Blog - Ivor’s Daily Gallivant

Ivor’s Daily Gallivant Monday September 25, 2023. I woke bursting with energy at 4.00am. And wrote the text to my email to promote my friend Rob Freemantle’s single which comes out on 13/10/23 called ‘I’m missing you’. I sent it to him to be checked and he told me I’d got the name of the song wrong and hadn’t included his artist's name ‘Matrafox’. I joined a couple of local Facebook groups: -New Forest History and Heritage -Left Politics Listened to Lockley Hall by Alfred Lord Tennyson. Prompted by the line ‘Spring when a young man’s fancy turns to love’….I finding as a dyslexic, being able to listen to poetry on the internet is really helpful. And am looking forward to seeing what is available on the RNIB talking books library Went to Veg Out at October and saw Ron and Chris Tucker on the bus into Southampton I asked Ron if he was related to Geoff Tucker who is something to do with New Forest History and Heritage. I had a pleasant greeting when I got to October Books and my food was very nice. When I’d finished I looked through the food on sale in the shop and picked a packet of dates. Unfortunately when I came to pay for them I found I’d lost my bank card. When l got home, I ordered another card and realised I wouldn’t be able to go to get my Covid jab tomorrow because it needed a train journey which which without money I couldn’t do. After snuggling finding my appointment and NHS numbers I cancelled my appointment. My next problem was- I was short of bread and at first thought I could get more at the Free Cook Up on Thursday, but then realised it clashed with the Unite Community Meeting which was also on Thursday. I messaged Lucie Mann and she said I could to get a free loaf at Hythe Library.

Ivor’s Daily Gallivant Sunday September 25, 2023 After being a total twerp on Friday and thinking it was Thursday the Ever-Royal Quintessential Scallywag (aka) Andy come round for our weekly Scrabble Ritual Tournament. He was worried when he found there was no sign of me. And looked through the windows for me. I’m epileptic and live alone so his concerns were understandable.No matter all well that ends well. He came today we had a good chinwag, and the almost inevitable happened and he won both games, but with a marginal point difference.I jotted down a to do list for Monday, ate the last of my homemade vegetable curry and crawled, off to bed at about nine and slept too through till about four in the morning on Monday.The discrepancy was probably due to Andy coming here Sunday last week which caused my routine to be out of sync

Ivor’s Daily Gallivant Saturday September 23, 2023 This was written on Monday 25, unlike the vast majority of my posts don’t have that go getter, urgent copy quality my readers, if there actually are any have come to expect. As usual I went to The Soul Café, and it was full to the gunnels all but a set of seats, near the coffee counter facing into the room. Somehow, I wasn’t in the mood for drawing, and I settled down and had a stab at writing a short story being with a line from John Keats. And migration of Phd Students to their places off further education. Season of Mists and mellow Fruitfulness. I realised I would be able to listen to it and other famous poetry on the net. Which I did and went onto listen to the sonnet which begins Shall I compare, thee to a summer day? Another project which is on a back burner…. A had a bowl of homemade mushroom soup in St. Andrews Coffee House and then onto Hythe and had another coffee at Black Wax Coffee and Records and sat in a corner and wrote a dash of doggerel. (Or should that be a dash hound of doggerel) The proprietor who has been round to my bungalow with his Jehovah’s Witness hat on was there wearing a loud shirt end a small brightly coloured hat. I remarked- ‘Get ahead, get a hat’. When I got home, I did some more chatting on Facebook, ate and slept.

Ivor’s Daily Gallivant Thursday September 21, 2023 In the morning I had a bowl of granola for breakfast and exchanged a few words with Rob about his single ‘I’m missing you’ which is due for release on October 12, and announced it again today along with an announcement of my exhibition of paintings at October Books on October 13. So, October promises to be an exciting month. I explained that with advertising it’s necessary to make an announcement at least three times before it will have any impact. Despite the rain I needed a change of air and with a plan to make the recipe for bototie which my niece Amanda described to me on Tuesday whilst visiting me, so I caught the bus to Tesco to buy some cloves. Whilst at Tesco I bought the cloves, some tins of soup I hadn’t tried before, and four scotch eggs. I caught the bus to Blackfield and had an uneventful lunch. I’m thinking of asking my GP for advice about getting a private appointment for glaucoma eye drops instead of waiting until 13/3/2024.

Ivor’s Daily Gallivant Friday September 22, 2023 This morning I planned make The Gallivant more interesting by describing how I ran stark naked down Hythe Prescient with my hair dyed blue with wode and managed to talk the police into giving me bail with the help of a passing quick-thinking legal eagle who went on advised me that it might be prejudicial to my court hearing to say too much about it. I met a charming young lady at the bus stop in Holbury who has a degree in Geology from St. Andrews University (one of the more deluxe educational establishments) and plans to become a mining engineer in Australia. We touched briefly whether it was ecologically sound policy to continue mineral extraction. She explained that with current technology precious metals are needed. An interesting and intelligent young lady, who all being well has an interesting life ahead of her. Who I promised to mention in my blog…. Hallo Alyssa. I hope that’s the correct spelling. Alyssa means warrior in Greek as you may or may not know. For a while now I have been concerned about my eyesight and spoke to an advisor at the RNIB and who advised me to speak to my optician. In the interest of personal privacy, I will say nothing more about it except I left happy. My second mission for the day was to deliver my collection of comic verse ‘The Buffoon Designs Book of Mostly Comic Verse’ to Jonny who is shortly to more on from October Books to do a PhD in English Literature at York. Ever keen for a little variety I used Hythe Ferry to travel into Southampton, which was more expensive but much nicer. In the waiting room I met a group of cyclists from Portsmouth and remarked what a nice day it was to go cycling in the forest. Who I also promised a mention. I read a plaque about famous Royals people who had visited Hythe Pier. There was one from the Spanish Royal Family who the people kept trying to assassinate, including once on his wedding day. He eventually took the hint and abdicate. And there was Kaiser Wilhelm who started the First World War- I expect he thought it was a good idea (bless him) My knowledge of history is sketchy, but I seem to remember it was all because of Archduke Ferdinand getting assassinated one of his relatives i imagine. The overly self-important Royal types do take umbrage at being assassinated. I got to October Books and met up with Jonny who was delighted with his book and I caught the next bus home because I needed my epilepsy medication. Somewhere in the excitement of the week I thought it was Thursday and it’s Friday which is conclusive proof if it wasn’t already needed that I’m a nincompoop. What is Hell- life is fun.

Ivor’s Daily Gallivant Wednesday September 20, 2023 To do list (1) Housework (2) Phone bank (not done) (3) Shopping (done) (4) Continue with painting. It’s another stormy day complete with wind and rain. Feeling impish I wrote a post about my ‘battle frenzy’. I wanted to get my banking app sorted out, work on my painting and do some housework but I also needed a change of air so went and Di some shopping in Lidl Hythe.. Following the path of least resistance, I opted for the change of air and potatoes. And catch the bus into Hythe. When I got there it’s lunchtime and I bought a coronation, chicken sandwich in Be Be’s with cup of tea. In Hythe I went to Post Office hole in the wall check my bank balance and take some money out. I bought some potatoes and a few other things in Lidl and caught the bus home. On the bus I looked for my sketch pad but find I don’t have it with me. It would have been nice to do a few sketches. There was an announcement from my friend Rob Freemantle asking his friends to help in (any-way) to promote his self- released single ‘I’m missing you’. I’m yet to hear it but know some of his other songs and he knows what he’s doing. By 21.30 I was feeling tired and didn’t want to do any more work so settled down to listening to a Ted Talk called ‘Sleep your Superpower’

Ivor’s Daily Gallivant Tuesday September 19, 2023 To do list (1) Housework (2) Phone RNIB (3) Arrange appointment for Covid jab(done) (4) Phone double glazing contractors (5) My niece is visiting.( she did) (6) Phone bank about resetting password. After writing my blog yesterday I realised I’d missed out some interesting details. In my conversation with Glyn at October Books he mentioned a psychological experiment where a group of subjects were asked to do an engaging task and were so engrossed, they didn’t notice a man dressed in a gorilla suit wondering amongst them. And were amazed when a video was shown of what had happened. He described how Amazon advertise their services saying you only need to spend a few seconds to get things. I bought some brinjal pickle yesterday and didn’t know what it was, so googled it. Brinjal is the Indian vegetable that was transported by the Arabs from India to Spain and then further afraid where it was renamed aubergine or eggplants. And ate the rest of the prickly pears from yesterday, I think I could acquire a taste for them. I didn’t sleep at all again last night. I sat daydreaming and eventually after a struggle booked a Covid Jab at Netley Pharmacy for 26/9/2023. I ate a raw carrot and some pumpkin seeds due to reading an article about diet and glaucoma. The weather has taken a turn for the worse and it’s not very warm, and my throw blanket has given up the ghost. My niece and her husband came and treated me to fish and chips. Shane my niece’s husband noticed a large pile of books which l’d bought from World of Books and asked me if I’d read them. They included ‘A moveable feast ‘ by Ernest Hemingway and ‘Reading like a writer’ by Francine Prose. Shane clearly know both books extremely well. On the way out Mandy (my niece) described a recipe for bobotie and when I messaged her sent a link through to BBC Good Food.

Ivor’s Daily Gallivant Monday September 18, 2023 Before going out today I left a message with Sanctuary Housing Association for Jim my friend who lives at one of their homes who recently had an operation. After that I tried to set up an appointment for my Covid booster but had to change the mobile number on their records which takes 24 hours. There was an email from Clare from October Books responding to my offer to change the viewing day for my exhibition. It’s now going to be on Thursday October 12. I got a message from my niece asking if they could come and visit me tomorrow at lunchtime. Monday is Veg out day at October Books which I went to. The meal was a vegetarian cottage pie with salad, followed by fruit crumble and fruit cocktail. I sketched on the bus into Southampton and at and at October Books. Gyn Oliver invited me to sit with him and his wife, and I of course said yes. And I said ‘Hallo’ Neil Kelly who said he liked the drawings I’d recently posted. I bought some Dijon mustard and cider vinegar in October Books and some prickly pears and Brinjal pickle from the greengrocer up the road. Next, I went on to Edmund Kell Unitarian Church in Believue Road where I watched ‘The Big Lie’, I film about right wing corruption in the Labour Party. I saw Helen and she sat next to me on the bus.

Ivor’s Daily Gallivant Sunday September 17, 2023 Oh, Silly insomnia. Why can’t I sleep? Boy It gets tiresome, Counting those sheep Once again, it’s most probably the rule rather than the exception, I couldn’t get to sleep. So, I got up and dressed and decided to put my time and energy to good use and do the housework. Starting with the bathroom. The first thing I did was set the timer for half an hour- then I got to work. I noticed there were clothes in the machine and took them out to dry. Then I wondered round like a headless chicken and eventually returned to work on the bathroom. The timer sounded and I stopped for a peppermint tea (I would have had ordinary tea) but I ran out of milk. I went to get the milk out of the fridge before I remembered I’d finished it. I resumed work on the bathroom and cleaned the bath and sink, but when I was about to clean the taps, the alarm sounded. Once again, I went to the fridge for milk and realised the error of my ways. [having a poor short-term memory is normal for many dyslexics and my experiences with mine this evening were completely normal] Before I got back to work on today's blog post I remembered more of my conversation with Rob Freemantle. He said he’s self-releasing a single on October 13 called ‘missing you’ and it’s already been played on Italian Radio. I went to his website and discovered he’s learning Japanese and is interested in board games. When I have time, I’ll try challenge him to a game of chess. It would be an opportunity for me to read the rest of ‘Chess for Dummies’ I eventually got to sleep and woke up at about midday. And it was tipping it down, but I was fed up drinking peppermint tea so ran to the Coop and bought a canister of milk, a chicken slice in the hot food section for lunch and some naan bread and mozzarella cheese from clearance. On my way out I did my customarily (when the weathers like this) Fred Astaire impersonation with a few words off ‘singing in the rain’. When I got home, I had a normal cup of tea and intended to do the hoovering before Andy came but he arrived before I did any. We had a good chinwag and settled down to our Scrabble then something strangephappened I won the first game. We had some tea and then Andy won the second game. I had my evening meal of a Linda McCartney veggie burger, a jacket potato and some of my homemade ratatouille. Andy left after another tea.

Ivor’s Daily Gallivant Saturday September 16, 2023-a lot more active and interesting day than yesterday After sleeping well, i woke up and initially was reluctant to get up, but it was Saturday my day for going to the Soul Café so got up and noticed some mail on the doormat. Which included a handwritten letter from my old friend Jim. He doesn’t use the phone or internet, so writing is his only means of communication. He had an operation recently and is just out of hospital. I made my way to the Soul Café and did some sketches. Several people who I hadn’t spoken to before said a few words to me and I had some forbidden fruit in the form of a piece of carrot cake (I’m diabetic but they say ‘a little of what you fancy does you good’ As my grandmother used to say – ‘how the poor live’. I stayed at The Soul Café until closing time and ever keen to maintain my health I ran to St. Andrews Coffee House. Outside as I was running past the tables outside, I heard someone call my name. It was my friend Andy with his daughters Megan and Eva, and his mother. He bought me a bowl of homemade soup and a pot of tea. Megan was doing a voluntary waitress job there. I caught the bus into Hythe as I wanted to buy Jim a card and had a coffee at Black Wax where I did another sketch at the bus stop at Hythe Pier someone else called me. It was Rob Freemantle I didn’t recognise him at first because his beard has grown so long. He said he was thinking of having it tethered, to which I replied, you should in the interest of public safety. On the bus at Knighton Grange Tim and Julie got on, and Tim came and sat next to me for a chat, he asked what I had planned for the evening I said write my blog (for today and yesterday) do a little homework and some work on my painting. It’s now 21.44 I shall do half an hour housework and then work until 23.00 (my bedtime) on my painting.

Ivor’s Daily Gallivant Friday September 15, 2023 To do list (1) Housework (2) Painting (3) Washing (4) Phone RNIB (after 9.00am) (5) Phone Coop Bank to unblock account. (After 9.00am) (6) Phone Double Glazing Contractors (After 9.00am) (Nothing on today's list got done) Another night when my body clock was out of sync. It was mildly cold-the first sign of winter and my knees ached. I got up and made myself a cup of tea midway through the night so exhausted slept through the day, so everything I had planned didn’t happen. I went to bed at about midnight and slept through until early Saturday morning.

Ivor’s Daily Gallivant Thursday September 14, 2023 Unfortunately, after cleaning my freezer, I was wide awake and got into messenger conversations, that lasted through the night. I considered if the best way to get to Spain would be by ferry flight or coach. And learned that niagara Falls are in Canada. That they drive on the right in Canada. I saw a YouTube video about Uruguay and drink loads of tea. To do list, 14 September 2023. (1) dental appointment (filling replacement), 12.40 Totton (done) (2) Phone RNIB about glaucoma advice. (not done) (3) Free cook up Blackfield Baptist church 15.30. (done) (4) Phone bank about getting account unblocked (not done) Interesting piece on morning TV about the children’s author and illustrator Liz Pickon who has designed the t- shirt for this year's Children in Need promotion. After the program I had a look at her website. Next, I emailed the Herald an Advertiser office in Hythe and soon I received a reply saying my printing had been done. With the HSBC, the last bank in Hythe closed. I had to get some cash using The Post Office, a trick I’d come up with through a Google search. When I got into Hythe I decided to buy some breadcrumbs and pumpkin seeds in Waitrose. And bought some mango and ginger pickle too. Unable to find the breadcrumbs I asked an assistant where they were she gave me directions but despite trying for several minutes still couldn’t find them. I went back and asked again and a distinguished elderly gentleman who I hadn’t seen because of a row of shelves or maybe my glaucoma or perhaps because of momentary in attention- cleared his throat as if to say- ‘I was here first’. I apologised and took my place behind him. (In the belief my there must be worst of crimes than inadvertent queue jumping.) When it was his turn to be served, I overheard him saying to the shop assistant. ‘that’s the second time that’s happened to me’. (Or was it the shop assistant who said it to him?) I’m deaf in my right ear and once again wasn’t paying ‘proper attention’. But my hearing was good enough to hear what was said about me. On reflection I don’t know if I was in the wrong or not, or if my glaucoma was to blame, or I was slightly sleep deprived. Also, I was a little impatient because I could have done with using the bathroom. Eventually I left Waitrose and saw Jill an old friend sitting on a park bench, under the tree in the sunlight sowing sequins onto what must been her latest embroidery masterpiece- and intricate floral design. We had a long chat, and I sang my ‘Wonderful Wonderful Boris Johnson’ song which amused her. She recently developed problems with her eyesight and is awaiting treatment. Pete, Jill’s husband joined us and they went on to their next appointment. I ran along to the Herald and Advertiser office and picked up my printing. And waited at the bus stop worried I might miss my dental appointment. I got to the dentist, and everything went according to plan. I caught the bus getting on at Totton and off at Blackfield and bought a ham sandwich and a cup of tea in Wendy’s Café. (which at over £6 seemed expensive) After which I went on to the free cook up at Blackfield Baptist Church where I had a green pepper stuffed with couscous and mushroom, baked leek, roast potatoes, chicken with gravy. Lucie came and ate her lunch with me (I was sat alone) and I told her about my ongoing problem with getting the housework done. I came home and after another meal slept until about eight.

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