The old Joni Mitchell song came to mind this week as the hot water storage cylinder sprang a leak and had to be changed. It was all covered under our service contract with British Gas, so they organised it all.
The news that Kenny Dalgleish has been sacked as manager of Liverpool FC has pleased me enormously. Here’s why:-
I have never played competitive soccer outside the school playground, but I know enough about management to know that his behaviour was that of a man with his head in the sand. The one thing you must do to make a success of management is to admit your mistakes and move quickly and decisively to correct them. Kenny made a whole heap of blunders and then defended his actions in the face of overwhelming evidence.
The sums paid for Carroll, Henderson and Downing, his stubborn defence of Suarez, his unwillingness to admit that his team had not played well enough (especially at Anfield) were all mistakes. Yes, you need to be loyal to the team, but to try and blame everyone else (the officials, the pitch, Lady Luck etc.,) just destroyed his own credibility. He would have done much better to say “We weren’t good enough” and then give the players a real rollocking in private.
Who follows him of course, is an interesting question. No doubt Twitter will be awash with suggestions. The choice will be a good indication of Liverpool’s ambition.
Yesterday morning I set out early to do a quick shop for food. One of the items I needed was bread and after surveying the selection in Morrisons I selected a small white loaf made by Warburtons. It is VILE. It tastes of nothing and makes crap toast. It has absolutely no redeeming features. It will go to the birds and later this morning I shall mooch into the town’s proper bakers – take a bow Pacey’s of Red Lion Street, Spalding – and buy a loaf that looks and tastes a million times better than the rubbish I bought in Morrisons.
I don’t understand how people eat the Warburtons stuff regularly and I am cross with myself for forgetting that “You get what you pay for” which was a lesson my father drummed into me from an early age. Anyway, it is a mistake I shall not make again. I’d rather go hungry.
For the Bank Holiday weekend, my lovely wife has gone to see the children on the south coast. This means I have been able to beetle off to Moulton Windmill every day to help to operate the mill and see that the sails are turning. We have had enough wind to make the sails turn every day and the effect on the number of visitors is astonishing. Today, for example, we have shown 81 people up the tower. At one point there were four tours running simultaneously. Luckily, a passing guide came in for a cup of tea and was instantly dragooned into leading a party up the mill.
In the course of a tour, I usually remember to ask some of our visitors why they chose to visit us. This weekend the response has been a variant of: “Ah, we saw the sails turning and we thought we’d come for a closer look.” The new sails were put on in November 2011 and we have only just got ourselves sufficiently organised to make them turn on most of the days we are open. The number of visitors has risen since the sails were fitted, but it is the magic of them turning that makes people come to see. Yesterday while the weather was fine, I spent around an hour and a half in two sessions standing outside talking to people as the photographed or videoed the sails. Their reaction to the sight is almost universal delight (as evidenced by a childlike smile on their faces) and surprise at how quiet the movement is.
Most of our visitors know nothing about windmills, but ask generally sensible questions and I honestly do try and treat our visitors with respect and courtesy and answer their questions. However, I nearly reacted badly to a mature lady whose question was “What drives it?”. “It’s a windmill, so the wind” was my somewhat terse reply. “So there is no electric motor?” was her response….. I managed to reply in the negative before excusing myself to go off to bang my head against a wall. There are times when I despair…..
The time I spend at the mill I find is hugely enjoyable and it is evident that most of our visitors enjoy themselves too. Long may it continue.
In a post a year ago I commented on the lack of rain in April 2011. The average April rainfall is 38.9mm and last year we had 0.5mm (i.e. none!) This April we have had an unknown amount of rain (I can’t find records updated for April on the internet yet) and it is still chucking it down on the 3rd May.
The river here is looking pretty full and the fields are very saturated. The allotment is very, very soggy. The forecast for the next few days is nothing to write home about either. The fire is burning as I type this, and it looks as though we shall burn a few more logs before the holiday weekend is over.
When does the exam season start? That always guarantees some baking weather and a high pollen count.
Work went on frantically last week to prepare Moulton Windmill for the Grand Opening on Sunday. One of the jobs that wasn’t cleaning something or removing rubbish from the place was the task of putting up a new sign for the village green.
Janet our formidable Mill Manager issued brisk instructions to Geoff and myself “Put the sign up on the post on the village green where drivers will see it.”, more or less threw the sign and its fixings to us and left us to it. Well, two big kids given instructions like that were in our element:
Well we felt that drivers of low slung modern cars would be sure to see it down there. The risk of hitting your head on it is negligible and it seems an all-round good solution.
Then we grew up and decided that we’d better do it properly:
It is shown in its final position. Let’s hope that drivers do still see it and we get loads of visitors.
Over the last three days I have done precious little that will add to the sum of human knowledge. That hasn’t stopped me enjoying the time hugely. The Book Club met last Monday and three books caught our eye. I bought two of them on Tuesday and have managed to read them both in the last three days. You can read what I thought of them here. All I’m going to record here is that I enjoyed them both hugely.
As the weather was good this morning we set to and repaired the striking chain on the mill. Sad person that I am, I had written, rewritten and rewritten again the steps we had to take to repair the accidental damage that had nearly done for my volunteer friend Geoff. It was a relief that the method I had documented worked a treat and we had the job done in less than an hour. I’ve never really been a fan of Method Statements and the like, but they do make you think things through and they do help explain to ones colleagues what is going to be done.
Tomorrow it will all be tested as we attempt to grind some grain into flour. Wish us luck!
