Of shopping and home repairs...

Christmas Eve eve has ended and it is now Christmas Eve.

To bed shortly I guess. I feel quite tired and we have a fair amount to do tomorrow to make the Athenaeum Club fit for visitors.

Today, colonel_maxim went out to buy provisions for Monday. Shortly thereafter, ellefurtle and I went out to buy provisions for Monday. I expect that tomorrow we will go and buy provisions for Monday. What is it about Christmas that demands so many provisions - or more to the point, what is about Christmas victuals that push run of the mill day to day stuff out of your head necessitating repeated visits to the supermarket? Ah well, it is tradition, I suppose, and therefore right.

I am feeling moderately virtuous having done some handyman work this afternoon. A couple of weeks ago I replaced a couple of bulbs in the ceiling fitting in my bedroom up here in The Tower. It fell off the ceiling, hanging only by the wires. Clearly this state of affairs could not continue, so I did the only logical thing: I shored it up with gaffa tape (similar to duct tape, I guess, but not quite as sticky). With repeated applications, that worked for most of a fortnight until gravity and mass took its toll and the whole was hanging from the ceiling again by the wires, but this time with sticky tendrils of tape, too. Today I used the correct tools and affixed it firmly back to the ceiling where it belongs.

I am, however, perturbed.

Given the general state of repair and jerry-building in the Athenaeum Club thanks to years of landlord neglect, I had assumed that the light fitting had somehow worked loose over the years. Certainly it seemed reasonably solidly fixed the first time I put bulbs in it, even if it came away the next time. There are two screw-holes in the ceiling and logic suggested that if they had come loose, the screws themselves had dropped into the casing on the lamp.

Not so; I could find no screws nor any sign of their existence. I can only assume that the entire fitting stayed where it was for so long simply through the force of art and aesthetics. There doesn't seem to be any physical reason why it should have stayed attached to the ceiling for all those years. It was a miracle and perversely it ended at Christmas.

Still, I have it all sorted now, though the mystery remains.

Of shopping and home repairs...

Christmas Eve eve has ended and it is now Christmas Eve.

To bed shortly I guess. I feel quite tired and we have a fair amount to do tomorrow to make the Athenaeum Club fit for visitors.

Today, colonel_maxim went out to buy provisions for Monday. Shortly thereafter, ellefurtle and I went out to buy provisions for Monday. I expect that tomorrow we will go and buy provisions for Monday. What is it about Christmas that demands so many provisions - or more to the point, what is about Christmas victuals that push run of the mill day to day stuff out of your head necessitating repeated visits to the supermarket? Ah well, it is tradition, I suppose, and therefore right.

I am feeling moderately virtuous having done some handyman work this afternoon. A couple of weeks ago I replaced a couple of bulbs in the ceiling fitting in my bedroom up here in The Tower. It fell off the ceiling, hanging only by the wires. Clearly this state of affairs could not continue, so I did the only logical thing: I shored it up with gaffa tape (similar to duct tape, I guess, but not quite as sticky). With repeated applications, that worked for most of a fortnight until gravity and mass took its toll and the whole was hanging from the ceiling again by the wires, but this time with sticky tendrils of tape, too. Today I used the correct tools and affixed it firmly back to the ceiling where it belongs.

I am, however, perturbed.

Given the general state of repair and jerry-building in the Athenaeum Club thanks to years of landlord neglect, I had assumed that the light fitting had somehow worked loose over the years. Certainly it seemed reasonably solidly fixed the first time I put bulbs in it, even if it came away the next time. There are two screw-holes in the ceiling and logic suggested that if they had come loose, the screws themselves had dropped into the casing on the lamp.

Not so; I could find no screws nor any sign of their existence. I can only assume that the entire fitting stayed where it was for so long simply through the force of art and aesthetics. There doesn't seem to be any physical reason why it should have stayed attached to the ceiling for all those years. It was a miracle and perversely it ended at Christmas.

Still, I have it all sorted now, though the mystery remains.

My Boomerang Won't Come Back...

This will mean nothing to the youngsters of you out there I guess, but Charlie Drake has died aged 81.

1925-2006

My Boomerang Won't Come Back...

This will mean nothing to the youngsters of you out there I guess, but Charlie Drake has died aged 81.

1925-2006

'twas the night before Chrissmuss

Well I think we are reasonably close to being ready. As predicted, colonel_maxim and I found it necessary to nip out and purchase additional victuals, though at least these were more mundane and relatively un-festivy.

This time of year does strange things to people. Tomorrow we are hosting two friends for Christmas dinner and both of them know us to be untidy lumps. Nonetheless, the Athenaeum Club is remarkably tidy - including the room which we shall hence forth call the dining room, which thanks to Herculean efforts by ellefurtle is now not only clean and tidy, but devoid of extraneous objects. Much of the rest of the place has been dusted, polished and hoovered. Frankly anyone who knows the place probably wouldn't recognise it. I don't.

I have retired to The Tower to type this entry and administer oil of cloves to my aching gnasher while colonel_maxim and ellefurtle do hideous things to carrots and Brussels sprouts respectively. Later on I shall be doing hideous things to tomorrow's chicken, so it all balances out. Said chicken is currently immersed in brine seasoned with rosemary and mixed herbs. It looks not unlike the latest Damien Hurst exhibit, but smells rather less of resin and formaldehyde. It should taste better, too, once stuffed, coated in bacon and roasted.

I shall slump now and listen to music. Enjoy the rest of your day Gentle Reader; tomorrow it gets serious.

'twas the night before Chrissmuss

Well I think we are reasonably close to being ready. As predicted, colonel_maxim and I found it necessary to nip out and purchase additional victuals, though at least these were more mundane and relatively un-festivy.

This time of year does strange things to people. Tomorrow we are hosting two friends for Christmas dinner and both of them know us to be untidy lumps. Nonetheless, the Athenaeum Club is remarkably tidy - including the room which we shall hence forth call the dining room, which thanks to Herculean efforts by ellefurtle is now not only clean and tidy, but devoid of extraneous objects. Much of the rest of the place has been dusted, polished and hoovered. Frankly anyone who knows the place probably wouldn't recognise it. I don't.

I have retired to The Tower to type this entry and administer oil of cloves to my aching gnasher while colonel_maxim and ellefurtle do hideous things to carrots and Brussels sprouts respectively. Later on I shall be doing hideous things to tomorrow's chicken, so it all balances out. Said chicken is currently immersed in brine seasoned with rosemary and mixed herbs. It looks not unlike the latest Damien Hurst exhibit, but smells rather less of resin and formaldehyde. It should taste better, too, once stuffed, coated in bacon and roasted.

I shall slump now and listen to music. Enjoy the rest of your day Gentle Reader; tomorrow it gets serious.