Adrian Essex's Blog (21)

Today I am wearing my whimsical slippers - a reflection perhaps of a new mood for a new year. Tomorrow perhaps I'll wear my sensible slippers. If its chilly this evening I'll use the warm zip up bootees. Eh, luxury!

I took part in an aquathlon yesterday morning at Park Road Pool. Aquathlon is a horrible word - where to put the emphasis? - but what it means is swimming and running. I've never tried to combine these disciplines before so I took part in the Novice category. 2 lengths of the Lido and 1km run. My running is OK but my swimming is poor - I'm starting improver lessons at…

I comprehensively failed the off-road module of my motor cycle test this morning, this for the second time. The first time was due to a lack of paper work. I had been expecting a replacement certificate through the post, but it did not turn up until the day after the test so I was not even allowed to start taking it.

This off-road module is the third in a series if 4 tests it is now necessary to take in order to get a motor cycle licence. The first is the Compulsory Basic Training…

My life has changed a bit recently. I now have a modest income from what seems to be a fully funded pension scheme, and very few domestic commitments. So I could, for example, ring up Alpine Elements on Saturday and ask them if they have any ski-ing weeks starting on Sunday they haven't sold yet. I could then conduct a Dutch auction until the price came down to what I was willing to pay. I almost wish I hadn't thought of that - I…

The thing that goes wrong with my day most often is that I allow myself to be distracted. Today I have a very clear to do list. There's quite  a lot I must get done by about 4 this afternoon. The to do list is clear, concise and prioritised. But have I done anything on it - have I be blowed. No, I looked in my email inbox, and from there one inconsequential thing just leads to another, and now look where I've ended up. Talking out loud to a keyboard! I'm almost certainly not going to do…

I've been checking my blood pressure (bp). I own one of those little machines you can have at home which claims to measure bp and pulse rate, and I chanced to find it again recently. I've got a set of scales in the basement so I think I can measure my weight fairly accurately and I have a vague recollection of my height from years ago (though I am at a time of my life when I might be shrinking). What a splendid chance to combine two interests (hypochondria and computers) and create a graph…

There will be a meeting on Wednesday September 14th in the Hornsey Library about the installation of Solar Energy. The meeting is organised by an architect, and speakers include an installer, a householder with an installation, a local 'green' activist group and a group aiming to retro fit Victorian Terraces with energy efficient stuff. No doubt they will make a convincing case…

We've had visitors this week (my parents-in-law). They spend all day but don't stay overnight with us, so I'm responsible for lunch, and frankly, I don't cope very well. I prepare almost nothing, everything is shop bought and ready made (apart from one lunch at the Queen's).

So the day they arrived  I'd ordered some cupcakes from Bittersweet. These were delivered…

I'm still not doing many miles on my motor bike so not long ago I set off on it to have a look at a couple of parks where there are parkruns. Finsbury Park is very convenient for me, I can jog over to it before the run, but it does have some killer hills on the 5k route, indeed I'd go so far as to say there are no flat bits, and climbing the steep one twice, once on each lap, must add considerably to the time taken. So I set off to look elsewhere for somewhere flatter, with a view to…

I went to Morley's the Butcher (23 Broadway Parade) on Tuesday, I think it was. I bought veal fillet, chuck steak and rump tips. Now I'm just a beginner at this cooking lark so I wasn't sure what to do with all these things. I asked my question out loud and the lady from the autistic children's charity shop suggested stir fry for the rump tips (no, not that loud, she was buying meat too).…

There are two aspects to my ongoing crisis I can confess to today - my bike and my athletics.

The bike is still a source of pleasure to me - it looks much more impressive than it actually is, and my familiarity with it is increasing, though only very slowly. I've had insurance on it now for about 4 weeks, in which time I've travelled about 30 miles. Owning a motor bike was always much more just an idea than actually a need for transport. I've managed to mix up the types of miles a…

I've stopped a couple of times lately to think about the ownership of a forum.

By writing this I am admitting ownership.

The first time was when a correspondent asked me if I was the owner of OpinioN8 and went on to ask "Do you think a photo of the owners with their biography and motivation, to welcome new members like me, so we know who we're dealing with and why, is mandatory?"

The second time was when I attended a …

I am now the proud owner of  a Honda CBF125. An earlier blog sets out how I come to be a motor bike owner. Not only am I a proud owner but I have also thoroughly enjoyed the process of acquiring the bike.…

No it can't be that, I'm past middle life, into my 60s fast approaching adolescence. So I went last week to my Compulsory Basic Motor Cycle Training, provided by courtesy of Haringey Council Tax Payers to make the roads safer. Slightly perverse logic that gets me out on the road on a motor bike to make the roads safer! Still, I thoroughly enjoyed the training. At my time of life new skills are trickier to pick up than when younger, though…

A few weeks ago I had a bit of a go at carelessness in writing, and at the deliberate misuse of words to create the illusion of something that actually was not true.

Today its a similar set of themes, but relates to the misuse of language in a way that prevents us thinking accurately. All of these have cropped up repeatedly in recent days. 

I was pleased to note that Haringey has put up CPZ signs …

It's a very long time since I read 1984, Brave New World and Fahrenheit 451, so my recollection of them is hazy and there's a good chance that my view of them has merged into one. It was so long ago that I was young and impressionable and possibly even idealistic, so perhaps their effect on me was greater than it need have been. But the picture I carry with me, and fear, is of a dark, unsatisfactory world of oppression and sterility created by state interference in the lives of its citizens.…

I am a grumpy old man, I have been for some time. Quite possibly I was a grumpy young man. Come to think of it, most babies are a bit grumpy from time to time. Maybe its been a lifelong thing with me. One of the things that makes me grumpiest is the way our language is sinking into decline from carelessness and ignorance.

Obviously, the growth of entirely content free conversation is a huge worry "I was like, you know, "Oh my god", and she was like, "Whatever", and I was like "SHUT…

Just to recap. I had come into possession, via ebay, of an iphone which had been reported stolen after I bought it. The insurance company (LSG on behalf of Vodafone) had blacklisted the IMEI number (a unique identifier for the phone) with CEIR (see here for a  narrative on what this means) and I was trying to get this blacklist lifted so that I could use the phone.

Vodafone was my…