A Weird Wiv bluebell walk to start Thursday. It had the subtext of wanting to try the PEN F out in the wild.

The bluebells in Wivenhoe Wood were particularly impressive this year. I think I caught them at their peak. It helps that the sun was shining; the bluebells were open, the PEN F had little work to do with extra lighting.

full flickr

Album of the Day: Richard Hawley – Coles Corner

I honestly think Richard Hawley is on par with Elvis. No shit. I rate him that highly. A peerless working class songwriter with a voice of velvet. Coles Corner is his masterpiece. Hawley achieves the rare feat of writing songs that actually suit his voice. There’s a rhythm in the vocal delivery that matches the music. Plus he’s cool as fuck. Which always helps.

⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

An email dropped from the ONS. The Covid shit survey has come to an end. Instead I’ve been invited to take part in a monthly Covid shit questionnaire. There’s no voucher scheme, natch.

Hey hoe. The old scheme at least paid for a new paddle board.

For once I didn’t mind reading Forest Twitter mid-morning. The 3-1 home win against Brighton last night was huge. I love scrolling through the endless fan videos showing all the LIMBS scenes. I’m not sure I’d be so enthusiastic if I was caught up in all the carnage.

We had another knock up on the Table of Dreams. It was ultra wind assisted. One point was actually won by A after she served correctly, the ball bounced on my side of the table, and then the wind blew it back over to her.

I still THUMPED her 4-1.

It was a stunning ride along the Trail for the lunchtime swim. There was a warm breeze and Big Essex Clouds overhead. I actually passed one student walking along with a sun umbrella.

I joined another swimmer in the fast lane. And then a third followed. It actually worked quite well. We were all a similar pace and went round in rotation.

Back in the changing room and there was a trail of blood along the floor. It was VERY Essex.

I passed a pair of magpies on the bicycle ride back to base. Neil Warnock use to always claim that this was good luck when he was the manager at Meadow Lane.

A third magpie then joined them. I wonder what Colin Wanker would have made of that?

There was by now a fearsome headwind for me to cycle against. A deer darted out from a bush. You don’t get that back in Sunny Stockwell.

A brief garden inspection followed. We have a trio of handsome tulips in one corner of the garden. I noted the first bee sniffing around the soon to explode wisteria.

Someone bought my Cast promo pic from 1995. I labelled up the envelope. The buyer was Lee Perry. Aye.

To the Sailing Club! …late afternoon. We were viewing some space for kayak storage. It turned out to be fine. Now we need to get the bloody things down there.

We made a start with one of the kayaks. I wanted to carry both at once; A said no, It was the right decision. Taking a kayak over a railway crossing wasn’t the wisest thing to do.

I popped in briefly to see F in her new record shop in the town. It was brilliant! Time was a little tight. I’ll definitely be back at the weekend.

Thursday evening was spent trying to keep tabs across three PL matches.

I’m still BUZZING after the win at The World Famous City Ground yesterday.