Not Today Thank You

Stoke Museum and Art Gallery, October 2024 (all photos taken by Lola II)

Long ago Lola II and I used to go away together for a weekend, sometimes with Sister D, usually around Lola II's birthday in February. The weather was often poor and many attractions were closed, which we ascribed to the time of year and inevitably blamed our parents. This time, for a few days at the end of October, we went to Stoke-on-Trent. Here is a brief overview of the visit: the weather was poor and many attractions were closed. So it isn't just February, and maybe our parents weren't to blame, but my goodness, Stoke on Trent failed to deliver the short break we were hoping for.

We arrived on Tuesday having done fairly minimal preparation, although the B&B was pre-booked. It was a pub with rooms, and only when we arrived did we realise that it was some way from the station in the opposite direction to the main town area. As those of you familiar with Arnold Bennett's books (my source material for much of my prior knowledge of Stoke) will know, there are a cluster of five towns in the region: Tunstall, Burslem, Hanley, Fenton, Stoke and Longton. So there are actually six, which makes as much sense as anything else in Stoke. [Historical note: they were amalgamated in 1910 to become the county borough of Stoke-on-Trent.]

When we got to the pub at the end of Tuesday, it turned out to have not only the rooms upstairs but also a well-equipped kitchen where we were encouraged to help ourselves to breakfast - not only cereal and toast and yogurt and juice but also eggs that we could cook for ourselves. There was nobody else staying when we arrived, and we were told that the manager had left unexpectedly so existing bookings were being honoured but no new ones taken until a replacement was recruited. The pub downstairs smelled a bit dank, closed at 9pm on weekdays, and everyone turned to look at us when we walked through to the stairs the first time; after that we used the back entrance. But the room and kitchen upstairs were lovely.

I would assert that our accommodation was the best part of the trip. Lola II and I had both made cursory searches to find interesting museums, eating places, entertainment and other potential attractions in the city. There was a film and a play we wanted to see so that would take up two evenings, and various pottery museums and restaurants that looked interesting, but our first foray into town to find lunch was problematic. We found that hardly anything was open on Tuesday, except a sandwich restaurant where we wanted to eat, but it was fully booked. 

This was a running theme throughout our stay. The tourist information office appeared to be located in the Museum and Art Gallery, which was closed on Tuesdays. The place that looked promising for desserts had run out of fudge cake. The next day the sandwich place was fully booked again and the dumpling restaurant that was supposed to be open was still closed. The café at the theatre on Wednesday night was fully booked, so our (perfectly acceptable) supper was crisps, cake and beer. By Thursday we'd cottoned on so we phoned the dumpling restaurant to check its opening hours and booked the sandwich restaurant for Friday.

The Old Free Library with Shakespeare mosaic and faded tiles (unocccupied)

The Museum and Art Gallery was open on Wednesday, but they told us that the Tourist Information Office hadn't been located there for some time, and in fact there seemed to be no source of tourist information other than leaflets and websites. Lola II and I have been to lots of places now, and each one has had some sort of guided tour of places of interest. Stoke isn't short of places of interest and it's a shame that there were no local guides. We did follow an interesting online trail highlighting various beautiful buildings with terracotta decoration and tiled details, nearly all of which were closed down and boarded up and decaying. It would have been better if a tour could have been delivered in person, and maybe would have provided a boost to the local economy.

One successful eating place was the Oatcake shop (closed on Tuesdays and doesn't take card payments on Thursdays). We managed to get there while it was open, brought cash, and tried a filled oatcake each - they are very much like pancakes or crepes. There was a very authentic and delicious Vietnamese restaurant which we almost left because the menu didn't have anything that was vegetarian, although they produced tofu when we asked. The dumpling restaurant was underwhelming despite a positive write-up in the Guardian, but in the sandwich shop my tofu and kimchi toasted sandwich was outstanding, and better than Lola II's halloumi and tomato relish. We also made our own supper one evening in the little kitchen at the pub.

Enough of the food, on to the other attractions. The main Museum and Art Gallery is the home of the Staffordshire Hoard, a wonderful treasure that I saw when it was displayed in Birmingham a few years ago. Which was lucky, because here in Stoke it had been completely removed leaving the cases in the gallery empty. There was a fairly interesting art exhibition that Lola II got us into for free with her Art Pass, and we spent the rest of our time in the museum looking at exhibitions of local history, fossils and stuffed animals, and an enormous amount of pottery. It's what the area is famous for, after all.

With hope in our hearts and having checked the opening hours we headed for the Spode Museum next day. Trying to find the entrance we encountered another visitor who was similarly confused. She was from Germany and was having a canal boat holiday, and had specifically come into town for this museum. When we eventually found it, despite the sign on the door suggesting that it ought to be open, the doors were locked. Luckily someone inside heard us knocking, and explained when she opened the door that she was on her own as the other volunteers had not turned up, and had we come far? We certainly had, and as we appeared to be relatively harmless she was kind enough to allow us inside (but locked the door behind us). 

She gave us a really interesting introduction to the museum and told us that only 47 of the bottle kilns are left in the area out of the thousands that were there in Stoke's heyday. (This is why Stoke should have real people giving tours, it was much better than reading a leaflet or a web page or just having labels in display cases.) There was an old film showing the stages of making, firing and decorating pottery which was really interesting too. When we left there were a group of people waiting outside the locked door but they weren't let in, so we were particularly lucky on that occasion.

Later in the day we thought we'd stop by and have a look at Stoke Minster, where Josiah Wedgewood and Josiah Spode are both buried. They're outside in the churchyard, which is lucky because the Minster itself was closed. And the tea room nearby that looked very attractive was fully booked and didn't even have space for us to wait.

We took a bus to the small theatre for a John Godber play (Perfect Pitch) and enjoyed it, but the Iranian film we saw the following night (My Favourite Cake) was even better. Getting around by bus was a bit of a challenge - it was quite difficult to locate the right bus stop to wait at, and then the drivers seemed to have trouble understanding what we were saying. 

On Thursday night we tried to plan for our last day, and work out what to do until our trains left in the early afternoon. There didn't seem to be anything. Another pottery museum looked promising, but our experience suggested it would be worth phoning to check its opening hours, and sure enough it was closed. So in the end we watched Tales of the Unexpected and Frasier on the TV in the room until it was time to vacate, and then just went into town for lunch. While we were eating, Lola II received a notification that her train was cancelled, so she asked at the station whether she could get an earlier train, and when the answer was no we tried to go into the station hotel opposite for a cup of tea. It was closed.

After we'd returned from the trip, Mr M sent me an extract of an article about a remake of the film "Dr Strangelove". It says:

"Take the stark scene where Pentagon top brass haggle over a city to offer up to the Russians as a sacrificial lamb. When it's suggested Stoke might be blasted to smithereens, a loud cheer rises from the audience."

Fiddling on the roof

Kyre Park Garden, October 2024

Before my solitary retreat I went on a weekend retreat with the Buddhists from Birmingham, for which I was designated Organiser. There wasn't a whole lot of organising to do, and as well as the scheduled sessions I had a chance to catch up with some of the people I'd got to know while I was volunteering at the retreat centre. I went straight from there to my week's solitary in an annexe to a cottage which had been designed for the purpose. The woman who owned it lived in the cottage, and we had a coffee and a lovely conversation at the end of the week.

I took off my watch when I arrived and didn't put it back on until the final morning, just keeping track of the days and letting everything else happen when it wanted to. I meditated, read a lot, wrote a little, went out for walks and did a lot of thinking. I took all my meals with me ready-prepared so I didn't have to do any shopping or cooking, and it was lovely. Next time I'll see if I can manage to extend it to ten days.

I returned to an empty house; UJ has gone back to Ukraine for a holiday. Next day I'd arranged for Hlf to come and do the pointing of the chimney stacks. Hlf's Sidekick and a young lad arrived quite late, and the Sidekick kept dashing off to look after other jobs, leaving the lad to do the work. I had a few conversations with him; he wasn't very happy - the roof was too steep to be safe and he was expected to work off ladders and sitting across the ridge. In the end he couldn't safely reach all the parts of the chimney that he was supposed to, and it was nearly dark by the time he'd finished what he could do.

The next day I went out to have a look, and wasn't happy with the half done job. I let Hlf know that I was concerned about the safety of his employee as well as the fact that I wasn't going to be paying the full amount because of the parts that hadn't been pointed. Then I looked online to see who might be able to get involved on the safety side of things - Trading Standards for Warwickshire direct you to the Citizen's Advice Bureau, so that's where I'm heading as soon as I get enough time to phone during office hours.

Next I was in London for two days thanks to a visit from Cousin M from Seattle. Mr M took us both on a tour of the area around the Barbican before handing us over to Lola II for afternoon tea at a Very Posh Hotel. It was very good, but the verdict was that the previous tea I'd had with Lola II had been slightly better. We went on to a performance of the musical Guys and Dolls which was slightly unusual because we took up the option of being part of the action. The stage was in the round and we stood alongside the actors and other members of the audience while different parts of the stage rose up so everyone could see what was going on. It was a terrific idea and was executed well, but standing up for the performance after walking around London for the day left me pretty tired.

I've filled my diary a little too much despite my resolution to try and leave space, but it's all been things I've enjoyed - visiting mum, going to the cinema (twice), my U3A walk, badminton, training with Muscles, cooking, and today I went to an event organised by LeamLETS, which is the trading system that works by its members offering services using a barter system. The event was mainly social and there were some lovely people there, but you could also bring things to trade. An opportunity for GRUHI! And what's more, people took some of my junk, and I talked to the woman who organises the trading table at the local Repair Café, so I'll be there next weekend in the hope of similar results.

What I've been reading

Herzog
by Saul Bellow

"His formidable wife Madeleine has left him for his best friend. His head buzzing with ideas, he writes frantic, unsent letters to friends and enemies, colleagues and famous people, the living and the dead, revealing the spectacular workings of his labyrinthine mind and the innermost secrets of his troubled heart."

A 'Modern Classic' with this idiosyncratic tic of including his interpolated letters and notes that simply irritated me, while the literary and historical references were lost on me. The last few chapters had less of this, and were much more satisfactory, even though it wasn't enough to redeem the book.

Journey to the Centre of the Earth
by Jules Verne

narrated by B. J. Harrison

"An adventurous geology professor chances upon a manuscript in which a 16th-century explorer claims to have found a route to the earth's core. Professor Lidenbrock can't resist the opportunity to investigate, and with his nephew Axel, he sets off across Iceland in the company of Hans Bjelke, a native guide."

I still think I remember aspects of the film that was an enjoyable Saturday afternoon classic on TV when I was growing up, but it may just be false memory. The book isn't bad, narration not bad either. Passed the time.

Adventures in Human Being
by Gavin Francis

"We have a lifetime's association with our bodies, but for many of us they remain uncharted territory. The reader is led on a journey through health and illness, offering insights on everything from the ribbed surface of the brain to the secret workings of the heart and the womb; from the pulse of life at the wrist to the unique engineering of the foot."

A mixture of medical, surgical and anecdotal material relating to different parts of the body. Nothing particularly memorable or outstanding but it was interesting enough, and I intend to pass it on to the woman who has been giving me fantastic deep tissue shoulder massage recently.

Creative Symbols of Tantric Buddhism
by Sangharakshita

"The aim of Tantric Buddhism is to help us realize our potential for profound wisdom and unbounded compassion by transforming the energy locked in by old habits, fears, and narrow views. This experience cannot be mediated by concepts; it is beyond words and thought, but it can be evoked with the help of symbols."

This was the textbook for the last module with the group of women that I've studied with for nearly five years. The material is full of mysticism and symbolism and everything is metaphorical - colour, sound, shape and form. Not the easiest subject, but I did learn a bit about the historical context as well as trying to let go of some of my more stubborn habits of mind.

The Tao of Pooh
by Benjamin Hoff

"In which it is revealed that one of the world's great Taoist masters isn't Chinese - or a venerable philosopher - but is in fact none other than that effortlessly calm, still, reflective bear, Winnie-the-Pooh. While Eeyore frets, and Piglet hesitates, and Rabbit calculates, and Owl pontificates, Pooh just is."

So I've been on a solitary retreat, which gives me a lot of space and time to do things that I like, which includes reading. A lot of reading. This was on the shelves there, and I remember when it was first published in 1982 because of earnest friends seeking Eastern wisdom. I wasn't much interested then, but obviously time has brought change. I'm still not sure I understand the difference between Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism, but it doesn't really matter.

An Evil Cradling
by Brian Keenan

"When Brian Keenan went to Beirut in 1980 for a change from his native Belfast, he was kidnapped by fundamentalist Shi'ite militiamen and held in the suburb of Beirut for the next four and a half years. For much of that time he was shut off from all news and contact with anyone other than his jailers and, later, his fellow hostages. "

This is a book that has long appeared on my list of 'Books I'd like to read', perhaps ever since it was published in 1992. Telling the story of his imprisonment in Lebanon as a hostage alongside three Americans and Englishman and journalist John McCarthy, it was not perhaps the best choice of reading for a solitary retreat. But being thrown upon one's own resources provides insight into the nature of mind, strength and personality. Clearly a cottage in Worcestershire is not the same as a dungeon in Beirut, but his story provided much to admire and emulate from my comfortable room. John McCarthy's book was also on the shelves, but I decided it wasn't sensible to continue this sort of reading at this time.

The Heart: The Art of Meditation
by Vessantara

"Cultivating more warmth, more kindness and more happiness is possible for all of us. Through the lovingkindness meditation, the gentle and encouraging approach of experienced meditator Vessantara helps us to discover the positive wonder of what is already in our hearts."

This small book focusses on the meditation that I was concentrating on during my solitary retreat - it's a beginner's primer, but with lots of useful hints and tips, and one of those books that contains exercises that you can do but I always skip. Well, on retreat there's nothing else that needs to be done, so I didn't skip the exercises (except the one that involved being in a crowded place), and it was really interesting to watch my mind doing its thing.

A Slip of the Keyboard
by Terry Pratchett

"With all the humour and humanity that have made his novels so enduringly popular, this collection brings Pratchett out from behind the scenes of the Discworld to speak for himself – man and boy, bibliophile and computer geek, champion of hats, orang-utans and Dignity in Dying."

Essentially this is a book of Terry Pratchett's essays written throughout his life as articles in the paper, forewords to books, speeches at Science Fiction conventions and so on. I discovered that he started his career as a journalist for a local paper, became a press officer within the nuclear power industry before the joy of his words and imagination made him a millionaire and a national treasure.

Truckers
by Terry Pratchett

"To the thousands of the tiny nomes who live under the floorboards of a large department store, there is no Outside. Things like Day and Night, Sun and Rain are just daft old legends. Then a devastating piece of news shatters their existence: the Store - their whole world - is to be demolished."

Because the cottage contained every Terry Pratchett book (I think) - and in chronological order on the shelves, it's been interesting to follow up little nuggets  from the book of essays. This is why I started reading Truckers with only one day before I'd have to leave - it's less complicated than the Discworld so I thought I'd have a chance of finishing it, which I did. As it's written for younger readers there's not so much of the clever wit that I love, but it's a neat idea taken more seriously than, say, the Borrowers.

 

Living with Kindness
by Sangharakshita

"Kindness is one of the most basic qualities we can possess, and one of the most powerful. Living with Kindness shows us how to cultivate many of the facets of kindness in ordinary, everyday life through the Buddha's teaching of metta in the Karaniya Metta Sutta."

This book was lent to me for the retreat, and has two themes. One is the meditation that I was working on during the retreat, and the other is the translation and analysis of the ancient text that led to the practice. The former is covered no better or worse than in two of the other books I brought with me, but the translation is fascinating. I'm tempted by the Sanskrit summer school that's available, but really I have enough already on my plate without adding another spoonful.

Meditation: The Buddhist Way of Tranquility and Insight
by Kamalashila

"A complete handbook and a comprehensive guide to the theory, methods, and practice of Buddhist meditation. Providing an introduction to the basic techniques for beginners, Kamalashila also offers detailed advice and reference material for those more experienced."

A very comprehensive manual starting at the very beginning but also including some pretty advanced meditation practices and techniques, which it has become clear I don't come close to mastering. A training day I attended recently included an interesting discussion about the purpose of meditation - is it to foster higher levels of consciousness, or to enable better awareness of self and other, both on and off the cushion? This book is heavily invested in the former, but all my efforts will have to remain centred on the latter.

Doing well

Helidon church, March 2024

Looking back, it's exactly three years since Glf the builder did such a good job of restoring and pointing my wall on the pub side. The reason for looking back is that the roofer pictured in the last blog post (newly named Hlf) highlighted that my two chimney stacks badly need pointing. I'm pretty sure that this was mentioned in the survey that was done when I bought the house more than twenty years ago, which just reminds me how far I've come since the time when I'm pretty sure I didn't know what pointing was.

Hlf discussed the options with me, decided that he could do the job without needing scaffolding, and has provided a quotation on that basis (and I only had to chase him twice). I asked Glf to come and have a look too but he wasn't prepared to take it on without scaffolding, and his quote (only one gentle reminder needed) is obviously twice as much as Hlf's. I'll offer it to Hlf, but being accustomed to the ways of the workmen I am very much prepared for him not to follow through, and then I'll fall back on Glf (who can't schedule the job until spring anyway).

Being able to take on workmen and get back to the LTRP has demonstrated that at the moment I am in pretty good shape, physically and mentally. This hasn't been the case for much of this year. Nothing dreadful, nothing specific, but I'd fallen into unhealthy and unhelpful habits which were proving tough to break. Several things have helped: the support of friends and family (often without them knowing about their part in my welfare), but also pulling myself together through meditation and reflection. The retreat in July gave me a really good opportunity to come up with a plan, which was slightly derailed by a couple of things, but is now working quite well. Apart from cutting out the chocolate and Wotsits, I have been seeing a Personal Trainer. Let's call him Muscles.

Muscles is young and fit (obviously) and has been leading me through some fairly gentle preliminary exercises involving what the experts describe as my 'core' muscles - pelvis, bum and abdomen mostly. Having been fairly fit in the past, I now recognise that I had really let myself go, despite playing badminton twice a week. I also recognise that while Muscles is quite an expensive option in comparison to classes at the local leisure centre, it is unlikely that I would achieve the same results under my own initiative.

I feel comfortable paying for Muscles because the payments ended for my orthodontic treatment a while ago, and now the alignment work is complete. It feels very strange to be without the aligners and I now seem to have developed the habit of unconsciously chewing my lips and the inside of my mouth which is very annoying. I have a night-time retainer to wear, and a visit to my new and slightly annoying dental hygienist has resulted in a further plea for additional attention to my night-time brushing routine.

As usual I've been cramming an enormous amount into my days, including the U3A walking and board games groups, a trip to the local Repair Café, my several Buddhist groups (in person and online), and my monthly music group. Leading up to each of the music sessions I inwardly groan about loading all the gear into the car and spending a whole afternoon with the group, but afterwards I'm always on a high for a day or two and ponder whether I've got time to squeeze more music into my life. This term the pieces that have been chosen are really good fun to play but also really hard, particularly for the baritone saxophone, which demands a lot of physical effort to play.

I also went to a comedy night featuring comedian Mark Watson. I was vaguely aware that he attended the same college as I did (many years after my time), but what I didn't know was that Suella Braverman, former Home Secretary and current Evil Gnome, was also there at the same time as him. I rather lost concentration on the comedy material for a few minutes when this became clear.

I'm going to have a bit of time off, with a weekend retreat leading into a week's solitary time. Now it's time to pack.

Mostly difficult stuff going on

Hlf, September 2024

Recently I visited mum and realised that I'd left one job so long that her email client (Outlook 2007) was going to stop working in less than a week - Microsoft no longer consider it secure because it's so old, and will prevent it from accessing her emails. So I swapped it for an alternative client, and the best part was that I also managed to upload her stored history of emails and her address book, which took a very long time but made me very happy to have achieved it. Then on the next visit I discovered that the new client was also blocked, and I managed to wrestle it to the ground and unblock it, but at the cost of losing all the emails that had arrived within a period of five days. Initially I thought I'd lost the whole Inbox and all the Sent items too, so losing just five days felt like a win.

I managed to go to the RSC to see The Merry Wives of Windsor. Whenever I go there, which is very seldom, I always vow I should go more. It's top quality theatre on my doorstep, so I don't know why I don't. And the roofers and my new glasses arrived on consecutive days in an expensive week. While the roofers were working I did a session of pruning in the garden - only three bags full, much more is needed.

Another thing that's been going on is renewing my car insurance. Over the years I have chosen to use a local broker for many of my policies - car, household, landlord insurance - but it has been well publicised that prices for insurance are rising. Generally what happens is that the broker gives me a quote, I go online and find the same cover at a lower price, and up to now they have managed to reduce their quote to something more acceptable. This time the renewal quote was £200 more than last year and when I went online the lowest quote was £170 less than this. I don't always choose the lowest quote, but the most common amount was still about £150 less than the broker, and they couldn't or wouldn't go anywhere near matching it. I don't quite see how they are going to survive on the High Street.

I've also been on retreat, which went very well - it was aimed at people who don't necessarily know anything about meditation or Buddhism, and so a) was much shorter than the heavy-duty retreats I've been attending and b) was at an introductory level in terms of teaching. But I chose it because it focussed on a topic that I've always found difficult, so I thought that starting from the beginning again might be useful. It was, but not in the way I expected. It was lovely to see people finding something they'd been looking for without knowing it, and to remember what I was like when I went on my first retreat at this centre when I didn't know who I was or what I wanted either. I've come a long way and all for the better.

I was going to carry on northwards for a weekend in York so arranged to drop in on H+B on the way. The York weekend had to be cancelled, but I went to H+B anyway, and talked about dismal things like the Office of the Public Guardian, Enduring Powers of Attorney, Executorship and Probate. But we wandered round the garden too, and admired the brickwork and freshly painted frontage of the house, and marvelled at the flat upstairs which is up for let at an eye-watering monthly sum. H is well, looks good, but is feeling his age (aren't we all). We agreed that the main thing for the avoidance of excruciating administrative entanglement is for H to remain alive for the time being, which thankfully he seems happy to do.

What I've been reading

The Girl with the Louding Voice
by Abi Daré

"As a third wife in a small Nigerian village, fourteen-year-old Adunni is expected to fade into silence. But Adunni will not keep quiet. She's smart, funny and curious, with an infectiously joyful spirit. And despite adversity awaiting her at every turn, she's set on getting an education, no matter the cost."

An interesting conjunction of poverty and wealth within Nigeria, but also bringing together European/first world and Nigerian/third world life and attitudes. I was hooked from the start and it didn't disappoint, with a cliff-edge approach to peril for the young heroine that left me unsettled to just the right extent. I shall pass this one on with my recommendation.

Black and Blue
by Ian Rankin

narrated by James MacPherson

"Bible John killed three women, and took three souvenirs. Now a copycat is at work - nicknamed 'Bible Johnny' by the media, he is a new menace with violent ambitions. The Bible Johnny case would be perfect for Inspector John Rebus, but after a run-in with a crooked senior officer, he's been shunted aside to one of Edinburgh's toughest suburbs."

I managed to follow the plot despite the audio format, so the writing and characterisation must be good. I didn't find it all that interesting, though. Hard to say why - it's set in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen within the oil industry, and Rebus is fairly interesting, but I didn't warm to him all that much, or fear for his safety in the difficult bits. So now I've read an Ian Rankin book, which was the main reason for choosing it, and I don't think I'll bother with any more.

Free Time!
by Vajragupta Staunton

"We and time are intimately intertwined. It is not something we are in; it is something that we are. That means we have a choice about our experience of time: what we do with our minds and our hearts, with our thoughts and emotions, will condition the quality of the time we live in."

A second read of this book which has a lot of truth and sensible advice within it. My relationship with time is almost as bad as my relationship with food. I'm always trying to pack as much into my days as I can, and when I don't fit something in I tell myself "There isn't enough time." But in fact there is plenty of time, and I choose what to prioritise - will I read a book or do my tax return? I divide jobs into 'work' and 'leisure' and justify reading the book on the basis of getting a mix of the two, and this isn't necessarily wrong, but I'm going to bring my characterisation of the choices into the open. I haven't done my homework for my Buddhist class today because I chose to watch a film last night, and that's OK.

Under the Knife
by Arnold van de Laar

"From the story of the desperate man from seventeenth-century Amsterdam who grimly cut a stone out of his own bladder, to Bob Marley's deadly toe, this book offers all kinds of fascinating and unforgettable insights into medicine and history via the operating theatre."

I picked this up from dad's shelf recently, remembering that I lent it to him. I don't think he read it - he was usually enthusiastic about accepting this kind of offer but often didn't follow through by actually reading the book. It's rather interesting in a 'History of Medicine' kind of way, and good enough to reward another read so I'll probably keep it for now.

The Order of Time
by Carlo Rovelli

"From Boltzmann to quantum theory, from Einstein to loop quantum gravity, our understanding of time has been undergoing radical transformations. Time flows at a different speed in different places, the past and the future differ far less than we might think, and the very notion of the present evaporates in the vast universe."

This was an extraordinary book, a serious scientific explanation of the concept of time but written in an almost poetic way and beautiful to read. It also hit the sweet spot for me by reiterating what I already knew and adding just enough to make me feel like my mind had been expanded. I was already aware that there is no universally accepted time that is 'now', but I had only applied this at planetary distances rather than for two people in the same room. It completely blew apart my understanding of spacetime and then put it together again, and I would definitely be keeping this book if it weren't from the library!

The launch of GRUHI

July 2023

I've managed to start the huge project to try and free myself of all the accumulated stuff in my house that might come in useful one day, or that reminds me of something or someone, or is broken or just needed to be out of the way so it found its way to the loft, or that is nice to look at but taking up space and accumulating dust. So much Stuff. Just looking around from where I'm sitting: a silver desk clock with the second hand broken off. A small plastic dinosaur. An English dictionary and Thesaurus. A non-functional electric blanket. Three French language course books. And mum has also been passing me things that she no longer needs.

I don't want it all to end up in landfill, and ideally I'd like to find new owners who would appreciate the items. As with the LTRP I feel that to maintain momentum I need to apply an acronym. Get Rid of Unwanted Household Items seems appropriate: GRUHI. Sounds suitably gruesome to signify the tedious and difficult nature of the job and yet with a jolly little hiccup at the end which is the joy when it is accomplished.

Anyway, the first item to achieve the GRUHI status is my old iPod, which I have listed on eBay along with various compatible items - the iPod speaker docking station and assorted cables. The auction ended on Sunday and the iPod sold; I relisted the docking station and received one bid; the other items aren't even getting any views, so how will I get rid of those?

Leamington has a number of local initiatives as well as branches of national initiatives, which is one of the reasons I like to live here. LETS is a local trading community where the currency is 'Oaks' and people trade services rather than goods - giving lifts, swapping plants, make and mend sessions, recommendations for tradespeople and helping with any sort of household jobs. I've been a member for some time but haven't actually offered or asked for help. Leamington also has a monthly 'Repair Café' where people can take items that need repairing, and I have used that - they have extended the life of my camping chairs and a shopping bag.

Apparently Leamington LETS is represented at the monthly Repair Café. They have said that I might bring some GRUHI goods and see if anyone will take them off my hands - either the visitors, or maybe the people doing the repairs. That's all very interesting for the future, but the second Leamington Film Festival was about to take place and I needed to sort out the door to my toilet, which is dragging on the threshold and would be in danger of damage at the hands of multiple strangers pulling and pushing at it. So I put out a request via LETS, and who should respond but one of my U3A board game friends?

So he came over and we have improved the state of the door - I wouldn't say it's fixed but it's certainly much better. And he stayed for a cup of tea, and I told him about the Film Festival and sent him the link and he came to two of the films, which was very nice. And when I was out with my U3A walking group I mentioned my new project, and they told me about a company in Warwick that might be interested in dad's stamps - I haven't yet had time to do anything about that yet but it could happen soon.

And there are many charity shops in Leamington, and one of my Buddhist friend volunteers in two different charity shops in Kenilworth, and there's the shop at the tip, so many other ways to take forward my GRUHI initiative. It's now mid-September and I think it would be helpful to have some kind of time-based target for what I might achieve. Difficult to imagine what that might be at the moment - maybe I could go round the house listing everything to get rid of by the end of the year?

My second Film Festival

Random Chairs in a Darkened Room, September 2024

After the first Leamington Film Festival (Random Chairs in a Darkened Room Worldwide) took place in 2019, we had to give way to the pandemic. That first event had been relatively successful, but I decided a) to scale it back to films only on Friday night and Saturday, and b) to enlist a local collaborator who is in my Buddhist group. Almost immediately after we had set the date - one of the only weekends in the remaining year when we were both available - he became unavailable due to his son getting the grades he needed to get into a university that required his presence on the Saturday.

Never mind, we decided to go ahead anyway and I benefited from his management of the drinks on Friday night, which is an area where my skills are very much lacking. I was also supported very well by the Gulloebls - Lola II and Mr M - who came armed with snacks as well as trailers to each of the showings. Huge thanks to them. 

So it was looking pretty good on Friday afternoon: I had rearranged the furniture, tested the films, got an extra kettle down from the loft... and then the doorbell failed. Mr M's job was door answering, which was probably a poor choice given that he was the least likely to be able to hear anyone knocking on the door. Luckily one of the guests was the university entrant and his young ears proved invaluable.

We welcomed thirteen people on Friday night for Catherine Called Birdy, which I class as a roaring success. There were almost no bookings before the event for the Saturday films, but a few people came at the last minute (one without booking at all) so that we did watch the first film on Saturday (the Blues Brothers), and nine attended for the late afternoon performance of This Beautiful Fantastic. It was a film that I hadn't seen before and which turned out to be... all right. A nice film, but I would say that the Film Festival demands a more exceptional standard.

None of the visitors had attended the event five years ago, but all seemed very enthusiastic about future events, and I think we can build nicely from this baseline. Booking their place, bringing themselves, food and drink at the right time, and dressing up for Friday will all improve, and for my part I could make sure the doorbell works next time. I don't think I'll extend beyond Saturday next year, and as Mr M commented, real success will be demonstrated when someone stays for two films in a row.

Speccy swotty four-eyes

September 2024

There is a small amount of repair work needed to the roof in a few places, and I invited Clf, the chap who'd worked on the roof before and two new companies to have a look at the job as well. Clf did not respond, one company arranged a time to visit and then didn't, and the other sent a lovely chap who flew a drone with a camera and did the quote there and then. Then, I procrastinated. In the past I have experienced the common phenomenon of a tradesman who doesn't really want the job quoting an outrageous amount, and I don't know what an outrageous amount is in this context, so I really wanted a second quote to compare. But I didn't get round to it.

The next chapter of the story involves my glasses. A few years ago my local independent sold out to a bigger organisation. In general I prefer an independent optician rather than one of the chains, and after a couple of visits I decided I'd look for a new independent. I found one in Warwick, but then a brand new practice opened in Leamington. That's where I went this week for a very thorough eye test, and they recommended a slight change to my prescription. What with super-thin lenses and varifocals it came to a stupendous sum, at which point I realised that the roofing quote was only about three-quarters of a pair of new glasses and I got in touch with the company and booked them in.

In the process of transferring from one optician to the other I got the old one to give me all of my records in a digital format, and then I passed these to the new optician. One of the reasons why I think I will stick with them is that they had a really good look at my history, and contacted me to propose a cheaper way of upgrading my glasses (taking the cost down to just equal to fixing my roof). And I gave them dad's old glasses to recycle for those in need, and then went through and photographed all my old glasses that I've kept since the age of about 16 and that's the picture at the top of the blog. I gave them five of my pairs to go off with dad's, kept two of the most recent, and we're putting the new lenses into another one.

The roofing company has been in touch to say that there's been a family emergency, so they need to rearrange the visit. We'll see which comes first - perfect vision or a non-leaking roof.

My left eye, September 2022

What I've been reading

A Little Life
by Hanya Yanagihara

"Four college classmates - broke, adrift, and buoyed only by their friendship and ambition - move to New York in search of fame and fortune. While their relationships, which are tinged by addiction, success, and pride, deepen over the decades, the men are held together by their devotion to the brilliant, enigmatic Jude, a man scarred by an unspeakable childhood trauma."

A very long book but utterly enthralling, albeit very harrowing in places. I can't remember reading anything where men's friendships are given this sort of attention. Women do feature too, and not just as ciphers or outlines, but it's the men who lead the story and provide all the colour and interest. I wondered whether the author was male, but she is a woman. The only criticism I have is that Jude's past, revealed gradually throughout the book, is too bleak, too extreme, too cruel, and its messages too often repeated.

The Thursday Murder Club
by Richard Osman

narrated by Lesley Manville

"In a peaceful retirement village, four unlikely friends meet up once a week to investigate unsolved murders. But when a brutal killing takes place on their very doorstep, the Thursday Murder Club find themselves in the middle of their first live case."

Probably because of the celebrity author, this has become a best-selling book and now a TV adaptation is on the way too. I think that it is fair to middling, not bad, but not that good either. My main problem is that there are too many murders making it complicated, which means that there were too many characters for me to keep track of. It's clever, but a bit too clever. I'm not tempted to read more of the books in the series, but I wouldn't be surprised if the TV version is better.

Double A-side (High Fidelity)
by Nick Hornby

"Do you know your desert-island, all-time, top five most memorable split-ups? Rob does. He keeps a list, in fact. But Laura isn't on it—even though she's just become his latest ex."

I enjoyed this book mostly because the author is about the same age as me and includes loads of references to the culture and music that was going on in the early nineties, a time I remember with some nostalgia. He also writes in a non-standard way that doesn't irritate me (for a change), and the characters seem real and mostly sympathetic. So a thumbs up from me for this one.