Pavement matters!

12 months ago we were in Lisbon - how time flies - admiring its ornate pavements.

For the pavement outside my street cafe, I've gone for something more traditional.

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Currently listening to:

The Verve remix of Nina Simone's "Black is the Colour". The remix really adds something special to the original recording.

Nina Simone

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Last night's dinner:

Prior to going in the oven.

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Currently Reading:

One of my favourite magazines arrived in the post today:

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Miscellany:

These snare drum skins discolour very easily.

Wiring HO Scale 12 volt FMR Model IT Street Lights

I'd already installed a pair of 12 volt Frizinghall Model (FMR) street lights outside the entrance to the Hotel de Paris.

Each pair of these lights comes with a resistor to be wired in series so that the bulbs don't overheat.

The blue resistor is in between the lights.

However, for the string of lights that I was wiring up for outside the street cafe, I felt that one could dispose with the need for resistors if one wired the 8 lights in series with each other.

So, that's what I did.

The heights of the posts will be adjusted.

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Currently listening to:

"Lisbon Acid" by Aphex Twin.

It's only available on vinyl but someone has uploaded it to youTube.

Aphex Twin

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Last night's dinner:

From the freezer, an unidentifiable bag of something which turned out to be beef and mushroom in gravy. Neither of us could remember anything about its origins.

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Currently Reading:

Still plugging away at this.

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Miscellany:

Last night, cycled to Glasgow's Royal Concert Hall for a performance of Beethoven's 4th Piano Concerto performed by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra under Peter Oundjian's baton.

The soloist was the Argentine, Ingrid Fliter.

Ingrid Fliter

Peter Oundjian

Apparently his hobby is classic cars - lucky chap.

Catching up with some small but necessary tasks

1. Painted silver the rest of the pavement in front of cafe.

2. And painted some stripes on a semi-circular canopy on the RHS of the nightclub street.

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Currently listening to:

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Last night's dinner:

Macaroni cheese with asparagus, trout and tomatoes

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Evelyn Waugh mystery analysed:

I should have added into yesterday's Waugh vs Waugh another baddy:

Perhaps the explanation as to why I love some of his books but can't be bothered with the others has to do with how old Waugh was when he wrote the books: perhaps he improved with age.

Except for Decline and Fall which is one of my favourite novels and was written before all the others in the lists, the Baddies tended to be written before the Goodies.

Baddies:

Scoop   1938

Black Mischief   1932

The Loved One   1948

Vile Bodies   1930

A Handful of Dust  1934

Put Out More Flags  1942

Goodies:

Sword of Honour Trilogy  1952, 1955 and 1961

Decline and Fall   1928

Brideshead Revisited  1945

Ronald Knox  1959

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Miscellany:

Cycled through Kelvingrove Park on my way to my Samba drumming class this morning. The River Kelvin was looking very healthy.

Evelyn Waugh versus Evelyn Waugh

Had an extra little task to perform on the wooden lighting plinth, namely, to drill 8 holes through the plinth itself. These will allow wires from the lampposts to travel underneath the baseboard ready for connection with a 12 volt electricity supply.

The plinth

Drill at the ready

Drilling through the plinth beneath each wooden pillar

Tried out a couple of lampposts in position

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Currently listening to:

Extracted huge enjoyment today from this CD

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Last night's dinner:

My memory has gone so bad that until I call up the photo from my phone, I can usually never remember what I actually did have for dinner the night before.

And, as it so happens, today there's no such photo on my phone. So I obviously didn't take a photograph of it yesterday which means that particular  meal is consigned to oblivion.

......................... just remembered, we went to IKEA and had a disappointing experience in their cafe/restaurant.

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Evelyn Waugh versus Evelyn Waugh:

It's always baffled me that Evelyn Waugh is responsible for writing my favourite novels whilst also producing my least favourite. There is a mysterious gulf between the two sets of writing.

Very Baddies: Vile Bodies; Scoop; Black Mischief; A Handful of Dust; and, The Loved One

Very Good Indeedies: Brideshead Revisited; Decline and Fall; The Sword of Honour Trilogy: and the biography of Ronald Knox

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Miscellany:

Lenten Fast update:

Finding it slightly difficult keeping strictly to my Lenten Fast. 

First and foremost, clearly, please remember the poor, so that what you withhold from yourselves by living more sparingly, you may deposit in the treasury of heaven. Let the hungry Christ receive what the fasting Christian receives less of. Let the self-denial of one who undertakes it willingly become the support of the one who has nothing. Let the voluntary want of the person who has plenty become the needed plenty of the person in want.

(St. Augustine, Sermon 210)

Success with wooden plinth

Managed to line up correctly and glue in position the little wooden pillars which will support the 8 lampposts outside the cafe.

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Currently listening to:

Have iTunes on Shuffle or random if you prefer.

As a result, I am currently listening to King Tubby and the Soul Syndicate.

Here is a picture of King Tubby sitting at a sewing machine.

I'd love to find out why, but the article from which the photo comes is written in French. That says it all.

http://www.reggae.fr/lire-article/2515_King-Tubby-Story.html

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Last night's dinner:

Sweet and sour chicken - stupendous.

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Currently stopped reading:

Spiteful and unamusing

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Miscellany:

My friend has devised a little game called TAKK for Android phones or tablets with touch screens.

Here's the link:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.pdemp.takk