Monday 28 September 2015

I Can Lock All My Doors

Two weeks with no vehicle has been an interesting time. Public transport for shopping, for work and pleasure. My preferences for the bus have meant lengthy journey times and much walking. Or just staying in. Delaying plans for hall furniture has been a pain, the contents of the pre-decorated hall are encamped in the half-decorated lounge and our box/drying room. Not that it will all go back anyway. But we have to make those decisions with new furniture, naturally.

Online grocery shopping, for the first time in a very long time. But the thought of dragging more shopping back from wherever was too much. I watched the algorithm documentary over the weekend and so impressed was I by Ocado's warehouse that I just had to test it out. A friend is writing a novel about algorithms, from their point-of-view. Genius.

Wednesday I'll be up much earlier than normal. It takes four trains to get to Gloucester, wow. But the brilliant people at Skoda are collecting me and taking me to our new car, hurrah! And then a gentle journey home, take the family out for a spin and off to games, all under my own steam, result.

This week's music has been Everything But The Girl. Having loved the early Tracey Thorn, Ben Watts, Marine Girls on Cherry Red it took me until Walking Wounded and Temperamental to get into EBTG, odd that. Bought the enhanced versions of both recently and have loved hearing them and all the remixes over and over. The only other noticeable music thang was Gary Numan selling tickets for fans to go along to his tour rehearsals. I like that idea, why not? Good man.


Time for me to ask you to click on 'my poetry' under 'outpourings' from the left hand side menu. Only three page views - and I've looked at them four times - to date. Poetry's worth a brief look, even I'd argue for that.

Monday 21 September 2015

Decor

It was 20 years ago this week that Cheryl and I moved into our house, a typical 1930s semi. Last week we had new wooden flooring in the hall and carpeted the stairs and landing. After 20 years we have decorated this house in its entirety. A few rooms have had several remakes but we'd never been able to strip off however many layers of gloss from the stairs and so never decorated the hall, landing, stairs. Well chuffed is what we are, that and bouncing up the stairs on our super new carpet!

In other news the inaugural meeting of a new writing group took place at the Orange Tree in Richmond last Tuesday evening. There were nine of us, quite an amazing number for a group I think. Plus two who weren't able to make it are very likely to join us. And the best part of it is, without exception, there is such a wealth of talent, such a refreshing amount of honesty in the feedback, that we can only continue to learn our craft together in sweet harmony as jonny b. love once sang. Very exciting!

Last, but by no means least, my friend Philip came out of hospital this week. Philip is a gaming buddy and unfortunately is bi-polar. He's had ten good years but in April suffered a huge set-back - brought on by Mr Cameron unsurprisingly - and has been in hospital for two lengthy spells. We played a close game of Bruges, close by my standards anyway as I only lost by about ten points, and it remains a huge favourite of mine. But more importantly it was good to have a chat with Philip in his own flat, and despite him being on his own quite a lot at the present time, I hope he continues his recovery at his own pace. He's an exceedingly bright fellow and I find him most agreeable!

That's my exclamation mark paragraph endings done, another poem's been loaded up. Take care all..

I am troubled by the space between sea and food, I'm sorry!

Monday 14 September 2015

Poetry

Right. Have added a page to this blog. It's called 'my poetry' under the Outpourings Section. There'll be a poem added every Monday that I remember to do so.

This is me being less than precious about my poems. And having had enough rejection to last a lifetime. To think I might have gotten published in a poetry magazine read by who knows what number of people, darn it!!

Here's a snap from the weekend before last. It's of the Ocean Rooms in Gorleston which was mentioned in my poem 'Bickering in a Caravan'. I couldn't believe it still has the same name some 30 years on from when I last went there..