Date Night

The Prof and I went to Liverpool tonight to see the Liverpool Philharmonic orchestra perform Mendelssohn's Fingal's Cave.
The music was lovely! The audience was geriatric, the ginger ice cream at the interval was refreshing, my haphazard negotiation of the traffic including the Wallasey tunnel afterwards was questionable
And the subsequent argument on the journey home-was......... inevitable 

Coming Out- Yorkshire Style

Many years ago I asked my best male friend, Mike for a pint in Sheffield.
He jumped at the chance to have a Thursday night out at The Dog And Partridge. 
The pub was always warm and welcoming and full of amateur folk singers and our nights out together were always full of chatter and banter about film, current affairs, news and gossip.
That night, however, I had an agenda.
For that night I had decided to come out to him.
I knew Mike very well, and thought deep down that everything would be alright, but as he was straight and a typical no nonsense working class married Yorkshireman I was surprised to suddenly find myself very nervous and fearful of a reaction I didn't want and more importantly couldn't cope with if everything went tits up.
I told him after a spirited group rendition of The Irish Rover
And afterwards he sat silently for a moment looking at his pint glass.
After what seemed like an age ( but wasn't) he nodded and said in his broad Sheffield brogue
" Does that mean I have to occasionally go a gay bar with you ?"
" Perhaps!" I replied and he nodded again
" ok!" He said brightly " it's your round!"

Time

It's 15.25!
Mary and I have walked to town to collect the car. I bought peas and mangetout and some eye drops for William.
I've cleared the garden of the downed ceanothus, did washing and spent three quarters of an hour looking over some legal papers for an elderly neighbour.
I've bought some dolls house furniture from eBay for my mother in law ( who has just renovated her childhood dolls house), cleaned up and collected firewood and stocked up on fuel ovoids
The afternoon is almost over and I still have things to do

Your Thoughts

The School Run

The Prof usually leaves the cottage well before 7 am and as he leaves I get up to walk the dogs.
Uncharacteristically this morning he left at 8 am and so the village was busy with school run traffic and people commuting to work as we stopped for wees and poos!
The older of the village children lined up with their smart phones at 1-3 London Road waiting for the school buses to arrive and I was suddenly reminded of dark depressing winter mornings when  I walked to school with my heavy briefcase and chilblains.
Breakfast time at home before school were not Betty Crocker times when I was a boy. My father generally would get up after we had left for school and my mother often had a hangover or was still asleep    So there was no cooked breakfasts made, no cheery words of goodbye and no smell of coffee brewing.
I do remember making jam on toast whilst listening to the ever cheerful Terry Wogan on radio 2
He was a friendly soul .
Mornings felt a lot colder then than they do today.

The Walking Dead

I'm easily pleased!
For over seven years now ,I have followed the exploits of a group of apocalypse survivors in a savage world of zombies in the rural southern states of the United States and although I don't dress up as the crossbow welding redneck  Daryl Dixon , like so many Walking Dead Geeks do, I am told I am just as obsessed with the show as a spotty teenager, with no mates could be.
Season 8 sees war break out between Negan and three of the new order communities, and in a complete contrast to the start of season 7, there is a wiff of hope in the air as Rick et al prepare to kick some ass.
There is some speech making, group hugs and plenty of action but it is the following small points that I found " interesting"

• The messaging between alter egos Daryl and Dwight provide an interesting mirroring between essentially the same character. I like the " softer" Daryl who is now more able to hug his friends 
• Tara and her plastic specs amuse me, she and Jerry are the only characters that seem to own a sense of humour
• Carol on the overpass looks sadly at a graffiti flower ( ? Cherokee Rose!).....forshadowing?
• I noted Some nice moments between the minor characters before the action starts
• Why didnt anyone shoot negan when he appeared on the gantry?duh ?
• Negan's wisecracking is really getting on my tits

Generally I enjoyed the start of the new series but it has its's flaws
.but like all old friends, who sometimes disappoint you, its lovely to see them all back
I kinda liked  it

The Dead Return

The Walking Dead is back tonight

I've got a low calorie scotch egg to eat when I'm watching it.

Mary is not impressed

Your Tiny Hand Is Frozen

I've been sorting out the itinerary for  New York trip this afternoon and after a bit of juggling I was ticked pink to buy us tickets to see La Boheme at the New York Met.
The Prof has never seen Puccini's tale of love amid the poor artists of the Paris of 1840 and although it has been criticised by some as a lightweight opera , it does have the power to bring a tear to your eye and a lump to your throat!

Now even though I have filled most days of our visit with nice activities ( and before you ask I've been 8 times before so we've pretty much done the tourist stuff) I ask the Going Gently readers if they know of anything alternative that they have done in New York which is worth a visit. We are open to anything new, a lovely restaurant, exhibition,.....anything different......you could recommend
I'm all ears!