Saturday 18th June 2016

After a week away, I really needed a rest. My body needed a rest, poor sleep and poor diet meant I felt like poo. My mind wanted to be out in the sunshiiine all day, snapping orchids and insects and all things creepy crawly. However, we have to deal what is ambitiously called the English summer, this means that it will rain, even when its not supposed to. Like on Saturday, when we get up, expecting it to be grey but bright, but the rain is falling steadily. I look at the BBC website, and it confirms there should be on rain at all, all day. But no one clearly told the weather, and so the rain continued on and off all day.

I did not go out all day, just to do some chores in the garden, thus putting my shoulder back to its previously achy breaky state, and me calling myself such an idiot and other names as new bits of my arm started to ache. Oh clever me. But more of that later.

After messing around on the computer for a while, I get down to doing some chores: I set up my e bay account, link it to my bank account and after taking shots, set up to sell my 50D body and my collection of Empire Magazines. I sort of the old bottles of booze and spirits we have been given, and decide we should donate them to the old folks in Whitfield. The last of the books are sorted and we now have a near empty book shelf ready to be moved away so we could put the two wall hangings we bought in old Japan last month. It really is starting to look less cluttered, which is good, right?

Jools is outside sorting through her compost heap, so when she does a tip run, I go out and try to truss up the raspberry plants, hammering the sticks into the ground. It was doing this that did it for my shoulder. I felt it as I banged the last one in, and realised how stupid I had been. But by then it was too late of course.

I was bought my first turntable, then part of a music centre in 1980, it was a cheap Phillips thing, not that cheap though, but it saw me through my metal phase and into electropop and into the Indie paradise beyond. I then upgraded to a Technics 319 series hi-fi in 1983, and that lasted until I was about to leave Germany in 1995, when I used money saved from not being married into buying a separates hi fi, all of which I still have now. I also bought a second hand Revolver turntable for about eighty quid, and it is that I have ever since. And it has been a great deck, playing all my vinyl with a fine warm sound. Until the stylus I had fitted in 1996 upon my return to Blighty.

I had to get the cartidge replaces a few months back but Since then, I have not been able to get a good earth on the deck, so after much thought, I have ordered a new one, and next weekend we drive to Essex to collect it. I spent another part of the morning ringing round shops in Kent to see if they had the Rega Planar 3 deck. Nearest one I could find was in Harlow. So, next week we will go north of the river.

The rest of Saturday was full of football. Football in the afternoon, football at teatime, and football in the evening. Saying that, I could not get excited about Hungary v Iceland, so I cook chorizo hash instead of watching it. Portugal played in the evening, with Mr Shiny Ronaldo missing a penalty near the end. How we laughed. Still, a good day, lots achieved, and now tomorrow to look forward to with orchiding in prospect.