Some Late Junction listening to start Tuesday. I liked the theme of how to organise your music collection. It had the added bonus of charity shop digging in the crates. It felt like my life had been captured in one perfect radio broadcast.
A and I headed out to The Table of Dreams for an early morning knock up. We could just about see from end of the table to the other in the heavy fog. It took two towels to wipe down the wetness from overnight.
Soon the sun made a delicate morning appearance. These was still sufficient fog hanging in the air to be able to look directly at the sunlight. You don’t get this with a shitty indoor table tennis set up.
I played a decent game, given the recent run of rubbish form. I tried to pick up some skills from the elite players I watched at Decathlon last week. I’ve learnt how to return a shot when the ball is below the level of the table. This reduces the height once the ball is over the net, ruling out any smash shots.
I still lost 4-3.
The Postman Delivers: Propaganda’s Wishful Thankful remix album, and a 2 for 1 Nina special.
I love the hybrid of Propaganda’s Duel and Jewell as they merge into one. ZTT were such piss takers at the time. I wish intelligence would return to pop music.
It set me off on a ZTT eBay hunt. Into Battle With The Art of Noise sells for around £40. Frankie’s Pleasuredome is a bargain bin £2.50. Guess what the Postman will be Delivering in a couple of days?
Nina meanwhile is LOVELY. Nina is always lovely. Her version of My Way gives Sid a good run for his money. She is doing it HER WAY. Frank can do one.
The Times They Are a Changin’ ends with a warm organ chord sequence. It’s a religious experience. I’ve finally found something I can believe in.
A builder type came round to offer up a quote for all sorts of household shit. The schedule of works is probably best summed up with: please stop our house from falling down. He was very efficient, did his measurements was gone within 15 minutes.
There was some sad news coming out of SE7. I spoke with D about this last week at Dulwich. There is no solution for the hyperlocal / pay the bills / quality of life conundrum. But I still think that ANYTHING is better than nothing. You just get the information out there, right? Thankfully D is still doing this with the wonderful 853.
Album of the Day: The Monkees - Headquarters
Something of a Rubber Soul pastiche. Please tell me that Randy Scouse Git is a Beatles piss take. This worked well with the country soul tracks; not so when it went off waffling in a folk direction. There’s a sad feeling that tries to hold the different fragments together. Zilch very odd. It reminded me of A Tribe Called Quest and Benita Applebaum. Drugs might have been involved. Not really an album, more a random collection of songs
⭐ ⭐
I cycled off for a swim at lunchtime. Once again there was GLORIOUS sunshine. Some fella was riding opposite me on the other side of the dirty, dirty river. He was cycling towards Rowhedge on a roadie - which was brave, given the state of the Trail on the other side.
I struggled with the swim. I’m still half a minute off where I want to be. I felt slow in the water and was around half a stroke short when I reached for the turnaround at each end.
The Trail was busy for the bicycle ride back. Half term week probably explains this. I passed a couple of enthusiastic walkers who had stripped down to their T-shirts.
R pinged mid-afternoon with another album recommendation: Chubby Checkers’ Chequered. It was just the pick up I needed to see me through the afternoon of work shifts.
The quote came back from the workman. Blimey. That was a quick turnaround. It was impressive and favourable. Except it missed off the more pressing and costly item that we need to address.
I buckled in and bought a new keyboard late in the working day. The a and e key on my Apple Magic Keyboard are now not so magic. You trying bashing out 3,000 words a day without using two of the five vowels.
I try not to use the built in keyboards on the MacBook Airs. I live in fear of one of them b0rking again, as was the case on the eve of the first lockdown. This wasn’t ideal with full time remote working about to kick in.
I’ve had a search going for second hand Magic keyboard. They’re still bloody expensive at around £80. Plus you’ve no idea what the seller has been viewing whilst tapping away on the keys.
Ewwwww.
I’ve gone with a Mac friendly Logitech model. It looks kinda cute and should be easy to transport back and forth between S Ldn and the bloody Estuary Wilds.
The eBay mails also included a pair of Tudor Sport cycling tights. WATCHING with interest.
Early evening was spent trying to chat with a US webhost. It wasn’t straight forward. I finally made First Contact.
Plans, ideas, Comrades.
I left the MacBooks updating to the latest macOS overnight. Fingers crossed for first thing in the morning.
Links for Tuesday 14th February, 2023
Sounds of the Lace Market | thebluemoment.com #FairCity
Disused railway arches in Camberwell to be restored
Sid’s kids: The freedom and adventure of cycling in the 1980s with Sid Standard | Cyclist
