Alan Williams's Blog, page 13

No Time To? TWTW # 146

The house has been noticeably chillier in the mornings this week, not to the point of needing to turn on the heating but just making a statement that the Summer nights are no longer with us and temperatures are dropping. It’s also been pretty wet and windy this week, more that once I’ve been caught in a sudden rain shower that has necessitated changing out of wet clothes upon arriving home.

It’s also been a little surreal to see this country descending into panic buying once again, when there rea...

Grindstone Cowboy TWTW # 145

As I sit down to write this post I see that my notebook is a little empty of things to talk about this week. I curate a list during the week, of things I should include in these posts. When something happens I’ll add it to the list. This week that list is blank. Not because nothing has happened, on the contrary I’ve had quite a busy week, but because a symptom of that busyness is not having the time to add things to it.

Work

This is what has kept me busiest this week, I’ve been making ...

A Morning Audio Ramble

Some audio thoughts from our dog walk this morning.

This is a binaural recording – if you listen to this with headphones you should hear what I was hearing i.e. different things in your / my left and right ears.

It’s quite long and there are no prizes for listening to the end, but if you do listen, thank you!

Book Review: The Collected Adventures of David Cranmer’s “The Drifter Detective” Volume One

My Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars

Jack Laramie is the grandson of legendary US Marshall Cash Laramie (search for this in the sidebar and it should bring up my reviews for those). He is a PI for hire and lives out of the back of his horse trailer.

I’ve read these (long) short stories before on kindle but it is good to get them gathered together for the first time in a real book. It’s sometime since I read them so they felt new to me but familiar.

They pull no punches (quite literally at times) but th...

A Work Production TWTW # 144

It’s been a busy week, but busy is good. Mostly I’ve been at home in front of the computer, with trips out to walk the dogs or to go to the allotment and I’ve been pretty productive and got a lot done. I like weeks like this but they can be quite exhausting by the time the weekend arrives.

Work

I’ve started a new piece of client work this week. This has meant a lot of time researching and tracking down data and then starting to develop a spreadsheet to manage the data. Neither the ...

Twenty Years TWTW # 143

Twenty years ago today I was working an early shift covering a colleague while he was on holiday. It meant I was in the car driving to work just as Radio 4 was taking over from the World Service on the radio. I was still trying to absorb what had happened the day before. Although we used to have a radio on as background in the harbour office where I was working at the time, I’d been out on the patrol boat as news had started to filter in as to what was happening in New York. At first they made i...

Home From Home TWTW # 142

Slightly different surroundings as I type this today. We’re still in the process of sorting out my Mum’s house and decided to come and stay for a couple of days to try and get a bit more done than we can by ‘commuting’. It’s worked well so far and it’s also been nice to reacquaint myself with an area I used to know very well. It’s interesting to see how some things have changed but the broad landscape is still very much the same. Paths that I’ve not walked for a few years are once again beco...

Sweeter Corn TWTW # 141

I’ve been bird sitting this week, or rather popping into one of our neighbours to check on their pet cockatiel, change his water and seed and have a ‘chat’ with him. Our conversations are pretty limited I think, and I’m not sure that he’s actually pleased to see me.

I was asked to take a Covid antibody test as part of the Zoe study this week. This test can tell whether you have actually been exposed to the coronavirus and developed natural antibodies to it, as opposed to ones you may have develop...

Book Review: Light Rains Sometimes Fall by Lev Parikian

Light Rains Sometimes Fall – A British Year Through Japan’s 72 Seasons by Lev Parikian

My Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars

This is a beautiful book; an intimate nature diary that takes much more of a detailed look than perhaps the cursory glance that many of us will pay to our local surroundings each day.

Splitting the year into the same time periods as Japan’s 72 seasons – 4 to 5 days at a time – and writing detailed observations during a time when we were all getting through pandemic restrictions, l...

Rain Stops Play TWTW # 140

Well a slightly earlier post than I’d planned today.

I’m just back from the allotment where I’d planned to do a series of different jobs until it started to rain hard.

The forecast must have changed a bit overnight because I thought I’d at least have 2 to 3 hours before the rain arrived.

Anyhow I finished up what I was doing and then headed for home, I’ll try again tomorrow in the meantime I’ll just have to finish my flask of coffee at home in the dry.

You know I’ve had that flask the best part of ...