"- and sometimes of none at all" - :-)
but it beats "blogging" & "lj-ing" leastways, it does imnsho/sfaics (i could be wavering a bit on the latter); friends & interested strangers inclined to be friendly can read my meanderings without having to read (- or bookmark -) another url (and read more - reprints from "feetnotes", text (ascii) only so far;
"why ppint?" - about yr hmbl srppnt. & things that've interested me enough to write & publish my thoughts in the past... &
"last easter, i rose from the dead..."
(also referred to as
"why vegetablisation?")
- and if you're not interested, you can (and i trust will) just skip 'em.
but i hope people'll find some of them interesting; perhaps "ppint.-explanatory" (at least to a degree); and maybe even entertaining...
5th July 2008: 08:10 (BST) the month has kicked off with one and two half classic summer days, two and two half days of rain, half of that heavy - and two of those days gale-force winds, just short of the full storms that seem to've been tracking across the south-west & south wales to the midlands, and then out across the north sea. given how wet june's been, this is feeling more like early autumn than early-mid summer. i hope the rain's mostly missed sheffield & chapeltown, but i've not heard aught from those parts, to know for sure how things're going there.
22nd May 2008: 12:10 (BST) that was quite a blow, that was - not just the day-long gale-force winds, but their gustiness too has left bits and pieces of tree scattered all over the road; and the daytime temperatures've been way down for the middle of the year - even allowing for the fact that april & may're frequently better-behaved than the summer months, this has been quite unusual weather for late spring season.
"i blame it all on global warnings, meself," said local pensioners, arthur'n'mabel voxpop, who seem to have a somewhat better understanding of that phenomenon, than do reporters and readers of banished from morecambe, the times of lancaster, the tegrelaugh, the moon, the evening vanguard, the reflector, uk.local.cumbria - indeed, uk.local.anything - #afp on irc.lspace.org, and the daily wail.
or maybe they don't, and it's merely an eviction of the truism that even a stopped clock is right, two times a day.
18th May 2008: 17:23 (BST) it's been a very white year thus far round here (and into the pennines; and across to pink panther city, too), as regards native flowers and blossom; as i noted a month ago, the cherry was disappointing this year; there was little colour on show from snowdrops'n'crocuses; wild daffs'n'narcissississusses weren't exactly dramatic, and even the bluebells seemed somewhat restrained, though they were at least some of them out - and whilst i'm not complaining about the low profile of dandelions, they really haven't put on much of a show so far...
but the may, cow-parsley, magnolia (are they native?), and now the elderflower have all blossomed profusely - some of the hedges round here have been a regular riot of efflorescence that must've pleased the bees, if not their knees, no end.
the fortnight(ish)-long sunny spell's gorn, though; now skies are gray, and the world wet, and almost autumnal, if not quite cold enough round here to achieve wintry. what weather for m-th'n'jeffrey to run out of fuel oil for their aga!
(hopefully, it'll've been sorted by the understanding domestic fuel oils delivery firm by now (i hope and trust they've not been caught in the shell oils' contractors' delivery drivers' four-day strike) (they're not on t'net at home, and as they were out yesterday evening, i don't yet know the latest.)
and i do hope they'll yet get some snushine & congenial company to sip pimms'n'lemonade'n'thnigs whilst lounging under their new table'n'umbrella...
(this was not much of a sunday for so doing, even if m-th hadn't been one of the main people actually running the pink panther city of arts event at trevelyan's on the day, and providing snackes'n'spirits for the mulitude.)
18th May 2008: 07:35 (BST) many of the summer flowers are out here, as well as most - but not all - those of the spring; i think all the broad-leaved trees canopies're unfurled, though of course many of 'em are a month or so away from blossoming; the cherry was disappointing this year - the displays of both the native white, and the introduced "ornamental" pink a week later, were fairly thin, and more or less all fallen three days after the pink came out; but the laburnum are making a fine show with their yellow cascades; and i don't think i've ever seen a more luxuriant display of may: many of the trees' leaves & branches cannot be seen for clouds of the white blossom. peak daytime temperatures're down a bit, to about 73 F, but nighttime lows're about 63 F; the occasional show^W downpour's been very occasional, though enough to keep all that vegetation flourishing; and the breeze's held up, keeping the real world all fresh (though it wasn't so welcome, yesterday and the day before, when skies were gray, and the world wet, and almost wintry).
in the unreal world outside IMT, the city council's contractors've emptied the pay'n'display car-park just over the road from the shop and fenced it off, while they rebuild its exit so that drivers can't drive out of it, when the one-way system's clear, and into the slip road into sainsbury's car-park. this strikes me as a piece of mean, humourless extravagance with rate, council & tax-payers' money - the pay'n'display was frequently full, and there's no reason to suppose it would not continue to be, equally often, without making it impossible for drivers to cross over into sainsbury's without having to drive completely around the city-centre's one-way system. which already gums up for half an hour or so twice - or three times, during term-time - a day on week-days, once day on sundays, and twice a day on saturdays. this can't be sensible, if there's a reasonable alternative - which there was.
if they were truly mostly concerned about the safety - or the lack of it - of having drivers cross the two lanes of the noth-bound A6 one-way system road to get from one car-park to the other, they could simply alter the timing of the traffic lights & those of the pedestrian crossing by the bus station, "upstream" of sainsbury's, with a small but sensibly-sized gap between giving the green light to one s tream and the other - which would also have the benefit of making it a hell of a lot safer for people to cross over that same road outside sainsbury's - to get to & from the council's precious pay'n'display car-park, and the straightest and easiest route to most of the city-centre shops: a double improvement, and one adding far less to city centre traffic congestion.
*grump* and they've also closed off all pedestrian access, leaving no direct route along the side of the pay'n'display from sainsbury's to IMT - you & i have to go around two sides of the triangle, up to the semi-lights-controlled crossing at the yo ho ho, across each side of the one-way system and the uncontrolled slip road, and back along the far side of the car-park and the north-bound one-way system, while they do this. *grump*
13th May 2008: 14:05 (BST) ten-twelve days of truly summery weather, peak daytime temperatures of 68-70 F, and nighttime lows of about 59-63 F, save for the occasional show^W downpour - and on sunday, a pretty good thunderstorm complete with almost firework display level lightning - and a cooling breeze last night; but can the heat really be blamed for all i see going on around me?
e.g: about the beginning of the week before last, kellet lane, the "back road" up from the river to (just outside) nether kellet, and 1/4 my customary route home, finally got a road crew from the county (or their contractors) to re-do the central white-line dashes, which've needed repainting for about two years - initially not badly, and it is but a minor road, when all's said and done; but by the end of last summer, the lines'd faded pretty well to nothing in places, so it was definitely a day's job as needed doing...
the middle of last week, however, another road crew from the county took two, two and a half days to lay a coat of tar the width, and (just short of) the entire length of kellet lane, and then tip about an inch-thick blanket of granite chippings over the whole lot, for passing traffic (and the road is used by quarry trucks and short, single-deck buses as well as perhaps surprisingly many private cars) to do the greater part of pressing the "metal" into the fresh, and still sticky, soft layer of tar.. ..a cheap-but-effective way of resurfacing a minor road, so long as it hasn't actually started to break up (usually at the [h]edges), and doesn't have [m]any too-deep pot-holes developing hidden depths in it; again, a job as's needed doing for three-four years now...
but also a very effective way of completely burying and totally obliterating the newly-repainted central white-lining paint job.
- any bets on how long it is before the next white-lining road crew turn up to re-do it all over again?
4th April 2008: 13:05 (BST) the weather's now ping-ponging around all over the place, evidently uncertain as to whether it really ought to be springly, or hanging onto winterishness for a few weeks longer - but a good thris of the sheep out in the fields have lambs, and if they think it's spring...
two days of heavy rain, or perhaps one and a half, were coped with perfectly well by cumbrians - people as well as lambs & sheep - but a lot less well by lancastrians, especially van & car drivers; tail-gating is dangerous at any speed, but tail-gating at high speed on wet roads is lunatic - i wish the police & cps'd make more use of the law against "driving furiously"...
(and "condemn" those convicted of it, to remedial driving lessons and having to pass the driving test again, before having their licences returned to them, on top of any other stricture.)
1st April 2008: 18:37 (BST) and it snew quite a lot more, easter saturday night-sunday morning - turned a ninety minute trip to pink panther city to see big sister & her fella into a two-and-a-half hour journey, matching my speed to the varying conditions - quite a bit from shap up to penrith at 50 mphs rather than 65-70, and from penrith to the county border on the A66 down to 40 or even 30 mphs (and there were three or four drivers who overtook me at very high speed, even then - they can't've been able to see any further ahead than i could - sometimes as little as 50 yards)
the weather was generally good for the two days i was visiting, actually; m-th's comment on the sunday morning's sung eucharist was that if they're going to introduce that many unfamiliar hymns, the organist ought to run through the melodies (and harmonies too?) before starting their introductory voluntary & processional, to give the congregation a chance!
the bishes sermon was a bit erratic in focus, i thought, though with definite good bits (e.g. jesus & family were refugees: the story'd be rather different, had the current xenophobia existed in the roman empire of biblical times...) - but he picked up on the erroneous criticism of the scare-mongerers' so-called frankenstein bill and ran with it a distance, not understanding that the actual bill is intended to enable the production of human stem cells without creating any kind of independently viable life, let alone a half-human hybrid.
(if the actual bill is so badly written as to permit the latter, it's that that needs correcting - not throwing the non-baby out with the bath water. hmph.)
the brief riverside amble before was really enjoyable, with a light quite different to any other season's making the familiar views quite fresh once more; one of the knees was less happy, alas, at the amount of standing there was through the service (and the amount of surplus ppint. there is), and i took advantage of the deterioration in the weather to spend the late afternoon reading (about the great north road, hampstead, the post war massacre of the british railway system - not all due to beeching - and some of the weird and wonderful history of the construction of the highland railways. evening was more sociable, jeffrey having resurfaced, and m-th reappeared, and then we all of us had sensible early nights - but they, i think, are sensible as a habit).
the monday m-th & i visited the wessington (later "washington") family house, which was saved largely by the efforts of one very poorly-repaid (and pretty poorly paid, too) individual who was in the end too ill to attend its public re-opening (but did know it had indeed been saved by his efforts): it was remarkable in a number of ways, not least for the parabola its social position had described through the centuries, eventually being condemned as unfit for human habitation and in dire need of being pulled down - twice! fortunately for us, this did not occur on either occasion - though the overwhelming majority of the great number of very poor people in the families occupying it towards the end would, i am sure, vastly've preferred to've been rehoused somewhere with indoor running water, and stairs to the first floor(s) instead of the ladder in their sub-sub-sub-divided share of the hall...
m-th then made a dash for the shipley art centre in gateshead (with yr hmbl srppnt making a rather inexpert map-reader), which proved a delight both for its current special exhibitionlets, and for some of the permanent display, despite its comfortably small size. i must remember to visit it again.
coming home via the second-hand bookshops was alas easier than last year, there being fewer of them - though i was able to pick up a little stock, including a hardcover of the incomparable Grunts *vbg
21st March 2008: 17:10 (GMT) brrrrr! - it snew!
admittedly only for a few minutes, but, here in lancaster, this winter (just) - it snew!
19th March 2008: 10:10 (GMT) arthur c. clarke died around 1:30 this morning (local time in sri lanka; c. 22:30 18/3/08 gmt - i think), aged 90.
a great sf writer in his time, and the inventor of, inter alia, the communications satellite, he'd been increasingly unwell, and frail, so the news is not completely unexpected, but his death is still a loss to the world.
18th March 2008: 10:10 (GMT) (scheduled) power cut at home today: must remember to check & re-set timers, clocks, and check the clock for the off-peak electricity is automagically corrected as advertised...
14th March 2008: 10:10 (GMT) asaf & son(s), employees & friends're now well-ensconced running the packet boat chippie in bolton-le-sands, just off the A6 a little south of carnforth; and regulars seem very happy with the results - should you be in the area of a weekday lunch or supper-time...
the back wall bits i can't get to without first shifting the timber & the d&d unit're still to do.
the storm wasn't so much here, not compared with round parts of the cumbrian coast; and though it's turned noticeably colder since, it could easily prove this winter's last real hurrah; i hope so - 'bout time the rain started getting a bit warmer.
11th March 2008: 02:35 (GMT) shop ceiling's painted; just need to check in the morning and go over bits i missed giving a second coat to, the bit i couldn't get to without first shifting the lengths of wood as need carpenting, and the remaining bits of the old back wall.
we missed the full force of the weather that hit the west country & the south coast last night, but stand to see a similar storm track past very nearby tuesday & wednesday...
9th March 2008: 12:55 (GMT) well, the shop's ceiling's seven eights painted; just one long strip along the far wall, and that wall down to the level of the top-most shelf, to do. next is the carpentry - cutting and building the supports for the second of the two long counters and the short cross-counter, then drawing, cutting and drilling the joints for either two or four baulks running nigh-on the lengths of the main counters, to "provide longitudinal structural integrity and stability" (to stop 'em falling over sideways); and after that comes laying the new carpet, the job i'm least looking forward to; last time it took two days, and there was considerably less on the floor, as needed moving - first half of the room back, lay & cut it, first half back; second half of the room forward, lay & cut, second half back; then i can *collapse*.
i think i'll leave thinking about the carpet, until after i've managed the carpentry.
5th March 2008: 11:00 (GMT) opening/opened late today (giving notice on shop window and home page, as always), the morning being devoted to a dreaded dental appointment; two fillings to be replaced
13:10: "by doze wveels wvunny" (having a numb top lip awvwvects the b/pronunciation owv wvs)
14:30: injections've not worn off yet, but they're going
22:30: gary gygax, co-creator of dungeons & dragons, and of fantasy role-playing as a pastime, died yesterday.
he and dave arneson (and others) developed it from the relatively small beginnings of a set of rules for personal combat in war-gaming, through "dungeoneering" & "wilderness adventuring" in which combat, the amassing of wealth and the improvement of combat abilities of a chosen stereotypical profession within a generic fantasy world looted from tolkien's middle earth and others, to exploring the personal development of characters in particular, detailed fantasy worlds of fantasy, sf or horror, in which combat might be the least part of a tale built through co-operative story-telling, with which latter developments he was not altogether in tune, he nevertheless stands as one of the few people to've given the world a major new, and immensely rewarding, social pastime.
4th March 2008: 01:50 (GMT) jack frost's delicate, flowery fingers were in evidence all over little grey ghost's bonnet, windscreen & roof, when i got back to lgg tonight; i prob'ly stayed in the shop painting half an hour too long. and there was freezing fog, sometimes quite thick, for much of the last five miles home - yeuccch!
memo to selves: must try to remember to leave a tad earlier tonight...
2nd March 2008: 22:55 (GMT) two days of gales and rain, heavy at times, 've raised the bela's level some: but now the wind's dropped some, shifted, and the temperature's dropping back down towards freezing; whatever the flowers may think, winter's not over yet
1st March 2008: 22:30 (GMT) well, that's near enough half the shop ceiling repainted, admittedly somewhat less than perfectly - but the landlord's insurers' contractors' sub-contractors gloss-painting of the reconstructed front's somewhat less than perfect, too, so it matches that; and they f^Hmucked up^W^W made no attempt at matching the small amount of matte white they daubed on the walls to the aged magnolia they & the ceiling were painted, so i have to repaint the lot anyway, before i can sensibly put the new carpet down, and rebuild/replace the free-standing shelving, etc, etc, so people can browse both sides of the shop, and the central island, again...
27th February 2008: 00:10 (GMT) a distinct double wobble in the world about five or ten to one left me wondering whether the iguanas under the earth mightn't've been feeling a bit frisky - come out of hibernation, or something?
22nd February 2008: 10:10 (GMT) well, it's finally got a bit warmer here - it's been overcast for a couple of days, but there's been enough damp in the air to more than make up for the 10 F or so higher my lying thermometer and the met. office've been trying to convince me was already here; but the gusty wind'll likely keep people at home even though it's back to normal for a north-wet winter.
and all the ice is gorn - no more likelihood of ice-skating sheep :-(( i wonder when - and whether - we'll see another white christmas (or even a white new year) again round here.
in a sudden surprise move, the landlord's insurers' sub-contractor joiners sent their lad-with-a-ladder around again, and he's gloss-coated the large hemi-roundel of ply-wood he stuck over the one in which the incompetently-disguised-patched blister defect appeared, and shaved a bit off the door's fly-edge bottom, so it doesn't catch as much when it's damp and even a little bit warm as it did...
19th February 2008: 11:10 (GMT) even more brrrrr! - and it's not that neither of the little lakes is frozen over, it's that when i passed them yesterday, i missed them, and any ice-skating sheep on show:
the one to the west of the road is a lot smaller, too; but neither had any skating sheep on 'em this morning, anyway :-(
18th February 2008: 16:10 (GMT) more brrrrr! - but neither of the little lakes was apparently frozen over when i passed them, so no ice-skating sheep on show :-( (*g*)
sky went straaaaange colours after sunset yesterday evening; various strengths of a slightly browney yellow, strengthening into really quite bright, slightly orangey yellow, spreading across the entire sky, turning it to apricot; and then slowly fading into an initially light gray.
[gray? grey? - i used to know the rule for which was the surname only, and which was the colour... - "i blame usenet!"
horriblekaiserdad will be relieved to know that i took no prisoners^W photos, in deference to his border-coll^W line stability of mind.
15th February 2008: 15:10 (GMT) brrrrr! - i wonder whether either of the little lakes currently by the A6 just to the north of what-used-to-be-pyes will freeze over tonight, or tomorrow night - and they should, we could yet be privileged to see ice-skating sheep this winter...
13th February 2008: 18:10 (GMT) the hills'n'fields were very springkly-looking this morning on the way to & around kendal, but it's grown cold quickly this afternoon, in lancaster.
and i don't doubt the dire dense continental cloud'll make tomorrow morning rather less fun than it ought to be...
(i'll be trying to fit windermere, bowness & maybe wombleside in, looking for odd books for customers - or was it perhaps, books for odd customers... - ?)
(& must remember to dig out old holey sheet & get several gallons of matt[e] white, for the ceiling & far wall in from the window, before lunchtime.)
9th February 2008: 13:10 (GMT) and back to fine weather, if not the almost crystal clear sky of the 6th; a beautiful very early spring day, though i don't doubt the night'll be wint'ry cold - or wet.
8th February 2008: 11:10 (GMT) well, the landlord's insureres' contractor's sub-contractor's lad's been dropped off here again, with a large semi-circle of ply-wood to shape to the inside of the left-hand over-window arch, glue over the somewhat chronic patched semi-circle, and undercoat - and return to top-coat it, sometime next week...
7th February 2008: 18:10 (GMT) back to damp grayth - leastways, it was, before snuset. ah well, 'twas very pretty while it lasted.
6th February 2008: 10:10 (GMT) almost crystal clear sky, a beautiful late autumn/very early spring day, for all it's not really even beginning to cease to be winter, by the calendar. but there'll be few around today - it's a tiny bit colder than usual, and there's this frightening burning yellow glowing ball in the sky - and it's not raining...
(yesterday saw some heavy showers, so the fields on the moss are looking like over-soddenm sponges again, but there're no new tarns, pools, ponds, lakes, lochs or meres visible, and the bela seems pretty placid again, content within its banks - if a fair bit higher than its normal level, yet.)
4th February 2008: 15:10 (GMT) yesterday was gray, with blustery chill winds sweeping in from the south-wet, the north-wet & generally the cold, showery wetness that is the atlantic; not much of the promised warm wetth from the bay of biscay and parts south-east of there. today's calmer, but there's still a decided nip in the air; otoh, there's even some unaccustomed sunshine, wintry weak though it may be.
customers? customer - and, though i'm happy to be the first stop for d10s (& other, more or less equally regular polyhedra of a game-playing nature), "ppint.s do not live by dice alone" - leastways, this one doesn't - and real, live sales of games're needed to cover the costs of watts, ohms, rates, coffee, rent, tea (for friendly visitors - i cannot taste the flavour[s]), white powdery & crystalline stuffs - and chocolate!
4th February 2008: 18:10 (GMT) two customers! - and cold toes. maybe i should look for woolly sockses tomorrow morning (of cardboard boxes, of various sizes, i have no immediate prospect of shortages).
1st February 2008: 14:10 (GMT) chill winds scour the streets, driving short, sharp showers - and frpg, boardgame & rpg-players back into their pits... temperatures below freezing are promised for tonight - but where are the heavy falls of snow we were promised for this morning, eh?
this is no weather for thathorriblemonsterkaiserdad to frequent his haunts habitual, subjecting to his dire depradations the innocent female population of the city of sheffield, with or without the accompaniment of kaiserdog, whom he daily grows ever more like - his bean-cosy'll desert him for the freedom of the wide open skies!
1st February 2008: 17:10 (GMT) what does a mauve sky at night (well, evening) forebode, weather-wise?
[moved here from the home page en bloc, to be sorted into the diary entries/put elsewhere/etc. at a later date:]
8th November 2007: the insurance company's nominated contractors've apparently received authorisation from the insurance co. to start, and anticipate starting work sometime this month; but no starting-date's yet been mentioned.
20th November 2007: two men from the insurance company's nominated contractors' subcontractors've appeared, measured more things more accurately, hacked the odd piece off the fabulous inclined shopfront, advised me that the job's scheduled to start on 10th December and that they weren't told they'd got the job 'til last week - and disappeared again.
21st November - 4th December 2007: no further news.
5th December 2007: apparently the stonemason's due in to re-site the wall on whick the shopfront window ought to rest - on the morning of Tuesday 11th December.
what this will mean for when the new shopfront door, window-frame and glass are installed, and the wood's primed & painted - no-one's yet seen fit to tell me.
31st December 2007: 11:10 (GMT) last day of the year, and the heavy rain seems to be holding off - touch wood! (leastways it has done so far); the bela's still high, but no longer in spate.
28th December 2007: 19:10 (GMT) the two days of very heavy rain i've seen (& travelled through) have been enough to send the bela well into its flood plain meadows - which is, of course, why they're there by the river: but i've not seen them covered to such a depth, that i can recall; i don't know what it's been like over this side of the pennines since i drove through thick fog up the M6, and then over to pink panther country via kirby stephen, brough, barnard castle, staindrop, spennymoor & tudhoe on the 23rd, but it is quite impressive.
29th December 2007: 11:10 (GMT) and they've visibly begun to drain away this morning, though the next few days' weather could easily reverse this.
27th December 2007: 14:10 (GMT) well, i'm back; i over-ate less than usual (and less than i'd expected), courtesy of marie-therese (mostly) & jeffrey (less than formerly; more than usual was bought in - or, in the case of the home-made tipsy cake, given); that's still too much, i know - but when i'm asked so persuasively to help finish off things....
dominic arrived the last day i was there, having been delayed by a bad case of the current london bug, or one of them; he seemed mostly recovered - well enough, i think, to take over the duties of consumption of the cornucopia of festive fare furnished and, perhaps more importantly, that of being a relative stranger, with whom both of them - marie-therese, i think, especially - could socialise, and to whom the year's news from durham would still be news. jeffrey's evident pain when walking is a worry, though he was delighted to be the first to pass onto us a phrase - and concept - new to us: that of friends of a certain age meeting, the first topic of discussion is referred to as the organ recital...
21st December 2007: 17:10 (GMT) the landlord's said he's not signed off on the reconstruction & re-decorating work as having been done to his satisfaction, so i still can't re-carpet, buy & rebuild shelving, and move everything back - but he wants the full rent for the three months the shop's had to be closed from me as soon as possible, all the same:
he "has costs"...
15th December 2007 i got so cold, sitting in the shop with the door open in this weather as the landlord's insurers' builders & decorators required that i grew too cold to shiver; managed to shuffle-stumble over to the Shakespeare Hotel, to beg a seat somewhere to warm up again, at least enough to get home; was kindly provided with a duvet/eiderdown, as well, and a cup of coffee - for which, many thanks
8th December 2007: 18:10 (GMT) the met office's upgraded its severe weather warnings for south & west uk (and, i imagine, the southern half of ireland) especially: from up to gale force, to a forecast of gales (force 8), severe gales (force 9), storms (force 10), severe storms (force 11) and even, in two south-western sea areas so far, hurricane (force 12) strength winds
these last three are quite exceptional strength winds for the uk, and not to be trifled with:
if you're in the uk, avoid travelling to or in southern and south-western areas if you possibly can; and nail down anything that isn't extremely solidly attached to something or other both solid and very securely embedded - or take it indoors!
travel in central south & south-eastern england is liable to prove quite fraught, also; but not nearly so risky, as in the south & south-west of england, south (& west iiuc) wales, southern ireland, the scillies, lundy and the seas around and about.
9th December 2007: 11:10 (GMT) the worst of the severe weather seems to be over up here in the north-wet: last night got fairly hairy, but nothing like as bad as's meant to've been dahn sahf and in the zahf-wezt.
7th December 2007: 15:10 (GMT) progris riport yet more "even more rain" over the past two days and nights, which has been enough to see quite widespread flooding in & across some low-lying fields locally, together with some impressively high, gusty winds - though only up to gale force sfaiaa - the centre of the south coast was forecast to see severe gale (force 9) winds at the height of this weather; but it's quite enough round here, is force 8 (thankee kindly, oh clerk of the weather).
i got rung up, luckily after i'd got out of the bath this morning [a], and the landlord's insurers' nominated building contractor's sub-contractor was calling to arrange access to the shopfront on Monday - so i was able to ask him in return, quite what would be happening when - given i'd only just the day before learned that the stonemason would be coming the day after...
not quite understanding, he confirmed that he'd be reinstating the shuttering after the removal of the shopfront & glass, and only when i pointed out that i'd not yet been informed by anyone - i.e. he'd not yet told me - what would be happening when: would the new shopfront be installed on the Tuesday, for example? did he bother to let me know that the installation of the new front would occur an Wednesday, Thursday and Friday - and only after i enquired about it, that the painting would take place on Monday & Tuesday, and perhaps also on Wednesday the following week...
so i'll be sorting things out after that, and have missed all of the first academic term's boardgames, ccgs & book-buying by students, local customers'n'staff and just about all the christmas sales of these to everyone, and all first years'll know there isn't a shop here...
that's between one third and a half of my total annual sales lost - and maybe more - i won't just have no income for the year, but it'll be a very substantial nett loss :-(((
i hope i can survive this.
[a] - why is there/has there just been of late a rash of radio (& tv, so far as i've been able to catch any, visiting friends recently) announcers & reporters malapropping "fortuitiously" for "fortunately", does anyone know - or could you make a tolerably well-informed guess?
answers on a postcard^W^W^W in an email, please - and i'll interpolate the best i receive - if any.
5th December 2007: 12:10 (GMT) progris riport even more rain over the past two days and nights, which ought to be enough to see off any chance of a frost - but the cloud cover broke enough from seven through ten pm for it to get decidedly nippy.
as i was turning away from having locked up the "door" in the shuttering after lunchtime, about to walk over to s'bury's for a pee and a hand-wash, i was stopped by someone driving a white van (and trailer) up onto the pavement outside the shop who asked me whether this was my building. upon my replying that it wasn't my building, but it was my shop, he explained that he was the stonemason whose lads were due in to re-site the wall on whick the shopfront window ought to rest, on Tuesday (11th December) morning. i pointed out that, as far as i knew from the landlord's nominated builders' sub-contracted joiners, the job was scheduled for Monday 10th December, to which he replied that that'd be the day they'd be removing the old shopfront.
what this will mean for when the new shopfront door, window-frame and glass are actually installed, primed and painted - no-one's yet seen fit to tell me.)
the indices to the weekly and the monthly cumulative pages is on IMT Home Page:
for a a sample monthly cumulative page, see New in May 2008.
(more 6th April 2006) today's another grey, fairly cold and very rainy day, just after it seemed like spring might finally've sprung; lambs've been out in the fields with their mums for about a week - the first i saw were a little earlier, but only out for the odd day's grazing and not out on the moss all week long; flowers - narcissi & tulips - 're out, or close to it, in places (ignoring the recently planted-out beds, of course): just in time for the clear nights' frosts to kill off some of the tulips; and i know it's meant to be wet here - that's why the grass's so lush, and we can drink water as's soft enough, it quenches thirsts properly (some of that "dahn sahf" doesn't deserve the name, "water"; in the Bow Road area of east London, drinking it actually makes one thirstier!): but we don't really need more right now, thank-you; the reservoirs're fine, so folk in Manchester & similar parts [like Rochdale?]'ll not go short, and the moss's sodden - pools small and great're littering the fields, and not just the low-lying ones; and the Bela's flooded over into what'll've been its water-meadows, in places: would anyone from southern parts perhaps care to collect and remove the excess?
16th December 2005: 19:10 fruitgum^W (GMT) enquiries mail still not up to date; stock-room lighting circuit still not working; some books
signed by Terry Pratchett still available... ...
as are (unsigned) copies of the excellent-in-its-own-right
Thud Boardgame
(and the demonstration games of Thud in the shop aren't actually compulsory... *g*)
8th December 2005: 19:10 fruitgum^W (GMT) paid-for mail orders're up to date, though responses to enquiries're not; should be able to catch up on these by the end of this week, though i'm a bit under the weather (someone came in the end of last week to sneeze all over me repeatedly, buy two paperbacks, explain that they knew they'd be feeling lousy for at least two books' worth of days whilst the cold got worse before it got better, but at least they could now enjoy three-four days in bed - and then went home...)
(but most people do seem to be enjoying playing their demo games, as well as learning the pieces' moves)
16th November 2005: 21:10 (GMT) the flooding's still a bit of an inconvenience in the back, because of the absence of lighting (other than a reading-light in the rear kitchenette area).
demonstrations of the Thud: Discworld Boardgame are available without prior arrangement; subject to other customers needing attention - or the provision of at least one friend willing to play a new boardgame with you!
9th Nocvember 2005: 16:00 (GMT) the flooding's almost dealt with ('til next heavy rain :-( ), but the lighting in the back is not; this is somewhat inconvenient, and unlikely to impress potential book-sl^W shop-sittters. i hope to fix it - or jury-rig an alternative - NEXT! - week. i also have three unfulfilled orders to deal with - my apologies for the delay in weighing-up & saying haw much, if yours is one of these. but no books or games've been damaged in the flood, thank cthulhu.. ..and the new, improved edition of
Thud: the Discworld Boardgame is in!
6th October 2005: 13:30 (BST) (GMT +0100) the latest story block of Magic the Gathering, that of Ravnica: City of Guilds theme decks, boosters and "fat packs" are in - not on-sale 'til tomorrow, but they're here, ready & waiting for you...
(see the
Ravnica entries on the collectable card games page for details.)
3rd October 2005: 14:52 (BST) (GMT +0100) small flood - not much damaged - in fact, naught, save some cardboard (and perhaps a little of my remaining shreds of san^W equanimity. but i had intended to tidy IMT up a bit this week, not untidy it a bit....
23rd September 2005: 13:45 (BST) (GMT +0100)
Paranoia: the Mandatory !Bonus Fun! Card Game and the new Discworld novel,
Thud! are both in!
23rd September 2005: 13:45 (BST) (GMT +0100) it's definitely autumn. the nights & early mornings're cool, and even a little cold; the days're mostyly cooler, even when it's sunny all day, and the trees're just beginning to change. this is actually low season for me, one of the poorest months of the year, and yet it's one of the times i have to stock up, ready for the start of the university year; it helps, if the weather's interesting, even when it can't be "good".
Highlight of the month has to be the new Rainer Knizia boardgame,
Beowulf: the Legend, with its odd, L-shaped board, and an interesting twist on "fellowship" or "comrades" games. There's a set open in I.M.T. - not just to be looked at, but also for playing sample games as & when these can be arranged of an evening...
So drop in, and organdise a game!
7th September 2005: 16:05 (BST) (GMT +0100) well, the stye on the inside of the lower middle of my left eyelid seems to've died back down to "untroublesome" - or possibly even gone; it was still there this morning - so maybe the receptionist at stoneleigh who refused to do aught but take the (shop) phone number, and definitely'd not fit me in between doctors' appointments, nor give me one of my own, hasn't done me any permanent harm, but it's the first i've ever had, made reading things more than a little awkward, and worried me quite a bit over the possibility of needing slits cut in the eyelid as well as my not receivng maybe necessary antibiotic ointment...
31st August 2005: 16:05 (BST) (GMT +0100) two big new games in today,
Mage: the Awakening being the long-awaited Mage RPG re-launch, and
Cybernetic Revolution heralding a major turning-point in the Yu-Gi-Oh Collectible Card Game (i am advised).
5th August 2005: 12:45 (BST) (GMT +0100) back from CCDE with very mixed feelings, which seems a poor way for what used to be a generally undilutedly happy occasion to peter out, as seems likely. still, even this one was definitely good at times, despite some very wet weather; and i hadn't met lizzie before, apparently, despite her reminding me strongly of someone at the event two years ago; and i hadn't forgotten what debt i was repaying with "up to half a bottle of an Islay single malt, with which you are unfamiliar", paul; no; nor "and perhaps a little more?" *g*; and it was very good to see ori/adam back in good health, and on form, "getting" livi & both wombats with equal ease (you do realise that's only until they remember to co-operate and join forces against you, don't you, ori?); and the way one cloggie "looks after" a glass of mead for another; and walks around the campsite with her nose stuck firmly into a graphic novel or four, too *g*; and kai, bouncing wildly (if a little confusedly) around all over the place as molly bounced all around him; and watching two friends, who'd only recently mutually realised the other might be good people despite what rumours they'd heard mongered about them over the years, get as deeply into explanations and/or sozzled sortings-out - and wholly new to one or other rumours, not hitherto circulated so far as the alleged perpetrator(s), perhaps; and rambling reveries of how life, and even afp, may be misunderstood - and how afpers misunderstand either, or both... and watching with admiration hunturgh's technique for getting a large tent evacuated of all it contains within the shortest possible time... and cc inveigle people into playing games more complicated than their vocabularies... [more doubtless to be added...]
13th July 2005: 16:30 (BST) (GMT +0100) it's not a good month - already. quite apart from last week's unpleasant surprise, and the horrible way violent near-morons've attacked friends of mine in ipswitch, too far away for me to be any use or help, brm has apparently got a dying wheel-bearing. hopefully this will, with caution, hold out until the 20th, when mel gets back from holiday, but the cash-trickle crisis is looking rather bad...
(many thanks to people who're pre-paying their mail-orders-for-delivery-at-the clarecraft discworld event at-the-end-of-this-month; your consideration is appreciated.)
5th July 2005: 23:10 (BST) (GMT +0100) i've discovered that i'm not doing the books (&c.) tables at the Clarecraft Discworld Event at the end of this month; this is extremely late to discover such a thing, and i have quite a lot of stock i hold solely for the Discworld Events, where i've "done tables" in the dealers' barn - and been the sole person doing the full range of Terry Pratchett's books, anthologies containing his work, art books associated with it, and the diaries, playtexts, cookbook, games, roleplaying game and calendars - plus books & games with no direct link, but that appeal to fans of his work - since Elton asked me to, is it ten years ago, now - and six CCDEs - ?
If there is anything you would like to order, and pre-pay for, i'll gladly bring it down with me for collection over the week-end, saving you the postage costs of buying mail-order; but as i said above, i've discovered my services are not required there.
22nd June 2005: 17:10 (BST) (GMT +0100) i think it must be summer: that's three days out of four, the sun's broken through by late afternoon, and the shop fan's been unearthed - ah, perhaps not the best word to use, but it has been - though it still is earthed! - the old pairs of shorts've been disinterred - and one pair found sadly wanting in the integrity department; patchable, when & if i find the time - so another pair bought, just in case the weather holds for CCDE [the Clarecraft Discworld Event, when fiendly (as well as friendly) pratchettfans engage in a week-end or so's camping (or b&b-ing), socialising, sun (or rain-) bathing, occasionally attending Talks, Debates, Workshops, Toast'n'Jam Sessions, Playing
Munchkin,
Zombies!!!,
Fluxx,
Killer,and the like, and generally hanging out in friendly, sociable and sometimes even intelligent clumps], and i discover i haven't...
...if there's aught you'd like me to bring along to Warren Farm, Wetherden, (not very) near Bury St. Edmunds, along with the usual pratchettbookstock, please get in touch - and save postage!
apart from that, i s'pose the big news is the release of the new Klaus Teuber "Catan" boardgame,
Candamir: The First Settlers, which looks well up to his usual high standards.
2nd June 2005: 19:30 (BST) (GMT +0100) well, i managed yesterday in the shop on autopilot, more-or-less; three hours sleep the night^W morning before, followed by a three hour (including a break at anderton services) drive to get in - on time! (*g*) - and that's after a fairly busy time in chapeltown, lincoln & sheffield; doubtless good for me, but the feet, ankles & knees are complaining some. the stock changes & new stuff this week are now up; but it does mean i've more email to catch up on, again. tomorrow. this morning i noticed the lambs're straying a little further from their mums, now; must get out this sunday for at least an amble in the greenery, if not a walk!
23rd May 2005: 12:00 (BST) (GMT +0100) one more email to go, to catch up with order enquiries; i've been distracted by what i suppose get called "personal matters" - which've rather cut down on my time and ability to devote sufficient attention to much more than keeping the shop for the past fortnight; things should hopefully now revert to normal - or maybe even a bit better than.
12th May 2005: 11:20 (BST) (GMT +0100) more hopefully, may is also the month lambs seem to suddenly occupy almost every field in sight, looking somewhat confused at times, and not yet playing "i'm the king/queen of the castle", as it's probably best to stay quite near mum... and on the past few years performance, it's also liable to be the month of april showers. ah, well; it's probably either global warming, or quantum - or both.
i'm a bit (as in days) behind on answering email, but should get caught up with it & myself by the end of next week.
5th May 2005: 11:00 (BST) (GMT +0100) now is the month of maying, political parties are playing, fa-la-lalalalalalalah, fa-la-lah-la-lah-lah-lah; each with our aims at heart, or so they'd have us trust; fa-la-lalalalalalalah, fa-la-lah-la-lah-lah-lah...
28th April 2005: 10:20 (BST) (GMT +0100) this week's major event is the arrival of Terry Pratchett, Ian Stewart & Jack Cohen's
The Science of Discworld III: Darwin's Watch,
being the one-third fiction, two-thirds good - well-written and entertaining - science popularisation of both how and why the Unseen University wizards' "Roundworld" is so much less satisfyingly right than is the Discworld *g*
6th April 2005: 14:20 (BST) (GMT +0100) this week's major event is the arrival of
Yu-Gi-Oh Dark Revelation Boosters, awaited upon with much antici-
29th March 2005: 13:26 (BST) (GMT +0100) this week's major event is the arrival of
Warhammer RPG Second Edition together with Plundered Vaults, the first Adventure Anthology for the newly redesigned rpg, and the Character Pack. Much too soon to've had more than a cursory look at it...
the first of the year's lambs're out in some fields on the moss, and the ornamental cherry blossom's started on some of the trees - it's early spring, with no guarantee there won't yet be some cold weather - but it is spring.
18th March 2005: 18:15 (GMT -0000)caught up on snail mail on saturday, as promised; knees seem to've got a bit better over sunday, too.
18th March 2005: 18:15 (GMT -0000)now i'm two days behind on snailmail - real mail - which includes sending orders; i will catch up tomorrow, as i have to get into town in the morning, and the safe way to cross the main road when hobbling about is by means of the panda in front of stonewell post office...
(the ankles're mostly ok now, but the knees still can't take very much - the right a lot less than the left; and the attempt to favour one or t'other has left me with that most comical of muscular afflictions, groin-strain...(looks pathetic in attempt to curry sympathy instead of garnering sniggers'n'the like - fore-doomed to failure, i know - but what else can i do?))
16th March 2005: 11:15 (GMT -0000)ok, the link back to the home page from the streetmaps & more detailed description of IMT's whereabouts should work as intended now...
Werewolf: the Forsaken
has finally been released and is now in stock, together with the Tri-Stat Edition of
Tekumel: Empire of the Petal Throne RPG, and
Both sets of the new collectible, non-card game,
Pirates of the Spanish Main
and
Pirates of the Crimson Coast
are now here; for anyone who recalls the long-unavailable boardgame, Buccaneer!, this game of piracy and rampant treasure-collecting, with neat, self-assemble colour-printed plastic card sailing ships, recaptures the thrills, atmosphere & spirit of that game - and adds to it quite considerably!
7th March 2005: 12:45 (GMT -0000)i think i've got this home page re-design more-or-less right; next, to try and fit adrian's new header & buttons to it, and it to them...
Today's stop-press new-in-stock news is the arrival of the Yu-Gi-Oh Flaming Eternity boosters
4th March 2005: 12:00 (GMT -0000)still attempting to get this home page re-design more-or-less right
3rd March 2005: 18:10 (GMT -0000)caught up enough to attempt this home page re-design (fool that i am...)
17th February 2005: 18:10 (GMT -0000)still catching up on mail.
16th February 2005: 10:40 (GMT -0000)i'm used to seeing the canal ducks (and sometimes gulls) getting fed bread by people of all ages from maybe 2-96, but - pickled onions???
6th-16th February 2005: 21:40 (GMT -0000)catching up on mail.
5th February 2005: 20:40 (GMT -0000)catching up on mail.
4th February 2005: 17:45 (GMT -0000)i'm at least five days behind on the shop email, but have now updated the graphic novels page with the new stock in, and listed the games in (the day before)^2 yesterday; and today's major new item is the release of the
Betrayers of Kamigawa Theme Decks, Boosters and "Fat Packs"; the latest Magic: the Gathering collectible cardgame expansion.
2nd February 2005: 17:45 (GMT -0000)i'm at least three days behind on the shop email, and haven't yet updated the graphic novels page with the new stock in yesterday, nor yet listed any of the games in today, save for the
14th January 2005: 16:45 (GMT -0000) friends suffering from acute livejournal withdrawal symptoms are reminded of the existence of irc.lspace.org & the channel, #afp, in particular...*g*
13th January 2005: 19:20 (GMT -0000) "It's ba-aaack!" -
Baby's First Mythos - and now in chewy board covers, with added X!
5th January 2005: 11:30 (GMT -0000) first full real day back in - many thanks to joel & tom for shop-sitting most of the days IMT was open from 27th December & 3rd January; i was able to see big sister & her fella in pink panther city, plus visiting little brother, and get to go on two little walks with them that probably did a nett good even if they over-taxed some of the muscles i strained stopping myself - just! - from falling headlong down the stairs at home two days before, as well as being fun being outdoors (in remarkably fine weather, for the most part) and giving me a sight of the durham cow and the gateshead armadillo (with a very funny act, the old string bad, on in the smaller theatre contained therein), and also to see for myself how roy's getting on (not too well again yet, after The Big Sneeze, not if you're having to have women brought round for you to flirt with, instead of going out with kaiser and hunting them down for yourself/ves, you're not; and you look all pale, like you're wanting a new coat of varnish: you'll have to start ambling out in the sun [1] at least a little, to recover your full former female-alluring irresistability, you will.)
[1] - ok, ok, in the wind and the rain... - but then you can moan more to visitors, about how you're mistreated & understood...
many thanks to both marie-therese'n'jeffrey, and to andrea, whose house was rather fuller than she'd quite expected this year, what with kim'n'pingter's visit, 'n' phil'n'ann's, 'n' laura'n'mist's - not to mention The Polite Rampage (of kids) monday afternoon...
i'll start bringing the web pages up to date with current stock after the re-ordered items come in, or don't, tomorrow.
24th December 2004: 20:14 (GMT -0000) Happy Christmas - Splendid Solstice Celebration - Merry Yuletide - Coruscating Diwali - Happy Hogswatch - A Riotous Saturnalia - A Peaceful Chanukah - suitable-to-you other mid-winter (or midsummer, if south o' the line) - celebration to you all, and good health & happiness for 2005
4th December 2004: 14:10 (GMT -0000) with the news about roy, i forgot to mention that the new Yu-Gi-Oh expansion,
Rise of Destiny, has also come in... and now, also:
Dark Beginnings 1, and
Rise of Destiny: Special Edition Packs
3rd December 2004: 15:20 (GMT -0000) i walked along the canal tow-path for the first in quite a while, or so it seems; hearing that roy is doing rather better than had been thought possible after his operation, and has only (!) had to lose the kidney, rather than assorted other bits & pieces of his innards is a hopeful sign - though it's early days yet, for a] cheering; b] general rejoicing throughout the female population of the City of Sheffield (roy could flirt for England :-) ) or c] entering him in for the next season of fell-racing. thank-you for the news clearing-house services, AndraBath...
along the way in, three ducks & three drakes grizzled at me for causing them concern as they stood on the little patch of lawn immediately before the front windows of the first house on the new estate - three feet away from the side of the pavement at most - as though they owned it, and had just as much right to stand there relaxing & enjoying the soft - which last i'd not deny them; but it looked for all the world as though the ducks'd decided the canal iteself was too wet for them...
25th November 2004: 16:04 (GMT -0000) i've almost recovered from Monday (& Tuesday), and should be able to catch up on answering emails by Sunday night/Monday morning [did]
12th October 2004: 12:40 (GMT +0100) well, yesterday's planned outing may've gone completely out of the window, but i'm really not sure how - or rather why - that happened. ah, well; next time, i'll get phone numbers on the sunday, just in case i need them.
8th October 2004: 20:10 (GMT +0100) this week's big news is the arrival in IMT of Signed Copies of the First Edition of the new Discworld Novel,
Going Postal,
which Terry very kindly signed for the usual suspects (friends and afpers no longer able to make it to the signing sessions, whether because of work, family committments or being separated from them by the odd continent, ocean, etc.), plus a few "spare" copies for IMT for me, (and a couple of the beautiful
Art of the Discworld at the end of a pretty full session last night; thank-you, terry.
(Only one, pretty mildly pointed comment, plus enquiry after the progress of counter-building in IMT, and the visibility (or presence?) of floor-space this year; but this time "he saw me coming" before i'd disappeared around into the squished figure-8 of the queueueue, so he had time to compose a] himself and/or b] his comment...)
30th September 2004: 13:13 (GMT +0100) and the week's big news is the arrival in IMT of the new Magic the Gathering Expansion,
Champions of Kamigawa, hard on the heels of:
27th September 2004: 16:30 (GMT +0100) the week's big news in the arrival in IMT of both the NEW Discworld Novel,
Going Postal, together with the
(Celebrated) Discworld Almanak for the Common Year 2005 (and the Year of the Prawn) - which latter is not really usable as a diary (nor intended so to be), but which does have a little space for small (tiny!) notes, if this should be desired; for by far the greater part of the 128pp hardcover, it is full of Ankh-Morpork's equivalent of the contents of such as Old Moore's Almanack, as created by the cunning artificer, Bernard Pearson, & Terry - as it ought to be; and with rather more oddments printed upon its no doubt sufficiently absorbent pages, than was true of the diaries.
19th September 2004: 17:35 (GMT +0100) the weather's wild & woolly, with wind, water & butterflies in-between. lots of them, all mostly black, with four smallish flashes of white on the smaller halves of their wings, and a large orangey-red area on the greater; i don't know whether that suffices to identify them...
more significant rip-offs last week, during the half-hours i'd left a shop-sitter in who reckons he knows it all, but can't be bothered to watch the collectable cards, dammit. i can't afford to get a reputation & for being an easy rip-off, and do nothing about it - maybe i do need to get a cctv system in :-((
(fx:thinks: or might web-cams do?)
8th September 2004: 19:45 (GMT +0100) Well, today's news is either that the brand-shiny-New,
Fourth Edition of GURPS is in,
or that the
Paranoia XP Gamemaster's Screen & Mandatory Fun Pack is.
valuing my hide - sometimes - a little above 2.5p, i think i'll refrain from indicating which i think is the cat's whisker, thank-you kindly for enquiring, citizen/citizenne...
27th August 2004: 13:30 (GMT +0100) nope, new tyre needed, and new phone bought doesn't solve the 1571 problem. hmpf.
otoh seetee (CTony) just dropped in, on his way down from the lakes/fells after the discworld con; too wet for serious walking, the past couple of days, but he says he enjoyed pottering around the coast anyway :-) (there've been bright patches, some of them extended; and wild seaside in wet & windy weather has its own charms - pp)
which reminds me - would anyone be interested in a canal boat & camping afp meet one of these week-ends, this summer, this autumn - i don't know when the canal boat trip season ends this year, but iirc *immediately* after its end was suggested as possible, last year - now the lancaster & kendal canal restoration project's extended boat-working north of tewitfield (allthewayasfaras - ? - ?) - or next spring or summer?
"the cheaper, alternative afpmeet that's dog-friendly and canine-comfortable, & can - but need not - involve healthy exercise, offers a choice of interesting pubs, and need not demand living under canvas - b&bs're a real possibility - and has (mostly) level canal towpath available, for those who're not inclined to essay gradients, for one reason or another..." - anyone?
26th August 2004: 12:14 (GMT +0100) uh-oh; the bt engineer has identified I.M.T.'s phone as the reason the line doesn't get cleared by the 1571 caller left a message service after the messages have all been stored or deleted, as appropriate, and i'm not to use that phone on the line again as, if they find a fault on the line in testing it, they'll log it, come out to fix it - and it'll be the fault of my equipment, so they'll charge me for this. oh yes - it's a bt-bought phone...
and brm's a puncture that's either being repaired - or else i'll be needing a new tyre, as well as a new telephone. :-(
25th August 2004: 14:00 (GMT +0100) the real, hottest rpg news is of course the arrival of
Paranoia XP RPG,
citizen, here in I.M.T. and on sale NOW - for them as can give fully-documented support of clearance to justify their interest in this severely classified book...
21st August 2004: 00:01 (GMT +0100) the hottest rpg news is of course the arrival of both
World of Darkness RPG and
Vampire the Requiem,
now here in I.M.T. and on sale for a little under a minute...
20th August 2004: 01:01 (BST) (GMT +0100) I've also completed most of The Tail of the Tale, leaving spaces appropriate for the words, actions & observations of both messers Westala & Villtin, and also for thos of messers Villalta & Westin, and the whole cast of bit players, essential actors, prime movers, behind-the-scenes-but-nonetheless-essential staff, mysterious guest stars and full live audience participation, on top of everything else, besides!
the bad news is that this will not be ready to post to afp simultaneously with its being unveiled at the con in "Hannoverian Hinckley", not unless messers Orjan & Marco are able to contact me between now and then, for us to let one another have suggested modifications and variations, and arrive at a definitive edition...
so, Help! - could anyone seeing this or hearing of it, and able to get either or both of those good wights' attentions long enough to point them at this page, or I.M.T. in lancaster, or their email "boxes", please be so good as to jump up and down at them in a manner most vigorous and bouncy (if appropriate), and then All May Not Be Lost!
22nd August 2004 the Good news is that the noble Hunturgh has downloaded the entire Tale from Graycat's site, plus the Tail of The Tale from mine, and taken them in to the con :-)) -
after "TYIA", and now "many thanks", will a drink (or two...) whenever we next meet suffice, good knight?
17th August 2004: 13:01 the fireweed along the causeway road across the moss is living up to its other name, rose-bay willow herb; it's evidently been getting enough sun to set seed and start producing its characteristic white fluffinesses.
too much to do, and i lost my (expensive by my standards, if not most people's) watch two days ago - spent six hours searching for it, yesterday morning, last night & this morning, when i should've been doing other urgent and important things; alas, i've no emotions i can rely upon, by which to judge the relative importances and urgencies of things - all deadlines appear equal; and feel equally near - or far away; my inability to find my watch even drove me to tidying up about half the mess on my bed (again - second or third time, since this time last year!), sorting out (most of) the rubbish, and taking it out to the wheelie-bin, still half-full from last week (the new, improved [thugrat milk-snatcher/john minor redefinition of the word), privatised, refuse collectors only bother to do their job about one week in four, irrespective of whether the bins're visibly filled to overflowing). even driven to start fishing out assorted junk from under the bed, this morning - but still no joy/luck.
finally, just before setting off for the shop this morning, unable to see how it could possibly have fallen sideways more than a couple of feet, i decided on the off-chance, to check the s'bury's carrier bags of rubbish i'd removed saturday night, before starting to search, and then clear the bed; underneath all the more recent bags of debris, but not ridiculously yucky:
and there, in a carrier bag within a carrier bag, with naught more in either than no-longer fresh air, the watch!
phew! - knowing my luck of late, this'd've been the one week in four or five they did bother to collect, if i'd not looked...
so that's ok now; the seiko autowinder seems none the worse for its adventure, and my heart-beat can resume its normal-for-this-unfit-and-overweight-ppint. level; but i left all the notes at home, so i'll have to complete them and write the whole of "the tail of the tale" tonight.. ..ergggghhhhh... and tomorrow...
14th August 2004: 09:40 still feeling pretty down this morning; got stock ripped off by a very smooth pair of operators, to the tune of - well, more than the pittance i make a month at this business, most months (even totting it up at cost prices), and sales overall've been disappointing for five out of the past six weeks - ah, well; i'll probably live...
fixed the ex's leaking kitchen-sink waste pipe last night, so the week's not been a total loss, i suppose - 'cept it'd've been cheaper to not open the shop, not get ripped off, and call out two or three professional plumbers to do the job, even at their minimum call-out charges... - damn!
8th August 2004: 11:11 this time last week, i was in Meadowhall, on the way (fcvotp) to the Sealed Knot do in the Rother Valley Park, for assorted oddments and the return of faulty mice, plus the makings of the picnic lunch to be consumed by myself, Kaiser & Kaiserdad, plus little extras for Andrea, Andreamum & Wendy (they had their own individual picnics in proper self-stacking picnic trays, so just the odd nibble, - like a whole roast chicken *g*), plus a partial restock of andrea's fridge...
the event itself was partly spoiled by the insistence of the five hundred-to-one-thousand-odd (vague cos it's my own, very rough estimate) strong audience crowding up to the ropes and staying standing, thus blocking off all view of the re-enactment of the skirmish-turned-battle from kids unable to push their way to the front, everyone still seated on the grass of the field, and, indeed, anyone standing, from the third row back...
and it was further partly spoiled by the effective failure of the knot's p. a. system - these things happen with any outside event, and the knot's an amateurs' organisation unlikely to be able to afford much in the way of back-ups, but there appeared to be no provision at all for the possibility. the event was well choreographed, and to the extent that announcements could be heard prior to battle's being joined, the intended commentary was scripted (with room for ad libs): given the pikeslength safety strip between the ropes was patrolled by securityknotpeople-in-costume as well as pamphleteers, could they not've been provided with copies of the script made in advance against the chance, cheaply enough for this to be little matter?
as things were, the views were for the most part of the top parts of pikes wavering gently as they moved to & fro, some of them with colours flying, and sometimes being lowered (presumably against a mounted charge); at one point, forces arriving stage left having been spotted by the hoi polloi left with no view of the main battleground were leisurely surged towards, and this time the little'uns (mostly young kids, but also adult persons of smaller stature) were allowed space to get to the front & sit down; three or four of us made sure of this :-) - and the sight of the variously blue, buff & dark red coats, armour, pikes, banners, muskets, & officers mounted on appropriate heavy horses was quite something, and very much appreciated by just about all, to judge by the comments :-)
the same cannot be said for the cannonfire - leastways, not in the same way; depending upon age & inclination, people were scared, shocked, impressed or amused by the detonations, some of which quite literally shook the earth (about half a dozen of all the shots fired that afternoon, i'd guess out of some three dozen in all. i wasn't allowed time to enquire of the gunners after the event, but i think all six were from the same piece, which was capable of sending the wad about one third or a quarter of the way across the field with the charge used); plenty of people looked suitably impressed, even awed; but the only lucid comment i heard was to the effect that it was all very well advising us to open our mouths to reduce possible pain or discomfort when the guns were fired, but with no warning of their being fired being given, everyone'd have to wander around looking dopey all afternoon...
so; i think the knot organisers need to give a lot more thought to the presentation they actually make to the paying general public, and especially to crowd control, as easily one third of the people present could see little of the event, and could make no sense of the little they could see; on the other hand, it was a neat picnic, a good sunday out with friends, and the stalls & the sights, such as i could see them, and the explanations afforded by individual members of the knot, who i found friendly, knowledgeable and happy to explain, or point me at someone else who could probably do so; it was a fair day out - but it could & imnsho should have been so much better. and more made of the stalls near the field, as a village (or at least hamlet) - with some officers & men being quartered there, and their entertainments, before the engagement?
3rd August 2004: 13:30 my wonderful shop-sitter (& friend) managed to lock the second set of the shop keys inside I.M.T. at lunchtime yesterday; as a result of which the shop was not open from about 1 p.m. monday; "ergggggh..."
i'm now back, and opening hours've reverted to normal-for-I.M.T. - if not exactly so for anywhere else - 10(ish)-7pm (or later), Monday - Saturday. and i found a little s/h stock people're after on this trip...
22nd & 23rd July 2004: 11:35 & 12:20 the fireweed is out all along the turnpike & the cow-parsley is standing high, and the mostly low-growing, bluey-purpley-mauvey flower i've not yet seen whilst walking anywhere on sundays, to identify (yes, i should know its name by now - i know the plant well enough by sight) is not just out, but knee high in places, and above.
the lilac's well in bloom along the canal tow-path in lancaster, too, though there don't seem to be many butterflies around yet, to take advantage of it; but i don't account that the same, as it's domestically-planted (i think), not a real hedgerow habitant. (and the same applies to the buddleias.)
so it may've been a pretty wet summer so far, but it's not entirely a wash-out, even so - and there's no hose-pipe bans around, neither - leastways, not so far as i know...
(there were flowers out all along the woodhead pass, too, on the way back from sheffield last week, worth slowing down for in places, as are many views; though i couldn't take the time to stop off anywhere, having to be back by 10 to open the shop; but still well worth the 'preciating.)
19th July 2004: saturday evening having been a bit more sorting-out (including cleaning the defrosted fridge - which was nothing like as bad as last time [last summer ?] - honest!) - it's a high-paced life yr hmbl srppnt. lives, alright! - sunday morning i awoke with an rsi-ish right hand, or wrist, unable to grip firmly or make a fist, nor support aught heavy, nor hold anything at all, at some angles :-( no idea what i'd've been doing to provoke this unless it be typing-up web pages (naught rude and/or enjoyable, that's for sure - leastways, naught i can recall; and i'm pretty sure i'd remember having had company, and especially the company i'd had!), but it meant i couldn't get on with most of what i'd intended, sorting out stuff accumulating in the kitchen instead (and i must try planting the bulbs rescued to see whether they can survive in the overgrown patch at the front...) (26th July: found out the hard way what i'd probably done that day, by doing it again tonight - misjudged my momentum, and caught myself by taking it all on my hand, arresting myself against the door-jambe (or possibly the corner end of a wall); i still have to adjust to some things.)
anyway, after a walk in the clearing evening (this year's lambs are almost completely weaned now, but still want the assurance of mum's presence when aught unusual happens nearby, and at night; so as they drift down from the hill-tops where they'd been enjoying the last of the sun in which to graze, or play a bit, they do an ovine sonic "iff" to establish which of the recently shorn and rather uncomfortable-looking things is mum, whatever she looks like at the moment, and where exactly she is/which of the overgrown balls of fluff are mine, and "no, i won't come and pick you up, you're old enough to get yourselves over here under your own steam now!"), i read a while and occasionally watched #afp, mostly, as i didn't want to risk exacerbating the wrist & fore-arm, and as i couldn't press the hand down firmly whilst rotating the wrist, i couldn't take a bath. (it'd sufficiently cleared by morning to cope with having a bath, and almost completely gone now - and i'm typing left-handed, just in case.)
14th July 2004 (onwards): spell-checking pages with fantasy & sf content is a slo-o-ow (if somewhat overdue) business...(*rueful*g*)
13th July 2004: 17:45: back from a generally enjoyable and very much appreciated couple-of-days break across the pennines, involving inter alia the disposal of a carpet, the acquisition of some books (almost entirely for stock), the unveiling of a Roy the Barbarian to unca Roy himself *g*, and also memorable for the happiness on his face when he recognised the musician on a pye "golden guinea" lp of balalaika music...:-))
a bit of unexpected pressure made some of the sunday a bit stressful, but wandering round charity & record shops, and dropping into the odd place or two for coffees an' "a nonion bhajee" (or iced apricot slice, quite mind-bendingly good, for some) with andrea'n'roy was good fun (than which, claire a few years ago had no higher term of praise for any activity :-) - and now she's fourteen in three days time! - eeek!); and roy's commentaries also entertain :-)
19th June 2004: 14:25: the backs of my calves're sunburned, and i'm in a more-exercised state than for ages, and i'm back from a mixture of book-buying, raletion-visiting, and a day and a half's travel to Pink Panther Country & beyond; the change - especially the couple of hours i spent reading & watching the world from the top of the Hartside Pass, and the day out on Lindisfarne, where i've never been before, with Marie-Therese & Jeffrey - has been at least as good as the rest it's proverbially meant to be; and the graphic novel stock has been got back up to about what it should be again (and all listed!), and the weekly games order likewise; three outstanding mail orders remain (which can't go off 'til monday morning)(and one of which, paid for by paypal, i have no access to the e-correspondence on until i get the 'puter that auto-fried itself, and has since been looked at soulfully, and laboured over mightily, by uncle Roy &/or Phil (thank-you both)'s operating system re-installed; hopefully, tomorrow; but if you paid by paypal & have had no word from me recently, pleases e-write!), and then there's further sorting in the shop to be done, next week...
7th June 2004: 21:30: the hottest day of the year so far, with tomorrow & wednesday due to be hotter yet! i'm hoping the standard fan will help keep i-m-t-in-the-shop, customers and myself from melting...
some things - like the price-gnu - have not turned up yet; others whose whereabouts've been known but vaguely for the past two-three years've been welcomed by customers - not least, the unaccustomed feeling of space...
people wishful of understanding a little of the impact of the changes brought about by this ruthless descent by friends may care to look at "during" & "after" (and a few "before")
photos of I.M.T. and the responsible horde...
2nd June 2004: 11:50: back from two nights, & two round trips to sheffield, three (or four) days of chaos organising into - further chaos, organising into - the front three-quarters of I.M.T. & two-thirds of the back kitcheny-exit-toilety bit looking almost about as they should, and a lot more space for customers about, and an awfullot less dusty mostly-ancient-paper-bits rubbish & dusty bits all around the place - mostly by kind courtesy of AndraBath'n'Thursday'n'Unca Woy'n'Laura (not Lorna)'n'Misty ("Moo!")'n'Phil (for Kaiser-sitting)'n'AndraBath (again!); and not very much more chaos in the final (back) two (or three) quarters of the shop, and no detectable increase in the entropic level(s) of the (middle)(stock) room...
thank-you again, to everyone: your help is deeply appreciated.
24th May 2004: 19:10: back from two nights, one and a half days, conversations & news of & from Marie-Therese & Jeffrey (big sister & her fella) in (well, just outside, really) Pink Panther City; m-th wisely fled south upon hearing of my imminent approach, and only had to suffer an evening and a morning of me - plus most of the guided tour she went on, it is true; i lazed upon a sunny bank, read half of bill bryson's Mother Tongue, hollinged with j upon a search for bluebells; j manfully resisted the friendly temptations of the end of a horticultural & produce sale at the botanical gardens - and even then, the walk was longer than he remembered, and we barely made it back to the joint in time to arouse Pat, feed him a little, and get back out into the city to deliver a heavy cache of "mail-order" Mage stuff to the Castle, and steal m-th's luggage whilst neither the minibus driver, nor anyone else, seemed bothered...
...a good, if rather unaccustomed, relax in superb weather, brightly sunshiney, with enough cloud & breeze - but not too much, and not overmunch too much good food, and exercise, too!
now i can cower with a whole heart, when i think of next weekend's impending invasion, and shiver in anticip-
10th May 2004: 10:40: i-m-t-at-home looks to have fried RAM, or fried chip[s], or possibly both :-((
17th May 2004: 21:45:or/and possibly motherboard...
10th May 2004: 01:40: i-m-t-at-home, the computer, ceased working yesterday afternoon; the power supply unit cooling fan stopped - possibly somewhat earlier - and the heat from the various chips & drive motors inside eventually raised the internal temperature above that at which something could function. the on-chip heatsink-fan continued to spin away quite happily, so i do have some hopes that the main chip's yet unfried.
however, i have potentially lost my correspondence with the three customers who were paying/had paid/were going to pay by paypal: if you are one of these, please let me know!
7th May 2004: 01:40: a bit late opening the shop yesterday - well, day before yesterday, now - as there was a lost delivery vehicle-driver & mate stuc