Weekend Chatterbox

Yeah, I know crankcaller...  I'm not chatted out, but unless I want to live in a pigsty I just have to get a mountain of chores done.  Zoom calls? Thank fuck I don't have to endure that; I've always detested parties where the needy and the extrovert open their mouths and garbage comes out...  Sometimes my enforced isolation is a blessing, but, just lately ... 

I've had literally 9 inquiries about how I'm doing etc. from folk I've not heard from in years.  You guys know it takes 30-40m to get any bloody text tapped into the document etc. using a trackball (holding the base steady with my left hand and controlling the ball and buttons with the right hand) and the onscreen keyboard.  5 wpm vs the 35-40 wpm before this shit hit my proverbial fan...  anyway, I digress...

So, to each of these little messages "Hi, it's me, how are you", I have spent a considerable time replying to... one guy I haven't heard from since before 2004...  And I  ask how they are doing - and sometimes I tap in a shorter follow up with another query and perhaps a shared memory, or do you fancy a game etc. and I 'm really keen to hear how you're doing.

Nothing, not a single one has replied. Not one. It leaves me feeling that I have been mugged by Time Bandits...

Chumbles
I "liked" that for the fact that you put the effort in, despite the time and issues, and yet are still able to maintain a semblance of humour.

Not chatted out either, but busy.

Text message from Ocado yesterday reminding me to do my shopping before everything is taken. I had done the shopping for next week but not quite understood that what they are doing is giving you a weekly slot to choose from for the next three weeks. So had to get into gear and do the shopping for two and three weeks from now. The planning ahead can be a bit tricky, but so far it's working.

Long telephone conversation with my mother this morning, last weekend her TV had packed up, this week the TV repair man has brought her a new Samsung one that she's getting used to. While she was without a television she's dug out some old cards and letters, including some that I wrote in my first year at university when I didn't have access to a phone (an unthinkable thought these days). I never thought that they would entertain my mum several decades later during a pandemic while her television set wasn't working. She told me that she realised I could have written a novel. Well, there's still time for that. Maybe just publish my collective chat oeuvre.

My brother is back at work at the bookshop for two days a week but has to wear a face mask. His partner has a sewing machine and offered to make him one but they only had very colourful fabric that isn't exactly his style. He was never much into fashion.

Today is the last day of the e-shop sale, will have a another look later on. So far the two games I got are She Remembered Caterpillars and The Touryst, both from my very long wish list.

From 8 o'clock tonight I will be joining the now customary social distancing live stream. Today we are playing Hand of Fate, a game that so far hasn't been on my radar screen as I haven't had much to do with card games like. Mainly due to lack of time, certainly not due to a lack of interest. Because I'm a console player I've never touched Hearthstone. No experience with MTG, either and I still have to start Witcher 3 and get into Gwent.

So many games, so little time.

I have spent much of the afternoon sitting outside in the sun, re-reading a book from my Pelham Grenville Wodehouse collection , and drinking gins and tonic.

I am now preparing meatballs in a tomato sauce for the family repast.

What ho.

Busy? Tell me about it.

Of the 3 things I was planning on doing today, I have only done 1. Make a lasagne.

The other 2 were sidelined by a) sitting in my deck chair and mostly b) playing cricket with Tuffers The Youngest.

Three test matches later and I held aloft the Garden Ashes, aftee a 2-1 victory.

*finger wag*

Only one tennis ball was lost. TTY with a KP-esque flamingo slog over our hedge, over next doors garden and into next door but ones garden. We did the correct cricket-like thing and ducked below our hedge for a few minutes. As the day wore on, my spin bowling, aided by an uneven surface and left to right downward gradient saw that I would retain the ashes.

Overall it was a low scoring affair, with the wicket being the main factor, plus some excellent fielding by the wheely bin at 3rd man, the kier box at mid-on and a long row of Mrs Ts rearranged plant pots at cover. The shed and trampoline at cow corner and long on were not troubled all day.

OTTM, down to my last 3 beers and one bottle of shiraz.

Spent 4 hours assembling the "tree house". The boy seems to like it. I am knackered.

Hullo.

Games: AC Odyssey. I am enjoying this quite a lot, probably because it is an obvious Witcher clone.

Tv: nearly finished Save Me, but it is pretty grim. Not sure I will watch the second series .

Ottm. Went for a walk on the coastal path and up the fields. Magnificent views. We also found a local wholesaler who is now delivering to private addresses, so we have 3 tons of flour and 80 bottles of beer arriving tomorrow.

Rolling after his flour delivery

I'm a third of the way through the Name of the Wind too! First book with maps I've read in years. So far, none of the places mentioned appear on the map.

Tarbean is sort of towards the bottom left of the map. You best get yourself up to speed sharpish, before sheep reads your post.

Hello Chatterbox.

Games: finished FF VII (original version), which was nice! Now playing Final Fantasy IX.

I didn't get on with this when it first came out, but lock down needs be.

TV: PBS America

OTTM: scavenging for food and beer!

We tried the predecessor Waddingtons Cricket Game, which had shite cardboard cutouts, rather than the plastic figures, but a similar slide which you 'bowled' down the chute - the ball bumped over the wrinkled playing area, going all over the place while the batsman with a large plastic rod up his arse was jerked around by the batting player, who als had to yank a piece of string in an attempt to connect with the ball. Invariably, one or both the plastic structures broke or fell down whilst the cardboard fielders had long since fled the field of play and over the side of the table. We agreed that we'd never be pissed enough to play it again so it went into a car boot sale...

_{You can see that the fielders are so terrified of what's to come, they're hiding behind each other!}