Tablets; vinyl; Hammer

We begin with the joyous news that bedroom 3 has now been plastered. As it’s now almost four years since the destruction work began, its gradual recovery is almost bringing a tear to my eye. Tasks remaining: painting; getting a blind for the window; replacing the light fitting with something new and cheap; replacing the carpet, again with something new and cheap. Ruth has been starting off her garden leave from HCT by sanding down the woodwork in the room with a cunning little electric sander that she purchased in Homebase the other weekend.

Another Information Office meal out on the 24th, this time at Strada in the Hub. The snow and ice seemed to have put some people off, as we turned out to be a group of half a dozen core enthusiasts. Had a pasta dish with chilli and some sort of sausage.

Put my day at the house with the plasterer on the 25th to good use by purchasing a Samsung Galaxy Tab 2, which I briefly attempted to justify as some sort of necessity, but it is in fact simply a delightful expensive toy. After checking availability at John Lewis and PC World, who were both sold out, I gave up and ordered one from Amazon, for next day delivery. It duly arrived, before 1pm as agreed, the following day. Pondered whether one of the reasons for the demise of the high street could be that Amazon kicks the pants off it.

Took my car for a long-overdue clean (inside and out) the other Sunday. Was once again duped by the head man at Nisi into paying extra for the £20 ‘gold service’, but I felt guilty at the level of griminess. He did indeed look slightly hacked off by the time I returned 25 minutes later to pay and collect the car. Given that the car will soon get dirty again given a) necessity of parking under tree at MK flat and b) impending visit to parents’, I took two pictures of it parked outside the house.

Made it to Alison’s house in Spencers Wood last Thursday to discuss Mitch Albom’s The Five People You Meet in Heaven. Alison had amassed some very organised thoughts about the book and had actually made some notes, unusually for our group which prefers to express itself in disorganised random outbursts amid slurping of cakes and wine. I hadn’t been greatly taken with the book – perhaps because of not setting much store by the idea of a comforting afterlife awaiting me – but several of the others appeared to have enjoyed it, except Helen, who, bless her, hates most things.

Drove down to my parents’ house on Friday morning after a brief congratulate/commiserate with Ruth on now being (hopefully temporarily) a woman of leisure. Arrived in time for lunch and spent some time in the afternoon with Dad on some family tree software from www.ancestry.co.uk, trying to figure out the best way to print out a chart of the Irish relatives, as Dad is hoping to get some of them to fill in some gaps. Also spent some time with Mum going through a large pile of vinyl that she had routed out of the sideboard. We listened to bits of a few records, including an old single of ‘This Here’ by the Cannonball Adderley Quintet, a first for me but evidently something Mum used to listen to. Here’s a recording on YouTube. Put all of the records on slightly nervously, not having manipulated a turntable in some years – the sound quality was pretty good though, despite a bit of crackling, which just gave them a nice air of authenticity.

We took advantage of some nice weather on Saturday by going for a walk near Cwmyoy, including scaling the Twyn y Gaer hillfort – summit cairn in pic above. Dad pointed out the ‘Cwmyoy slip’ – an old land-slip that resulted in the top part of a hill separating itself and coming to rest some way further down the hill. I had visions of it hurtling dramatically down the hillside burying innocent villagers, but Dad noted that it wouldn’t have moved quite that quickly. Local tradition, apparently, has it that it was caused by a terrible earthquake during Christ's crucifixion. After the walk we called in to the Queen’s Head Inn hoping to get lunch, but discovered that they weren’t serving any on account of the rugby – indeed, they were just switching the match on as we drained our drinks and left. We got lunch instead at The Crown at Longtown, who didn’t have the rugby on.

In the evenings we watched two more films from the substantial Hammer box set that my parents got for Christmas: on night 1, The Witches with Joan Fontaine – OK but I think I dozed off at crucial moments towards the end. On night 2 The Plague of the Zombies – much livelier and actually not bad. Mum emailed me on Monday to say that they had made it a triple on Sunday night with Prehistoric Women, which had apparently been as bad as the title suggested. I think I remember reading on the insert that they had made it in order to re-use the sets and costumes from One Million Years B.C.

Minor piece of drama on the drive back to Milton Keynes on Sunday when I pulled into Cherwell Valley service station intending to get a cup of tea and became aware of smoke billowing from under my car’s bonnet. Parked really quite quickly and turned the engine off; was then not quite sure whether one is supposed to open the bonnet, but had vague (and doubtless over-dramatic) concerns about having face burnt off by a sheet of flame, so called the AA instead. Evidently they had had an operative already in the car park, as an AA man and van appeared at my elbow practically as I was hanging up the phone. Turned out the cap had come off the oil reservoir with the result that pretty much the whole of the engine and the inside of the bonnet was coated in smoking oil. He wiped this off while chatting amiably about Radio 4 and audio books. I had topped up the oil in the week but couldn’t quite believe I had been absent-minded enough to leave the cap off, but the man reckoned that it must have been loose and popped off during the journey. He observed that he’d attended plenty of people who’d done much stupider things to their cars, which I think was supposed to offer me a nugget of comfort.