sollers

 I don't think they did. Indeed, I can't see how they could have done: all they would have ended up with would have been a tub of muddy water. It nearly happened to me once when was processing finds, but just in time i spotted what was happening and stopped what I was doing. Fortunately I had already studied the Post Roman period so I knew what was going on.

Next week be damned - I HAVE FINISHED UNICORN EVILS! 

i have just had the second long day of a 10 day Welsh summer school. I am reading while half watching the programme the others in the family have on. I am dozing and they get mixed up.

OK, have to do something about dates, but "Only Fools and Horses" and "Rivers of London" crossover, anyone? ,

ETA This was the episode where Granddad stands in the gentrified London docks and talks sadly about what they used to be like; Del is wildly impressed by the Yuppie flats, but Granddad walks off closely followed by Rodney, equally sad, while Del doesn't even notice they have gone.

 I've had problems posting from my iPad but I'm giving it another try.

...at least that's what it feels like.

It's over a year since I last posted, for a number of reasons.

First, my laptop was playing silly buggers and though I could comment using my iPad, for some reason I couldn't post.

Then life got busy. Basically, during 2015 I moved to a different country in the UK. It's less than a hundred miles but the differences are quite striking. The move took a lot of journeys, and fitting as much as possible of a quart into a pint pot.

There was also sadness: in the spring, my Jack Russell Toby died. We don't actually know how old he was, but he seemed old. As we are not going to move from the present house, he is buried in the garden, as is M and K's Sadie, who died shortly after, and also a friend's dog.

The there was Sidmouth, which kept me well occupied, and when I got back I became involved with the local museum, University of the Third Age (art and choir) and intensive Welsh lessons. That last has gone so well that after less than 5 months I'm going to conversation groups.

The final complication was that at the end of November I broke my right humerus just below the head. It's healing well, and mobility is coming back quickly, but I'm still having trouble sleeping, and it's really only this week that I have been able to type properly.

This has just been a quick update; now that I'm back in action, subsequent posts are likely to be more long-wind... er... detailed.

ETA thanks to all for their good wishes!

On re-examination of a specimen of Microbrachius dicki, a 385 million year old fish, it was discovered to be the oldest known vertebrate to have a male sexual organ.

The bad news came first.

M (named driver on my insurance) was driving us in to Bury in the minibus when a brand new Mercedes braked abruptly in front of us. We were in a bus lane outside bus lane hours but the other driver hadn't registered that, panicked when he saw a police car and tried to get out of the bus lane. It takes longer for the minibus to stop - in fact, we skidded a couple of dozen yards - and we went into the back of him. Damage to the Merc was not very great, but it looks as though the minibus is a write-off. Which means, since M is still waiting for the side car to be fitted to his motor bike, that neither I nor M and miapatrick have any wheels at the m0oment, though M set to work last night to hunt down a new vehicle for me. Fortunately I have enough money in the bank to get one asap. Even more fortunately, we were all wearing seat belts; miapatrick was worst affected by whiplash as she had no warning and she was sitting facing the engine, but without the seatbelt she would have gone through the glass partition between us and the driver position.

What with paramedics checking us out, talking to the police and waiting for the recovery vehicle, it was five hours before we got home. However, while I was talking to the insurance (thank heaven for smartphones), miapatrick got an email with an offer for the house. She phoned back asking for £2K more (but actually willing to accept £1K more); the buyers accepted the £2k more figure. There's no chain that end so things will move fast and we can now move to get somewhere in Llandudno; it looks as though the house M and miapatrick were really interested is still on the market.

So the move has changed from "eventually" to "soon".

What with having to get a new van of some sort and the likelihood of me moving early in the New Year, yesterday really was the first day of the rest of my life.

This morning, in the context of the result of the Referencum - in the context of relations between the UK and its constituent countries - within the space of 20 minutes the term "to welsh" was used TWICE.

In particular, Andrew Marr ought to know better.

THIS IS NOT ACCEPTABLE.

The first weekend of freedom was splendid. I'd got the day of the Manchester Pride parade wrong; it was Saturday, so I went in and thoroughly enjoyed myself. This also meant that I could go out to Saddleworth on Sunday for the rushcart, or rather the latter part of the celebrations: good dancing to watch, and I bought an excellent book on Lancashire Pace Egg plays.

Weather on Monday was predictably awful (the BBC weather forecasters commented on the fact that the only area with decent weather was Scotland, which didn't have a Bank Holiday) so I didn't go out except shopping; food is a lot easier to organise now, bearing in mind this week that I shan't be cooking on Thursday as I am having lunch in Manchester and going out to Glossop on the Folk Train in the evening. They have a splendid system: they have an arrangement with a local takeaway, so take orders on the train, phone them in and the food is delivered half way through the evening.

The other thing I did was pack up my work computer equipment for return. It was collected yesterday, with a bit of a glitch; the White Van Man who had been sent from Leeds to take it back to Leeds had been told two boxes, and I had been sent three boxes. To get things sorted quickly I wedged everything into two, and off it all went.

That left me with an odd, light-headed feeling: that definitely drew a line: I couldn't work now even if I wanted to. I can now de-work the study, and have a big desk available for other things (contrary to what my line manager originally thought, the desk and chair are mine, paid for by me, and there is a lot to be said for having a good desk and very good chair available).

The weather looks as if it should be decent today so we may take all the dogs for a decent walk. I have to go in to the library this morning and need to pick up some more purple hair dye, so I'm not actually planning to start the full new routine until Friday; however, I haven't been lounging around doing nothing, and have been getting in some tin whistle practice. I think I'm all the more inclined to do so because of the lovely letter the person who did the workshops handed out at the end:

"I sincerely thank you for attending the tin-whistle workshop.

It was of enormous help to me that you allowed yourself to be cajoled into playing to a standard that will allow you to progress further and (maybe) enhance the lives of those close to you, and maybe not so close.

Keep on playing for many years more and perhaps we'll meet again at Sidmouth or elsewhere.

The pleasure I got from the sessions was due to the effort you made to work hard and be happy."

He was an excellent teacher: from a standing start he got us from "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" to "Believe me, if all those endearing young charms" in five one-hour sessions... and in one case, working out how to play "For he's a jolly good fellow" and in the case of the rest of us, able to join in playing by ear at the end. He already had the letters printed out, but was visibly touched - both by the tribute and by the degree of skill we had reached.

... and very, very happy. Both G and I have been told we look five years younger, which since we both can normally pass for ten years less than our chronological age is nice, if a bit disconcerting.

I did all the things I wanted to, and more: learned the next stage in melodeon playing, learned to play the tin whistle and cracked playing tunes by ear. I met someone who had helped me make a quantum leap in playing the ukulele earlier this year and joined in sessions most lunchtimes. I sang, told stories and did as much Border Morris dancing as I wanted to - including joining in the torchlight procession on Friday night. I bought new cases for my ukulele and my guitar (which is now likely to get more use). I bought new clothes to go with my new look (verging on born-again hippie) and match my hair colour:

All around my hat I shall wear a purple garland,
All around my hat every day and everywhere:
And if anyone should ask me the reason why I'm doing it,
It's because the purple garland doesn't show against my hair.

Three days of work this week, three days next week, and I'm out of it and can concentrate on the new routine (heavy on instrumental practice, writing and drawing)