3.45am

How annoying. I fell asleep watching "Newsnight" and that unintended nap lasted far too long. Consequently, when I did climb the stairs to bed, sleep evaded me. I lay there waiting for the magic to happen - for sleep to embrace me once again before carrying me off to the land of dreams and revitalisation. But after an hour I realised it was not going to happen so I came back downstairs and made a  mug of  tea which is now sitting next to this laptop with two "McVities" gingernuts.

After switching the laptop on, I wondered what I might blog about here in the silence of the night as this great northern city sleeps. All the lights in our neighbourhood are off apart from ours and outside the true citizens of the night have reclaimed the streets  - tom cats, owls, urban foxes, badgers rodents and bats. Reaching up the valleyside come the faraway sounds of a train and an ambulance siren.

Brains can be such a torment. They seem to constantly throw up images, memories, ideas, phrases, plans, Mine does anyway. A ceaseless chain like mental bunting stretching to some distant horizon. How lovely it is when that process slows and how lovely it is to sleep.

A nice thing about this sleepless hour is that I know I do not have to hurry off to work at daybreak. There's none of that old pressure to get the zeds in as before - knowing that if sleep time is lost one's functionality will be reduced during those  demanding working hours. No. Not sleeping now does not really matter any more. Very few duties to perform this May 19th. Pick up Frances and Phoebe to take them to their lunch date. Do a little grocery shopping. See a central heating engineer about our boiler. Make the evening meal. I can handle all of that.

There were many things I might have blogged about in the middle of this night. Really, I am never stuck for blog content and it quite amazes me how much ground I have covered since June 2005 when this blog began. 3626 blogposts in total. It has been a hell of a journey and just like sleep the blogging process remains pretty magical to me.

As I say - so many things I might have blogged about but I decided not to bother. The tea mug is empty. The gingernuts are gone. Maybe it's time to give sleep another try.

from Yorkshire Pudding https://ift.tt/3ymDmY4

Fat Balls

 

I’ve only just realised that I’ve grown a full beard .

I’ve had it tucked away beneath my mask for so long, I’ve got out of the habit of looking at my face.

I FaceTimed a Sheffield friend last night and noticed it...

I look like a pirate

Dorothy ate several bird fat balls at Trendy Carol’s the day before yesterday so has been suffering from explosive shits for the last day or so which has been lovely.

In between bouts of mopping I’ve been reading The Fine Art of Invisible Detection by Robert Goddard in the bedroom window seat

The ash trees in the corner of the Church Yard are not doing well, I’ve noticed 

from Going Gently https://ift.tt/2S5oug8

Beautiful

 Clear head

Sleeping dog

Grateful for

A new day

Saying

I’m all yours

Love to

You 

from R's rue https://ift.tt/3vaoz0o

Boozing

On Monday afternoon last week I went up to "The Hammer and Pincers" where I met Mick, Mike and Danny in the beer garden. Because of COVID rules we had to sit outside under a big parasol. Soon the heavens opened and then there was the ridiculous sight of us in our rain gear, dripping as we supped our "John Smith's" and gossiped like fish wives.

Roll forward a week and the rules were changed. Thanks to the National Health Service, not our bumbling political leaders, Britain's vaccination programme has squashed the key coronavirus statistics right down - infections, hospitalisations, deaths. What a brilliant national response and something to be proud of at last.

Anyway this meant that yesterday  we did not have to sit outside at "The Hammer and Pincers". We could go inside to a pre-booked table. Social distancing guidance is still in place so I was slightly annoyed to see that our table in a snug corner of the pub meant that we had to sit closer together than I would have wished.

The conversation flowed naturally as usual - a tapestry of happenings, memories, family news. jokes, ideas with no judgement or point scoring. Danny was a senior police officer, Mike was a Head of English in a secondary school just like me and Mick was a warehouseman.

Four pints and two and a half hours later it was time to go. Shirley had kindly offered to drive up there to taxi me home because I have had a bad foot the last two or three days and I have been limping around like Hopalong Cassidy. By the way, this morning it feels significantly better.

Cinemas were also opened up yesterday and I have booked to see "Nomadland" at The Showroom on Friday. No doubt I will be reviewing it in this blog. I bet you can't wait!

Somehow I can't help feeling nervous about the slackening of restrictions. With the new more deadly Indian variant now creeping around in towns like Bolton and Blackburn, it makes me think that the government were unwise to prematurely earmark a date - namely May 17th - for loosening the national tourniquet. They should have waited and thoroughly assessed the evidence. Another week or two would not have made much difference. Equally, they should have acted more swiftly to block travel from India. They let the thing in because of their political optimism and dilly-dallying.

from Yorkshire Pudding https://ift.tt/3fq1IHR