10:00 I make another desperate entry into the attic - my mission is to bring down things that I know Lois would like to look through in the warmth and comfort of one of our 3 bedrooms. We have a kind of a deadline, in that Mark the Gardener will be virtually emptying the attic a week tomorrow (February 8th) and transferring everything into the garage.
flashback to yesterday, when I made a brief, audacious foray
into our attic, and then got out as quick as I could
Our attic has been lying pretty much undisturbed since December 14th 2020, when I rushed up there, grabbed the Christmas tree and ornaments, and hurried back down again, not knowing what might be lurking up there.
We're not the only people scared of venturing into their attics, as this report from Onion News makes clear:
ITHACA, NY—Describing the vast,
undisturbed regions as one of the last true frontiers on the planet, a report
published Tuesday by researchers at Cornell University has found that at least
79 percent of the world’s attic space remains unexplored.
According to the report, the
little-understood lofted areas of most homes across the globe have not been
studied beyond a radius of approximately an arm’s length from their entrance
hatches, leaving what remains in their further reaches a matter of pure
speculation.
“Apart from a small region
illuminated by a single pull-chain light bulb, we know very little about
attics,” said the report’s lead author, professor Neal Hutchison, noting a lack
of data on both the size and contents of the elevated enclosures. “While we
suspect that some form of insulation could exist up there, perhaps along a wall
or the roofline, we haven’t yet been able to travel far enough inside to
confirm or deny that.”
“Right now, most of our explorations
involve climbing up a stepladder or the built-in pull-down stairs, quickly
poking our head inside, and returning with almost no new information,”
Hutchison continued. “Even after all these years of retrieving Christmas tree
stands from right inside the entryway, the darkest recesses of our world’s
attics remain a complete mystery to us.”
Yesterday I managed to go up there and quickly take some photos to show Lois, and she's decided she'd like to look through things like scrapbooks, old photos, old letters, old sheet music, that kind of thing.
flashback to yesterday - I breach the attic's defences for
the first time since November 2020: yikes!!!
After about 30 minutes I break free and bring down piles of the stuff, and dump them on our younger daughter Sarah's old bed, for Lois to look through.
Job done, and nothing up there ate me, which was a relief - phew!
11:30 Coughing up dust as I go, I accompany Lois on our usual Monday walk round the local football field, and we have an orange-flavoured hot chocolate and yoghurt flapjack at the Coffee Stand. On Mondays it's always nice to see the Old Codgers turn up for their weekly soccer practice.
I reserve 2 seats on the so-called "Pirie Bench", while Lois
gets the drinks and vanilla flapjacks. To the right of the coffee stand,
a bunch of old codgers can be seen - they've
turned up early for their soccer practice
as we leave, we give a cheer to the Old Codgers in the netball court
who are manfully trying to play soccer, some having
made the unwise decision to play in shorts - brrrrr !!!!
12:15 An email comes in from Steve, our American brother-in-law, with an amusing list of oxymorons (adjacent terms that appear to contradict each other), which gives us a laugh during our lunch.
15:00 Lois looks through our attic bounty, while I snooze. As Lois and I predicted, it's a feast of memories, the most touching being letters that Lois and I, and our children Alison (9) and Sarah (7), and my sister Kathy, sent mine and Kathy's mother during our residence in the US 1982-1985. My mother kept all these in a shoe-box all her life - she died in 2011.
17:00 Oh dear that report into parties at Downing Street has been issued, and Boris is under fire again in the House of Commons. I do hope he survives the storm - he's the only person in the Government I really like, which a bit sad, isn't it!
Luckily Boris got some much-needed support at the end of last week from the letters column of Lois's copy of "The Week", which gives a digest of the main news of the week from home and abroad.
Those letters should cheer Boris up, hopefully, and give him the strength to carry on. But we'll see !!!
Colin says, "In the name of God, Boris, please stay!" haha!
And on a lighter note:
18:00 Later Steve sends us another of Edith Pritchett's comical Venn diagrams:
20:00 We watch some TV, tonight's programme in Margaret Thatcher's ex-Cabinet Minister Michael Portillo's new series on Great Coastal Railway Journeys.
This week Michael's exploring north-east Scotland and the Orkney Islands.
We see Michael visiting the site of the Battle of Culloden (1746), the last battle ever fought on British soil.
Two young men in their 20's, (1) Prince William, the Duke of Cumberland and (2) Bonnie Prince Charlie, were fighting essentially for their two fathers' interests, respectively King George II, and James Stuart, who also claimed the British throne.
What madness !!!!!
And did you know that Cumberland's army of red-coated Protestant Englishmen and Lowland Scotsmen, managed to beat Bonnie Prince Charlie's Catholic Highlanders after only about an hour's fighting? My god!
Cumberland's men had a brilliant new tactic. When the two lines of soldiers clashed head on, Cumberland's redcoats were trained to attack not the enemy standing directly in front of them, but instead attack the enemy standing just to their right, because the enemy soldiers' exposed right flanks made them totally vulnerable.
And, as Catriona, Michael's guide, emphasises, you had to trust your comrade standing beside you to do the same thing, otherwise it doesn't work quite so well, does it haha!!!
Later in the programme, we see Michael in the little village of Carrbridge in the Cairngorm Mountains.
Who knew that the village hall in the tiny village of Carrbridge is where the world porridge-making championships are held annually? My god!
Contestants come from all over the world. Last year there were contenders from the USA, Russia, Poland, Czech Republic, and (especially) Sweden. My god (again) !!!! And the winner takes home the prestigious "Golden Spurtle Award", and gets to keep it till the following year's contest.
The Swedish contestants are particularly known
for entering fully into the spirit of the contest
And it's all about the honour of winning the Golden Spurtle Award. And what's a spurtle? Well it's a long thing with a rounded tip which is the ideal implement for stirring the porridge with apparently. Didn't you know haha !!!!!!
The plan is for Michael to learn the art of porridge-making from a real pro, Scottish chef Chris Young, who describes the format of the contest.
Chris Young (foreground) officiating at a typical contest:
six tables are laid out in the hall, one for each of the six finalists.
Chris confirms to Michael that the strange implement
that he's waving about is indeed the legendary "spurtle"
The spurtle is ideal for stirring the porridge in the pan, Chris says. And you have to stir in a clockwise direction, otherwise it summons up the Devil. Must remember that!
Michael earns some "brownie points" from Chris when he tells him he always makes porridge with salt, as his Scottish mother taught him apparently (Michael had a Spanish father and a Scottish mother). Of course Lois and I prefer to make it with something sweet, usually Tate and Lyle Golden Syrup.
But at this point in the programme, Lois and I are nevertheless all agog, waiting to hear some tips from master-porridge-chef Chris Young about how to make the best porridge, so we're a bit disappointed when he proceeds instead to show us how to make an oat-based risotto.
Why not just keep it simple, Chris!
Damn !!!!!
Why do chefs always try to show you something more complicated than what you're interested in? And in magazine recipes why do chefs tend to complicate the recipe with lots of hard-to-find ingredients?
What a crazy world we live in !!!!!!
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzz!!!!!!!
