Pica Pica

Even working through last week-end! Still, it fills in some of the financial gaps left from a half-year of GFC.

The last few days it’s been about Wolf, a company big in heating and air-conditioning. Now for the next few days, it’s about big trucks. Big? Yes! Try these for size:

(Click to be really impressed!)

I suppose it was nearly inevitable that having worried about not getting enough work, I would now be worried about meeting the deadlines, which is why the blog has been a bit slow.

Anyway, last weekend I took teachings from Lama Pema Dorje in a form of Tibetan yoga – a relatively gentle form, fairly safe and not “strange and secret”. I wrote about it a little more over on DangZang. Here I will just mention that it was very enjoyable. Apparently Nougat, our large new dog, missed me when I went out on Saturday morning, but then he had some sardines and a bit of a lie down:

… so everything was all right then.

I did, however, notice how security is spreading everywhere. The first time I went to put on my loose-fitting “yoga pants”, I thought it would be discreet to pop out to change in the stairwell. I had just started when a door opened and a man looked out from what I then saw was the “Chinese Massage Parlour”. I had not noticed the dome of the security camera in the ceiling, so I guess he wondered what I was up to. But no harm done! Lesson: examine environment before taking trousers off. What is a Chinese massage parlour anyway?

Why is it so photogenic?

I think this chair is still used:

Too true:

They’ve all gone away – only pigeons still come and go through the fanlights of the empty flats:

A wall – that’s all:

Nougat is hard to photograph – black fur and white snow are well known problems for photography. So I’m posting this one because, although he’s looking the wrong way, you can otherwise see what he looks like.

Dark coat in the sun

The picture was taken at a school playground/small sports area down the road. It has substantial, 7-foot fences, and although there are four unlocked gates, you can throw a heavy metal bolt across each, so that if someone wants to come in you will both see and hear them. Today is the last day of the school holidays, so no kids, and it’s a working day, so the people who come to play basketball won’t be here for hours yet. A good opportunity to run for joy!

A week since I blogged! Work has been very busy. I’ll spare you more pictures of dogs for the moment, but here are two pictures of decay, and one of some high-voltage equipment. It’s all a question of taste.

So the “45 mph couch potato” woke up for his third morning today. While I was doing my morning chants, it took a mixture of persuasion and trial-and-error (particularly the error) before he accepted that sitting on my lap was just not going to work, and that he would have to settle next to me. At a good metre long with his tail tucked in, he just wasn’t going to fit:

Settled at last...

I take this as a good sign.

Nougat (for that is now his name) had his arrival delayed due to an upset stomach, but today he arrived. He is tall! The signs that he’ll settle in happily are good, though to our surprise he is quite uncertain about other dogs at the moment. He’s fine with Rose and Scrappy, but at the park he wanted to skulk in the bushes round the edge rather than get close to the usual crowd. But that will probably change. He’s black enough that he’s a bit difficult to take photos of , but here he is:

You gotta love the ears!

He soon spotted his bed

My efforts to find contacts amongst the survivors from the Bakers Arms, Jericho, where “Heritage”, the now long defunct Oxford University Folk Club, used to meet, from the late 1960s/early 70s, seem to have got lost in the change from one blog to another – I’ll try to resuscitate it sometime soon. But I have just heard from Alan R, that she-whom-we-knew as Di Manning is now Diana Clift, and has been a professional musician since the late 70s! Well done!

Still singing, after all these years

Look for her and her music at These Foolish Things.

The family should be getting one bigger next Friday. He:

Nougat has ears

The ears fold

… has retired from racing. (Rumour has it he wasn’t the fastest.) A lot of greyhounds are just put down when their racing days are over, which is not only sad but also quite silly as they are really good companion animals.

He was called Cougar, both because he is lithe, fast and black, but also because he is a big pussycat. But we feel that sounds a bit mean, and we think he’ll accept Nougat as his name. And, like most greyhounds, his personality is really sweet and gentle.

Expect more pictures – the ones above are just from the rescue website.

People care enough to keep this kind of place passable and free, but they don’t particularly pride themselves on the back lane. Perhaps that’s why there is such a dreamy peace to be found there sometimes.

Behind Norton Street