Dark Star.

It’s grim up north.

Baked bread with my little kid using my pizza dough recipe (substituted wholemeal flour for white flour). Turned out nice enough that we both ate it.

HORSESHIT PARADE

I visited the Palace of Westminster this week with my big kid on an educational school trip. It was a very cold, wet and windy day, and we were patriotically under-dressed and sans brollies. We took a good lashing from Mother Nature. The tour of the Houses of Parliament was cool, dry and stuffy, and the little radio headphones we were given so we could hear better were sub-optimal. The House of Commons was closed to ordinary commoners like us, but the House of Lords was open as long as we refrained from parking our cold, wet and windy working class bums on our superiors' ‘holier than thou’ red leather benches.

Finally got around to watching Our Friends In The North. ‘None of the issues the show mines so brilliantly – from inequality, deindustrialisation and the parlous state of Britain’s housing to homelessness and the corruption of our public officials – have gone away.’

Big kid’s current favourite song.

My little lad’s current favourite song.

TIL that brain surgery is basically an off-shoot of hairdressing.

Mmm… 🥦🥬🥕🇮🇪☘️

TOP O' THE MORNIN'

Showing my age this morning. I ‘heard’ my wife say, “My First Vegetables!” as our little boy chose a new TV show to watch. I ‘saw’ a picture of a broccoli on the screen. I got a broccoli from the fridge (along with some carrots and a cauliflower) to show him and keep it real. 🥦🥬🥕 Turns out the show is called “My First Festivals, Series 2: 4. St Patrick’s Day”, and the picture was a shamrock.

‘…housebuilders appear to be making ever greater profits.’ ‘[they] …blame the planning system, the costs of materials and labour for elevated prices. It’s also popular to blame land prices.’ ‘The evidence to back up this claim is hard to find.’

Managed to source, buy, remove and replace broken car headlamp bulb all by myself this morning. Woot!

‘…according to research by the London Tenants Federation, we are demolishing more social housing than we are building. Economics makes that inevitable.’ www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/opin…

Made pancakes, with assistance from kids. No one liked them except me. Win-Lose-Win.

Currently reading: Artemis Fowl and the Lost Colony by Eoin Colfer 📚 An enjoyable bedtime read with my 8 year old. A race against time itself to save humanity from murderous demons stuck in another dimension. Only a teenage genius can save the day!

Ducks in a row.

Morning walk.

You see, in Southall, car parks and re-wilding can go together!

Foggy morning at holiday camp.

Mini-Scalextric up and running.

Sarnie. White rye bread with caraway seeds, salt beef, celeriac remoulade, pickled gherkins.

Fronted adverbials excepted, gotta love my kid’s school!

Our local incinerators were burning wooden pallets and melamine-coated wood particle fibreboard (MDF), and likely also any old plastic rubbish they chucked in. Thick black smoke and foul burning plastic odours we suffered for years.

The two wood-burning incinerators around the corner from our home appear to be no longer in use. One is is covered by corrugated sheets and scaffolding (prior to dismantling?), the other area is clean and relatively tidy.

Solidarity with all teachers today, especially those striking for better pay. Eight year old is at home, and refusing to practice for his spelling test tomorrow because he doesn’t want to be a scab.