Monday, June 29, 2020

Published Monday, June 29, 2020 by with 0 comment

Coronavirus - Sunday 28th June

A lovely morning so I went for a ride down the Kennet to Theale and back. Got more positive emails about the festival and started working on a survey using the free version of Survey Monkey.
I sprayed the down the side of the house with the weed killer I'd bought on Saturday. It seemed to be much pokier than stuff I'd bought before and I had to wear a mask as the fumes were quite strong. After that I chopped down the rest of the dead cherry tree out the front as much as I could using an electric saw I'd borrowed from Kelvin. I brought all the bits down by the side of the house to cut up but the smell from weed killer was still quite strong so I just left them.
M really went to down with a Greek meal for tea. We had homemade dolmades and hummus with olives, fried homegrown zucchini and pitta bread to start followed by Greek meatballs with salad and potatoes. Had a call with the Kelly's after as it was Michael's birthday.
Another glorious ride on Tuesday so went for another ride first thing. This time I went up to Tilehurst, then down Sulham hill and across to Pangbourne. I followed the track by the railway to Purley but this time followed the Thames path which brings you out by the Roebuck where you can get down to the Thames.
Chopped up the logs and sent out the FLF survey.
M suggested having a picnic in Prospect Park for tea so I baked some focaccia and made a salad nicoise and off we went. We couldn't find anywhere to park and the place was rammed so we decided to try down by the Thames next to the Oracle Business Park. It didn't look as busy but we couldn't find anywhere to park there either so came back and had our picnic on the table on the patio.
Wednesday was really hot. We got an email from Norilyn saying we were going to be invited to an online conference to discuss Martin's condition. She asked us to pass it on to Liz. I emailed the people I keep informed and asked if they had any comments. It wasn't clear when the meeting was meant to be so M contacted Norilyn who said it was tomorrow at 3:30. M then phones Liz to make sure she was aware and to check we were welcome.
In the evening I did a ride with Kelvin and Andy. I went on my mountain bike and thought I might struggle. The plan was to go to Aldworth via Pangboure, Hangman's Lane and Stichens Green. I suggested taking the track along the river and railway to Pangbourne which was accepted so evened things out a bit bike wise. It was fantastic ride. The Hangman's Lane/Stichens Green bit was lovely. I dont recall doing it before. A bit of a steep climb out though. We ate our sarnies and had a beer each sitting opposite The Bell. Took a more direct route back to Pangbourne and then followed the track again and finished off with a last beer at the western end of Thames Promenade.
Got responses from people about Martin. Everyone basically thinks he wouldn't like an existence where he can barely function. But of course we dont actually know.
The meeting on Thursday was not as we thought it was going to be. Nothing about discussing Martin's wishes just an update from the medical team on the results of their tests and the care they have been giving. Its not good. He is in a vegetative state and they think he is blind. They are going to continue monitoring until the end of July and then probably move him to a place in Putney. At 6 there were drinks down the street which was good fun, chatted to quite a few people.
We then had a lasagne outside and chatted to Kelvin over the garden fence. On Friday I had a trip to the West Berkshire Brewery for community supplies. They only had a limited range so went for GOB. They were also doing a Good Old Dad they had brewed for fathers day that Andy tried. M did pizzas for tea with some fried zucchini from the garden to start with.
Then we watched a bit of glasto.
Saturday got off to a had start as all the wine and gin was smashed up in the shop. We were planning to watch Reading away to Derby on Zoom. I get it free so the plan was for me to share my screen. It didn't work though, it must be blocked somehow. Ralph tried showing it by pointing his phone at his lap top. Eventually we hit upon a solution of one laptop pointing at another that worked reasonably well. Went get wine and gin from Waitrose plus a few other things to make it look respectable. No queues or hassle. Did a lamb curry for tea. A good start to the day on Sunday. Finished the Everyman crossword by about 11. It was raining a bit when we got up but due to clear later so we were planning a walk. Drove to Purley, walked down to Mapledurham lock then along the Thames and back along the track I've cycling on. Quite of lot of boats moored on that stretch of the river. Good walk about 4 miles and flat. Got wet at the start though and had to shelter under a tree. My foot was OK gout wise. M cooked a Greek style roast chicken dinner then we watched Bowie at Glasto in 2000.

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Thursday, June 25, 2020

Published Thursday, June 25, 2020 by with 1 comment

Fantasy Lockdown Festival - Saturday 20th June

The Fantasy Lockdown Festival takes place this evening. Details can be seen on the page of that name. A few late attendees signed up before the 12 noon deadline so I emailed the new email addresses to all the contributors. I then needed to pop down to BnQ to get some weedkiller from click and collect. That worked very well, no queue at all. On the way I dropped off a couple of plastic glasses and paper bowls at Steve and Lindsey's so they could get the full festival experience.
Around 3pm I sent out a final email to all participants then we set up our scheduled meetings and invites. M cooked a goan fish curry for an authentic festival meal.

The fantasy festival was in general pretty successful and all the people who helped out should be congratulated. As this is my blog however what follows is how things unfolded behind the scenes as far as I was concerned. This will inevitable focus on incidents that occurred which is some cases are things that went wrong.

The Lockdown Bar opened at 5 30. Quite a few people popped in and it worked quite well.
The first acts were on at 6pm. There were a few gremlins as Wynn couldn't share Billy Connolly for some reason and initially there was no sound for Blank Generation but that was sorted out and they had 23 participants a one point due to their large local following. Fela Kuti went off without a hitch and some people were caught dancing to them.
Steve emailed to say he hadn't got any invites and I realised for some reason he wasn't on the list so we agreed to forward all the invites to him. Wynn couldn't sort out his issue so I agreed to do Green Day for him and James said he and Amy would host a surprise show for Billy as he had got stuck in traffic. Next up at 7 were Lucius, Miles Davies and John. A few issues to start with for Lucius as we were getting and invalid meeting ID but otherwise OK. I popped into the Blank Generation Signing tent for a bit which was well attended and I captured some signings.

At 8 I started three consecutive slots which wasn't planned but I was doing Green Day for Wynn and Little Feat for Dylan. The 8 o-clocks, Courtney Barnett, Stick Figure and Efterklang all went off fine as did Green Day, Bishop Gunn and the rescheduled Billy at 9 but there were problems with Fat White Family. The picture was a bit jerky and the sound went so some resorted to watching directly via the Youtube link. I had wanted to watch Bishop Gunn but couldn't as I was monitoring Green Day and it had to be nudged on in a couple of places.
At about this time I first got to hear that there had been some stabbings in the Forbury Gardens. Three people killed. Initially they thought it was related to a Black Lives Matter march. Very sobering. 
The 10 o-clocks, RATM, Little Feat and Chris Thile went off OK although I did start Little Feat without sharing by screen. Little Feat were surprisingly good and popular. Chris Thile unfortunately ran out after the 40 minute limit.
The headliners Talking Heads, Led Zeppelin and Laura Marling all went off OK. M had a bit of a glitch with Zep as her Mac had got switched off somehow, I dont think it was me. This meant she had lost the Youtube clip she had carefully set up and so started off with the wrong one. After some initial monitoring I finally got to relax a bit and watch the excellent 1969 Zep set. When they had finished I switched to Talking Heads which I was really enjoying but that also suffered from the 40 minute cut-off as did Laura but Tom sent a second invite for that.
After it was all over we piled into the bar. There were 14 at one point and it worked OK. All quite positive but some talk about the stabbings which by now they were saying was not related to the BLM march.  Russ lives opposite the Forbury and it was all cordoned off so he was effectively on lockdown again. The numbers slowly dwindled leaving just me and M, Tom and Sally and Kevin and Adrienne at the end. We went outside and continued from the end of the garden. It started raining so we called it a night probably sometime around 3am.
Had a bit of lie in the next day as was to be expected. Got a Father's day call from James and Amy. They had enjoyed the festival. The news was dominated by the Forbury stabbings as was to be expected. Got emails from Warren and my cousin Lynda about it as they had got the news in Canada and the US. We wondered if it was connected to the house to house the police had done on Friday evening.
Got lots of emails throughout the day from people saying how much they'd enjoyed everything which was really positive.
I had a lazy afternoon updating the FLF website and included a gallery of all the pictures from the Whatsapp group.
Got a Fathers day Whatsapp from Tom.
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Saturday, June 20, 2020

Published Saturday, June 20, 2020 by with 0 comment

Coronavirus - Friday 19th June

The colchicine is working well so I went for my first ride in a week or so on Monday. Took it steady just along the Kennet to the Burghfield bridge then back along the road and through Prospect Park. It was a lovely morning and great to be out there again. Had 3 very early raspberries with my muesli from some canes I gave to Gil which have now escaped back into our garden. She thought it might be because they weren't cut back. Did a test session for the festival in the evening with mixed success. Tom had offered to host some if others cant. He and Sally have been looking at flats. Went for a longer ride on Tuesday along The Kennet to Theale and back. As I was cycling along I caught site out of the corner of my eye what appeared to be an incredibly deep blue sky only to find I was cycling past Ikea.
It seemed to be open as I saw someone going in and a car went into the car park although the main entrance to it was still closed.
The St Bernadus beer me, Andy and Kelvin ordered was so nice we decided to get some more, this time with glasses.
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I'd had a couple of emails from one of the Northgate test systems so I emailed Yasmin to mention it and also to ask how things were going. All still working from home and finding it frustrating and yet quite good at the same time. E.g. you can sit out in the garden. She mentioned that Nigel Blair was producing a weekly newsletter to keep people's spirits up. I then emailed Nigel as he appears in the Blank Generation video being shown at the festival. He also sent me some of the newsletters and he signed up for the festival. He reckons they might re-open the office on 1st July.
We picked out first courgette of the summer and had it in a prawn stir fry.
I proof read M's new section to the Coley book which gives a very interesting history of how the area developed. This will precede the two sections from the existing oral history books to form a new book.There had been a torrential downpour in the afternoon and M got a tweet that a hole had appeared on Castle Hill so we went to investigate after we'd eaten.
Had another festival Zoom test. Still a few issues and Dylan hadn't realised he was supposed to host so we we'll do his Little Feat clip. I'd had a bit of a pain in my toe again on Tuesday so decided to give a ride a miss on Wednesday. Did Zoom tests for the festival with Rob and Ian and both OK. Went down the hop with Andy and Kelvin in the evening.
It rained for most of the day on Thursday. Popped out with M in the morning to pick up 2 sets of medieval Reading Gild Accounts and dropped off Andy's beer. Spent most of the rest of the day on fantasy festival stuff. Got a phone call from Lodden Brewery on Friday to say they couldn't deliver my festival ale, 9 pints of Ferryman's Gold, as their driver was ill so I went to pick it up. Just in case the driver had got covid I gave it a good wash down when I got back.
Sent out all the festival email addesses to the contibutors and other stuff. It was a bit of a dull day but I decided to go out on my road bike to stretch my legs a bit, however the chain kept slipping so I cut it short. I checked Berkshire Cycles when I got back but nothing on the web site or phone about whether they are open. Each time I've been past they have been closed. Evans are open so it looks like I'll have to give my business to them although I don't like them. The police came round doing a house to house in the evening asking if we'd seen a chap that had a photo of. They said he was a missing person who had "gone off their radar". Very odd we thought, there must be lots of missing persons but the police don't do house to house. Then there was the police helicopter flying overhead for a while and two traffic wardens who took an age to do their business. All very stange.
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Monday, June 15, 2020

Published Monday, June 15, 2020 by with 0 comment

Coronavirus - Sunday 14th June

I'm still have a painful big toe after last weeks walk so taking it easy most of the week. Did some planning and testing for the fantasy festival and sent out invites etc. Also did a but of tarting up of some soundtrap tracks. Had virtual pints down the hop with Kelvin and Andy on Wednesday and a call with Penno, Kevin and Adrienne on Thursday. By Friday my big toe was still playing up so I phoned the doctors. They have this pretty good system where you can submit photos and do an online diagnosis.
They reckoned it probably is gout so prescribed some tablets. Went down to Boots to pick them up but unfortunately they didn't have any in stock. The trip into town wasn't wasted though as we'd run out of beer and wine and due to a cock  up on the catering front the shopping wasn't arriving until 8pm. So went to Sainsbury's for supplies.  Boots was quite well organised, hand sanitiser, social distancing and a one way system. Sainsbury's not quite so as no one way system. There were a few more people in town but not that many.
On Saturday I went back into town to get the pills. They are Colchicine. 2 to 4 a day and only 12 with big warnings not to exceed the dose. They are to reduce the swelling caused by gout. Noticed that social distancing wasn't being observed by some in town. Went to a garden  centre after to buy some pots.
Sunday was a really nice day but took it easy again. The pills are starting to work though so I might go out for ride tomorrow, Did a Zoom test with JR, Russ and Hoagy. JRs RATM froze occasionally but it was definitely watchable and he reckons his 3 lads were probably online gaming at the same time. Hoagy showed the Blank Generation DVD, or more likely the original digital recordings. They all came through fine so it was a worthwhile excercise.

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Sunday, June 07, 2020

Published Sunday, June 07, 2020 by with 0 comment

Coronavirus - Sunday 7th June

I've got a longish ride and walk planned this week so although it was a gorgeous morning and M went for a run I didn't go for a ride. Finished off I Am A Pilgrim and asked Tom to mix. Had a zoom in the evening as it was Anne's 60th. On Tuesday I went for a ride with Kelvin, the Andys and Charlie. My first multiperson ride since lockdown. The plan was to meet Charlie at Ipsden but he might cycle towards us an meet us on the way. Coxy set off before us he wouldn't slow us down. We met Charlie here at Blue Tin Farm. You used to be able to see Didcot power station until they knocked it down.
No sign of Coxy and we couldn't contact him so continued to Ipsden. He didn't seem to be there but then turned up at the shop. His phone was flat and he was already knackered but had bought 4 bottles of Ferryman's Gold. We then made our way to Charlie and Helen's place in East Hagred for lunch. Originally they had wanted to make us lunch but we said we'd prefer to take our own. Nice garden, these are Canterbury Bells.
Coxy was really struggling on the way back so Robert picked him up from Streatley. Put all the cushions in the garden away when I got back as the weather is meant to break. We came back along the path north of the river. We'd done it loads of times many years ago but it seemed very difficult and we had to get off and push a few times. I wonder why. The social distancing worked well on the ride and at Charlie's although we did sit in their chairs and pass bottles of beer and bottle openers to each other. It still feels strange.
A bit of a lazy day on Wednesday, did a bit of soundtrapping and prep for the fantasy festival which looks like being a goer. Had a call down the Hop Leaf withg Kelvin and Andy in the evening.
On Thursday did a long walk with the Mansfield Rd Walking Society, me, Kelvin, Roger and John Rees. We got a train to Panbgbourne and walked back The train was more or less empty so we had a carriage to ourselves and it felt quite safe, Roger is also very careful as he has Jean to think about who is high risk. It was a great walk, although its a route I've cycled many times I've never walked it and we went up into the hills. Great walking and very picturesque.
When  we got back to Reading instead of going down Caversham Rd we went along the river, through the festival site and under Cow Lane bridge which now has a proper foot and cycle path. Saw some very tall hogweed just coming out of the festival site. Kelvin and Roger thought it was call cow parsnip but according to wikipedia its the same thing.
Ended up with a swollen right knee and painful big toe. According to my reckoning it was 12.5. miles. Had a call with the 1st Thursday drinkers in the evening. We're thinking that maybe the July one could be outside in a park somewhere.
On Friday I knocked up quick version of That's Entertainment in Soundtrap to see if JR and Russ were interested in collaborating. I seem to have a bit of what I assume is gout in my left big toe from yesterday's walk.
I realise that in these coronavirus posts I haven't gone into much detail about how the restrictions have changed and the number of deaths/infections etc but I found this Wikipedia timeline which is very detailed.
Bit of a lazy on Saturday had a zoom in the evening with T, S, J & A as it was meant to be M's graduation.
A good start to the day on Sunday, didn't get up until 1pm. Had another lazy day. My big toe is still playing up. I think its gout.


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Monday, June 01, 2020

Published Monday, June 01, 2020 by with 0 comment

Coronavirus - Sunday 31st May

Another glorious day and a bank holiday. M went for a run and I went out on the mountain bike. I finally managed to get through from Southcote Lock to Cottage Lane. The field had dried out and I followed a path that I thought would take me to the fishing lakes. It did but it was a long way round and eventually I came across a couple of blokes who said it was private property and there was no way through. It looked like they were fishing but they said they were just camping out to stop people swimming and stray cyclists. I back tracked and found myself by the river (as opposed to the canal), got back to the lock and retraced my tyre tracks. This time I managed to find a hole in the hedge through to Cottage Lane. It looked like someone had recently cut through it. Good for them. Headed for the swing bridge at Theale and back along the canal. There were a lot of people out though so stuck to the road once I got to it. Made a focaccia when I got back using Dave O'Neill's recipe.
Spent most of the rest of the day watching The Folk On Feet online festival.
Tuesday was another glorious day. Did the southern half of my round Reading 50 miler. Spotted what I thought was free beer outside The Wheelwright's but it was just water for dogs.
Put up the house number when I got back and sent out invites to the fantasy festival.
Had a zoom with Brendan, Lynda and Kelvin in the evening. She is having to start teaching next week. It doesn't seem very well organised. Just a class of 6 to start with.
On Wednesday the St Bernardus beer arrive that we been ordered after tasting the West Vleteren.
Had a call with Kelvin and Andy in the evening and sampled the St Bernardus. Not as good as the West Vleteren but pretty good.
We went for a walk on Thursday. Drove to Prospect Park to the bottle bank then wondered down to Southcote lock and did a loop along the river to the wier pool then back down the canal. Very peaceful, lots of damsel flies, saw a chap trying to photograph them. Had a call with Penno, Kevin and Adrienne in the evening.
Went for an early ride on Friday, along the Kennet to Theale then round via Hardwick Stud and Mapledurham. Incorporated the newly discovered footbridge instead of the old one which is a better route. Got held up by a herd of cows at Mapledurham for about 10 minutes.
They were all numbered.
Kelvin had been to the West Berks Brewery and dropped off a case of Maharaja. On Thursday when we went for our walk we met a guy trying to take pictures of damsel flies. We'd seen quite a few by the Holybrook in Coley Park so went down there with my camera. I was sitting down and quite a few were settling near me but they were a bit too far away and I couldn't get the camera to focus on them. Then amazingly one settled on my knee and I took this.
Made pizzas for tea. Had a bit of a lazy day on Saturday as I have admit to being slightly hungover. On Sunday we drove over to the university campus and had a socially distanced walk and a beer with Bobby and Fiona. I find it a bit difficult and awkward being socially distanced. Fiona is furloughed but thinks her job is safe long term. Bobby is working and had even been to the office. He's involved in getting the town centre out of lockdown. They have Tara and Charlie at home with them. Took of photo of Gil's chimney stack. We've always like the red brick against the blue sky. The moon was out as well.
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