John - Archived Entries for 2022 / 5

Dr John Hawkins

Welcome to my bit of the Maison de Stuff, home to a huge load of pictures, and my daily blog.

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Recent Entries:: Morning in Buxton and Back to London
The Peak District
Sunday with Mum
Saturday at Home
Friday Sabrage
Jeremy on the Heath
Wednesday
Tuesday
Monday
Fun Run
Saturday
Friday
Thursday
Garden
Ping Pong
Recovering
Food Poisoning
Palestinian Picnic and Eurovision
Friday
Thursday
Tarp Practice
Tuesday
Monday
Sunday
Lunch at the Pineapple
Movie and Macaroni Cheese
Me Time
Chie's Birthday
Plumbing
Greenwich
May Day

Morning in Buxton and Back to London: [Tuesday 31st May 2022]
Spent the morning in Buxton, before heading home, taking in the John Smedley factory shop on the way back.
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The Peak District: [Monday 30th May 2022]
Drove from Mum's to the Peak District in the morning, and met our friends from London (who were also staying in the area for some of the half term holiday) for lunch at the Druid Inn, before going for a walk to the Nine Ladies stone circle. Later on we headed to Buxton (by way of Bakewell) where we stayed the night, and I attempted a wild camp on a nearby hill.
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Sunday with Mum: [Sunday 29th May 2022]
Motored up the M1 in the afternoon to see Mum, had a barbecue out in the garden.
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Saturday at Home: [Saturday 28th May 2022]
We were supposed to be travelling to the Midlands today, but Erika had been slightly unwell overnight, so we decided to wait another day and see how she felt. As such a day spent at home: Gavignet in the garden towards the end of the afternoon, and a bit later on Erika did some electronics.
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Friday Sabrage: [Friday 27th May 2022]
Friday evening sabrage.
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Jeremy on the Heath: [Thursday 26th May 2022]
Met my artist friend Jeremy for a late stroll on the heath, to discuss the progress of the family portrait he's doing for us, and to generally chew the cud.
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Wednesday: [Wednesday 25th May 2022]
New rain jacket arrived today, this had been the subject of much dithering but the main requirements were something which was very lightweight and packable, but also wouldn't end up soaking wet on the inside (from condensation or whatever causes that) like the very cheap one I had used on my walk in Wiltshire in March.

Another foray to the heath in the evening, a bit windy today. In addition to today's photos I took a few timelapse videos.
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Tuesday: [Tuesday 24th May]
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Monday: [Monday 23rd May]
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Fun Run: [Sunday 22nd May 2022]
Erika did a charity fun run around Kings Cross around lunchtime. I went off to pick up a new suit after that. Then some kind of tagine for dinner at home in the evening.
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Saturday: [Saturday 21st May 2022]
Dropped Erika off at her friend's birthday party and went and sat on the heath for a bit.
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Friday: [Friday 20th May 2022]
Just one picture, of some wine out in the garden.

This week had been a rather bad one on the stock market, and I'd "lost" rather a lot of money, which was a little disheartening. That probably influenced the decision to pick up one of the cheapest bottles I currently had in my cellar, but it was actually surprisingly good regardless.
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Thursday: [Thursday 19th May 2022]
Early evening stroll to the heath, after what seemed like a bit of a hiatus, having been mostly house bound since Saturday what with one or the other of us being unwell.
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Garden: [Wednesday 18th May 2022]
Surveyed the state of the various fruit bearing trees / shrubs in the garden.

The grape vines are flowering now, there were already some baby apples on the apple tree, and a few (currently very green) raspberries on the raspberry bush.
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Ping Pong: [Tuesday 17th May 2022]
Chie seemed to have got whatever stomach bug / food poisoning I'd had over the weekend, and spent most of today in bed. Erika thankfully never got it though, so I wonder if it might relate to the lunch Chie and I'd had together last Friday - the only time Chie and I ate something which Erika didn't.

Fortunately I was back to normal by this point, so I was able to take over all parenting responsibilities. Played ping pong with Erika on the kitchen table in the evening.
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Recovering: [Monday 16th May 2022]
Recovering today after the rather unpleasant bout of food poisoning, or whatever it was, over the weekend. To my surprise I actually managed to put in a decent day's work and commended myself on how nobly (and/or muggishly) I had confined my illness to my own free time.
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Food Poisoning: [Sunday 15th May 2022]
I had been rudely awakened in the middle of the night last night with what seemed to be a case of food poisoning. Spent almost the entire day today lying in bed, with quite a high fever earlier on in the day, and not really feeling up to doing anything.

I suspect this might have been a case of salmonella, as apparently there's a lot of it about, and other forms of food poisoning / stomach bug don't usually come with a fever.

Really not very nice, but thankfully fairly short lived!
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Palestinian Picnic and Eurovision: [Saturday 14th May 2022]
Spent much of the daytime down in the centre of London - visited Walker Slater to drop off some trousers to be altered, and went for a long stroll from Covent Garden to St. James's then up through Mayfair and Marylebone, ending with some Palestinian food for a late lunch picnic in Regents Park. In the evening Erika and I watched the Eurovision Song Contest.
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Friday: [Friday 13th May 2022]
Falafel for lunch with Chie, then some sabrage in the evening.
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Thursday: [Thursday 12th May 2022]
Went to the heath with Jeremy so he could take some photos to work from for a family portrait he's doing of us. After that the girls headed back to go to an event at the school, and I remained and lurked about on the heath for a bit.
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Tarp Practice: [Wednesday 11th May 2022]
A bit of a rainy day, so I attempted to put up a tarp on the heath with only a very small amount of string. It wasn't very successful.

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Tuesday: [Tuesday 10th May]
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Monday: [Monday 9th May]
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Sunday: [Sunday 8th May 2022]
Chie and Erika were out in the daytime. I did some weeding.
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Lunch at the Pineapple: [Saturday 7th May 2022]
Unusually I managed to persuade the girls to go for lunch at the Pineapple after Erika's Japanese school (usually they've snacked on the way home and aren't hungry any more). After that Erika had a playdate for the remainder of the afternoon, and I went off to the heath for a bit.
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Movie and Macaroni Cheese: [Friday 6th May 2022]
Chie was out for the evening, and Erika and I ate macaroni cheese and watched a movie.
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Me Time: [Thursday 5th May 2022]
I felt a bit worn out today, from having worked hard the past few days, while also trying to fit in time to deal with the aftermath of the plumbing emergency, and decided I needed to have a bit of me time. So off to the heath in the late afternoon / early evening with a bottle of Vosne Romanee and a packet of Monster Munch. You won't read that sentence anywhere else.
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Chie's Birthday: [Wednesday 4th May 2022]
Funny sort of a day - squashed cakes and dinner at Taco Bell.
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Plumbing: [Tuesday 3rd May 2022]
The washing machine had started leaking all over the kitchen floor yesterday evening, which turned out to be due to a blocked drain. I spent much of last night and today (in bouts between my actual day job) unblocking the drain and cleaning up.

After a fair bit of plunging, and removing a couple of U-bends, I couldn't seem to dislodge whatever it was, so called a plumber: albeit they wouldn't be able to visit until Thursday. Then it occurred to me the plunger had developed cracks where the rubber had perished, and probably wasn't forming a perfect seal. So I went and got a new plunger and tried again. and eventually I actually managed to dislodge whatever it was. Still a lot of effort involved after that of mopping up and putting everything back together.

I found the whole thing rather draining.
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Greenwich: [Monday 2nd May 2022]
May Day Bank Holiday. Chie and Erika were heading to Greenwich with friends, so I tagged along for the boat trip there, and met my two chums who live in that neck of the woods for wine and pie and mash in Greenwich Park.

Alas the outing was slightly cut short by me being called home for a plumbing emergency.
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May Day: [Sunday 1st May 2022]
I should have been waking up in a ditch and watching Morris dancing first thing this morning, but c'est la vie. Instead I had a decent night's sleep in a proper bed and so was able to make a meaningful contribution to family life. Quite a lazy morning/afternoon, and we didn't leave home until 3ish, when Chie took Erika to meet a friend for yet more trampolining, and I popped to the Pineapple for a bit.

Later on I joined the girls again for dinner round at a local friend's place. We ordered in a huge amount of curry from our favourite Tiffin Tin.
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