shepline: the journal
Watching the Weather
[when | 21st June 2008 11:03pm]
[location | Bicester]
[mood | high]
[tags | band, concerts]
I’ve been keeping a close eye on the weather forecast. Yesterday it looked promising for an outdoor firework spectacular of a concert in Bicester’s Garth Park. That was yesterday. Today it has been decidedly more damp. Wet even. Today, it rains; it is raining; and the prognosis is not good.
I have my hair cut and then return home to settle into cleaning my house. It is a good job too, as the estate agents call to say that the Mr S of Jay Close is booked into seeing my house. This is could news, as Mrs S saw the house earlier in the week, and so they must be seriously considering (the possibility of) buying mine if she is sending him along.
I have some lunch and then head off to my afternoon rehearsal – joining up with my comrades of Abingdon and Bicester Concert Bands. The massed army of 14 flutes join our two oboes and collection of clarinets on staging erected to the front of the bandstand – this makes us the only one’s left in full openness o the elements with the audience having a choice of ‘mess tents’ erected around the edge of the park like a roman camp. We top and tail the pieces before going ‘silent’ for the 4.30 wedding in The Garth.
In the time between rehearsal and concert, the rain comes down again, and when Emma arrives with Grannie, it is with some reluctance that we head off to sit in a wet park for the evening.
The rain clears though, and the sky, laden with clouds even brightens a little. Flags adorn the audience and the bandstand – the concert is glorious success – even during the second half when the rain comes down it does not dampen the audiences’ spirits. The firework finale, to Handel and Dam Buster’s is both dramatic and spectacular.
The Wednesday Playlist (Afternoon Mix)
[when | 18th June 2008 04:31pm]
[location | Oxford]
[mood | 
curious]
[music | iPod - Random Shuffle]
[tags | music]
The day's eclectic mix of classical, pop, rock and (umm...) miscellaneous extras continues...
( eclectic )
words words words
[when | 18th June 2008 01:53pm]
[location | Oxford]
[music | iPod - Random Shuffle (part two)]
[tags | words]
1. Another lunchtime, and I'm down to the last 100 pages of revision. I can reach The End...
2. Leaving the canteen, I passed the OUP Bookshop, children's book sale. Damn, childrens' book sales, I've only gone and bought a couple of presents for Jonas' birthday. Still they were at the staff discount of 50% off, so... :-)
The Wednesday Playlist (Eclectic Mix)
[when | 18th June 2008 01:00pm]
[location | Oxford]
[mood | curious]
[music | iPod - Random Shuffle]
[tags | music]
I couldn't really decide what to play today, so I thought I'd shuffle my way through my entire music collection on random and see what I end up with. I might skip the spoken word tracks, and I'll aim not to omit the downright shamefully embarrassed (if I do, I'll tell you). Interesting to note that the first track to select itself has been Em's and my current composer du jour - just a shame it couldn't be that Thomas Tallis or Norforlk Rhapsody...
Vaughan Williams - Job: A Masque for Dancing
Lára - Standing Still
Bryan Adams - I'm A Lier
Sky - Fayre
The Essential James Bond - Nobody Does It Better (from The Spy Who Loved Me)
Laguna - 1000 cuvinte
Liz Phair - Only Son
Zbigniew Preisner - The Beginning (from Three Colours White)
Quindon Tarver - Everybody's Free (To Feel Good)
Zbigniew Preisner - The Rest of the Conversation at the Theatre (from Three Colours Red)
Vanilla Ninja - Another Day to Live (Extended Version)
Beth Orton - Absinthe
Shakira - Whenever, Wherever
Dido - My Lover's Gone
Andrew Lloyd Webber - Variations 5
Beethoven - Symphony no. 7 in A Major, Op. 92 (Presto)
John Williams - Jurasic Park Gate
Andrew Lloyd Webber - Poor, Poor Pharoah
Andrew Lloyd Webber - Evita's Final Broadcast
Homer - The Odyssey [skipped]
Handel - A tempo ordinario (from Music for the Royal Fireworks)
Band Aid - Do They Know It's Christmas?
Alexander McCall Smith - The Kalahari Typing School [skipped]
Philippe Sarde - Un Couvent Abandonne (from La fille d'Artagnan)
Diana Krall - I'm Pulling Through
Elvis Costello - Love from a Cold Land (from G.B.H.)
Gizelle D'cole - Revancha de Amor (from Music of the Heart)
Original Cast - Grease
Faithless - Reasons (Saturday Night)
Sigur Rós - Oðin's Raven Magic (Chapter 4)
The Beatles - Rain
Tweets for Today
[when | 17th June 2008 04:38pm]
Bleated on behalf of Thomas by
LoudTwitter
Tour d'Oxford
[when | 17th June 2008 09:07am]
[location | Oxford]
[mood | 
amused]
[tags | cycling]
With the roadworks currently going on in Summertown, it means that the cyclists end up bunching up in the road just ahead of the lights, and this morning as the lights turned we all surged forwards, filling the road like some miniture (and grossly slower) cycle race. All the cars could do was to to hold back like a fleet of safety cars and wait for those on two wheels to spread out over the distance.
(So many) things to do
[when | 16th June 2008 10:57am]
[location | Oxford]
[mood | busy]
[tags | life, lists]
The naturally unflusterable Thomas is getting flustered. Em and I are on holiday next week, and whilst this might well be in a rather nice country cottage with very reasonable rates in the New Forest, I still have to be ready for it in order to best relax and enjoy it. Before then, I have:
~ Concert on Saturday night, and thus:
~ Normal band rehearsal on Thursday night
~ Extra band rehearsal with Bicester Concert Band on Tuesday night
~ Nurses appointment this afternoon to have my ears dewaxed
~ Shop for food for this week
~ Shop for food for next week
~ Fit in haircut either Tuesday/Thursday (band conflict?) or Saturday morning
~ Sort out clothes in under bed drawer, chest o' drawers and wardrobe
~ Sort out remaining loft sorting currently spilling out from under the table in my bedroom
Permit me the uncharacteristic opportunity to thus scream, aaggghhhhhhh!!!!!
Sunday Respite
[when | 15th June 2008 05:56pm]
[location | Berkshire]
[mood | calm]
After the activity of yesterday, we had an altogether quieter start to the day today - easing ourselves into it with a leisurely breakfast. That's not to say we've not been productive; in locating the local 'tip' and taking Em's old single bed there so as to free up mental and physical space to start boxing up in preparation for The Move (Part One)TM.
During the afternoon, I have spent most of the time lounging either on the sofa or in the garden, finishing up reading the third part of Helen Dunmore's brilliant Ingo series, The Deep, whilst Em snoozed for a bit and plotted the order of pot plants...
In other news, I had a call from my estate agents. Apparently the people in the house at the top of the chain might be interested in buying my house in addition to the one they want if it gets the chain moving. I'm trying not to get excited optimistic that things might actually be finally, starting, to move...
The most productively useful sort of day
[when | 14th June 2008 04:39pm]
[location | Oxfordshire]
[mood | productive]
[tags | spring cleaning]
Today was the day for Em to tackle her tax return and so, with instructions to steer clear until meeting at her parent's house later in the evening, I busied myself in my own home by venturing forth into The Loft. The Loft has been an area due for me to purge and to sort for some time but I never have quite got round to it - or rather, I haven't yet been able to garner sufficient qualities of strength, determination and will-power to venture up.
As it turned out, it hasn't been as bad as I feared. There weren't as many surprises as I feared their might be, and spent a happy day fetching boxes down and making quick decisions about what should find its way into which wheely bin, and what should remain to kept for further sorting. What I now have up there is clear and orderly and ready for loft-to-loft moving. I also have collection of boxes spilling out from under the table in the corner of my room that need attending to.
Ho-hum, I might have to put novel-writing on hold for a week. I see my evenings are going to be busy...
A Simple Solution
[when | 13th June 2008 01:38pm]
[location | Oxford]
[tags | cars, life]
Well I finally got into work by 12:30 - half an hour before lunch - which wasn't too bad considering. The garage did find me a courtesy car but in the end I didn't need it, as the nice man from Britannia Rescue was able to fix it at my house. Apparently there was a clip on the end of the fuel hose where it goes into the engine which had come undone. Fastening it back up, and I was back on the road ... and able to park & cycle to work as normal! :-)
Of course, having emptied half a tank of petrol out over the streets of Oxfordshire late last night I did have to visit the garage, with a damage to my wallet of £55 to fill it up! £55??? It's only a Peogeot 206 for crikes sake!
Follow the trail of petrol...
[when | 13th June 2008 09:43am]
[location | Oxfordshire]
[tags | cars, life]
Friday 13th came early for me last night. On the way back from band, I had to make my way through Oxford again due to a road closure on A34, and, whilst waiting at some traffic lights I smelt a horrid petrolly smell and thought that that was a nasty, smelly car in front of me. Further through Oxford I had my windows wound down to get rid of the smell, and for the most part it was gone, tho' it was still lingering. Back on the A34 and everything was fine, until I got to the big roundabout over the M40 where I smelt it again. I also noticed that my fuel guage - previously around half full was significantly down - the first inkling that something was up. As I pulled away, I had to really pump the accelerator to get me going (yes, I know now, probably the wrong thing to do as it happens) and I did get faster, eventually, after a struggling. Going through town, I was fine until the last stretch round the ringroad when again, I had a problem accelerating and my fuel guage was around ⅛th! Not good.
I did manage to park up in my parking space, but it was then that I saw the identifiable trickle of petrol leading from the back of my car, round the road and back where I had just come from. Definitely not good. I'm not going to even attempt to go anywhere, I thought.
Now, I'm just waiting for the right time to phone Britannia Rescue to be taken to the garage where hopefully there will be a courtesy car waiting for me... *fingers crossed*
Books books books
[when | 12th June 2008 06:09pm]
[location | Oxfordshire]
[tags | books]
It shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone reading this that I love books; that I adore books; that I am adicted to books. Fittingly then, Helen kindly gave me a birthday gift of one Persephone Book of my choice. I had the catalogue given to me for me to choose from, and I've been perusing this on and off, and today I decided to make my choice. So over lunch I perused the catalogue and drew up my shortlist:
#27 The Children Who Lived in a Barn by Eleanor Grahame
#21 Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson
#33 The Far Cry by Emma Smith
It turns out that Children Who Lived in a Barn is obviously a popular one as it is currently out of print, and so I went intstead for Mrs Pettigrew as there is apparently a film of it out in the summer so I thought I could get to read that first. It's usually best to read the books first I find.
~~~
And speaking of film adaptions, Em has now finished reading Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising, and as the (crap) film version of it has just arrived on my amazon dvd rental thing I think that now might be a good time to watch (and laugh at) it...
Old man's condition
[when | 11th June 2008 02:09pm]
[location | Oxford]
[mood | 
crappy]
I had a bit of a lie-in this morning, after deciding that I would attempt to get a doctor's appointment this morning for my swollen foot. For the last couple of week's I have been in quite some pain, alleviated for the most part by Em's pink Ibuprofen. So at 10 o'clock I hobbled into the surgery and saw the doctor.
It turns out that I have gout – or almost certainly have gout. It does bother me somewhat in that I have always thought of it as an old man's problem (my Grandpa had it a few times), but I am pleased that they have diagnosed something for what is otherwise pretty inexplicable pain. The doctor prescribed me some Naproxen – ibuprofen with knobs on – and I've just taken my first tablet. Now I'm just wondering how long I have to wait for the relief to begin...
A pair of sour-faced old trouts
[when | 10th June 2008 05:06pm]
[location | Oxfordshire]
[mood | livid]
I am livid, fuming, damn annoyed. It seems impossible to get an appointment to see the doctor. You can either phone at 8am (and only 8am) for an emergency appointment, or book a 'routine' appointment up to two weeks in advance. I've been suffering with a painful foot for the last 10 days or so, eased by doses of ibuprofen and I've been able to go about my working and social life (if a bit slower and hobbily than I am used to), and so I feel a bit bad describing it as a dire emergency but would like to see the doctor none-the-less.
The receptionist seemed to think that a nurse's appointment in the first instance would be sufficient. So against my better judgement I agreed, and yesterday they booked me in to see the nurse this afternoon. When I turned up at the surgery, the receptionist told me that I had missed yesterday's appointment. I told her straight that no I hadn't, that it was today because I had the opticians yesterday, and what was she going to do about it. I did get in to see the nurse in the end, who was the picture of a sour-faced old trout. She was rude and condescending and made me feel about five years old for coming to see her with a swollen toe (she did agree that it was swollen).
She did check my ears and confirm to me that they were both packed full of wax and needing syringing so I guess it wasn't a completely wasted trip. I do not deal well though with lies, deception and bad organisation. I shall write and complain for the treatment of the receptionists and of the system of seeing the doctor. After all, surely it would be reasonable to have a second level of emergency appointments – ones for conditions which do not stop one going about daily routines but do need seeing to.
Three Tuesday Things
[when | 10th June 2008 09:34am]
[location | Oxford]
[tags | life]
1. There was a bizarre sight on the way to work. Whilst stuck nose to tail, inexplicably, on the A34 I had plenty of time to watch as a coach cruised down the opposite carriage-way spewing a plume of acrid smoke of burnt rubber that completely submerged the entire road in smoke for a mile in its wake.
2. So, thousands are facing negative equity on their homes? The reporting of this kind of story annoys me is that it's not actually such a big problem for most people. Get over yourself, negative equity is only a problem if you want to sell your house, and even then, only if the amount of money you have 'lost' is greater than what you need to buy somewhere else. If you move somewhere cheaper the differentials stay the same, and if don't move, you just sit tight and let the prices move around you – in a few years time its all going to be different anyway.
3. It's sunny today, and still warm, but noticeably cooler than yesterday. A blanket of cloud is up there as well, it looks like it might be building towards a muggy sort of day. I've brought my sandles and shorts to work with me to change into before the cycle home.
I can see, I can see perfectly...
[when | 9th June 2008 06:54pm]
[location | Oxfordshire]
[tags | oxfordshire]
1. Opticians appointment today. Before leaving work I changed into my shorts and sandals and biked into town. I was there for over an hour in the end, first having my contact lens check (I have slightly less of a stigmatism in my left eye. Then, I had my eyes photographed – with all the blood vessels at the back they kind of look like the surface of Mars, or something you'd see on the NASA website, and my eye test, rounded off with a check on field of vision which involved sticking my head into a giant golf ball and pressing a buzzer every time I saw a white dot.
2. Following my trip to opticians I made my way to Monsoon to seek out the dress that Em saw a few weeks back and now kind of regrets not buying. My plan to buy it as a surprise for her. Knowing full well that they will have had a shift around of stock I still go straight to the rack on the left-hand wall to find it. It's not there. I have a bit of a look round, feeling mildly uncomfortable looking around a dress shop on my own. At the back of the store I see one which looks similar. I'm fairly certain its not but I casually take a photograph of it on my phone and send it to Em with a bit of a cryptic message. If I can't surprise her with an actual gift of a dress I can surprise her at work with a picture of a dress. She likes it. And I buy it.
3. I also buy myself a shirt in Next - like the one that Em gave me for my birthday but a different colour.
4. Cycling back to my car, I am glad that I changed into my shorts and sandles after work. Its hot. Very hot.
5. I've not seen anything yet, but something is definitely finding my bird feeding station. There are husks in the water bowl... :-)
Sleepy
[when | 3rd June 2008 10:28pm]
[location | Oxfordshire]
[mood | 
tired]
[tags | blood & fire, revision, writing]
What I want to be doing, now, is making changes from my printed and well-thumbed script into my electronic version of my novel, so that I can send it off to friends and readers. But I am sleepy. I put my hands to my keyboard and I start to drop off. The same happened last night.
I need sleep.
The fineness of silver; age-worn or intricately wrought
[when | 2nd June 2008 01:47pm]
[location | Oxford]
[tags | blood & fire, revision, writing]
Some days are more successful than others. Today was a successful one. Sitting with my sandwiches in one hand, pen in the other, novel before me on the canteen table, I worked as usual through the pages of part five of my novel.
Time was, that there was a box of bone, carved by the huldufolk, in my novel. I've since changed that to a silver cup, and it works better as such, but I have wondered upon the magic that I bestow upon it later in part five; it's always been a different kind of magic to anything that I've had my characters encounter before. Today I realised that actually, with a few subtle tweaks and it could be the same magic as in the pools that Eleanor jumps through to go between the worlds.
Careful of the ants that bite
[when | 24th May 2008 12:34pm]
[location | Burnham Beeches]
[mood | encouraged]
[tags | house-hunting]
Em and I were having a nice walk through Burnham Beeches and considering houses. It was at the point when Em had just asked me whether I preferred the house in Spruce Drive or Stratton Audley when my phone rang. Pulling it from my pocket, I see the words 'Alexanders calling'.
We had good reception at this point in the woods, and so we had to stop as I talked to the estate agent. Today's couple liked my house (!!) and wanted to ask a few questions, which I answered, and it didn't seem to put them off. Apparently they are going to talk to their financial adviser after the bank holiday on Tuesday. So yayy!! I'm going to try and not get to excited, but yay! someone has at least liked my house enough to ask other questions and go and talk to someone about mortgages!! Even if it comes to nothing, that's got to be encouraging hasn't it?
Em was more than relieved when we were able to continue our walk, as she had been doing a merry dance around the woods where I stood, avoiding and shaking off, the killer ants of Burnham Beeches...
Oh, and to answer the original question. I think I do like Spruce Drive over and above Stratton Audley. It's still got potential for 'a print room' and it has a nice feel about it. It's also undoubtedly a more practical kind of house with room for us to grow...
365 days to the hour...
[when | 23rd May 2008 03:00pm]
[location | Oxfordshire]
[tags | wedding]
In exactly one year's time I shall be standing in front of the registrar in the main room at Craflwyn Hall, waiting for Emma to enter through the double doors and join me down the aisle. In 365 days and an hour we shall be married.
The weekend starts here...
[when | 22nd May 2008 10:05pm]
[location | Berkshire]
[tags | birthdays]
The weekend actually started a few hours ago. After work today I nipped home and fed the cats and then, skiving off band for the night, headed off down to see Em. She gave me a couple more presents - a Ted Baker washing bag (although I confess that until tonight I didn't have the foggiest idea who Ted Baker was!), and a very nice linen shirt in a chocolate-brown colour. I wore my new shirt and we went into Holyport for a celebratory birthday meal at The George on the Green at Holyport. Very nice! :-)
Happy Birthday to Me!
[when | 22nd May 2008 08:34am]
[location | Oxford]
[tags | birthdays]
A nice sunny day for it, for this, my birthday. People are so kind – I got up (on time, for a change) and had a nice leisurely breakfast. I opened my cards which have numbered the most ever for some years, with cards not just from my Em and my mum and dad, and my brother, but from Emma's sister, parents, Grannie, Helen and from Louise amongst others. To add to the (already received) barbeque and toolbox, this morning I was able to unwrap Helen's present: a catalogue for Persephone Books and a voucher for one book of my choice. Ahh, but what to choose...
One piece of the jigsaw
[when | 20th May 2008 01:25pm]
[location | Oxford]
[mood | congratulatory]
[tags | emma, jobs]
Emma just phoned. She's been offered the nurses job at Bicester Vets!
This is fantastic news!! :-D
Hold the front page!
[when | 19th May 2008 02:06pm]
[location | Oxford]
[tags | bicester]
On Friday I mentioned that there were two articles of interest on the front page of my local paper. The online version of this paper seems to be a tad slow on being updated, but today I have managed to find them, and for the benefit of my own records I shall link to them here...
( Future options for Garth House )
( What next for school site? )
Seven years of growth
[when | 18th May 2008 09:52pm]
[location | Oxfordshire]
[mood | 
nostalgic]
[tags | gardens, homes]
I've forgotten what I was actually looking for on my computer now, but I ended up finding photographs from 2001 on my computer. There aren't many as its from my pre-digital age and so all my photographs are in packets under my bed. But there are some of my moving in to my house on 25 May 2001, and in particular the garden. The change is just astounding; particularly the front garden where it just looks empty - you really don't notice how things grow as its happening as when you look back on it and realise that bush really did only used to extend aobut a foot up the wall.
I love my house. Whilst I want to move on, and in with Em, and make a new home, I'm always going to miss my first house I think.
The fifteen minute hour
[when | 18th May 2008 04:45pm]
[location | Oxfordshire]
[mood | productive]
[tags | weekends]
1. My new barbeque says that is should take just 15 minutes to assemble. Now, normally I'm pretty good with diy and practitcal-type projects, but this one had me beaten. All the parts and screws are assigned codes (which are either letters or numbers), and then all the parts have quantities, and the directions are listed in stages by letters. Then the assembly is actually quite fiddly already and you get one horrid nightmare of a thing to construct. I enjoyed it none-the-less though, and by lunchtime I had an assembled barbeque sitting in my garden. It is a good thing though that we we weren't planning on cooking on it until this evening.
2. Today Em and I have been considering the house in Spruce Drive. We do like it, alot - which is a bit weird considering that its not the house in Stratton Audley and its a housing estate and not a village. We've been wondering if we like it just because there might be hope in The Alexander Plan that my house might get sold, but I don't think so. It did genuinely feel homely. And it still has that garage that might double as my 'Print Room'
3. Went for a nice cycle ride this afternoon, including a pint of cider at The Red Lion in Stratton Audley. Then we came home, and Em had a snooze whilst I planted up my runner beans. My garden is looking nice. I neglected it last year. I'm not going to let that happen again.
Productivity is what you need
[when | 17th May 2008 03:54pm]
[location | Oxfordshire]
[mood | cheerful]
[tags | birthdays, house-hunting, weekends]
Last night I never really got round to having dinner. In order to save time today I made sure I cleaned my house last night, and by the time I finished I really wasn't all that hungry, so I just pigged out on humous and crisps and a yogurt whilst watching Have I Got News For You. This has meant that today, I:
1. Got to Bicester Glass after remeasuring my bookshelves and managed to get the 6 doors trimmed down by 4 mm.
2. Driving back through Launton, I passed a little old guy selling plants from his front garden. Drawn to good quality, cheap plants I bought a large tray of petunias and some runner beans for six quid
3. Back home, I discovered - yay! - that the glass doors now fitted, perfectly. My Folio Society books are now Ronald-proof.
4. I then spent a happy few hours, planting out petunias into my pots, and tidying up the back garden, moving later to beginning an attack on the ground elder in the front. Its a long job, but I have made the path to front door more acceptable.
5. Em arrived for a quick lunch before we wandered around the corner to see House #1 in Spruce Drive. On paper, we weren't too enthused about this house but its actually pretty nice. Three good size rooms with a spacious ground floor and large garden. Definitely in the top two or so, and not just because they are with the same agent as myself and Alexander's have a plan. We then wandered home, and collected the car to head out to Langford Village for House #2 - a larger than average 2-bed house - actually the master bedroom is enormous, but the downstairs accommodation whilst nice is small, and it fronts onto a busy-ish road.
6. And so to Homebase. The plan was to buy (on my parentals instruction) my birthday present - a barbeque - sadly though the one we liked was out of stock, but they were able to put one by for me at their Aylesbury branch. Em did select and buy me a toolbox for my birthday. We then went on to the garden centre for fishweed, and I ended up buying compost, gravel, and birthday presents for Ben, and naming day presents for Jonas, and some nice wooden salad servers for myself.
7. After a dubious weather forecast for today, we've actually been really lucky, and the only rain to speak of came whilst we drove over to Aylesbury, and collected the barbeque and then drove home again.
8. I cooked a nice toad'n'the'hole meal using both meat and vegetarian 'toads' and then, had great fun arranging all my tools and screws and nails and stuff into my new toolbox. Oh what fun! :-)
Pre-birthday surprises
[when | 16th May 2008 10:45pm]
[location | Oxfordshire]
[tags | birthdays]
1. I got home from work today to a selection of mail. In the process of opening them, one with a 'Persephone Books' stamp on the front, I noticed the hand handwritten note on the reverse: four your birthday. So I stopped opening it. I might be wrong, but I suspect this might be a gift from ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
sadie_peregrine. Whatever it is, I shall look forward to opening this on Thursday.
2. Quite surprisingly there were not one but two articles of interest on the front cover of The Bicester Review this week! One about proposals (including, I think, public consultation) about what to do with Garth House, the historic old hall much neglected and home to the town council. The other one was about the possible future of Emma's old primary school; St Edburgs Primary School when it closes to make way for a more modern school elsewhere in the town. It seems that the historic nature of the building will remain intact...
3. My mum phoned, to instruct me to go out and buy my birthday present. They've decided to buy me a new barbeque and have pointed me in the direction of Homebase. Quite convenient, as we were hoping to have another bbq this weekend. :-)
Am I weird?
[when | 15th May 2008 10:28am]
[location | Oxford]
[mood | inspired]
[music | Natalie Imbruglia - Shiver]
[tags | creativity, inspiration, weirdness]
So it's grey, and cold, and dark and miserable? So why is that I find myself inspired with creativity? I'm fired with so many images and ideas for my novel it's untrue. Am I so very weird for loving this weather? I just want to delve into my story and write about Eleanor, Ben and Hanna Katla meeting with the alfar and the þurs, and of crouching by pools amongst the long grass and watching the reflection of another world in the surface of water, and diving through into them, and running through the hills with the rain on your face, and soaking through to your skin...
Yuck, yuck, yuckity-yuck!
[when | 15th May 2008 08:33am]
[location | Oxford]
[tags | weather]
So rain was always on the forecast for today, so I was always planning to get the bus. That said, when I was getting up, the weather actually looked okay-ish, an I was halfway tempted to cycle it. By the time that I got to the Park&Ride it was a steady drizzle, and by the time we'd got into town it was proper, drenching rain.
I'm so glad that I stuck to my plans and bussed it.
The first writings about the 'end of summer'...
[when | 14th May 2008 11:00am]
[location | Oxford]
[mood | curious]
[tags | gardening, summer]
This is not me wishing the year or the current fabulous weather, although when you take a look at tomorrow's forecast you might want to remember you umbrella, but one of the plants I have growing in my garden is the Last Rose of Summer. It's blooming (great) at the moment, and will do for the rest of the year, taking a little bit of a break at the height of summer, to flower again into autumn and winter (November).
When we move, I'd like to still have one in our garden, and I could buy another one, but I was wondering is it possible/easy to take cuttings and if so how/when do I do it?
This is really posted here as a reminder to me to find out, but if anyone reading this does know the answers to these questions ... well, you know where to find me... :-)
Stupid! *grins*
[when | 14th May 2008 09:23am]
[location | Oxford]
[mood | confused]
[tags | cats]
It appears that I left the cat flap unlocked last night. Are Bella and Arthur a bit stupbid (sic.) or what? To my knowledge they have spent all of last night tucked up in the house as if the outside world was closed off to them?!!
A nice man has just got my business
[when | 13th May 2008 11:41am]
[location | Oxford]
[mood | cheerful]
[tags | bookshelfs, diy]
I'm looking into fitting glass doors to the bottom shelfs of my three bookshelfs. Remembering how the one that I had when I was 'ickle worked I wanted to do this myself by getting some glass doors cut and then fitting some nice simple plastic track for them to slide on. I've been doing sporadic searching on the interweb for various combinations of 'door track' to see: a) what its actually known as; b) where you can get it from; and c) how much it might be. You would have thought that in this day and age there would be a diy-type stockist site-thing that would have these sort of things listed.
In the end I got bored of searching, and resigned myself to trying my luck at Homebase in the knowledge that I wouldn't find the thing I was after and the member of staff that I would find wandering the aisles wouldn't understand what I was after, and when I had explained it to them would announce that they don't stock anything like it...
...so instead I persued the glass.
This is where I searched the yellow pages and came up against a company called Bicester Glass - glass while'u'wait amongst other more trade solutions. This sounds exactly what I'm after, I thought, and gave them a call. And what a nice man I spoke to. He knew exactly what I was after and was able to give me aproximate prices for my (very) approximate guesswork dimensions, and knew exactly what I needed/wanted for the track (down to bigger at the top than at the bottom so that you can lift the door up and dop it back down into the track. The prices are reasonable. He's definitely getting my business.
Good, old-fashioned customer service does still exist, oh yeah! :-)
Things To Do
[when | 12th May 2008 12:25pm]
[location | Oxford]
[mood | questioning]
[tags | life, lists, questions]
In no particular order...
- Attack ground elder with vigour
- Dig up, and pot up snowdrops, primoses, and (after flowering) bluebells
- Sort out excess kitchen crockery &c.
- Sort through understairs cupboard
- Weed pots on patio
- Sort through contents of bottom of wardrobe
- Umm, and the loft... Yes, the loft...
I also have a number - a great number - of video tapes, films and series and the like recorded from the tele. The question is what to do with them. I can't take them anywhere, but I don't really need them. That said, I don't want to chuck them out and have them end up in landfill. Is there
anything that they can be recycled into?
'Of course last time I was here with a different Hannah.'
[when | 11th May 2008 10:23pm]
[location | Oxfordshire]
[mood | contemplative]
[tags | blood & fire, revision, writing]
...one line, of note, that has met the axe as a result of revising my novel. Now that Hannah is Kirsten, there is no need for the authorial nod to the two Hannah/Hanna Katla conundrum. Whilst the story is better for the change, I can't help but mark the passing of this change.
The Cutest Old House...
[when | 10th May 2008 04:42pm]
[location | Bicester]
[tags | house-hunting]
We have just been to look at the cutest old house ever. It's a little two-bedroom cottage of Cotswold stone, south-east facing big, walled garden, and situated in the centre of Bicester. The downside of it is that being in the centre of Bicester its immediately opposite the proposed new Cinema/shopping complex, and it is in desperate need of renovation. The windows are new but everything else is ... well, pretty much how it was left sometime mid-last century.
Such a shame because its a nice house but impracticable in just about every way... :-\
Life Expectancy Calculator
[when | 9th May 2008 12:58pm]
[location | Oxford]
[tags | memes]
Despite being a man and a bit overweight I come out at having another 20,500 days more to live, which umm ... makes the summer of 2063 not a great year for me.
Biological Age: 34
Virtual Age: 17:8
Average Life Expectancy: 74
Your Life Expectancy: 90.2
You can expect to live approximately another 20500 more days.
What's your death date?
Solo Picc
[when | 8th May 2008 11:11pm]
[location | Oxfordshire]
[tags | piccolo, wind band]
A much more successful (and thus enjoyable) band practice tonight. I actually managed to play my flute to a halfway decent standard which is always good. Last week, in case I forget was awful – spending much of the first half peering into the end Gonzo-style and fiddling with the keys trying to work out what had broken only to pass it to Debbie in the break to see her play it no problem. Tonight though was different. And my earlier evening practice of a couple of pieces even paid off, although the final movement of Clare Grundman's English Suite did have me sweating buckets with nerves. I wasn't brilliant, but I wasn't dreadful either.
Dreaming of a holiday
[when | 8th May 2008 08:23am]
[location | Oxford]
[mood | dreamy]
[tags | holidays]
For the past couple of days I have still needed to wear my jacket for the cycle ride into work. Today I had to unzip mid-way with the heat already building, and the sun so, so nice. The smells of Little Clarendon Street hit me again and had me wanting – no desiring – a foreign holiday again. It seems too long since Venice two years ago. I want to go somewhere new, and explore new streets and sit outside new cafes and see new sights...
Nearest Book Meme
[when | 7th May 2008 02:34pm]
[location | Oxford]
[tags | books, memes]
Tagged by fondofbooks
1. Pick up the nearest book.
2. Open to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag fivesix people.
Since I'm at work my nearest book is New Hart's Rules, which I really ought to refer to more often...
Take into account also the subject's conventions and the intended readers' expectations: if in doubt over the degree of assimilation of a particular word, the more cautious policy is to italicize, but in a work written for specialists whose terminology it may be a part of, it may be wiser not to.
Conversely, consistency or context may require words normally romanized in general English to revert to italization (or, as in German, capitalization), to avoid their looking out of place among related but less assimilated foreign words. It is also sometimes important to go on italizing a foreign word, however familiar, where there is an English word with the same spelling, as with Land for a province of Germany or pension for a Continental boarding house.
I tag:
boxninja
brokenblossom
nicotje
rachel2205
![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/syndicated.gif)
teabagcentral
tinyjo
Little Clarendon and the Smells of the Summer Morning
[when | 6th May 2008 08:03am]
[location | Oxford]
[tags | smells, summer]
I've always liked Little Clarendon Street. It's cute, and nice, and kind of continental in feel. This morning as I cycled down it in the crisp morning sun the waft of smells reminiscent of a foreign town came across me. I've no idea actually what that smell is; I just love the way that sometimes it hits you and in an instant transports you hundreds and thousands of miles away.
Possibly one of the best weekends ever
[when | 5th May 2008 08:53pm]
[location | Berkshire]
[mood | tired]
[tags | bicycle rides]
I know that the British always joke about the Bank Holiday weather, but actually, in my experience, the May Day one's are usually pretty damn decent. And today, was no exception. Having done our jobs on the hazy Sunday before, and done our 'outing' on the Saturday when we visited the Open Air Museum (which reminded me a lot of the Estonian Open Air Museum), today we decided to go for a bike ride.
After spending some time perusing the maps and checking the internet for bicycle circuits (with the aid of Em's new Vodafone Broadband dongle thingumy) we settled on one around Windsor and Eaton.
Driving to our starting location we pass the barracks in Windsor with lots of soldiers and their family gathering, although we completely miss the later parade. Where we cycle from, following the Thames for a while, we make one error and end up along a footpath that really isn't made for bicycles and cuts off a rediculous corner of road. Consequently by the time we arrive back in Windsor it is around lunchtime. We stop in the lee of the castle for a panini and iced tea before heading off, leisurely through Eaton, and on to Dorney Lake, and then back again. It doesn't sound like far, but it was 15 miles and we did stop and admire the view (frequently). Well, there isn't any sense in rushing things is there...
Originally uploaded by shepline on 9 May '08, 11.05pm BST PST.
Originally uploaded by shepline on 9 May '08, 11.04pm BST PST.
Productiveness and Bathtime Silliness
[when | 4th May 2008 10:14pm]
[location | Berkshire]
[mood | tired]
[tags | cats, diy]
Today has been a good and productive day. Although we didn't get up very early (the second time) that was because we'd already been up for 3 hours and had a good walk, so it didn't feel too wasteful having brunch later on.
Then, I set to fixing the dining room chair. Yesterday I had deliberately broken it after taking it apart to discover what size dowel I needed to get and discovered that instead of being held together by two screws and 6 lengths of dowel, it was held together by two screws and one piece of dowel that did not protest much at being 'broken' out. Anyhow, dowel and drill bit bought I drilled out the old wood and stuck it all back together. Very successful.
Next, came the rabbit hutch. This took longer to reconstruct as I had to saw bits of wood down to the right size after first demolishing the water-logged (and now, if thick, carboard-like) existing roof. Midway through fixing the new roofing felt Em's schoolfriend Caroline arrived with the children, so I stopped for a carpenter's tea break, before finishing off.
As Em was cooking dinner, I was going to have rejuvenating bath but discovered mid-way through filling up the bathtub that we had neglected to put the water back on. So I left it half full of cold water to fill up with hot later. Then thought no more about it. It wasn't till later in the evening when we were watching the first of the Grand Designs Live programmes that there was a loud crash. I went to investigate and Arthur ran away in a hurry. I got to the bathroom and several bottles had been knocked into the water and the floor was splashed with water. Em came through to tell me that Arthur might have hurt himself as he was walking funny...
...actually Arthur was walking funny because he was sopping wet. Arthur you see likes sitting in baths. Empty baths. He must have jumped in, and got a surprise at landing in the water and jumped out the otherside and knocked the bottles off and then run off. Ridiculous animal.
It has to be said that Ronnie agreed with this view completely. He just stared at Arthur with a That don't impress me much look about him!
Dawn Chorus
[when | 4th May 2008 07:28am]
[location | Burnham Beeches]
[mood | cheerful]
[tags | dawn chorus, nature]
We've just gone back to bed, having already had breakfast. But why, I hear you ask? As decided yesterday, we got up at half past three this morning, dressed, and wiped the sleepy-dust from our eyes, and drove up to Burnham Beeches in the pitch black – passing only eight cars in the whole journey – and hearing the dawn chorus. Even at 4 o'clock, the Blackbirds had already started singing near to the houses, but further into the wood it was still quite quiet; a quietness which was soon to be replaced with song. When it got a little lighter we walked through the middle of the woods, with birdsong all around and not another single person around. It was blissful. The perfect start to a Sunday. :-)
Time-slip into History
[when | 3rd May 2008 11:04pm]
[location | Berkshire (mostly)]
[mood | cheerful]
1. We woke up at half past four this morning. The plan was to get up and go to Burnham Beeches to hear the dawn chorus and have an early morning walk in the woods. But it was already getting light, and the birds were already in full song, so we just walked down the orchard instead. Tomorrow, instead. Tomorrow, we shall get up earlier.
2. After going back to bed for a while, we got up and went to Waitrose for some weekend goodies, before going on to lunch with Emma's dad, and to collect some wood and roofing felt to repair the rabbit hutch with. It's a hot day and we made the mistake of leaving the elderflower sorbet and the prawns in the back of the car. Or at least that's what we thought when we got back in the car...
3. Would you consider me odd to say that the highlight, by far, were the toilets at the Chiltern Open Air Museum? Would it make any difference to say that the toilets were renovated Victorian public toilets? The urinals were so special I had to grab Em to go and have a look too! I love this kind of museum – wandering through fields and woods, coming across old buildings saved from their former locations, sometimes more than once, and erected in new surroundings and dressed in a particular period. From the old village blacksmiths to a single-room school, to a post-war pre-fab bungalow – all are equally fascinating. And the woolly baaa lambs in the village farm are just adorable too! :-)
4. ...back at the car again, we delved into our shopping bags to find the sorbet still cold and the prawns absolutely fine. We therefore deduce that the off-prawn smell filling the car was in fact the PVA glue in the plywood boards. Yuck! Still, at least we don't have to go back and spend more money on duplicate shopping.
5. Helen and Nick came over for dinner tonight, and Em cooked a delicious pea and prawn risotto (with peas on the side) for us. It was good to have a meal with friends. We should do this more often.
2 Become 5
[when | 2nd May 2008 09:34pm]
[location | Berkshire]
[mood | 
nervous]
[tags | cats]
When you want to be together for longer, but can't because no one is wanting to buy your house, and both parties have the responsibilities of their own cats, something has to give. It sounded like a crazy idea when I first suggested it, but its got to happen sometime and who knows, it might make things easier in the long run...
This weekend, I have come to Emma's on Friday through to Monday, and this time I am not alone. Bella and Arthur, thoroughly unimpressed at not being fed at 'their usual time' and instead packaged up into their carry-cage, have made the journey with me down the M40 for a weekend away in Berkshire.
Already, Ronald has shown that he is unimpressed, whilst Bella and Arthur seem to be unfazed by their three new 'friends'. Umm, possibly a little too unfazed. There has been hissing and avoidance but so far no scraps.
We've joked that this could be a deal breaker. I have two cats; Emma has three. Neither is particularly extreme, but together, five is possibly a little on the crazy side. What if they don't get on? I mean - ever?! It's not really an option. They are going to have to get on...
The May Meme
[when | 2nd May 2008 01:48pm]
[location | Oxford]
[tags | books]
Stolen from fondofbooks
What we have here are the top 106 books most often marked as "unread" by LibraryThing’s users. As in, they sit on the shelf to make you look smart or well-rounded. Bold the ones you've read, underline the ones you read for school, italicise the ones you started but didn't finish.
( read more )
May Day
[when | 1st May 2008 07:43am]
[location | Bicester]
[mood | curious]
[tags | house-hunting, mortgages]
So the Bank of England are saying that the credit crunch may be over? Well hears hoping. Maybe, just maybe, this kind of news will start to filter down through the housing market and things will start moving again.
One Year On
[when | 30th April 2008 09:34pm]
[location | Oxfordshire]
[tags | jobs, life]
I've been feeling a bit sad and miserable and disjointed all day. Ordinarily I would say it was just the effect of the torrential rain and grim skies. I've also been worrying about whether I'm going to get everything done that I need to do this week. I have a viewing on my house on Saturday, which is good, but it does mean that I have to leave the house tidy, which means I've had to spend time tonight cleaning, because I'm out at band tomorrow and on Friday I'm going to Emma's. And there's other things I need to do as well, and I was wondering when I was going to have time to it all.
Then, tonight I realised what it is that is wrong. Today is exactly one year since I left BlackwellWiley. I really thought – I really hoped – that sometime in the intervening year I would land myself a new permanent job; a new career.
Of course it's not like I've been without work for the whole year. It's not like I haven't had some nice holidays. It's not even as if I haven't had the best year ever with Emma, but it has been a year tinged with uncertainty, and I guess an uneasy curiosity as to whether I ever will succeed again at an interview. Just one of those really low evenings I guess.
There's a whisper down the line at 11.39
[when | 28th April 2008 11:39pm]
[location | Oxfordshire]
[tags | cats, musicals]
There's a whisper down the line at 11.39 when the night mail's ready to depart
Saying Skimble, where is Skimble, has he gone to hunt the thimble? We must find him or the train can't start
Cats, was, as always fantastic and brilliant, and so, so magical and clever. That said, in this touring production they've tinkered with it (since I last saw it a year and a bit ago). Mungo Jerry and Rumple Teezer, have had their tune completely rewritten, and not at all for the better. It really, really, doesn't work anymore.
The Rum Tum Tugger and Skimbleshanks stole the show by a whisker mile! ;-)
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