External Ideas

Christmas is approaching and the students have all gone way. This would mean that I could get on with some other things, if I had enough energy to do that... Had a meeting with Dave, the new external for a course at Doncaster that I sort of look after. I've known Dave a while, I once bowled him out in an inter university cricket match many many years ago. (I have an interesting bowling action - the technical name for what I do is apparently "throwing").

Anyhoo, we sorted out the external stuff and then started chatting about what we were up to know. Upshot was lots of neat ideas about web services, remote devices and all kinds of gizmos. I hope that at least some of them amount to something, we could have some serious fun if they do.....

MOT Monday

Another day, another MOT. This time it is the shiny car, and so I was not that worried. Apparently it needs new shoes fairly soon, the grooves on the front tyres are looking a little shallow. I offered to cut some new ones with my shiny swiss penknife, but this was not deemed acceptable.

Wine Wasps and Escalado

Number one daughter informed us that they were having a wine sale at one of the local shops. In a spirit of enquiry we went down there to investigate. We took the car, in case we needed something to carry our purchases back with us. As you do.

It took us a while to find the sale. In the end we just followed the sound of clinking bottles and shuffling. And got to a rack where a bunch of people were hovering, rather like wasps, around shelves covered with bottles of wine. At generous, nay ludicrous, discounts. People were taking their baskets back and fetching trolleys, whilst talking at the time on their mobile phones to their friends and urging them to come down and see for themselves.

Now I'm not much of a wine connoisseur. My habit of reading the percentage proof before any descriptions like "a light, fruity wine with a smooth finish" (whatever that means) ranks me as a bit of an amateur in this area. Cries of "Wahay, 13 percent!" do tend to reduce your credibility in this respect. But I do know what I like. And we managed to get 9 bottles and two boxes of it for around 30 quid. Which can't be bad. We don't usually drink a lot of wine. But, until now, we've never had a lot of wine to drink.......

In the afternoon we played Escalado. This is an ancient horse racing game which uses a vibrating strip of cloth to move models of horses from one end to another. Doesn't sound much like fun when put like that. But in real life it is a hoot. You see, you own one of the horses and you can bet on them. My animal, a fine black stallion with a handsome blue jockey on it was comprehensively thrashed in just about every race. Usually by the grey donkey owned by number one wife. At the end of the six races she had accumulated over 800 pounds worth of winnings. I had converted an initial purse of 200 pounds into 10. But it was fun.

Have a Table

Some new people have just moved into to our little neighbourhood. They came over to introduce themselves today. I offered them a table. I was just putting it into the car to take to the charity furniture shop and it occurred to me that, rather than do that I could let them have it.

Of course I failed to actually introduce myself properly. And so I will probably be henceforth know as "The man with the table". I hope that they don't think that it is some kind of local ritual, where new arrivals are offered a table when they arrive and have to respond with a folding chair or be forever ostracised by the community. Because we are not like that.

Suit You Sir

Did something today I've not done for years. I got myself measured up for a suit. I've kind of decided that I need to smarten up my act. I don't think that the chap doing the measuring was that pleased to see me, what with me being the size that I am, but he was very professional about it. I was happy to find that my waist has not increased much over the years, althouhg I think they train them at tailoring school to agree with the dimensions that the customer says that they have, and then write down the real values later.

Anyhoo, I had forgotten just how complicated suits are, what with decisions on numbers of pleats, tapered waists, inside pockets, button counts and the like. With a bit if luck I will have something smart and hard wearing which treads the fine line between undertaker, wedding guest and waiter. If you are all very good, and promise not to laugh, I'll post a picture when I get the garment.