been doing stuff. The trip to Lincolnshire went OK and we got rid of quite a lot, including ma-in-law's Christmas cards from 1995, which J found stuffed in a box with knitting patterns. If nothing else this is a very good lesson on the evils of hoarding!

On Friday we went to Oxford to buy tea...as one does, and finished off a walk we'd begun last year. The problem with these walks is that the book we use always suggests excellent places for lunch and tea so we spend more time eating than we do exercising, which rather negates the point. We managed another little walk yesterday to our local rhododendron woods. We were probably about a week too late to see them at their best but they were still lovely and the scents were heavenly. There was a place there to have afternoon tea but we nobly resisted temptation.

Today we've just got back from our second trip to see Star Trek and I have to say I thought it was even better on second viewing.

( The only genius level repeat offender in the mid-west )

It's a film that's very hard on the eyes so I think I'd better stop looking at the computer screen for a bit!

I meant to write this up yesterday but got so caught up in doing something that not only did I not write this but I nearly forgot I was supposed to be going out in the evening. Anyway better late than never and mostly for my own interest here is What I Did Over the Bank Holiday Weekend.

( Who Do You Think You Are Live )

( Rural London )

I meant to write this up yesterday but got so caught up in doing something that not only did I not write this but I nearly forgot I was supposed to be going out in the evening. Anyway better late than never and mostly for my own interest here is What I Did Over the Bank Holiday Weekend.

( Who Do You Think You Are Live )

( Rural London )