r in the month…
And as well as the above signifying the start of the phase when the Autumn wardrobe (including my beloved oxblood Doc Martens, which made the first of their many upcoming appearances at York Beer Festival the other weekend) becomes the first team rather than the chilly day backup, the return of the sudden burning desire to get all the half-done knits lying around the place finished and the revelation that it’s finally worth buying live mussels again, this very lunchtime is – unbelievably – a full year to the day since I picked up the keys to my new(ish) HQ, dodgy boiler and all.
I remember it well, although some discoveries were less welcome than others; since I’m the only person reading this who saw the place before the ten sixteen hour days of non-stop cleaning, plastering, decorating and determined thrashing with the IKEA stick prior to Day 1 of incalls on October 9th, how it was when I first walked through the door as the owner matters not. 365 days on, whilst I have no idea where 2015 has gone whilst I wasn’t looking (soon be Christmas!) everybody has settled in and the anticipated desire for a quiet life relatively free of buses, railway stations, airports and slinking around hotel corridors looking for towel trolleys half the time and spending the other half online ricocheting between Virgin East Coast, Hotels.com and Tripadvisor is panning out nicely. And thank God for that – long may it continue!
All that said, the packing is midway through and the wait is almost over Manchester-wise; Grimmfest beckons on Thursday – yay! Almost as highly anticipated is a planned outing to Red’s True Barbecue where I intend to spend a fair part of teatime post arrival and pre festival; the breaks between the screenings once underway are short, and opportunities for proper food will be thin on the ground, although a Sunday lunchtime outing is also on the cards which will serve the dual purpose of letting me avoid Hellions, after my mercifully falling asleep about an hour in at its FrightFest debut (which according to what I heard later will have improved its entertainment quotient immeasurably). Options (and tear-inducing pictures of roast potatoes) are being compared, and suggestions are welcome.
Anyway, last orders in Scarborough will be 2pm Wednesday afternoon with time being called strictly at three; I will be back on Monday lunchtime, hopefully with some new pictures too (since I’m having a change of scene, I may as well take the Nikon as well as assorted knitting, colouring books and Wilko tabletop sale paperbacks – the films don’t start until midday) and I will then be firmly ensconced until Thursday 22nd, whereupon a fair bit of to-ing and fro-ing will be on the cards until my return from New York mid-November – watch this space!
More soon. And quickly, for the purposes of settling a friendly argument:
is categorically possible from the contents of one tin of alphabetti spaghetti, as is:
The defence rests, having eaten the evidence anyway. Back next week.