A casual chat about nothing in particular...

I haven't posted for a long time, arguably, actually, there's no need to argue, as it is the longest period I've gone between posts since this blog has begun. Somebody, I think it was Andy, said he only posts when he has something to say, which is fair enough and it would be fair to say that, in the past I posted multiple times per week so presumably I had a lot to say and I don't have anything to say now. Well, that's not strictly true, there is a lot to say. For a start, up until last Saturday I hadn't been riding for a fortnight. I decided to give it a rest for a while and take things easy although I have been walking a lot. In recent weeks I've been clocking up over 20 miles based largely on two-mile stints walking home from the station. It's good exercise and I've noticed that I'm walking faster than I usually walk as a result. I've also started walking a 4-mile route and all keeping close (ish) to the house, ie no more than 10 to 15 minutes away on foot. So, I'm feeling good about that and my aim is to keep it going through the bad weather (if we get any). It's now the 8th October and the weather, generally, has been very good, apart from yesterday which saw a bit of rain. That said, it wasn't raining when I reached the station and embarked upon my two-mile saunter.

Submitting short stories for publication...

Last Saturday I restarted my riding with a 15-mile non-stop ride, something I think I used to call the Slines Oak Slogger or the Botley Bastard as it involved a circular route that saw me ride up Slines Oak to Woldingham and then left past the golf course and left again down towards Botley Hill. It's a good run and I'm planning on doing it again this coming Saturday.

The nights are drawing in, more's the pity. I was really getting into the summer this year, the grass was singed brown but is now green again and I used to sit outside under the umbrella in the evenings reading whatever book I was reading back then, I think it was Don Carpenter's Hard Rain Falling, a good read although I found it really hard getting to grips with the hardened criminal lead character turning into a kind of 'new man' once his married life kicked in; it was all water births and middle class behaviour from somebody who was literally a lost case in the first half of the book. I'm now reading Welcome to you Life by Roland Orzabal of Tears For Fears fame, a great band offering great music but I feel the book could do without all the astrology chapters, which I'm finding hard going and have, in fact, decided to stop reading them altogether, preferring the chapters about the band and the music. The early chapters on his childhood were interesting. I've considered reading Clem Burke's book (he was the drummer in Blondie) but I'm not sure. I've read a lot of rock star autobiographies and some are good, some not so good, but I don't think I've ever read two in quick succession, so the next book I read will probably be fiction. I'm thinking of reading something by the American novelist Jim Thompson, but who knows what will take my fancy when I next visit the bookshop. I'm still yearning for Eric Ambler, wishing he'd written more novels like Journey into Fear and The Mask of Dmitrios, but I guess all good things come to an end. If anyone knows of any author who comes close, let me know, but not Graham Greene as I've read a lot of him already.

It's now almost 1900hrs and it's dark outside. Quite depressing really when it only seems like yesterday that the sun was out and all was well. Not any more! It's dark, it'll be Halloween soon and then Christmas and then the horror of January and February when the weather turns for the worse and I have to start wearing heavy clothing and scarves and hats. I mentioned walking earlier and I'm going to be taking it very seriously especially over the winter months. I have some waterproof trousers upstairs and my plan is to walk in all weathers, let's see how I get on. I might (and don't get me wrong, I say this constantly but never do anything) I might start swimming, but it's so boring even if it is the best exercise possible. I used to swim a lot and I really ought to kick myself into gear and do it, but, as I've said before on this blog, I seem to accumulate things to do but rarely actually do them.

Something else I've been doing is submitting short stories I've written for publication. I'm still waiting to hear back on a couple and I've got others to send off. In fact, I might do that tonight as today is day one of working from home so I'm not so tired as I haven't walked two miles from the station; that said, I have walked three miles today, at lunch time, so this week so far totals around nine miles, just under. 

Of late I've been hitting the sack early and getting a good nine hours' sleep, but I've lapsed a bit over the last couple of days. It's been the usual routine: hit the sack around 2130hrs, listen to NightTracks on Radio Three Unwind (a digital channel) fall asleep, wake up around 0430 but stay in bed, eventually fall back to sleep, waking around 0600hrs and then discovering I've had around nine hours' kip. Getting an early night is something I haven't done since the days when I first got married. I remember hitting the sack at 2100hrs back then and it was great, there's nothing better than getting a decent night's sleep.

I'm still mixing up my porridge every morning with cacao powder and two different types of flaxseed mix, one with nuts, the other with berries, not forgetting a few chia seeds, some shelled hemp seeds plus a sliced banana and some grapes. I need to get back into oranges again. The other day I got back into nectarines, which are a bit messy but so tasty. It's been my staple breakfast for some time now and won't be stopping any time soon. Something else I've gotten into is marmalade. I've always liked it and I was having two slices of bread and marmalade for breakfast every morning and two more on coming in from work. Well, for the last week or two, probably just a week, I've run out so I've stopped eating bread, which is probably a good thing, at least for a while, but I do love a slice or two of bread and marmalade. At work I have been eating sandwiches Monday through Wednesday and then going out for a cup of tea at Busy Beans, but as there's been no bread bought for me I've resorted to spending an absolute fortune in the aforementioned restaurant, eating their highly nutritious salad with a flatbread until, that is, I discovered they'd put their prices up. Very annoying. What cost me around 14 quid on Monday went up to over 15 on Tuesday so on Wednesday I went to Poppins instead and had a mushroom omelette with chips plus two cups of tea AND a few slices of bread and marmalade. I think that if Busy Beans is going to put up its prices for a cup of tea, which presumably it has, then it should at least improve the offering, get some larger cups, for example. Poppins' tea is something like 1.60 and the cup is larger than that offered in Busy Beans and while I can afford it, I do get a little annoyed especially if there's nothing to show for the price rise. What annoys me more, however, is going to Gail's for lunch. I do that a lot and it's always extortionate for what it is and then every time I say I'm not going there again, as sure as apples are apples I find myself back in there spending a lot of money.

Going back to books, I have thought about Jon Ronson's latest although I can't remember the title. He was author of The Psychopath Test, which was excellent, but I can't remember much about it, although it was good. Ronson is kind of like Louis Theroux but in book form.

I've just had dinner, pasta parcels full of something or other. I was planning on making a cottage pie, one of my specialities, but I found that the mince was frozen solid so perhaps tomorrow night. Last Friday I made one with brocolli and gravy and we had apple crumble and vanilla custard for dessert.

I'd better go, I'm in need of some sparkling mineral water.