Category Archives: words

I made this, words

Make Something Every Day – Writing 002

Today I rebelled. Slightly. Or perhaps I just tweaked the rules based on learning what works. I’ve been thinking for a couple of days that Sunday needs to be a review day rather than a full “production” day.

Writing

And then I pulled “Writing” again. The first repeat. And while I have done some writing and thinking about writing today (and I’m writing this) I gave myself permission to do some of the things I’ve been wanting to do, remembering that the important thing here is that I make something everyday and don’t get pulled into chores and duty all day long.

I think what I learned from the other day’s Writing assignment is that I need a longer term project. It might only be a short essay, but I need a goal for a series of writing sessions, rather than starting from scratch each time. What do I want to write? Well, the things that came out onto the page last time were the tweet storm about what I’m doing and the beginnings of a “What were the eighties like?” piece. Also the tweet storm about my dream the other day (though that was the day after – I am drawn to this form for writing short stories with a twist).

Perhaps another way of coming at the 80s would be to write some short stories and then try to tie them together, rather than starting top down to express the feeling of being there for me without explaining what I was doing.

Fire

I’ve been meaning to make a fire in the back garden for a while. It’s good for me to build it properly and see it burn well. I have plenty of earth and water and air in my life, I miss fire. So I put it together from the dried grass and weeds pile and some of the weedier rosemary twigs for kindling and then built it up with bits of a pallet that was broken and I’d chopped up into reasonable chunks.

I had a go at making drawing charcoal from some of the larger rosemary twigs in a little tin. I punched a tiny hole in the lid of an old vaseline tin (like a shoe polish tin only more like an inch and a half in diameter). The lid goes on very tightly, which isn’t ideal for this, it turns out, because heat and metal. I’ll look out for other more suitable vessels.

Then just as the fire was nice and hot and settling down to embers and I’d popped the tin on the top to cook, it started to rain. Of course, it’s the Bank Holiday weekend, obviously it’s going to rain as soon as you start burning anything.

Anyway, I left it, the rain went off quite quickly and the embers were still hot enough. When I couldn’t see any gas or smoke coming out of the hole in the tin, I lifted it out to cool.

When I opened it, I was pleased to see that it had cooked – I’d been worried that the rain would have spoiled it. It wasn’t perfect – I’m not sure that rosemary is the best material for drawing with, but it’s what I had immediately to hand and it was dry. I might go down to the river tomorrow and see what I can find in terms of hazel and willow. Anyway I made some carbonised wood, I tried a new process and it worked – and it’s pretty in it’s own way.

I should have taken photographs throughout the process, but all I got was the final result.

Untitled
rosemary charcoal

35mm film

The other distraction is that I now have all the bits I need to process black and white film, so I can’t see me resisting the impulse to use that tomorrow as well as reviewing the progress to date.

I made this, words

make something every day – family history 001

“Family History” day kicked off with a memory shared from Facebook. Last year, I saw this photo shared on a South Birmingham Past/Present type group and was pretty sure I’d spotted my aunt, Saffron, so shared it with her and I was right. We think it was 1956. She and Sue gave me some more background.

West Heath May Queen and entourage c1956

“I remember the day so well, feeling nervous and embarrassed and scared, and my friend Christine Smith as the other ‘maid of honour’. Jeez 🙄”

“it was an annual event. It was the May Queen who then ‘reined’ over the West Heath carnival. I remember Saffron’s dress was green flock with velvet ribbon trim!”

“I’m sure Mom made Saffron’s [dress]”

“I wonder if mom made Christine’s dress as well. Yes, remember the green velvet ribbon especially 😉”

I moved on to looking for some reminiscence materials for my Uncle Lloyd. When I saw him a couple of weeks ago, we talked about when he lived on Main Street, just off the Stratford Road in the early 1960s.

I found him in the electoral roll for 1962 in Flat 2, 48 Main Street, the house isn’t there any more, but I did find a 1938 25-inch OS map that includes that area on the National Library of Scotland site (lots of old maps there, with Creative Commons licences).

He struggles with following online stuff, so I’m printing it all out and sending him a letter, but I’ll also share it by email with his remaining two sisters and one brother.

I also had a scout around for things to do with Eaton’s, the Canadian department store. He lived in Toronto and worked as a delivery driver for them in the mid-1950s (he went out there in 1955 and returned in 1958, I have shown him the passenger lists he was on).

Lloyd Davenport c.1955-58 delivering furniture for Eaton's in Toronto, Ontario

I really ought to have a dig for his military record (National Service) and Police Service record next.

With this stuff, it’s really hard to stay focused, because there are so many rabbit holes to go down. The best solution I’ve found is to give myself a fairly narrow goal, keep bringing myself back to take notes of what I have found and pointers to interesting things that need to be followed up, and forgiving myself for spending more time on it than I intended!

I made this, words

make something every day – wastecraft 001

THERE ARE DAYS WHEN I SEE THE TASK AND GO “YUK, I DON’T KNOW WHAT I’M GOING TO DO” AND THEN SPEND HOURS THINKING ABOUT IT AND OTHERS, LIKE TODAY, WHERE I KNOW IMMEDIATELY WHAT I WAS GOING TO DO.

Today was “WasteCraft” – which is inspired by Ian Willey‘s workshops of the same name. Ian’s great at seeing the potential for applying old and new making skills to working out how to deal with stuff that we at best recycle and at worst, throw away.

In particular today, I knew that I wanted to do more on my “Origami Paper from Take-Away Bags” project.

Previously I’d taken a Caffe Nero paper bag (my wife got lots delivered during lockdown) and chopped it up because the weight and finish of it reminded me of origami paper. And then I turned it quickly into a simple little box. It’s the kind of box that you might put paper clips or other small things in. I usually have at least one on my desk to catch pencil sharpenings.

nero origami

But I needed to do a bit of research before going into full production and turning the whole pile into folding fodder.

Untitled

So I carefully unpicked one of the bags. OK I got impatient and wasn’t as careful as I could have been. The main enemy is the glue. The schoolboy stamp-collector in me wanted to try to melt it with steam, but then I’d probably have had to do a risk assessment or been in contravention of the Health & Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. I’ll have another go at home where my employer is less worried about such things. I also need to try perhaps seeing if the glue melts under a warm (or hot!) iron because sooner or later this paper’s probably going to get iron pressed flat anyway.

But for now I just let it tear and leave some bits stuck together. It’s a case of undoing some of the seams and removing the bag’s handles (which are also paper, more in a moment) to get to a single, rectangular piece of paper.

I don’t seem to have taken a picture of a finished rectangle, so here’s one just unfolded with the handles still attached.

Untitled

I measured the unfolded bag and found it to be 670mm x 340mm which means 8 square sheets of not quite 170mm each. I can accept the “not quite” in the name of minimising waste.

So my squares will have 17cm sides.

The handles are just folded paper and rather than pull them apart I’m quite attracted to them as square straws (300mm long) even if I don’t have an immediate idea of what to do with them.

Untitled

So then I took the guillotine to it and produced 8 x 17cm squares – some of them torn, they all have at least one perforated edge that’s presumably from the machine they’re made on – I might trim it off, I might keep it, there’s not many origami folds where you end up seeing the actual edge of the paper.

And then I realised that I’d been assuming (silly me!) that the Pret A Manger bags that I had (there are fewer, but still enough to work with and introduce some variety) would be of exactly the same dimensions.

No, no! turns out the long side of them is about 11cm longer than the Nero bags, so there’s going to be some left over, one way or another.

Untitled

Sadly although I learned a lot, and have written more about today than ever before, I didn’t quite get round to actually making something out of the paper squares yet, but there’ll be another day for that soon.

I made this, words

make something everyday – music 001

OK, so the answer to the question of whether I work on Sunday was “yes, kinda”.

There’s a reason for the sabbath. At a practical level it’s about unwinding and connecting with people we care about. Today was my son’s birthday and I’m glad I had a good long chat with him.

But I did pull a card and it was “Music” and so I was thinking about it most of the day even if I didn’t make anything that I can share here. Obviously this can’t be about me making a totally finished product every day and it won’t even be something small and unpolished. Today’s one of those days. I didn’t make anything new that I’m willing to share, but I am willing to share what I went through.

Firstly I wrote something to my friend Steve Lawson. He’d posted something about people who sing and accompany themselves needing to put effort into both the singing and the instrument they play rather than just letting one carry the other.

This is how I feel about my music. I’ve put hours into both singing and ukulele playing, but ultimately I see myself as a singer who accompanies himself rather than a ukulele player who sings (and the latter is how I think I’m mostly perceived).

I subscribed to Steve’s music on bandcamp last year and that got me his whole back catalogue and regular new music that he makes that he doesn’t release more widely. Steve’s stuff is very experimental – he plays solo bass and pushes in all sorts of directions what playing solo bass might mean.

Anyway, I said:

“I feel at the moment like I’m on the edge of something new. I’m getting a lot from listening to your subscription releases and thinking about how to make new music. And it’s something about using my voice as an instrument for experimentation in the same way you use your bass, rather than only trying to refine the voice and uke. I still work on making my strumming and fills more interesting, but I also need to do something that stretches the dominant instrument without being held back by my lack of technique in the accompaniment… I think.”

I’m not sure what this means. I’m not going to be suddenly making free jazz dooby-dooby biddly-bop experimental electronica stuff, but I am experimenting with what is possible, both in terms of recording and performance. And I made a start on that today – my time included playing uke and banjo, singing solo and singing with uke and recording bits of all of them, exploring some ideas – it’s sketchbook stuff, which is an important building block, I now have a bit more of an idea of what I’m aiming for and a process for getting there.

words

Signs of life

Three things popped up on my radar in Guildford this week. Promising signs of things starting to happen. They might not all be to everyone’s taste, but it’s all better than the void in new activity that’s had to pervade for the last year.

1.

First one, I can’t find anything official on yet – so I guess it’s still just a rumour – but I hear that Zero Carbon Guildford are going to be taking on the empty retail unit at the bottom of North Street formerly known as New Look (so, interestingly right between TK Maxx and McDonalds).

I got this from the local Labour Party newsletter (yes I’m still a member, no I don’t know for how much longer) which says

 after some essential work they plan to open: a zero waste shop , a café, Library of Things, Cinema and Meeting space. They will be needing lots of volunteers as things open up, so keep in touch through https://www.zerocarbonguildford.org/ 

2.

Then there’s The Boathouse or Soulspace which is down by the river next to the Weyside Pub (for very aged readers, The Jolly Farmer). Again, details are sparse, and building has only just begun, but I’m on the mailing list – it’s café and coworking and dedicated space for local charity halow (who currently we see a lot of at Guildford URC) as far as I can see. They’re doing some right things, reaching out to community to see what’s needed and I’ve sent them an email, so we’ll see.

3.

Finally, there’s news of redevelopment of the old Burymead House site at the bottom of Portsmouth Road (between The Cannon and the Wycliffe Buildings. It’s been undeveloped for twenty years – twenty years where it could have been used for *something* but has just been left to wilderness (and not even very good wilderness – too much rubbish and rubble still left lying around)

So now it will be 303 “co-living” spaces and branded as Guildford Plaza – it looks like student accomodation for people who’ve just finished being students. So I expect much criticism (enough students already!) but I’m on the fence currently between “it’ll never happen” and “ooh 300 new neighbours!”

words

In Tuttle last week, I realised something.

It feels like the last ten years have flown by and I haven’t done anything.

I’ve done lots of things that were important to do, but compared with the five years before that, none of it feels very significant. And I’ve lost the habit of talking about it out loud. It gets stuck inside me and then I have to do some other activity that lets it out.

If I want to know what I was doing at some point in say 2009, I can look to the archives of this blog to give me some sort of anchor point. There are ways of doing the same with, like, 2016, but it’s nowhere near as reliable.

I do need to perform, in some way. My work at church can’t provide that at the moment. And in the middle of a pandemic, there isn’t much that can, but I can have a go here. That’s what this is, just putting words down, one after another. Writing and then deleting whole paragraphs that express the thing in a different way. Groping towards understanding and some sense of meaning. Getting the muscle memory back of taking the thoughts that for a while have been swimming around and then suppressed and actually doing something else with them. Without shame or fear of comment.

Or I could go and pick some more fruit in Animal Crossing.

words

Hello again

1 Comment

is this thing on?

it seems that it takes a very long time for me to get round to writing anything at the moment. partly i blame the facebook. It’s a lazy excuse. Take responsibility.

Am I so boneheaded that I would rather a) scroll through blip after blip of my friends’ odd choices of what counts as news or some lunatic theories about how the world works and b) take part in the same ridiculous charade of self-expression by allying myself with somebody else’s thoughtshower? Yes, clearly, yes I am precisely that boneheaded.

I heard two things this week that brought me back to myself. "You need to express yourself more" and "Put your own house in order before going around telling other people how they could improve their lives." These are not new thoughts. The voices that say this kind of stuff to me have been with me for a while. But I’ve been ignoring the voices. Taking the FB meds and ignoring the voice within.

Sorry.

I gardener

This morning I popped out to have a closer look at the broccoli that is growing in my newly-made vegetable patch. Now there are two things (at least) to know.

One is that I didn’t set out to grow broccoli. I mean I did, but not properly, big plants, I had a packet of sprouting purple broccoli seeds in the cupboard because I tried them as an addition to my sprout mix (usually lentils, mung and adzuki beans) but they grew a little more slowly and weren’t very interesting, a bit cress-like, and so I gave up on that. And then with lockdown I thought I’d see how they turned out if you let them grow for a few days so I sprinkled some on a few pots of compost and watered and waited and they kept growing and so then I planted them out in the bed when I prepared that, but I was still waiting for them to die. And they haven’t, they’re too close to each other and this weekend I was thinking of thinning them out a little and transplanting some.

Oh the other thing to know, is that I have close to zero experience or knowledge of how to grow anything that I actually intend to eat. My gardens over the years have been decorated with flowers that older relatives would come and plant for me. I’ve had a compost heap for the last three years since we moved to Guildford but it’s been input-only. That meant when I did open it up a few weeks ago there was loads of good stuff in there, but it was bloody hard work getting it out. And, as I’ve discovered, there was a lot of un-rotted organic matter in there – like seeds, so I have an interesting collection of weeds that might turn into something edible.

So that’s why I’ve been watching a lot of YouTube and learning by killing things.

Anyway this started as a story about finding bugs on my broccoli. So that was one of the things that I did that was standing between me and writing, I had to locate and clean a spray bottle, load it up with soapy water and give the little blighters a good old soaking.

run, fat boy, run

The other unexpected facet of later middle-age for me is that I became a runner a couple of years ago. Of course I started out as a plodder and waddler, but with some practice and perseverance and the amazing C25K programme I convinced my body and my mind that I could both run for more than thirty minutes at a time and that in that time I could cover five kilometres or more. Today, for example, I ran for forty minutes and that meant about six and a half thousand metres.

It still astounds me that I can do it and continue to do it, but it has helped a great deal in this time of pandemic houseboundness to have a good reason to start every other day with a bit of a bounce around the neighbourhood. And as I am fortunate enough to live next door to greenery, it’s a pleasant aesthetic experience too (though not for anyone coming in the other direction, approached by a sweaty bald man in his fifties).

but the writing though

I suppose getting into the garden YouTube sub-genre has helped shock me into seeing what a load of horrible imitation broadcast media stuff there is out there. This isn’t what we started this stuff for. This isn’t what I got excited about blogging in order to do. I don’t want my blog to be just a kind of wannabe Guardian column (or worse!) but it can become like that, very easily, especially if I don’t write anything at all and then it’s a wannabe Guardian column that never gets written.

And running has taught me to just keep going, just keep putting one foot in front of the other and trust that you’ll get to 5k (or not) today. Just keep putting one word after another, Lloyd, and trust that it will make sense (not to anyone else necessarily) or rather that the doing of it will move you into a space that is different from the one you awoke to.

PS

I also did some traditional blog software ridiculousness before I started to actually write. On this occasion it meant using the block editor on wordpress.com for the first time. But this has all been one block, a Markdown block and the only formatting I’ve used in the headings. But it’s not hurting anyone, is it?

PPS

never end a blog post with a question mark.

words

Pandemic Tuttle on Zoom

We did the first one of these this morning.  I’m up for doing it weekly.  Will do a better invite next time.  At the peak we had 16 or 17 people.  It still felt manageable.

And Brian broke us the news of the Prime Minister’s infection while we were live.

But Facebook won’t allow me to post the contents of the chat window because something in there goes against Community Guidelines (I think it was a particularly crufty URL from Brian).  Anyway, that’s why I still have a blog.

These things were said:

09:59:03 From Brian Condon : Suggest we use the chat as well for people who want to speak.
09:59:19 From Brian Condon : Chat back channel
10:03:26 From Caron – @pcmcreative : Hi Brian, a back channel is an excellent idea. I approve.
10:09:51 From Brian Condon : Yes – like David Brin.
10:11:32 From Brian Condon : https://twitter.com/GreenwichDiary/status/1242400655966384128?s=20
10:15:25 From Brian Condon : Very wise.
10:17:29 From Brian Condon : https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/03/oxford-study-coronavirus-may-have-infected-half-of-u-k.html
10:27:00 From Brian Condon : Anybody used VOIP cards? https://voipcards.tomarmitage.com
10:29:31 From Lloyd Davis : do mute if you’re not talking to avoid grabbing focus
10:29:40 From Brian Condon : Hi Andy Broomfield!
10:29:46 From Andy Broomfield : Hi
10:29:54 From Brian Condon : Nice to see you!
10:30:21 From Andy Broomfield : I can’t hear anything, but nice to see everyone
10:31:21 From Andy Broomfield : Ok, I can hear people now.
10:32:04 From Benjamin Ellis : Lovely to see everyone – I have to hop off!
10:37:58 From Jon Husband : The physical-distanced version of the casseroles period in 2012 in Quebec .. people marching through the streets banging pots and pans for a month .. obviously not feasible now
10:38:03 From Tall Man with Glasses : Feel free to add a song 🙂 https://open.spotify.com/playlist/42UpuT00Y7L8zl4x3CVjEA?si=ryme9yooQ3Wa5yQ0exvCMQ
10:38:13 From Jon Husband : Re: #clapforcarers
10:38:27 From Al Robertson : Spem in Alium, Thomas Tallis – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Cn7ZW8ts3Y
10:39:13 From Jon Husband : The cannabis stores here in Québec are experiencing a significant surge in demand .. and have an excellent delivery service to boot
10:42:07 From William : www.ChatMutiny.com
10:47:34 From Dd Davies : https://www.dddavies.com/#/statue-of-wall/
10:47:53 From Andy Broomfield : Hi Anke
10:48:13 From Brian Condon : Hi Anke!
10:48:31 From Caron – @pcmcreative : If anyone wants to talk to me about pivoting to digital with a mind to extending back into the physical when the time comes. Book a call. https://calendly.com/pcmcreative/30min-video
10:49:07 From Dd Davies : link above is to images of my statue of liberty built from construction timber. I then do a performance piece whereby I dismantle it. It is called When Things Come Apart.
10:56:13 From Caron – @pcmcreative : Dd I love the photo with the rainbow. Solid construction, nice. Thanks for sharing.
11:01:39 From Tall Man with Glasses : Not sure if there are any classic sci-fi/LEGO fans out there, but I’ve made a model of Dewey from Silent Running and submitted it to the LEGO Ideas platform. Any shares or votes would be greatly appreciated – https://ideas.lego.com/projects/3dbf0870-bb20-4589-9a1c-7b7503e82ccf/comments_tab#content_nav_tabs
11:02:35 From Andy Broomfield : Generator brighton is having a virtual code hack thing in April https://generator.horse
11:04:02 From William : Peter Woolbridge at Liverpool – But if you add me on LinkedIn I’ll connect you.
11:04:09 From William : William Wardlaw Rogers.
11:06:07 From Dougald Hine : I’m going to have to head off now, folks – lovely to see you all!
11:08:13 From Caron – @pcmcreative : Free for the next 4 months – https://www.artsprofessional.co.uk/advertise/conferences-training-events
11:08:18 From Tall Man with Glasses : I’d love to see that 🙂
11:08:22 From Lloyd Davis : Contribute to the running of this ridiculousness – https://www.paypal.com/pools/c/8nIQCx9XTT
11:08:43 From Brian Condon : https://www.watsonbuckle.co.uk/covid-19/coronavirus-self-employed-income-support-scheme-seiss/

11:09:41 From Anke : I’m off, great to see you all
11:09:48 From Lloyd Davis : thanks anke 🙂
11:10:04 From Andy Broomfield : Bye Anke, nice to see you
11:10:12 From Brian Condon : Bye Anke!
11:11:30 From William : Perhaps if you can post the saved chat file on the FB group – that’d be useful.
11:12:09 From William : https://www.facebook.com/groups/freelanceheroes/?ref=br_rs
11:12:48 From William : https://www.facebook.com/groups/142964673673928/?ref=br_rs
11:14:28 From Bushra Burge : great idea
11:16:28 From Dd Davies : Tim Ferriss – well worth looking into what he has to say about pretty much anything.
11:24:46 From Brian Condon : https://twitter.com/BorisJohnson/status/1243496858095411200?s=20
11:28:52 From Bushra Burge : I have to go
11:28:57 From Bushra Burge : sooooo good
11:29:01 From Bushra Burge : to hang out
11:29:03 From Lloyd Davis : bye bushes, thanks for coming
11:29:08 From Lloyd Davis : bushra
11:29:12 From Lloyd Davis : x
11:29:30 From Bushra Burge : happens all the time lloud
11:29:56 From Lloyd Davis : yeah i get lloyd a lot
11:30:10 From Lloyd Davis : haha autocorrect

coronavirus, facebook, words

On Toilet Paper

1 Comment

2020-03-06_21-03

I’ve seen a few people on FB asking “Why on earth are people hoarding toilet paper?” or else “Why are people panic-buying toilet paper?”.  My intention here is not to put these people down, but to try to unpick what I think is going on here.

In Facebook bubble world, the hot-takes in response to these questions are mostly “people are selfish and only think of themselves” or “people are stupid and only do what they’re told by the media”.  In other words “other people” (it’s always someone else of course, nobody’s owning up to wheeling out 100 toilet rolls themself) are the problem and they’re simply conforming to the types that we already hold dear.

The other possible reason I can see is “because everyone else is”.  This is the herd mentality and it’s a little different from “because the media told them to”.  It’s hard for any of us (assuming we’ve money in our pocket) to resist taking a packet of toilet rolls whether we need it or not if we happen to see that the shelves are emptying.  Arguably talking about it on Facebook in these terms is driving more unneeded purchases because we’ve all seen that everyone else is “panic buying” and we need to get in there ourselves.

We don’t know, by the way that anyone is either “panic buying” or “hoarding” – these are phrases that we use freely though to explain why things aren’t on the shelves.  I think the likely scenario is much calmer.  People are doing their normal shopping, heading for the bathroom supplies aisle and picking up an extra hand soap and a larger than normal pack of toilet paper, no panic or hoarding involved, just a shift in the pattern of demand.

I think all of these explanations are part of the picture, but not the whole thing.  Some people are stupid, some people do behave extremely selfishly, unconscious purchasing happens all the time to all sorts of people – some people, for example, have all sorts of worries and feelings and habitually salve those feelings by buying stuff they don’t want and don’t need.  We all know (and, at times, can be) those people.

Isn’t it interesting though that we look first to blame individuals and try to discern why they are behaving badly?

Another way of responding to the empty toilet paper shelves is to ask “Is toilet paper just that supermarket product which is the most sensitive to fluctuations in demand?  Is there something in the system of toilet paper supply that means that if people buy just a little more than usual, shops run out of it more quickly than anything else?”

All of which reminds me of a campaign a couple of years ago that involved buying up toilet paper to highlight the fragility of the supply chain with the idea that this would show us all how dangerous a no-deal Brexit would be.  (Found it: Bog Roll Buy Up)

So is toilet paper the top of the list?  Is there a list?  A league table of products in order of their sensitivity to demand?  And if there is such a list what’s next?  Initial ranting on Facebook, at least in the Guildford area, would suggest it might be pasta (though I’m suspicious of the screengrab illustrating this post which reports that Tesco has run out of pasta completely.

It’s doubtless more complex than this – ie there will be products that are more sensitive to different kinds of crisis but I’d like to know if someone routinely does this kind of research so that we don’t have to construct it experientially as the latest wave of apocalyptic disaster unfolds.  If we have a good list we can measure the level of disaster by which shelves are empty. “Oh you think this is bad, I remember one time, you couldn’t even get tinned tomatoes for love nor money!”

In the meantime, please stay safe, don’t get into fights over tissue paper and please wash your hands, especially if you’ve run short of toilet paper and are having to “substitute”.

 

weeknote, words

weeknotes 07/2020

Five weeks later and I’ve found some time to blog again.  I’m having to pay more attention to where I put my efforts – people are getting to know that there’s another helpful chap around.  I am, sooner or later, going to have to get used to disappointing people and saying no, but not quite yet…

  • We “processed” 24 babies at the baby clinic.  To be clear, I don’t do any of the actual weighing, measuring or advice-giving, I just say hello to the parents, make them tea and encourage them to stick around to talk to each other.  3 families had arrived before the nurses got here – word is spreading that if you want to get in and out quickly, you need to be early.  Nonetheless, people really appreciate a no pressure cup of tea with an environment in which they can chat but also feed comfortably and do a change if needed.
  • After that I did my first Lunch Club where I was down as a helper but couldn’t do much until after 12.30.  I did lend a hand serving and clearing and washing up, oh and eating, obvs.  Lunch Club is our monthly meal for older people, mainly for members of the congregation but we don’t enforce that too strongly!
  • I’ve also had my introduction to the plans for “Holiday at Home” which is a whole day, in August, of activities for our older friends – there’s also talk of a Church Outing in the air…
  • We had a visit from a Church member and her family to take infra-red pictures of the church to see whether there were obvious places where insulation is missing or not working.  My favourite images are of the underfloor heating snaking around in the sanctuary.
  • I introduced some collaging to Sunflower Café on Wednesday, although I had to play hunt the pritt-stick first.  We keep trying different things to stimulate people’s minds in different ways.  Just picking up scissors and cutting a complex shape can be a stretch, in a good way.
  • Meanwhile nextdoor we had 180 or so people for Bach to Baby – this month was a piano and flute recital.  It’s a relaxed event, so no need to worry about a little one who gets noisy or needs to move around.
  • I had a good chat with Liz Slade from the UK Unitarians.  We’ve met before through Dougald but since then we’ve both started working in churches, although she’s facing national issues in contrast to the hyperlocal that I experience.   It was good though to talk about how you go deeper than the small talk that can often fill church activities and make rich connections between people.
  •  No bowls club as it was half-term, but the tea-dance went ahead.  I’m still working on how best to engage and involve the students from the university’s Ballroom Dancing Society and bring a bit of intergenerational zing to the proceedings.
  • Speaking of which I went down to the Intergenerational Music Making “hub” at the Electric Theatre on Friday to see how they were getting on.  They’ve started writing a song together and I joined in with getting a melody together.  I’m hoping that we can support them more, there’s a bit of crossover with our dementia-friendly work but there should be other ways we can collaborate too.