Going For a Walk: It's Cold Out There.

It's almost the weekend, and the weather forecast for much of the UK is indicating a mini heatwave for much of the country.  Various weather warnings have been issued, including the possibility of flash floods.  It will be a bit windy as well. 

The British weather, it's just something we like to talk about.  

                                                                   Image by OpenClipart-Vectors on Pixabay     

Well, recently I have been making an effort to get up early and go for a morning walk. I'm an early bird anyway, but now it's around six in the morning that I am up by, an hour earlier than before.  I'm trying to make it a habit, getting out early, some exercise, the world is just a very different place at that time.  It's still mostly peaceful and quiet.

I've also noticed something else.  It's cold.  It's a brisk type of coldness that defies the fact that we are now in June, summer is here, at least according to the Met Office. The Meteorological summer, that is.  

https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/learn-about/weather/seasons/summer/when-does-summer-start

As I write this it is early afternoon, still windy, but the sun has now broken through.  This morning I was out wearing a heavy coat, now it's t-shirt time.  I had a theory that our four seasons in the UK had moved on by about a month, each one starting later.  

There again it might just be that I'm getting older and that I just notice the cold more.

 

Why Are Biographies So Popular? Are They?

I came across an article in The Guardian online that posed the question, “why are biographies so popular?”  I could ask, are they?  

I like to read biographies. Actually, I prefer the “auto” biography or memoir.  I do read biographies, but I am more inclined to go for the account actually written by the individual telling their own story. 

I feel that sometimes biography is used as a catch-all word that includes autobiography, biography, and memoir.  I quite like the Wikipedia definition of memoir.

Going For a Walk: Meeting a Dog Named David

I enjoy a good walk, both for exercise and for thinking.  I find that some of my better ideas come to me, or are developed further on a good walk. Likewise, I try to do some walking every day, several miles a day if possible. Not always possible, but I find it good for the soul when I do.  I always seem to feel better about life after a walk.

The NHS in the UK states that research shows that physical activity can boost self-esteem, mood, sleep quality and energy, as well as reducing your risk of stress, clinical depression, dementia, and Alzheimer's disease.  That's good, especially in times like now.  

My walk this morning was a strange one.  A woman was walking her dog and while there was nothing strange about that, I heard her calling out to “David”.  I thought that David might be her son, hiding somewhere, but no, David was the name of her dog.  Is that a modern trend?

I had to look it up and saw on one site the 10 most popular names for boy dogs in 2022 were, Max, Charley, Cooper, Milo, Buddy, Rocky, Bear, Teddy, Duke, and Leo.  No sign of Prince, which was the name of a family dog that we had way back in the 1960s.

https://www.rover.com/blog/dog-names/

That was a USA listed site.

I found a UK site and Dave was listed number 24.  Prince is still in use by some, listed at 34.  Nice to see that Prince is still in use, although at number 11 is Harry, singular with no Prince title.  

https://www.bluecross.org.uk/advice/dog/wellbeing-and-care/top-dog-names

 

Image by Pexels from Pixabay.

Son of My Father: A Further Extract — The Bully and My Aston Martin

I had a friend at school by the name of Colin. Although we were the same age, he was quite tall and a lot bigger than me. I suspect that because of his size no one picked on him at school. We would often play football in the street opposite Number Thirteen. There were several garages with pull down sliding doors which we used as a goal. I'm sure the residents were overjoyed with the noise every time the ball hit the garage door.

Colin seemed a decent lad, but as the saying goes, appearances can be deceptive, as I was about to find out.

One day I invited him over to my house while mam and dad were out, and we ended up playing with my toy car collection made up of Matchbox, Dinky, and Corgi cars. Pride of place was a new car that Dad had just bought me, a James Bond 007 Aston Martin. A quick check on the internet tells me that back in 1966 this cost all of 3 old pennies. I think I was about seven or eight at the time, so I would have got mine in 1967 or 68.

As we were playing, Colin took a liking to my new car. At one point he said to me, “do you want this?” I thought he was joking and just laughed. There were loads of cars in my toy box, but Colin only seemed to be interested in my new James Bond car. When I asked for it, he just said no and carried on playing with it. He seemed to especially like the passenger ejector seat, which shot out of the roof. He wouldn't give me the car. I asked for it again and his reply took me by surprise.

The conversation went as follows…

Charity Shop Book Haul: Bargain Hunting for Books

I do like to look for bargains in charity shops.  I recently visited one that I had not been to for quite a while.  They had a sale on their books, five for £1.  Despite the sale being so cheap, I had trouble in finding five that I actually felt I might read.  It always seems to be like that.  A struggle to find the last one. It could just be me.

I came away with the following.

The Timewaster Letters by Robin Cooper (actually written by Robert Popper).  Looks fun and has some good reviews.  Huge bestseller according to the front cover.

Quite by Claudia Winkleman.  Will I ever read Claudia's offering? Is it aimed at me?  Not quite sure.

Peaky Blinders, The Real Story by Carl Chinn.   I've never watched The TV series of Peaky Blinders, but this book might give me an idea of the real past history of Birmingham's gang violence.  Do I really want to know?

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson.  Bill Bryson knows how to write an epic book.  A big book.  There again, is 574 pages really enough to cover “everything” that history has to offer?  Well, he does say “nearly”.

Gone Fishing by Bob Mortimer and Paul Whitehouse.  I've started with Gone Fishing, as I have watched the television series on YouTube.  I like both Mortimer and Whitehouse.  Even though it is about fish and fishing, the latter being something that I have never done or felt the need to do, I think I will read it all.  I do like fish though, especially with chips.

So, not bad for a quid in these cost of living crisis times.   Once I have read them, I will probably re-distribute them back to a charity shop or two.    

The Kenneth Williams Diaries: A Review

I am currently writing a series of reviews on books that I have read in the past, in part because I am a new member of the Goodreads website. I wanted to post reviews based on my memory of those books and how I felt about them at the time. As time goes by, memory can often be unreliable. Inevitably, I am finding that it is the books that I really enjoyed which are the ones that I have better memories of. The bad ones have long since been forgotten. 

Son of My Father Kindle Countdown Deal. (Now expired).

For the next seven days. Son of My Father is available on Amazon for £0.99. (Now expired).

It can be found here.  Son of My Father

“They Think It's All Over, It Is Now...”

From Son of My Father, a further extract.

I played for the school football team, but it almost didn't happen. We played on a Council run park that was on the outskirts of the city. The facilities were basic at best, and there were three football pitches.

Boys in the school team or close to selection played on the main pitch. The game was usually between two sides picked by the school football captain and the football coach. I was never picked, probably because I wasn't a mate of the captain, and the coach hadn't seen me play. I went and played on one of the other pitches. Pitch number three it was called. I played against boys who were not very good. At that level I was pretty good. I seemed to have a knack for scoring and most weeks, against inferior opposition, I would score several goals.