Singing; marionettes; canal

Domesticity continues with attempts to choose a wardrobe for bedroom 2 - an exciting prospect, as I've inexplicably been managing with temporary clothes rails for the six years I've been living in the house. Ruth and I are agreed on IKEA's PAX range, but are struggling to fine-tune the exact types of sliding doors and inserts that we want. Given the proximity of my MK pad to a branch of IKEA, I was despatched on a Thursday evening a week or so ago to inspect various doors 'in the flesh', which I duly did and even managed to find a free member of staff to question about door widths. Weekday evenings are definitely the time to go. Paid the inevitable visit to the Swedish Food Market on the way out, where I purchased two boxes of intriguing-looking frozen potato products, including some potato pancakes which I'll definitely be buying again.

Wall of shelving in attic is now partly complete, thanks to a new and more efficient drill bit purchased from Drews the Ironmongers. My wall of artwork has also made some progress.

Last Thursday I accompanied Liz from the forecasting team to a lunchtime concert given by the OU Choir, largely devoted to the alleged 'world premieres' of two pieces by one William Bowie, an Edinburgh music teacher during the 1950s and 1960s. Both pieces were apparently degree exercises submitted for the composer's MMus degree in 1961. Evidently the OU Choir's conductor of 35 years (gosh), Bill Strang, was a pupil of Bowie's. (Strang's other interests, besides Bowie, include gay sexuality in music. Intriguing.) Most of the concert was fairly listenable - the first piece, an unmemorable arrangement by the conductor of a medieval hymn, was enlivened by what appeared to be the entire French horn section coming in late ('coming in' in the sense of literally coming into the room).

Spent Saturday morning working on my OU coursework for M255, as the first TMA deadline is coming up. Saturday's work included assembling this somewhat sinister-looking marionette named Mary. Completed Unit 4 on Saturday and am now working through Unit 5, which opens with a fun session on dialogue boxes.

Later on Saturday I went to check out Bletchley Leisure Centre, as Judith has spoken well of it and I've been meaning to check out the nearest place to swim locally. Bletchley centre is just as dispiriting on a second viewing as on the first, but the leisure centre is brand new and pretty nice. Wasn't expecting to get much of a swim given that it was a weekend, but managed quite a good session (given my current limited fitness levels).

On Sunday, Ray and I had a day of exploration of the Grand Union Canal’s passage through Milton Keynes. We started by taking the bus up to Wolverton, on the north-western edge of the town, and walking the canal’s meandering route back to my place in Simpson. Mostly pleasant, with a rural stretch just past New Bradwell where the canal makes a dog leg north towards Haversham and the ruins of the Church of St Peter. Back into the town then past the attractive-looking Linford Manor Park and a couple of nice-looking pubs including The Black Horse at Great Linford. Unfortunately, the first pub we passed at anything remotely nearing a legitimate lunchtime was The Gifford Park, a member of the ‘Sizzling’ chain, which we bypassed as too depressing and pressed on. Canal-themed points of interest included the Grafton Street Aqueduct, built in 1991, and the plaque marking the site where the long-defunct Newport Pagnell arm left the canal. We ended up lunching at The Barge at Woolstone, and after lunch took a brief detour back on ourselves to visit the Cathedral of Trees, planted in 1986 in an outline based on Norwich Cathedral. Quite nice – must go again later in the year when all the leaves are out.

Intrigued by a posting on the OU Noticeboard today headed 'Geiger counter needed'. The posts are usually from people wanting to flog outgrown baby stuff, the contents of their garage etc or wanting recommendations for garages, dentists and such. Also, tomorrow is the AGM of the OU’s Belly Dance Club. Lots going on.