Supervision Duties

We have plumbers in this week finally converting our antiquated one pipe plumbing system into something that can work with a modern boiler. Sadly this means losing our wonderfully retro radiators.

They were due on Monday but have now deferred to Tuesday due to overrunning on a previous job which isn’t a promising start. L and I have split the supervision duties between us. I will do the first two days having been given permission to work from home.

What supervision duties turns out to mean is repeatedly shifting our ‘too much’ stuff from room to room to enable them to work.

The dogs love it. They have two extra people to kick balls for them and the Lad has all manner of new toys that he can run off with. He finds the material they use for pipe lagging particularly to his liking but he is also not adverse to running around with a screwdriver in his mouth.

Meanwhile I enjoy joining the ranks of WFH and actually get quite a lot of work done. The weather is nice enough to sit in garden on my laptop and I can take the boys on the park in the middle of the day.

Which goes something like this. I throw the ball for MD, MD gets the ball, MD drops the ball, the Lad picks up the ball, the Lad does laps of park with the ball, eventually I get the Lad to come to me, without the ball, pick up the Lad to stop him going back to the ball and walk to the ball, MD picks up the ball before I get there and moves it, I walk to the new location, I repeat this until MD stops moving the ball, then I pick up the ball, put down the Lad, throw the ball for MD. Repeat.

I surmise that there must be an easier way and find that having two balls is better because the Lad, despite trying, can't get both in his mouth at once. This worked fine until we lost one of the balls. At which point we went for strong coffee at Café 508. As I have my laptop with me, I can then also do some work while sitting outside the café. This is the life... sort of.

Back at home, both the boys fall asleep on the lawn, by their balls, and now I daren’t move. Problem is my laptop is almost flat and I need to put it on charge. Then the plumbers tell me that there will be no hot water tonight.

In the evening on Wednesday L is back at the Book Festival again, this time seeing Alison Weir and again I meet her afterwards in the Exeter.

(Wednesday 6^th June)

Gargantuan Misselling

It’s wet and windy, so I’m in car. The roads are hell.

Daughter’s laptop is having problems installing the latest gargantuan Windows 10 update, which seems to need almost as much space as the operating system itself. Her modestly sized laptop just can’t handle it, even after having deleted everything but the operating system off it. 

I reckon this counts as a case of misselling but Acer, who made it, don’t agree but only because they didn’t sell it to us. Tesco did. Talk about ducking the bullets. Now I just need to try and find the receipt from Tesco.

Talking of misselling, L goes out and buys some Mellow Birds. I warned her not but she still went ahead and got some. This is the product that they missold as coffee back in the 1970s. The advertising campaign promised that it would make us smile but it was more of a grimace really. It was what you served guests when you don’t want them to visit again.

L says it was hidden down on a bottom shelf with the Camp. Which says it all, they can’t put either of those with the coffee because neither of them have ever been anywhere near a coffee bean. Rumour has it that they are still selling off old stock from the 70s. Bet she can’t drink a whole mug of it.

Squash tonight, L and MD walk there. Then both dogs join us in the pub afterwards.

(Thursday 7^th December)

Shambolic Or Otherwise

L and Daughter go for a swim together before she gets the train back to Manchester. Daughter says that she envies L’s routine. L naturally thinks it's a bit shambolic but a routine is a routine and it’s better to have one than not to have one. Hopefully Daughter is now inspired to devise one, shambolic or otherwise.

I speak to the bathroom people and tell them to go ahead as planned on Monday although the toilet we ordered apparently won’t be with us until 29th October. So the fitter will have to return at a later date to do that. I think us getting the shower up and running is the priority.

Glastonbury coach tickets go on sale at 6pm tonight, so I decide to have a go at getting one for a short hop from Bristol where we headed the night before last time. I try simultaneously with PC, laptop and ipad. I manage to get two devices logged on to the booking screen but still don't get any tickets. Oh well. Time for Rock City.

Is it just me or does Peter Murphy sound a bit like Chris Rea these days? Ok. Just me then.

It’s only on his lighter moments of course and they're dark brooding lighter moments but there are a lot of them. Somehow I expected a bit more ’punch’ from the former frontman of Bauhaus but then I haven't really kept up with his post Bauhaus career.

The thing is I don't think many other folk here tonight have either and his set falls a bit flat with the majority. Politely applauded but flat nonetheless. Murphy, backed by a guitarist and a bass player, does have his hardcore fans down the front who love every minute but the rest of us were perhaps hoping for a bit more familiarity from tonight’s special guest.

Oh well, never mind, we are here on the occasion of The Mission’s 30^th birthday so cue the Dambusters.  

Daaaa da da da d d da da... etc.

And we’re off. ‘Beyond the Pale’, ‘Serpent's Kiss’ and ‘Over The Hills And Far Away’ back to back without taking breath. That’s a proper old school opening. Then there’s time to refill your lungs as Wayne Hussey acknowledges the crowds appreciation of their back catalogue before launching into a new song ‘Tyranny of Secrets’ off their new album 'Another Fall From Grace'. The first of three they play this evening with the new single 'Met-Amor-Phosis' going down particularly well.

Guitarist Simon Hinkler had remarked before the tour that he had felt a bit daunted after being asked to rehearse 47 songs but clearly he got with the project as the band have been ripping up the set list every night and slipping in something different at each venue. I really wish more bands took this approach which makes it all a bit more special for the long term fans.

Original members Hussey, Hinkler and Craig Adams are again joined by Mike Kelly on drums and now have a new female singer amongst their mist. Evi Vine is the new Julianne Regan if you like and adds the gloss to a sparkling ‘Severina’ tonight amongst other tracks.

The set is surprisingly wide ranging and well planned considering it consists of just 12 tracks ending with an epic ‘Wasteland’ before the band return for the first of two encores.

An acoustic ‘Black Mountain Mist’ along with Evie, is followed by a bit of jam session to ‘1969’ before ‘Butterfly on a Wheel’ and then a rare airing of what used to be the traditional set closer ‘Shelter From The Storm’ albeit a vanilla version which doesn’t ramble off into other tracks like it used to. It’s also good to see that they still hand out roses to this song.

In fact Wayne Hussey was quite generous with his handouts tonight, earlier lobbing his bottle of wine to a girl in the crowd who was on someone’s shoulders. She impressively caught it and the Health and Safety officer breathed a huge sigh of relief.

They return again for ‘The Crystal Ocean’ and ‘Deliverance’ to which they finally leave the stage for good with the crowd still singing the chorus right up to the point the house lights come up.

(Thursday 6^th October)