Spring flowers. Muddy paths and potholed roads. Traffic control measure. And M&S underwear.

Spring is definitely round the corner. There are crocuses all over the place. 

The footpaths are still very muddy. There’s one stretch that’s not really a footpath but an actual road leading to a row of terraced houses. It’s full of deep potholes that have been full of water for what seems like months. I really don’t know how the residents of the houses stand it, especially the one who has a large ‘dog-grooming’ van. In fact, I think the residents need to ‘adopt’ the stretch of road and have it properly surfaced, after which the local council will take responsibility for it. At least, that’s what we did when we live in an out of the way terrace in the valley between Delph and Denshaw.

On many of the actual main roads around here they have installed speed bumps / sleeping policemen to make drivers slow down, but not on our road which is the A62, at one time the main thoroughfare for going to Yorkshire, still used as a run-off road if the M62 is closed. The speed bumps are quite fierce, as I have commented in previous blogposts. In Mumbai, according to this article, they have installed a section of “musical road” on the Coastal Road expressway. If drivers keep to the reduced speed limit it “plays” a well known tune. Drivers who exceed the speed limit are subjected to a less musical, more unpleasant vibration. Local residents are not happy and want the “music” to stop.

Recently I have taken to “shopping the wardrobe”, as my daughter calls it: rooting out some item of clothing I have not worn for years. Some styles have come around again in the time these items of clothing have been locked away. Not locked away but equally vintage as some of my other clothes is underwear. Now, this morning Guardian columnist Emma Beddington wrote about having been advised that your knickers should be changed every 6 months - not changed as in ‘clean knickers every day’ but thrown away and replaced with now ones. Apparently even regular washing will not completely remove all the bacteria and such like, so we should throw them out. “It’s a horrifying thought,” says Ms Beddington, “given I’ve got pants dating back to 1995”. Quite so! Mine too! It sounds like another ploy to make us spend more money. Not quite built in obsolescence but long-life bacteria.

Having read all this, she claims to have headed to M&S, the best place for underwear; even the super-stylish French have been known to compliment M&S on the quality of its undies. But Ms Beddington had this complaint:

 

“I was unable to identify the pants I used to buy back in the day, and instead faced a baffling onslaught of fabrics and proprietary names: Flexifit Modal Thongs, Boston Microfibre No VPL High Rise Shorts, ContourWear No VPL Brazilian Knickers and SmoothEase Invisible Comfort Shorts. I was reduced to wandering around, sadly whispering: “I just want a multipack of plain black cotton pants.” And yes, I know how old this makes me sound – even older than my pants.”

Maybe Manchester ladies are more demanding of stores stocking what they want and need that London ones but I have never had difficulty finding a pack of 5 standard cotton knickers. And it must be said that M&S is the best place to find men’s standard Y-Front underpants, although, as with the ladies’ knickers, there is a disturbing amount of choice of styles of gent’s undies!

I’m going to Manchester tomorrow so I’ll check out the undies situation nowadays.

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!

Weather differences. Artistic activities. Watching the Winter Olympics. Wuthering Heights.

My daughter, various grandchildren and I left Buckinghamshire this morning in the rain. Oddly enough, the further north we progressed the more the weather improved. We had been unable to see more than a hundred yards beyond the edge of the road when we travelled south on Thursday, all scenery obliterated by low cloud. Coming back our landscapes were restored.

The main reason for our going south was to celebrate the 12th birthday of Granddaughter Number Three. We were actually more than a week late in celebrating because all the younger grandchildren have to go to school and we had to wait for the half term holiday. He birthday banners remained in place.

Among the various activities we organised was decorating T-shirts. The children coloured them in to their own designs. Once ironed the T-shirts retained the colour. So they sat and coloured while I read them a story. 

Grandson Number Two insisted on a dragon design on his, with the message “DRAGONS ARE AWESOME” on the back. 

We watched a bit of awesome figure skating in the Winter Olympics. My son’s cat also enjoyed the skiing, occasionally trying to catch a figure off the screen.

And here is a cartoon about curling, now that the fuss is over and done with.

 

Much fuss has been made about the latest film version of Wuthering Heights. In an odd twist on the arguments about which actors can play which roles (disabled roles to be played by disabled actors, Irish or Scottish roles to be played by Irish or Scottish actors, gay and lesbian roles by gay and lesbian actors and so on) this article protests that the leading roles, Yorkshire people, were not played by Yorkshire actors. This is an argument which will go on and on. I’ve not seen the new film but from the photos I have seen, Cathy seems to have grown from a teenager to a rather older, more mature woman, which seems odd. I really shouldn’t criticise without watching the film.

Anyway, here’s a cartoon about the making of the film.

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!

Swans. Sagrada Familia. ICE. And a bit of Michael Rosen.

This morning we walked into the centre of Chesham, where they have a very superior Saturday market. When we took the small people up the hill to the park we saw swans on the lake. They are clearly last year’s goslings now grown up as they still had greyish-brown feathers on their wings. But still elegant!

I hear that they have put the final central tower on the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. Everyone is very pleased. I’ve always liked that church. Jordi Faulí, the chief architect for the project, said: “It’s been a joyful day, wonderful for all the people who have made it possible.” A ceremony to mark the completion of the tower – the tallest of 18 conceived by Gaudí – is due to take place on the centenary of Gaudí’s death in 1926 on 10 June, 16 years after the church was consecrated by Pope Benedict XVI.

I thought at first that this meant the church was finally finished but, no, they still have to do the south façade. This is the Glory façade, which is expected to take a further 10 years to complete. Is this the longest-lasting construction project ever.

Some people say it should have been blown up during the Civil War but it’s still there, a huge tourist attraction. The anarchists did, however, destroy Gaudí’s drawings and the plaster model, which years later was painstakingly reconstructed. Experts say that Gaudí’s geometry is so precise that should there be any deviation from his plan, the building would collapse.

Over in the USA ICE continues its nasty business. Even tourists are t risk. Just in case you think it couldn’t happen to you, here’s a link to an article about the experience of an Englishwoman in the USA. 

And for the first time in a long time here is one of Michael Rosen’s posts as his alter ego, Boris:

 

Dear Mogg

As King Lear says, 'The world is too much with us, Horatio, and I have miles to go before I sleep.' Let us not put pen to paper on all our thoughts about events of which we shall not speak. We can only hope 'twill always be a green and peasant land.

Septic gortex

Boris

Life goes on. Stay self and well, everyone!

Day out in the southern parts. And an investigation.

We had a debate this morning about how we were going to spend the day. There was a vote for the zoo but rain was forecast and, besides, it was quite likely that the animals would mostly be hiding away from the cold. So we went to RAF Hendon, once an airfield but now a museum of planes. A look at how we have waged war from the air. The small boy was fascinated. His sister and older cousin slightly less so. His uncle was very enthusiastic.

Here are some photos.

Out in the wider world, a certain Mr Mountbatten-Windsor has been arrested and is being investigated for misconduct in office. There’s a surprise!

Here’s a cartoon on that subject.

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!

Travelling south.

 Today we have made our annual excursion to  visit the southern branch of the family, to celebrate the birthday of Granddaughter Number Three. The year she was born I went and spent a couple of weeks at their house when my son went back to work. Then every year I have been there for her birthday, apart from the year of Covid lockdown.  For the last few years my daughter has driven us down with the smallest grandchildren as they and Granddaughter Number Three have seriously bonded. 

The original plan was to drive Phil to chess club, as my daughter does every Thursday, and then set off for southern parts. Then last night Phil volunteered to take a taxi to chess club, allowing us to set off in the early afternoon. We might have set off in the morning but none of us had packed anything or organised anything. 

And here we are in southern parts. The children are busy making pizza. We shall eat later.

And that’s it for today. Further reports tomorrow of our adventures in Buckinghamshire.

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!

Pancakes. Superstitions. Looking at things from both sides. The need for cash in Gaza,'

 We did a monster pancake party yesterday with most of the family (not the southern branch - we’ll see them tomorrow). The pancakes went down well, although Granddaughter Number Two did strange things with chocolate and mini-marshmallows on hers! 

Today I met my daughter and the two smallest grandchildren at the library. There the staff were having to do everything with paper and pencil and an old-fashioned date stamp as the computers and all the automatic systems had broken down. IT is wonderful … until it lets you down. 

Afterwards we went for coffee and hot chocolate in a local cafe, which was quite run off its feet with so many people taking refuge from the  rather arctic wind. The small people had yet more pancakes, this time American style, small fat pancakes, with maple syrup and fruits of the forest! 

Yesterday my daughter commented that she wanted/needed to wash her hair but could not do so because according to Chinese superstition, if you wash your hair on New Year’s Day you wash away all the good things that might happen to you over the coming year. I never though of her as a superstitious person. Maybe it’s only Chinese superstition she holds to.

I commented recently on the British Museum removing from their exhibits labels that mention Palestine. Art historian William Dalrymple has this to say about it:

“I’ve just been chatting with Nick Cullinan, the excellent new director of the British Museum, and I’m very relieved to say that the story put out by the Daily Telegraph about the BM cancelling the name Palestine is a complete misrepresentation of the facts:

‘To reassure you, we are not removing mention of Palestine from our labels,’ Nick told me. ‘Indeed, we have a display on at the moment about Palestine and Gaza.

‘I know this is something our curators have thought long and hard about - as you can imagine. We amended two panels in our ancient Levant gallery last year during a regular gallery refresh, when some wording was amended to reflect historical terms.

‘To be honest, the even more frustrating and concerning thing is that I knew nothing about this until yesterday and it has only been explained to me this morning. i hadn’t even seen that [UK lawyers for Israel] letter, despite asking for it, until this morning. I’m disgusted by the whole thing’.”

There you go. Another view of a story put out by a respectable newspaper! 

Meanwhile, life in Gaza continues to be difficult, as this article tells us. Goods which make their way to Gaza markets are expensive. Nobody has enough cash. Employment runs at 80% - hardly surprising in the circumstances. People who used to earn their living and feed their families by going out to sea to fish cannot do so - their boats have been destroyed and, besides, they are denied access to the sea.

 However, mostly everyone has gone quiet about Gaza now that there is a ‘ceasefire’! Yet people are still suffering. We should not forget.

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!

Chinese New Year. Year of the Horse. Also Pancake Day. Too much rain and not enough.

It’s Chinese New Year’s Day. On Sunday there were parades in Manchester as usual. I think they were a bit rained on this year but nobody seems to have minded.

It’s the start of the Year of the Horse. Some say that it’s the Fire Horse but all my earlier sources just said Year of the Horse. So I have crocheted some horses, following an amigurumi pattern, a type of crochet involving a lot of circular stuff. For the last five years (I think) I have crocheted two of the relevant animal at this time of year for our two youngest grandchildren, whose father is Chinese. This year I made horses.

It’s also Shrove Tuesday, aka Pancake Tuesday. Time for carnival to start properly. In Galicia they will be burying the Sardine.  In our house I’ll be making pancakes, proper crèpe pancakes, not the thick pancakes some people seem to favour these days, possibly an import from the USA.

Here’s a cartoon about pancakes.

I long ago gave up trying to toss pancakes. It may well be traditional but it’s also messy. With a good pancake pan, heated to a good temperature, an a careful use of the spatula, it’s quite possible to flip the pancake without having to toss it high into the air and try to catch it. There is no guarantee, after all, that it will land in the correct way in your frying pan. 

There was a time, a good 12 or 13 years ago when Granddaughter Number Two and Grandson Number One used to be dropped off here for breakfast a couple of days a week. We would have pancakes for breakfast, play a game of tig round the kitchen table and then rush out to the bus stop to catch the bus to their primary school. Pancakes are part of the family tradition, following my mother’s recipe! 

Here is a new word, perfect for a day like today which is bright and sunny but cold enough for puddles to be frozen first thing: 

Apricity - the pleasant warmth of the sun in winter. That cozy feeling that wraps around you when the air is cold.

Valentine’s Day has come and gone. Here’s a before and after pic of “Lovers’ Arch”, in Sant’Andrea, Puglia, Italy. On Valentine’s Day strong storm surges and heavy rain swept across southern Italy and the rocky arch, the backdrop for wedding proposals and romantic pictures, collapsed. 

There goes a tourist attraction! The mayor of the town said, “It is a devastating blow to the heart. One of the most famous tourist features of our coastline and of the whole of Italy has disappeared.”

While so many places in Europe (and elsewhere) are suffering from too much rain, Cyprus is having a drought. Residents are being asked to reduce their water use. Reservoirs are running dry and ancient monuments are reappearing from under the water of those reservoirs, like the St Nicholas church in the Kouris reservoir.

Meanwhile, I am seeing video footage of aqua alta in Venice. Strange times! 

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!