Tag Archives: Coronavirus

Lockdown. Day 46 (Friday)

08 Friday May 2020

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Christ, if this is what life’s like when we’re meant to have loads of time on our hands due to lockdown, can I have my old one back, please?

My best intentions of getting up early went out of the window this morning and for the first time in ages I didn’t get out of bed before 08:00 which was a bit of a surprise as I distincly remember being awake at 06:00 and thinking ‘I’ll just have another half an hour’. Damn those snooze buttons! I wouldn’t mind but it’s not even mine as Dawn has control of the alarm clock/radio.

Once the day started it was a busy,- if slightly different one. Dawn’s on her ‘virtual retreat’ for the next few days, so I’m doing everything I can so facilitate and support her doing it but it does mean we’re living rather separate lives for the next few days. Dee printed out her schedule activities and stuck it on the fridge in the kitchen so that I know what she’s up to and when so that I don’t disturb her at a crucial moment, like meditation. This means that the living room is very much ‘her space’ and I’m relegated to using the back door to come in and out, not that it’s a problem.

Yet again we’ve had another beautiful day, weather wise. I shadowed Dawn on her morning walk, which meant that I got a lot of steps in early which makes a change. Recently I’ve taken to getting in an evening stroll to boost my exercise. Whilst it’s technically breaking the guidelines it’s not a problem here as our road is deserted at that time of day. I can walk for half an hour and not bump into another soul or even see a car as everyone’s stuck indoors. Why wouldn’t they be – there’s nowhere else to go!

Back at home I disappeared into the office to spend several hours scanning more old slides, The job’s no less tedious but at least I’m slowly making progress, although it is rather frustrating being stuck inside when the weather’s so good! I’d love to be out and about with the camera, but discipline’s required right now and it means I’m getting something positive out of lockdown.

Once immersed in scanning the day soon flew by. I’ve both laptops on the go at the moment so that whilst I’m scanning with one I can be watching Netflix or the BBCiPlayer with half an eye on the other. Sometimes the distraction’s provided by birds visiting the feeder hung outside the office window as it sees a constant stream of Tits who come to plunder the sunflower seeds I keep it filled with. I avoided the VE celebrations on TV, preferring to remember those who fought and lost their lives in my own way rather then join in what was starting to feel like a jingoistic celebration rather than a reflection on events. No doubt many would disagree with my interpretation, but then there does seem to be a coercive element to these things nowadays, rather like the ritualistic clapping for the NHS on Thursdays. When people are shamed on social media for not taking part, you know that things have gone too far. This pressure is also being used to stifle criticism of the way the Government’s handling the Covid pandemic, with some claiming that it’s somehow unpatriotic to criticise as it’s a national emergency and we should all be ‘pulling together’ (whatever that’s meant to mean in this context). This authoritarianism and herd mentality worries me. It’s too close to the right-wing media and political parties tactics of labelling people ‘traitors’ for opposing Brexit. We seem to be sailing far too close to an Orwellian totalitarianism nowadays, and it’s disturbing how easily some people embrace it.

I knocked off slightly earlier than usual as it is Friday after all. I migrated to the bench in the front garden and sat with a beer, enjoying soaking up the glorious sunshine for a while until 6, when it was time to join the gang from the ‘Big 6’ for our weekly quiz session held on Zoom. Eight of us played this week, many of the gang joining from their respective gardens as they’d got the same idea as me. After weeks of lockdown and barely talking to a soul other than Dawn it’s great to have a semblance of normality restored by joining in the laughter and brain-teasers in the quiz, although I’m looking forward to the day we can restart this where we should be – in the pub!

The rest of the evening passed off quietly at home with the pair of us keeping occupied in different ways. I managed to upload more of my haul of edited pictures to my website, so felt the week ended well. Here’s a couple as an illustration. It’s a tale of two London stations…

3120. 47350. London Kings Cross. 02.02.1993crop

Here’s London Kings Cross on the 2nd February 1993. As it used to look before the recent refurbishment and when Mail trains still ran. It was far dirtier and more cluttered than nowadays, with lots of rubbish deposited on the oil-stained tracks. Railfreight distribution No 47350 stands at the head of a rake of vans carrying mail to the North. Class 47/3s didn’t normally operate these services as the locomotives had no train heating, so I’m assuming the booked engine had failed.

03137. 47853. 43072. Class 47 ex Nottingham. Class 43 is 16.00 to Sheffield. London St Pancras. 09.03.1993crop

Here’s London St Pancras on the 19th March 1993, with a Class 47 which had arrived on a service from Nottingham standing next to an HST set which is waiting to depart as the 16:00 to Sheffield. It’s safe to say that the station doesn’t look like this anymore! This area is now home to Eurostars!

If you want to have a look at any of the other pictures I’ve added to my Zenfolio picture website just follow this link.

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Thank you!

 

 

Lockdown. Day 44 (Wednesday).

06 Wednesday May 2020

Posted by in Coronavirus, Lockdown, Musings, Railways, Uncategorized

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Despite the routine of life at the moment, it still manages to throw you enough curved balls and surprises to make it interesting…

This morning Dawn was first out of bed as I’d had a less than perfect night’s sleep due to our moggie (Jet) deciding that what’s ours is his. He waits until you’re almost asleep then jumps on the bed to wedge himself between us. He’s such an old boy now (eighteen and a half) that most of the time we don’t have the heart to kick him off – but he doesn’t half take up a lot of room. So, despite the fact I’d had a relatively early night I hadn’t had a good one. Dawn bounded out of bed to do her exercise regime in the living room but the most active I got was to make coffee and retreat back to bed with the laptop and catch up with world events before a shower and my ‘commute’ to the office. It was a crying shame to be stuck indoors as the weather was stunning. There may have been a morning chill in the air first thing but that was because there wasn’t a cloud in the sky! Here’s the view from the road above our house (looking across Sowerby Bridge and the Calder Valley) as I walked up the hill to combine getting some of the food shopping for Dawn’s parents and daily exercise.

I’d have loved to have enjoyed a day outdoors, soaking up the sun on such a fabulous day but I had too much to do. I’ve not had chance to edit them and put the results on my website yet but I’ve scanned another forty old slides which include November 1992 to January 1993. It was a period when my life changed completely, so it’s quite strange looking back at them now and remembering. 

Part of the reason I’ve not got them edited today was that other things kept side-tracking me – but in a positive way. A picture request from a magazine saw me scurrying through the archives to dig out what they wanted, then I had a Zoom conference call scheduled to talk about the Community Rail Network awards. Oh, the joys of online meetings! Yes, they’re ideal for when needs must but the idea that these will render travel redundant in future is fanciful to say the least. There’s too many distractions or glitches and body language is next to impossible to read. I lost the call for a few minutes as we suffered a power cut – the second time that’s happened in a week. It was back in an instant but it took several for the internet to reboot.

Finally, I got chance to break away from staring at a screen and retreated into the garden with a good old paper copy of RAIL magazine to catch up on the latest industry news in the sun! The ‘dead tree’ media still has some advantages. You need no batteries or sockets, you don’t need to worry about flare on a screen and you don’t have to fret about a wifi connection. Oh, and you can also use the mag as a sunshade!

The clear skies and sunshine lasted right through to the bitter end when they were overtaken by planet’s rotation and replaced by a glorious dark night and a full moon. If I hadn’t so many things to do I’d have been tempted to set up my camera on a tripod up on the promenade and try some long-exposure shots. Sadly, with the length of exposure that I’d need for what I have in mind the local constabulary may be less than sympathetic in these coronavirus times.

Instead of star-gazing, here’s a look back at the past and the archive pictures I’ve been scanning today. This is Tilbury Riverside station in Essex, just a few days before it closed on the 30th November 1992. Oddly, despite the fact I’d lived in London since 1986, this was the only time I ever visited. I don’t know why, other than it obviously wasn’t a priority at the time, despite the fact I lived just a stones throw from the London, Tilbury & Southend railway in East London. Now, how I wish I had as Tilbury Riverside would have made a fascinating picture study. 

03062. 313787. In the last week before closure. Tilbury Riverside. November.1992 crop

This is how I remember much of the railways from my youth. Decrepit and decaying. Forget the rose-tinted spectacles, the one thing money wasn’t spent on was stations. How many were stripped back to bare platforms and had decent facilities demolished and replaced by bus shelters to save a few quid on maintenance and wages?

Tilbury Riverside is no more but the site is still rail connected as it’s now used by freight trains from the docks. When I’ve had chance to edit the other pictures I’ll add a couple more. Right now it’s time for bed as we’ve a busy shopping day ahead of us…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lockdown. Day 43 (Tuesday).

05 Tuesday May 2020

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Despite getting up before 07:00 I still didn’t get everything done that I’d hoped and planned to. So much for all this time we’re meant to have on our hands due to lockdown! On the bright side, I did achieve a lot. Having left Dawn in bed with our moggie keeping guard over her I made some coffee before heading to the office. It’s not exactly an onerous commute from the kitchen, one flight of stairs and I’m there! The first assignment of the day was to get a the next batch of slides scanned and edited whilst setting up another batch ready to join the queue. Whilst they’re scanning I normally have time to peruse the web and catch up on the days world and financial news in between. The media isn’t making as depressing and perturbing reading as it did a few weeks ago due to the fact so many countries are slowly feeling their way out of lockdown and making plans for the future. Quite how long this process will last before normality returns is anyone’s guess as this would depend on countries having a vaccine against Covid-19.

With this in mind I’m prepared to be in complete lockdown for another week or two yet. I’ve plenty to keep me occupied, so the only real negative impact on me is financial. I’m one of the lucky ones in that I’ve been able to adapt to lockdown without too much mental stress, as has Dawn. I’m not saying it’s been all plain sailing, but at least we’re both going to come out of this still married!

Dawn was back at work today and straight into conference calls, catching up with her colleagues and what’s going on in the world of Community Rail – a sector that’s not had it easy as many of the volunteer groups rely on people who fit into various ‘at risk’ categories.

It was during one of Dawn’s conference calls that the Dell engineer arrived to take another look at my laptop. To maintain social distancing he worked in the kitchen like he did last time. The machine’s now running sweetly (I’m typing this on it new) and I’m hoping the glitches have finally been sorted out and I’ve a machine I can rely on. I’m keeping my old one up to date as a precaution  and basing everything in the Cloud so if anything does go wrong I can rapidly switch between machines. In fact it’s quite useful having both running at times as I can use one for slide scanning and picture editing and the other machine for emails and paperwork. Who says men can’t multi-task!

Once the Dell engineer had left I took a break from staring at screens to get my daily constitutional. The weather was ideal as it was sunny but not too hot so slogging up through the woods to the promenade didn’t leave me in a sweaty mess. After being in lockdown for so long and missing the levels of exercise I used to get I’m trying to ramp things up by increasing my target from the daily minimum of 12,500 steps to 17,000 which means I then surpass all my targets. Thankfully we live in an area where I can do this without putting anyone at risk I’d be buggered if I still lived in North London as 7 miles around a 30 foot garden would be stretching things a bit!

Sadly, with Dawn still working I had to walk solo. Once back at home I settled back down in front of the computers and managed to get 60 old pictures done today. You can find them on my Zenfolio website in this gallery.

I’m moving on through the years now and passed a significant (well, to me anyway) landmark. I’ve finished the years 1989 -1991. 1991 was important to me because in the October of that year I packed in my job as a Housing Officer in Tower Hamlets, paid a years rent on my shared flat and headed off to South-East Asia for a year. By the time I returned in October 1992 I’d visited India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Malaysia. I’d also travelled all the way overland through the Indonesian islands from Sumatra to West Timor and even got as far as Darwin in Australia before running out of time and money! One day I’ll write up my experiences of those days, when backpacking was very different to today…

The trip means that there’s a year-long gap in my UK rail archive, just at a time when the railways were going through another phase of replacing loco-hauled passenger services with yet more multiple units. This meant I was kept busy before I left documenting how things were before they changed forever. Of course, what I didn’t know at the time was that rail privatisation was looming. There wasn’t going to be a general election until 1992 and John Major’s Tories looked unlikely to win…

Here’s a sample picture that shows how much has changed.

03035. 87001. 13.12 to Liverpool Lime St. 87021. 09.10 from Liverpool Lime St. London St Pancras. 12.10.1991 crop

On the 12th October 1991 a pair of Class 87s stand at the buffers at St Pancras station London. No, this isn’t a mistake! Due to weekend engineering work Services from Liverpool were diverted away from Euston and into St Pancras. The trains were diesel hauled from Nuneaton across to the Midland Main Line and then down to Bedford where the Class 87s could run ‘under the wires’ to St Pancras. 87001 (on the left) waits to work the 13.12 to Liverpool Limes St whilst I’d arrived from Liverpool behind 87021 on the right which had worked the 09.10 from Lime St. I’d been back to Southport for the weekend to say my goodbye’s to my family. A few days later I flew out on a single ticket to Delhi, India, where the adventure began…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lockdown. Day 42 (Monday)

04 Monday May 2020

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Another day that didn’t quite go according to plan…

That’s partially because I got up later than expected. Today was Dawn’s last day on holiday and as she was having a lie in I ended up lying in for a bit. Mind you, the fact our moggie had pulled a fast one and dived on the bed during the night didn’t help. Much as we love him, he’s a bugger for pinching the middle of the bed!

Getting up late meant the working day was cut short by a couple of hours, so I spent longer scanning old slides to meet my target and less doing other stuff. Even so, It was a productive day. I hate ones where I feel I’ve not achieved anything. One thing I didn’t manage to sort out was getting my new laptop working again. It’s been faulty since last week. Despite spending over half an hour on the phone to the Dell helpdesk there was nothing to be done, so another of their engineers will be paying me a visit tomorrow. Hopefully, this time the repair will be permanent. The old machine I’m using at the moment is fine for office work but as the battery is fried it can’t move far.

Away from work the day went well. Dee kept herself busy with her exercise regime and then got stuck into the decorating jobs she’s occupied herself with these past few days. Yesterday she did an excellent job of prepping the porch for painting. Today the task was painting the living room window cills and surrounding plasterwork. I love her enthusiasm for getting hands-on with tasks like this as it’s very different from her day job.

The weather’s defaulted back to a mixture of sunshine and cloud, with only the slightest smattering of rain, which was great as it meant that when I finally went cross-eyed through staring at a screen all day I could go for a stroll without getting soaked. I didn’t go far but stuck to the usual woods/promenade/park circuit with a slight deviation to the supermarket. I was surprised how quite everywhere was. I didn’t even have to queue to get into Tesco’s. There’s been a few signs recently that more people are pushing the lockdown envelope at weekends, but there was little sign of that today.

Hopefully, we can start to see the lockdown begin to be relaxed. Although it’s early days yet there are positive signs that the number of cases and death toll is heading in the right direction. I just wish it was possible to have greater faith in the Governments statistics. Quite what the gradual relaxing will look like is open for debate. Right now, I’m not making any plans. besides, I’ve more than enough things to keep me occupied.

Whilst the majority of us are respecting the lockdown and social distancing I saw that the faux ‘Eco-warriors’ from ‘Extinction rebellion’ who’re protesting against building HS2, the new high-speed railway, were displaying their usual weapons-grade hypocrisy by pulling various stunts and protests along the route. Using banners carrying the slogan ‘NHSnotHS2’ they blocked an HS2 site entrance at Euston long enough to get a media photo call. Meanwhile, they had a few useless protesters up trees outside Euston station. All Londoners, of course. Oh, wait a minute…

One of the people up the trees was a certain Larch Maxey. The very same Larch Maxey who (until a couple of days ago) was at the Crackley Woods camp in Warwickshire. It seems the lockdown rules and social distancing don’t apply to these hypocrites. The very same rules they rant and rave about HS2 workers, police and bailiffs not obeying…

Here’s a picture of Maxey taken from one of the protesters Facebook pages.

Maxey

I wonder where the hypocrite will turn up next?

Needless to say, the protests didn’t stop a thing. They attracted some media attention but that was it. Work on Hs2 continued on sites from London to Birmingham with minimal disruption. This is the stupidity and futility of it all, the protests aren’t even a pin-prick to such a vast project which is gaining momentum all the time now that the main contractors are gearing up for what will be the largest construction project in Europe. You might as well attack a Rhino with a pea-shooter!

This evening has been more relaxed. Last night I’d cooked a tofu and tempeh veggie stir-fry, so I added some extra veggies to that to reinvent it for a second night as a quick and easy meal. Afterwards we spent time on a Zoom call with Dawn’s Brother and his family down in Farnham and her parents over in Huddersfield which makes the Covid lockdown more bearable and the distances between us shrink.

Tomorrow Dawn’s back at work and I’ll be kept occupied with scanning and paperwork. I’m hoping to catch up with some writing too (including the blogs I’d been determined to catch up with today!), so it’s goodnight from me with the intent of an earlier start tomorrow.

Lockdown. Day 37 (Wednesday).

30 Thursday Apr 2020

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Another day dawned with crappy weather but one that was enjoyable anyway as we were stepping off the lockdown treadmill – and it felt quite anarchic! How easily we’re pleased in these strange times!

Our often mundane and routine weekly schedule was being interrupted because we’d some extra shopping to do for Dawn’s parents, which meant – wo hoo! – we had a legimate excuse for a trip out in the car! The mission (which we’d chosen to accept) was to shop for a humoungous amount of meat from the excellent Bolster Moor farm shop which is high above Slaithwaite in the Colne Valley. John and Norah had sent us over their shopping list so we knew exactly what we were shopping for – which would restock their freezer for quite some time.

The trip over was a bit of a doddle as it’s cross-country on back roads. Although there seemed to be more people out and about recently traffic seemed to have died down again which was reassuring as the edges of lockdown have felt like they’re starting to fray. The Farm Shop was certainly taking social distancing seriously. No couples were allowed – only individuals, so Dawn went in and I stayed in the car and filled my time by blogging via my phone. Neither Dee nor I are big red meat eaters, but we do occaisionally indulge so Dawn picked up a selection for us which included minced beef, minced pork, chicken livers and bacon. Another bonus was being able to buy some flour, which is as rare as hen’s teeth nowadays. Bolster Moor have been buying it in industrial quantities and then putting it in smaller bags for resale. Apparently, packaging issues are one of the main reasons for shortages, not the inability of mills to supply the raw material. Folk are running out of packaging, not flour! Dee’s final purchase was one of the shops award winning Pork Pies for us to share as a treat. Admittedly, around this neck of the woods it’s almost impossible to find a pork pie that doesn’t carry the sobriquet ‘award winning’ – but with Bolster Moor’s the title’s well deserved!

Mercy mission done we drove over to John and Norah’s to deliver the goods, along with some other bits we’d picked up for them as part of our shopping trips. I feel for John and Norah, we get to do their shopping but they’re completely cut off from a lot of their normal life. Both of them are active and have a wide circle of friends with (until Covid-19 happened) a busy social calendar – all of which has had to come to an end for now and be put on hold until who knows when.

I’d packed my camera in the car on the off-chance there could be a picture opportunity in the offing but the weather conspired against us, so as we drove across the Colne valley and the railway from Manchester to Leeds a band of rain seemed to take delight in frustrating me by blocking off the views which would have been gorgeous a week earlier as we came back cross country via Slaithwaite – or ‘Slawit’ as some insist on saying – i’ve no idea on the correct way to pronounce it as even the local can’t agree on that one! I sometimes wonder if it’s a class thing in the same way that some people insist the word ‘bath’ has an R in it.

Back at home we dodged the rain and settled back into a routine. Dawn got busy in the kitchen sorting out our supplies whilst I retreated into the office to catch up on some work and process some more old railway pictures that were next in the queue whilst respondng to emails and trying to keep on top of information about the big, wide (lockdowned) world. Tomorrow we have another day where we sally forth – this time to shop for ourselves and visit a fishmongers that Dawn’s folks frequent but we’ve never visited…

 

Lockdown. Day 36 (Tuesday).

29 Wednesday Apr 2020

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Today the weather really has changed. The broken cloud we had yesterday morphed into heavy grey, rainbearing skies this morning making the world look very different when I opened the bedroom blinds. It made me just how lucky that we’ve had over a month of near continuous sunshine just when we needed most. Imagine what people’s spirits might have been like going through lockdown when the weather was appalling?

Having kept my head down all Monday to complete my next article for RAIL magazine on the East London Line it was great to be able to put it to bed and get back to scanning my slide archive as that’s had to take a back seat this past week. I’ve several pages of my first set of pictures from 1989-90 to complete and I’m eager to get them finished as it feels like a milestone in what’s been a bloody long process! It’s not the most exciting of tasks, it’s very much a marathon, not a sprint, but after all these years it feels like the finisheing line’s in sight.

Whilst I’ve been doing this I’ve been kept entertained by a pair of Blackbirds who’re nesting in a tree at the back of the house. They keep foraging for food on the shed roofs opposite my office window and I’ve been helping them by keeping an eye out for the local cats who consider the area their territory. I’m making the moggies feel uncomfortable enough that they don’t hang around, giving the Blackbirds a free-fly zone. We have a cat ourselves but Jet is an old boy who’s 18 and a half, so his bird-catching days are long behind him. Oh, he’ll saunter around outside, but he’s unfazed by our feathered friends nowadays are barely gives them a second glance. The fact he’s as deaf as a post probably helps as he only notices them if they intrude on his line of sight. 

I was so engrossed in the process of scanning and editing several batches of slies that the day flew by. before I knew it we were in to evening. Dawn’s got the week off from work so she’s been busy downstairs with DIY, and getting exercise that way, so I headed out for an evening constitutional on my own, in the rain! There was no way I was going to get my daily target of 12,500 steps. Even so, it was lovely to get out and experience the wind and rain on my skin after a long day sat at a desk.

Here’s a couple of the images I’ve been scanning. This is a classic image of a railway that’s gone forever. On the 8th March 1990 a pair of Class 56s pass at Barnetby East junction in Lincolnshire. Nearest the camera is 56088 with a loaded train of HAA coal hoppers on its way from Immingham Docks to Scunthorpe where the coal will power the steelworks furnaces. In the background is 56090 heading back to the docks with the empties. the signalbox and semaphores here lasted until Christmas 2015 when the area was resignalled. The Four wheeled HAA coal wagons are long gone too, having been replaced with much higher capacity bogie hopper wagons which are kinder to the track (amongst other things). 

0616. 56088. 56090. Barnetby. 8.3.1990 copy

Here’s another, taken at Peterborough a few days later on the 12th March 1990 when the Class 91 locomotives were brand-new. Here’s 91011, named ‘Terence Cuneo’ (after the famous railway artist) out on a test train before entering passenger service. Now, 30 years later the Class 91 fleet is slowly being phased out of mainline service with LNER, although several are planned to remain in traffic until 2022. Will this plan survive the downturn in traffic due to Covid-19? Who knows? 

0648. 91011. Peterborough12.3.1990 copy

If you want to have a look through more of these old photos, follow this link to the ‘recent’ section of my Zenfolio website. 

Lockdown. Day 34 (Sunday).

27 Monday Apr 2020

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*blog under construction*

Sod it, for once we both decided to throw caution (and plans) to the wind and have a lie-in! We felt like proper lockdown slobs as we stayed in bed drinking coffee until 09.30 when we got up and prepared a leisurely breakfast before finally getting our arses into gear to start the day proper which meant sorting out various household chores before strolling down into Sowerby Bridge to pick up some food shopping. Being good little lockdown observers we combined our daily exercise with a trip to buy some essentials.

Not having been into Sowerby Bridge much recently we were surprised by the the increase in traffic. There seemed to be far more cars on the road. Mostly with single occupants but not exclusively. I’ve no idea what can account for the increase or what folk were doing or where they were going, but it was rather concerning. Is lockdown starting to break down? – and if it does, what are the long-term implications of people’s impatience? The UK’s death toll is already bad. How much worse could this get if the numbers start rising again? 

Despite the folks mucking around in cars our local supermarket was still blissfully quiet and almost everybody was respecting the rules, making our shop speedy and stress free whilst the climb back up the hill to home with a ruscac full of shopping was good weight-bearing exercise even if it did get a bit sweaty as the weather was still sunny and warm.

Feeling virtuous after our exertions the two of us retired to the front garden for a cold drink in the evening sunshine, soaking up what may well be the last of the good weather for a while as the forecast’s suggesting change is on the way. I can’t complain. We’ve had a fantastic run of good weather that’s made the lockdown easier to bear. 

Later, the fresh veg we’d replenished our stocks with went very well with some of the tinned stuff we’d been hoarding since the early ‘no deal Brexit’ fears (Sadly, we may well need to replenish them with the way this Government’s behaving) I made the two of us a rather nice chickpea, tuna and Feta cheese salad using some tuna steaks out of the freezer rather than the tinned stuff the recipe recommends, plus some Vegan Feta as Dawn’s allergic to cheese. Adding red onions, lemon juice, parsley and seasoning to the mix and serving it with salad leaves made a simple but gorgeous meal. I love recipes like this, tasty but unfussy and a doddle to make.  

 

Lockdown. Day 33 (Saturday).

26 Sunday Apr 2020

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Day 33? really? I’m beginning to lose all sense of days now after so long. Before beginning to write today’s epistle I had to say to Dawn “remind me, what the hell did we do yesterday?” – and no – it’s nothing to do with my age! I’ve decided that I need to keep a notebook with me to write down the salient points I want to blog about each day as I’ll be damned if I can remember many of them by the time I sit down in front of  blank screen to begin typing.

OK, Day 33 was Saturday which (surprise surprise) was very much like any other day in that we’d nowhere to go and pretty much nothing to do out of the ordinary. Despite it being the weekend – which really doesn’t mean anything anymore. We didn’t have a lie-in as both of us had things we wanted to do. Dawn was up exercising whilst I was getting an article together for RAIL magazine that required a lot of research plus extensive trawling through my picture archive, which kept me busy for several hours.

What was different was breakfast as (for a change) we’d bought some lovely English Asparagus to have with poached eggs and a toasted bagel. I’d show you a picture, only I scoffed it before I thought of taking one!

As the weather was still stunning we were determined to get out for our daily constitutional as the forecast suggests the brilliant run of sunshine that we’ve had is about to come to an end. It took a few hours to complete the chores that form a large part of the mundanity of modern life. Daft one’s that beg questions like “if there’s only the two of us – how the hell do we manage to go through so much cutlery in a day that I spend so much time washing it”?

Finally, we went for our stroll, sticking to what’s now a well-worn path up through Scarr woods to the Promenade, only today took an awful lot longer as it was so sociable because we bumped into several friends. First off was Sally and Simon who live in a house on the Prom. They were out in their garden so we had a typically English chat over the garden gate. Whilst we were thus engaged we met another couple of friends in passing who were also indulging in exercise. We ended up in a small group taking up an awful lot of room thanks to the delights of social distancing!

Returning from our constitutional we plonked ourselves in the front garden to soak up the sun and indulge in a group chat with friends via Messenger. Old friends came together from London, Par, Warrington and Halifax to keep in touch via modern technology. Does this mean this will be the future? Bugger off – we’d all have much preferred being in a real pub rather than a virtual one! Even so – it was lovely to be able to swap tales for an hour and know that we’re all managing to get through this in our different ways. I feel for one of my friends as he lives in an apartment block in South London where his nearest green space is Clapham Common. It makes me feel very lucky living where I am now as 25 years ago that would have been me. Well, in East London not South, and not with two teenage children either…

If nothing else the lockdown should teach people to appreciate their lives and what they have.

*to be continued*…

 

Lockdown. Day 32 (Friday).

25 Saturday Apr 2020

Posted by in Coronavirus, Lockdown, Musings, Politics

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The day started full of sunshine, but it all went a bit ‘Pete Tong’ rather rapidly…

The pair of us were up by 07:30 and quickly adjourned to our respective offices to crack on with some work. I was a bit apprehensive about my laptops behavior but it seemed fine at first. Then it froze. I reset it, then it crashed. I fixed it. It crashed again. I managed to get it working and ran every diagnotic I could. All of them told me the hardware was fine. I then turned it off as we needed to nip out to pick up some supplies from our local B&Q now that it’s reopened. Dawn has the next week off work and plans get some decorating done in the cottage but we need a few bits first, so I volunteered to get them. Dropping me off at the store Dee shot off to do some other shopping whilst I joined the  queue which snaked back and forth across their car park. This is the one real downside to life right now. The time you spend in queues. OK, it’s fine when you’ve got time on your hands and the sunshine’s cracking the flags, but if neither is the case it’s getting to be a pain in the arse. Their old jingle has come back to haunt them…

“You can do it if you B&Queue it…”

Actually, fair play to them for reopening and the thought that had gone into how they could do so whilst keeping both staff and customers safe and respecting social distancing protocols. The amount of people who turned up showed that their services were needed. I suspect many people had been frustrated with being trapped at home with time on their hands to do all sorts of DIY jobs but who were unable to pick up the stuff they needed to carry them out. In one way it’s a mental and physical health issue. How many people would become couch potatoes because they couldn’t get the stuff they needed to carry out repairs, or garden, or do any number of little projects? Plus, how many staff are furloughed because of the restrictions? I chatted to a couple of B&Q staff whilst I was there and they were as glad to be back at work as we were to see them. The numbers of people entering were strictly controlled, which made shopping very pleasant. As well as the stuff Dawn needed I picked up a couple of plants for the garden although most of the garden centre had already been stripped bare, so the choice was limited. Our Parsley hadn’t survived the winter so I managed to replace it (and I defy anyone who cooks to tell me that’s not an essential purchase!) plus some petunias for a hanging basket.

After Dawn returned to collect me we headed back home. I turned on my laptop but the damned thing wouldn’t even boot up properly so it was useless. Now there’s nothing for me to do but leave it until I can contact Dell on Monday. I’ve still got my old machine as backup but I decided to call it a day to enjoy the sun in the front garden for a little while before 18:00 came around and it was time for the ‘Big 6’ lockdown quiz via Zoom. This week 9 of us tuned in to hear Mel pose the questions in her own inimitable style and broad Lancashire accent. It was lovely to be able to catch up and maintain contact with people – even if it is at a distance.

Quiz over, we spent a relaxed evening at home pottering around, catching up with the wider world via social media which certainly makes lockdown far more bearable. That said, looking at the antics of our Leaders makes me despair. Donald Trumps latest utterances about Covid-19 and bleach is a classic example. How such a moron manages to get elected to the highest office in the democratic world should worry us all. What should also worry us is the number of people who still believe in him despite all the evidence. Mind you, we have our own mini-Trump in the shape of Boris Johnson and the collection of clowns who make up much of his Cabinet. The one bright spot has been the Labour party ditching ‘Magic Grandad’ and replacing him with an adult in the shape of Sir Keir Starmer, who’s already made an impressive debut at PM’s Question time this week when he made an utter fool of Dominic Raab (not hard, admittedly, but even so, Starmer looked cool, assured and very much in control of himself and the facts. More of this please, we desperately need a political opposition worth the name – which is something we never had under Corbyn and Co. 

So, once more unto the weekend dear friends…

 

 

Lockdown. Day 31 (Thursday)

24 Friday Apr 2020

Posted by in Coronavirus, Lockdown, Musings, Photography, Railways

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I won’t even mention what the weather was like when I opened the bedroom blinds at 06:30 as you know the drill by now!

Thursday’s our ‘fun’ day as we escape the confines of the Calder Valley to do some essentials like check on the CRA office in Huddersfield and shop for Dawn’s parents.

But first we had a few chores and a bit of work to do at home in preparation, which meant we didn’t leave the house until 09:30. Driving over to Huddersfield took no time at all although the roads seemed busier than the past few times we’d done the trip. First stop was Sainsburys where the queue was moderate to fair. Everyone know the drill now. The only difference I noticed was that a lot more people are wearing masks compared to a fortnight ago. Both of us went in, me to shop for us two and Dawn for her parents. Most people were doing their best to social-distance but I did notice one thing – masks give people a false sense of security and some wearers get too complacent and too damn close!

What’s left on the shelves is still a bit of a lottery. Whilst the great bog-roll shortage had ended there’s still empty shelves, especially of tinned goods. I’m not sure if this is down to hoarding or problems along the supply chain. Some of the fruit and veg wasn’t top quality either but I think that’s down to whom the different supermarkets buy from. For examlle, the cauliflowers in Sainsbury’s are inferior to the ones in our local Tescos which are double the size and the same price.

Shopping done we headed over to the railway station so Dee could check on CRA’s water tower offices, sort out some paperwork and arrange for an electrician to get access to carry out a few repairs. Whilst she did I took advantage of the weather and a newly cleared vantage point to get a few rail pictures and keep my hand in!

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Every train that passed contained a mere handful of people and the station itself was eerily quiet. The town centre was busier but not by much! Subtract the itinerant drunks and vagrants and there were few people with a purpose other than transit. Why would there be when bugger-all’s open!

By midday we’d done everything we needed to do apart from dropping off John and Norah’s shopping and having a (socially-distanced) chat over the garden gate before driving home cross-country via quiet roads that must be great fun for the cyclists who use bikes for their exercise. What could be more ideal  – sunshine and empty roads!

Having returned to lockdown and deposited the shopping Dawn prepared a lovely tuna salad lunch which we sat and ate together in the garden whilst watching the world go by, soaking up some sun before we both returned to work for a few more hours. Whilst I was in the garden I noticed this water droplet on a Lupin leaf, which seemed like a good excuse to dig the camera out and play around with the micro lens.

droplet

 Seeing as there’s little opportunity for railway shots at the moment and I’m missing the creativity of using my camera I just might start playing around in the garden more. The time of year’s ideal as life is springing eternal all over the place. I’m seeing some unusual butterflies too, so hopefully, once I’ve got the work done that I need to do right now I can spend some time experimenting.