Cleaning the Wandle May 2012

This month the clean up was in Sutton. Not quite the search for the source of the Nile but certainly well upstream to recent clean ups. The river divides around Culver's Island and we split into two groups to tackle both branches.



I was running half an hour late; by the time I got there the safety briefing was over and people were in the water. The river was fairly free of large scale rubbish such as shopping trolleys and carpets and the wading crew had it well under control so I decided I would do "wheelbarrow duty" for a change.



In this load was a child's swing. It does make me wonder about some parents - the example they set for their children and the lack of concern for the world they will be leaving for them.



This stretch more leafy and pleasant than some of the  concrete culverted, inner city stretches with grassy banks and leafy cover. Plus a lovely sunny day. Another good clean up.

Full set of pictures on Flicker: http://www.flickr.com/photos/markmclellan/sets/72157629760408790/

Official blog on the Wandle Trust Website: http://www.wandletrust.org/?p=3530

Tally this month: 1 car tyre, 1 bike tyre, 1 teddy bear, 1 sun lounger, 1 chair, 1 suitcase, 1 artificial Christmas tree, 1 metal tripod, 1 plant pot, 1 scooter, 1 jumper, 1 tarpaulin, 1 tent, 1 mattress, 1 carpet, 1 dustbin lid, 1 metal drum, 1 clipboard, 2 bike wheels, 2 road signs and a tonne of so of unidentified junk.

May Bank Holiday 2012 - Networking, Twitching, Relaxing

A long weekend thanks to the May bank holiday. Everywhere else (most of Europe at least) celebrates May Day (International Labour Day) on 1st May. The UK holiday is on the following Monday so we always get a long weekend. As usual our weekends have a packed agenda.

First up "networking" as I call drinking with ex-colleagues. Up to 1400 of us worked for BT on the Care Records System programme (that is correct - one thousand, four hundred). I left about three years ago. One of my ex-colleagues arranged a reunion drink in the excellent Knights Templar, a former banking hall. Good to catch up with peeps.

Saturday it was down to Ringwood for dinner with old friends Bob and Lynn. The next day we went for a couple of hours stroll round Blashford Lakes, a series of former gravel pits now a nature reserve and bird sanctuary.

A well kept secret it was right on our doorstep when we lived down there and we never knew. It was only 2 miles away and we drove past it every day!

We stopped at a number of hides and saw all manner of birds. Not sure I could name them all but this one I was pretty confident of. Also a real close-up viewing of a great spotted woodpecker and a pair of goldfinch.

The walk from our hosts house and back took us along Dockens Water a typical New Forest stream complete with wild primrose.

Afterward we said our goodbyes and went off to Grayshott Spa for 24 hours of relaxation.

Over the 24 hours we had massages (two each), a power walk, Mary had a manicure and I did a Yoga class. We finished with a healthy lunch and then home to the cats.

Urban gardening

Having an urban garden doesn't present the same horticultural opportunities as the half acre we used to have at Avon Cottage. The answer is lots of pots, tubs and grow-bags. We always grow tomatoes and some kind of pulse (peas, runner beans or broad beans) and, the last couple of years, potatoes. The latter have been a disappointment - a lot of waiting and watering for not much more than the seed potatoes that went in. This year, against my better judgement, I have been persuaded to to give them a third chance.

Last year's potatoes (centre stage)

This year I have gone for alternative roots vegetables. I have used two of the potato bags for carrots and beetroot - so let's see how they do.

L to R: runner beans, carrots, beetroot, broad beans, red (bell) peppers, lettuce, olive tree (with wild strawberries), potatoes (plus rocket, aka rucola, off screen).

The trees and shrubs have taken a bit of a drubbing. The shrubs from me and the trees from from an aboricultural company we employed to do tree works. Our neighbours suggested that our trees could do with a trim so we decide to get in tree specialists to quote not only for our trees but the house on the *other* side. This with a view to getting them to share the costs with me doing all the planning application required as we are in a conservation area.

It's pruning, Jim, but not as we know it.

In the end we paid for both gardens to be done. Not as altruistic as it sounds. Next door is owned by a housing association and occupied by deaf people so, I guess, counts as a charitable donation, if you wish, and we get the benefit of more sunshine in our garden.

Cleaning the Wandle April 2012

Erica described this as "the one with the obstinate lamp post" but I think of it as "the one with no shopping trolleys". I always describe these community clean ups as pulling shopping trolleys out of the Wandle so it was a little disappointing not to find any this time.

Still there was plenty of other rubbish to haul out. The carpets are the worst (after duvets) because of the weight of water. You have to haul them part way out and wait a while for the water to drain out before it gets possible to haul them the rest of the way. Given the height of the banks much of that water dripped into my hair - rank and filthy water, yuck!

Theo, the chairman of the trustees, is a keen angler and has just published a book on urban fishing, "Trout in Dirty Water" - a guide to urban fly-fishing, river restoration and the voluntary sector in the 21st century. Naturally I had to get a copy and have it signed by the author.

Theo Pike book signing

The water was deep and the waders were heavy and awkward - call me the Stumbling dice. I stumbled in the water and got a wader full of Wandle, I stumbled on the bank and got a handful of stinging nettles, I stumbled on the path and got a kneeful of grazes. Doctor, doctor what should I do? Limp!

This is at lunchtime, the final haul was: 1 holdall, 1 metal barrier, 1 saw, 1 car seat, 1 wheelbarrow, 1 fridge door, 1 microwave, 1 tarpaulin, 1 long plastic pipe, 2 lamp posts, 2 oil drums, 2 metal frames, 2 road cones, 2 office chairs, 2 televisions, 3 large bore pipes, 3 mattresses, 4 metal pipes, 5 pallets, 6 metal bars, 6 plastic pipes, 6 sheets of corrugated iron, 8 carpets, 12 tyres and approximately 2 tonnes of other unidentified rubbish.

Hard work and a knackered knee but still, a mountain of rubbish and a job well done :-)

Easter 2012 - Home alone with the family

Mary was off on a business trip to Ecuador leaving me home alone to spend quality time with the cats - an ideal time to catch up with family.

Good Friday: first stop - down to Farnham to visit Mum and Dad and meet up with an old family friend, Heather, who my father describes as an honorary daughter.

Easter 2012 - Heather at Farnham

We have known Heather over 40 years, since school days. She and her husband dropped in on their way to Arundel for an extended cuppa.

Easter 2012 - me, Jane, Chris, Dad.

Next I was on chauffeur duty to drive Mum and Dad over to Jane and Pete's for a full family "Sunday" roast with all three of their boys plus a wife, Vanessa, and a fiancé, Hannah.

Easter 2012 - family meal

Later it was back to Farnham to spend the evening with Mum and Dad and an overnight stay.

Easter Sunday I had supper with brother Ian and Sarah for a general natter, so all in all, a full on family weekend.

Opening up Trullo Azzurro - Spring 2012

Every spring we go out to open up for the season and prepare Trullo Azzurro for our first guests. Basically it is the reverse of the autumn close down visit when we went to harvest the olives, bag up all the linens and generally prep the place for over-wintering.

Key to opening up is airing the mattresses and bedding - we drag the beds out into the sunshine to drive off the winter damp and hang out all the duvets on the line. We also leave all the doors to let the wind breeze through the building.


Mary supervising the pillows as they top up their tan

We have someone who does the "macro-gardening" for us: the trees have been pruned and the grounds rotovated. That left us to do "micro-gardening": weeding the flower beds and bundling up the tree trimmings for kindling.



Another consequence of the Puglian winters is soggy salt. All the salt cellars and grinders are full of damp salt which won't grind or pour and needed drying out in the sunshine.



Other standard "to do" items are meet with our local agent to top up the kitty, drop in on Carol and Mino at Truddhi and go out for a meal with neighbours Chris & John.

In amongst all this we managed to squeeze in few hours sunbathing and relaxing and eating and drinking. A weekend is not enough and it is a long time till our September trip so Mary has booked flights for long weekends in May and July; can't wait to go back.

Trullo Azzurro: beautifully restored trullo in delightful, secluded valley near Locorotondo, Puglia, Italy. Available to rent on a per week basis, sleeps 4-6. For more information visit http://www.holiday-rentals.co.uk/trulloazzurro

Sting at the Hammersmith Apollo

London, Tuesday 20-March-2012

The Back to Bass tour.

An opportunity to see another legend this time of music rather than movies. Last time we saw Sting it was as part of the reformed Police in 2007 and before that a solo gig at Wembley Arena. The solo gig I was a little disappointed in, the Police gig was good, but this was excellent.

From the tour name I was expecting an acoustic set but in fact he had a full band - a guitar, bass, violin, drums and backing singer.



We went with our friend Andrea, We had supper at a local pub The Distillers before the show and a drink after.

Sting played two solid hours and for the encore did a solo guitar version of "Message in a Bottle" - an excellent finale. The reviews were luke-warm but then it depends on your point of view. Sting is generously represented in our CD collection so we were expecting an enjoyable time and that is exactly what we got :-)

Reviews from: The Independent and This Is London.

Joan Collins at The Leicester Square Theatre

London, Thursday, 15-Mar-2012

I was a little surprised at Mary's choice of entertainment, "One Night with Joan Collins" - not our normal type of theatrical selection - but still I thought it would be fun and it was. We had seen Joan once before in 1990 when she played Amanda in a revival of Noel Coward's Private Lives. Basically this was a one-woman show covering her life in four parts: the film star, the Dynasty star, the home-maker and the celebrity survivor.

Pre-theatre supper at Mary's old haunt, Kettners, then a short stroll to the The Leicester Square Theatre. It is an excellent little theatre right in the heart of the West End but walking past you would hardly know it was there.



Much of the narrative was backed by a collection of movie and TV clips some of which were hilarious and some showed her as one of the great Hollywood beauties. The last section was a Q & A session with questions handed in at the interval. They were read out by her husband and Joan made the submitter stand up so she to talk to them directly. A great evening in the company of a living legend.

Dublin March 2012

Air Lingus were doing a special offer on flights to Dublin and it seemed churlish to refuse. Mary picked the Six Nations weekend when Ireland were playing Scotland. Unfortunately her membership of the Irish Supporters Club had expired so we missed out on the ticket release. But, what the heck, we would just go to a sports bar and watch the match from there so that is what we did.

Friday we took the afternoon off so we got to Dublin in plenty of time to have an early supper at The Farm - a free meal courtesy of our Top Table rewards. After supper it was time for our first Guinness of the weekend at Carr & O'Connell - another freebie thanks to the accommodation.



Saturday we took the open top bus for a tour of the city. We only did one "hop on, hop off" for lunch at Ryans of Parkgate Street. Apparently it has been visited by Bill Clinton and Julia Roberts. It has lots of original Victorian features including a snug - a small booth at the end of the bar with room for four people, six at a squeeze, with a door you could close and its own serving hatch from behind the bar.



Then it was back on the bus to central Dublin to find ourselves a match-watching venue. Mary rejected the first because it was full of Scotsmen so we repaired to Lott's Bar, claiming to contain the smallest bar in Dublin.



Unfortunately Scotland lost but that is the way it goes sometimes. So to console ourselves we went out for very nice meal at The Exchange Restaurant and Cocktail Bar.

Sunday morning we went to Bewley's Cafe for a latte with some amazing stained glass windows.



Then it was off to Trinity College to see The Book of Kells. The last time we went to see it the curators had sent it off for conservation and left a photocopy behind. This time we got to see the real thing - the almost microscopic, intricate art work is quite astonishing. We arrived just in time for the 11 o'clock tour followed by the book and exit through the long room which looks like something out of Harry Potter.

Then, alas, off to the airport for lunch and the flight home but we'll be back!

Dublin's Statues

The Dublin locals are prone to giving their statues humorous, rhyming sobriquet. These are my three favourites.


Molly Malone - "The Tart with the Cart" aka "The Trollop with the Scallops"


Two Women - "The Hags with the Bags"


Anna Livia, The Spirit of the Liffey - "The Floozy in the Jacuzzi"

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statues_in_Dublin for more.

Cultural catch-up 2012 Q1

It has all been a bit busy so I need to do some retro-blogging on our cultural doings:

Thu 26-Jan-12 Warhorse - at New London Theatre. Truly amazing theatrical experience to celebrate Mary's birthday, it deserves all its rave reviews.

Sat 04-Feb-12 The Descendants in the VIP seats at Cineworld Wandsworth. We like the VIP seats: big chairs, we're often the only ones in there, glassed off from the groundlings with your own sound system and you can take your drinks in. George Clooney and a fine supporting cast.

Fri 10-Feb-12 Carnage - in which Penelope (Jodie Foster) is clearly a woman who needs to lighten up. The Guardian likes it but I would not put it in the feel good category.

Sat 11-Feb-12 Umoja, The Spirit of Togetherness - at the Peacock theatre. Full of dance, music, bright colours and a tale of moving from the country to the city in South Africa through the decades. Loads of of fun and another fantastic, theatrical night out.


Cannizaro House Hotel

Sat 18-Feb-12 Cannizaro House, Wimbledon. Mary was in Ecuador for 14th February so this was a belated Valentine's meal. A delicious meal in the delightful setting of Cannizaro Park and romantically chosen as it was the hotel where we spent our wedding night.

Fri 24-Feb-12 The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. Delivered exactly what was expected. An ensemble piece full of of thesps who can act in their sleep (not that they did), and a feel good plot filmed against the backdrop of bustling Indian life with some cracking one-liners. I was most impressed with Bill Nighy's performance.

Sat 05-Mar-12 The Lady from the Sea at The Rose Theatre. We like to support our "local" theatre; it is only half an hour on the train - the same as getting to the West End - and half the price. Apparently this is one of Ibsen's lighter, more comedic plays, well the others must not be a bundle of laughs then. Thanks to good reviews the only seats left were the best in the house, premium seats - front of the stalls with a free programme and glass of prosecco included - and worth every penny.

Recipe for Clootie Dumpling

Clootie dumpling unwrapped

A Doric alternative to May's Dumpling Recipe

punna self-raisin' floour
punna currants an' a haunfa o' raisins
quanera punna suet
haufa punna granulatit sugar
fower wee teaspoonsfa o' mixed spice
a big pincha saut
some mulk

• Rummle up the hale jing-bang in the boul, addin' a wee tate mulk so's ye get a dough that's stiff an' no' runny.
• Tim some bilin' watter oot the kettle inty the fit o' the basin an' spread the cloath (or cloot) oan tap o' the watter.
• Cowp the hale o' yur dough oot the boul an' oan tae the cloot in the basin.
• Draw the coarnurs o' the cloot the gither an' tie wi' the string.
• Don't tie the string too tight or the dumplin' might burst efter swellin up an' ye'll be in a helluva mess.
• Noo ye've a big bag o' dough aboot the size o' a fitba'.
• Nixt ye pit a plate in the fit o' the big poat. Then gently ye lower the dumplin' oan tae the plate.
• Efter that poor as much bilin' watter inty the poat as will cover yur dumplin'.
• Efter a' this cairry-oan ye'll mibbe waant a cuppa tea an' a fag. or even a wee lie-doon.
• Anyway, whitivvur ye dae, dinny let the dumplin' simmer fur mair than three-an'-a-hauf oors.
• Efter that time wheech it oot the poat an' oan tae a plate.
• Peel aff the cloot an' therr ye huv a dish fit tae set afore a dizzen Egon Thingmys.

Cleaning the Wandle February 2012

This month the Wandle community cleanup was in South Wimbledon only half a mile from where I used to live in Garfield Road and where I first made my acquaintance with this river back in 1980.


Setting up base camp

The day always starts with donning waders, gloves and the safety briefing at base camp. Risks include drowning, 'sharps' and Weil's disease contractible from contaminated water. I also always wear safety glasses after a couple of A&E visits following some extreme gardening incidents. They protect against water splashes and pokey shrubbery.


Hauling a mattress up the pilings

Unusually no shopping trolleys this session but masses of carpets and a couple of mattresses. Hauling a water-sodden mattress up the pilings required some team heaving and grunting.

Another unusual feature was the large number of half coconut shells; South Wimbledon is not known for its tropical climate so why so many coconuts? The answer, it would appear, is the nearby Hindu Sree Ganapathy Temple in Effra Road offering sacred coconuts to the nearest river.


Soup to defrost the fingers

Lunch is provided at one o'clock: home-made soup to warm the fingers followed by cake and a cuppa. Then back into the river.


Working our way upstream

If you want a reason to support container deposit legislation you need look no further than the number of soft drink cans and lager tins on the bed of the River Wandle.


Rubbish collection point

A fair haul for four hours work from 41 volunteers.

Full set of pictures on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/markmclellan/sets/72157629313589231/detail/

I done a LOLCAT

Invizibul food

Serviss here iz terribul

Isle of Wight - January 2012

Our friends Tim and Sarah bought a second home in Cowes on the Isle of Wight last summer and this was our first visit to see it. Sarah was brought up on the island and has always had a bit of a hankering to go back there.

For us getting there was remarkably easy - a fast service from Waterloo to Southampton, a shuttle bus to the Red Jet ferry, a 25 minute crossing and a five minute walk to Tim and Sarah's house.



Their black Labrador (wittily named Zinzan) is extravagantly friendly, he wags his tail so enthusiastically he bangs walls, furniture legs, etc with a real thump that made me laugh.

We might normally have done a load of walking but Mary's bunion was still on the mend. Instead we were chauffeured around to see the sights including the surprise hit of the weekend - Brading Roman Villa.



It was so quiet that we got a personal guided tour from not one but two of the volunteer guides who had, as it turned out, actually participated in the most recent excavations. Two hours of fascinating, information packed exposition - we learned so much more than we would have got simply reading the labels.



Sunday we drove round the western half of the island including a stop at Newtown to look at the Town Hall and the Nature Reserve.



Pub lunch and then home but we'll be back and next time, with Mary's foot better, we will do some serious walking.

Full set of photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/markmclellan/sets/72157629067099487/

Mary's Bunion Operation

At the beginning of December Mary went in for an operation for hallux valgus deformities - bunion to you and me. The timing was chosen to allow for the convalescent period to run into the Christmas break. It also coincided with the end of my contract so I was "at leisure" and could be house husband, chauffeur and general gofer.



The operation is pretty quick, about 40 minutes, and treated as a day case. I took Mary up to the New Victoria Hospital at 7am and collected her, and a pair of crutches, that afternoon at 2:30pm.

I was amused by the mark-up on her leg: not a subtle line to say "cut here" but a whopping big arrow to say "This leg!"



She had a Scarf osteotomy on the first metatarsal (the two screws) and an Akin's osteotomy on the great toe (the staple). Note that neither of those links go to gruesome, colour photos but nice black and white illustrations (the former has an excellent animation showing exactly how the Scarf joint works).



We set up the sofa bed in the living room so Mary did not have to do stairs, she only needed to hobble along the corridor to the downstairs loo and shower. In order to keep the dressing dry in the shower we invested in one of these fine "LimbO" leg protectors. Note - the photo is not of Mary but borrowed from LimbO's website:



She had heard tales of great pain so Mary munched on analgesics for 48 hours and then went cold turkey with no pain at all. So little pain in fact that she was worried about nerve damage. It's fine, of course, and I put that down to the skill of the surgeon - neat slicing and dicing.



The first two days were spent in bed and the next fortnight hobbling about with two crutches. At the follow-up appointment the surgeon pronounced things fine and to go down to one crutch.

The second follow-up appointment was a bit delayed partly due to Christmas intervening and involved some nasty digging about to remove two stitches that had not resorbed - ouch.

Now it is all clear and the surgeon has recommended some physio to get the foot (and leg) flexing again. The slow, gentle recovery proceeds...