It’s nine weeks since ‘the incident’, as it is always known on the railway. It is also the first weekend since then, where I have had the whole weekend to myself, sleeping in my own bed. My phased return to work means I don’t have to set the alarm until Wednesday. That has presented the opportunity of a little home cooking, so off to market I did go on Friday morning to buy the wherewithal for some comfort food. I am glad and grateful to have grown up with the habit of Sunday lunch and, on this damp day, I can think of few things better. Only, I have indulged my taste buds every day of this long long weekend. When I get the chance to catch the lads from Fleetwood on a Friday morning, I make the most of it; so it was tuna on Friday and salmon yesterday. My choice of Sunday lunch may surprise, but one of my weekend treats is liver and onions, mash, garnished with some streaky, a ring of black pudding, gravy of course, ‘shrooms and there are few times when I don’t think that broccoli enhances a main course. Delicious! I’ll still have » Continue Reading.

Trigger warning. This is not about M*A*S*H. This is about the real thing. I guess it’s possible that this could be upsetting for some.

Ah well. I’d got away with it for 24 years, but statistically, after all those years as a train driver, there was always the likelihood. Someone jumped in front of my train. Spectacularly, most definitely deliberately. They wanted to go; they even turned to face the train as it took them out. It is a strange strange thing to witness – someone deliberately putting themselves in harm’s way. ( I should not prejudice the outcome of the coroner’s court, but then again, I am the key witness, so my statement will heavily influence the conclusion. I did check with the police that I am in the clear to talk publicly. ) I have two angles on this, giving prior knowledge. I’m a union rep and in that capacity I have spoken to so many colleagues who have gone through this. Some are deeply affected and take months to get back in the cab. Some can’t bear to see a train for weeks – I caught one to the pub the next day. I am and will » Continue Reading.

Anyone got any reports to share?

and other quaint non-existent traditions.

Inexplicably, Royal Hoylake wouldn’t deign to extend an invitation to their competition tees, so we are stuck with Altrincham Municipal.

I’ve set this up in time for the early birds in NZ, but note that the first hole that will count will be no.1047.

I’ve just returned from a three week holiday in South East Asia. I’ve grown up with a taste for travel, even working in the industry for a while, and it had been a while since I’d visited a country new to me, but this trip really refreshed my taste buds. Of course, that was true both figuratively and literally. When I travel, one of the first things I’m interested in is the local cuisine. I’m an inquisitive traveller; I seek out the points of difference, the individuality and character of a place, and food is an obvious starting point. Another thing that I pick up on immediately, telling me that I’m in new territory, is the birdsong. They speak in tongues them birds, and their chatter is as foreign as the local lingo. My favourite way of visiting a country is on a pushbike, as I did on this trip. You move slow enough to hear the ambient sounds, to be able to stop and check whatever that was that you caught out of the corner of your eye; yet fast enough for the scenery to keep changing. Perhaps surprisingly, I don’t go to countries planning to pick up on » Continue Reading.

Yin and Yang. Jekyll and Hyde. Harrow and Wealdstone, or something. Anyway, in true Afterword tradition, we are bound to answer @Vincent’s Game Over thread with its complement. What about artists who, far from outstaying their welcome, actually went out on a high? Of course, there are those artists whose early passing left us wondering what riches were denied to us – Hendrix, Nick Drake, Kirsty, to pick a sample. What I would give for Sandy Denny’s 80s and 90s output. But that’s not my enquiry here. What about acts who chose to complete their output when you felt they still had so much more to give? I know my answer, and it’s a band that appeared in the abovementioned thread, as some felt they had indeed lost it after a certain point. I disagree. For me, XTC were still penning belters even while no-one was listening. Wasp Star still had plenty of hooks to spare after the majesty of Apple Venus. In fact, since he had deferred to Andy the first time round in recognition of how much was spilling out in those sessions, Colin comes out with some of his best songs on Wasp » Continue Reading.

“Phenology refers to the timings of cyclical or seasonal biological events, such as migrations, egg laying, flowering, and hibernation. Many species of plants and animals have life cycle events that are influenced by climatic factors.” So says sciencedirect.com

I’ve lived in this house for 23 years. It’s in the middle of a country estate, so we have a good variety of habitats to hand. There’s farmed land, both arable and pastoral. There’s woodland: some managed for timber; some managed for shooting; some left to its own devices. There’s gardens (yes, yes, I know that should have been ‘there are’, but it doesn’t sound suitably folksy). There’s dilapidated farm buildings with inviting eaves. There’s even an ornamental lake (oh, how I love to give people directions to the house over ‘the ornamental lake’). Ok, so we’re lacking in savannah and I’d love a bit of tropical rainforest, some craggy moorland or maybe even some coastline, but I’m doing pretty well, right?

Over those 23 years, I’ve observed the seasonal patterns. Migrations come and go; that’s what they’re meant to do, after all. The martins and swallows love those unimproved barns with their nesting holes; the geese migrate by local landmarks, such » Continue Reading.

But mainly advice. Unsolicited advice. Why do people give it?

I have been suffering from a back problem for a year or so. I started dealing with it, as I always would, as a muscular problem, treated by sports physio – a qualified sports physio. But it has proved to be something other than a muscular problem, as I have found by talking to medically qualified professionals, whose advice, informed by years of training and experience, I have followed. At times it is evident to the naked eye that I am in pain, or am not walking or standing correctly, but even when it is not, I am candid when asked ‘How are you?’ by acknowledging that I’m not well. Mistake!

What is it with people that they think they are somehow uniquely qualified to advise on matters medical, further that I have some obligation to put their advice into practice? If I took all of this advice in equal proportion, my day would not start until I had completed hours of stretches and exercises; I would simultaneously be applying hot and cold packs; I would be in the sea; I would be in fresh water; I would doubtless do » Continue Reading.

Sorry. I couldn’t resist. Personally, I’m not in favour of it. I’ve lived, worked and holidayed in some very hot climates and, if it’s my choice, I turn off the air-con. I may have a grudge, not least as I am pretty certain that some dodgy air-con system triggered my asthma for the first time, some 25 years ago. Dress for the climate. Build for the climate. Bend your activities to the climate. Don’t make air-con standard just so you can dress up like someone from Mad Men, even though you work in the Tropics.

aka Headlines that make me feel very old

Yesterday’s paper (the i) contained this headline. The article contained the following sentences: “The energy consumption of mining for cryptocurrencies could rival the entire greenhouse gas emission output of Italy within the next two years if allowed to continue unchecked.” “Bitcoins are created through mining, a process that requires computers to solve complicated mathematical equations …” “(the authors of the study) used a simulated emission model to track the emission flows of bitcoin blockchain operations in China, …”

I have no idea where to start with comprehending this, but clearly my Economics A level is not the place. While I understood early that the financial rewards do not necessarily go to those who create the wealth, I still believe that fundamentally, in order to create wealth, value must have been added in the process somewhere along the line, even if the rewards end up somewhere else.

Can anyone explain to me this concept of ‘mining for currency’? I can cope with words of many syllables; I am not daft, but this is beyond me. How is there a process that creates an item of value – bitcoin – out of encrypted data? » Continue Reading.

Come off it! As Sunday 21st approaches, I can’t be the only UK resident on this blog who has spent most of the month launching into This Town Ain’t Big Enough for the Both of Us, with each poster and piece of public information.

Stimulus : Response. There are some words, some phrases that act like a hyperlink to a song. I know we’ve done something like this before, maybe just on placenames – I particularly remember someone, on leaving Hartlepool, giving it the full Marc Bolan ‘Seaton Carew, is it you?’. Then there’s the no man’s land where Staffs, Cheshire and Shropshire meet. ‘Woore. Good God, What is it good for?’ etc But there’s always more isn’t there? And I bet there’s some that your other halves or muckers at work roll their eyes at having heard a thousand times before.

I know the most regular one for me, with the water table so high it is visible in the fields. As I cycle through this England’s cheerless marshes – you see? I was nearly off again there – all too frequently there is a battered yellow warning sign, and I’m off. And I usually end up following » Continue Reading.