Day Off Week 28 2025

Another day off last Tuesday. Main things was reading the Tim Dieppe book, very interesting, and one or two other things. I also listened to some editions of More or Less from the Radio 4 archive, something I haven't done in a while. Also had a chipotle and a coffee.

Day Off Week 28 2024

Some of the usuals this last Tuesday - reading, chipotle lunch, coffee, painting, cheese buying (Mayfield - very nice), TV in the evening.

Day Off Week 41 2023

I seem to have missed making a report on my day off on October 3 and can't remember much of it now (althoough I think I bought Yarg and there was cheese blogging and the viewing of BBC documentaries on the Nazis). Anyway, on October 10 I was up early to take Eleri to work as she was not only out all day but had an evening meeting too. On the way back I grabbed a coffee and read my Bible, etc. There was a prayer meetng at 11 am - four of us gathered for a cuppa and a time of prayer. I was reading two art books during the day - one on Degas in the wonderful series I collect and another on Turner in Wales. I had forgotten he had painted Newport Castle. We had house guests so I spent a little time with them but they were out much of the day and soI went to Chipotle for lunch. I bought some ort Salut to reort on at my cheese blog. I also watched the BBC docudrama on Jimmy Savile, which proved to be surprisngy theological on the whole.

Day Off Week 38 2023

Nice day off this week. Fairly typical in its make up, although there was some blogging and one or two other things as well as a trip to the dentist for a check up but I read a large chunk of R C Sproul's Hard Sayings and an art book featuring the unique Arcimboldo, a sort of surrealist before his time. I also spent some time in West Hampstead. I checked out the butcher and delicatessen and got a present for my son's birthday and some fancy cheese for the cheese blog (Aarewasser). Also went to Chipotle for lunch and picked up a second hand book (a book of essays by Primo Levi Other people's trades).

Day Off Week 26 2023

I went for a walk on the Heath early in the day. I often do that but need to do it more often. I saw a sign outside the Chipotle in West Hampstead that I assumed meant chicken for a pastor so I went and had some. I also bought some Stilton for my cheese blog (see here). Plenty of reading, of course. A book on Paul Klee arrived and I read that. Not a Klee fan, I guess. A copy of the face on the front of the book (his best work I would say) used to hang in the chapel kitchen when I first got here. It was next to a portrait of the first pastor and so the then deacons used to joke that the first portrait was of the first pastor while the Klee was the one before me. Tres droll. I also read Gavin Ortlind's excellent book on humility and almost finished the book on Hitler and art by Charlie English I have been reading. Watched some TV in the evening.

Day Off Week 21 20223

I had to ophne the doctor first thing. I failed to get an appointment but was then able to get a ring back and that happened fairly soon so all tothe good Started on one of my birthday books - the one from my sister on camoflage. Very interesting. Had lunch in West Hampstead (and a coffee). In the evening we watched the final episode of Steeltown murders a fac based drama about murders in Port Talbot in the seventies on the BBC.

Day Off Week 9 2023

More like a regular day off this week. I am reading the papers for the Affinity Study Conference next week. I have also made a good start on the latest volume of Nick Needham's church history - great stuff as ever. I also slipped out for a burrito and a coffee in West Hamsptead, where I bought a book - A short history of the word in 50 animals.

Day Off Week 42 2022

Part of my latst day off went at the dentist and doing some banking I needed to get on with. The bulk of the day went on reading a book on Puritan conference which I hope to be discussing with others next week. I also popped into the new Chipotle that has recently opened inWest Hampstead.

Day Off Week 36 2022

We are beginning to get back to more regular patterns and so on Tuesday it was my official day off. I like to read on those days and so I picked up a book I bought on holiday in a charity shop. It is Melvyn Bragg on Twelve Books the changed the world. It came out in 2006 and was apparently accompanied by a series of four programmes on ITV, each an hour long. Not that I noticed. The books he chose are all English ones and some are not quite what you would call books Some were a bit sniffy about it but I enjoyed it (not quite finished as I write).

In the end he went for

Principia Mathematica by Isaac Newton; Married Love by Marie Stopes; Magna Carta; the Rules of Association Football' On the Origin of Species by Darwin; On the Abolition of the Slave Trade by Wilberforce; A Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft' Experimental Researches in Electricity by Faraday' Richard Arkwright's patent specification for his "Spinning Machine"; The King James Bible; The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith; The First Folio by William Shakespeare.

by including the KJV and Darwin and Newton and Faraday and Magna Carta for that matter Bragg has to touch on higher things and he does on those books and others and whole not forsaking the liberal humanist stance he has long embraced I thought he was pretty judicious and is well worth a read.

In the middle of the day I popped in to Chipotle for lunch and in the evening watched an episode of the crime drama Ridley that we had recorded.

 

10 American Restaurants Recently Visited

Our best meals on our recent trip to America were eaten in people's homes. No restaurant can match that. However, we did enjoy several places - burger joints, ethnic places, an ice cream parlour and a breakfast place.

1. In 'n' Out
2. Five Guys
3. Chik-Fil-A
4. Panda Express
5. Meraki
6. Chipotle
7. Cold Stone
8. Donut Daze
9. Waffle me up
10. Cheesecake Factory
(Also MacDonald's and Wendy's)