Scrapbook of some bits from 2019

Ruth’s birthday. We stayed at the Park Plaza Westminster Bridge, which was very nice except for the indifferent coffee offering at breakfast. Not actually sure why we were even having the hotel breakfast in a London hotel – my usual preference is to go out to a café – but Ruth was in a hurry to get home for work, so that may have been it. The previous evening, we’d been to see Circus 1903 at the Royal Festival Hall. The elephants in it – created by the War Horse puppeteers – were indeed fantastic, but much of the show was more child-oriented than we’d expected. We had a pre-theatre meal at Cucina on Belvedere Road.

Origami. After the workshop mentioned here, I had a go at home and made these cranes.

Expedit. After some nagging from Ruth, unconvincingly disguised as assuring me how lovely it would look in my flat, we dismantled my IKEA Expedit shelving unit (now a collector's item, obviously) and I transported it to MK. Amazingly, managed to assemble it myself, though was a bit worn out afterwards. It does indeed look very nice in its new position.

Smart new little sofa. I treated myself to a sofa from John Lewis’ G Plan Vintage range. The sofa is part of the Sixty Seven range. John Lewis say about it:

Inspired by the G Plan Vintage archive, the low slung appearance of The Sixty Seven is the perfect blend of past and present. Its contoured arms and turned wooden feet complement each other to make it as distinctive as it is comfortable.

It does indeed have darling little wooden feet.

My new sofa

 

Nia in ‘Seussical’. We went to see the lovely Nia’s CAST performance in ‘Seussical’, back in April, at the Riverfront Theatre in Newport. Children of a range of ages including teenagers – Nia looked to be one of the youngest children on the stage. She had a small (non-speaking, but credited in the programme) part towards the end, playing the Elephant Bird.

Here I am wearing the special excited face I wear before any form of musical theatre.

OU stuff. The OU's HR department has renamed itself 'People Services'. OK. Though it's a short step from that to being back at 'Personnel'. On a slightly different note, HR/People Services' A-Z on the intranet has some odd juxtapositions these days.

We were restructured and moved offices, from the Wilson to the Pentz buildings. I did take Matt's nun with me, though I've regretted adopting her given the attention she attracts.

Packing crate with nun

Judith’s leaving. My line manager from when I joined the OU in 2011 until April this year, Judith left the OU last July, after what was suspected to be around 30 years’ service (Judith was always close-lipped about her exact length of time in the OU’s employ). Although we had had our differences of opinion, her departure has left a significant hole, both for me personally and for the statutory returns function in general. This picture of me, Claire and Judith was taken in 2011, in what was then Claire’s and my office on the OU’s campus.

The Department for Work and Pensions. Ruth made me log in – first time ever I think – to check my state pension eligibility. Probably a good idea.

Robot deliveries. The ‘Starship’ delivery robots are still to be seen in Milton Keynes, at least in the southern part of the town near the OU. They are SO CUTE.

Windchimes. Managed to offload a set of windchimes that I bought at some expense some years ago before realizing that they were too large, and therefore loud, for any space I’m ever likely to live in. After two goes at advertising them on the OU Noticeboard, I sold them to a Lecturer in Criminology for a tenner. Hope she’s finding them relaxing after a day spent pondering the recesses of the criminal mind.

My ad appeared above someone apparently selling a kilo of raw organic coconut chips. That was an impulse bulk purchase then.

This product description on Amazon. Auto-translate? I have no memory now of what the product was.

Spam. I received a number of extremely unconvincing emails purporting to be from HMRC. Does anyone actually fall for this stuff?

Partings. I said adieu to my homemade wine bottle candle holders, but took a commemorative picture of them first.

Google Maps’ limitations. In a clearly under-occupied moment, I asked Google Maps for directions to the Marshall Islands. It didn’t manage it.

Bunnies. We still have both Harley and Catherine Howard, though H's health is declining as of late 2019. Here he is snuggled under CH.

GEM award. Pleased to close 2019 by being awarded a ‘Going the Extra Mile’ award, part of the portfolio of goodies that forms the OU’s Rewards Scheme. Chris, my line manager since last April, had nominated me, which was jolly good of him.

Feast days; gas; assorted spam

Today’s ‘Trending now’ section on Twitter has the following:

From the ‘World Bee Day’ website, this would seem to be the first World Bee Day. 20 May was apparently chosen because it’s the birth date of a renowned Slovenian authority on bees (it was apparently Slovenia who proposed having a World Bee Day).

Today is also, apparently, Pentecost, which marks the Holy Spirit descending upon Christ’s apostles. It’s also known as ‘Whitsun’ (for Whit Sunday). ‘Whitsun’ is one of those calendar dates that has never meant anything to me, though either Ruth’s mother or aunt (or possibly both) have referred to it as a time when they apparently got a holiday from school. Tomorrow is marked in my Google Calendar as ‘Whit Monday’ – apparently this was a holiday in the UK until 1971, when it was replaced by the Spring Bank Holiday on the last Monday in May. 

Pentecost/Whitsun is determined by the date of Easter – it’s the seventh Sunday after Easter, apparently – and thus moveable.

Changing the subject: I hate dealing with utility providers, due to my own lack of patience and the inherent boringness of the topic, though I appreciate it's a really good thing to fully engage and research best provider and tariff, etc. Did have an online chat with npower a month or so ago, to draw their attention to the actual reading on my gas meter, which was nothing like the inflated estimate on the bill. The conversation led to my being put onto a different tariff which I was assured was the best one available to me, though as my monthly direct debit has since gone up from £5 a month to £118 a month, I’m not convinced of this, so will have to have another conversation with them in due course.

The following suggests an admission that they may be over-charging me somewhat:

On to some communications I have received recently. Mr Liu Jun gets straight to the point:

While Mother Teresa Stang is more circumspect:

This one, purporting to be from PayPal, was more convincing, but fell down on the salutation:

Baffled as to why anyone bothers sending these things. Surely no one actually replies to them?

National Trust fervour; HESA; Spam fritters

Slightly disturbed by Ruth’s and my now having been to National Trust properties two weekends in a row. As I don’t actually visit them that often am worried this is a sign of encroaching dotage, not to mention the joke in an episode of Miranda about the National Trust offering life memberships. Our friend Helen is a member (and not an L), but has the excuse of needing to take her quite elderly parents on days out.

The Saturday before last we went over to Cliveden for the afternoon, as Ruth hadn’t been before and fancied going, and for some reason it had come up in conversation a week or so earlier, I think in connection with the Profumo affair. Mum and I visited in 1990 after what must, judging by the half-dozen or so photos I have of the visit, have been a particularly dry summer as the grass looks completely parched. I have a feeling I’ve been once since then, but evidently didn’t take photos. On this occasion, it was vibrantly green and in flower after all the rain earlier in the summer, and the stunning parterre was looking its best. Photos here.

We had lunch in the Orangery, where we snaffled the last two lunch offerings in the form of a couple of fairly indifferent sandwiches; nice surroundings though. Then walked across the parterre sans shoes – a testament to the state of the lawns, as I am squeamish about such things – and then down to the river bank and a bit of a turn about the gardens. The signposting isn’t the best – we managed to completely miss the sequoia section, which you might think would be hard to miss, and also failed to find the tortoise fountain. We did stumble upon the lovely Long Garden shortly before leaving, which was a plus. Amazing that the distinctly contemporary-looking pair of granite baboons there are actually 2500 years old. The baboons were only returned to Cliveden in 2010, having been moved somewhere else in the 1960s by the Astors (doesn’t say where).

The present house is the third house on the site, the previous two having both been destroyed by fire. Once could be an accident; twice starts to seem careless.

This Saturday we drove up to Basildon Park, an attractive 18th-century Palladian mansion just north-west of Pangbourne. We didn’t bother going into the house other than into the ground floor tearoom for a cream tea in lieu of lunch, but instead took one of the signposted walks around the parkland. The return route did involve a direct path through a herd of cows, all of which started making their way directly towards us down the footpath - I took a detour to avoid them but Ruth insisted on going right up to them, insisting that they were “only curious”. That’s as maybe.

Basildon was built in the late 18th century and then sold on a few times before lying empty, apart from wartime requisitioning, between 1910 and 1952, during which time it was evidently stripped of most of its interior. It was purchased and restored in the 1950s by Lord and Lady Iliffe. The gardens are apparently currently being re-awakened, "with new shrubberies". Cute.

Still on the topic of gardens, my parents have recently returned from a weekend in the Cotswolds that included a visit to Abbey House Gardens in Malmesbury, apparently home of The Naked Gardeners. Intriguing. Mum's postcard noted that the owners weren't disporting themselves at the time of their visit. Wonder what the take-up on their 'Clothes Optional' days is?

Now fully into HESA period at work, with the result that a couple of my evenings this week have involved logging in to HESA's data collection system and clicking 'Refresh' repeatedly, while also trying to get down to some revision for the imminent exam for my OU module. Managed to submit something, albeit incomplete, for TMA04 - had  considered skipping it and relying on substitution, before giving an "I Am Not a Quitter" speech to self. Looking at past papers, half of the exam is in fact multiple choice, though unfortunately not the Noddy kind of multiple choice where half the answers are completely laughable - it may actually require some thought.

Amused by the latest barrel-scraping offering in terms of takeaway outlets to appear through our door in Caversham. The catchily-named 'Wok and Chips' offers an amazing fusion of (presumably) traditional English fare alongside standard Chinese takeaway options. It's possible, should you wish it, to give your Won Ton Soup an added sophistication by teaming it with a Spam Fritter and, intriguingly, a Baked Bean, the latter at a seemingly quite steep 80p.

Incredibly, I do remember actually quite liking the Spam fritters that were occasionally on offer at my primary school dinner time. Probably just a reflection on the rest of the food, which I still remember as quite unreasonably disgusting. All very well people bleating on about how children need a hot meal in the middle of the day, but I remember the relief when I was finally allowed to take a packed lunch, thus escaping mincemeat cobbler in favour of ham sandwiches and a Club biscuit. Never looked back.