The Sturdy Soapbox

Pretty girly really

Created by Oatmeal

I am nowhere near as good as Joanne Casey, she must;ve ha dplenty of practice.

Good Friday ? well fair anyway

Yesterday, I discovered the true meaning of Easter and the reason why it is a moveable feast (I paste from a piece found on the interweb)

Easter is what's known as a moveable feast. Meaning it is not at a fixed time each year. This is because when Jesus awoke in the cave of Gesthemane he found a giant chocolate egg had been placed placed in the mouth of the cave. With the help of a giant rabbit, he managed to roll this egg away from the cave and get out, just in time for Easter.

I was out at 6:20 this morning and covered 2.1 miles.  My ankle is a lot better but my blistered foot still hurts.

Took this pic as I passed a landmark in our town.  Landmark for two reasons.  You can spot it from a distance and as mentioned before, this is the Boak which Wally the Welder was born in the shadow of !

I did look and there aren't any blue plaques denoting the historical importance, perhaps someone stole it as a keepsake.

The Boak is an old tannery, Walsall being once a centre for leather (not the kinky sort, though I do know that too is still manufactured here).  

Spoke to him last night a lot later than I would usually.  Why ?  He'd been to Irene's and had been fed AGAIN on barbecue food which is why he'd ignored my text asking him to Skype me.  I only put it back on the lapdog for him !

He's off to Anglesey today, a place I used to visit once a month when I was a rep for Tandy, as I had a dealer there.  Beautiful place and I came back several times with Welsh spring lamb and once a lobster.

As for the walking I've covered just over ten miles this week.  Hope the nice weather continues, as it is good motivation to continue.  I shall be out tomorrow too, but that will be about 30 minutes, as I shall be going to the bus stop and back on my weekly pilgrimage to Bob the Butcher.

Talk about life saver...  When I left the old flat, one of the things I left behind was an old, non working Bang & Olufsen record deck (beogram 1202) which I bought in 1974 as part of a system which cost 37 times my weekly salary !

It was in the back bedroom in bits, because in the late 80's PMG (rat arsed) took it apart to fix it, couldn't and that's they way it stayed.  I could never afford to have a B&O dealer fix it and so, when I made my move in January, it is one of the things which was left behind.

I did remove the stylus and cartridge, as it has only been used a few times having been replaced (again at some expense) and I decided to put it on E Bay.  70's B&O stuff is obviously rare and I hoped much sought after.  I put it on at 99p and forgot about it because E Bay is so unpredictable.  Right up to the last day, the item stayed at 99p and so I just shrugged my shoulders that I would be walking to the post office for nothing.

I logged in a few hours before the item ended to find it had made £ 44.00.  Considering my bank account is in single figures, the money even with E Bay's cut taken out, will come in very useful.

 

 

 

You too could have a body like his

Got this last night by e mail.  Joanne his daughter took it, having just fed him on barbecue and finished the job by thrusting "Daddie's pint" into his eagerly awaiting paw.

Butter wouldn't melt eh ?

 Lots of effort was needed to get out of bed this morning at 6:30 and hobble off with a huge blister on the ball of my left foot which has wept all day and night and gone a bit crispy and an ankle tendon on the right side coming out in sympathy,  My Sports Tracker app tells me my pace was down from 3.48 mph to 3.15.

My lower back and knee joints are now on the list of things which hurt and I think I shall be doing a sandals and socks number before the end of the week.

Went as OBC suggested, down the cut from Wolverhampton Road by the old flour mills down to where the Forge Hammer once stood (my local for many years), now just a mound of rubble to keep the gypos off the site.

I plan to do this route again soon on a sunny morning, as it took me past the old cemetary, reputed to have a "plague pit" and also housing the remains of Walsall's most famous daughter ,Sister Dora a nurse from many years ago, who's reputation is similar to that of Florence Nightingale.

Today I covered 2.4 miles, intentionally, because yesterday's four mile journey was  too much, I know that from the aches and pains.  I still burned over three hundred calories.

Darlo sent me a text asking if she could come too one day next week when she's on holiday.  That'll be a sight, me in socks and sandals and her in her slingbacks !

The early morning sunshine and greenery of the trees (and the blossom), make this a great time to be out with a camera.  I'd like to take the Fuji, but it is not the sort of camera you can slip into a pocket and I really don't want  some chav taking a shine to it and trying to take it off me.

Found a half pack of Taylors Hot Lava Java in the fridge, I'd forgotten just how nice a coffee that is (made with Robusta beans), had two cups so far this morning, but my froth was pants.

 

 

To infinity and a blister...

I made this capture, because I know OBC won't believe I walked 4.03 miles this morning.

And if you click to embiggen, you will see I burned 666 calories and managed a pace of just under 3.5 miles per hour.

I took a route down to and quite a long circuit round the arboretum.  Now my feet hurt and I have a blister and my side hurts.  I thought I would get up to maybe three miles, but it turned out to be four !

The trees look nice in blossom.  There's a lot of building and renovation going on down there right now.  The boathouse on the lake is being made over as is the bandstand. Ducks were eyeing me up in the hopes I might have bread to feed them with, but as I only have about three slices here at home right now, my need is greater than theirs, despite their appealing quacks which OBC tells me roughly translates to "hey mate, got any bread" ?

I think four miles was a bit too much, as I am already feeling the kick back in my side and back.  Think tomorrow will be closer to two miles.

Amazing what a bit of sunshine can do

It really does have a cheering effect, my carnies are doing cartwheels, loads of sunshine and all the rainwater they can drink.  Still a dearth of juicy insects, but they aren't fully awake yet.

I was fully awake nice and early this morning and after a lazy weekend (apart from my visit to Bob the Butcher), I had decided I was going to up my walking a bit to see what effect it has now the change in diabetic medication has helped me shed 6 kilos (13 lbs) without really trying, since January.

I now have my online weight loss diary system back online having seen Jenny last week and re registered, now I have an interweb connection.

Decided to walk up towards the hospital and come back round in a circle, via the town and Tesco to get some pop which is on special at the mo.  Used the smartphone to take a couple of pictures.  The canal looked particularly calm.

The brickwork is a set of four outside a new housing development.  Only took two, because the sun was shining through the railings and projecting shadow on to the column.

They have some sort of historical tie to an explosion or something, many years ago.  A few yards down the road and they could have featured the birth of the welder "born in the shadow of the Boak", when a star appeared in the east.

As OBC will attest, I don't actually enjoy walking "aimlessly", so to keep myself interested, I am going to alter my route. Tomorrow I shall go down the the arboretum so that will be quite a long walk.  Just had OBC on the phone and he said "you wanna goo a walk down the cut (the canal that is).

I agree, it is very picturesque down there, but also secluded and I don't really want to be a hands up for a mugging.

So as  I said, I made my pilgrimage to Bob the Butcher on Saturday.  He was chirpy considering the events of his week.

Last weekend, he'd been driving down to take his sister's kids to see their uncle in Cornwall.  Not far from where I used to live, he saw a caravan starting to wobble and he said "I'll hang back here, that looks like an accident waiting to happen".

A moment later, the caravan whiplashed and swung the car towing it round, both tomboling accross the motorway carriageways, hitting Bob, knocking him into the central crash barrier then over into the hard shoulder.

One of his nephews is autistic and when all the kids got out (with minor bruses), this lad announced "that's shook the fuckin shit out of me that has".  Bob told me he had to hang on to the car to keep standing up, he was laughing so hard.

His car (a Chrysler PT Cruiser) is a write off, but the insurance company rang to say they would provide a car of a similar type for him to drive whilst all the stuff is sorted out.  When it arrived, it was a brand new BMW (and he says he doesn't like it) !

I have always hated caravaners.  This time of the year, they clog the roads up and cause more accidents. There is nothing in the driving test for towing this sort of crap and so, their inexperience (as they only do this once a year) speaks volumes as soon as the wind catches one of these tacky aluminium and plywood boxes and starts off a situation that the driver has no idea how to control.

Just before the Clevedon junction on the M5, the motorway splits into 2 sections on a hill.  Firstly their underpowered towing vehicle drops down from fifty to about 8 miles an hour causing untold chaos for miles behing and the stretch of motorway in the summer is littered with bits of broken up caravan.

After my walk, it was nice to come back and take a bath without having to use spanners to turn the taps on and off, like I did at the old place.  I may pop some stuff in the washer later as it't a lovely drying day !

 

Could have knocked me down with a feather...

Where I am living now, OBC spent much of his misspent youth.. When he called to see if I was available for a pint (and why should I not be), he said he'd show me a place that was walking distance from where I live.

Indeed it was and as we got out the EFPV, I spotted this girl I thought I recognised.  A little older, a bit heavier, but I was sure it was her.  She looked at me in the same quizzical way.  It was indeed a very old friend I've not seen for at least ten years, Julie "Savoy cabbage" (you really don't want to know about the nickname...

There are some people we get on with as we sail through our  lives and there are those who make an impression which lasts.  Julie did that with me all those years ago.  A more loyal, hardworking person you could wish to find and when it comes to character...

Now I have to tell you, I am not a huggy, kissy person, but my joy at seeing old Savoy, was untenured, big hugs etc.  OBC was a bit surprised at me hugging what he believed to be a complete stranger on a pub car park we'd never been to before.

I am cock a hoop at making contact with Julie agan after so many years and the nice thing was, the pub we met in which is a hop and a skip from where I live.  It's a proper down to earth Black Country pub, just the sort I like (apart from the screaming sprogs running about).

Jule's is also workng in one of the town's better and iconic pubs, the Red Lion in Park Street, a muffled cough's distance from where I had my cappuccino this morning.

Savoy's the sort of wench you could trust to run anything for you and have it done properly.  If I had to categorise her, she's in the same league as Bob the Butcher.  No edge, and 24 carat.

When I got up this morning, I had a lot to get through.  After yesterday's problems with my neck, I wasn't looking forward to what my day would bring.  Hit Tesco at 7am, then a doc's appointment at 11,

Wasn't too impressed with the doc I saw. No idea where Dr. K was, like all my GP's beginning with McBark, she's been fantastic.  Kim Portlock was a loss to the Midlands when she went back to Yorkshire, our loss their gain.

The doc this morning just seemed to want to get me out of her surgery ASAP, yet it was quiet in the waiting room.  Fortunately, I wasn't looking for too much from her.  Every so often, you have to go in or else they won't renew your prescription and I needed some more diabetic stuff, since the specialist at the hospital increased a dosage of one of my pills.  Was glad to get out of there to be honest.

You know, it's strange...  This move has been such a turn in life.

Silly stuff like not having to use spanners to turn on the bath taps, a warmer place that takes ten minutes to vacuum throughout, nice sunsets because the lounge faces west and bumping into people like "Savoy".

And I'm getting an average 12 Mb ps download speeds on my interweb.  Wondering if it gets any better ?

As I said to Savoy today, A job would be nice...

Once is enough

Three times last night the welder sent me the same e mail with pics attached.  I thought he was losing it (more than usual).

After I chewed him out in a reply, he lamely responded "it said it day goo"...

Anyhow, here's the best of the ones he sent.  Note his clean plate !  And do you think he's looking a bit underfed ?  (you certainly wouldn't want to feed him for a week).

 

Our weather's gone cool and dull again after a couple of glorious days.

I get some lovely sunsets here and managed to capture one of them last week.

That tree by the way is almost in full leaf now, just a few days later.  And below is the view up the street.  Doesn't look that chavvy does it ?

Still amused by what my neice Katherine said about chav standing for council houses and violence followed by my sister's response "well we grew up in a council house and we're not violent".  No, these days, she's posh, her last house had a tennis court and a swimming pool.

I have to tidy up a bit, Darlo's coming round at lunchtime and my kistchen floor is a mess !  Don't want her to see her in all me muck (as my mother often used to say if we had visitors due).

Fried what ?

Today I had my appointment with Jenny, my weight loss "coach".  I knew I had lost a considerable amount since the last time I saw her in mid January, but was delighted to see it was six whole kilos (13.2 lbs).

On the way back home, walking through the market, I saw this.  Fried what  ?

We had a few nice sunny days and I put some of the carnies out on the balcony to lap it up.  Got to come inside tonight as there may be a frost.

And as usual in the UK, the nice weather only lasts a couple of days.  By Wednesday it will be cold and wet.  Why Brits didn't evolve with webbed feet, I will never know.

A sterling effort by all concerned

I got a text at about 4:30 this morning saying the new Kils n Kins magazines would be delivered to the Wheatsheaf between 9 and 10 this morning.  Despite the fact it woke me, I didn't forward it to Jan and Big Joe, I waited til a more gentle time to hassle someone.  4100 copies take some unloading, good job Joe's young and strong as an ox.

Met up with April, David and Graham tonight and with Jan and Joe, we had a production line to stuff envelopes, put address labels on and then stamp em up for posting.

We had the member's copies out in just over an hour between us and I saw great team effort.  

I've thrown so many teddies out the pram in the past month or so, I've none left to cuddle during my long and lonely nights.

April and I are forming an alliance which really spells out if you want to be on the committee, look upon it as an ocean liner, but be crew, not a passenger !

Speaking personally, I said once I got settled with it, I would make this issue visually better than the last one and 4:30 am texts aside, our printers have done a brilliant job.  The mag is published on 130 gm glossy paper (considering it is distributed free to pubs in the area).  

A couple of years back, It still looked like a school newsletter sent out on heavyweight coloured paper, but black print only.  Don't get me wrong, it was still a highly respected publication, snapped up in pubs throughout the area.  I used to send it to beer fans in the US, so when Jean took over (before me), she did quite a bit of stick shaking and moved the publication up several notches, which included colour printing on decent paper.

On my behalf, April has read the riot act concerning participation and it reads, put the fucking beer glass down for a minute and think about the big picture for more than three seconds !

Like many things I do, there's a great deal of pride involved (something I was once censured for by a very successful twat twenty years ago in a job interview, who later hit the wall at about a thousand miles an hour).

Pride is not a sin, it is something missing in today's so called fast paced world.  Making a curry, producing a magazine, or flying a jumbo jet and landing it safely.  Do the job properly, enjoy the experience once done, move on to the next project. Nothing wrong with taking a little pride in a job well done.

As the TV Meerkat says "Simple".

He's never right...

I have to be honest, that today was a chore...  Even though I made chicken and tomato curry yesterday (which was delicious, both from my point of view and Darlo's (who only had a fork full, but we told the Welder she'd taken a big portion away).  I was really tired today.

I popped to Tesco really early this morning, but getting out of bed was an effort.  my neck and back were really griping, but I found my "bombers" so took two of those and set about making a dry potato curry with methi leaf.  Boy, was I focused.  I gave it a taste when it had gone cold and you could tate all the individual spices which had gone into it, I'd say "piquant or what"...

BT engineer arrived this afternoon and I really didn't have a lot of confidence that my problems would be solved, but unlike the other day when the two sub contracter lads went away, despite their assurances, in the back of my mind I felt they were beating a hasty retreat.

This guy today was very switched on.  BT do tend to train their people well.  When I had them as my ISP I had techie discussions with their people on the phone and once they know they are talking to someone who has a basic grasp of how the interweb works, they seem to blossom, because they feel refreshed being able to use words like "ping" and "FTP" and realise the person the other end knows what the fuck they are on about.

My bloke today, had the landline on in less than half an hour.  He then explained the protocol how once he signs his job off, it would update to Sky (the company not the blue stuff over our heads) and I should have some boradband soon.

I was a bit downhearted.  We powered up the "mo down" just for the hell of it, but the internet synch light was not lit.  He left, I phoned Darlo, then I phoned Sky, then my phone rang and my first incoming caller was "Wireless Tone" just back from four weeks working at  Toyota in France.

He was quite chuffed being my first caller.  Then I got a call from the Chalk Master who wanted to be my first caller.  Left him in tears when he realised he'd been pipped at the post.

After that, I decided to tune the Nokia to the SSID coming from the wireless "mo down" and was a bit surprised when I keyed in a fresh interweb site (not one stored in the cache memory) and it worked.  This suggested to me the interweb was connected, despite the fact Mr. BT and Sky had told me not to expect anything til at least mid afternoon tomorrow.

I powered up the lapdog and did the same test and can confirm that up to 11pm this eveningI have a connection I shouldn't really have.  But do remember, the bloke downstairs lost a phone line and then got mine.  Maybe I gained a phone line and got his interweb connection.  So I am not dancing in the streets yet.

Could have done with a kip mid afternoon, but I'd a kitchen floor to mop, a lounge to vaccuum and some chicken tikka to cook.  

The hungry troops arrived at half seven.  Irene had a housewarming present, I LOVE presents by the way and this one was so needed.  My cheap six quid Asda duvet was ripped and shredded and beginning to smell a bit.  Irene handed me a big bag with a lovely new duvet and a nice "masculine" stripey cover, which she and Pat then proceeded to put on the said duvet and now I have something nice and clean and new to sleep under tonight.  In fact, after a few cans of Stella will I get up at 6 in the morning ?

I also managed to rescue a portion of each of the curries for Bob the Butcher in the morning, because to paraphrase Mae West, "look after your butcher because one day he will look after you".

I shall have to post the pictures later, as I need to have the big puter on to transfer them from an XD card.  We let Dalek Sam have a run round and he exterminated everyone.  Wally loves his stuffed Homer Simpson toy I got him for his birthday.  We've all done a lot of laughing, everyone had a nice time and despite my opening comment about being too tired to be in the mood, you really don't get a choice with that nutter.  Really enjoyable evening and an interweb connection still on too !

Amusingly, Irene who kept saying "they're not real" when referring to Daleks, seemed to garner the attention of Sam most of all and was exterminated many times  (he has a heat sensor in his Dalekanium casing and it locks on to humanoids for more accurate extermiantion).  Welder got off light.