Edition 90: "Timbeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrr!"

Negative Soundbyters – is it my imagination or is there a chill in the air? Those balmy summer evenings are slinking off into the distance I fear and the days are getting that bit shorter; winter will soon be upon us if you have a northern hemisphere abode and if we get the opposite of what we have just had in terms of seasonal “quality”, winter is going to be nasty – and that’s before factoring in Brexit, a general election and the bearded chap wearing the ill-fitting M&S suit taking up residence in No 10!  

Talking of the latter, Rafe and I were doing filing together in my study on the weekend (neat, orderly stacks of paper waiting to be punched and filed presents an opportunity for a now-almost-14-month-old that he can’t resist…..bringing chaos to!) when The Communist suddenly appeared on the TV that sits next to my desk. Rafey has worked out that pointing the thin rectangular object with the symbols on it at the other much larger rectangular object and pressing as many of those symbols as possible – often simultaneously – means the latter will sometimes light up. This time he alighted upon The Communist holding court amongst all the other communists at the Labour Party conference in Liverpool but what shook me to my core was Rafe staring intently at he-of-the-neatly-clipped-white-designer-beard and then breaking into a clapping frenzy when the audience broke into rapturous applause at one of The Communist’s latest policies to bankrupt the nation. He turned to me, fixed me with an eight-toothed megawatt special and then changed the channel to Bloomberg. I went back to my filing and pretended that I hadn’t just seen my son pay homage to Che-Barista….!

I was not able to replicate my little man’s dexterity when it comes to remote controls or light switches on entering my hotel room last night. (I am “away on business”…..in Chelmsford!) I tried to turn on the television with the remote control; nothing happened so I tried Rafe’s trick of randomly pushing buttons only to read in the hotel-and-room guide that under no circumstances should I those buttons be depressed. I called reception who helpfully reset everything. I put the phone down, pointed the remote back towards the television, managed to load up the SKY menu and then it froze. Naturally my hand tightened around said control and a vein started to pulse in my forehead. I called reception again who helpfully “pointed out” that I shouldn’t point the remote at the television but just to the side of it – where the satellite box is located….in the WALL! Obvs….!

Burst blood vessel averted I then tried to work out how to turn the bedside light on. I seemed to have only two options: plunge the room into darkness or turn on every other light, except the light I wanted on! Pulsating blood vessel. I even conducted a forensic examination of said light by running my hands all over its shiny stand like some sort of B-grade city detective, but to no avail. I gave up; the low wattage ceiling light would have to do!

Let’s move on now from Chelmsford to the anecdote for the week which will follow in due course.....

Love to All

Hoddy X

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Pic of the Week

Love this - sitting on our deck in Cape Town. Fond memories...