Saturday, 22 October 2011

Strippers, Seals and Sand

We've just had a lovely rest from "Brinsleying" by having a weeks' holiday in Norfolk.  I think it will be the last holiday for a few years as both time and money are now both in short supply, consequently we were determined to enjoy a peaceful and relaxing holiday while we could and spent most of our time enjoying the scenery and the last of the years' sunshine;  taking walks, admiring the work of local artists and enjoying Norfolks cream teas.

Most of our walks were in North Norfolk, close to where we were staying, and making use of the peddlars way - but one day we ventured down the coast as far as a place called Horsey, it looked like this would be a disappointing trip because the villages were much less picturesque than where we were stopping but it was definately worth the trip -  Horsey beach gets loads of seals playing about in the sea right near to the waters edge - after about 30 or so we stopped counting, 'couldnt believe how lucky we were. We read that later in the year (between dec and feb) the beach has to be closed so that they can safely have their pups. We didn't taken any pictures of the seals cos we didn't think that we could do them justice, so we just enjoyed the show that they put on for us playing in the surf.



   

Jac thought she'd found the highlight of her holiday when one of our walks went past the Saracens head and the chalk board outside was advertising Morston Mussels - she thought she'd stumbled across an upmarket pub with a Chippendale act, before quickly realising that she'd be a pretty disappointed as a vegetarian as all she was going to get would be a limp bit of fish in a shell - doh!
Colin and Jackie

Sunday, 9 October 2011

Brinsleying (noun, verb and adjective)

There's a really good book called the Meaning of Liff, by Douglas Adams. In Liff there are many hundreds of common experiences, feelings, situations and even objects which we all know and recognize, but for which no words exist.
On the other hand, the world is littered with thousands of spare words which spend their time doing nothing but loafing about on signposts pointing at places.
Liff is a dictionary which manages  to get these words down off the signposts and into our vocabulary, where as Douglas Adams puts it "they can start earning their keep in everyday conversations and make a more positive contribution to society".  In other words Liff is a "dictionary of things that there aren't any words for yet"; all the words listed are places, and describe common feelings and objects for which there is no current word.
My favourite examples are Motuspur  which is the  fourth wheel of a supermarket trolley which looks identical to the other three but renders the trolley completely uncontrollable.
and Melton Constable (n) A patent anti-wrinkle cream which policemen wear to keep themselves looking young.
So why am I telling you all this?  I've taken to describing our activity at our new house in Brinsley as "Brinsleying"  Brinsley  (v) therefore is the act of hard physical labour while seemingly achieving nothing at all.

Jackie
I'll explain more Brinsleyisms as they happen








Disaster area

A bit over the top I know. But the Brinsley project looks like a disaster area at the moment we currently have no electrics, no gas very little plaster, no plumbing and the roofs now got to come off . I hope this is going to be worth it.... oh and the concrete floors yet to come up..

Jac's buggered today after spending nine hours cutting and burning the rubbish timber that has come out , never mind we have filled nearly two builders skips of plaster and brick.

I need bed for a week to rest up I think and I'm sure the mucks now more an addition to my skin than the little sun tan I had.

Col