February 21st 2014

 

I've often thought watching rugby is like trying to herd cats. Quite brilliant but ultimately something that is unfathomable. And so it was, that I sat down tonight to a farrago of feline husbandry in the Wales v France Six Nations tournament. A superb 27-6 win by the Welsh dragons added to my enjoyment of a rare evening on my own. I wonder what ladies do on their own? Possibly something involving bathing in scented water, face packs and slices of cucumber. Chaps on the other hand tend to envelope the sofa, drink alcoholic beverage and watch sport or Dave on TV. I enjoyed last night encircling the sofa, scrambled egg on toast dribbling down my vest and a pint of tea. Ahh, that's it, tea is not an alcoholic beverage - that's why I think cat herding is a six nations event. The penny drops.

 

Down there, the cats down there

 

Quick, that's cats got it's claws out

 

Quick, run to the hills, the moggy's loose

February 20th 2014

As I sat outside a street cafe at lunchtime I mused on the fact that this is the first time since Christmas Day I have ventured out for an alfresco lunch. Of late, incessant rain and wind have curtailed all thoughts of fresh air over the noon yardarm, but today with the clouds parted and the sun shining I partook of street cafe culture and downed a Fenteman's Victorian Lemonade. I love lemonade, quite possibly a throwback to my grandfather who was tee-total almost all of his life but liked a glass of ice-cream and lemonade from his friend Joe Frankie, who ran Frankies Italian Ice-Cream Parlour in South Shields. My father too loves this cocktail on a hot summer's day, whereas I prefer to eject the frozen cows milk and just luxuriate in the zest of a lemon sizzle.

If I'd done this four hours earlier mind you I'd have been moist in the extreme. I parked up after driving into work enjoying the sunrise, stepped out of the car and a Biblical deluge hurled itself out of the sky for 5 minutes. Taking shelter in the porch way of Clifton's Cathedral I watch this water spout erupt as if God himself had turned on the Holy Water tap. Dry to deluge to dry in 5 minutes. Blink and you'd miss it.

February 19th 2014

 

I'm going to a lot of these leaving functions these days, all part of the passage of time in a working career. Today it was the turn of Alan Baker, the outgoing Media Manager for BBC Information & Archives Television Services -  or as I first knew him in 1993 the Natural History Unit Film Librarian. Alan was the first ever person I met at the BBC as he interviewed me for a job in Bristol in October 1993. I worked for Alan for 7 years until I moved over into the BBC management area. Tonight after 24 years Alan leaves the BBC for pastures new, probably back in his native Scotland at some point in the not too distant future.

 

It was a lovely send off with staff old and new there to wish him well which was a good time to catch up with old colleagues. The above photograph is the moment Dave Cox in black unveiled a mock up Radio Times from the week Alan began at the BBC (the original cover was Jason Donovan). This went down very well with the watching crowd. So that's the end of an era. With the departure of Alan there is nobody left at the BBC who was there when I arrived and who has either not left, or left and returned. It seems strange to be becoming an elder staff member. I arrived at a time before e-mail, before computer terminals, before DVD and a time which seems like a foreign land now. How have I become this relic from an era that now seems as far away as Victorian England?

February 18th 2014

 

Today was a consultancy day for Julie at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford. The letter from the hospital said parking was a problem there so we elected to come into the city from the Thornhill Park and Ride off the A40. The 800 bus service. As we go off the bus I noticed we had alighted at the West Wing. I'm hoping the madcap comedy of that series did not await us and I was right. Excellent chat to the surgeon and a sense of calm, if not relief, to a difficult situation.  As we left it gave me time to take a few images from the hospital as we'll be back here in the summer.  A view across the suburb of Haddington and also the wonderful claw prints along the hospital corridors which meant we didn't get too lost, though we did a bit!

 

February 17th 2014

I watched a repeat of Sir Tony Robinson walking from the Scottish Borders to Lindisfarne during his Walking Through History programme tonight. Such a wonderful programme to remind me of my homelands. He stopped at the River Tweed to do a spot of fishing for salmon and this reminded me that in April I shall have a first go at fly fishing on one of the Hampshire chalk streams. Its over 30 years since I last fished on the River Coquet so it will be interesting to see how I get on flicking the fly over the water. Maybe I too will be proficient enough to flyfish the Tweed..... hum maybe J.R.R. Hartley will spin in his grave first.

February 16th 2014

As we'd say in the North East 'proper bread'. This is a Hobbs wholemeal loaf bought yesterday at the farm shop. It was lovely to break into it for breakfast, toasted and warm, spread with butter and extra fruit conserve. A cup of tea. A wonderful way to begin a day as the sun shone into the kitchen window.

February 15th 2014

 

We headed off to Planks Farm shop café for the third Saturday in the row today. The endless string of storms this week gave over to a clear sunlit day in Wiltshire. The images however do not convey the wind that still blew across these vast landscapes of middle England. The gale last night peaked at 2am and I listened to all of it. It was like an express train through the trees in the garden. Much calmer at day break but still very windy. As we drove along the road if we hit any flood water the wind whipped the spray up and over the car, which gave me the idea for the above photograph (obviously I wasn't driving). So much rain has fallen this winter in Southern England its no surprise even up here on the high chalk-lands that the landscape is flooded. It will take many weeks to dry out.