mashoo
2010-01-01 - ????-??-??
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it's mighty cold in this house; the heating hasn't worked since we returned from london; and the nights are getting colder; -6c is expected on sunday night, as i think it was last night;

last night was my first of this cold scenario in my old blue sleeping bag, the one i used in the field competition; i expected to need my 9-tog duvet on top of that, but i did not; very cosy, despite that mouldy experience it had in the cellar, long ago;

today i baked pasties and bread; the pasties were the smallest i have made, and i rolled each piece in isolation; they came out very well, though the beetroot is past its best; i made sure to give the lentils and split peas a good hard boil before a simmer, because the split peas would not soften last time;

i am taking care not to poison myself or become otherwise sick; feeling ill in this cold would be shitty, maybe literally

2010-01-01T17:01:01Z
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some days after i had recorded it from film four, i showed `slither' (2006) to ma and pa last night; it was really good; ma didn't make it to the end, confirming just now that it had got `just too horrendous'; but it was very strong, and had me laughing out loud on several occasions

2010-01-01T20:20:52Z
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my bedroom, church walk, tettenhall, wolverhampton

time approximate

2010-01-02T11:30:00Z
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bridgnorth station (severn valley railway)

2010-01-02T11:56:00Z
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i had been ready for the agreed 11:20 start time, but pa's pheasant sandwiches delayed our departure; as we crept along the road to bridgnorth, behind a convoy of weather-wary motorists, our only hope was that there might be a parking space near the side entrance to the station; we arrived at about 11:54 for the 12:03 train, and there was a space

2010-01-02T11:56:02Z
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bridgnorth station (severn valley railway)

2010-01-02T12:03:00Z
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having waved to them, jean looks down upon a protracted group of walkers on the field between the railway and the river

2010-01-02T12:36:52Z
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bewdley station (severn valley railway)

time approximate

2010-01-02T13:00:00Z
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gulls on a sunny bewdley rooftop

2010-01-02T13:42:16Z
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gargoyle tree in front of the gull house

2010-01-02T13:42:58Z
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we walked alongside the river, noting the submerged stairways that descended the edge and the gulls that floated backward downstream, until we reached the cock and magpie; there was jennings cocker hoop, but ma and pa chose brakspear oxford gold, which smelled good, but was fizzy;

when we left and turned the corner to take the steps up onto the street, there was a tiny, well-wrapped girl by the wall outside the chippy, with a little dog at her feet; she looked at me serenely and warmly, and kept looking until i disappeared; a very christmassy experience

2010-01-02T13:45:00Z
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jean at the top of the climb to stalingrad - i mean bewdley - station

2010-01-02T14:57:28Z
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ma and i stepped into a fullish waiting room for a bit of warm; three couples on three sides conversed with a rotund, healthy fellow who sat to the right of the fire; he reminded me of adrian chiles; someone asked whether the railway might be extended; his reply was essentially that the areas where lines used to go are now housing estates, except for the tenbury wells line, which now lacks a bridge; the remains of that bridge are visible just minutes out of bewdley in the bridgnorth direction, the bridge having been dismantled in 1970

2010-01-02T14:57:40Z
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bewdley station (severn valley railway)

2010-01-02T15:10:00Z
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position (lat,long)
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after years of secrecy, pa finally revealed to me that `hampton loade' is much more humorous than i had bothered to imagine; `hampton' turns out to be cockney rhyming slang for the male member (`hampton wick' is a suburb of london), so a `hampton loade' might be what issues from a hampton

2010-01-02T15:55:00Z
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bridgnorth station (severn valley railway)

time unknown

2010-01-02T16:10:00Z
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position (lat,long)
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my bedroom, church walk, tettenhall, wolverhampton

time unknown

2010-01-02T16:40:00Z
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position (lat,long)
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i went shopping on saturday (4 days ago) to buy stuff for a vege shepherd's pie; the ground was slippery with melting snow; again, i did not enjoy the atmosphere; but the hot blonde paying at the checkout next to mine at sainsbury's had a passionate look about her, when she caught my eye; all in black, under a floppy black beret; i had enjoyed the shape of her jeans, when i had walked behind her down an aisle; tidy, but full;

after asda, where i found veg but not the usual enormous bag of bird seed, i walked through west park; near the end, a petite indian dolly overtook me, wearing a bright pink belt and numerous other colourful ornaments; quite a pretty sight;

lower green was even busier than when i had walked past it on my way to town; i had thought to take a photograph then, but i could not see a good angle; there hadn't been much sun on the scene; reaching the sunny bits would have meant getting an awful lot closer, and i had shopping to do; anyway, there were myriad snow-faring vessels, including a conspicuous kayak;

it's been snowing again, though lightly; the view from my window is quite covered;

after days of not remembering anything from my sleep, this morning i do remember something, and that the something had a context, with one or more other somethings that elude me now; the something was a picture of a bare, fallen, burning tree in a broad, empty field; at one point, i could see 3 of these pictures at once, and the images were moving in real time, such that i could see the flames at work; i think i was passing through these objects, pictures and whatever else there was; they seemed to be floating

2010-01-13T10:59:48Z
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dylis at her birthday gathering (at y cadno); michael, john and megan in the background (mum's pic; i wasn't there)

2010-01-16T13:24:32Z
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two mornings ago (i was going to say three, but my note says otherwise), i had what seemed to be a repeat of a recent dream; in a tall hotel or something like it, i was accompanied by an old lift guy and one other chap; i think there had already been a lift journey in another shaft; and now we had reached the bottom of this shaft, and were crossing from the open-topped lift on one side of the shaft to the bare frame of a lift on the other; we then began to rise to the top; i didn't fancy the whole journey, so extracted myself from the dream and woke;

the next day (it feels longer ago than yesterday), i dreamed of being among families, in a succession of council houses; i forget the bulk of the dream, but at the end i conveyed some warmth to the bare-armed father of the last household, as i said goodbye at the front door; there were some small trees nearby, and a tower block to my left; the man didn't look at me as i slapped him on the shoulders; we were not close; but i liked the feeling of family;

i recall two parts of this morning's dream; in the first, i was visiting a children's ward at a hospital with broad, grassy views; i don't know why i was there, but soon garrant jones was there too; perhaps other schoolmates were nearby, and maybe other significant persons; and that's all i can remember now;

later, i was walking into town, along the left hand side of tettenhall road; a baby had been abandoned in a cradle on the pavement; i picked it up and took it to find help; i entered a building and followed a woman up a dark, narrow flight of stairs to a dirty flat; and then i think we phoned for someone to look after the baby

2010-01-22T10:00:20Z
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some great dreaming this morning; mostly outdoors, and ending in a shop;

quite a lot happened on the south side of the lane the cottage is on, just to the west of dyffryn; i have been there a lot in dreams; there and around the farm; here i recall a path alongside the road; walking along it from west to east; frost and snow; sheep and tiny lambs going the other way; just a short walk, perhaps from where we (whoever we were) had camped, to a gate, just short of the farm; inside the field was a small, fenced enclosure, with a few items inside it, and a couple of insignificant puddles; insignificant, but nonetheless kate humble contrived to strip to her undies and jump into one, up to her neck in chilly water; i think i fancied doing likewise;

in another segment, i was on a blanket in a sloping field surrounded by trees; hywel rees was there; were we having a picnic? anyway, the sunlight was warm and comforting;

there was something else, nearby in the woods, where we (five or so of us) had rifles and were firing at a well-equipped invading force; but i don't remember much about it; except that one part, descending around a stream, was quite bright and airy, despite the trees;

the last scene i remember was a long, timbered shop, which reminds me a bit of the way the fountain in lower gornal stretches backward; a warm morning; it seemed to be a shop (there was certainly a lot of light coming from the front, and there was an impression of a busy street outside), but it was laid out like a dormitory, with beautiful young women in beds along both sides, waking with flushed faces after a lie-in

2010-01-23T11:17:22Z
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rainbow that seemed just red

2010-01-24T16:27:40Z
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my bedroom, church walk, tettenhall, wolverhampton

2010-01-25T05:20:00Z
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wolverhampton station

2010-01-25T06:00:00Z
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wolverhampton station

2010-01-25T06:13:00Z
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shrewsbury station

2010-01-25T07:00:00Z
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shrewsbury station

2010-01-25T07:19:00Z
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a load of schoolkids got on at ludlow; i recognised this from a previous journey; i must have taken this train before; and then some more boarded at leominster; many of them were forced to stand; i thought to free the seat my rucksack and snooker cue were occupying, but it wasn't far to hereford, and none of the standers seemed keen to find a seat, so i did not bother; if i had, i have a feeling that the fabulous girl with the art portfolio might have sat there; something kept drawing her toward me, even when she had taken the seat on the other side of the aisle, next to the dumpy, jumpy student who had boarded the previous train at wellington, destined for cardiff;

the arty girl appeared to be an oriental mix; a bleak face and glasses; usually not an attractive combination, but there was something beneath; she was slightly tall, upright and nervous; the distant stranger type; emotion inside; there was one facial feature though; ample, protruding lips; she was gorgeous;

when i was not enjoying her, i looked beyond, to the gently falling valley in the east; the view of trees and small fields faded into a bright mist; it was very photogenic, but my camera could not have done it justice, so it remained in its case

2010-01-25T08:26:00Z
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a brunette with a face like seven of nine gets on at newport

2010-01-25T09:01:00Z
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cardiff central station

2010-01-25T09:15:00Z
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cardiff central station

2010-01-25T09:22:00Z
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heol-y-deri, cardiff

time unknown

2010-01-25T09:40:00Z
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the day before, gran and gramps had returned from llandough sooner than ever before; there had been relatively few other patients in attendance, and the tests went quickly and with good results; they intruded on my chinese kitchen in the middle of a soup similar to the swede one i had made before; this one was spicier, with sealed tofu, more ginger and pak choi; i had never used that last ingredient before;

in the afternoon, i tried out the old cue against first gramps and then fred twice; i didn't accumulate as many points as i might have done, since i always try to play good positional shots; fred enjoyed the session, as did i

2010-01-27T08:50:00Z
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forest farm hide

time approximate

2010-01-27T14:40:00Z
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tall trees over the canal

2010-01-27T14:54:36Z
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trevor and brenda view a kingfisher through their binoculars; the bird was working its way up the canal ahead of us, resting on a low branch when it had gone sufficiently far, and then starting again as we approached

2010-01-27T15:07:46Z
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heol-y-deri, cardiff

time unknown

2010-01-27T15:50:00Z
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in the garden this morning, there had been the beautiful grey wagtail, bobbing on the edge of the bird bath, the female blackcap and a wren, as well as the usual goldfinches and whatnot;

at the canal, we turned toward the hides by the lock, despite gramps' preference for the usual order; some food had been put out by the river; a nuthatch and a song thrush were among the diners;

five or six twitchers with cameras with long lenses occupied the left part of the first hide; there had been a bittern about, they said; to the right, i was introduced to a reed bunting eating seed on the grass, using gran's binoculars for a closer look;

from the second hide, we got a long look at a heron, but didn't stay long

2010-01-27T16:04:00Z
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in my dream, i was serving at a large country house; i received a message from a second such house, and was soon in attendance there; ma, pa, john and paul were among the diners in a bright, lavish room; i think this was the main house of the local group; a third house bore the name wellington, i think;

a nearby river, broad and deep and reminiscent of the usk or the wye, featured many canoes; many of them were kayaks, with teenage boys lying on top of them and hurtling downstream, head-first and blindfold; they were barely missing each other;

and then i was giving sharron davies or someone like her a shoulder ride across the river, the current coming from my right and the bank upon which the houses stood (albeit out of sight) ahead of me

2010-01-28T08:57:00Z
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last night, after 2300, i heard that speaking clock on hf; i don't remember exactly what it is, but i recognised the sound from some online enquiry last year; `canada' was in the ident, but the words were difficult to make out; the frequency was about 3.4 mhz; and then, for the first time in memory, i encountered radio croatia on about 4 mhz, on the day that marin cilic had been beaten by andrew murray `of the uk'

on one of these early evenings, probably today or the day before, i heard a pirate radio station on about 3.9 mhz; i suppose it was radio jan van gent, but there was too much noise to be sure; some kind of oompah music, and then a mixture of rock

2010-01-29T14:33:00Z
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mars, the moon and a telegraph pole, from the footbridge at rhiwbina station; on another side of the sky was jupiter

2010-01-29T17:27:04Z
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photography
mt1
when gramps declared that he was going out for a walk, i asked whether i might join him, suggesting cae delyn park as the place to go; i fancied a broad field under that cold, clear sky; gramps agreed, and we enjoyed a good, brisk walk;

we took the anti-clockwise route around the park; at the far end of the straight by the railway, i mentioned to gramps that i had gone outside to look at the stars with a couple of other boys during my second year at school; orion and auriga and all that, with russell williams and gary evans; good times at the back of alway house;

we rested on the footbridge on our way back, enjoying the lean legs of a young woman down on the platform; she was carrying what could have been a tenor horn case;

as i walked back up the drive, it was just dark enough to make out orion across val's garden; i instantly recalled my experience with the other val, cousin val, when, barefoot outside the front door, i had introduced her to orion in early 1999;

back in america, she had later dreamed of being among the stars with one of her friends and me

2010-01-29T17:55:00Z
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heol-y-deri, cardiff

2010-01-30T06:30:00Z
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cardiff central station

2010-01-30T06:45:00Z
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mars and the moon from platform 0 at cardiff central station

2010-01-30T06:47:50Z
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cardiff central station

2010-01-30T07:00:00Z
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bristol temple meads; it must be 08:00, because the `conductor' just called this the 0800 service, and we're already moving;

i hate saturdays; i always did; watching people spend their spare time slobbing around without rhyme or reason really makes one wonder what it's all about

i didn't like the atmosphere of this train, but the world outside it looked spectacular; and the fellow beardy with the orange rucksack seemed quite nice

2010-01-30T07:58:00Z
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`anything from the trolley at all?'

this fellow had previously made an announcement by electrical means that he would be unable to accept payment by credit card; it was amusing to hear his pronunciation of `payment method'; `payment methrd'; or was it `payment mefrd'? the fastidious `conductor' was also from the south-west

2010-01-30T08:49:00Z
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my camera reflected in the window on the train; sun, trees and cold fields beyond

2010-01-30T08:57:52Z
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wolverhampton station

2010-01-30T09:49:00Z
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sainsbury's, wolverhampton

receipt time; ingredients for chinese scran (the quickest thing to cook)

2010-01-30T10:20:43Z
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rosemary's, wolverhampton

receipt time; pineapple chews

2010-01-30T10:31:00Z
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this walk home was glorious; i had felt like running on a few recent occasions, including the cae delyn walk with gramps, and now i felt the urge again; i only walked in the end, but it still felt good; the weather was perfect; one rough but bright chap engaged me in brief conversation about the cold; i said that it felt warmer to me

2010-01-30T10:50:00Z
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my bedroom, church walk, tettenhall, wolverhampton

time unknown

2010-01-30T11:15:00Z
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mt4
i thought of imbolc when i saw the date on my computer this morning, and looked it up; some of its traditions are reminiscent of `groundhog day'; jessica's birthday is the southern hemisphere equivalent (the first or the second of the month);

in celtic tradition, the winter hag uses this day to collect firewood for the rest of the winter; if the weather be fine, she will collect a lot of wood, and the winter will be long;

imbolc involves a lot of fire and candles and things; coincidentally, pa lit the woodburner this morning and set the smoke alarm off a couple of times;

anyway, i later phoned jessica to wish her a happy imbolc; she was surprised, and was further surprised at her birthday's relationship to the festival; having sent us that cool postcard featuring the holiday snaps of a teddy bear, she asked me to remind mum that she would be away in cornwall again between the 5th and 7th of march;

something made me think of imbolc at the bree louise at christmas; no-one remembered anything about it, though i'm sure jessica must have mentioned it to mum at least, when she phoned me about it at cheltenham

2010-02-01T18:44:00Z
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before i started to process my new photos yesterday, ma had asked that i order poster prints of the two weird pictures from my photography page;

while processing the new stuff, i realised that my `mars and moon' pic was going to turn out the same weird way; and so i processed it as optimally as i could, and then offered it to ma; she accepted;

after processing all the new pics, i re-processed and re-sized the weird old ones again, especially the roath park gulls one, which now looks a lot better

2010-02-02T10:17:14Z
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two days ago, i broke my hibernation for a brief walk-cum-jog; my legs have felt sore since, but i'm glad i made the effort; today, i ventured out twice, once after breakfast and again after lunch; running only in short spells; the afternoon was easier than the morning

2010-02-07T17:31:00Z
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i've been noticing a lot of coincidences over the last few days; like toby's photographs of a kite-boarder after i saw the same thing happening on upper green yesterday (minus water and board); just now, i was looking at 2007-11-19 on my blog, and came across a mention of calvin klein, whose perfume advertisement is upturned on the back of a magazine downstairs; that's not the greatest of these coincidences, but it served to remind me that they have been numerous just lately

2010-02-09T10:25:33Z
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i was standing in the garden room just now, avoiding the beastly `midsomer murders' and checking on the woodburner, when a high and brilliant mars lured me outdoors; as i emerged, mars was not the only good-looking thing on show; all the old stars were there; visibility was not perfect, but well above average for the here and now; it was not too cold, but i didn't stay long anyway;

more upper green today; this morning, having passed the cricket ground littered with fieldfares and redwings, i reached the far end of the green, and found myself watching a whirl of starlings and some smaller birds which i didn't recognise; quite a sight;

i just looked up `very annie mary', which we watched and laughed at last week; so she's an australian, and she's been in a few famous australian titles, as well as `cosi', which we watched at some time in the last few years

2010-02-09T20:01:36Z
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after a bout of food poisoning yesterday, during which it lightly snowed, i woke not long ago, dumped and descended to refill my glass with water; pa had lit the woodburner; i fed it and closed the bottom vent; pa donned his heavy coat and popped some pills, while i returned to bed;

i didn't stay there for long, because i discovered that laser hot hits was on the air; and at 0711Z it provided today's first coincidence; `gypsy woman' was being played; that's one of the songs from james' car, at the beginning of the reading 1994 video; i had been thinking of that recording, with a view to digitising the vhs sometime soon;

by the way, there was another calvin klein reference the other day, right at the end; he turned up in `family guy', when they were in new york

2010-02-11T07:26:15Z
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in this morning's dream, i spent some time on the top floor of a tall building, with some strangers i recognised; it wasn't the kind of shaky building i dreamed of years ago; it was quite secure, but leaning slightly; not a very edifying location; in america, i think; i caught most of the x-men on channel 4 last night; perhaps the statue of liberty sequence inspired my dream;

there was some cracking international rugby over the weekend; wales made a freak come-back against scotland at the millennium; and then france tore up a strong but malfunctioning ireland at stade de france; italy were within points of overhauling england's modest total in rome yesterday, but the visitors held on for their `2 from 2';

the laser hot hits guy this morning mentioned that his favourite american dance radio station had been replaced by r&b (does that stand for `rub & bish'?); listening to the cool tune he had just been playing, i was already thinking what a shame it was that we don't hear such good stuff today;

i made myself laugh the other day, in telling ma and pa that i had just replaced the piece of tissue pa had shoved into a broken pane in my window about seven years ago; quite a draught had been coming through the gap, so i replaced the tissue with gaffer tape; next, i would like to drill a hole in the frame, so that i might run my feeder through it, instead of closing the window on the feeder; that should prevent another draught; i could have done with this sort of thinking before our annual central heating outage, but perhaps it will yet prove useful;

that use of the word `draught' reminds me of something gramps reminded me of, last time; as a teacher, he used to entertain his children with a role-play, in which various foreign characters would attempt a word like `though', based on the pronunciation of `thought'; and then there would be `rough', and so on; i can't remember the exact details of the routine, but the kids used to love it

2010-02-15T07:54:32Z
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at 12-something today, i set out to replenish our tamarind sauce supply; there was enough left in the old bottle to help me out with one of my rather plain pasties, but a second pasty would have been very tiring without more sauce; i was also going to pick up some rail tickets for an overnight trip to cardiff to collect gran and gramps' redundant vcr; and then ma asked me to pay in a cheque; pa hadn't realised a third party could do this, and i offered to pay in his too; so it became quite a full trip;

as i crossed the little slip road between the bus station and lichfield street, i spotted a little darling walking the other way; a student, i suppose; greek or turkish or something like that; shortish, with a shiny face; very alive; we exchanged a sweet glance

2010-02-16T16:02:18Z
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mt4
we just watched `local hero' for the first time; good stuff

2010-02-16T21:55:43Z
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my bedroom, church walk, tettenhall, wolverhampton

2010-02-18T05:18:00Z
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position (lat,long)
mt4
wolverhampton station

2010-02-18T06:00:00Z
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position (lat,long)
mt4
wolverhampton station

2010-02-18T06:13:00Z
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position (lat,long)
mt4
i woke at about 03:30 from a dream which ended with a large blue box like a portacabin falling from a tall crane at the top of queen street; the crane had been raising and lowering two such boxes in alternation, and i was watching them from a raised area in the castle grounds (though no castle was evident and i was quite distant from the action); it was summer and i was with someone (or ones); i suppose the crane ride was a fairground attraction; perhaps the other box was red, like the pills in `the matrix'; when the chain broke and the blue box hit the ground, it broke into about 8 pieces; silence fell, before a young person's voice carried across the balmy air; not much of an omen for my train journey;

half an hour ahead of the alarm clock, i descended to check the woodburner; the significant remains of two logs glowed; winding down the fire in the hours before bed and then feeding it at the end had worked, at least somewhat; i opened the valves to stimulate the flame, ate porridge, waterproofed myself, re-closed the valves and then set off; i am waterproof, but ironically given the weather warnings, both this morning's wolvo walk and tomorrow's cardiff equivalent were forecast to be dry;

my walk was characterised by a thick, cool mist lit by streetlamps and perforated by birdsong; a few of us boarded at wolvo station, including a man who looked a bit like thulsa doom, just before he turned into a snake;

it seems that personal sound systems are becoming more public; someone nearby is occasionally playing shitty r&b; that resonates with two recent experiences of angry young men, both white, walking along with a scowl and some tinny rendition emanating from their persons; one was during my ascent through the churchyard in my running week; the other was on my way to town two days ago;

through wellington now; my camera says 06:49; by the way, the carriage is one of those with the window frames over-hanging the armrests, making them unusable

2010-02-18T06:13:20Z
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mt4
shrewsbury station

2010-02-18T07:00:00Z
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mt4
shrewsbury station

2010-02-18T07:19:00Z
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position (lat,long)
mt4
snow and fog on caer caradoc hill

2010-02-18T07:31:00Z
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mt4
a food trolley crashes along the carriage

2010-02-18T07:32:00Z
0000961b
no label
mt4
there is a large man in the reserved seat next to mine, so i elected to take one of the spares nearby

2010-02-18T07:35:00Z
0000961c
no label
mt4
look up fortified house and pond before sewage plant, on map if nothing else; pond looks good for ducking

2010-02-18T07:37:00Z
0000961d
no label
mt4
cardiff central station

time approximate

2010-02-18T09:15:00Z
0000961e
position (lat,long)
mt4
cardiff central station

2010-02-18T09:22:00Z
0000961f
position (lat,long)
mt4
heol-y-deri, cardiff

time approximate

2010-02-18T09:40:00Z
00009620
position (lat,long)
mt4
heol-y-deri, cardiff

2010-02-19T02:57:00Z
00009621
position (lat,long)
mt4
gabalfa junction

2010-02-19T03:30:00Z
00009622
position (lat,long)
mt4
cardiff castle

the chimes sound

2010-02-19T04:00:00Z
00009623
position (lat,long)
mt4
cardiff central station

time approximate; the train was there at platform 1, but it did not open until just before departure

2010-02-19T04:08:00Z
00009624
position (lat,long)
mt4
cardiff central station

2010-02-19T04:35:00Z
00009625
position (lat,long)
mt4
shrewsbury station

2010-02-19T06:44:00Z
00009626
position (lat,long)
mt4
shrewsbury station

2010-02-19T06:55:00Z
00009627
position (lat,long)
mt4
wolverhampton station

2010-02-19T07:34:00Z
00009628
position (lat,long)
mt4
my bedroom, church walk, tettenhall, wolverhampton

time unknown

2010-02-19T08:20:00Z
00009629
position (lat,long)
mt4
several days have passed since my cardiff trip, and i haven't felt right; i quite like the residual early-rising habit, but i have lacked energy; it's probably down to my hurty left hip, which is okay as long as i'm standing upright;

it was half-term when i took the train to cardiff, but i didn't miss the hereford totty; i was still full of the shiny girl of wolvo; the mysterious church stretton weather had descended into welsh drizzle by the time i reached my destination; gran blamed my arrival for the weather, and then gramps took her to darning class;

i had apricot jam on toast and played sibelius out of my book, and gramps had a shower, before he set out again to collect gran; and then i put my bread to work again, with gran's veggie soup with pasta in it;

i was unlikely to be fit for snooker in the evening, so gramps phoned mike to call it off; turned out gramps had forgotten that this was the weekend phil would be busy, so there would have been no play anyway;

i had brought some blank `dvd-r's, in case gramps' writer had the same trouble mine does at recognising them; it did not, so my writer must be faulty; anyway, i was glad to have the blank discs, because gran and gramps' upgrade to digital gave me an opportunity to compare my video capture setup at home to something more mainstream; i copied an old vhs recording of `bullitt' they had made onto one of the discs (at maximum quality), and then put aside both the disc and the tape to bring home for capture and comparison;

gran and gramps' new system made redundant not only their old vcr, but also a fairly recent dvd player; ma and pa wanted that for the north wing, so i packed that too;

we idled the evening away with curling and other winter olympic activities; i dozed; and then `mock the week', goodbyes and bed;

i woke at 02:30; out as quietly as i could manage; slipping occasionally on icy pavements; not a good time to be a courier; a clod in a taxi shouted something indistinct in my direction, just before gabalfa;

a gang of students photographed each other at the blackweir entrance to the talybont accommodation; another couple of students photographed them; there had been scottish lads eating out of paper at the previous entrance; and then some people waiting in a kebab shop; more students just before the colum road junction; it rather spoiled this early morning experience to be so intimate with the night before;

the tall crane in my dream became two tallish cranes over the music and drama college; a blue `crane safety' sign adorned the temporary wall along the pavement;

more people on saint mary's street; two lads inside the station; one on a bench in the middle of the platform; an unannounced inter-city arriving and eventually departing from platform 2; eventually, the train opened; i found my seat and my eyes closed;

i remained semi-conscious for the whole journey to shrewsbury; the sky was dark until craven arms, whereupon the eastern sky was populated with cloudy figures, close to the horizon; another bold shape emerged after church stretton; caer caradoc hill; this was the stopping train, by the way;

i wanted to pick up some oats on the way home, but i also wanted to just get home; so that's what i did; we have since run out of oats;

yesterday, ma and i replenished our supply of oats, along with a lot of other stuff, at asda and waitrose; there was no totty at waitrose, but at asda my eyes had met with those of another shortish darling, quite similar in facial clarity to the lichfield street one, but not as smiley; and in the cereal aisle an asian dolly in a red suit spun around and stared into my soul for a moment; she was the flaky-flirty type, but her skin was clean and her eyes were clear;

i had cut my fringe that morning; it had been getting in my eyes; i did it as manfully as possible, in one swoop; i might look like an escaped mental patient, but my fringe-free eyes will keep me saner;

i have spent a lot of time capturing and processing the recording nita (or whoever) had made of the school choir's appearance on highway in 1988; i am still trying to find the best way to save it to various formats, becoming somewhat acquainted with `avidemux' along the way; there are issues such as synchronisation and truncation to consider, but i'm getting there;

my own capture of the beginning of the `bullitt' recording compares most favourably with that of gran and gramps' new panasonic unit; in processing, i eventually achieved a sharper image, clean with good colour

2010-02-24T07:53:10Z
0000962a
no label
mt4
30

2010-02-28T13:37:40Z
0000962e
radio > tx > power (w)
mt4
on

2010-02-28T13:37:42Z
0000962d
radio > on/off
mt4
40m

2010-02-28T15:24:45Z
0000962f
radio > rx > frequency (mhz)
mt4
lsb

2010-02-28T15:24:45Z
00009630
radio > rx > mode
mt4
7.127059 (7.127)

2010-02-28T15:26:54Z
00009631
radio > rx > frequency (mhz)
mt4
cq g0vbc de mm0tss

2010-02-28T15:27:11Z
00009632
radio > rx > message
mt4
good signal, 55, good readable; could be our first successful 40m qso; last day of holiday; haven't had as much time as i might have done in the shack; mammoth cleaning in the shack yesterday; quite pleasant in here now; g0vbc de mm0tss

2010-02-28T15:27:50Z
00009633
radio > rx > message
mt4
g0vbc de mm0tss; glad most of the major work finished downstairs; reference in your blog to the north wing; you were talking about picking up a dvd as well as a video from cardiff; what time was the train?

2010-02-28T15:31:17Z
00009634
radio > rx > message
mt4
what possessed you to book that time of train?

2010-02-28T15:35:20Z
00009635
radio > rx > message
mt4
now what's that word? ... i think it begins with a `p'; ... parsimony, over

2010-02-28T15:35:25Z
00009636
radio > tx > message
mt4
i've got some of the early trains myself; you can be rewarded with some nice views; but at lunchtime it feels like it's time for bed; i got about a 04:30 train to fort william; tired at lunchtime; a couple of day trips; cumbrian railway on the first wednesday; `is that milk and sugar?'; i had to resist saying ``no, it's a cup of coffee'; interesting use of the language; not quite on a par with the `any more toast at all for you'; they make it more interesting for themselves if they construct peculiar sentences and forget that what they're saying doesn't mean anything; they probably repeat it all day long; i'm going to have to disappear; might be around for a dusk contact; mum's just got back; need to catch up; g0vbc de mm0tss

2010-02-28T15:35:37Z
00009637
radio > rx > message
mt4
cheers matthew; glad the contact held up throughout; nice to catch up on the radio; it's been ages; g0vbc de mm0tss; now clear and going qrt for a bit

2010-02-28T15:41:46Z
00009638
radio > rx > message
mt4
off

2010-02-28T15:42:30Z
00009639
radio > on/off
mt4
it's a cool blue morning; birdsong and a warm, even light on the still, naked trees;

we watched `the big chill' last night; part of film four's season of movies from the 80s; not my thing;

but i did enjoy petter northug's victory in the 50 kilometre classical when ma and pa had gone to bed (i had recorded it in case they wanted to watch something else); northug's tremendous charge in the 4 x 10 kilometre relay had made me interested in watching him go for gold in the final race of the games; what a machine;

yesterday i charged myself with the last of my aduki bean stew (which was quite good), before shifting the last of the logs from the path above the drive to the back of the back garden; this was ma's idea; she had found the previous batch of logs unsightly in their easy-to-store location beside the drive; the garden's new steps didn't help the exercise; i replaced the wheelbarrow with the green garden refuse bin and used that on the top level to transfer the heavy logs; the lighter logs would travel by air, thrown scrum-half-style from between my legs; it felt quite easy, but i'm a bit stiff today; my gammy left hip has prevented me from getting much exercise of late;

i have completed that antenna feeder job; i could not find an elegant route through the window frame, so i drilled a hole through the corner of the window and fed a piece of coax through it; hopefully that will reduce the draught;

the last outstanding tidbit (i think) is the squirrel's latest cute act; two days ago, there were some biscuits in a dish left over from the workmen the day before; i slung them into the garden; later, as i passed through the garden room, i spotted the squirrel collect the custard cream and shoot up the lime tree with it in his mouth; and there, on a private branch, he ate it (like a squirrel)

2010-03-01T08:04:38Z
0000962b
no label
mt4
damn; i thought i was recording; there was a cool coded message, some pirates, and then some american volmet on 6604 i hadn't heard before; all that after the plug had been pulled on laser hot hits in the middle of abba's `fernando';

laser hot hits was still playing and just about audible at midnight a couple of nights ago; and then quite strong last night at an earlier bedtime of just after 21:00Z; but the am signal was disturbed by loud morse code nearby; the morse was still there this morning, but a switch from am to ssb did the trick;

unca dave tells me he will be on a `desert island discs' show on `jazz91' on kcsm.org in two fridays time; 2010-03-12T17:00Z

2010-03-02T08:20:00Z
0000962c
no label
mt4
i just returned from a quick shopping trip into town; rosemary's, where i picked up a different toothpaste; holland and barrett, which didn't make the same eye health offers pa had noted online; and then sainsbury's, for lentils, cheap pearl barley, organic marjoram, oats and maple syrup; i'll make another aduki bean stew tomorrow;

as i passed west park hospital on my way in, a blonde baby caught sight of me over her father's shoulder; he turned, and i wished them both a good morning; she was smiling; as i marched ahead, he explained to her that i was santa; it didn't bother me that she was misinformed; she was happy and healthy, and had enjoyed meeting a smiling beardy man, so that was fine

2010-03-05T11:31:44Z
0000963b
no label
mt4
i was getting a bit tired of being imprisoned by my hip, so i took it out for a mild jog; it was okay; and aerobically it was easier than before; so i suppose that previous spell of running must have done more to condition me than i imagined; i hope i can do more; the outdoors feels so much better than here in this old box;

in order to test movies at 50 fps, i have belatedly set my monitor's refresh rate to 100 hz

2010-03-09T15:47:58Z
0000964c
no label
mt4
the stove was nearly out when i got to it after `lambing live' last evening, so i didn't expect it to be still in this morning, especially with all the unseasoned wood; and it wasn't; but what had dragged me out of bed to check (and to catch pa on the radio) was what was playing on laser hot hits; ``we didn't start the fire'' by billy joel; how could i resist?

2010-03-10T08:05:59Z
0000964d
no label
mt4
ma and i popped into the beacon at sedgley on the way to b&q today; i just had a fancy, as we neared the exit from the ring road; we tested the pale amber, in case we fancied a barrel for pa's birthday party, but it was too bitter for general consumption

2010-03-10T19:26:35Z
0000964f
no label
mt4
contents------
mashoo, g0vbc, my bedroom, church walk, tettenhall, wolverhampton, still photograph, movie clip