Saturday is officially deflation day, literal and metaphorical
Deflation the first
Off early on Saturday morning in the mud and the gunge for our usual bike ride, a circuit of around 11 miles of bridlepaths and heathland with some tough uphill slogs and a couple of joyful downhill scrambles.
About 8 miles in I started feeling very mushy around my rear end, getting the wheel off and the tube replaced was incredibly filthy work but not technically taxing, re-inflation was a different matter. I've a CO2 inflator which saves me carrying a pump, it's never been used in anger (and still hasn't) the "simply twist the cartridge into place and release the gas with the attached valve" took me a vice and two mole wrenches when I finally got home. My co-mudplugger Graham had a pump,albeit a purely decorative one, or so it turned out. We aborted the ride and cadged a lift back to the farm for a shower and bacon sandwiches (sequentially not concurrently). I hold to the belief that failing to burn off the calories doesn't necessarily mean they don't need replacing.
Deflation II
A solo guitar lesson, no ChaCha so a whole hour of absolute and total concentration on my inability to play any rhythym on the guitar which doesn't sound like "when I'm cleaning windows" I appear to have two options, lots of practice or restrict my repertoire to 'The hits of George Formby"
The final deflation
A physical afternoon, repairing a broken floodlight, lawn mowing, gutter cleansing (that's fun) and chainsawing and removing a dead tree which fell last week. I hate starting chainsaws, I think its a rhythm thing again but I always end up bathed in sweat, probably too much detail for those of you with delicate sensibilities. I hauled off the carved up tree in the Gator, a little diesel truckette with 6 balloon type tyres, How I managed to puncture a third of them driving across a lawn and a bit of the wood with a total absence of pointness is a bit of a mystery.
Ah, autumn,season of mists and mellow fruitfulness. The tree made a delightful bonfire, it's a classic autumnal scene, the singing of birds, the evocative smell of woodsmoke, the alluring scent of a sweaty lumberjack and the gentle hiss of deflating agricultural machinery.
Movie review - The Departed
A great film with Jack Nicholson in classic form and Scorcese doing seriously good work, it's a long film with a very good cast, Leonardo Di Caprio doesn't really convince as a hard case, (didn't convince in Gangs of New York either, another good film), but he does ok and there's a great performances from Matt Damon (who is convincing),Baldwin and Wahlberg. It passed the Mrs Stuffy test (awake throughout)with flying colours.
We do enjoy going to the movies, I once read that it's very important for married couples to keep the romance in their lives by spending time together as they did when they were courting, the cinema is great, like a date but you don't have to talk to each other. :)
Dirty Dancing - A review
Due to some logistical short-sightedness we'd a pair of tickets last night for the stage show of Dirty Dancing at the Aldwych.
We arrived at the theatre at 7:30 with barely a couple of hours sleep between us in the previous thirty, which is probably not ideal preparation for sitting, tired, irritable and restless surrounding by a throng of middle-aged matrons wolf-whisting and squealing like schoolgirls on helium every time the male lead took his shirt off.
Judging by the number of times he did take his shirt off I'm assuming it was his way of gaining thinking time whenever he forgot his lines.
If you're one of the record number of people who have bought tickets for this show, and you enjoy good singing, fine choreography, great acting and polished performances I'd suggest getting those tickets on ebay immediately and trying to recover your investment. If however you like to see actors and dancers outperformed by the machinery that moves the sets around I trust you'll enjoy the show.
Deep Diving
Here's the postcard that I would have sent you all from the Maldives if I sent postcards
I've included a selection of the various fishes I swam with over the week, there were tons of tropical fish, sharks, turtles, incredible shoals of eagle rays and barracuda (which apart from moray eels are the truly scary things). I was chuckling early in the week about a Russian chap I overheard who got a $900 bill over and above his all-inclusive deal. I then chortled off, signed up for my PADI Open water conversion course, ( I missed two boat dives in Sardinia last year through rough seas) a deep dive course and a Nitrox ( dive longer, great for hangovers) course. Add a couple of 'a la carte meals' in the speciality restaurants and I found myself looking for a Russian translation for "sorry I laughed". It's "огорченно я смеялся над" by the way
It's an amazing place the Maldives, everybody was charming and hospitable, it's real 'taste of paradise' tropical island stuff and this was the first holiday ever that Mrs Stuffy and I have enjoyed 'sans kids'.
I commend it to anyone looking for a really special wind-down break or anyone enjoying (as we were), their honeymoon after 6 years of 'not quite getting around to it'. And for those of us who get restless after 38 minutes sitting on the beach it really does have the most amazing dive sites and a good dive school with some really nice people.
The island we were on is at www.kuramathi.com by the way, tell them I sent you...
Apologies and explanation
I've been a bit busy for the past week, obviously the crippling effect a full blown man-cold is devastating but (whilst struggling manfully through the pain) I've been trying to clear the decks before our honeymoon. Yes folks you read it right, after nearly six (blissful) years of marriage Mrs Stuffy and I have finally agreed that we should take a little time out and consumate the relationship.
We married in the week before Christmas 2000 and haven't, apart from the occasional weekend, had a break on our own since then, so as a 50th birthday treat to each other we're buggering off for a week or so to the Indian ocean. Here's a live webcam image from our tropical resort,
if you look closely you can see us waving in the bottom left hand corner, love and hugs to all.
Talk with you shortly.
