The debonair Basil Marigold's

I drive through a snowstorm to get home tonight. It’s odd, but I assume geographical that there can be greenfields from the M69 to Junction 22 of the M1, but whenever you go from 22 to 23 (what I think of as the Coalville/shepshed area) it had already become a winter wonderland of white snow. And of course, once past Junction 23 the green fields returned! It’s like a band running across northwest Leicestershire that gets the bad weather.  This always gets me every time. How it can be so localised.

It turned out to be a rather eventual last 6 months of 2018. We moved house in November, but the initial process began wat back in July, at the height of what was a lovely, hot summer. When we moved in, finally, it was dark and cold.  The most immediate benefit of this was having a substantially larger property to live in. With more bedrooms, a garage and a larger garden you could say we have space to burn and by any stretch of the imagination I have begun to utilise this space. To my hearts delight I have been able to move my books, my precious books, from the loft and now, into a place of prominence: where books deserve to be.  In this case, to hide some especially unappealing wallpaper the decision was taken to cover this with bookshelves.  So, after a trip to ikea and much lugging about with heavy packages and then, the obligatory, faffing about with flat packs the shelves were ready to be secured to the wall. The wallpaper began to disappear as they went up. It took ...

Recently, we have had an issue with our main car. The issue was its inability to pass its own MOT. For cars, this is not good. It is, very bad. It can mark the death of the car. And boy, this car is virtually indestructible! However, there were quite a few major fails! It essentially boils down to the fact that the car is now thirteen years old, which, in car years is thirteen years. this makes it an older car. The plus to this is that it drives a lot of miles each year that helps keep the engine tip top. The drawback is that the car drives a lot of miles each year which that means every thing is fatiguing. In this case it was the brake pipes throughout the car. This is a big job, using garage parlance, and big correlates with expensive! But, it has now passed its MOT as the work has been done. This means thought that the warning signs are there and it is time to get a car where each repair cost more than the car. Currently valued by WeBuyAnyCar at £215!! So, with children in h...

You can spell ‘Contractor’ but not Plumber!!! 

At work we have a fully fitted kitchen for staff to make drinks, use the microwave and fridges etc. It has two sinks and an instant boil tap. I love the instant boil tap. Every house should have one! We also have some taps for our sinks. They have been there since I have been there and they are used very heavily every day and so, at some point, they will fail. The tap failed last week. Fortunately facilities swung into action and put up an out of service sign and rang through to get it fixed. I can only assume they had tried to call, Christopher Plummer...oh dear.

My son and I will often listen to music in the car. Previously he used to enjoy the AC/DC soundtrack to Ironman 2. His current listening pleasure is the soundtrack to the Guardians of the Galaxy films. These are performed by various artists, mainly from the 70s. I therefore find myself listening to music I used to hear on the Alan Freeman show on Radio 1 on a Sunday afternoon. He is particularly fond of sweet's, Band on the run.    Pure 70s Glamrock. He loves it. He'll also gravitate towards  Hooked on a feeling & Mr Blue Sky (This is the song on the opening credits). We will listen to all these songs in the car. But, the most appropriate one for being in a car is a song called, The Chain by Fleetwood Mac. It is suitable because this song become at some point the theme tune to Formula 1 racing. Joshua knows it as the formula 1 song. His other fact about Fleetwood Mac is that Mick Fleetwood is really tall. As we were driving through town we were listening to th...

As I count via the calendar it has now reached the ninth month since I have had any alcohol. This is a most bizarre state of affairs. I have made no new years resolution, and, as far as I am aware I have had no warnings over my health either. Therefore, I have no idea why this has continued for so long. I commute a long distance so I have not had a drink during a weekdays for years now. Yet, I could quite happily have a drink on a weekend but I neither felt the need nor had the desire to make a dent into my whiskey or gin in the cupboard. Perhaps the scariest part is I am not sure when this phase will pass. I will keep the alcohol on the shelf for the time being, though.