Midwinter Of The Spirit/Herefordshire

I think tragedy struck the nice Pakistani couple. They disappeared and I miss their home made curries.I watched the tosh too.A friendof mine is an  extra but I had to wonder why I was watching rubbish tv in order to spot someone I see weekly. I am looking to move, I am too old to have a house with an acre of garden and this is now the ragged edge of the universe when I once saw it as the warm heart of civilisation.

Golden Valley?  Thought I saw the wind turbines?

Polytunnels are all the rage.Do they deface the landscape? Monty Don thinks so and I would hate to agree with anything Monty Don says.

If they had had 3 eastern europeans instead of the 3 african-origin actors - so much more believable.  Poly-tunnels were taking over years ago.  When I lived near Leominster around the turn of the century it had the highest density in the country.  And some very nice Polish ladies who frequented Leominster Station instead of picking stuff.  So I was told.

Did the wife leave you?  You sound desolate.

Wife still in situ.We shall end it comfortably with indoor barbecues so not desolate but aware.

Hmm.

I'm trapped on a Lou Reed Moebius strip.  Pardon if I shout the odd obscenity.

Are you bored to death?  Surely you don't want to return to the city to be psychotic young-punk fodder?

If I can sell my house it will be back to the warm embrace of Bruges.

It was you in Bruges?!?

At the top of the tower?

Must be slim.

I'm confused - in a tight, self-contained sort of way.

Who was the other Hereford brother?  Not a clarkey (09) variant?

Who ran the Ross-On-Wye car-boot sales?

Do you know the way to San Jose?

hahahaha!!

Well - I'm off.  The programme was OK - I recognized several places in Herfordshire.  A lot less humam sacrifice and cannibalism than I remembered - but hopefully more in character next week.

Suck air and grab clusters.

If memory serves, Dobbo is a former Hereford brother who moved to Bruges - then came back - and also had a multitude of experience of car boot sales before he went to Bruges.

Clarkson (Clarky) ran/runs a bookshop in Welsh Wales.

So Dobbo is still OK?  I remember him being thrusting.

It certainly sound like he is, Bodil!

In that case it's my mind that's going.

Keep calm everyone. 

Something's coming.  Whatever, I'll be thinking of you.

If you reappear Bodil write down that it was I who moved to Bruges from Hereford opened an antique shop,lost £50k and came back.I still organise car boot sales.

Hey Dobbo.  Sorry about that.  I occasionally warn young 'uns on here that alcohol will eventually corrode that pink jelly-like thingee in the top bit of us, but don't expect it to apply to me. 

Well you would have had a great experience in Bruges - especially food-and-drink-wise.  Most of us would envy you - bar the losing £50k stuff - though who among us posters hasn't done that at some time or another?  Or twice.  Or more.  I think Annie lost 3 houses in Brighton.

My brother's an antique dealer.  Quite knowledgeable but famous for always leaving enough profit for the next 6 sellers.  Picks up valuable stuff just before the market for it crashes.

You were/are in the east end of the Golden Valley, right?

Good to know you're still moving forward.

Slightly disappointed you don't see Hereford as the Promised Land - but [Chorus (sung twice after each verse):]
How ya gonna keep 'em down on the farm
After they've seen Paree'.

the rural life has given us much pleasure  but after 20years here the gap between us and a decent antique fair, a theatre, art gallery,burger king is just too far. I want to live in a little town (Cartmel maybe)..or one like Usk where I did live for a year or two.The plan is to sell up and rent in different places for a year or two at a time until death. First destination Bruges!
It sounds to me like you drink too many units per week. I can send you a leaflet if you like but it will scare you.

Cartmel is nice - 'unique' racing.  Ludlow would also be near the top of my list.  Renting is the way to go (like a long series of holidays) - apart from hauling the goods around - I have so many books, but am embracing kindle.  Feel like a traitor.  But now they have solar panel rechargers, WW3 is no longer a clincher for the paper version.

I know more than most about alcohol - years of intense study.  When I went for my AAA scan last year, she found my aorta splendid, but spent the next 5 minutes tracing the outline of my enlarged fatty liver.  I like to think I'll stop just before the edge, swivel 180 degrees and run into the eternal sunshine of the non-floppy mind.  You can count on it.  Why would I do otherwise?

I've had too much to drink virtually every day since 1970 .The realisation that 1970 was 45 years ago is sort of scary. But like you no-one can criticise my Aorta - its top notch,

'The Brotherhood Of The Iron Aorta'.  I like that.  We could meet - and drink a lot to celebrate.