100 Years Ago

One of the side roads leading down to our local shopping high street was resurfaced today with a fresh new layer of shiny tarmac. Before laying it down, the council's minions stripped the old surface completely with heavy machinery. To do all this work, they first had to clear all the cars from the street then leave it clear once the tarmac was laid and remained soft.




So as I walked down the pavement, I saw the street as it was designed: pristine, unobstructed, clear and safe for pedestrians to walk wherever they wanted. It was wonderful, just like it would have been a hundred years ago, before the tin monstrosities arrived to take over the cities. That street is normally one of the busiest around for parked cars, as it's a residential road of vernacular Victorian terraces, with well-off occupants who own cars, and it's close to that busy shoppingareat as well. Usually, it's got two continuous rows of cars all the way along it, with just a single line for vehicles to drive down.


On my walk to the shops, two people whom I recognised but rarely speak with broke the usual code of just saying Hello, to remark on the original appearance and to say how much they liked it. Of course, like me they were pedestrians; the drivers were having to divert around the closed road. I wonder what will happen in the next hundred years?

:0)

Maisy

Is posting these pictures morbid or a lapse of taste?

Maisy the cat died yesterday.

As I wrote in this blog a month or so ago, she had been getting steadily - or unsteadily, rather - weaker as the weeks passed. She eats well, but has become thinner and thinner, with hardly any flesh covering her bones. In spite of her coat of fine fur, when we stroked her her bones were individually identifiable by our fingers, and she wobbled upon her hind legs.

I had had my first dental appointment for three years in the early afternoon. Upon my return I started to make myself some tea, then at Maisy's persistent whining, I fed her with half a tin of catfood, placing it in a bowl outside in the shade. A few minutes later, back at my desk, I felt suddenly faint and woozy for a couple of seconds (I have no idea why; perhaps I should go the doctors') so I walked over to the window to clear my head. Looking down into the garden, Maisy was lying on her side on the grass, half-way between her bowl and her daytime retreat on the patio. She didn't move, so I went down into the garden to look at her. Her eyes were open, her body warm but stiffening. Poor thing.



After Moonface & Tommo returned from work, we buried her behind a bush.
We had told Porks to expect the bad news, so she wasn't too upset.
Today, I cancelled the vet's appointment I had made a few hours before Maisy's death, to see how she was.


:o(

Treyarnon

I'm still aching from the unaccustomed effort of bodyboarding last weekend, down in Cornwall. A bunch of my cycling mates and their families stayed in the wonderful and friendly youth hostel in Treyarnon, and we had such a good time. The teenage lads hung around together, spending most of their time in the water, one way or another. Some of the men went road cycling while others of us, plus the three women, went for strolls in the morning and surfed in the afternoon.

For what seems like the first time this summer, the weather was friendly, with light breezes, warm sun and co-operative waves and tides.

The weather made everything seem relaxed and friendly. There was no forced togetherness, individuals and families either did their own thing or went out in small groups, coming together as and when we felt like it. Somehow the atmosphere was different from that of the other hostelling group that we go our with; perhaps it was because its origin was different, we were a bunch of blokes with our lads and (some) partners, rather than families, so there was less pressure to be together. I guess it could also be the nature of the men: we were there as a cycling group, all with a desire to be out there doing stuff, hence the groups who went off to cycle and the lads who headed out to surf real waves rather than the internet.

Saturday night we all ate together at the hostel, in the garden overlooking the sea. The sun set beyond us, we ate well, drank convivially, and went to bed tired and happy before ten o'clock.


The bodyboarding (boogie-boarding) was fun. I couldn't get to rips with it at first, until Jeff gave me a few tips, and then everything just flowed. I caught the breaking foamy surf and skimmed into the shore so many times, just enjoying myself with the mindless thrill of it all. Somehow it was more fun than cycling; perhaps because it's simpler, more elemental, and althought there is physical effort, so much is provided by nature.

And on both days' morning walks, we saw seals bobbing up from the surging seas, basking in the rare sunshine. It was wonderful to see them so clearly.


I want to go again soon.

:O)

Animals

I saw two foxes and a hedgehog on the way to the pub tonight.

I was heading for the Wellington; I don't know which pub they were going to.
Not bad, for a city.

;o)

Headache

I woke this morning feeling muzzy and headachy. There was no excuse, all I'd had to drink last night was a glass of wine, and not a huge amount of food. However, I'd neglected to drink my evening mug of tea so I must have been suffering from caffeine withdrawal. It's getting annoying: although I try to cut down it still seems that I need at least some caffeine late evening if I am to feel fully alert the next morning. As it is, I've felt that I''ve been operating at about 40% efficiency all day, unable to really concentrate upon my work. Bummer.

On the plus side, Tommo has found some work, the good lad. I hope this works out for him.

:o]

Outside my Window

We had a sunny morning today, the first for what seems like months. Since it was probably July since the sun last shone properly upon the curtains, everything seemed autumnal, with the sun noticeably lower in the sky that when we last saw it at 7am and the orange glow that disappears so soon after sunrise.

With no haze and a clear morning, I appreciated again the view we have from our bedroom window, best seen in early morning or late evening, when the sun is behind our house and shining upon the city to our south. Moonface has it better than I do, as that particular aspect is better seen from her side of the bed. It's a good, interesting view, with green gardens in the foreground and a cityscape folding into the distant hills. It's possible to pick out a fair number of landmarks, from the ziggurat of St Paul's church to the big hotel and the distant water-tower towards (I think) Brislington. Moving from here, as we must sometime in the future, is going to be difficult.

:o)

Lazy Sunday

Yesterday was unusual for me, a Sunday with nothing important planned and nothing urgent to do. So I took it easy. The weather was dull but not rainy, Tommo was pottering around, Rio not up to anything, Moonface off for a walk with girlfriends. And I did not much at all for most of the day.

I read. It's years since I spent more than an hour or so of a day reading; usually I get ten or twenty minutes after dinner, or before going to sleep. So I lay on the settee and read Kim, the copy I bought in 1975 and have read a couple of times since. It engrossed me, and I remembered why I loved the book so much when I was a boy, but of course now I get more out of it because I'm older, possibly wiser, and can smell India when Kipling writes of it.

And I read some of the weekend papers, tinkered with the bike which I'm putting together, and mooched around. Eventually I decided that I needed exercise, so I cycled around the Downs, through Hotwells and into the Lloyds area again, but because of the weather there was much less going on. I arrived back home within tow seconds of Moonface's return from her day out, so we spent the evening in the normal fashion with a relaxed frame of mind. Very nice, too.


:o)