renaissance man
Chester’s gone and gotten himself bitten again. And a nasty one this time. Last time, only a few weeks ago, we cleaned up a wound and it didn’t fester. This time it got infected and swollen. Yuk!
Teresa took him to the vets. Last time, when the wound was clean/healing, they didn’t charge. This time, with meds, etc, it’s costing £111!
Dad very kindly gave Teresa and I some money this Xmas. I’m getting the two above CDs with my money.
Facebook has gone from being mildly annoying to super annoying. How/why? By literally flooding my feed with crap.
I strongly suspect that most or perhaps even all of this ‘content’ is AI-generated. It has me seriously wanting to just bin Facebook.
I include these four example to show the level of overkill. I’ve gone from being distracted by crap that might just be of interest or related to me, inasmuch as it might be posted by folk I know. To drowning in crap that has deck all to do with me or my genuine interests, and has been ‘curated’ via dodgy eavesdropping and algorithms.
The ‘virtual’ postmodernist world is becoming ever more real and ever more repugnant. I must somehow disconnect. But how do so, and yet retain the positive connections social media facilitates?
Meanwhile the toxic legacies of Toryland Britain persist, even under the Labour Govt.
We helped friends of Dan & Amy get a kitten. One of Roxy’s little ginger snaps.
Jo and Pascal got the little lad pictured above. They’ve named him Dexter. And he appears to be settling in well. Purring and sitting on folks’ laps from the get go.
Everybody is tired this evening!
Teresa’s blood sugar is, we’ve been told, dangerously high. What are we to do?
On the way home from Teresa’s mum we stopped in at Dan’s. Unannounced. Dropped a couple of giftolas. Sad to see Dan suffering, in pain. Amy is stoic, as ever. Nice that all their kids are at home.
Day two in London. Feeling a little bit less flat-out exhausted than yesterday. Just installed a solar motion activated light outside Jean’s back door.
We’ll be heading home shortly, I assume? We may or may not visit Bentley Priory/Stanmore Common.
Several more groovy CDs from Japan arrived today. Chet replaces a vinyl album I used to have. And what a great super-mellow album it is.
I’d actually forgotten that Herbie Mann is on Chet. So he appears on both his own Love And The Weather, and Chet!
I bought four copies of Love And The Weather, just as I’ve also done with a four (and a bit) album of Dot Ashby recordings. For Xmas giftage. I just hope it ain’t poils before – soz folks – swine!?
Maybe it’s a form of egotism? But is it so wrong to want to share the joys certain music has given me? I just hope the giftees enjoy the music…
Oh, and we’ve driven dahn sarf, to ‘orrible ‘ol’ London Town, to visit Teresa’s mum and sister. Who’ve been de-cluttering the family home. Po’ ‘ol Clem, didn’t live to see the change.
We stopped by Weston Drive on arrival. And then at 3 pm we travelled to the AirB&B, just a few minutes drive away. Teresa went back to her mum’s. I stayed at the accommodation. In fact I turned in at about 5.30 pm! Utterly exhaustipated
I need to do a post that collects together groovy green album covers!
I’m typing this at roughly 5 am, having woken abruptly from a dream ‘about’ the frustrations of making art, and just communicating generally.
I put about in inverted commas ‘cause God only knows what if anything such dreams are for! And did I awaken cause of the dreams disturbing me, which they kind of were. Because I needed the loo? (I did!) Or was it simply because the YouTube rain video I was using to help me sleep suddenly kicked into an heinous ad’? (It did!)
All of the above, I suppose. And the clock read 4:44! All the fours, as a Bingo-caller might style it…
I had a bottle of Shipyard Ale last night. And I’ve been drinking a bottle or two, mostly that brand, most nights, for a while now. Days are becoming weeks. I know this bugs Teresa. And I’m concerned about it, as well
I also bought a small bottle of Napoleon brandy, yesterday. But I didn’t drink any. That’s gone straight into Teresa’s custardy! To protect me from mice-elf.
It seems to me my body chemistry is so volatile, my will so weak and prone to impulsive behaviour and addiction, and my mind/spirit correspondingly vulnerable, that I’m left caught between my usual lax m.o., and an awareness that some form of Monk-like moral dispensation seems called for.
But… I’m just not that way inclined. As I’ve put into song, I’m a Tumbleweed Soul!
This post is, as the title suggests, something of a middle o’ the night/early morn’ grab-bag or miscellany. I want to record some thoughts and memories that just feel like they need saying, or ‘fixing’… if y’all know what I mean?
First off, I’m having a wee two day break from delivery work. Because we’re going down to London, to visit Teresa’s mum and sister. We’re staying at a nearby AirB&B. I must let our host know our arrival time.
This trip necessitates the payment of two days of ULEZ charges. I have other car related stuff hanging over me: the recent bump, with Aby’s Audi; a parking fine, from Ely Waitrose car park; and Flo’ needs a service.
More happily, I’ve made a charming friend, or two(?), at the Amazon Peterborough depot. Nat. She’s just a really lovely lady. And we appear to have become friends. Which, in this hard, lonely world, is a very nice and welcome thing. Another lady there, Maz (actually Marina!), is also very nice. And I get on well with a few of the guys, as well: Ivan and Keith spring to mind.
I posted a number of Xmas cards yesterday, during a brief visit to the Hostmoor Tesco. Had a very pleasantly friendly interaction with the Customer Service staff there, whilst doing that. These small niceties are, whilst humble and mundane, very important, I think. Such moments make life bearable/better.
I still need to do a stock-take, or inventory, of this years Xmas gifting. I’ve already done so re Xmas cards. I disappointed myself by buying stuff to make Yule cards, and then failing to do so. In the end we just bought a couple of batches of cheap off-the-shelf Xmas cards. Never mind!
Altho’ we’ll be off to Stanmore today, I have a delivery arriving from my Japanese CD/music source, due today. It’s supposed to come ‘twixt 8-12 am, this morning. Teresa wants us to leave around 10.30. How will this work out, I wonder?
This order contains Xmas giftage. I wish I’d’ve thought of something earlier; I’d like to have gifted the Dowland, Complete Lute Music recordings, by Nigel North, to several family folk. But I’ve left it a bit too late!
Listening to Mr Magic repeatedly recently, and absolutely loving it, has lead me to desire expansion of my Grover collection.
I used to have Mr Magic and Feels So Good on vinyl. I’m not sure I have either any more? Straitened circumcisions have lead to my flogging off a lot of my records, alas!
I re-acquired Mr Magic, albeit now on CD, only very recently. From Japan! And I’m now very keen to collect everything by him, from his ‘72 debut Inner City Blues, up to Live At The Bijou, and Winelight.
I’ve got all the albums pictured in this post on order. Soul Box and Feels So Good will have to wait, I guess…
Aby has been messaging me about her Audi:
I’ve sent my photo of the damage to her car to a local bodywork repair specialist, who advertise that they do insurance claim repairs. Let’s see what they have to say…
Meanwhile, I’m going to see what I can do to buff out/polish the scuff on Flo’, later today.
I’ve read about people using stuff like toothpaste, and WD40, to fix this sort of thing. I’ll watch some YouTube videos and see what I ought to.