September Song

A propos of absolutely nothing except the month, I'm starting off this entry with a link to a beautiful song by the Bulgarian group Kottarashky. If you smoke, light up and savour the melancholy that is September. If you don't, now may be a time to start:

..and now back to the business in hand.

The most notable feature of the month has been going walking on Hadrian's Wall with Andy. We took in the westernmost end with a morning at the Solway Firth, admiring the flat desolation, mud and birdlife, as well as farting about with an adjustable signpost.

The most picturesque stretch is in the central belt, alongside the B6318 from where it leaves the A69 to Chollerford. Fantastic views to both North and South. We spent a couple of nights there, in the village of Newbrough and the small town of Haltwhistle at the Centre of Britain Hotel (how could you resist?)

I also took the opportunity of that trip to see, from the outside only (who's paying £7 to go inside a castle?) Carlisle Castle. I have to visit two castles and this is one of them. It's a fairly bog-standard redbrick castle, although it did seem to have an outcropping tower situated well to the South, in the city centre. Anyway, we spent the money instead on breakfast in an american style diner and i had blueberry, bacon and maple syrup pancakes.


As regards using six different forms of transport, I have, to date this year, ridden on my bike, driven my car, been on a bus, been on a train and not only been on but conducted a tram. So I have one more form of transport to use. Any suggestions would be welcome.


It'll be clear to regular readers that I'm falling a bit behind on a schedule of 5 things a month, so I've decided to review and regroup. I have made decisions about how to tackle things and they are as follows:

Ongoing Items
Saving £1 a day, maintaining this blog (in lieu of a scrapbook),  taking 6 different forms of transport, learning a circus skill, knitting something and watching IMDB's top 20 films are all continual activitues.

Not Doing
I have decided NOT to get a body piercing, have a martial arts lesson or wax my legs for charity. In regard to the last of these, I will wax my legs but don't approve of asking other people to sponsor such a thing. The originators of the List may, if they wish, suggest alternatives to the first two, which I will consider for suitability.

Postponing
Some of the suggested activities are either not practicable or would not be enjoyable crammed into one year. Therefore, I will commit to doing the following activities before I reach 66 (the new state retirement age): take a camper van from John O'Groats to Land's End; visit all four capital cities of the UK; organise a canal holiday; host a murder mystery weekend; surprise Sue with something pleasant.

Schedule for the Remainder of the Year
October
wax legs
write a cryptic crossword
create a flower press
make a 30-minute meal
get a facial
visit a castle

November
brew beer
learn semaphore
knit something
make a piece of jewellery
climb a mountain
paint a self portrait

December
make mince pies for neighbours
freestyle rap against Matt
acquire a circus skill
dye my beard purple and dress as a cowboy
watch any and all remaining films

January
eat vegetarian meals for a week
go glass blowing
try shark
apply to be on a quiz show
start an online petition

February
learn to yodel
make a sculpture
send an idea to Dragon's Den
play cribbage in an OAPs' home

March
put up a hanging basket
appear in a local paper
draw up a family tree
buy 6 different genres of music

April
design a t-shirt
wash hair in Aira Force
go orienteering
go skinny dipping

May
write a memoir of my 61st year


Those of you who know me well may wonder whether I will be able to keep to the new schedule. So do I.

An august month

I'm afraid it's been a bit of a slack month with progress made in only a couple of directions and the only thing accomplished (and finished) was the thing I'm least proud of. Oh well, better make September more productive...



Continuing with the film watching, I saw 'The Good, The Bad and The Ugly' and 'Goodfellas' both of which were longer than I remembered. It all seems a bit dated now but a good way to appreciate the filmic qualities (which you're free to do when you already know the story) and to see what your memory does not retain.

Always interesting to see how you can't keep your eyes off De Niro and he's always absolutely the character he's playing, in contrast with Eastwood, who is always Rowdy Yates. "Rollin' rollin' rollin'. Keep them dawgies rollin'..."


I told a deliberate lie this month, too.  Didn't feel good - never does.


On 8th August, 100 days exactly after my birthday, i put the hundredth pound into my savings. It is interesting how easy it has been to save a £1 a day and now I feel quite rich, I'll keep it going and aim to have the £365 saved by next May and, then, do something unusual with it.

July included..

Unlocking my bike was accomplished once the key had been found and I detached it from another bike I'd fastened it to for safety.

The tyres were both flat and the back one was especially difficult but, eventually (after an hour and a half), I figured out what was necessary and blew it up, posed for the photo and set off for an inaugural (first for about 3 years, anyway) ride only to discover that the back tyre was flat again!

I put it back in the shed. Maybe later...












I've started making my through  IMDB's 20 top-rated films and have watched The Matrix and The Godfather and the Godfather Part II. Two per month from now on. However, I also found One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and watched that, too. It was a reminder why I've always liked that film.

 One of the tasks I have been set is to star in a play. Well, aside from a general aversion to am dram and the extreme unlikelihood of being discovered by a top Hollywood studio, I don't think I could hope, realistically, to star in anything before the year was out.

As a substitute for that, I have just qualified as a tram conductor at Crich Tramway Museum ( after 10 weeks of training) and was, tonight, recognised in the local chip shop by a lad whose ticket I punched yesterday. That'll do nicely.

A quick word about the training. It took me far longer to achieve a good level of competence than I had expected. Perhaps there is some truth in the saying about old dogs. Anyway, it has been worth putting up with people telling me, with varying levels of sensitivity, that I'm not doing something properly, to pass out through both the theory and two types of practical assessment. I feel I have achieved something.




I also had to wear leather which was accomplished during a very nice few days away in Devon with Sue. Great to be beside the sea again and I wore the flipflops Sue had bought me. We had decent weather for two days. On the Saturday, we went to Putsborough beach and, after getting over the shock of paying £8 to park the car, had a lovely stroll along it, splashing through the tide.






Finally for July, I also managed to play a round of golf although I'd have to confess that it was, in fact, 18 holes on a putting green. The most interesting part of it was that, at the 12th ( a notoriously tricky slight dog-leg for those of you who are familiar with the Lynmouth Course), Sue scored a hole-in-one! Sue is seen here waggling her putter vaguely and the ball is, in fact, already in the hole but you get the gist.

...and in June

This is a screenshot from my phone. It relates to doing a good turn for a stranger and this is even better because I never met the person I helped.

I was walking along the Cromford Canal when I saw a dog lead atop a wooden post. The owner(s) had had the foresight to have a mobile phone number embroidered onto the lead, so I texted the number and a day later received a reply to say the lead had been retrieved.

I can put this alongside all the other and regular acts of road gallantry I bestow upon the motoring world.




An unexpected opportunity arose to build sandcastles with two out of the three grandchildren, not at the seaside but in Crich. A special event "Beside the Seaside" was on at the Tramway Museum and so Sue and I were able to amuse them for 4 hours there and spent some time in the sandpit.

We did. also, go on the trams, even though that wasn't one of my 60 tasks.







One of my tasks is to have a photo taken with someone famous, though, of course, this is going to depend greatly upon happenstance.

As an alternative, I have managed to elicit a FB response from Katie Hopkins: "Wow, you are a sad-looking bastard". I'm particularly pleased with this.





Over the last 10 weeks (April-June), I've been doing an excellent online course about Shakespeare and, through that, undertaken to try to write a sonnet.

I've never written such before and looked online at various forms but they all advised that the basic form of the lines was iambic pentameter. Anyway, for good or ill, I came up with what's written here (to the rt) and you can judge for yourself its worth.






So, all in all, fewer achievements than I hoped for - I'm trying to do 5 a month, but not a bad return. If my children's point was to make me active, that's being achieved and I'm sure I'll catch up in July.

May Progress

One month in and the following things have happened:

I have begun documenting my 61st year, via this blog;
I have begun saving £1 a day and now have £31 deposited in my piggy bank;
I have done something nice for a stranger (although this was achieved via courtesy whilst driving);
I have begun learning a circus skill (diabolo - more challenging than it looks);
I have written a letter to Brian Blessed and posted it.
I have worn nail varnish in public - 2nd May, I wore it all day.

So I'm on track - 60 things in 12 months is 5 a month. Some of them are begun but not complete and some of them will be revisited.

The one that's truly complete, though, is writing a letter to Brian Blessed. To help that process, some of my birthday presents were a writing pad, a pack of envelopes, a Parker fountain pen and Brian's autobiography "Absolute Pandemonium", so I wrote him a short two-side letter, telling him why I was writing and asking him some questions based upon what I had read in his book. There's a photo of the handwritten letter on FB. I have no expectation of him replying - I had to write to him via an address his FB page provided - but we'll see.

I'm writing this in a cafe in Melton Mowbray, footling away a day whilst waiting for Sue to enjoy her day of pampering at Ragdale Hall. The footling is supposed to involve some marking and it will. But not till I'm really bored.

More next month...

The Kindness of Family

For my 60th birthday, my wife and children organised for a secret weekend away in deepest Norfolk and festooned me with gifts, based around The List.

It was one of the most poignant moments of my life. I won't bother to list everything that was given to me but it was easily the most gifts I've ever received (and that includes childhood). Some of the gifts were lovely - a diabolo for the circus skill; the two writing pads for the sonnet; the OS map for the Hadrian's wall walk - and some of them were grotesque - the leg waxing strips, baseball cap and cowboy outfit spring to mind.

That doesn't matter. It was, quite simply, truly a moment in which the thoughtfulness of my family towards me was writ large. Strangely, though, I wasn't moved to tears, as I normally am with kindnesses. What I felt was warmth, acceptance and valuing of me. I felt both complete and humble. There was no need for tears..

Thank you.

The List

They wrote out the List in whatever order the ideas came to them. In order to make it manageable, I've categorised them.

Creative
write a cryptic crossword
compose a sonnet
make cheese
freestyle rap against Matt (my son)
brew own beer
design and make a t-shirt
learn to knit
create a hanging basket
go glass blowing
learn semaphore
learn a circus skill
learn to yodel
paint a self-portrait
make Sue (my wife) a piece of jewellery
create a flower press
build a sculpture out of unusual garden stuff
write a letter to Brian Blessed
build a sandcastle with Iona, Arlo and Gus (my grandchildren)
make a Jamie Oliver 30-minute meal in thirty minutes
buy a scrapbook to document my sixtieth year
write a memoir of my sixtieth year

Adventurous
wash hair in Aira Force
dye beard purple
try shark
wear nail varnish to work
take a martial arts lesson
go orienteering
apply to be on a quiz show
hire a camper van and drive from John O'Groats to Land's End
get photo taken with a famous person
go skinny-dipping in the sea
appear in the local paper
visit all 4 UK capital cities
get a body piercing
organise a canal holiday
get a facial
star in a play
dress as a cowboy for the day and leave the house
climb a mountain
walk Hadrian's Wall with Andy (friend)
play a game of golf
visit 2 castles

Altruistic
do something nice for a stranger
volunteer to play cribbage at an OAPs home
host a murder mystery weekend
go to Iona's (granddaughter) school to listen to readers
bake mince pies for my neighbours
tell someone a very deliberate lie
surprise Sue with something pleasant
start an online petition

Odd
buy and wear an item of leather
call Dragons' Den with a business idea
wax legs (for charity)
take 6 different forms of transport
do a family tree
unlock my bike
save £1 every day and then do something unusual with the £365
watch IMDB's top 20 films
buy an album from 6 different musical genres
eat only vegetarian meals for a week