The Hodge Blog

Reached mid week successfully and managed to get the paint on the door surrounds last night so that is another job done and I now need to get the architrave and skirting on. I have replaced a couple of the light switches, which is always tough when the night is getting dark as, with working on lights, it’s sometimes better to have them disconnected from the supply

It is very muggy around here this morning. Ruby has taken to announcing she is awake by barking at 5:15am. I manage to get her back in her bed and quite for another hour, but when I came down this morning, the moisture was rising in huge plumes of mist off the fields at the front. I reckon we could easily be around 80% this morning but the dampness and night drizzle is saving an hour or so of watering duties which is really nice.

Added to my home grown leaves with salad on Monday night by having fish with home grown mange tout (posh peas) last night. I really do love peas and beans hence my repetitive sowings and efforts to deter the enemy of the vegetable patch. Spoken very quietly…so far, so good.

Sepp Blatter has apologised for the error made which helped knock England out of the World Cup. Sepp, I accept you belated apology…Dick! It’s a fat lot of good now although it looks like it has forced his hand to look at goal line technology again which has to be a good thing. Fortunately, he was at the game and probably saw it from his seat in the comfy area. Hope it made him squirm. I was amused yesterday with the full page adverts taken out with “Goal line technology from £25”. It was by specsavers and just featured a pair of glasses…funny.

On this day in history and last year…

Weather = It’s hot and sticky

Mood meter = Wimbledon tomorrow, in the sun!

I feel slightly flattered that people do actually miss this daily jottings with two ‘complaints’ yesterday from readers who had tuned in on Monday to read up on my boring life. Speculation abounded as to why it had not appeared and no, it wasn’t a hangover, OR the fact the rant was still being typed after England’s pathetic demise in the World Cup. It was simply that the heat of the day meant I had to water the vegetables and various other things before dashing around to get stuff done. I’m so sorry, I simply ran out of time!

However, on the England subject. I’m not quite sure what it can be put down to. At the end of the day, we hype ourselves up each time we play and when it comes to the actual games, we do not perform. I believe that the Premier League has a lot to answer for. They have grown the money in football enormously and, kept it for themselves and the players, nothing, or at least next to nothing, filters out and what that does it attract the best, greediest players in the World, from all around, so English players don’t get chance to reach the top flight in the main, and those that do are not necessarily the best in the World anymore, certainly it needs a change.

On the goal line technology front, something has to be done. How the officials could not see that is beyond belief. At half time they must have been embarrassed if they saw that. Now, we just weren’t good enough, but like a punch-drunk boxer, Germany were rocking at that point and the referee let them off the ropes with that decision. I was biased of course, but saw it first time, in real time from a camera further away than any of the officials. It would not even need a stop in the game, just a bleep from Hawkeye in the officials’ ears and we would be square. I guess the Germans would claim it was justice for the possible injustice from 1966? I guess we’ll never know how the game would really have turned out, we just know about the embarrassment that it was.

The jokes abound on text about it of course. “David Blain is p****d off about losing his record of doing nothing in a box for 42 days, it’s been taken over by Wayne Rooney!” and “After the volcanic ash cloud it appears flights may be grounded for some time today as a shower of s**t flies in from South Africa!”. Still, we should cheer up, we could be French or Italian!

Managed to get some paint on the walls around the doors last night. Little more filling to do and then the last coat can go on and we can fit the last of the trim around the doors and floor. On the way home I dropped into the local garden centre and bought a few seeds which actually didn’t get sewn, but I did that with some of the stuff I have lost to rabbits. More runner beans, peas, lettuces, carrots, radish and spring onions. Just hoping it stays pest free and we actually get some reasonable crops. Actually did manage to get  some salad leaves of Swiss Chard and Rocket and a solitary radish in my tea last night…nice!

On this day in history and last year…

Weather = It’s definitely not that sunny. it’s throwing it down!

Mood meter = It’s Tuesday already and I’m off to Wimbledon on Thursday for the ladies semi finals.

The weather is turning into a real old-fashioned British summer which i hope I haven’t just put the mockers on? It is glorious this morning and likely to rise in temperature until Sunday when it will top out at 30 degrees, fantastic.

I am sort of drifting along at the minute with the house. Last night was spent once again in the shed organising stuff and I still have shelves to put up and some socket rails to buy to make a better job of it overall. Also of course i need to get a skip to put all the old rubbish in that still languishes in the place from the previous owner.

This weekend I intend to try and get the paint on the new plaster and fit all the wood trim to dining room and hall. That will officially see the wooden floor finished, well, apart from the door bar between dining room and breakfast room, which can’t go on until I have laid the tiles in the breakfast room, kitchen and conservatory, but you get my drift?

Ruby really is a strange dog. She comes with me every morning to feed the chickens and really thinks she is one. This morning she waited patiently as I opened the pop hole to let them out of there nesting box, before climbing in herself to have a look around! We have a kennel on the back patio in the sun. Never been near it, let alone in, but seems happy to squeeze into a smelly chicken coop! Bizarre.

Anyhow, the weekend is here again which is good. The weather is set fair, so hopefully after the Friday night hangover induction, we will be able to get tons done?

On this day in history and last year…

Weather = 13 already and Sunday’s low will be 17!

Mood meter = Weekend’s here

Relatively unconvincingly, England beat Slovenia 1-0 to progress to the knockout stages of the World Cup, setting up a Sunday afternoon meet with old foe Germany. This sparks headlines like “Herr we go again” and “It’s the Hun on Sun”.

We managed to get everything set up at work with TV, cold beer and half time footy on the grass. After the game and before the kick off of the second there was an amazing tennis match going on at Wimbledon, which saw a fifth set break all games, time and score records as it went to fifty-nine games each. It seems a bit silly that there is a tie-break in every game but the last. After ten hours of tennis, the match was finally abandoned for bad light as it was taking place on an outside court. Amazing statistics started to emerge with one caller to a phone-in stating he had driven from Cornwall to Cumbria, the length of England while the fifth set had been played! Amazing.

So, England progress to the last sixteen but were pipped to top spot by a ninety-first minute goal by the USA which had them ahead of us on goal difference.

Still, back to normal now until Sunday and Monday morning could be even more of a drag?

On this day in history and last year…

Weather = This looks as good as yesterday

Mood meter = It’s passed half way and we managed a win!

It’s going to be a scorching day today and what better day could there be for the England game and them to progress at 3pm and for the Northern Tool BBQ to follow?

I have the big TV from the bottom loaded in the car, hundreds of leads just in case. The PS3 and Wii for afterwards and we appear set to go.

Got back home early last night with the promise of my belated roast dinner from the girls. It was pretty good fun but became very giggly as the three of them rolled around with Jo’s pronunciation of Denmead, with an emphasis on the ‘mead’. You had to be there, but that was the signal for me to get on with my ‘blue’ job of arranging the shed a little more. Not just that but I could now watch the World Cup having installed the portable TV with temporary aerial. I say watched, it was a bit ‘snowy’ and I only had BBC1, but it was fine. Now I just have to get a proper aerial on the roof and I can be down there for hours while, as Lindsay said, the girls get on with their ‘pink’ jobs! I love that analogy.

Finally got back up to the house just after 10pm, but about every 10 minutes you could hear a decided roar from the Rose Bowl as England successfully chased down Australia in the 1st one-day International, now if only the football team can do the same, I’ll be really happy!

As Official BBA. Today is James Blakeley’s partner, Keran’s Birthday today, all together now…Happy Birthday to you…..

On this day in history and last year…

Weather = In the words of the Sun newspaper, Phew, what a scorcher!

Mood meter = It’ll be with an England win, , without!

Me thinks today is going to be some tough medicine metered out by the Government. They have been carefully laying out snippets of information about how bad the economy is since the coalition was formed and today we have the ‘emergency’ budget. Anything with the word emergency in it cannot be a good thing can it? I suspect large tax rises, maybe even VAT to 20% and huge public sector spending cuts. There has been little leaked about it, they are in a honeymoon period of Government, so why wouldn’t they get a considerable amount of bad news out today?

Growing up as a kid, one thing defined a British summer. The sound of leather on willow, Geoff Boycott occupying the crease for hours, Bob Willis bowling with absolute gusto and even turning my hand to a bit of cricket myself. I wasn’t quite so good, with friends saying as I walked out to the crease, “Your cousin’s on the phone from the US, we said you were just going out to bat and they said they’d hold!”. Nothing also quite defined it like England –v- Australia Internationals. Well, who would have thought that all these years on, pretty well all I could see from my house is the Rose Bowl cricket stadium and today, they host a one-day cricket international between…England and Australia. Strange thing is, I had plenty of opportunity to go, but it has passed me by. Just pleased that the weather is set fair for what will be a 2:30pm start and a day-night affair. How exciting. Now, how do I get home with all the roads closed?

Tried to get the hedge trimmer blades on last night with a second set from work as the others were too long… so were these only today, i am taking both wrong sets back and the originals, so hopefully we should be able to sort something out. In lieu of that I have started setting out stuff in the bottom shed. It desperately needs some shelving but the pigeon hole racking is great and should help me lay hands on far more stuff than ever before. It is amazing what I have in equipment and tools, i just didn’t know it! Now however, it will be miles from the house but immediately discoverable. The stuff I’ve bought over the last 18 months that I already had was amazing. I even found a conker on a string. What’s that about? I certainly took advantage of the longest day though, not materialising from there until nearly 10pm!

Looking forward to my belated Father’s Day roast dinner this evening…yummy!

On this day in history and last year…

Weather = It’s a great day for cricket

Mood meter = It’s passed Monday but nowhere near the end of the week!

Cannot believe that England cannot beat Algeria. No disrespect to them but it is like England playing Eastleigh! We really didn’t show up and like the Italians and France I really can see us going out on Wednesday against Slovenia if we don’t get a bit of fighting spirit back in the team.

It’s the longest day today, so from here on in it gets darker as we head back to winter…how depressing! Still, I suppose in Australia it’s the shortest day, so that’s not so bad.

Most of the weekend passed without incident. I have now confirmed the rabbits are getting in through the tennis court fence, which is the long way around, but I will now need to get some more chicken wire or face the consequences. I’m very much a live and let live type of guy when it comes to wildlife and it’s one of the things I love the most here, but I am seriously now contemplating getting a gun, what with rabbits and magpies my veg and egg production is through the floor.

Managed to get the grass cut over the weekend and was hoping to get the hedges cut too, but on unwrapping the blades for the trimmer which I was looking to replace as they have a couple of teeth missing, I found they were too long and wouldn’t fit, so that’s another machine part stripped on the bench!

Moved our focus after that to clearing the top garage and transporting it to the bottom shed. It is now amazing, we have room for two cars and at a push probably three. there is a little organising to do in the bottom shed but apart from that I’m pretty pleased with that days work. Hopefully now, although it’s further away, I can lay my hands on anything quickly and not have it spread across about three or four locations which instils a lot of frustration.

The last thing I got to do, on Father’s Day was to light the bonfire and burn all the excess. It’s really strange how long a bonfire holds heat for. We had burned all the tree parts from the walled garden on Saturday and just placing stuff on it late Sunday started it all off again. Still at least that saved the diesel bought for the purpose. That has to be about the most expensive firelighter on the planet at £1.20 a litre!

At least i got my new Saints top as a present from my girls, so I will look resplendent in our 125th Anniversary shirt complete with no sponsor logo and sash!

On this day in history and last year…

Weather = It’s warm for the longest day

Mood meter = It’s Monday, what more can I say

Most importantly, it is Jo’s Birthday today, she is ?? years old She was out with her friends last night and has the day off today, so we all hope she has a really good one.

Allez les bleus came to a complete halt yesterday as France shockingly lost 2-0 to Mexico. That likely signals their exit from the World Cup knockout phase which I suppose, with the way they got there against Ireland may well be justice.

England, of course play their second game at 7:30pm this evening. It’s a must win really and truly, against Algeria, that should be the case.

Annoyingly Saints have now not only drawn AFC Bournemouth at home in the Carling Cup w/c 9th August, they also got a home fixture on August 7th against newly relegated Plymouth in the fixtures announced yesterday. Both of which i am on Holiday for

Poorsmouth secured their CVA yesterday with just over 80% of the vote. Their fans are surprisingly gloating over “one in the eye for the taxman” who was the only creditor to vote against. Do they not realise that “one in the eye for the taxman” sees their club stealing from every man, woman and child in the UK? The sum they want writing off is £35m, about the size of a small African nations debt! I suspect however that we have not heard the last of this saga. For HMRC to be a creditor of only 20% the Administrator is refusing to accept HMRC full claim, including interest, etc on the monies owed. I would be staggered if HMRC did not appeal that stance within the 28 days allowed and this could do two things.

1. Delay the CVA which would have Poormouth facing what Leeds did a few years ago. A protracted legal case without the ability to trade as the debt would still be 100%. This forced Leeds to sell the club for nothing to Ken Bates and they had to accept a 15 point league penalty.
2. HMRC prove their full amount is owed to the courts and the CVA cannot go ahead as HMRC voting against at the original amount would mean they are a creditor over the 25% needed to stop the agreement.

I suspect it still has a long way to run yet and if, per chance HMRC do not appeal, maybe I should stop paying my taxes at 100% and start paying them at 20% over a five year period. Scandalous!

On this day in history and last year…

Weather = Warmer but a little gloomier

Mood meter = It’s the weekend and England play tonight.

Today is a busy day in the football world. Not least with the World Cup going on, but also with the league fixtures being published giving us all the opportunity of doing a bit of planning. As I am away again for the first fixture, I can only hope it is away from home so I don’t miss the start. That is already the case as we drew local rivals, who got promoted into our league this season, Bournemouth, in the Carling Cup.

Poorsmouth creditors too are meeting today in the hope of agreeing a CVA. The administrator is offering 20p in the £ and it looks like HMRC will oppose it. They hold virtually spot on 25% of the debt and with 75% needed to approve it it will be a close run thing, particularly as other creditors have asked an insolvency firm to come up with a counter proposal which offers 90p in the £. Why would the people who appointed this firm accept 20p? All will be discovered today, but acceptance will still not be the end of it as parties will have 28 days in which to appeal and the same happened in the recent case with Leeds United with HMRC appealing it on the last day and with the club unable to continue running during the appeal they had to affect a quick sale and were docked 15 points.

Managed to get a little done last night by fitting the blade to the small mower. That gives me the chance to get the grass cut again this weekend, providing it stays dry, also got a little more done with the re-build of the other mower, but that is stalled now awaiting spares. Watered the vegetables but that is just a demoralising task where I really feel I am just going through the motions. I suppose what it will do is show me what I can grow to maturity? Interestingly so far that looks like broad beans, peas, lettuce, potatoes, tomatoes, marrows, squash and radish. The carrots are starting to appear, as are the spring onions so we will see how they fair as they get more mature. Don’t hold out much hope though.

Tomorrow is a big day on two fronts. Jo has her Birthday and England play their second World Cup game against Algeria. Of course only one of those events really counts

On this day in history and last year…

Weather = Stunning

Mood meter = Creeping quietly toward the weekend.

Plasterer eventually turned up and looked at the job. It’s a shame really as I suspect I could get more done for the money but as plastering is a trowel, wait, trowel, wait job he will have to do just that as there is little to do. Still, it will be done next Wednesday and I can then get that decorated again the following weekend, get the skirting and architrave on and the wood floored rooms will be done. I am also now looking to get started on the kitchen and breakfast room tiling as, apart from outside work, I seem to have come to a complete halt on the inside just as I can see the finishing line. The one small issue with that is during the summer the stuff just doesn’t stop growing. There are bits of hedge along the drive that want cutting, the grass wants doing again, although i await delivery of a blade for the small mower, the border Jo had a go at needs finishing off and planting and the ivy and brambles, well…they’re just the ivy and brambles!

I shouldn’t speak too soon about my prowess on the World Cup score prediction model, but so far, so good. I am top with clear points but need to remember that this is only the end of the first round of games in the group stages. There are two more rounds of groups games and then the knockout phase, where points are doubled. It’s fun though and everyone is seeming to enjoy it and the model is behaving well. Have no fear, this situation in all ways will change!

On this day in history and last year…

Weather = It’s a beautiful morning on the south coast

Mood meter = I’ve reached hump day, haven’t I?