Clearing up and carrying on . . .

Not a very inspiring title: maybe we'll change it later on. In fact, you may well find the links (in green) will take you to more interesting places than the actual blog, though I say so myself.

We had a big post-Christmas clear-up day, after the decorations were taken down and Alice (eventually) managed to put them away, up the ladder on her own - more logistics than balance.

Everything got moved off the sitting room floor, which was a huge task, as some of it had been lying there for many, many months.

Then the elderly Hoover - the machine not the man - was brought out of a rather long retirement. Ba was intrigued when I explained that the vacuum cleaner actually sucked in the dust and debris and whooshed it up the tube to a waiting bag. She's not usually interested in mechanical things . . .

By the way, that's a great title for a website, isn't it?  We'll use it again, I'm sure.

After the job was over, Ba took another look at the underside. She could see that most of what was whoosed away was lots of long grey human hairs (guess whose those were) and fallen green plastic "needles" from the Christmas trees.

Yuk! Ba was shocked by the contents of the receiving bag, mostly very ancient dust - but also dead moths from much ealier so called "Spring Cleans". No, nothing to do with that book, though it's on our Wish List since reading His Dark Materials.

We've only posted a small version of the double image, in case you're squeamish about this sort of thing.  But if you click on it, you can view the full ghastliness of it all. Oh, "The Horror, The Horror."

Poor Alice is only just recovering from the flu, and says she isn't quite out of the woods yet. Now that is another of those human figures of speech which puzzle my more literal brain. She hasn't been lying lost in a wood of late, more a matter of lying in bed snuffling and coughing.

But my confusion does link neatly to our next topic. Alice says segue is an excellent term for this transition. But I thought that was a bizarre powered scooter affair? Well, it does sound the same when you pronounce it properly!

They look more like fun in this video than in the photo here. But give it a click, for the expressions, if nothing else.

Anyway, we were delighted when we saw this wonderful print by Jeremy Deller, as we wish we had such a guide to understanding the odd things we notice about human behaviour. It's one of a series of prints for schools, published by the Hepworth Wakefield Museum and publicised on the BBC News. There's a video about the scheme on YouTube.

The  artist has also been known for some controversial work, that's rather entertaining if you lean to the left. Yes, there we go again . . .

The reference to the Hepworth Wakefield above reminded us of when Monkey first met Ba in the wonderful National Media Museum in Bradford in 2015.

She was in box marked "Reduced" and just had to be rescued. This is a later reconstruction of the scene.

That memory took us to another, shortly after, when we all went to Lumb Bank and enjoyed some wonderful walks in the surrounding Yorkshire countryside. Aaah, happy days.

Back to Normal?                         [UPDATED TUESDAY 16th JANUARY **]

This MIGHT look interesting, or even pretty. But it's a representation of a flu virus. Of course, it's really a very teeny, weeny little blob that finds its way inside you. Take a look at the video on this site to see its insidious progress.

Did you know that the name is from a Latin word meaning slimy liquid or poison? Yuk.

And we're not exactly back to normal, because poor old Alice has been suffering for a couple of miserable weeks from an attack by this nasty infection.

I told her weeks themselves can't be miserable, as they're an abstract noun. I shouldn't have said that, not in her current depleted state, as she burst out  - in full English Teacher mode - I know. I was using a Transferred Epithet, you stupid little monkey! Oh dear. We both shed a few tears, then made it up again.

The diagram [click on it] shows mostly how horrible she's been feeling, just minus (with great relief) the gastric bit. But thanks be to The Stars or to Fate or even to the friend who recommended taking some Vitamin B, she's now well enough, if not yet 100%, to tackle the task of catching up on our neglected blog once again. Hurrah!

A long way back, before Christmas was upon us, we mentioned looking forward to seeing the much publicised Star Wars: the Last Jedi. [No spoilers here, if you've still not seen it.]

Then what with the cards and the presents and the food, we never got round to telling you what a simply brilliant film it was!

Yes, of course, there were lots of noisy fights and battles, in space, on land, with weapons fired from ships, or more individual ones fought with sci-fi style guns or (of course) with the amazing light sabres. One in particular.

But we also had the return of my favourite droid, BB8, and an intriguing new plot development concerning our understanding of The Force, through both our heroine, Rey, and the principal villain, the rather handsome Kylo Ren.

In addition, there was the greatly anticipated return of Mark Hamill playing an elderly Luke Skywalker.

Alice enjoyed it all so much, she saw it twice, with the excuse she'd missed a few details the first time.

While she's been ill, she hasn't been able to get out to see any new films for quite a bit. But at least she's had her Game of Thrones Box Sets, and has been watching the whole thing all over again from the beginning. We're going to have a very long wait for Season VIII, so it's also a way of refreshing our memory.

The series is deservedly very popular, and we discovered recently that the Post Office, that great British Institution no less, is quite soon to release a set of stamps with images of the characters. You can pre-order them here before the 23rd January. But I can't see the point in having the actual stamps, as they're so small! [You only need watch the first part of this clip. And the next one is more fun.]

Alice played about with the images on the first link (plus a hunt for a larger Royal Mail logo, and making the wording fit) and created this square version - which I prefer, even though the Lannisters aren't all on one line . . .

But now to other, more recent events. Although this isn't a good time of year for flowers in general, we found these miniature daffodils in the supermarket before Christmas, and two of the buds had bloomed shortly after New Year.

You must know how Ba loves to have a touch of naure in the house. Well, there was only one nasturtium flower left, and it dropped a petal onto Ba as she climbed into the pot for the photo-shoot. Aaah.

We had no choice but to have a belated Twelfth Night, due to the flu in the household. Taking the decorations off the tree always makes us feel a bit sad.

It was soon all packed up and almost ready to go back in the top cupboard for another year. That's a ladder job, but with Alice's increasing age, she wants help this time round, and we're too small. Sigh. She'll invite her tallest friend round soon.

**P.S. Alice was staring at her ladder, when she had a revelation: it was more a question of logistics than balance. She then managed to put the box into the high cupboard! Phew. And the tall friend is invited, anyway.

And now Ba wants cheering up after this brutal un-decorating. So we went to commune with the flowers again.

The miniature daffs produced three more blooms, but they were falling over with their own weight, and had to be consigned to a vase instead.

But aren't they pretty!

A night-time shot with flash neatly got rid of any distracting views from the window this time.

That's a lovely calming note to end on.
Bye for now.

Christmas extra, and into 2018

Alice was feeling rather grumpy before we started this entry: the effect of a couple of domestic catastrophes. One concerned a shattered glass mixed with egg white on the kitchen floor, which postponed supper until exceedingly late. It might have been funny set in Fawlty Towers, or portrayed as a John Cleese sketch, but caused instead serious negative shouting, some despairing tears and a lot of loud swearing in this abode.

And if I tell you that the other involved falling asleep (again!) while reading in bed, a leaking hot-water-bottle, a wet nightie, sheet, pillow, under blanket, mattress protector and the mattress itself, you will appreciate that it was no trivial matter.

It took many hours to clear the soggy contents from the loft bed - which setting you may recall from our video Reading in Bed @ 70 (posted by our good friend on her YouTube channel.) I was quite concerned as Alice struggled to turn over the hefty mattress in such a confined space, so close to a drop of several feet, but she managed in the end. Phew.

A whole roll of kitchen paper was consumed by dripping items, the washing machine had to be turned on, and it was extremely late before the sleeping arrangements were replaced. Alice is now wondering if a micro-wave hot water bottle (no water) would be better, but reviews are not inspiring, and they have given rise to some dire warnings.
 

I told her it would cheer her up to get typing our blog again - or at least provide a distraction from the tiredness and niggles. So here we are.

This was our first proper snow of the winter. [You need to click and see it larger to make out the snow actually falling.]

It looked awfully pretty, but it would have been most hazardous underfoot. Alice admits it was a sign of creeping old age that she felt relieved when it melted away.

We are lucky in that we get two Christmases.

There's our own - relaxing, self-indulgent, with no-one else to worry about pleasing: eating, sleeping, watching TV whenever we like - which we've told you about in the previous post below this.

Then we enjoy a second one, when we visit the grandchildren and we get our main family presents, and they get a another round of ones for them. They've some special Festive creatures, who adorn the fireplace, together with the giant socks.

But THIS was definitely our favourite present of all.

Alice had said she needed a new draught excluder - and look who we got!

He told us his name is Eustace. Alice looked that up later, and apparently it comes from Latin, meaning "stable and tranquil".

Very suitable, don't you think?

Of course eveyone wanted a ride on him. His family name comes with a crest, and the motto Cur me persecqueris? means "Why persecutest thou me?" Oh dear, we were just having some innocent fun, you know. But he kindly exhibited great fortitude in bearing up.

After the presents, we had another great Xmas dinner, which all the grownups had helped prepare, with chicken (nicer than turkey) and the usual trimmings, like roast potatoes and parsnips, pigs in blankets, and two different lots of stuffing. Yummy.

Alice had brought some crackers with silly hats, useless trinkets and daft jokes. There were kiddie ones for us, Onk and Harry.

The only joke I can remember is "Why does Santa have three gardens?" Answer: "So he can go, 'Ho, ho, ho!' " Well, I did warn you they weren't top quality intellectual humour.

Afterwards we all watched the Blue-ray of Disney's Moana, which was one of the grand-daughter's requested presents.

We thought it was great fun, and very exciting in some parts, although it seems it has been criticised for cultural abuse or misrepresentation.





Our favourite characters were the cute little pig, Pua ("flower" in Hawaiian) and the crazy chicken HeiHei.

When we got home Eustace took up his proper place in front of the sitting room door. He might look lonely, but we have a few words with him whenever we go in or out.

This is his job, keeping the draught away. He does it very well, taking great pride in his work. His "stable and tranquil" nature makes him perfectly happy lying here. Really.


We watched ten marvellous minutes of Edinburgh Hogmanay fireworks on the television.They were fantastic indeed!

The Daily Express published this photo, with the caption: "Edinburgh's skies erupted in colour as the Scottish city kicked off New Year celebrations."

We may not have joined the revellers on the streets of Edinburgh, as we're not keen on huge crowds, and the whole event has become very commercialised since 1996.

In fact, Alice can remember when there was no entrance fee and folk went up to the Tron with bottles of champagne to let off at the stroke of midnight.

Nevertheless, we did have a traditional tipple of whiskey, to mark the turning of the year.

You can see that we cracked open a few pistachio nuts, to go with our booze. We also decided that New Year Wishes were a much better idea than Resolutions.

And no, we're not telling!

A HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL.

So that was Christmas . . .

We do love getting Christmas cards, even if it is a bit old hat. Oh deary me, Alice just checked up on that common phrase, and it turns out it used to be rather rude in the 18th century, as described in Grose's Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. In fact Blogger had a bit of trouble loading it to be checked. You can see it here, however.

Anyway, this was our favourite card, from a very dear friend we've known for simply ages. It arrived among the last batch the postie delivered. Don't they work hard at this time of year!

We liked it so much Alice put it in pride of place on her mantlepiece. Do click to see it in its full glory - and us too. This is slightly a bigger image than we sometimes include, so make the most of it.

On Christmas Eve we had our "lunch" rather late (around 4:00 pm) and watched Scrooge: a 1951 version of Charles Dickens' story, A Christmas Carol. There have been many film versions. The old "Bah! Humbug!" miser, Ebeneezer, is visited by the three spirits of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come, who show him the error of his ways. Some of it is pretty silly, but some is actually rather scarey!

This image is really a cheat, since the TV screen doesn't photograph well, and we kept getting the flash reflection in it. So Alice found an online still from the film, and made it the right size to fit over the original. These are the sort of tasks she just loves doing!!

The second picture is an illustration depicting Marley's ghost appearing to Scrooge, from the original publication of Dickens' A Christmas Carol  in 1843.

A whole chicken is too much (and too much fuss) for just ourselves, but the breasts stuffed with orange and onion are Alice's own tasty invention.

The stuffing rolls wrapped in bacon are a real treat as well. Alice's father used to make them when she was a little girl, and they do taste most yummy indeed.

And most of it got eaten (very late) on Christmas Eve too!

So Xmas Day itself was given over to relaxing, watching TV or good old Game of Thrones box sets, while nibbling the leftovers, enjoying a tipple and a selection of delicious chocolates.

Here's hoping you enjoyed the holiday in your own way, too.

Christmas is coming (soon)

This version of Christmas is Coming (which Alice tidied up a bit from the original) is based on the same Stark sigil from good old HBO's magnificent Game of Thrones. See that one below.

We're quite sad that Season VII is now finished.

[Warning: there are rather a lot of references to Game of Thrones in this pre-Christmas post. If it's not your sort of thing, you can always skip the links.]


It will take ages before Season VIII appears, as they've had to do the filming later than usual, so it doesn't look like summer, when another Long Winter has just started.

Meanwhile we've been watching the whole thing all over again from the very beginning. So far we've just finished Season Two. Well, that's me and Alice: Ba finds the fights upsetting and the White Walkers far too scarey, so she has a snooze instead.

We've already had our first Xmas pressies.

No, we didn't cheat and open them early! They weren't wrappped up, just innocently lying in the jolly red bag.

Our good friend down the road - who's very into the Game of Thrones dragons - coloured this picture for us. She loves colouring, and finds it a most soothing occupation.

The pen (if you click to look at the full size image) says "Winter is Coming" together with the Stark house direwolf sigil. Aren't they magnificent beasts? In G-o-T they are real Northern Inuits breed.

Yes, it's now officially Christmas Tree time! We went babysitting (child-sitting really) to the grandchildren's and admired their huge tree and vast collection of presents. Ba! look up!

They had lots and lots of presents - some to give to friends and relatives, and some waiting to be opened by themselves on Christmas Day. Maybe there were some for us, too - but we didn't cheat and hunt for them.

I coudn't resist joining in with the decorations. Ba just thought it looked a rather long way down. You can see my super Xmas jumper properly too - it was a present last year from our Game of Thrones fan friend down the road. This year Alice gave her three different dragon bookmarks she made herself, and a surprise book. Not this one: she's ordered it for herself!

Here's our trees (plural) at home.

Please note the careful colour design of the decorations. The bigger one is Alice's, and the small one is the responsibility of Ba and myself.

If you click (oh, go on) to see properly, you can admire our outfits and the little manger scene, which is Ba's favourite decoration.

We like to have the day itself with just the three of us, so we can laze about and eat whenever we like.

The presents are all to take to Glasgow after Christmas proper - but it will still be the Festive Season, when we'll get ours from them, too.

Plus there's a special card from a friend. There's a much better view of the fold-out card and the manger scene in this carefully posed version.

Hoping you all enjoy the lead up to the Festivities in your own way, whatever that is.

Getting into the Festive spirit . . . 

We're already feeling Festive, what with decorations in the streets, advertisements on TV, and glittering gifts in the shops. So we persuaded Alice to have a mini photo-shoot, and create a pre-Christmas card for you all to enjoy.

Even if you mutter Bah! Humbug! and how it's all much too early, we hope it takes your mind off some of the more depressing stuff in The News nowadays.

This is a good time of year for the cinema too.

I'm looking forward to seeing The Last Jedi with Alice, who is certainly keen enough. She enjoys well made SciFi movies, as well as the artsy makes-you-think ones (such as Wind River.) And anything Andy Serkis does is usually worth a watch. He's to play the villainous-looking Snoke. 

[Click on these to see them larger.]

Ba wants to see Paddington 2, as it won't be so scarey. Alice is sorry to disappoint, but she'll have to wait for it to come on TV, as it's not really her cup of tea (or mine) and we won't be paying to see it this side of New Year.

A Diversion

Alice has been a little unwell recently, and suffering from stress for a variety of reasons. Not that have been any sabre-toothed tigers in our vicinity of late. [See the previous link.]

So we haven't done anything very interesting for ages. Sigh.

After we pleaded for a diversion - almost anything for a change - she took us along with her to visit a very old friend, not an ancient man, just someone she'd known for many years, going back in time. Long ago he had defected to live "Down South", but has recently returned to Bonnie Scotland. He was complaining of the cold, but I think he should just wait for the long and balmy summer nights!

Those of you who know Alice and are familiar with some of her friends may be a little confused. In fact she has two "old friends" in this situation - but the other one hasn't completed a return just yet.

This friend has an absolutely wonderful cabinet in his sitting room.

Ba says it's just a glorified book-case, and she knows The Cabinet is something else altogether. And I didn't think she ever paid much attention to the political scene. . .

Alice insists that as the shelves are so tall, it is intended to hold objects of special interest, like the Victorian collectors used to do. She just spent half an hour Googling photos to prove her point, but most of the examples had glass fronts. And I thought I was the pedantic one!

So we had to check with a dictionary, and it turns out both are correct.

Of special interest there was a-plenty, too.

I felt drawn to make the acquaintance of this very serious-looking Angelfish (Pterophyllum to the experts) on the top shelf. Apparently the nomenclature, when roughly translated from the Greek language, means 'winged leaf'.

He told me that his personal name was Cedric, and that those of his kind were not at all "angelic" but carniverous creatures, and fierce fighters.

He had many adventures to relate, so we cosied up, and I told him most of my life history, as well.

The two of us got on like a house on fire.

Ba, on the other hand, was curious about these three striped or spotted creatures. Their owner told us they were two giraffes and a zebra. But there were no long necks! I think they must be some kind of antelope, impala, or gazelle. Alice concurred.

They were very shy indeed, and Ba couldn't get them to communicate with her. All four were quite contented, however, to simply sit and watch the two humans chatting away.

We all enjoyed our visit a great deal. I hope this was an interesting diversion for you lot out there, too. And don't forget to click on the images to see them at a larger size.