Busy busy. We enjoyed The Harlem Hot Stompers at Eagley Jazz Club on Monday evening, and even managed to get home before they closed the M60 motorway!
On Tuesday Sue demanded a shopping trip for some boots that she apparently needs for work. Can you identify the venue?
Later, we attended a family gathering that took a stroll from a National Trust property, Packwood House. The pace was brisk, albeit Sue’s mum turned up in what we thought were her pyjamas. “No”, she explained, “they were curtains!”
The family (some of them, anyway) are religious, so I took them through a pleasant churchyard. Nice stained glass windows. Apparently 800 years old.
Here’s the 5 km route, easily extended to the east to the towpath of the Grand Union Canal.
I noticed a copy of a book lying around – self published by one of Sue’s cousins. A tricky subject on which Jonathan is passionate. Well done to him for putting this together and self-publishing. It’s a huge task. We will get a copy (from here).
Sadly our motorway luck ran out on the way home, the M6 being closed at junction 18, which made us a bit late (and extremely cross with a juggernaut that was tailgating us as we proceeded through country lanes in a long line of traffic).
On Wednesday the short motorway journey to and from Hazel Grove Civic Centre was thankfully free from the road closures which appear to have become the norm for late evening travellers around Manchester. That journey to the weekly SWOG presentation was most worthwhile. The speaker, a 78 year old musician who plays in numerous jazz bands and also on his own as a busker, was Eric Newton from Stoke-on-Trent. He spliced his life story with a few familiar tunes on his clarinet. It was a wonderful tale. We came away with a CD, and we will keep an eye out for him as he busks in places like Stone and Nantwich as well as other parts of the Potteries. Dot may have encountered him, or have heard of him. He has run 38 marathons, all whilst playing his clarinet, raising over £60,000 for charity and setting a record of 648 plays of ‘When the Saints Come Marching In’ during the course of one marathon run.
3 comments:
I'm not sure if it's my age but I have become much more aware of tailgating over the last couple of years, and it does make me particularly annoyed. I reckon it must figure high in the percentage reasons for accidents. My friend Pet who is now 84 says he doesn't let it bother him, he just goes even slower, I would never have considered myself a candidate for road rage, but sometimes I feel like just stopping in the middle of the road and getting out for a confrontation.
After failing to get my message across, I slowed gently to a stop on a straight section of road. Not a wise move as the juggernaut was inches from ripping the side of the car off as it went past hooting angrily, no doubt in a hasty bid to terrorise the vehicle just ahead of me in the long line.
It's the same in the 50 mph sections of the motorway (ie most of the motorways we travel on these days). If you sit in the inside lane at 50 mph you just get tailgated by juggernauts. I think the safest place (if there is one) is the outside lane.
Dot spotted this, and remarked that her friend, Pauline, had seen Eric busking in Melbourne (Australia), an episode that features in Eric's own story, related thus:
P - "There's a busker just like you where I live in Staffordshire!"
E - "Really?" (in Eric's best Aussie accent)
P - "Yes, and his CDs look just like yours!"
E - "Wow....." (in best Aussie accent)
and so on - it made a good story. It turns out that many of Dot's friends and neighbours know Eric - he's a local legend in the Potteries.
Post a Comment