Taskmaster

 

Another day another tv programme review.

That’s how simple my life is today.

After all the detailed and oh so useful psychological reflection session at work, coming home on Wednesday  to an empty house is still hard after a challenging shift.

What we all need at these times is someone else to run a bath for you and to kiss the top of your head as you soak away the days stress in bubbles you’d never sort out for yourself 

Hey ho..I’m not complaining …I’m just saying

Anyhow,

Second best is a large gin and some nice tv.

The day before yesterday it was the great Royal documentary

Last night Taskmaster was back like an old friend returning home.

Silly, funny, entertaining , and clever, this quiz show has been aired since 2015

I love Alex Horne and adore Welsh born Greg Davies so the addition of my favourite Victoria Coren Mitchell is a real bonus in this series 12..and so is the rather sexy Gus Khan with his smile and lovely beard 

Have a look at it if u can it’s on channel 4 Thursday nights 9 pm

I’m back at work all day today and tomorrow ….thank you to Trendy Carol again for taking the girls 

I couldn’t cope without her and her hubby’s help.

I will leave you with a pic of a slumbering Dorothy with Sunflowers last night

Welcome to my world x

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Bearable

While I remember, let me recall Tuesday of this week. It was a very nice day but the next day promised to be even better so I planned my main walk of the week for Wednesday. On Tuesday, I stayed within the city and tramped over to Weston Park Museum before heading back to Ecclesall Road via The Botanical Gardens.

Weston Park Museum tells Sheffield's story very well. In addition to the permanent exhibits there are occasional temporary exhibitions and currently the museum is hosting  a couple of photographic shows. To be frank I found them a little  disappointing in their predictability. It's nice to be enthralled and surprised and I didn't get that. However, here's two of the best pictures I spotted. 

The first one reminds onlookers of Sheffield's proud steel making  heritage and the second one reminds visitors of how the city centre was rebuilt after the devastation of World War II. Officially called Castle Square but informally known  as "The Hole in the Road", the roundabout's lid concealed an underground world of shops and subways. benches, flower beds and an aquarium. It was the true heart of the city. Sadly it is no more. I once wrote a song about its passing:-

Look what they've done to The Hole in the Road

Look what they've done to this town

We used to meet on one of those seats

Down in The Hole in the Road

A few hundred yards from The Botanical Gardens I met a thin man of Pakistani origin. He was around my age and though he had lived in Sheffield for quarter of a century he had never  been to The Botanical Gardens before. He was hoping to bring his family there.

I guided him along Clarkehouse Road and led him into the gardens. He was a pleasant, gentle man and he told me something of his early life  - growing up in  the city of Lahore in a Christian family. He told me that as the years passed he and his family had faced growing intolerance from Islamic fundamentalists till  they made the agonising decision to leave and make their way to England. He said he had always felt safe here.

We saw two of "The Bears of Sheffield" modelled on  a steel bear that stands in the park's Victorian bear pit. These bears are all over the city just now - brightening urban locations as well as raising money for The Children's Hospital. The Pakistani man said that the park reminded him of The Shalimar Gardens in Lahore. We shook hands when we parted on Ecclesall Road and I advised him which bus to catch.

The same bear as the one at the top

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Dew

 In the cool dew, my feet are awakened to a renewed peace. The winds of time give me pause to smile. God is doing what I need, when I just put aside my desire, and let it be. He works when I stop giving instructions. I fall back. He rises up. Rest the soul, and He makes Himself known. The fixer in me halts, and He meets my feet. What a thought. 

Meet me 

In the middle

And see 

The magic

That happens

When the Master

Lifts His Hands

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The Duke

 I got home last night and took a rain check at the what’s app video meet I had planned with a friend.

I was all out of talk

Instead I poured myself a very large gin and sat down to watch the Prince Philip-The Royal Family Remembers 

The documentary was filled with personal memories spoken to camera by all of Philip’s Children, their spouses and his adult grandchildren. The only absentees were Kate and Meghan and of course the Queen and the only addition was one of Prince Philip’s personal secretaries who quite movingly gave the audience a stiff upper lip viewing of her boss’ private offices.

I liked the documentary 

It humanised the Duke enormously and it reeked of respect and affection for a man who didn’t suffer fools   but who had a sharp brain and a talent for leadership.

The Royals collectively came out very well too.

I was especially impressed by Anne ( wearing double denim without a care) and her children Peter and Zara who all spoke eloquently and movingly about their memories. 

The best anecdote surly came from Prince William who shared the story of when his grandfather stopped a  young man hiking on one of his own Duke of Edinburgh award challenges and asked him how he was getting on. The young hiker, irritated  with the interruption shot out with a “ Fuck off Grandad” comment which apparently amused the Duke no end.

I slept long and heavy last night and got up late this morning

Outside the back door my sister had left a bucket of sunflowers she had grown on her allotment

And I cut and arranged them in a glass vase.

They have lifted the living room with their sunny faces

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Gotham

Rotting hulk of a lorry on Welldale Farm

I didn't get round to blogposting yesterday. Sorry about that. Clint and I were out of the house by nine fifteen. Soon we were travelling down the M1 Motorway bound for Junction 24 which I somehow managed to overshoot. Never mind - after a little delay we reached our destination.

My plan was to walk in what I call "virgin territory" - somewhere I had never walked before  and that is what brought me to the village of Gotham a few miles south of the city of Nottingham. I parked Clint in a shady place between St Lawrence's Church and "The Sun Inn", close to the old village water pump.

"Ouch!" yelled Clint as I slammed his tailgate.

Cottage sold recently in Bunny

The circular walk was all on the flat apart from a short slog up to the village of Bradmore. The weather was gorgeous for late September. I was walking across rich agricultural land after harvesttime. Farmers were out harrowing the land and I noticed that the soil thereabouts was almost as black as coal.

Bradmore's medieval church is curious because it was badly damaged by fire in 1705. Only the tower and steeple remained and many years later the villagers attached parish rooms to this surviving structure. As far as I can determine, the church doesn't even have a saint's name.

The tower and steeple of Bradmore Church with Steeple Cottage in front

Can you believe it? There's a village in England called Bunny. I kid you not. Bunny! I know because I was there yesterday. It's a mile south of Bradmore. Because my time was limited , I didn't get  to visit Bunny Hall. Presumably Daddy Bunny and Mummy Bunny live there with their  little bunny children - hundreds of them -  all waiting for Easter. I wonder how they spend their time.

Between Gotham and Bradmore

And then I turned back to the west - my bootsteps taking me ever closer to Gotham which is the source of a story and a nursery rhyme that both allude to "Three Wise Men of Gotham"...

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