Working for a change

Lola Towers garden, June 2021

Getting paid for vaccinating is proving to be quite a challenge. At the end of June I got my first payslip which showed without any further detail at all that I'd been paid for 30 hours, which equates to five shifts, two of them on Saturdays. In fact, up to the end of June, I'd worked twelve shifts, two on Saturdays and two on Sundays. So it was back to the Temporary Staffing team, then payroll, and a helpful young man who gave the impression that he understood the situation and said he'd get back to me. He didn't.

Then I turned up for a shift only to find that there wasn't one. I did stay to have a chat with the admin people, who told me that the young people who are now eligible for their jab are no longer coming - all the ones who wanted the vaccine have had their first jab, but it is suspected that since the official guidance is that no further restrictions are needed after 'Freedom Day' (19th July), they don't see why they now need to get vaccinated. So although the clinics are open to booking by the public now, the only demand is for second jabs.

When I followed up the payroll issue (twice - the first time the helpful young man was not available) I was told that everything was fine and that I had been paid for the shifts I had done. When I pointed out that I hadn't, the helpful young man had another look, gave the impression that he understood the situation, and told me that I would be paid for all the remaining shifts at the end of this month. We'll see. The booking system doesn't show many shifts at the times I can work, and two out of three shifts that I book are cancelled. I have been contacted to change the working hours for the next one so, fingers crossed, that will go ahead tomorrow and maybe I'll find out more.

Working for Mr MXF is coming along quite nicely, although I manage to surprise myself by the extent to which I can procrastinate if I'm not actually having to go to a workplace. [Writing blog posts is one example - when I was working I just about managed one a week, and now I'm churning them out every five or six days.] I'm starting to grasp some of the essentials and can describe for you now what it is that I'm trying to do at the moment.

Mr MXF hosts some websites for family members and non-critical businesses, as well as the more important website he runs for his main business (broadcast and media technology consultancy, as far as I can tell). I'm not going near the important stuff yet, but the other websites reside on a very flaky server which constantly needs kicking to keep it going. My first challenge is to work out how to reliably transfer these websites to a different, more reliable host server. And then, to carry out that transfer without breaking anything.

During the last but one US election, when the Russians were, let's say, a little bit twitchy, some of Mr MXF's websites were hit by some sort of bot infection which caused him no end of trouble and needed much time to rectify. Having learned how to move all the websites from one place to another should put me in a good position to be able to recreate a working website without delay if such an eventuality should occur again. I am more confident of the first task than the second at the moment, but as I spend more time on these jobs it gradually gets slightly easier to imagine.

The pub wall

Glf getting started, June 2021

The last leg of the LTRP (first pass) is under way! The side wall of the house, which forms one side of the pub 'garden', and which has been showing signs of damp on the inside since at least 2015, has at last received the attention it has been craving for so long.

The wretched Flf and sidekick who abandoned the shower restoration had been very scathing about how wet the wall was when the old tiles were removed. I'd engaged Clf and Clf 2 to make sure the roof was watertight back in November 2019, and Dlf and the Damp Men installed the damp proof membrane on the inside of all the accessible walls in September 2020, and Flf himself built a gully along the foot of the wall to prevent rain pooling there, so it should have been safe from water from above and below. The last part of the jigsaw was to investigate what might be underneath the cement render. So please give a Lolatastic! welcome to Glf, who arrived to carry out the investigation.

The idea was to take the render off only the bottom half of the wall, but when Glf reached the back of the house, which is where the shower is, he found the soaking wet bricks and we agreed that he needed to uncover the whole height. He did find a cracked gutter as well, which wouldn't have helped, but our best guess is that the old shower was probably putting water into the brickwork and the cement render was giving it nowhere to go, so there it stayed. Now that the new shower really should not be getting the brickwork wet, leaving the render off for a month or so should allow it all to dry out somewhat.

Buoyed by this vision of dry walls, I allowed some 'mission creep' to take place by adding an extra back wall into the equation, which had also been rendered with cement when damp started to show on the inside of the shower room in 2008. Looking back to the picture taken at that time, the exterior wall appeared to be in great condition despite the interior damp. As Glf removed the render that had been applied, the wall emerged even wetter than the side wall, and not in very good condition at all. This just reinforces my view that taking the render away is a Good Thing.

In between frequent hot drinks (Glf never failed to accept a drink when offered) we pondered the situation and what might need to be done next. The brickwork of the damp areas is in a poor state, but covering it up with impermeable cement is not the answer. Either it needs to be repointed, or rendered with lime mortar which is flexible and permeable. Glf reckoned that repointing would be the more expensive option, and has put me in touch with someone I'm going to call Glf's mate, who can do the rendering after the wall has been given a chance to dry.

Can you see the area of damp brickwork?

Camping with friends

Walking to the pub, Kent, June 2021 (picture credit: Mr M)

Despite a number of reviews endorsing the Long Versions, I don't think I can keep up that level of detail, especially when I'm not making notes at the time. So I asked Lola II to submit some notes, which she did, but they seem to be Short Versions. I have to conclude that this is my blog and I'll look after it...

After the triumph of the Afternoon Tea, the next treat that Lola II had in store for me was a camping trip along with some less experienced campers: J&J (from family JJL&J), and a new character for the blog whom I'll call The Bursar, as well as Lola II and Mr M.

We determined to make the lives of the less experienced campers as easy as possible. To start with we made sure there were enough chairs, and Mr M and Lola II brought an extra tent for storage so there was more room for them to sleep in their smaller, less luxurious living space, and we also brought all sorts of luxury food items and promised real coffee (see note 1). This all went down very well. The Bursar's tent was actually more sophisticated than the others, requiring just a minute to erect, and he didn't even bother pegging it down.

After all the tents were ready we went for a stroll around the site before returning  to our pitch for hors d'oeuvres and the first night's meal. The food throughout the trip was important to all of us, and we managed to keep standards high. Here is a full review, with notes below:

Thursday lunch: café meal (just me, Lola II and Mr M) where I selected a holiday treat which contains far too many calories to be allowed in normal life - a baked Camembert. It was delicious, and kept me feeling full for the rest of the day.

Thursday evening: campfire cooking courtesy of Mr M and Lola II complete with olives, cocktails (containing nasturtium flowers) and corn and potato snacks. The main event was grilled sausages, marinated chicken and halloumi in buns with salad (I brought the olives, the salad and some of the snacks, Mr M and Lola II did everything else). Delicious. This was followed by S'mores, which are marshmallows on sticks toasted over the camp fire then sandwiched between biscuits with chocolate. 

Friday breakfast: pain au chocolat provided by J&J and The Bursar. No coffee (see note 1 below).

Friday lunch: unremarkable panini at Riverhill Himalayan Gardens café.

Friday evening: the weather was too unsettled for campfire cooking, so it was Wagamama in Maidstone. There was an allium fiasco (note 2).

Saturday breakfast: same as Friday.

Saturday lunch: pub lunch with burgers, salads, chips. The chips were excellent.

Saturday evening: Local restaurant with speciality mussels - they coped better with Lola II's requirements than on Friday evening (note 3).

Sunday brunch: same café as Thursday, but with the whole group this time. The order included two identical breakfasts, one without chives. The waitress brought both without chives, and told us that the chef "didn't know which one was supposed to have no chives."

Note 1: When the time came for real coffee, the cafetière could not be found. Despite hunting high and low (mostly low) among all the many boxes of gear, Mr M and Lola II had to conclude that it had been left behind. Much disappointment  ensued (not for me, I don't care about coffee) but it was clear that if this was the worst that the trip could bring then it was still a very fine trip.

Note 2: Lola II's intolerance to alliums and peppers has been a constant companion whenever eating out takes place. She has many tales of chefs 'forgetting' and waiters denying that the clear piece of onion on the side of the plate doesn't exist, or is something else entirely. The situation improved slightly following the tragedy of a girl who ate a sandwich that wasn't labelled with an allergen, but mistakes continue.

Wagamama operates on the principle that food arrives as it is ready (rather than all at once for the whole party), so when Lola II's meal hadn't come after everyone else had been served, she predicted that they had made it with onion, then realised their mistake and had to make it again. When it finally arrived her prediction was proved false because it clearly had onion in it and had to be sent back. She was served her meal after nearly everyone had finished theirs. As she requested, it was deducted from the bill.

Note 3: For those not used to eating out with Lola II, the allium business was new and interesting, and many jokes were made e.g. about the onion content of desserts. In this restaurant, however, they excelled on the allium exclusion, but looked a bit taken aback when Lola II asked for a pint of lime cordial with some tap water. It was explained that what she really meant was a pint of water with some lime cordial in it.

Aside from the food, our outings were pretty good too. On Friday we went to Riverhill Himalayan Gardens, which contains some lovely plants, a maze, some sculpture, and the direction that the men's toilets are "behind that tree... obviously not literally." There were various activities for children, and the picture shows two  people who are clearly not children occupying a swing.

After lunch we drove back to the campsite, and I'd arranged to meet a friend and his dog in the Country Park up the road. The more energetic of the party walked there while I drove with my friend's Christmas presents, which I was finally able to hand over six months after Christmas was cancelled. He had forgotten mine, so I'll have to wait a bit longer.

On Saturday we woke to the sound of rain, but when I finally braced myself to go out for a shower it was clear there hadn't been any rain at all, just heavy dew from the trees above. We went for a longer walk this morning, and took a very canny detour to the pub for the lunch with the very fine chips. When we got back later in the afternoon Lola II cut my hair, we all played a board game (picture below courtesy of J), then it was off to the slightly upmarket restaurant for dinner. On Sunday the rain finally started in earnest, but only after we had packed everything up and headed off to the café for brunch, then home. With any luck we haven't put off the inexperienced campers and they'll be willing to do it again (probably with coffee next time).

What I've been reading

I haven't been reading as much as usual lately. Partly it's because I seem to have been unable to resist the terrible habit of spending too much time on my phone and the Internet in the time before bed when I usually do my regular reading. It's also to do with the books I've chosen, a couple of which are dense Buddhist texts that I've been studying with my group, and take a long time to get through. Anyway, I shall be choosing some lighter reading next.

What Happened
by Hillary Rodham Clinton

narrated by the Author

"Now free from the constraints of running, Hillary takes you inside the intense personal experience of becoming the first woman nominated for president by a major party in an election marked by rage, sexism, exhilarating highs and infuriating lows, stranger-than-fiction twists, Russian interference, and an opponent who broke all the rules."

This is a memoir of the 2016 race for the presidency, won against all the odds by Donald Trump. Hillary's team, and most pollsters also, were taken completely by surprise by this incredible outcome, not even having prepared a concession speech until the count was taking place and the result was emerging. I think I listened to this at just the right time - any sooner and it would have been too close and too painful, yet the events described are still fresh although some perspective has been gained. I don't think I could have listened to this if I were an American voter. Although it's obviously a very one-sided narrative, it does give a glimpse into the corruption behind US politics at the time. It's impossible to know whether the rot has been weeded out or is just lurking under the surface, ready to emerge again. 

The Expedition of Humphry Clinker
by Tobias Smollett

narrated by June Whitfield, Suzy Aitchison, Hywel Simons, Ioen Meredith

"Written as the letters of the five members of Squire Bramble's household sent as they journey around Britain, the tale is centred around the arrival of Mr. Clinker, with duels, imprisonments, failed romances and jealousies and an inconveniently overturned carriage."

With five characters (not including Mr Clinker) writing the letters on the journey, it could have been called 'The Expedition of...' any one of them. First published in 1771, it hasn't suffered much from being 250 years old. I enjoyed it more than I expected - this list of Classic books comes up with some gems as well as the regular disappointments.

The Left Hand of Darkness
by Ursula K. Le Guin

narrated by George Guidall

"The story of a lone human emissary to Winter, an alien world whose inhabitants can choose - and change - their gender. His goal is to facilitate Winter's inclusion in a growing intergalactic civilization. But to do so he must bridge the gulf between his own views and those of the completely dissimilar culture that he encounters."

This is a book of two halves, the first focussing on the politics of the planetary society and the second following a journey taken by the two main characters. This description is a simplification of the scope of the book, but despite the lack of variety in the story of dragging a sled across the frozen wastes of a planet within an Ice Age, I preferred the second half. There was a lot of unrealised potential in the dual gender idea, which didn't really go anywhere or become interesting. There are more books in the series, but I don't think I'll bother.

The Buddha's Noble Eightfold Path
by Sangharakshita

"The Noble Eightfold Path - the Buddha’s first teaching - is a timeless truth. One starts with a vision, a moment of insight, then transformation of thoughts, and follows in the light of that truth."

This is the core textbook for this term's Buddhism class, and is an edited version of eight talks given by the founder of the Triratna Buddhist movement in 1968, very soon after the Western Buddhist Order (now renamed Triratna) was created. The original talks are still available to listen to, and I found them more accessible than the printed text, but still quite difficult to follow. We go on to discuss each chapter within our group on Mondays, which helps a lot. Not for the fainthearted.

A Grand Day Out (part 2)

Corinthia Hotel, June 2021

Part 1 was all about the day leading up to our Afternoon Tea at the Posh London Hotel. At last we've reached the main event.

Arriving at the hotel for tea, Lola II identified our booking and indicated to the maitre d' that this scruffy person she had brought wearing shorts and trainers would be changing into more appropriate clothing. "What is the problem?" challenged the maitre d'. "You don't have to change, it will be perfectly fine. I say so, and I am in charge, so that's all." Walking to our table I saw other customers in shorts, so my smart but hot work trousers and Lady Shoes had a lovely day out but stayed in my bag throughout. 

We declined the champagne option on arrival in favour of tap water (neither of us likes champagne), and studied the menu of fifty different teas. A waitress introduced herself, and talked to us rather more than I am used to. We hadn't quite decided on drinks so she insisted that we should let her know when we were ready. We carried on chatting and looking at the menu, as one does, and the maitre d' was the next to arrive. "Have you decided on something adventurous to drink?" he asked. I went for a caffeine-free mint tea that was slightly interesting, but Lola II opted for decaff breakfast tea. We were clearly not very adventurous at all. He seemed disappointed.

The chatty waitress turned up too late to help us order drinks, but before we were quite ready for sandwiches. We assured her that we would let her know when we were ready. When Lola II had made our booking she had forgotten to indicate that I don't eat meat, so she had mentioned this to the maitre d' when we arrived, and he was the one to bring the sandwiches. Mine were introduced, and didn't seem to contain egg or cheese, so I asked whether they were in fact vegan. "Vegetarian and vegan," the waiter said. "So, vegan?" I asked. "Both - vegetarian and vegan," he repeated. "So, vegan?" I said again. We went round a few times before he offered to bring me the ordinary sandwiches that didn't contain meat but did include cheese and egg. "You can have anything you want," he admonished us. "Anything at all, just ask."

Lola II's foray into the sandwiches containing avocado and crab did not go well. The avocado sandwich contained two of the little nubbins that are the remains of the avocado stalk, and the crab sandwich contained a little piece of shell. When the maitre d' came back to take our empty plates, Lola II pointed this out. He was horrified. "This is unacceptable," he declared. "I am so sorry. It's terrible! What can I do to make it up to you?" Lola II assured him that it was fine, but she thought he ought to know. "Absolutely right," he said. "I need to make sure that this will never happen again. I will be talking to the chef, and the hotel executive. We will have a meeting tomorrow." He took the plates away to our protestations that it was quite all right, nobody died, just a bit of shell in a sandwich...

The chatty waitress returned. We were not ready. We promised faithfully to let her know when we were ready for scones. The maitre d' brought the scones, and apologised again for the terrible and shameful problem with the sandwiches. He was acting as though the next day that chef would be taken out and shot, or maybe would be advised to kill himself for the honour of the hotel. "Do you like champagne?" he asked - no, we don't. "Well, what can I bring you? Remember, you can have anything at all." 

We were already quite full and aware that there was much more to eat, but he seemed so eager that after a second or two, Lola II asked "Do you have any lime cordial?" "We do," he replied, rightly suspicious that she should have doubted this in a hotel of such quality. I knew what was coming next, and was amused that he might be imagining a request for some brand of superior gin or vodka. As I expected, Lola II followed up with "Could I have lime cordial with tap water, please?" 

I had just as much trouble thinking of a drink for myself. I would probably have been happy with the same as Lola II, but he seemed so keen that I managed to come up with the idea of ginger beer.

The maitre d' brought our drinks, and stayed for a chat - the staff of this hotel seemed to love 'getting to know' [bothering] their customers, especially those who are clearly not used to the high life, with their shorts and trainers, their lime cordial and ginger beer, and their shunning of champagne in favour of tap water. He told us all about where he lived in London, and how there was a protester at the top of a crane with a Palestinian flag, and how they had closed the road. "It's in all the papers," he said. He showed it to us on his phone. Lola II was very impressed to notice that he sanitized his hands after he'd put his phone away. 

We had a plain and a fruit scone each with strawberry and rhubarb jam and clotted cream. [I'm sure Lola II would like me to point out that in the picture above, the tea cups are not patterned but mirrored, and reflect the pattern of the plates in a very pleasing way.] The waitress came back and cleared away when we were done, and begged us to let her know when we were ready for the sweet course. We assured her that we would. She brought the trolley over, and set up our cake stand anyway.

We'd noticed that at other tables the last cake was sometimes brought with a candle or sparkler. As she brought ours, the chatty waitress had a question. "On your booking form you put that this is a celebration, but you didn't say what kind," she said. "Are you celebrating something?" [Lola II said afterwards that she had ticked the 'celebration' box on the booking form and then changed her mind about it, but it seems the partial information had made it through.] I smiled at the chatty waitress. "It's to celebrate my divorce," I said. 

I don't think this is quite the sort of celebration she is used to, but she coped quite well. She had a moment's uncertainty until she saw that both of us were smiling, so she decided to make a number of assumptions and give me some advice. "Now you can travel! You can go wherever you like!" This seemed to be her main preoccupation, and she mentioned it again later on, as well as encouraging me to "Enjoy the new phase of your life!" when we were leaving. We didn't get a candle or a sparkler though. We assured her we would call her if we needed anything more.

Let me introduce another character in our day's drama: Kevin the Pianist. [Full disclosure: Kevin actually entered the story much earlier on but for the sake of the narrative flow he has had to wait until now.] The maitre d' told us about Kevin, whom he'd known for 10 years, and who was so accomplished that in all that time there had never been a tune that Kevin hadn't been able to play. Even if he didn't know the song, he would just have a listen on YouTube and then play it anyway.

Kevin seemed to have formed an uncanny psychic connection to Lola II's music collection. Billy Joel, Elton John, Take That, songs from the musicals - he played them all while we polished off most of the sandwiches and the scones and the soft drinks. Occasionally he took a break and visited tables where he spent so much time we thought he must know the guests. Until he came to our table, and tried so persistently to maintain a conversation that we thought he would never go away. Even Lola II eventually stopped making eye contact, and she LIKES people. Anyway, he played the Ed Sheeran song that Lola II suggested, so that was nice.

We were definitely slowing down by the time the sweet course came. Eight delicious little portions of sweet things plus the cake without the sparkler proved too much, and we had to ask for a bag to take half of it away. [This is where the choux pastry with apricot and pistachio that I mentioned in the last blog post appeared. Lola judged it the best of the sweets.] Lola II managed a coffee but I couldn't even fit in any more to drink. 

Normally they give you 1 hour 45 minutes for an afternoon tea reservation, but it wasn't busy and the maitre d' told us we wouldn't have to move on until we were ready, so we didn't have to hurry. As we leaned back and rested our bloated stomachs, thinking about what to do next, our best friend the maitre d' came over for another chat. "What are your plans for the evening?" he asked. "I hear you are celebrating!" We said we were thinking about it. "Why don't you go to Kerridge's bar? It's only next door!" This was clearly a ridiculous suggestion. "We are so full that we can hardly move and you  already know we don't drink alcohol - why would we conceivably want to go to a bar?" we replied. "Mocktails?" he suggested. "Not going to happen," we said. [With minimal further research it turns out that this Kerridge's Bar & Grill is 'our restaurant at Corinthia London' - so not an unbiased suggestion...]

What we actually decided to do was to see a film - for Lola II, it was her first foray back into a cinema since the first lockdown. The Empire Haymarket was deserted, and we were told that we were the only patrons in the 5.15 p.m. screening of Cruella (a prequel to 101 Dalmatians). We were joined by two other people in the end, but it still felt very exclusive. [It is quite a good film, but could have done with being about 15 minutes shorter.] It was still very warm when we came out and made our way back to the tube via Ole & Steen, where Lola II bought a pastry for herself for the next day, and another for Mr M - it's traditional to buy gifts such as Tim Tams and pastries when you've been away on holiday, and that's how it felt for Lola II after so long without travelling into London.

I hadn't had any breakfast that day, and obviously couldn't manage any supper, although I nibbled at the little sweets we'd brought back. No breakfast next morning, and even back home I couldn't manage another meal until the evening. And so ends the Long Version of our Grand Day Out in That London.

Lime cordial and ginger beer