Gone are the mornings when in the twilight and misty Manchester rain, I would rind my bike through people's gardens up the paths and deliver the daily news before most people had woken from their dreams about Microwaves, Rubik Cubes and cheap Spanish Holidays. I used to love seeing the first glimpses of the sun as I rode in and out of Abbey Close, worried that the ghost of the monk I imagined to lurk there would chase me, take me and leave me as a headline in the next days papers which would remain undelivered as my decomposing body lay undisturbed in the field where we used to walk the dog. Sorry, got a bit off topic there!
This is my old route...
Anyway, I used to love the freedom of these private and exploratory mornings - always trying to better my fastest delivery time and get back to bed for an extra hour of sleep before school. Often I would see nobody else:- no cars, just the odd stray cat crossing the road and maybe the distant lights of a milk float through the early morning haze.
I loved the freedom and the cool chill in the air and it's exactly that chill that I feel at this time of year when I get up for work. The 'Not quite' day but 'no longer' night type of light that people don't experience often enough,. it's exciting, romantic and hypnotizing, but is slightly spoiled in the 21st century by the 24 hour coffee shops and early morning buses, carrying po-faced workers who stare longingly into their cell phones, counting likes and reading fake news about how fake the latest fake news is without the thought to look outside and see the actual world as it rises majestically around them.
I got up early today for a run I am planning to get up early a few times in the next few weeks as the mornings begin later and later Today wad a 7.30am rise, but I hope to make it up for a 7am, 6am maybe even 5am. All this just to experience the feeling of freedom I used to get before adulthood took over and sleep was more necessary, I miss those old days.
Today was a fun run though. A good sunrise and an early morning chat with the tallest 3rd of our favourite neighbour trio - Mike was just coming home from his night shift and I caught up for a quick chat as he arrived home on his bike. The a nice gentle run to the Legislature building and back. A lovely way to start the day and the opportunity to take a couple of photos as I ran....
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| Westminster ave sunrise - Mike is on his bike on the right! |
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| Quiet on Broadway at 7.35am |
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| I spotted the Golden Boy, running along the roof of the Great West Life building |
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| Louis looking good |
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| PEACEFUL DOWN BY THE RIVER |
This time of year also signals the end of visits to the Cabin for the year. Its been a great summer with hot hot days and hardly the need for mosquito repellent at night. We managed quite a few good weekends out there this year and Buffy had a couple of extra long stays with The Hannigator before this, our last stay.
This weekend was chilly and wet though and it was a kind of British chill, with the cold getting right into you and the only two ways to warm up are a hot bath or a roaring fire. There is no bath at the lake, so a huge fire it was and we kept it going most of the weekend, sleeping right by it and waking up to a breakfast in bed.
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| Jon enjoyed a snooze with the crazy one |
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| Misty and cold on the lake |
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| Staring at the flames |
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| Buffty enjoying a hearty breakfast in bed |
So who knows what a Punch and Judy show is? 'Oh, no you don't!!' (That's it in a nutshell!) Here is how Wikipedia describes it...
'Punch and Judy is a traditional, popular and usually violent puppet show featuring Pulcinella (Mr. Punch) and his wife Judy. The performance consists of a sequence of short scenes, each depicting an interaction between two characters, most typically Mr. Punch and one other character who usually falls victim to Punch's club. It is often associated with traditional British culture.[1] The various episodes of Punch comedy — often provoking shocked laughter — are dominated by the clowning of Mr. Punch.[2]
The show is performed by a single puppeteer inside the booth, known since Victorian times as a "professor" or "punchman",
Punch and Judy is weird in many many ways, the show sometimes includes feeding a baby into a sausage machine, being chased by an alligator or hanging Mr Punch in a noose -often to crowd of laughing children.The actual bodily harm depicted a few years ago has mostly been replaced by innuendo and playfulness, but it is still very weird. One of the staples remains the same though and that is the booth as you can see in the photo above.
The booth is there to act as a stage for the puppets which are controlled by the Punch man from below, with his hands working the puppets up their skirts/coat tails.
It must be difficult to work with your hands in the air, above your head whilst facing the inside of the booth and mouthing the words 'spoken' by the puppets themselves. You may therefore be surprised that yesterday myself and the woman I commonly call 'Mrs Me Buffy' carried out our own version of a Punch and Judy show so that we are able to go to Mexico and beyond sometime next year...
You see, someone very high up in Government decided that to prevent terrorism and to aid in the development of teenagers wanting to travel the world to 'find themselves'. small little wee tiny babies were no longer allowed to be simply added to a parents passport, but were to be able to apply themselves, to have their own special passport and be able to travel the world all by themselves!
Now, I don't really mind getting a passport for Norris McHannah, but the simple effort of getting a photo taken to comply to all the regulations set aside by the passport staff are enough to make a very entertaining TV show. Perhaps not as entertaining as Bake Off or Bojack, but infinitely better than Glee or Eastenders.
The passport photo must have the child facing forwards, without his or her hands or anyone else in the shot. This is a 2 month old baaaaaby, that cant yet sit up never mind pose for photos or work a photo booth. So we ended up in Shopper Drug mart at the photo section, with two lovely ladies attempting to take a photo of our small dumpling of a child in front of a white screen. I knelt on the floor and held Hannah up high above my head, with my hands behind her back, holding the back of her head between thumb and forefinger. Buffy meanwhile, half stood and half leaned away as she took hold of Hannah's spade like finger muffins and held them down out of the way (Yep, babies like to eat their own hands, but that's not allowed in Passport pictures!) This continued for about 15 minutes as photo after photo was taken with us in various positions, until finally we had a photo with the right specifications and Hannah the world traveller looking amazing.
This is the method we used....
She was fantastic, didn't moan and I suspect enjoyed messing us around by trying to fuck up as many photos as she could. You will hopefully now get the reason I was talking about Punch and Judy. Me and Buffy were the unwilling Puppeteers and Hannah, well she was Punch, Judy or the alligator. In fact she was none of these - she was the baby and this is what her Passport photo will look like....
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| Hannah looking amazing! |
She has started to replay to us when we talk to her and after many attempts we finally got it on video.. She only says 'Aohw' for now, but it makes more sense than a lot of adults I know!
Secondly she has also started be able to use her hands to move spinners in the wooden toy we have for her. She is right handed and loves spinning the red snake...We have been letting her play with this a lot and not only does she do it easily now, she remembers exactly what to do the next day.
For those of you that want to see more, here are the latest pics of her as she grows up....
That's about enough stuff for this week. Thanks for reading/looking/watching.
Enjoy the start of fall and Ill be back soon....
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