Christmas Blog – 2011

This blog will also be instead of many ‘Facebook’ postings. Photographically this blog follows on from ‘The Blog Before Christmas’, with a photograph of the Christmas wreath that Irene placed on her Dad’s grave on the 10^th of December.

This sombre occasion was followed by a happier photo-shoot of Joni, Fiona and Tay. Suffice it to say that Tay, being a young cat, was far too playful to cooperate in such an activity.

No, they are not poking the cat with a stick

On the 14^th we had strange encounters. Irene has a friend who has severe depression. The only visiting hours at the hospital were at night. The ladies left me alone and went off to the ward. Although the entrance hall was large and modern and it was only 7.00 pm, there was a lonesome eeriness about it. As soon as I sat still to read my book the lights went out. The only sound was the hum of the vending machines. I was then aware of strange figures appearing like performers coming on to a stage. The first one unexpectedly decided to buy me a coffee and then leave. A limping man dragged a pile of plastic sacks across the ‘stage’ and then left. Two more gentlemen appeared and came towards me. One of the men spoke to me. His voice was slurred. He tried to explain that he was a preacher. “You know, ‘of the good news’, ‘of righteousness’, ‘of the gospel’ etc.) He boasted that he used to earn £1000 a month and now he only earned £500. His friend added that he was baptised as Samson – you know, the world’s strongest man. As they left I reflected that the staff must think that some of the inmates were safe enough to wander about. Now, the limping man returned. He sat next to me with all his worldly good gathered around him in a few plastic sacks. He told me that he was going home and about the misunderstandings that had led him to be in hospital in the first place.

The evening of jollity was not over. My party returned and in our desperate rush failed in our first attempt to get out. At the same time another crowd were trying to get in. Eventually someone (I don’t know if this was a patient or member of staff) told us that at night the pairs of doors open more slowly so that patients can’t get out in a group. Someone had to be the guinea pig. So, it was not long before I was standing in the space between the two pairs of doors. Once I had explained, by gestures, to those trying to get in, that they need to back off, I made my exit. A raggle-taggle of visitors, ex-inmates and perhaps current ones followed us and we made reasonably speedy exit from the car park.

Christmas celebrations really began for us on 16^th December. This was the Friday night group's Christmas dance. This was well attended, good fun and had a Dutch buffet. On the 17^th the staff of ‘Stanton Hall Care Home’  made a special effort to take all the residents out for a Christmas dinner at the ‘The Risely Park’.

I am so glad that I have the camera!

This was a really big logistical operation involving a large number of people, some with dementia and other in wheel chairs and a small coach making three journeys between the home and the restaurant. Our friend Margaret thoroughly enjoyed the whole event and felt obliged to give a speech of thanks at the end.

We made our Christmas visit to Irene’s mum on the following day and shared our presents. In the afternoon we went on to visit our friends Liz and Martin. It was good to catch up on the news.

The weekend continued with a Christmas carol service at the Haven Church, which had a fun reconstruction (or was it a destruction) of the Christmas story.

On Monday Joni started his new job at a call centre. We hope that this is the start of his working life in Nottingham. He and Fiona have been picking up work with ‘Occasions’ catering. http://www.freeindex.co.uk/profile(occasions-catering)_78627.htm. We had an interesting story about catering at the Nottingham Deaf Institute. After the meal came the speeches, and, you’ve guessed it, this is when silence descended as the speakers used sign language. Strangely, the caterers also went silent, but had to be careful not get in front of the ‘speaker’.

Today, Wednesday we did our big Christmas shop. We noticed that people were buying food as if the shops would be closed until well into the New Year. However, we had to count ourselves amongst the ‘people’. As we sat drinking our coffee and scoffing our éclair (me) and carrot cake (Irene) we reflected on the only sign of austerity visible and this was that Asda had significantly less decorations up than previous years. Were they setting us an example or were they sharing in our pain; after all ‘we are all in it together’.

A major project for me, in these, holiday days has been digitizing our vinyl records. To do this I have attached a deck to my computer and downloaded a program called ‘Audacity’. It is quite fun to watch the wave forms appear on the screen and I have developed a speedy technique of splitting the wave pattern into tracks, labelling them and exporting them to ‘Windows Media Player’. However, it is a slow process; it has to be done in real time. It is also necessary to monitor during recording, in case the needle sticks on the record. (It is sometimes possible to nudge the needle on and avoid repeats.) Even when the record is digitized there is a lengthy process of ‘tagging’ them to create albums that will appear in media player library.

What has been fun is to catalogue them; sometimes this is done while the records are playing into the computer. There is a great deal of nostalgia as the record information is studied and a certain reflection of the silliness behind buying certain records. (I sense the need for a special blog.)

Thursday evening was followed by a church group Christmas party. Close behind the wonderful food was the inevitable game of ‘Trivial Pursuit’ (1986 version). A least, this time one team (I shall not boast about whose) completed the six questions, got to the middle, but could not convert the try.

Friday morning was our last shopping day. This was a vegetable trip to Stapleford. We also wandered around the town looking for Christmas cake decorations. We ended up at a garden centre. I loved the little ‘Christmas Town’ figures, but we finished up buying a bird box with a robin on it. It looks fine on the cake.

Christmas Eve was the day of preparation and we did manage to go out to a final carol service at the Baptist church. The church was packed and candle lit. However, the technology let them down; lights went on and there was a mad frenzy of giving out a few hymn books. It would have taken a Jesus miracle to share so few with so many. However, a miracle came about and we were back to candles and the overhead projector. It was a jolly service. 


Irene and I had time for our own festivities. At this time Joni was joining in the ‘Danish’ festivities at Fiona’s home. He was not too late back.

By the end of the 24th we were ready for Christmas

The Christmas Cakes

Detail from the Christmas Scene

The Christmas Tree

 

Joni's Advent Calendar

Father Christmas was Assembled on Christmas Morning

And so to Christmas morning. Put out the sack/do not put out the sack? Out came the sacks. One of them is now 40 years old. The plan was to have the same number of presents for each of us present on Christmas morning, but each family group was to have the same number of presents. I think that we worked the plan well.

This Christmas was to be more adventurous with the dinner. We had duck. This was a corporate effort, with a little bit of division of opinion. However, it all came out well and this was the most animal fat that we have consumed in a fair while. Our traditional Christmas pudding followed this time with pouring ‘Bailey’s’ cream, as well as the brandy butter.

The Duck

Later in the day Fiona joined us and we did a present swap. Sometimes you should be careful what you wish for. I was overheard saying that I would like to do another 3000 piece jigsaw. This is exactly what Fiona and Joni gave me. I will look forward to doing it on our return from NZ. Many thanks.

Sharing Presents with Joni and Fiona

During the day we spoke to Joe and Julia on the phone. They are looking forward to moving into a bigger place so that, maybe, they can house more stuff. We had texts from Izzie and Iona. We followed this with a phone call to Tim and all the family. They sounded like they were having a great Christmas at home. In the evening Sally managed to Skype us and we could see the girls, Zoe and Emily, who showed us their Christmas presents. However, I had to leave the conversation early as the Christmas ‘Doctor Who’ started. It was a case of you can catch up with family, but not with ‘Doctor Who’. It’s a time warp thing.

Food sort of came and went during the evening around a game of ‘Cranium’. This game takes super intelligence to know how to make someone else move like a puppet. Believe it. There was no way Irene could get me to be an air-guitar playing puppet.

Fiona was much better as a puppet than I was

On Boxing Day the weather was almost superb. In fact in Aberdeen it was 15 C. Irene and I went a walk around Stapleford Hill and made something of a hash of finding our way back to Coventry Lane.

Should there be pipes across a footpath?

Christmas Colour in the Walled Garden

In the afternoon we watched ‘Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets’.  We then went on to watch ‘Home Alone’. And so Boxing Day came to an end.

The next day it was when leaving for the Dales' that I discovered an enormous puddle of water in the garage. I figured that it might have come from the car. The water bottles were found to be full and so I thought that it might have been due to water collecting in the car after the recent heavy rain. And so, we set off to see our friends, spending a pleasant hour or so with them. They had plenty of news to share. Some of it we found most surprising. (There might be more later.)


In the evening it was our turn to host our other Ilkeston friends, Jan and Lawrence. This was another opportunity for exchanging presents, enjoying a good meal and catching up with friends.


Wednesday was a time for topping up the fridge ready for our day with Tim and Isla. Once again the garage was flooded. So, what was the pattern to this phenomena? Although the water was centred on the floor I spotted traces of water at the back of the garage. It was then that I had an epiphany. The one thing that we were doing that we do not normally do was to use the dishwasher. My first thought was that the pipe from the dishwasher had come out of the waste pipe.


Once back from shopping I removed everything from the back of the garage. It was then I discovered a pipe end hanging in the air. Problem solved. When I told Irene she remembered me asking her to remind me to replace the dishwasher pipe after I had completed the garage redecorating. So, I can't take all the blame. At the time of writing I do not know whether the problem is cured. I am reasonably confident, but tomorrow will tell.


On Thursday Tim, Isla and the girls came for the day. Joni and Fiona were with us. Our festivities started with Christmas photos.

Christmas photo. Notice the brother with the same cardigans

This was followed by mulled (non-alcoholic) wine and warm mince pies. Who knows how difficult it is to pour warm wine into a small cup containing two segments of orange. For me it was a disaster, but only Irene noticed, as did the kitchen table, the floor and anything else in the area. I am now banned from the kitchen. 


For dinner Irene served up a very nice piece of beef and plenty of trimmings. I was going to carve the beef with our electric carving knife, but, as you know, I am banned.


Before eating dinner came our traditional wave to New Zealand. Perhaps we should do the hukka http://youtu.be/gUgKPyy_tlA next year.

Greetings to our family in NZ

After this followed another exchange of presents.

The girls making balloon things

During the afternoon the girls visited my railway and added some of my new scenics to the layout. Strangely, they removed the mountain climbing pigs and the Doctor Who tree monster.


More food followed and then the party broke up. Irene and I played the new game that Tim and Isla gave me. It is a very clever 'strategy' game. Irene could not get her head round it, but she won both times. Joni and Fiona went out. We watched 'Alice Through the Looking Glass' and Joni came back.


On Friday Jenny and Francis came over for tea/coffee and mince pies (we had four left). This was a pleasant morning listening to the Luckcocks. It is a while since we have spent so much time having a conversation with them even though they are our friends from next door.

The last 2011 events we have are a visit to Irene's mum tomorrow and the New Years Eve dance at the Washington Drive Community Centre, which will take us nicely into the new year.

A HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM IRENE (the editor) AND ME (the author).

Wedding Weekend - Decorations, Dung, Dale and Digital

I expect that I am not the only one to have had a brilliant wedding weekend.

Joni arrived in the area sometime in the early hours. We were to see him later. See blog http://fiona-becomingagrownup.blogspot.com/. The first task of my day was to start on decorating the New Stapleford Community Centre (newscomcen.co.uk) ready for the evening 'Red, White and Blue' dance. Just before the magic hour of 11:00 (when most of the world would be glued to their TVs) I set off to pick up my new pair of glasses. It was a case of 'park where you want'. By 11:04 I was back to see the main event. It was certainly a spectacle. (Pun intended).

The afternoon was taken up by completing the hall decorations. We already had strings of union flags, to which I added streamers of the usual colours. I purchased the crepe paper in Rymans earlier. I let the helpful assistant guess which colours I needed.

The evening was very well attended with the majority of dancers suitable attired. Some of us had the privilege of receiving an appropriate bowler. I even sported a white carnation supplies by nan and Irene had a blue sash from the same source.

The Dutch buffet was enjoyed by all.

I thought that evening went well. I hope that everyone else enjoyed themselves.

Saturday - Moorgreen Reservoir

By Saturday morning Joni was home. While he slept mum and I popped off to Ilkeston. Her hope was to buy some wedding souvenirs. Mine was to trade two analogue train controllers for some more digital decoder chips. I got £30 for the controllers and purchased two more chips and a turnout. (See note on DCC below.) Before lunch I was able install a chip in one more engine. Joni was quite impressed by how easy the controller was to use. He enjoyed adding two engines together as a consist in order to haul a large train up the incline.

In the afternoon the three of us set off to explore pastures new and not too far away at a place called Moorgreen reservoir. Our neighbour, Jenny, told us about the bluebells that were growing there. This was not one of our best arranged walks. We found the reservoir and something of a place to park, but it was not clear as to where the footpath started so we drove off in an attempt to get closer to the woods. We found a parking spot and a marked footpath, but decided to stray from it into the woods itself. Firstly we came across a profusion of wild garlic. We noted that this plant seems to be taking over from the bluebells. We were to note this on our visit to Dale Abbey on the following day.

Joni and Mum enter the woods via the wild garlic

The light in the woods was certainly of the 'green wood' variety.

The dark woods opened up to larger road ways were logging was taking place. However we were not finding the promised bluebells so back to the car, back to our first parking spot and at last we found the path alongside the reservoir. The reservoir is private property (a fishery) and so we had limited views of the water, but we did find bluebells.

At one point Joni thought that it would fun to get in the way of my shot.

The mixture of blue and white was special.

We finished off Saturday evening with a game of Rumicubs. This a game that Joni excels at, usually, but mum won twice to my once and Joni's ....... We all sat and enjoyed our beer and chocolate while we watched 'Dagenham'. It was a film worth watching.

Sunday Dale, Dung and Digital

As usual the young can't hack it and need more time in bed and so mum and I set out for the dung heap. In a very un-church-like way we set off for the Bessell Lane allotment site where there is free manure available between 10:00 and 11:00. We collected our four bags and delivered them to our own plot and returned home for 11:00. Our next adventure was to be Dale Abbey. This a favourite spot of ours and another great bluebell viewing area.

I decided to take the minimum of camera equipment. I used the telephoto for all shots without the use of a tripod. The trick is to take only those photographs that the equipment is capable of.

This is the remaining wall of the abbey viewed at a distance.

On our way through Hermits Wood Mum and Joni spied a rabbit. For some reason it was a long time before I could see it. Mum grabbed the camera and this is her shot of the rabbit moving.

Here is my effort. It really is camouflaged.

The bluebell wood

We decided to walk down to the abbey wall itself. This took us past the church. All Saints Church must be the smallest church in the country. The attached house is far larger.

On the way through the village I spied these magnificent lilac blossoms

And finally to the Abbey. In the picture Joni is looking over the wall into the garden of the private house in which the abbey stood.

After a final go with the DCC railway we had tea and Joni set off ready to leave for Scotland the following morning.

A Note on Digital Command Control

A new era (for me) in railway modelling has just begun. Today I successfully installed a decoder chip into one of my locomotives and it runs under full control together with an un-chipped loco running under analogue.

The adventure began last week when I was able get hold of a very reasonably priced digital command control. A few weeks earlier I saw the price of a different manufacturer's unit and threw in the towel.

I did have one failure with the first decoder that installed, but today I replaced it and the new one is now up and running.

To do the conversion every other control unit has to be removed and under board wiring carried out so that every centimetre of track carries 12 volts. This is supplied by the unit and the rewiring is almost complete.

The principle is very much like remote control except that the rails that carry the current also carry the messages that tell each engine what to do. This means that more than one engine can run on the same section of track possibly going at different speeds and even in different directions. It is possible to couple two engines and run them as a single until in cases of pulling heavy loads or climbing inclines.

All the functions are carried out from one box and the sole power source is the transformer to the controller. All that is needed is to set the points to run the engine on whatever route is chosen.

It is so brilliantly simple.