Your Day (apart from gardening) - what took place? 2023

I'm sure it was about 5hrs, consisting of two driving instructors asking stupid questions, the only part I found interesting was the bit about inertia and how most of the stopping force takes place just before you stop.

 

Just finished Book 1 of "The Thursday Murder Club". Thoroughly enjoyable. The murderer turns out to be someone entirely unexpected. Cracking read that kept me guessing (wrongly) right up to the final pages.

Starting Book 2 tomorrow. Also picked up a copy of "Dead if you don't" by Peter James. Never heard of this author - but the cover says it is "The number one bestseller" - so how can all those people be wrong. Anyway £1 from the charity shop.

 

Oops, just catching up here. @pete I hope your recovery goes speedily. You're becoming the bionic man!

 

It wasn't Mathew and son.

 

Alnwick Gardens, it has been 15 years since our last visit and both the child and the labyrinth have grown quite a lot.

The planting was past it's summer glory but Alnwick is really not about plants but about water and green shapes and structures.

The tunnels were awesome. This is me waving to you all, apologies for the scruffy hairdo.




The same tunnel from outside. The Child nearly fell into my trap when I asked her to stand between the pools to pose when the water was not spraying (the water patterns change all the time) but she got clever seeing that the pavement was wet.



Another tunnel (they are definitely growing on me)



And the mandatory overview of the main water feature with unknown tourists for scale.


Poison garden is very entertaining, they have a new addition of Gympie Gympie (I recommend to click the link and read the story) that taught us to keep spare toilet paper if we are ever stranded in Australian wilderness.

The young guides tell the stories so very well, and look like they are enjoying their job.



This is a quite novel and wonderful idea, they have around 50 two- seater proper swings in the Cherry Tree garden, spreading to the Birch area... wonderful, a bit odd, and greatly enjoyed by us and all the (mostly elderly) visitors. There's something about swings that takes us back in the years.



A very nice plant I must have, hopefully I took a photo of the label too.



And the final view of the tunnels and hedges. The child said she will finish our hedge tomorrow, I do hope she didn't get too inspired in a complex manner.



With a bus fare cap of £2, regular buses from Newcastle and a Gardeners World 2-in-1 card the day was easy on the budget too, especially if one slips the £6.99 Semprevivum, the Cappuccino cake, the streetfood- style dirty-chicken-and-chips, two glasses of wine, various coffees and teas into some other budget.

 

Sounds like a grand day out @Selleri .

 

It was great, I'm pleased we skipped the standard 10-days-in-Spain holiday this year and focused on local day trips instead. (Although, thinking about it some outdoor dining in the warm moonlight would be quite nice too. Especially with fresh, grilled seafood, local wine, table swaying on the ancient cobblestones... )

Alnwick is just over an hour by bus from Newcastle so we have visited a few times. The castle is out of bounds so close to Halloween but just the town is charming and Barter books is great fun with a model railway running above heads and rows and rows of wonderful books.

Newcastle itself is a great city, the architecture and atmosphere are quite unique. The town and especially the Quayside is decorated like an outdoor living room with benches, sun loungers, mini gardens complete with swing seats and so on, and importantly, are always full of people enjoying themselves.

And technically speaking, spending a day in Newcastle is a foreign holiday for us

 

Took the car in for a service. Had to get up at 6.15 to make the 8.00 service. Had a good moan about the 20mph speed limit with a bloke in the garage waiting room. 239 quid for new oil, oil filter and pollen filter. Popped into the builders merchant on the way back to pick up a bulk bag for rubbish. Moaned about the speed limit with the guy in the builders merchant. Polished the car with rapid detailer. Job done

 

My landline has not worked since 21st Sep and Vodafone still has not mended it, so I decided to get a mobile. It will be handy if the car breaks down too.

So I went to a well known store in a town 15 miles away, to get one, and since I know less than nothing about them I relied on the advice of the chap in the shop, who was very good actually.

He put the sim card in for me and then said it was easy to set up - all I had to do was follow the on-screen instructions ...
But first of all, after I got home, I didn't know how to switch it on so I used Google, and there sure enough was someone on youtube explaining how to do it - thank you !
Then the first thing was to decide the language - so I clicked on 'English UK'

And that's as far as I got

I switched it off and started again several times but I got stuck every time, so I took it back to the store in the 15-mile-away town, and a nice lady did it for me, and didn't charge anything because I didn't want it connected to the internet.

On my second journey to the 15-mile-away town I got stuck behind a tractor pulling a muck spreader for 5 miles and couldn't overtake because it was so big and the road was very windy, and it was raining.

I'm fed up now but glad not to be isolated any more
And now I have to learn how to use it

 

You will soon sort it out Michael.

 

I was brave and had my Flu Jab today and as a treat I had Plaice & Chips delivered.

 

A brave move @Michael Hewett , and a wise one. The world is nowadays all in mobile phones and the added security of being able to call when the landline is not within reach is reassuring.

I upgraded to a smartphone during Covid and am slowly starting to appreciate it. OK, The Child had to set it up for me and give me some lessons on how to manage the various functions, and I still ask her when I have to do something challenging such as copy- paste.

The best benefits are unbulky camera with the possibility to send the photo into my gmail, the fact that my niece, 8, has low threshold to ask, chat and share things in Whatsapp and the security of being able to Google my way out from a tight spot when I get lost or just need a map or bus time tables.

I'm still relying heavily on The Child with more advanced things but that is perfectly acceptable in advanced years. (I'm 51 )

 

@Selleri you are fortunate to have the Child to ask for help, I'm glad to know you're happy with the phone.

 

I just use about half of what the phone is capable of and probably only 10% of what the computer can do, but they do what I want them to do and looking back, I'd be lost without either now, although when buying them I often questioned whether I needed them or not.

When I bought my first computer I had not any inking of how they worked or what they did, it took me a long time, just learning a bit as I went along.