What the heck is he on about today I hear you ask?
Well it's all a matter of learning to remember things. As we get older we remember less and less and need every aid that is available. So when I'm on my walks, I'm always thinking of things to write in this blog and, for some reason, make a little story up in order to remember them.
I suppose I could take a notepad and write them down or even record them on my phone, but I never do this. I just remember them through a story which is often an instruction. Unfortunately at times I forget one of the parts of the story and the whole thing collapses. So that's how I came up with the nonsense at the top of this blog.
I almost feel that I have gone full circle. When we were first in lockdown and restricted to one piece of exercise per day, I regularly walked the fields around Hethersett. I wrote blogs about my Steward Strolls and got some great reaction and hundreds of lovely messages of support.
It's been some time since I walked round the fields. Basically they have been too wet and so I've kept to streets. Yesterday it looked bright and warm enough to give it another go. Add to that a knee injury I have picked up through walking and tennis (just a niggle) and I needed something a little softer than pavements.
So to my little story:
Print out photos - this is a reminder of how I spent yesterday morning. My Epson printer has been playing up of late. I just couldn't get it to print and eventually lost patience with it and decided to buy a new one which arrived yesterday morning. I didn't know the post office delivered on Sundays. Anyway it came from John Lewis. I hate setting things up. Something invariably goes wrong and this one involved setting up wireless contacts with laptops and a desktop. It also involved registering for HP Instant ink.
I plugged it in, paired it to my wi-fi and then started registration. It took some time but I eventually succeeded in getting it working. For once I took a chance on pressing various buttons. That doesn't usually work but yesterday it did.
This instant ink lark seems a good un. You pay a small amount each month to print out a certain number of pages. You decide how many you need. Fifty print-outs is currently £1.99 a month which is less than a cup of coffee. I don't print much but there are documents I would like to print out that I have always put off because of the ridiculous cost of ink. Now there is no difference between printing black and white and printing in colour. A page is a page. Your ink levels are continually checked in a Big Brother kind of way through your account and new cartridges are sent out as and when needed.
To me at all seems too good to be true but there doesn't appear to be any drawbacks, particularly as I get six months free printing of up to 700 sheets a month. Looks like a no brainer to me.
Mushy peas - Anyone who knows me knows that I love them and I regularly go to Reggie's pea stall on Norwich Market where you can get a bowl full with mint source for £1.50. You can add a pasty/pie for another £.150 and chips off another stall for £1.20. A cup of tea will take your total for a very filling meal to just under a fiver.
So imagine my chagrin (if you can imagine chagrin obviously) when I tuned into the local television news to just catch the words -"legendary pea stall to shut after generations." I feared the worst. How could I go into Norwich without having mushy peas? Thankfully it wasn't the Norwich stall that's closing but the one in Great Yarmouth Market Place.
It didn't mean a lot to start with but then I saw the small but perfectly formed white bowls and it took me back decades. The stall goes back 65 years and I suddenly realised that I remember those ceramic basins from my youth. They brought back so many memories - small and perfectly formed (just like me - I wish). Peas cost just £1 and a pie is £1 as well but soon they will be no more! Sad days.
Picklejuice - Does anyone drink this? It sounds horrible but apparently it's good for cramp and dehydration and loads of sportsmen drink it. You can make your own apparently but I was put off by the mention of a cup of vinegar. Next time I go supermarket shopping I will be on the lookout for some though.
Last Night's Concert - I just mentioned watching it again to round out the story and make it easier to remember. There is no way I want to watch the showtime gala from Manchester again. It looked like a good idea - songs from many of the latest musicals. It turned out to be dreadful or am I just getting too old? I often go on about the throwaway society. Very few things are repaired nowadays as it's cheaper to buy a new one. Since I've been walking I have ruined numerous pairs of socks but the thought of darning them is now just ridiculous.
To me the host of new musicals (and there seems to be new ones virtually every single week) is out of control. Most of these will run of six months and then disappear. The better ones seem not to have original music but to be based on existing material such as that recorded by Meatloaf, The Drifters and Tina Turner. There really does seem to be a dearth of good new material and some of the songs in Saturday night's programme were just awful.
My main problem was with the host Jason Manford. I have nothing against Manford and, in fact, quite like him. He seems friendly and personable. My problem with him on Saturday was his non stop string of superlatives which made it sound as if he had swallowed a dictionary.
Everything was brilliant, awesome, amazing, unbelievable, incredible and many other phrases which are so overused that they have become meaningless. What he didn't say was a lot of what was on offer was embarrassingly bad, atrocious, awful, disgusting and a few other anti superlatives. This kind of show tries to promulgate a world that doesn't exist. A world where everyone is loving and kind and where everything is full of colour and joy. Life, at times, is nothing like that. I guess that Manford would say that it's good to forget your troubles for a while and embrace an evening of entertainment. Problem is I didn't find this entertaining.
Maybe I'm too old school. I like musicals but if I was to list my top five it would be filled with tried and trusted musicals that have been in existence for decades and it would be the quality of the music that make them so important to me. They also all just happen to have good stories. So here are my top five:
1 Les Miserables
2 West Side Story
3 Carousel
4 Phantom of the Opera
5 Miss Saigon.
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Why are there so many medical emergencies at football matches? On Saturday I think three games were held up because of illness to spectators. This seems to be happening every week. I can't remembering it happening in the past, although I do remember people being taken ill and ambulances having to be called at gigs I attended by the comedian Jethro and the legend that is Rick Wakeman.
Jethro died last year. He was a good man and it's interesting how he got his stage name. His real name was Geoff Rowe (just say that quickly).