Not much except the house move

Adhisthana, May 2026

After the sisterly trip I was looking forward to volunteering at the Warwick Folk Festival again. On Tuesday after a walk with a friend I squeezed in a few hours helping them set up the Radio Room, but although I thought I might be able to help out again on Wednesday, I found that much more of my conscious attention was needed by the house moving that I had anticipated or planned for.

My buyers contacted me to give me an updated schedule for their sale, and explicitly asked if we could tie in our completion date with theirs. So I had to be just as clear in saying that we don't yet have an exchange date and I would need up to four weeks between exchange and completion, so they should plan their move on that basis and I would go as quickly as I could. I had already left a message for my solicitor to make sure there was nothing outstanding.

While the solicitors had previously seemed responsive, it turns out that they did still need to be chased. When they came back to me I found out that a restriction had found its way into the Land Register entry stipulating that I wasn't allowed to sell without endorsement by a second person. Even more strangely, this stipulation could be satisfied by simply appointing a second person who would then endorse the sale. Step forward Lola II, who then had to engage with the horrible online system, and then we had to go back to the solicitors to challenge it when it started asking her for evidence of her income. That request was quickly withdrawn.

I became so preoccupied with emptying the house that it became difficult to concentrate on anything else - what if the huge sofa wouldn't fit through the doors? what if I couldn't sell the TV before I needed to move? what if... what if? After a couple of shifts in the Radio Room on Thursday and Friday I gave up any attempt to spend time listening to the music at the Festival but came home and sorted things that needed sorting. I got the eBay and other sales platform listings online and live, and then managed to book a collection of the larger furniture and household goods with the British Heart Foundation, which will be in August. This seemed to relieve a whole lot of stress.

The remaining 'big' items that need to be sold rather than given away are a chest of drawers and my humungous television and sound bar. The TV and sound bar are now listed on eBay and local platforms, but I also offered them locally on a film-going WhatsApp group and to the LETS trading people. This is the one thing that there really isn't space for at Maternal Manor, but is worth a few hundred pounds so difficult to reconcile myself to giving it away. Fingers crossed for a buyer before I have to move.

Adhisthana, May 2026

My last shift in Comms at the Folk Festival was very busy for all the wrong reasons. At about 10.30 a.m. a message came in that there had been an explosion and fire in the campsite, which turned out to be a gas canister that had overheated, and there were people who had been injured. The fire was put out very promptly by campers in the vicinity, which was a huge relief because the whole campsite was dry as tinder and with quite a brisk breeze it could have been terrible. The Comms team was the main point of contact for medics and external services like the fire engine and ambulances, security, health and safety, and the festival directors. An air ambulance also turned up and landed, but in the end it wasn't needed for transporting casualties. 

The main difficulty we faced was that the location was about as far as it could have been from the Radio Room, and reception for radio comms was patchy at best and sometimes impossible. Everything else seemed to work quite well and the injured people were taken to hospital quite quickly. It really highlighted something that I'd been aware of for a while: that the whole festival relies on volunteers even at its most critical points, and is balanced on a knife edge - any stress anywhere, whether as drastic as this or just a failure of power or water, or a lost child, or festival goer with difficult behaviour - would be enough to cause a catastrophic situation. We were lucky this time, but being unable to communicate properly via the radios really must be addressed.

Back to the house-selling situation: I had a few messages about the TV and sound bar, but no definite offers. I continued to dispose of things from Lola Towers and Maternal Manor - another trip to Action 21's Reuseful Centre, and I noticed a post from the Library of Things suggesting that they'd be interested in old-fashioned cassette players, of which I have two, and so I took them in. This means that it was also time to get rid of the last few tape cassettes that I held back when I gave away the majority via Facebook. I was about to consign them to landfill when I came across the message from 2½ years ago from the person who took the last lot, so I offered him this lot too and he was delighted to take them!

My solicitor came back asking for evidence of my wealth at the time when I bought the house. I can't imagine anyone keeping bank statements or payslips for 25 years but it's futile to complain, so they are having to make do with my recollection of the situation back then. The next thing was to give them 12 months of bank statements because I'm not in work or receiving benefits or a pension. This is all about anti-money laundering (AML) guidelines, and when I had the temerity to ask how long it would take I was told: "[we] will be unable to exchange until the file is signed off and I would advise that to comply with AML requirements [the Compliance Department's] review will be very thorough." So there.

Meanwhile the couple who are buying the house came round, and seem very nice. We went room by room and I pointed out some of the quirks of the house; they mentioned that they are planning to climb Kilimanjaro at the end of August and would very much like to complete before this. Like a broken record, I told them again that I'm doing all I can to move things forward but I'm not prepared to set a date for completion before we exchange contracts. Mr Celery rang too, and will do what he can. Moving house is definitely becoming a reality, and I'm aware of having to manage with a continuous background level of stress. Hopefully it won't go on too much longer

Wales, June 2026

More tales of travel, admin and water

Just before my year's entry ticket expired I managed to visit Hill Close Gardens in Warwick. It was the week when snowdrops are at their best, and it was really, really cold. Not much else was blooming so I didn't hang around, but I should go again when there's more to see and the wind is less biting. They are proud of their collections - not only snowdrops but chrysanthemums, sempervivums and 63 varieties of apple trees.

It's an interesting historical site too - in the 1840's when people living in towns didn't have gardens this site provided 'detached' gardens divided up into plots. Unlike allotments, people used them for pleasure, with lawns and summer houses as well as lots of fruit trees and flowers (although a few kept pigs too). Some of the plots were sold for housing in the 20th century, but just as all but one had fallen into dereliction and the diggers were on their way, local residents managed to get the site listed and it was saved for posterity. They then cleared it all up, and did lots of research into who had owned the plots and what they had looked like, restored some of the summer houses and then began opening for visitors.

My next outing was the annual Mr M & Lola II Film Festival, which I completely missed last year because I was ill. Not so this year, and the stand-out discovery was the French film "The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe", a slapstick comedy that had us all laughing. 

While I was in London I continued my efforts to link my Senior Railcard to my Oyster account. Mr M drew my attention to this possibility, but when I looked it up I found it needed to be done by a member of TfL staff in person, using an actual Oyster card - I've been simply using my contactless bank card for a long time. So I dug out my old Oyster card, but found I couldn't register it to the account unless it had been used in the last 8 weeks. So on this trip I used the card, after which I managed to register it to my online account. At West Ealing station they didn't have the right staff, but at Marylebone they were up for it - except that the card didn't show up as having been linked to the account. The saga continues.

The LTRP also continues, as it always will with such an old house, with a visit from Luke from Severn Trent Water to investigate the stain that has appeared in my front room. He confirmed that the meter is showing a small leak - he estimated 1 litre per hour, which doesn't seem particularly small to me. He's going to call in a team that will dig up the pavement around the meter and I'm hoping they will find the source of the leak, otherwise it will be another of those long-winded and potentially costly investigations.

Then my newest tradesman came to touch up the evidence of water staining and condensation in the porch, hall and kitchen. It was the same day that my new phone arrived, so I spent most of the day either entering passwords into apps or chatting to him about jobs he's done and the state of the world. The new phone keeps challenging me with passwords and connectivity and making unexpected noises and not having a 'back' button, but I'm sure it will all be sorted within a few weeks...

Folk Festival volunteering

The Comms Room, Warwick Folk Festival, July 2025

I was at the Warwick Folk Festival for a week, volunteering in the Radio Room again as Joint Deputy Venue Manager of Comms. It was time for the previous Manager to step down, and two of us were asked to take his place. Neither of us wanted the job, but we agreed that if someone else were to take on the Manager role, we would share the Deputy spot. I have to admit that it was a mistake on my part, and I should have stuck to my guns and said no - it took up a lot of time, I didn't get to see much of the actual music, and I didn't find it as much fun as when I was an ordinary worker. 

The other JDVM and I have different outlooks on many things, which in itself is not a bad thing. He agreed to not spray the place with ant killer - there wasn't actually a problem with ants, so this was no hardship for him in the end. He was deeply uncomfortable that we didn't have printed forms to write on, but accepted hand-ruled tables in notebooks for recording outgoing and incoming radio handsets and noting important communications. His attitude to timekeeping was not quite the same as mine - this caused me some annoyance in the first couple of days but really wasn't a problem after that.

As I reported in the last post, there wasn't much to do during the setting-up period. During the festival there were brief hectic periods within shifts that were mostly undisturbed, and we have a good set of volunteers who are cheerful, enthusiastic and mostly more skilled in radio work than I am. 

The only critical issue that Comms is responsible for during the festival is the procedure for dealing with lost and found children (and vulnerable adults). This is to prevent the worst case scenario (deliberate abduction) while trying to reunite the parties without unnecessarily inconveniencing festival goers. My JDVM and I, together with the Health and Safety Manager and the head of the security firm hired for the event, spent an inordinate amount of time over the weekend trying to re-write this procedure to make it workable and effective, to the extent that on Friday I didn't actually attend any of the music sessions at all. The task extended over much of Saturday and Sunday too, and there were also meetings that I felt I had to attend even though I really didn't want to. All this has meant that instead of being an event I looked forward to attending each day, it felt as though I was having to get up early and go to bed late to carry out a job I didn't really want to do. 

One thing improved the experience, though - Sister D, who last year went to a Techno Dance festival in Belgium (yes really) decided to come to Warwick for a day. After all, she'd enjoyed the Belgian festival despite having no expectations that she would, and folk music should be so much more accessible, right? Together we either watched or took part in shanty singing, morris dancing, a ceilidh, children's entertainment, fantastic drumming in Warwick, and we also saw two of the acts on the main stage. Sister D also threw a stuffed rat through a hole at the top of a post, was inspired by a lecture about the Alexander Technique and by Leon Lewis (a vegetarian food vendor), and went to church where one of the folk groups performed. She spent a long time listening to me talk about food and shared some very helpful thoughts as well. 

Despite the mostly unsatisfactory nature of the event, I managed to secure a win for the GRUHI project by gifting my unicycle to the children's circus skills people, who were very appreciative. And I told the various members of the team and the management that I'd be very happy to volunteer in the Comms room again next year, but not as a manager.

On the home front

Harcourt Arboretum, March 2025

I was out in the garden hacking down the jungle as usual when I heard voices from over the wall where the wisteria grows. There were a couple of gardeners, hired by the neighbour, and I asked them if they could possibly deal with the huge amount of wisteria that was coming at me over the wall - I've got enough on my plate dealing with my own wisteria going over the wall in the other direction. So maybe that will be sorted before next year, if I'm lucky.

My car needed an MOT and service recently. I've been going to the same garage in Leamington for more than 20 years, and they've always gone out of their way to be helpful. Simple things like listing what's still OK at the moment but might need dealing with soon (like low tyre tread), along with doing small jobs if I just turn up at any time they're open - checking tyre pressure, topping up oil, replacing a bulb - and they never charge me for these little jobs.

They highlighted that one of my wheels is a bit out of shape. It's not an MOT fail, just something that I might like to deal with. But I'm not going to deal with anything on my own, given that I don't even check my own tyre pressures any more and couldn't tell you where the dipstick is, let alone where to stick it for dipping. Saying this, I can still change a wheel for the spare if I have a flat tyre, and I really ought to get one of those magic jump start devices, size of a video cassette with two leads, chargeable by USB, which is an astonishingly useful invention.

So, the out of shape wheel. One of the garage guys told me about a business that exists just for sourcing spare parts around the country. So I fired up their website, put in the registration number of my car, asked for an offside front wheel, uploaded a picture and sat back to wait. Two quotes came in - one for £300 (of which £50 was delivery) and the other was £180 (delivery just £10). So I followed up the second quote with another picture just to be on the safe side, and they replied with three pictures just to make sure it was the right part, and my garage said I could put them down for the delivery address, and it arrived within two days and it will be fitted this week.

Other stuff - I went to a 60th birthday garden party at the weekend, with somewhat variable weather but lots of very old friends. Well, 60-year-old friends anyway. Some success with GRUHI too - I got rid of a bookcase and even made a small amount of money by selling DVDs. It's going to take a very long time to empty the house if I continue at this rate.

And now I'm at the Warwick Folk Festival during the set-up period, back in the Comms room surrounded by radios ready and waiting to be issued, at the request of Radio Man who said that Tuesday was really busy and he found it difficult to manage tracking the radios as well as all the other things he needed to do. So far I have issued only three radios, and one of them was to him. I have done a bit of setting up and tidying and organising, and hopefully my Joint Deputy Venue Manager (Comms) will turn up soon and we'll talk about shifts and cover and then I will go home.

Not Very Well

Les Menuires cafe, February 2025

The week since returning from the ski trip has been notable mostly for a nasty cold and cough. I don't get ill very often, and this was quite a significant event which prevented me from attending the 11th Gulloebl Film Festival, even though I travelled down to London in the hope of being well enough. It seemed to manage without me, somehow. And I was looked after very nicely while in confinement, being allowed to lick the beaters that made icing, and given a plate of canapes while everyone else attended the gala opening. 

I went home next day and spent a lot of the weekend asleep. I didn't do much on Monday either, not even badminton. Feeling better on Tuesday, however, a significant event took place - my first GRUHI trip with a boot-load of stuff to the newly discovered (by me) Re-Useful Centre in Leamington, a warehouse sized recycling centre as big as about 10 charity shops run by an organisation called Action 21. I had been prevaricating about this, thinking that some of my stuff might be valuable and worth trying to sell, and that I might find people who wanted this stuff via Freegle or Facebook Marketplace or Ebay or Olio. But in the end, supporting Action 21 seemed like a good cause and far less work than any of the alternatives.

Since then I've spent another day or so trawling through the boxes of old electrical and electronic bits and pieces that have accumulated over the past twenty years or so. TV and printer cables, power supplies, in-ear and over-ear headphones, LAN and wi-fi extenders and so many network cables, audio cables, charging cables, telephone cables, old mobile phones and tablets. Action 21 will take most of this but I took an old router and the mobile phones to the Vodafone shop in town, and the broken electronic bits will have to go to the tip. A Fitbit and my original Sony Walkman may be the only items that are worth anything, especially if I put batteries and a cassette in the Walkman and discover that it still works.

Meetings

East Sussex, July 2024

There have been many meetings in my life recently, some of them containing more business than just coffee at a local place. The Buddhist team for the local group had an online meeting, so did my group of Buddhist women that I see regularly, and my study group is meeting in person until the end of the year. Continuing the Buddhist theme, we had a social event in my new favourite restaurant in Leamington (an-all vegetarian version of my previous favourite restaurant), and I've been to a couple of Buddhist events in Birmingham.

Aside from the Buddhists I attended the Folk Festival Venue Managers' meeting. It turns out that I am a Deputy Venue Manager (Communications team) along with another chap, and given that the actual Venue Manager is retiring, we are in charge next time. I am trying hard to be supportive without actually taking any responsibility, and it seems to be working so far. I won't be able to attend the next meeting in May, which will help with this plan.

I continue to fill my days with regular stuff other than the Buddhism - walks, board games, badminton, personal training and now more film than before. One of the U3A people I met through board games - the one who came to the film festival, and will probably have to be given a pseudonym before long - is interested in films, so I've been going to the Spa Centre where the afternoon performance is only £4.50 if you're 60, and a loyalty card gives you the seventh visit for free. It's probably the first loyalty card I've actually been loyal to. [Latest update - sadly my new U3A and film friend has fallen off his bike and broken his hip, so I'm on my own again for the time being.]

UJ has returned from her trip back home to Kyiv, and as has happened each time she's returned after going home, her English has deteriorated to the point that I have to make her repeat what she's saying several times e.g. to work out that she's saying 'faucet' instead of 'tap'. She will watch films at home with me, and we have several episodes of Taskmaster to catch up on. She sometimes invites me to go to the cinema with her, and often I accept, but usually regret it - the cinema is generally crowded because she can't go on a weekday afternoon, and she likes films that aren't always to my taste.

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.

Now I am 60

Then I was 8

My significant birthday has been and gone with very little fuss. It was hot, I went for a walk but spent the day mostly at home. The next day I went to visit mum to get some more of the admin done, but first we had to get her to a clinic appointment and then took advantage of the proximity to Lidl to give her the opportunity to do some shopping in person. As dad had acquired lactose intolerance in the last few years, mum has been enjoying the opportunity to indulge in dairy produce again and we came home with three kinds of cheese.

The admin seems to grow each time I look at it. Unfortunately, as I pick up the different strands we seem to uncover conflict each time - in addition to the fight with Thames Water about their overcharging for the period when we had a leak, we're in conflict with an investment company and now possibly also the Burial Society that arranged dad's funeral. Then there's the routine stuff that just comes around every year - household insurance, a new gas and electricity contract, broadband, servicing the stairlift, the Lifeline pendant for communicating in an emergency, and on and on. I am starting to recognise where I need to pass things over where before I imagined I would be doing it all.

After visiting mum I went on to pick up Lola II and Mr M and bring them to Leamington for a few days. Mr M had to work for some of the time, but he joined us for meals. Lola II and I went for a lovely walk with friends, and then an organ concert in the local church with a student organist who looked much too young to be out on his own. Then I had to get home for a couple of phone calls, one of which was with Mr MXF who has kindly passed on one of his old phones but needed to help me to unlock it.

I needed a newer phone because various apps had started telling me that they would no longer run on my old one. The transfer process wasn't too bad except that at one point I lost concentration and all of my past WhatsApp messages disappeared. Luckily this isn't a disaster, in fact it's barely an inconvenience. Given the state of the old phone's screen protector, an early priority is to get similar protection for the new one.

At the weekend, the Art in the Park festival was taking place in town. I'm sure this event has happened for many years, but somehow I've never been - it's huge, and full of all kinds of artistry from photography to an art-producing bicycle via jewellery, spray paint, oil, watercolour, collage and almost everything you can think of. We saw about half of it, and I was going to go back for the second day but had too much to do at home.

One of the reasons for Lola II's visit was to help me get some jobs done that are difficult to start on my own - they just need a bit of encouragement, or go easier with two of us working together. We started with my old iPod, which used to mean more to me than it does now - it has become redundant since Audible discontinued the app that allowed me to download podcasts onto it.* It will eventually go onto ebay but I need a period of 10 days when I'm at home so I can manage bids and postage and that isn't happening until September. While I was grappling with that, Lola II cleaned my windows!

[* Since then I've started using Spotify for both podcasts and books and cancelled my Audible subscription altogether, so who's the loser?]

And finally I had a non-birthday treat which ended up feeling like a birthday treat because sisters and friends came with me for lunch at my favourite Café Soya in Birmingham followed by a performance of the musical 'Hamilton'. It was quite a spectacle, which was lucky because there are a lot of words and it was quite difficult to follow the plot. Some of our party had seen it before and others had done some homework, but I now feel the need to go and listen while reading the lyrics to catch up on the bits I might have missed.

Folk Festival

June 2023

The main event for the last week has been the Warwick Folk Festival, where I have volunteered in the Comms team for the last two years. This year I also offered glamping services to two friends - they would have had to borrow or hire a car to bring their tent, so I set up my tent complete with bed, table, chairs, stove and tea and coffee so they could just bring themselves by train.

The festival runs from Thursday evening to Sunday evening, but I volunteered for an extra shift on the gate on Tuesday when contractors and team members started to turn up, and I was also in the Comms room on Wednesday when we were getting ready. The team leadership has been shared between two people for the last ten years or so, but both of them have been planning to retire from the role. I've been quite clear that I'm not prepared to take it on, but have been persuaded to share the leadership with another chap.

My tactic, if it could be called that, is to take an interest but to avoid direct responsibility for things. Luckily the other chap has not been so reticent, taking notes and photographing the Comms room so as to record what will come in handy next year. He even read the Health and Safety folder and provided feedback to the management team. One of the retiring team leaders wisely kept out of the way for most of the time, but the other was obviously finding it difficult to give up a role that he clearly loves, so he essentially continued to do it without really handing over anything in any organised fashion, we just had to pick it up as we went along. I'm sure it will be fine.

UJ returned from another trip home to Kyiv just before the festival and has settled in again in the usual way where I barely see her. As ever there's plenty of other business to keep me occupied. I have called upon a couple of roofing companies to have a look at three roofing issues: staining on the ceiling near the front door, the leaking roof lantern in the kitchen, and the disintegrating veranda roof outside. My hurty arm continues to hurt but very much less, and I have added massage to the treatment which not only helps (temporarily) but is very enjoyable. And board games, badminton and Buddhism continue to fill my life with satisfaction and fun.

The aftermath

July 2024

The administrative processes around death and burial will be familiar to all who have experienced a loss, so I shouldn't imagine that what we experienced was unique. We made it harder for ourselves by wishing to conduct the funeral as quickly as possible. If we'd agreed a date the following week then I wouldn't have had to get quite so familiar with people at the GP practice, the Register Office, the medical examiner and the coroner's office, and we wouldn't have been at the cemetery 30 minutes before the funeral started still not knowing whether the burial would form part of it. But it worked out fine in the end, even giving us a few opportunities to smile.

Dad was a medical doctor through and through, and although his body could not be donated for medical science because he died at home, he managed to donate his non-Parkinson's brain for research into Parkinson's disease. He was strongly anti-religion, and we reflected this in our choices at the funeral. There were a couple of readings, an 'appreciation' of his life constructed by the remaining four of us and read by Lola II. The coffin went into the grave with another reading, and mum recited the Kaddish prayer for the dead, either because she wished to or for the Jewish people in attendance, I couldn't work out which. Maybe both. Then we went off for tea.

I was away staying with mum for very nearly a week, sometimes with Lola II and Sister D and their husbands there too. On the day after the funeral we'd long been planning to take mum over to Lola II and Mr M's for the day, and there seemed no reason not to go ahead with the plan, and we even persuaded her to stay overnight. Mum reviewed and gave her seal of approval to all changes that had taken place in their house since she was last there, and Lola II arranged to borrow her regular adoptive dog as a treat - for him and for us.

It was good to come back home afterwards, and I tried to recall the effort I'd put into reflection while I was on retreat, and my determination to change my lifestyle, but it all felt a little remote. I'm trying to take the steps I worked out then to make positive and constructive changes, particularly around food, exercise, Internet access and meditation. 

We had planned a day for the Buddhist group team to come together on Sunday at my house, and it couldn't have been a better time to meet. Since then I've done pretty well with my resolutions - there's been no chocolate or snacks, I've enquired at the local leisure centre about what I might do for exercise, I've meditated every day (which absolutely wasn't the case before I went on retreat) and I have set an alarm so I don't spend more than 60 minutes at a time sitting at the computer. Which is one reason why this blog post has taken so long to put together.

I also went to the doctor with my hurty arm, which (as so often happens) started to hurt a lot less as soon as I made the appointment, but I've got some heavy duty anti-inflammatory drugs to take for two weeks anyway, and a self-referral to a physiotherapist. I also joined an online meeting of the Comms team for the Warwick Folk Festival and I'm still pretty confident that they won't try to put me in charge. Then I went back to mum's for a couple more days to continue with the admin, and here we are, two weeks on. Apart from mum not being tied to the house any longer, everything feels very much the same as before.

Marketing and meetings

Manjusri, Adhisthana, April 2024

Another role I have in the volunteer job is to send out marketing emails using a system called Email Octopus, which is an evocative name but brings to mind anything but mailing lists. The messages contain images and videos and carefully designed logos and layout, and a number of them are pre-prepared and scheduled to go out automatically. 

I have had to create a new marketing email within this system, and to do that I've obviously copied an existing message and edited the content. It's one of those platforms that perhaps isn't all that robust, and a stray keystroke can destroy the appearance of the whole thing. Then there's the public nature of sending messages out to large mailing lists and the potential for sending to the wrong people, or to the whole world. Just knowing this makes me especially cautious, although making a mistake isn't a disaster. I'm only a volunteer after all.

I had a series of different sorts of meeting waiting for me at home in between stints of volunteering. First there was a Buddhist team meeting, then one about the upcoming Warwick Folk Festival, a couple of walks with friends, coffee with someone else to plan a possible film festival event within the franchise established by Lola II and Mr M, my board games group which this time ended up being just two of us, and the usual badminton. And I cleaned the car, inside and out, which is a tough job but makes me happy afterwards when I drive.

The Folk Festival meeting was quite interesting, in that the Communications team leader and deputy team leader are both retiring. Another volunteer and I would be happy to carry on volunteering for the Comms team, but neither of us wants to take on the team leader role. It looks as though someone else has been found, and what's more he looks younger than me (most of the people in the meeting looked significantly older) which is a Very Good Thing. They are a nice bunch of people on the whole.

So far in February

Adhisthana, May 2023

Lots of stuff since I last wrote, but none of it worthy of more meaningful consideration than a series of bullet points (except perhaps the last, but that's all it's getting).

• I visited my regular dental hygienist on her last day of work at the practice, and was happy to show her the good results of all the treatment I've been having. She was genuinely delighted and offered me a hug. I've never been hugged at the dentist before, so that's a first.
• A call to renew acquaintance with Mr MXF and a new job that involves testing some training materials he's developed. I broke the system within seven minutes simply by uploading a picture of a cake, and he thanked me for finding a weakness he'd never have thought of.
• Film recommendation: All Of Us Strangers, which I went to with UJ. She can cope well when there are subtitles but not so much in the cinema or with accents, so she missed one of the key plot points. I loved this film even more than Poor Things which I also saw with her and which was more of a spectacle and less nuanced. She preferred Poor Things, maybe because it was easier to understand despite being Mad.
• Buddhism: a morning at the Birmingham Centre as well as the usual Tuesday evenings, where we welcomed a visitor from Adhisthana (aka Triratna HQ, the retreat centre where I have been volunteering) and I realised how much I miss having an Order Member here so I can ask those tricky questions. I'm delighted that he'll be coming for two more weeks.
• The music group has started again with a few good arrangements as well as a couple of tedious pop songs. Each month I sigh at having committed to this before setting off anyway, and return with a spring in my step having thoroughly enjoyed myself and wondering how I might fit in some more clarinet and sax playing, and conclude that I'd definitely have to give up something else.
• Shrove Tuesday pancake mask competition - last year was my first attempt at this, but this year the theme was a more difficult one. I managed to put in an entry though. Judging is on 2nd March.
• U3A walking group - I'm enjoying this a great deal, despite Friday's walk being a lot more muddy than expected which made the going a bit tough. The leader slipped over and cut his hand quite badly on barbed wire, another person complained a little too often about the mud, and I accidentally opened a conversation about Brexit that perhaps wasn't appropriate, but we all survived. The U3A board games group is good too.
• Badminton - a match on Thursday left me a bit achy and tired before the difficult walk on Friday. I always end up trying harder and stretching more for a match compared with a club night, and I'm definitely not as young as I was. A couple of times I've left before the club night has ended, which my younger self would have found inconceivable. Still, I'll carry on playing until I can't play any more because walking is good exercise but nowhere near as much fun as swatting a shuttlecock in a big room.
• Visiting parents - the downstairs shower room conversion is going well and looks very nice, although the basin has accidentally been installed about 10cm higher than it should have. What with everyone in the family being short and  in some cases getting shorter this needs to be remedied. Mum and I picked out a new bathroom cabinet, and I put a couple of things no longer needed onto Freecycle.
• The tenth Random Chairs in a Darkened Room Film Festival hosted by Mr M and Lola II took place at the weekend, with six of the eight films being chosen by myself and another friend. Best film (in my opinion): Calvary (2014). It was the usual splendid event with many visitors, lots of food, ice creams and popcorn, wonderful trailers and shorts before the main screening, and I was given a shiny badge to wear designating my status as Guest Curator.

Working and playing

Kew Gardens, July 2022

The Warwick Folk Festival has happened, and a whole lot more. I've got a bit of time today so I hope to get it all covered before everything starts up again.

I enjoyed my volunteering at the Festival in the Radio Comms Room again, where we issue and receive all the walky-talkies and assist with communications between all the teams: traffic, gates, litter-picking and toilets, security, music venues, transport, maintenance and more. There wasn't much to do most of the time; everyone seemed to know what they were doing and not much went wrong. 

We were short-staffed in the Radio Room this year as the deputy team leader had to withdraw through illness, and the team leader has health issues and really wants to step away. They are desperate enough to suggest I might take on the team leader job, and after I'd seen a description of the (volunteer) role I thought about it and decided to decline this opportunity. I'm happy to be an ordinary team member and don't want the extra responsibility or the time it would take up.

Radio Man was there, supplying all the comms gear, and was pleasant company throughout the event. All the other team members are extremely talkative and love to relate a long story about some event in their life, or indeed their whole life story, in detail and omitting nothing, as I wrote last year. Radio Man and I would occasionally suggest that they really could do with a nap, or a beer, or a chat with some friend, and we could manage perfectly well so why didn't they take a break and leave us to it? Despite this, all the volunteers are very friendly and generous, and I enjoyed my time with them even though I completely misjudged my shifts and missed most of the music. Various other local friends were also volunteering in other roles and it was nice to catch up with a couple of them.

After a day or two to catch my breath I was off to see mum and dad, who continue to soldier on with all the appointments with the various health professionals. While I was there we went to the dental surgery to pick up a form so that a home visit can be requested, we had a finance meeting via Zoom, and we were visited in person by a District Nurse and a more senior Occupational Therapist than before, who assessed the front step for a ramp and measured up the shower room to see what adaptations might be possible for better access. She is planning to bring some equipment that might help dad to move between bed and chair. Mum and I also made some major improvements to mum's filing systems, producing a sack of paper for recycling in the process. It was a longer visit than usual and very productive.

My birthday has been and gone, so I have now entered my 60th year of life, which is a little hard to believe. Anyway, UJ wanted to treat me to a night out - she recently attended a performance by the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford and was so impressed that I think she just wanted to repeat the experience. I chose very differently. On Saturday we went for a very good guided walk in Birmingham, then to see the film 'Barbie', then off to Chinatown to eat and finally a comedy club. It was a really good day with only two disappointments - the weather (it was cold and rained constantly throughout), and my favourite Café Soya was closed for refurbishment (although a nearby substitute wasn't bad). UJ and I continue to discuss British accents and colloquialisms, most recently the use of the term of endearment 'cock' in Manchester, which is all very confusing for her.

I'm nearly 60

Irvin, February 2023

During the ski trip there was a theme running through the week, which started on the overnight Eurostar going out. I found myself in the small hours, still awake and trying to get comfortable enough to sleep by lying on the floor rather than sitting up in a chair. "I'm nearly 60," I thought. "I don't think my younger self would have anticipated that I'd be lying on the floor of a train trying to sleep when I'm nearly 60." Subsequently, when on previous trips I'd have been working out when the last ski lift would enable me to get home at the end of the day, on this trip at about 2.30 p.m. we started to consider getting back for a bath and supper. "After all, we're nearly 60..."

Then last week I played in two badminton matches. Towards the end of the second one I completely ran out of steam. Luckily I was paired with a much younger partner who did all the running about that I would previously have considered to be my role. I'm really am nearly 60, in so many aspects of life.

Coming back from the ski trip I was expecting UJ to reappear within a couple of days. She had gone home to fetch her cat and I thought she had made all the arrangements and booked transport, but arrangements can be altered and cancelled, and she gave me a new date when she was planning to come without the cat. That date also came and went, and now it may be March. I'm not holding my breath.

Before she went, she drew my attention to the draughty state of the windows in her room, and she has a point. So I called upon Doors and Windows Ulf, who diagnosed old hinges and has gone away to order some new ones. So that needs to happen at some point.

The Film Festival run by Mr M and Lola II went swimmingly as usual, with a new introductory trailer and a fantastic advertisement for Random Cuts, the hairdressing service offered by Lola II ("Only 15 minutes bus ride from the nearest A&E!") My music group restarted, there's the usual Buddhist activity, and I was able to take in another dog, called Irvin. Only for 24 hours, which was quite enough - he's not done much training, and it shows! I've been spoiled by the dogs that are later in their training like Caddie and Pat.

The dental work is going fairly well, I've been allowed to move on to my sixth set of aligners (out of 37), and yesterday I had one of my back molars extracted by my very lovely dentist. It's a shame that I see him mainly for painful treatments. In fact, despite the difficulty of the extraction and the state of the resulting extraction site, it hurts very little today. The dentist's commentary as we went along was also interesting - I had to have extra anaesthetic because of my 'interesting jaw anatomy' and apparently I'm very good at clotting. I told him that this information will all be very useful when I create my online dating profile.

The Radio Room

Adams restaurant, July 2022

After my first two shifts volunteering for the Warwick festival on the main gate, my next two shifts were in the Radio Room. I had no idea where this was or what it would entail, but it turned out that the 'room' was a large motor home inhabited by Radio Man plus a lockable shed and a lot of radio equipment and two more Radio Assistants.

I turned up at the start of my shift and was given an introduction by the previous volunteer, as Radio Man was nowhere to be seen and the two Radio Assistants were at a site meeting. The radios were being used on different bands by the main site, the security team, the gate team, and the 'Wombles' - the term used for the volunteers who clean the site and the toilets. My job involved keeping an eye on all the kit, receiving and handing out the radios, and being the link to the outside world via a separate mobile phone for proper emergencies like fire and child abduction. 

The key impressions I formed during the first hour of my first shift were as follows (in order):

• There doesn't seem to be anything to do
• That previous volunteer keeps talking at great length about himself - oh good, his shift has finished now
• Ah, Radio Assistant 1 has arrived and he is actually giving me some useful information and insight into the role
• Oh, now he's started talking at great length about himself
• He's still going
• I'm getting a really detailed account of his trip to Thailand where he was sent by the RAF to do a couple of hours work and got to stay for a whole weekend
• Hooray, Radio Man has emerged from the motor home, maybe I will be saved
• Oh dear, Radio Man is standing behind Radio Assistant 1 just rolling his eyes at me; that's no help at all
• My goodness, the RAF paid for him to become qualified to teach and now that's what he does. I feel a little bit sorry for his students
• Radio Assistant 2! Maybe... no.
• Some people have arrived who appear to need something and are being helped by Radio Assistant 2, which has distracted Radio Assistant 1 who has gone to join in, thank goodness, at last
• There really doesn't seem very much for one person to do, let alone four people
• Now Radio Assistant 1 has gone to get something to eat
• Radio Man, who seems to be the one in charge, reassures me that yes, there isn't much to do at the moment, but things will get busier once the Great British Public turn up and start causing trouble. He shows some interest in me. This is novel.

As soon as they could see I was a fairly sensible and responsible person, Radio Man and Radio Assistant 2 went off to have something to eat, leaving me on my own with all this gear after a few minutes of instruction and an hour of listening to people mostly talk at great length about themselves. They reassured me that they would have radios with them and would intercept any complicated questions that came in for the Comms team.

The job was quite strange. My role involved handing out radios and cleaning and recharging them when people bring them back, and showing how they are used if someone really hasn't used one before. There was a sheet about what to do if a child or vulnerable person is lost, which was fairly terrifying, and I was told there would be a rehearsal at some point, which thankfully took place while I wasn't working. While I was on my own there were a couple of calls, one asking me to look in the tent next door (where they didn't have radios) to try and find a missing bus driver, and another to point out a mistake on the child/vulnerable person sheet.

Eventually Radio Man and Radio Assistant 2 came back. Radio Assistant 2 was a jolly man who liked to talk, so he was often up and chatting with his mates. Radio Man was quieter and more interesting - he lives in South Africa much of the time, and the comms stuff is as much a hobby as a profession. He's been working with the Warwick team for about 30 years, but he doesn't much like folk music. Towards the end of my first shift he started showing me how the radio comms works using diagrams of transmission and receiving frequencies.

I didn't have to work on Saturday, because I'd been invited by a friend to go to a VERY fancy meal in Birmingham (I have included pictures of three of the 'courses'), but I volunteered for an extra shift on Artists Reception on Sunday morning. If there wasn't much to do in the Radio Room there was even less to do in Artists Reception by that time on Sunday, as very nearly all the artists were already there. But I could have a chat with interesting people as they wandered through asking to borrow a biro or some tape, and two performers did turn up within my 3.5 hour shift.

After lunch I was back in the Radio Room, and there was much less talking about themselves and much more talking about how the lost child incident the previous day had not gone all that well, and because the event was drawing to a close lots of people stopped for a chat as they brought their radios back.

I haven't said much about the music. If you imagine a continuum, from the real folky end with a cappella tunes from Ireland or Scottish jigs: all mouth organs, fiddles and accordions, to the folk/rock end with amps, guitars and drum kits like my favourite Oysterband or even Billy Bragg, then Warwick Folk Festival is nearly all at the hardcore folky end of things. While I like folk, I prefer it to be towards the folk/rock end of the continuum, and I did catch a couple of acts that I liked, but most of the fun for me came from being part of the team and meeting and working with interesting people in a field. And thankfully it didn't rain and the temperature dropped, otherwise we would all have been cooked inside the marquees.

Radio Room, Warwick Folk Festival, July 2022

The Games approach

Victoria Park, view from the Avenue Road entrance, July 2022

We are well into the period within which I have committed to doing much more than I should. I have most of the day 'free' today before I go to my next shift of volunteering (of which more later) so today will be full of all the things that have been postponed, including blogging. And pictures of the local preparations for the Commonwealth Games (CG) bowling.

View from Archery road (which will be obscured when they finish the stands)

While I was away camping and retreating there was a mini-drama about my very exciting CG uniform. I had been notified that it might be delivered while I was away, and that the delivery company would only hand it over in person, so I used the contact form to indicate when I wouldn't be there and asked that it might not be delivered during that time. The first response was that I would receive a notification and then have the opportunity to change the date, but I pointed out that while offline I wouldn't receive the notification. The next response was that my requirements had been passed onto the relevant team.

Then I received two emails on the same day from the delivery company, during the period I'd said I was unavailable for delivery, the first at 11.59 to say that the uniform would be delivered and the second at 13.30 to say that it had been delivered. I messaged the CG contact, and received the reply that they are very busy at the moment but will get onto it as soon as possible. When I got home there was a note from a lovely neighbour who had seen the box on my doorstep, i.e. on the pavement outside my house, and when it was (miraculously) still there next morning they took it inside. Eventually the CG team got back to me to say that the delivery company were still claiming that it was handed over in person. So all's well that ends well, but I wouldn't recommend that anyone uses Yodel.

View of Archery Road from the river walk

The Garage Door Man came round, straightened the bits of the lock that were bent during the attempted break-in (which means the door now locks properly again), and we had a very confusing conversation indeed about all the different options for updating the ancient mechanism. Eventually, when I realised I hadn't understood any of the options, I asked him what he would do. He found it equally hard to decide, and went away to find out whether my garage door was a standard size or not, which would influence other decisions. I await developments with low expectations.

Ongoing stand construction

Lola II and I had another great day out in Oxford, which is a convenient distance for both of us to meet, but which is terribly deficient in cake supply. After checking out the Weston Library exhibitions - this time they were about the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb and the different sensory experiences of books - we went to the University Botanic Garden. This ought to be the perfect setting for Lemon Drizzle by the river but instead it has a tiny coffee stand with no more than a flapjack or two. Not that I'm eating cake at the moment - the very exciting Commonwealth Games trousers are a little tight around the middle...

The next day contained the second lot of periodontal surgery in the morning, and a badminton club dinner in the evening, which I attended to say hello but left when the food arrived. The surgery this time was more extensive and involved the lower jaw, which the periodontist warned me would be worse than the previous one, and  indeed it is. A week later and I'm still feeling rather delicate and sore, and very much hoping that it will be worth it. I'll find out in three months' time.

No left turn

There have been other trips and calls and activities, but the two other matters worth reporting are the local preparations for the Commonwealth Games and my volunteering at the Warwick Folk Festival.

The CG construction teams moved into the park and the local streets just over a week ago. They put up the perimeter barriers, which contain about half of the area of the park and extend into the streets, removing about half the parking spots for the residents of our three streets. Detailed plans have been drawn up to give us all alternative places to park nearby as well as the option to book slots for deliveries and carers, and although I have the convenience of the garage I think it is no more than mildly inconvenient for most people, and will only last for one month. One neighbour is not so phlegmatic and is incensed by the whole thing; I have frequently seen his car parked in areas that have been allocated for other purposes.

Pedestrian access only to houses at the park end of Archery Road

Anyway, it all kicks off in a week's time, and I'm sure it will be very interesting to see how the spectators are managed when arriving and departing and how much more inconvenient it may become. In the meantime I have started my volunteering role at the Warwick Folk Festival, which is taking place in the grounds of Warwick Castle, in a field next to the Castle's overflow parking. My job for the first two days during set-up has been to manage the main gate which has a narrow approach allowing traffic in only one direction at a time. I have been stationed at the far end of this approach with a walky-talky which I use when vehicles arrive to check that nothing is coming the other way.

My first shift was for four hours during the hottest part of the heatwave we have just endured. Luckily someone had a chair for me to use, but I had assumed I would be working with other people so I hadn't brought a book. There was hardly any traffic at all, so I mostly sat very still in the shade with my eyes closed, and it wasn't too bad, and certainly easy compared with those who were building stages and constructing lighting rigs. The second shift was in the same spot, and I had brought my own chair and a book, but there was much more traffic so very little time to sit and read - the overflow parking was in use so I was dealing with visitors to the Castle as well as traffic for the festival. My remaining two shifts will be in the Radio Room when the festival has actually started, which sounds quite exciting. I'm very glad I won't be managing that gate when the festival is live.

Solar panels in Victoria Park

Odds and ends

Leamington Spa Food and Drink Festival, September 2021

The 'lawn' (perhaps more accurately described as 'scrubland' or 'prairie') has 'grass' that is now short enough for a dog to survive, but there is much more to be done in keeping the 'garden' ('nemesis') under control. If moss and wisteria prunings were a cash crop then I'd be pretty wealthy. It will take at least two trips to the tip with the car full of bags of green waste.

I went on a walk around Leamington with two gents from the Leamington History Group, another lady from Leamington and some tourists on a lovely hot day last week. I didn't learn a whole lot of new information, but we wandered down a street with beautiful old buildings which I had never seen before. There are a few other walks scheduled in the next couple of weeks which I'll probably sign up to. This flexible working arrangement is brilliant.

The actual work for Mr MXF, however, is rather frustrating at the moment. I have now established what the triggers are that cause the platform to seize up and refuse to work any more for about 12 hours, and I have an idea or two about how to get round it, but have to wait until it untwists its knickers before I can try.

Glf has come round to look at the wall and share the annoyance of unreliable plasterers that get full time jobs when you want them to work for you. We also shared a love of 70's and 80's music - he is a collector of vinyl and recommended a website where he goes to augment his collection. He was very impressed with my vinyl collection (which I am looking to diminish rather than augment), and suggested it might be worth something. I had a quick look at the website, but it's a bit like selling stuff on ebay - I could probably make a couple of hundred pounds, but the effort involved may not be worth it.

And Leamington has hosted its annual Food and Drink Festival, after having to cancel last year's, and apart from less free food to taste (no more dipping crackers into vats of different curry sauces) and a few more face masks in evidence, it is as good as ever. Except that since two years ago I no longer eat meat, so it takes much less time going round all the stalls. The weather was kind, and I stocked up on some treats for our camping next week - yes, the last camping trip of the year is about to happen in a northerly location that could bring pretty cold weather. I'm taking a hot water bottle with me...

Summer ends

June 2021

August has come and gone; that's the end of the summer and there has been even less 'summer' weather than in most years. September sometimes brings pleasant sunshine, so that's what I'm hoping for. I don't mind clouds as long as it's not raining, and it hasn't rained much, but it would be nice to wake up to blue skies once in a while.

Enough of my complaining, there's a small amount of interesting material to present. Firstly, dog news. As requested, I sent off photos of my house, garden and car. Ten days later I received a message informing me that they hadn't received any photos, and could I send some if I was still interested in fostering a dog, so I sent all the photos off again. The next message said that unfortunately the grass in my garden is too long, making it difficult to pick up poo and potentially leading to risk of disease for the dog.

Cutting the grass is actually quite an enterprise. It's much too long for the lawn mower so I had a go with a strimmer, but made little impact and eventually the strimmer packed up (probably overheated, but it is very old). I carried on using ordinary hand shears in sessions of two hours so as not to cripple myself, and it's nearly ready for an attempt with the lawn mower. I'll be sending off new photos when it's respectable.

I spent August Bank Holiday weekend camping at the Shrewsbury Folk Festival, with my phone turned off and no camera. Covid precautions meant that instead of being in marquees all the stages were in the open air, and we were incredibly lucky that it didn't rain at all. It would have been pretty miserable if it had rained, as well as being cold - it was very cold in the open air at midnight anyway. By the last evening I was wearing all the clothes I'd brought - two T shirts, fleece and jacket and two pairs of trousers as well as my woolly hat and scarf. The music was great as usual, but not as much of it as in previous years because of extended changeover times, during which I understand they have to sanitise a load of equipment (e.g. microphones).

The English National Lawn Bowls Championship is back in Leamington, and this year for the first time they offered local residents two free tickets to one day of the event. I invited a friend who also used to be a Dietitian, and we installed ourselves on one of the greens for an afternoon. We happened to watch the Senior Singles semi-finals (men and women), and then came back for the finals. There are a myriad of competitions divided by age, sex and number of players, and the whole event lasts more than two weeks. It was nowhere near as interesting as watching badminton, but I can see the attraction of playing. Spectating is a fairly dull affair, though, and all the other spectators appeared to be players and their spouses.

Quick LTRP update - the pub wall has been drying out, and as planned I got in touch with Glf's plastering mate who was going to put on more permeable lime render. After a prolonged delay he came to look at the job, and gave me the news that the price of lime render had gone up a great deal, but he would let me know what would be involved. After another prolonged delay I called him, and discovered that he's taken a full time job, but wouldn't mind doing my job at weekends except that I would have to buy and store two tons of lime render. I expressed some dissatisfaction about this situation to Glf, who has arranged to call round so we can work out what to do next.

I continue to provide my services to the vaccination clinic, where we are mostly vaccinating 16 to 20 year olds along with a handful of older people who weren't able to get vaccinated earlier because of pregnancy or allergies but have now been given the all clear. The clinic is still only operating three days a week, but after a break is due to come back full time at the end of September when it will be giving booster shots to front line workers - or at least, that is what is suggested. What actually happens is anyone's guess.

And lastly, my work for Mr MXF is getting on quite well, as long as I don't imagine that I can do more than four hours (and sometimes less) before hitting the buffers. Either there's a problem I can't get around, or something fails, or most recently the website slowed to an impossible crawl for no apparent reason. But I'm really tantalisingly close to actually achieving some useful results.