Monthly Archives: September 2009

Change

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Guess which of the following items of change are pushing us closer to the edges of our comfort zone?

  • Two sets of long-term neighbours, with whom we get on very well, are moving within a short space of each other.
  • A knock-on effect is that I am now Lord Holder of the Thing (see yesterday’s post).
  • This time next year Bonusbarn will have finished school, and there is a school of thought that holds he could be doing more to prepare for the event.
  • Terry Wogan is giving up his morning show on Radio 2.

I will admit that when Chris Evans took over from Johnnie Walker for evening drivetime, it was like swapping a comfy old slipper for a cold, wet plimsoll with yesterday’s sand still in it. Solution: wait and see if the first couple of songs are any good and if not then switch to Classic FM or play a tape. I’m sure Sir Tel’s legions of fans will find a similar way of adjusting. For crying out loud, people, the sun will still come up tomorrow. Promise.

There are two ways of dealing with a move away from the centre of your comfort zone: try and reverse time and move back to the centre, or redefine the edges of your comfort zone so that the centre comes to you without you moving. And that is how we will try and deal with the first two points.

He also does stations and memorials

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Clifton Hampden bridge, designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott: him as also did St Pancras, lots of churches, and memorials to the Martyrs (Oxford) and Albert (London). According to the guide book of walks around Oxfordshire, it replaced a ferry across the Thames and was privately commissioned by a local family.

“I say, dear, who do we know who does a bit of building?”

I completely agree that if a job is worth doing then it’s worth over-doing.

The house at the end might be nice to live in, though I’m not sure I would enjoy having high water flood marks in my back garden. Even less would I enjoy people being able to look down into my back garden and say “oh look, you can see where the water comes up to.”

We have a thing

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Anyone know what it is?

Yours truly has taken over as secretary for the management company for the building. As well as power! a large pile of paper we got … this.

The outgoing secretary got it off his predecessor. No one knows quite what it’s for. It comes in its own little pouch. In the top picture you can just see a little roller inside the bit that squeezes down, though it doesn’t squeeze down very hard.

We also got power! an official company stamp, in a weighty metal stamping machine that embosses the paper with the stamp design. I can remember something like it from my grandfather’s study and it has a wonderful Victorian steampunky sort of feel to it. That, I can work out. The squeezy thing shown above, though … still guessing.