The Hodge Blog

I’m annoyed on a few fronts this morning. Firstly we seem to have a new measure of how hot it is having crept in…a Heatwave Alert Level. What on earth is that? As far as I am aware the temperature has not risen above 30 degrees this year and we regularly take that when the nations ups and goes to Spain and the like. Suddenly we need to be told to stay out of direct sun at midday and the like. What was that song??? Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday to sun. It’s more of the nanny state coming in to protect us. Like they are any people to lecture us? I’m mad

The second thing that has riled me, for no other reason than it shows incompetence, is the U-Turn by Beanies henchman Mandleson. In December when the economy was in a worse position and all other indicators worse or at least no different he was pushing ahead with the part-privatisation of Royal Mail. He has received vitriolic reviews on it, including from his own side. Suddenly, the economic conditions are not right to pursue it. Me think this Government makes it up as they go along!

Prepared for my day off and trip to Wimbledon today by having a small tap about match with Jo on our court yesterday. It was really great fun and a good wind down for the end of the day. It was amazing how we started lobbing balls to each other and it got more and more competitive. We are ones. I’m quite looking forward to my trip today as I’ve never been before. I’m not that fond of tennis but it’s ladies semi-final day so should be worth watching.

Got the plumbing sorted in the en-suite and now just need to get some plywood over the floorboards to allow the tiles to stay stuck and we should be away with that project. it’s about time we started that and got the bedroom finished.

On this day in history and last year…

Weather = I desperately need to know the Heatwave Alert Level otherwise I won’t be able to function!

Mood meter = I have the day off, I’m off to Wimbledon and it’s a scorcher.

Things look incredibly bleak for Saints as the Pinnacle Group, who were way down the line with the takeover have pulled out. It seems a bit strange as they had re-iterated their commitment to buy the club even after the league made their ridiculous demands. It looks like we may have just this week before the administrators commence winding up the club and padlocking the gates as they appear to be scraping from month to month paying the wages late and such like which cannot go on for ever. I would say we are also likely to start losing players out of contract with this uncertainty.

Caught a late train home yesterday and Jo had to go for a make-up trial, so I was forced to walk home. It actually wasn’t too bad on a summer’s evening, but as some of it was across fields, it wasn’t something you would want to do on other than a dry day. I at least had the opportunity to save a starling chick which was flailing in a water butt on the footpath. That was my good deed for the day.

Got home to find that the guy had finally come to clear the tennis court after Simon had killed the moss and weeds. It was a little more of a job than he thought and was working from lunchtime, when he called me to see where we wanted the debris, until 6:45pm. He was certainly not too pleased as he had to get back to the midlands, (about 3 hour drive) and then out again at 4:30am this morning. As he says, it’s seasonal work. That said I should be lucky to have mine done during Wimbledon fortnight. It’s by no means perfect, but it is playable, which for the time being will be fine. if I want to spend £1800 I could get it perfect with bound and painted surface and proper lines, not just the sprayed ones I opted for in the interim. Just have the floodlights to get fixed now and everyone bar me can have a game. (Click to enlarge)

BEFORE	AFTER

Whirlpool bath arrived yesterday for the en-suite. We managed to get the legs on last night and get it on it’s feet and it looks like it will fit fine, just need to get taps and adjust the plumbing and we may be able to get on in that room. It certainly has a lot of engineering on it for the £600 it cost. Of course, I need some electricity in there too to run the pump.

On this day in history and last year…

Weather = It’s going to last until at least the weekend.

Mood meter = It’s through hump day to a day off tomorrow.

It’s set to be even hotter today with the temperature reaching 30+ degrees today.

News of the day comes from across the Atlantic. 2nd cousin Michelle and her partner have given birth to a baby boy, Ethan on June 23rd 2009. Grandma, Tricia, who only has a film camera (?) is short of images currently, so the one here is the only one. Congratulations to all and welcome to ‘the mad house’ Ethan.

Ruby appears to have ‘wanderlust’, setting up a friendship with Lou the dog next door. It is the second Monday on the trot we have got a phone call of her antics. Maybe it is a Monday lunch club or similar. Had to go looking for where she was getting through. In fairness, with a kilometre of boundary, it is near impossible to keep them contained, particularly with rabbits digging under fences continuously. We did find a couple of places she could be getting through and have blocked them with bricks. Still not sure we’ll keep her out…tart.

England lost out to arch rivals Germany in the final of the second string International European competition. I say lost, they actually got thrashed 4-0. I suppose they had done well to get to the final after successfully negotiating a penalty shoot out, something we are normally not good at. In sport also, Andy Murray scraped through his match which was the first under the new roof and finished floodlit at 10:40pm, cocking up all the usual TV schedules. (I do hate that. I get so little time to watch TV it’s frustrating to sit down with less than an hour left only to see a banner saying ‘xxxxxxx is now on BBC2′! (xxxxxxx is not some porn channel either, just substitute a programme of your choice)). I suspect they didn’t need the roof but felt, after spending £80m on it that they should make sure they used it.

Got the skirting fitted, although I have to say that long stretches cover the wall quickly but you soon get to know how out of true walls are and with some of them being stud work only getting the wood affixed to the wall while the ‘no more nails’ goes off is a feat in itself. I was hoping to get the plumbing access for the sink unit in the en-suite cut out too but realised that the positioning of the waste would not work with the leg of the stand, so that will have to be moved. Ran out of time also as Lindsay called from Krakow, Poland after having been to Auschwitz that day. She said the visitor centre was a little ‘clinical’ but the actual camp at Birkenau a little disconcerting and harrowing

On this day in history and last year…

Weather = It’s going to be another scorcher!

Mood meter = The week is under way.

Phew, what a scorcher! Thought I’d get that off before some of the daily papers started with temperatures set to get up to 30 degrees later this week. We are prepared at work for it, and with the summers of the last couple of years, I have plenty of fans and air conditioning units in stock!

I have heard some nonsense from statisticians over the years, but I guess with light news days they need to find something to talk about. Friday it was “half of 5 to 16 year olds have no idea where Bournemouth is”. Well, think about it. ALL of 5 to 10 year olds would be unlikely to know anywhere past their street or town, then ALL of the 11 to 16 year olds know and there’s your 50%! It won’t split like that, but you get my drift. This morning it was “over half of homeowners believe their properties will rise in value this year”. This one is a little different. This asks a question which is aspirational. At least half of people would want their homes to rise in value, what would the average person know what will happen. (I would extend that to no one would know). It’s statistics and surveys just for the hell of it. Mad!

Got a fair bit done yesterday. Fitted the plumbing for the new double sink unit in the en-suite. It’s more than you think with the existing two water feeds needing splitting into four and the existing waste split into two. Then it needs to be positioned to go through the base of the unit to feed the various stuff.

It was late on when we started the architrave and skirting on the landing, but we cut and fitted the architrave and have cut the skirting, ready to be fitted tonight. Once we have that done the frames need stripping on a few doors which are white so they can be stained, the radiators painted and glass lights fitted above the doors and that’ll be done. So late, at least we got a KFC treat!

On this day in history and last year…

Weather = 16 degrees already! (6:30am)

Mood meter = It is Monday!

I have this strange annoyance. Both on my phone and home page I have a weather widget that shows about three or four days of weather icons. For the last couple of days it showed Friday wet, (it was), Saturday sunny intervals, (it was) and beyond was a full sun, with no cloud in sight. I wake this morning and , whilst the temperatures are still up, the whole outlook has changed. It keeps damn well doing that. It seems that the science currently is no better that using seaweed.

Jo appears to have managed to curb her spending, although I may have been fooled by one Monsoon bag. Maybe it had all been placed in one? They didn’t get back until about 9pm though, having stopped at Frankie & Benny’s en-route. No doggy bag though, despite my request, so after a days hard labour, it was a bag of peanuts for me

Saints’ takeover appears to be happening Monday and it is still apparently the Pinnacle Group, which will see Matt Le Tissier as chairman that look the likely candidates. I’m just hoping something happens so we can get on with some planning and get positive about the new season.

Hope to get most of the architrave on today and also start the plumbing. I say start as, plumbing is difficult to ’start’ as water pees out everywhere if you don’t finish, but you get my drift.

Anyhow, needs must…

On this day in history and last year…

Weather = Although who knows!

Mood meter = Another day, another bout of hammering!

Bit out of phase today as I had an early start to get the grass cut and out of the way. I started at 8am while it was actually still a bit damp and finished at just after 10am. It is actually about a three hour job with the small pieces done with the hand mower before the big one and around 2 hours without worrying about the odd bits here and there. I was a couple of very solid growing weeks since I last did it, so it was ready!

Bought all the architrave and skirting for the landing doors and wall and the doors in the bedroom, so I have been busy this afternoon putting two coats on just over thirty 2.4 metre lengths. That took all afternoon and over a whole tin of varnish! Even without paying someone to do it, this is an expensive game. The wood was £120, the plumbing fittings for the basins in the en-suite, £80 and the varnish £13. On top of that I used up a credit note in buying three more large pots of magnolia and white emulsion. So that was another £40. It really is never ending.

Jo has been nervous to use the hot air gun on the door frames upstairs for fear of damaging the new paint on the walls, so the last job of the day was to ‘prove the concept’. by stripping a little door frame on the landing. When you start it is a little disconcerting, but it works well in bubbling the paint, then a quick scrape while it’s still soft and follow up with a sanding and it’s good as new and ready for varnish. It is a Jo job though, like the scraping of wallpaper. I just don’t have the patience.

Heard from both daughters today. Emma phoned and is basking in 28 degree heat in Tenerife and Lindsay is getting soaked in Warsaw. Lindsay managed to get an email off and I’ve posted it below as she still hasn’t posted. It gives a feel for how it has gone so far.

We are in Poland, we arrived in Warsaw this morning on a night train (which was interesting, since they’d put Josh and I in separate sleeping compartments for some reason, and when I tried to explain this to the Polish guard he just waved his arms at me!) Warsaw is cloudy, much like Berlin, but warm. Apparently it’s going to brighten up later- I’m not sure I believe it. We went on a tour yesterday in Berlin of a Cold War era bunker meant to shield people from nuclear attack- it was very cool but kind of creepy at the same time. Their plan for anyone who died down there was just to throw them in the airlock and leave them to decompose. Lovely. We also went to the headquarters of the old East German secret police, which was preserved just how it was when they all left in 1990- it was very 1970s!
Today I think we are going to go to Warsaw Old Town, not sure about tomorrow, but the day after we are in Krakow and going to Auschwitz. Doesn’t this sound like such a cheery holiday…not! Haha. It is good fun though.
Oh, and I saw a cocker spaniel EXACTLY like Harvey in Amsterdam! And I have stroopwafels, hopefully they won’t melt before I get home
I will try and phone tonight or tomorrow, but we are moving about so fast I barely have time to think what I’m doing!
Speak to you soon xxxx

It’s just gone 6:30pm here and I’m waiting for Jo to come back from her shopping trip with her girlfriends. It’ll be interesting to see, as money is now rather tight, if she comes back with more clothes to add to her already mountainous collection. I bet she does…any takers?

On this day in history and last year…

Weather = This is just the ‘warm-up’ for next week!

Mood meter = Got a good deal done today and it’s been quite good on my own with the puppies.

So, with the news overnight of the death of Michael Jackson at the age of 50, I am still slightly uneasy about how I feel about him, in much the same way as I did on the demise of Jade Goody. Once again, it is a personal tragedy and even at 50 far too early, but the kindest thing you could say about him was that he was a ‘troubled individual’, at the other end of the spectrum, far worse.

I suspect much of the issue was having his childhood taken away, something which he appeared always to be trying to get back. Is there any young ’star’ that has managed to make it to a ripe old age. I fear not. It actually makes you pretty glad to just be ‘normal’.

On the musical front he was without doubt brilliant and a genius. For living memory Thriller’ will be iconic and in most people’s collections in some media or another and his dancing to it dragged out time and time again, but the weird side of his persona, from the oxygen tent to the child molestation claims will certainly always dog his memory with most. Shame really.

On to other things and the painting on the landing is done and I have most things lined up for a busy weekend. Not really sure where to start as I now have every project, barring Emma’s room I thinks needing something still doing, but I will grab the jobs as they come and try and get them all completed in the next few weeks. Certainly we would love to get Lindsay’s room done before she is home from her travels, but I suspect that is beyond us with the wedding looming and all.

Saint’s Manager, Mark Wotte has warned that there will be a player exodus shortly if there is not a decision on the takeover soon. You can understand it, as many are out of contract and need to ‘get work’ for next season. There’s maybe still a week or so, but as the pre-season games start it will need to be sorted.

Had text from Lindsay yesterday. She is now in Berlin and moved from 30 degrees in Amsterdam to cold and rain in Berlin. Seems to be having a good time though. maybe we’ll get a post soon?

On this day in history and last year…

Weather = The weather broke with a vengeance last night

Mood meter = It’s nearing the end of the week.

Sad news today that severs the last link with successful times at St Mary’s and the great year of 2003. Michael Svensson has been forced to retire. He has struggled for the last three or so years with an injury he ironically picked up warming up against, of all people Portsmouth. The sad thing is, with the upheaval at the club, he will likely be gone for good before the opening day. He is just my sort of player, gritty, hard, determined and a winner and best of all, would, and has, played for Southampton for nothing. (He was out of contract while injured and was paid noting, just used Saints’ facilities).

The weather is a bit glum this morning although I suspect the sun will burn that of in a bit and certainly my ‘widget’ shows sun, so that’s fine then.

Met with Trevor the local farmer last night as I (and coincidentally Jo, as she arrived home at the same time), encountered sheep loose in the lane. Two young lambs and their mother. It showed admirably experience over youth. The lambs, although sizeable, were cavorting with each other in the lane. Mum had gone into the empty field opposite to take advantage of the lush grass in there. Priorities kids!

Had our newest piece of furniture arrive yesterday. It is a twin bowl, free-standing oak unit for the en-suite. It is going to be a challenge to get all the plumbing in place to run it all, but should look good when done. It was about all we got done yesterday, was to get it upstairs and into the area it needs to be. The landing will be finished today and that gives me a ton of stuff to catch up on over the coming few days and weeks. Skirting, architrave, door lights, window boards and radiators on the landing, floor and wall tiles, shower, toilet, bath and sinks in the en-suite, architrave and skirting ceiling in the cupboard and built the shelves and rails for Jo’s extensive wardrobe. Boy that is a list. I will need to get cracking on that if I am to be done by mid July with that lot!

Heard from Emma last night, she appears to be enjoying herself, although she has suffered a small amount of sunburn. Lindsay, who appears not to have located a Internet cafe to blog has moved onto Berlin after Amsterdam by train and will move into Poland and Warsaw at the weekend. Berlin is the only place I haven’t been out of those.

Feels a bit like Friday today, guess that is because Jo has done the shopping, which Emma normally does on a Thursday and it’s been a busy week again. Interestingly, the shopping was £80 where Emma usually spends £120, we are some light (people), but Emma’s certainly not a spend thrift.

On this day in history and last year…

Weather = It’s going to be hot, hot, hot!

Mood meter = It may not be Friday, but it’s close.

This summer is turning into a sports fiesta. Not only have I already been to a twenty/20 game this season, but we attended another one last night. Also yesterday got an invite to Wimbledon, which is a first for me and one I am unlikely to get again, so hope to go. It is for Thursday 2nd July and not sure what court, but it is Lady’s semi-final day, providing the weather behaves as it is now likely to do since the All-England Club spent £80m, or some such number on a roof.

The game last night was close again, until about the last few overs when Hampshire took a couple of wickets and restricted Middlesex to a few runs when they needed about two a ball. Good fun though and our US colleague seemed to enjoy it.

Apart from all this ‘different’ sport of course, i am missing most of Saints’ pre-season with the two major games on July 18th (stag-do) and August 1st (wedding)…typical!

Made it to ‘hump day’. It’s been another busy week of note taking which will need following up on next week so that we can prepare ourselves for another visit in three weeks time. It’s a good discipline, but there is little ‘thinking time’ in between rounds.

Saw word that they thought they had found the black box from the Air France jet that ended in the Atlantic, but I can find little about it on the news wires. It would be good if they did as, as a regular flier, it is quite nice to know what happens in these things.

On the aviation front, Boeing’s competitor to the A-380 double-decker, the 787 Dreamliner, faced another setback yesterday as the fuselage walls need ’strengthening’! It must be quite a leap of faith when you finally roll these things out and try and fly them first time, no matter how many computer simulations you have tried. The marketing men got in the way with this, insisting on a press launch on 7/8/7 (7th July 2007 in US date format), when engineering, as you can see two years later, were far from ready.

On this day in history and last year…

Weather = Looks like summer’s settled in?

Mood meter = Got to mid week and it’s downhill from here.

Well, news was out last night about the Saints’ takeover and it isn’t too good. It appears the Pinnace Group want to retain the right to appeal our ten point deduction while the league, who have to give us back our share to enable us to play in the league will not do so until we wave the right. I find that a little overpowering and basically dictatorial. I am not saying we don’t deserve the ten points off, it’s just my ‘fairness head’ says we should at least be allowed to appeal it if we feel it is unjust. The table started to appear yesterday and whilst all others are on zero points, with zero games and therefore in alphabetical order, we are firmly at the bottom before a ball has been kicked.

Out to watch twenty/twenty cricket again tonight. The weather is set fair so it should be a fun evening to watch 22 guys hammer a ball around a field. I suspect it will be a fairly light crowd as there is another game on Friday which will likely see a better turnout, I also think this one may be on the TV as it is a 7:10pm start which means the programme starts at 7pm with a ten minute intro. The good part when that is on in the ground is that they have big screens showing the TV coverage that makes the atmosphere even better in the ground. We have a colleague from the US with us tonight, so that should be fun explaining the rules!

Basically, it goes like this: (intermain.org.uk)

You have two sides, one out in the field and one in. Each man that’s in the side that’s in goes out, and when he’s out he comes in and the next man goes in until he’s out. When they are all out, the side that’s out comes in and the side that’s been in goes out and tries to get those coming in, out. Sometimes you get men still in and not out.

When a man goes out to go in, the men who are out try to get him out, and when he is out he goes in and the next man in goes out and goes in. There are two men called umpires who stay all out all the time and they decide when the men who are in are out. When both sides have been in and all the men have been out, and both sides have been out twice after all the men have been in, including those who are not out, that is the end of the game!

Simple really!

Go a few bits done at home last night. Skirtings on in the cupboard, took the old shower off in the en-suite and Jo painted the loft hatch. That gets us a little closer, but Andy had to bail out as his van needed repair. He will be here this morning to start the landing and will hopefully have a builder/plasterer lined up who can do some of the patching to enable more rooms to be finished.

Seems quiet around here, finally and both about 2 hours after they planned, the girls have left for holidays. Got a text from Lindsay last night, she was already in her hotel in Amsterdam and Emma flies this morning.

Although I know I’ve missed at least one. As Blakeley Family Birthday Announcer (BFBA) it is Jock’s Girlfriend, and new mother, Keran’s Birthday today. They are down for the wedding in a week or two, so Happy birthday Keran, duty done!

On this day in history and last year…

Weather = It’s going to be a scorcher.

Mood meter = It’s passed Monday, but not yet Friday.