Bloody W10 again!

26/27 February

Good morning folks; yesterday I did write my blog but when I came to post it, W10 began playing silly buggers again. This morning I have spent half-hour changing some of the settings back to where I had them before, so now I hope it will work fine again – at least for a day or two. All in all, I have come to the conclusion that I don’t like W10.

Kile is with us again, even if he is full of a chest infection. He’s coughing n barking and fetching loads of phlegm (yeah, nice topic eh), but even for worse for the boy. No plans for today other that trying to get some writing done later; which brings me to …

Writing in general. When I started writing The Mission, my computer was upstairs in the back bedroom, well away from the general hubbub of life. It worked too because I got it written in very quick order. All the others came along after that, all penned in the same room. Then we moved here to our flat, and the writing has just about stopped. The only think I can think of is not being in a separate room while I write that is causing the hold up. Later today I will take a table through to our bedroom and see what I can get done in there.

Kile has home work to do, this time it’s about an artist that he has to look up on Google. Then he has to find example of their work and come up with five words related to it. I hope the artist is a decent one, not the scam-artist Trashy Tracy. The only Fart she comes up with is real crap, but the morons in the art world love her. Perhaps she drops her knickers for them all to get the reviews, that’s the only way I can see her getting anything. Mind you, I should be careful what I write on here in case she hears of it gets upset; tough titty then eh.

And talking of art (or not – depending on your view point), here’s one from the male nutter of BritArt …      

For the first time since our kitchen work started, we both went out together yesterday, not that we did anything special of course. Oh no; Jan had the idea that perhaps Kile might like a different sort of bed for when he stays here with us. So yesterday we went to Jacksons, out at Arley to look at inflatable camping beds. The type she was interested in were not available so we need to re-think it. From there we both wanted a drink, but guess what? No Cash!

So we headed off towards Coventry where we found an ATM close to the Old Shepherd pub, and that’s where we sat for an hour with our pints of diet cola. Please note that said ‘cola’ not Coke. We’ve found that most pubs these days only sell Pepsi, and not Coke. At home we have a full shelf of cans of coke in the fridge, but because I said that I prefer the pubs’ Pepsi than the cans in the fridge, so when we were in Asda later on.

I bet you found those two paragraphs a very riveting read. But the pubs’ Pepsi got me thinking and just how much freedom of choice we have when we go out. You may well feel that you get a good choice of drinks in all pubs, but unless the pub is a ‘free house’ where the licensee can provide whatever he has room for, or his customers ask for. But is that really a free choice for us? I say it’s not, simple because we all have different views about what we like and don’t like. So the licensee is still only providing what he wants to provide. Your choice is limited to what wants he wants to sell.

Look at any menu in a pub and look at it with choice item set out in various groups. The menus certainly give the impression that there is an unlimited choice of food available – if only eh! Come on now, be honest, when was the last time you saw a plain sandwich on a menu? I haven’t seen it for ages. You could always ask of course, which I have done in the past, and yet when it arrived there was a side salad with it. That’s fine, I like salad, but all I just wanted a sandwich, and not all the other bits.

You see, that’s what I mean by choice. It seems that providers only want to provide what they want to provide. Or is it perhaps that their kitchen staff don’t know enough of what to do anything outside the confines of their menu, or anything that works out of sync with it. As I said earlier this week, Jan is very finicky with her food and there is very little on their normal menu that she will eat and enjoy. That is why when I order a main course, Jan will have a dessert. Even that can course problems when I ask for them to be served together, at which point I have to explain why we want them served together. 

But I still do enjoy eating out every so often, and even more so when I see a new item on the menu, or what is served to other people close by us. I am not slow in asking what something is when I see it. In the Crows nest I saw a new item, so I tried it. It was a dish of diced potatoes, pulled pork top with a fried egg. I really enjoyed it too, but sadly there was far too much for me and I left at least a third of it. In another pub I saw a young lass with a large flat dish in breadcrumbs, served with chips and side salad. I asked what it was and was told it was a flattened barbi chicken breast. Not tried that one cos we haven’t been over there since that day, although we will do at some time. 

Tonight we will have a savoury rice that I know Kile and me enjoy. The biggest hold-up with it is that Kile is feeling pretty rough right now. His mum got him in to see a doctor and it seems he has a chest infection, but fit enough for school, so he should be here after school. However, that will depend on how he feels when he leaves school, but knowing him he’ll be here, he likes like peace of being away from his brother Billy. Don’t misunderstand me here. He loves Billy, but he just loves to have a time of peace and quiet away from him.

Today’s photo …

Some of the litter that is left around the River Anker close to Asda in town. In the 19^th Century one writer called it, ‘… as pretty a little river you could ever wish to see.’ It’s not now, as you can see, and it’s like that all along its course through the town. Such a shame really.

What shall I have ...

26 February

For the first time since our kitchen work started, we both went out together yesterday, not that we did anything special of course. Oh no; Jan had the idea that perhaps Kile might like a different sort of bed for when he stays here with us. So yesterday we went to Jacksons, out at Arley to look at inflatable camping beds. The type she was interested in were not available so we need to re-think it. From there we both wanted a drink, but guess what? No Cash!

So we headed off towards Coventry where we found an ATM close to the Old Shepherd pub, and that’s where we sat for an hour with our pints of diet cola. Please note that said ‘cola’ not Coke. We’ve found that most pubs these days only sell Pepsi, and not Coke. At home we have a full shelf of cans of coke in the fridge, but because I said that I prefer the pubs’ Pepsi than the cans in the fridge, so when we were in Asda later on.

I bet you found those two paragraphs a very riveting read. But the pubs’ Pepsi got me thinking and just how much freedom of choice we have when we go out. You may well feel that you get a good choice of drinks in all pubs, but unless the pub is a ‘free house’ where the licensee can provide whatever he has room for, or his customers ask for. But is that really a free choice for us? I say it’s not, simple because we all have different views about what we like and don’t like. So the licensee is still only providing what he wants to provide. Your choice is limited to what wants he wants to sell.

Look at any menu in a pub and look at it with choice item set out in various groups. The menus certainly give the impression that there is an unlimited choice of food available – if only eh! Come on now, be honest, when was the last time you saw a plain sandwich on a menu? I haven’t seen it for ages. You could always ask of course, which I have done in the past, and yet when it arrived there was a side salad with it. That’s fine, I like salad, but all I just wanted a sandwich, and not all the other bits.

You see, that’s what I mean by choice. It seems that providers only want to provide what they want to provide. Or is it perhaps that their kitchen staff don’t know enough of what to do anything outside the confines of their menu, or anything that works out of sync with it. As I said earlier this week, Jan is very finicky with her food and there is very little on their normal menu that she will eat and enjoy. That is why when I order a main course, Jan will have a dessert. Even that can course problems when I ask for them to be served together, at which point I have to explain why we want them served together. 

But I still do enjoy eating out every so often, and even more so when I see a new item on the menu, or what is served to other people close by us. I am not slow in asking what something is when I see it. In the Crows nest I saw a new item, so I tried it. It was a dish of diced potatoes, pulled pork top with a fried egg. I really enjoyed it too, but sadly there was far too much for me and I left at least a third of it. In another pub I saw a young lass with a large flat dish in breadcrumbs, served with chips and side salad. I asked what it was and was told it was a flattened barbi chicken breast. Not tried that one cos we haven’t been over there since that day, although we will do at some time. 

Tonight we will have a savoury rice that I know Kile and me enjoy. The biggest hold-up with it is that Kile is feeling pretty rough right now. His mum got him in to see a doctor and it seems he has a chest infection, but fit enough for school, so he should be here after school. However, that will depend on how he feels when he leaves school, but knowing him he’ll be here, he likes like peace of being away from his brother Billy. Don’t misunderstand me here. He loves Billy, but he just loves to have a time of peace and quiet away from him.

Today’s photo …

Some of the litter that is left around the River Anker close to Asda in town. In the 19^th Century one writer called it, ‘… as pretty a little river you could ever wish to see.’ It’s not now, as you can see, and it’s like that all along its course through the town. Such a shame really.

We all love food, but it can kill us!

4 February

How much food do you eat? How often do you eat, and what do you eat? These are not idle questions as the new show on BBC1 is showing. Some time ago I bought and began reading a book, Reverse Your Diabetes, which I didn’t finish, I shall start it from the beginning later today. But that new show is opening my eyes quite a bit on food all round. Take breakfast for example; for years I never used to have it at all. Then Jan came into my life and to encourage her to eat more, I started having breakfast with her. After a short time, I had become so used to it that when I missed it, then I really felt not having it. This was shown to be normal in the show yesterday where a family did the same as a test, whereas I had done it to encourage Jan.

The idea behind the show is to investigate the truth, or myths of a number of claims about food. One such myth is the annual media scare about barbeques which are supposed to cause cancer because of the usual burning of the meat products. Well, yes, burnt meats can cause cancer if eaten in large amounts, but the amount of burnt meats needed to do so, is so large it is most unlikely that will happen in our normal summer weather. The programme said that in the main, we don’t need to dump our barbi. In our case, it doesn’t matter seeing as we rarely have a barbi these days, simple because of the amount of food we eat, it isn’t worth lighting one up.

Portion size is something else that the show majors on. We are all guilty on this, whether our portions are too big or too small. The recommended daily calorie count for an average man is 2500 per day. The key word is ‘average’ is the key. Every one of us of course are individuals with our own needs and that 2500 calorie figure can’t be relied. There are so many variables to allow that figure to be taken as the standard for everyone. I’m not very active at all so 2500 calories would be far too much for me, yet the guys who have just emptied out bin would probably need a lot more, so does our postie.

When Kile is here with us, he is given the same portion size as me; but is that too much for him or not enough for me I wonder. He will be here after school tomorrow and I’m planning to have half pizza with him, and some square garlic bread I found in Asda a few weeks ago. The half pizza between us has come about because Kile was leaving some of his half when we had a full one between us. Add in the garlic b read and it’s really too much for him.

Friday I’m thinking of a beef curry for us two, but what Jan is going to have I don’t know. Her appetite has never been big, in fact it’s very low. She is also very fussy about she eats. Jan likes plain food, pizza and curry are a big no-no for her. A plate of home-made chips is fine, chip shop chips are a no-go. Sausage is fine, as is minced beef or a roast dinner and don’t forget MacDonald’s! Mild cheese only for Jan and oh yes, sweet and sugary things are a hit – but not a lot of any of it. That does tend to limit my choices a lot of the time, mainly because I do most of the cooking.       

In the first show they showed a bunch of chard. I’ve seen it in various supermarkets so if I see some today, I’ll give it a go. The other item that I seem to see every time I put the telly is avocados, something else that is on our shopping list for today, but just one though, just in case we don’t like it. There are a lot of different food that we haven’t tried, or fancied to be honest, so I shall slowly try a few new items to see how Jan gets on with it.

All this is fine at home of course, but all of us can be tempted once we go out. I love Cornish pasties and I find it hard worth to walk past those pasty shops on most high streets these days. When did you last buy fish and chips out in town? Jan went out and bought some the last time Kile was with us the first time in about a year. My plain cod and chips was so large that I could only get through half of it. It was far too much for anyone and cost far too much. It’s

the same in pubs isn’t it? Whetherspoons offer a doubling in portion size for around £1, does anyone really need twice as much? And so it goes on … … …

Today’s photo …

A plain simple salad I had last year some time.

And what awaits us ...

23 February

We wuz conned! That ‘pocket watch’ arrived soon after I posted the blog; it isn’t a watch at all, it’s a key ring shaped like a watch. Both of us must have mis-read the item description to fall for that one!

We have a guy here fitting the new radiator in the kitchen. Once that’s done we are finished with it all – I hope. It’s been a long job, or at least it feels that way to me and I shall be really pleased when it’s all over and done with. At least he wasn’t he didn’t turn up at 7.30! Whatever, we were hoping to get out for an hour or two and right now we have a gorgeous sunny day out there – and we are stuck in here yet again. Not funny at all. Jan is out tonight for the house group see goes to and getting out once the current guy is done, and getting back in time for Jan to get ready for going out, will be too much of a rush for her.  

Has Daft Dave made the referendum his poll tax moment I wonder. He has pinned his future on selling the case to stay in Europe, if he doesn’t win that referendum, I can’t see him being able to remain in office. Personally, I would have preferred not to have gone in the first place, but that’s democracy for you, you have to live by the will of the majority. How much longer before there are calls for general election after that if there is a vote to leave? And then we all start again trying to decide who we wat as our Prime Muppet.     

The USA is going through all of that right now. Many would ask why we should be interested in the result seeing as we Brits don’t take part in it, a daft question in my view. I am not at all happy at thought of old Farter Trump being the President. His language right now is so racist and unhelpful I can see there being real upheaval over there if he does get into the oval office. My real concern is what he will do overseas, or try to that is.

And that my friends, is where we really do have a stake in the result. Right now we have four Royal Navy Trident armed nuclear submarines. Those subs are part of our treaty commitments to various organisations. Jittery Jezz is all for not replacing them when they do wear out, which seems to be happening now anyway. Nitwit Nick would have been happy about that one and followed his lead on it.

For years now I thought that there will never be a nuclear war, with the biggest fear coming from rouge Muslim terrorists getting hold of a device and setting it off somewhere. But if they did, who we, or even the Yanks come to that, fire one back in retaliation? And this is where my fears of Farter Trump as President come in; he’s the sort of man who would shoot first and then ask questions. I really do fear he will tip the whole world into a full scale nuclear conflict. Where would we be in such a war if we do not have the means to play our part in the treaty commitments made on our behalf?

Or am I worrying about nothing? I hope so, but I doubt I am.

Today’s photo …

I think this is HMS Astute that I snapped on cold dreary day in Barrow-in-Furness a few years ago.

Still no luck with funnies – sorry.    

On days gone by ...

22 February

First off, I made a bit of a booboo yesterday when I listed the shops we have in town, we have a second in-store bakery (in the loosest of terms), Greggs has an outlet on Harefield Road by the bus station. No damage done, but a mistake is rectified.

Jan is busy looking for the confirmation emails for two items she ordered from links on Facebook, one is a pocket watch with a booksie theme that I took a liking for. The other item is a pair of bracelets, with a warning that she suffers from Fybromyaldria (I can never work the spelling of that one), that one. She ordered the bracelets on 30^th of December, so they should certainly be here now. We are wonder if we may have been scammed with these two items. As far as I can remember, the watch was a link to Amazon though, so that one should have been safe enough.

Our kitchen was supposed to be finished in 14 working days; and yet here we are sat in yet again waiting for some bloke to come and fit our new radiator. At least we didn’t get up at 7.30 this morning. It won’t be long and I shall be on phone to them to get it finished so we can get back to normal. We are both please with the amount of space we have in there now though. It was very tight in there before when we were both there, but now there is plenty of room for us. But that is down mainly to the designer rather than the fitters.

So I had two days off from my lappy, and now it’s back to the way it was before with all the ads appearing while on line. Again, the most difficult to get rid of the one for a W10 repair tool that I wouldn’t be interested in even if my OS was damaged in some way. And so the fun and games go on. I’m sorry, but the site I’m having difficulty with is the funnies site where my daily giggles come from; so there won’t be one until I can get it sorted out again.

Late last I read a blog from a lady who wrote about her childhood in the 1960s, and interesting it was too. I’ve just looked at Twitter to find her name and the link for it but guess what, I’m getting that stupid ad cropping up again on there now. But back to the blog … I was surprised at just how much her early life seemed to follow my own, at least in some parts. Like Sundays after a bit roast lunch, I would be off down the woods getting filthy dirty from swing in the trees and walking down the stream unblocking and damns that had built up. But the blogger also spent a lot of her time in her local woods, just like me.  

Do any of you remember the Oliver Twist shows on telly at that time. We were enthralled by them weren’t we? Black and white pictures, very grainy and dark, and yet we thought it was great, so well produced and acted. Of course we wouldn’t think that now would we. Oh no, that’s because we have moved on along with the improvements in the technology that out modern TVs are now supplied with. And don’t forget, we only had three channels to watch in those far off days, and not the 100+ the Sky and cable TV now gives, let alone all the on-line content we have access to on a daily basis. Would I want to go back to those days? No bloody way!

Life really was so different back then and so much has changed for the good over the years; like this lappy I’m sat in front of, typing away quite happily. I was at senior school between 1960 and 1964 and at that time typing was the preserve of the girls; we boys went in for wood work or metal work. I choose metal work, but I wish I had gone for wood work instead.

But there are so many things where changes that haven’t been helpful. My lappy is a great tool and I’m sure many of you feel the same one way or another. But could I make a living from it; I don’t think so. Look at how all our working lives have changed. Gone are the days when you walked out the front door and five minutes later you were clocking on. Jobs like that have mostly gone. My dad worked in the coal mine at Arley and I could see clearly the winding gear from my bedroom window. That mine closed in about 1966/7.

I worked as errand boy at the local Co-op in the village but when I left school I took the bus into town and worked to my first full time job. The hours there were long and hard for a 15-year-old and it really didn’t suit me at all, so I moved to a different job, but further away, meaning more travel and more time spent travelling. And yet today a long commute seems to be the norm, not the exception.

Today’s army is a volunteer professional army, not the national service army of the early 1960s. That stopped in around 1964/5 I think. Should it be brought back? Oh no, no way! So much has changed these days and the army is no different, I even saw a big difference in the  

men joining our unit in 1979 when I left than it was 12 years earlier when I joined up. So no, I wouldn’t to see national service return. I wouldn’t like to see all the closed mines opened up and men going under-ground, slowly killing themselves with the think coal dust air down there. No, I would want to see all car manufactures opening up again. Some what they built were great motors, but much large slice of them were really crap.

What I would like is to be 16 again, but with all my current knowledge still there, now that would be fun!

Today’s photo …

This is the sort of truck I passed my driving test on in the summer of 1967.

Yet more catching up and introducing a grandson to birding ... he loves it!

28 April 2013

I knew I hadn't added anything here for some time But I hadn't thought it was eight months ago!  Anyway, I'm doing it now, so here goes ...

We moved home in June last year so that took up a goodly amount of time getting settled in to our flat.  Right outside the living room window and stretching behind the block is an open green space, a smallish space where a number of the flats all look out on.  When the sun is out and there's little wind it's a nice place to sit out in with nice glass of whatever does you good ;-)))  There's a tree on the lawn in front of our rear door so Jan straight away got lots of feeders up and we've had a steady stream of birds coming to feed.  Since the new year we've had ...

Goldcreast; blackcap; wren; sparrow hawk; goldfinch (I counted 18 at one time); blue, great and coal tits; blackbird; wood pigeon; collared dove; starling; house sparrow and dunnock.  In addition we seen a number of gulls flying over but weren't able to see the clear enough to ID them properly.  At various times we've been out shopping and so on we've also seen peregrine; red legged partridge and pheasants by the hundreds.

Our first trip out this year was to Slimbridge on 8 February.  The normal Slimbridge set was there of course but seeing as it was our first trip of 2013 they were all year ticks for us.  Here's our list - which includes what saw on the way dawn and the return run ...

Wood Pigeon; Blackbird; goldfinch; blue tit; house sparrow; kestrel; magpie; jackdaw; black headed gull; herring gull; starling; collared dove; grey heron; rook; robin; little egret; lapwing; Berwick swan; greylag goose; shellduck; buzzard; moorhen; mute swan; teal; wigeon; shoveller; pochard; black tailed godwits; chaffinch; great tit; green finch; reed bunting; dunnock; coot; Canada goose; cormorant; oystercatcher; pintail; redshank; golden plover; been goose; white fronted goose; dunlin, giving us a year list of only 53.

After that we've both been caught up in various health problems so that is why we are so far behind, even on our own scores.  Anyway, we were OK for a week early April, which was a relief seeing as Jan had booked a week away at Spring Harvest, a church teaching event held at Minehead.  She came back with her own little list which included osprey and cirl bunting!  Honestly now, I wasn't in the least bit jealous of her ... muttermuttermutter ... ... ...

The same week I shot off up to Edinburgh and had a nice week up there.  I didn't get a lot of birding done up with the one birding trip I did do a near off wash out.  I went to Vane Farm in the hopes of getting down to the loch in the hope of a Slavonian grebe.  But there are only steps down to the loch, so all of the hides are out for anyone needing to use wheel chairs or scooters!  There is a short section of pathway not far away but I was told it was muddy so I might not get my scooter along there.  Ah well ... over the week I added ...

Raven; lapwing; house sparrow; mallard; moorhen; black headed gull; buzzard; crow; rook; lesser great black backed gull; herring gull; blue tit; great tit; dunnock; wigeon; teal; mute swan; red shank; grey heron; pink footed goose; greater black backed gull; oystercatcher; curlew; wood pigeon; magpie; shags; starling; pochard; shell ducks; jackdaws; stock dove; elder duck; red breasted merganser; golden eye; Canada goose; pheasant; kestrel; swallows to the list bringing me up to 70.

On the 24th we set out for North Norfolk starting at Cley.  Again we are limited because of our scooters but did get a marsh harrier there, always a nice spot.  From there we headed for Titchwell where we only added seven more to the days list ... + two ijits, a pair of photographers in long waders who headed straight for the water's edge.  There wasn't a lot there mind and what there was soon scared off with those two getting their shots before the birds flew off.  the day's list then was ...

Starling; woodpigeon; house sparrow; collard dove; magpie; crow; pheasant; red kite; jackdaw; rook;  bh gull; h gull; mallard; lbb gull; mute swan; raven; gbb gull; oystercatcher; cormorant; hobby; coot; gray partridge; kestrel; blackbird; skylark; stonechat; graylag goose; lapwing; shell duck; avocet; Canada goose; teal; marsh harrier; curlew; swallow; goldfinch; red legged partridge; shoveller; little grebe; black tailed godwits; bar tailed godwits; redshank; little egret ; brent goose; gadwall; ringed plover; tufted duck; pied wagtail; moorhen; wigeon; green shanks; little ringed plover; sandwich tern; robin; sanderling; ruff; bearded tit; blue tit; dunlin; chaffinch, giving us 88 now.  The best stighting for us was this one ...

A male ruff in breeding plumage.  Yes, we have seen lots of ruff in the past but this si the first one we've seen like this.

This week end we have our grandson with us, so yesterday  we went off to Attenborough reserve at Nottingham.  We hadn't done that one before so it was new for us too as well as for Kile (and yes, the spelling is correct - or it's how his mum wanted it spelt!).  Best spot of the day is a tossup for the osprey or the whitethroat.  Here's the list ...

Blackbird; crow; pigeon; magpie; pheasant; jackdaw; lapwing; mallard; mute swan; tufted duck; coot; moorhen; tree sparrow; great tit; blue tit; great created grebe; gadwall; chaffinch; graylag goose; black headed gull; cormorant; wigeon; osprey; common tern; common whitethroat; Egyptian goose; house martin; buzzard.  In addition we see what we hope is a Red crested pochard but I'm going to look into that a bit more before I claim it.  As it stands now, we are on 94 for the year.

No more trips are planned just yet but Jan is off to church thing again later in May so we have booked into a hotel in Brighton for a long weekend and whole is doing her bit during the day I'll be having fun doing local birding - and taking lots of photos too.      

Catch up and gold finches

22 September 2012

This morning post included our copy of Bird Watching.  Normally everything stop when the arrives.  The column from the BTO is about wigeon, and very interesting it is too.  It seems that the number of wigeons wintering here in the UK has fallen from the normal 400,000.  The reason is that due to climate change the birds are settling more in areas well away for the UK instead of continuing to here.  I don't know anything about that but it's something to think about.

Something else I have been thinking of is the general fall in bird numbers.  I'm no scientist so please be patient with me while I struggle on here.  I've read or heard that raptors lay less or more eggs dependant on the amount of food available.  Could that also be a reason why the other species numbers have dropped also?  The other question I wondered about is perhaps more complicated; "do birds have in-built sense that tells them that their species numbers are too high and some of the fall in bird numbers is due to this?"  Yes, 

I know that farm bird number have dropped because of the intensive use of inspect sprays, but what about other species.  My mind is muddled here and I can see the wood for the trees really.

Early this month I posted a photo of a sparrow hawk out the back of the flats where we live.  As I said before we have always fed the local birds.  However, we've never had a lot of gold finches visit our feeders, even when our back garden was alongside a wood.  So imagine our pleasure at seeing one gold finch on our feeders tucking into the sunflower hearts.  It's got better now though!  On Thursday Jan counted 13 gold finches on the feeders and the table with an unknown number in the trees as well.  Blue and great tits have been fairly scarce around here too, so we were pleased to see both on our feeders for the first time this morning.

The weather forecast for tomorrow in the south is pretty dire.  I was hoping for a run down to London and perhaps going to have a look at TUB's Scrubs patch.  Now I suppose I shall have to go north instead.  I have a fancy for Marsh Side at Southport and then maybe Martin Mere Wetland Trust.  We'll see.  Hopefully I will have something to report tomorrow or Monday.