Tweets for April 2022

Bio: Kazoo Academy & Barrel Organ Disco/Yorkshire Almanac/translator Romance & Germanic languages & Russian/old-style jazz trombone & vocals/brass bands/allotmenteer

Fri Apr 01 20:34 Yesterday I thought at 8 that a snow encrusted Johnny Rotten Terrace on a brilliant blue sky would be the built shot of the day, but sun-cheyenne turned to apache showers at midday, & snow & sleet drove us into the Roger Stevens Building - absolutely the most marvellous thing
Fri Apr 01 20:53 Comment: @Mr_D_W_R The head of a Lego man staring up in horror from a poo nappy
Fri Apr 01 21:56 - [Sotto voce] Dear toddler, can we try not shouting all the time? - [In a pitying whisper] Yes, daddy.
Fri Apr 01 22:14 Historia de Barcelona, 2/4: #otd * 1448: Alfonso V entrega los Usatjes de Marquilles al Consejo de Ciento (17+22) * 1847: Una llegada en barco (191/i) * 1848: El ayuntamiento asiste a la fiesta de San Francisco de Paula (52) * 1918: Pla: Com que…
Sat Apr 02 19:32 Comment: @jennitpk I seem to recall Oxford Circus post-fire as being relatively salubrious, & someone somewhere will have a photo of me plaguing commuters with my recorder & Playford's Dancing Master
Sat Apr 02 22:21 Historia de Barcelona, 3/4: #otd * ~0801: Los francos toman Barcelona (1165+98) * ~1493: Entra Cristobal Colón de vuelta de su primer viaje con sus marineros, que introducen la sífilis en Barcelona, desde donde se propaga por toda Europa (682+175) …
Sun Apr 03 19:14 Colour-coded bus routes on the Leeds network map remind us that ca 90 years after the outer ring road was planned & 50 years after effective completion, bus routes are still all radial: to travel Alwoodley-Adel (2 miles) by bus, you have to go past City Hall & it takes 90 minutes
Sun Apr 03 20:48 She who the other day mocked an alleged Brit obsession with growing from seed (perverse given the climate) should see the toddler's joy at the germination of the sweet peas & tomatoes, which eases the path to explaining imminent chicks in the chicken run, magpie nest building etc
Sun Apr 03 22:30 Historia de Barcelona, 4/4: #otd * 1152: Nace Alfonso, después II de Aragón (38) * 1847: Misa en la catedral, Domingo de Resurrección. Una cabalgata a Gracia y Montjuic. La "Compañia Anglo-Americana" en la plaza de toros. Apertura del gran teatro…
Mon Apr 04 10:11 Comment: Hi @Tesco, you didn't deliver order no. 1121-0984-191 on 26 March but I was still billed £112.02. Your phone help service promised on 30 March that it would be fixed. It hasn't.
Mon Apr 04 10:14 Comment: After another call it appears to have been fixed, but adios Tesco
Mon Apr 04 20:25 Tired of compiling a book of days? You're almaknackered
Mon Apr 04 22:45 Historia de Barcelona, 5/4: #otd * 1628: Terremoto (12) * 1688: Nace el jurista José Finestres (6) * 1709: Los ingleses dejan de ayudar a los austriacistas para perseguir a los piratas berberiscos (109) * 1846: Comienza a construirse el nuevo…
Tue Apr 05 20:42 Possibly approaching quorum of congenial playdates whose parents drink beer
Tue Apr 05 22:57 Historia de Barcelona, 6/4: #otd * 1530: Llega Andrea Doria para buscar a Carlos I (13+16) * 1918: Pla: Si algun dia decideixo escriure uns retrats familiars, potser es podran aprofitar els detalls següents * 1919: Pla: Diumenge * ☼ 06:24-19:22,…
Wed Apr 06 08:04 Going a bit off-piste with the 10-minutes-before-sleep reading, but this is really good
Wed Apr 06 20:31 An important function of playdates is to establish from mums that I am not alone in falling asleep while reading one story and then waking up telling another - the brain doesn't all shut down at once
Wed Apr 06 23:07 Historia de Barcelona, 7/4: #otd * 1249: Principio del sistema de gobierno municipal (55) * 1573: Entran las cabezas de 23 bandoleros (34/i) * 1847: Una salida en barco para Valencia (681) * 1919: Pla: La Societat Sportiva Pompeia * ☼…
Thu Apr 07 09:24 The old "where are you going to be buried" test - crazy that the Sunaks would try such a transparent scam
Thu Apr 07 09:58 Use of "redeeming" undocumented by the Oxford Estate-Agent Dictionary
Thu Apr 07 23:10 Historia de Barcelona, 8/4: #otd * 1569: Entra el archiduque Carlos de Habsburgo (5+20) * 1573: Exhibición de cabezas de bandoleros (27/i) * 1702: Felipe V embarca hacia Nápoles (54) * 1919: Pla: Passo una gran part de la nit en una saleta de…
Fri Apr 08 21:34 Toddler coped very well with 2 violent episodes this PM: 1. Black Colin's account of how he established dominance over Rocky the Rooster by sitting on it after it tried to hamstring him. 2. Crow kills pigeon squab, drops it in front of us, we retreat, tears its head off & eats it
Fri Apr 08 21:35 Comment: Probably a bit young to get her a LUFC season ticket, tho
Fri Apr 08 23:20 Historia de Barcelona, 9/4: #otd * 1626: Felipe IV celebra su 21º cumpleaños lavando y besando los pies de 13 pobres (641) * 1631: Llevan a San Severo al convento de Santa Clara para pedir lluvia y así poder comer (146) * 1637: Llevan a San…
Sat Apr 09 04:37 Haha
Sat Apr 09 22:20 William Butterworth (Henry Schroeder)'s Three Years Adventures is an extraordinary book - Leeds lad runs away on slaver, Middle Passage, trading in Caribbean & on Georgia’s Atlantic coast - enslaved and free blacks, sailors & soldiers of various nations
Sat Apr 09 22:23 Comment: (Lots of alligators)
Sat Apr 09 22:33 Comment: Oops, wasn't the same as Henry Schroeder!
Sat Apr 09 23:32 Historia de Barcelona, 10/4: #otd * Domingo de Ramos es el 10 de abril este año; en 1848 fue el 16 de abril * ... y en 1939 fue el 3 de abril * 1452: Menú al monasterio de santa Ana el lunes de Pascua (38) * 1624: Gran alboroto contra los…
Sun Apr 10 09:49 Comment: @wood5y @lordbonkers I think Middleton were already paying ca £150/tonne six months ago - great project, great people, but hard to get the stuff & make ends meet
Sun Apr 10 10:03 Dreamt that Putin takes out Liz, Charlie, Bill, Jordi & Harry with a nuke & Handy Andy becomes the monarch we deserve
Sun Apr 10 10:10 People need to stop bitching about the lorry queues at Dover & investigate ways of using the extra CO2 to generate whitish carbonate minerals to prop up the White Cliffs
Sun Apr 10 19:24 Comment: @ibexsalad haha you lucky people
Sun Apr 10 19:33 Bon cop de falç, defensors de la terra @tombcn
Sun Apr 10 21:42 RT @coldwarsteve:
Sun Apr 10 23:39 Historia de Barcelona, 11/4: #otd * 1278: Privilegio por Pedro el Grande a la ciudad de Barcelona sobre el puente-peaje del Llobregat; construcción en madera a partir de 1301; significado para Barcelona y viajeros (0+398) * 1562: Santa Madrona vs…
Mon Apr 11 18:33 The scheme to replace all Peppa books in public libraries with parodies that can read aloud without shame is taking shape
Mon Apr 11 18:41 Great thread, tho the anti-uni rant at the end should be anti-PPE or US elite equivalents
Mon Apr 11 18:42 Considerably relieved that the toddler has, for the moment, abandoned Masha & the Bear for reëxamination of Ivor the Engine - overproduced hyperactive cliché vs shambolically managed genius
Mon Apr 11 18:47 Mrs Communicative & Compassionate sitting in her bunker sacking people
Tue Apr 12 00:17 Historia de Barcelona, 12/4: #otd * 1402: La universidad de Lérida se muda a Barcelona (17+6) * 1904: Atentado del anarquista Joaquín Miguel Artal contra Antonio Maura, presidente del Consejo de Ministros (0+93) * 1918: Pla: El meu pare, que em…
Tue Apr 12 13:11 Comment: @FiPanther @padsley Deeply suspicious - normally inverted - here's the ngram
Wed Apr 13 00:21 Historia de Barcelona, 13/4: #otd * Miércoles Santo es el 13 de abril este año; en 1848 fue el 19 de abril * 1716: Son quemados por el verdugo los privilegios de la ciudad (25) * 1848: Fiesta de la conversión de María Magdalena (56) * 1919: Pla:…
Wed Apr 13 10:58 The Kremlin recognises that only Rome has access to the deity
Wed Apr 13 19:44 Extraordinary that the feckless Starmer allowed Boris Johnson to claim with considerable success that he was the anti-Jimmy Savile: Johnson & Savile both cunning sociopaths with a well-studied variety act, both pleading that their merits mean their fatal faults should be ignored
Wed Apr 13 19:44 Comment: Cf. Putin as 2/3rds of the Russian public's anti-Hitler...
Wed Apr 13 22:26 Hans Theessink & other Low German blues stars
Wed Apr 13 23:43 Historia de Barcelona, 14/4: #otd * Jueves Santo es el 14 de abril este año; en 1626 fue el 9 de abril * ... y en 1848 fue el 20 de abril * 1481: En Calatayud Fernando II designa a Isabel de Castilla como corregente, gobernadora y administradora en…
Thu Apr 14 20:11 A little Punjabi girl came to listen to me telling stories at the library, name Soha, Sunrise -> Zuster Solana, Sunny, of the Franciscan convent at Noord-Deurningen when Zuster Aquino was Mother Superior - taught me 1st words of Dutch, loved the weekly delivery from Grolsch
Thu Apr 14 20:34 Comment: @cs8186188 We did something in Barcelona with what may have been the inspiration for that - the folk tale called demi coq / medio pollico etc etc!
Thu Apr 14 23:47 Historia de Barcelona, 15/4: #otd * Viernes Santo/Viernes Bueno es el 15 de abril este año; en 1847 fue el 2 de abril * ... y en 1848 fue el 21 de abril * 1134: San Olegario y la entrada de los Templarios en la Corona de Aragón (339) * 1493: Una…
Fri Apr 15 12:43 Vlu's life as chimney sweep - great photo of the man in 1985 by Carlo + one by him of the Huurnestraat in 1997, OD's old hovel halfway along the terrace, all demolished
Fri Apr 15 15:10 Russian cannibalism isn't getting the amount of attention one would normally expect in a war, so Unfortunately this is just a man well east of the Volga eating his mum because she wouldn't give him the flat keys
Fri Apr 15 15:41 Pleased to hear that in the world of Dutch infectious disease curses "krijg de corona!" has established itself as the new "krijg de klere!" < cholera
Fri Apr 15 23:50 Historia de Barcelona, 16/4: #otd * Sábado Santo es el 16 de abril este año; en 1847 fue el 3 de abril * ... y en 1847 fue el 3 de abril * ... y en 1847 fue el 3 de abril * ... y en 1848 fue el 22 de abril * 1549: Carlos I de España jura los…
Sat Apr 16 10:01 Glance away for 25 years, then glance back, & everyone's dead. A nice quote from Henk Bornebroek (1951-2018), an intelligent & humorous trad jazz sousaphonist & an admirable man: "To play a wrong note is unimportant, to play without passion, unforgiveable."
Sat Apr 16 14:10 Recalls sawn-off Trabant roofs being used in E German gardens as some kind of crop cover after they'd bought their first proper car
Sat Apr 16 23:55 Historia de Barcelona, 17/4: #otd * Domingo de Resurrección es el 17 de abril este año; en 1847 fue el 4 de abril * ... y en 1848 fue el 23 de abril * ... y en 1842 fue el 27 de marzo * 1456: El día de San Jorge es declarado fiesta oficial (55+25)…
Sun Apr 17 09:30 Steam Camel
Sun Apr 17 09:35 Comment: The toddler is v disappointed with this illustration - "No, the steam goes to the wheels!" I hope that not all Ukrainian steam trains were built like this.
Sun Apr 17 11:17 Dit weekend staat, toepasselijk genoeg, in het teken van De Grote Zindelijkheid. Geen foto's van poep op de stoep, wel Danny de Munk (Ik wil niet naar Spanje / En ook niet naar Sneek / Ik wil niet de stad uit / Nog niet voor een week):
Sun Apr 17 16:10 Lugged 30 tubs of Cow & Gate up to the JB attic room of a Chinese student, who has to send them to her prof in PRC, where "baby food is too dangerous to eat." Apparently, unlike C&G, it's artificial. Tried to offer me tea, but I'm old enough to remember the Opium War
Sun Apr 17 22:37 Comment: @tombcn I used to use someone's ripoff of the Gran Diccionari which did what you described, & I'll bet there's a commercial version by now
Sun Apr 17 22:42 Comment: @tombcn Oops, already noted
Sun Apr 17 23:57 Historia de Barcelona, 18/4: #otd * Lunes de Pascua es el 18 de abril este año; en 1848 fue el 24 de abril * ... y en 1452 fue el 10 de abril * 1807: Frutos, géneros y efectos admitidos libres de aranceles aduaneros a la ciudad (132+383) * 1809: …
Mon Apr 18 14:09 Comment: @HeadingleyNo1 As you say, your route is busy, so, particularly with toddler, we do e.g. Headrow-Henry Moore-Cathedral-Millennium Sq (owls)-Calverley St-Roger Stevens (heron!)-Woodhouse Moor-Headingley Ln-North Hill Rd (kestrels!)-Wood Ln
Mon Apr 18 23:59 Historia de Barcelona, 19/4: #otd * 1848: Miércoles Santo, 1848 (1393) * 1919: Pla: Dissabte Sant * ☼ 06:03-19:36, 13:33 horas; ☾ luna menguante, iluminación 49,38%, antigüedad 22 días * ✞ Elfego, León IX * Tiempo: 00-06: nuboso, 14⁰C;…
Tue Apr 19 19:40 If the Guardian doesn't just claim Kreminna (pop 19K) is a city for the clicks, will they campaign for the same status for Horsforth and for Batley (85K) to be declared a dystopian megalopolis?
Tue Apr 19 19:48 OK, I withdraw the "feckless"
Tue Apr 19 19:54 Comment: @SamRamani2 I hope someone is backing up their quite extensive though often shambolic online language / lit resources in case they disappear
Tue Apr 19 20:08 Lawyers who plonk the customary list of defined terms at the beginning of a document and then use completely different ones in the body
Tue Apr 19 20:14 Cruel but realist to translate "se retrouver le cul entre deux chaises" ("to find one's arse between two chairs") as "to feel torn"
Tue Apr 19 20:31 Comment: @steve_guy It's criminal!
Tue Apr 19 20:34 Comment: @Transblawg It's the kind of stuff that was meant to have been fixed when they replaced clerks with AI
Tue Apr 19 20:47 The play-date mum who visited today & said with some passion that she'd never had such good pizza & crumble was speaking the undisputed truth & not merely suffering from residual Covid taste/smell disturbance + wine dispensed
Wed Apr 20 07:48 Historia de Barcelona, 20/4: #otd * 1439: Una oveja es indebidamente embargada bajo concepto de derecho de lezda (359) * 1632: Borrasca en el mar y pérdida de bajeles (875) * 1848: Jueves Santo, 1848 (838) * 1897: Pi y Margall: el Real Decreto…
Wed Apr 20 20:35 Angels: The huge illegal 4/20 cannabis festival in Hyde Park, Leeds shows yet again that police & council can't be arsed about anything even vaguely challenging.
Wed Apr 20 20:36 Comment: Demons: Summer is for humans, just as all the miserable months are for nature. The destruction of the daffodils along Woodhouse Ln by illegally parked cars & the smoky pandemonium inflicted on birds in nesting season is humanity's way of marking the transition.
Wed Apr 20 22:59 Historia de Barcelona, 21/4: #otd * 1486: Desde Castilla, Fernando II dicta sentencia arbitral acabando con algunos de los peores abusos de la oligarquía catalana y abriendo camino a la emancipación de los siervos (698+77) * 1555: Noticia de la…
Thu Apr 21 08:37 This is roughly the walking route I take to get to the Merrion Centre Morrisons - way cheaper & more pleasant than Tesco home delivery - chat to trees, birdies & shop assistants instead of recalcitrant drivers; get (discounted) stuff off shelves instead of staring at a screen
Thu Apr 21 08:52 Correlation noted between the sudden return of the leaves on the chestnuts / sycamores / birches & the toddler's sudden, successful adoption of the potty. The fear that when the leaves fall there will also be poo everywhere.
Thu Apr 21 09:00 Disappointed that the DfT is legalising the telly in banned cars, rather than permitting a return to chimera-killing on winged horse-back
Thu Apr 21 09:20 I don't get attempts to retain famous/significant historical art/books in the UK: if bought by American institutions, they'll probably be digitized & distributed under CC, whereas British institutions tend to use dubious interpretations of unclear law to take money from consumers
Thu Apr 21 10:28 Comment: @AndrewHammel1 Perhaps it at least "effected" readers where hitherto there were none. ("Sorry am I that our good will effects Bianca's grief," but not sure "effect" has ever been interchangeable with "create.")
Thu Apr 21 11:08 Comment: @gareththackeray I'm just worried that poo falls upwards in the southern hemisphere, blocking out the sun
Thu Apr 21 23:04 Historia de Barcelona, 22/4: #otd * 1452: Barcelona pide a varios conventos oraciones para acabar con varias pestilencias (48+71/i) * 1533: Llega Carlos I por sorpresa en caballo de Italia via Rosas (22) * 1706: Asesinado el conceller en cap en…
Fri Apr 22 20:04 RIP Stanley Johnson, 1937-2022: guardian angel of Well Street, Hackney, & the best-dressed man in the borough, Gene Vincent's drummer, magician, dad, correspondent with the great & the good... Watch Brian Whar's marvellous short & help fund his funeral:
Fri Apr 22 20:11 Comment: The crowdfunder: My blog piece: It is said that the (local) driver who destroyed him on the zebra at the Kenton Arms last November received 6 punts & a 450 fine, & said afterwards that she had found the experience therapeutic
Fri Apr 22 23:11 Historia de Barcelona, 23/4: #otd * 1382: Duelo con consecuencia fatal entre Atarazanas y Montjuic (188) * 1490: Fechada la Piedad Desplá, obra maestra de Bermejo (19+246/i) * 1533: Empieza una fiesta de San Jorge de cinco días para Carlos I…
Sat Apr 23 11:02 Toddler emotionally secure in meetings with dead wildlife & the drunk fanny lady in the playground, so may ask Colin the Cockerel, in a pause in his battles with Rocky the Rooster, if she can visit his boxing gym. But does Nadhim Zahawi approve of children smacking their parents?
Sat Apr 23 18:58 Comment: @ibexsalad It's going to be a classic case of an artist earning more in death than life
Sat Apr 23 23:16 Historia de Barcelona, 24/4: #otd * 1829: Ábrese la Real Fábrica de Cigarros (48+529) * 1848: Lunes de Pascua, 1848 (849) * 1918: Pla: Quan en una casa hi ha un boig explícit, gairebé tots els qui formen part de la família ho són una mica * 1919:…
Sun Apr 24 12:12 1001 things to do, but just transfixed by a curious find - an alternative Macbeth story - Lord & Lady escape to Ireland - by grandad, written aged 89 as he began to lose his sight & WWI began to haunt his mind - epigraph last verse of Poe Raven
Sun Apr 24 23:19 Historia de Barcelona, 25/4: #otd * 1333: Hambre grandísima y subida de precios, peste (101+5) * 1533: Carlos I ofrece pagar las tarifas aduaneras sobre su ropa (47) * 1706: Cae Montjuic a los borbónicos, muriendo su ingeniero en jefe (40+162) *…
Mon Apr 25 07:47 Spotting the Victorian predecessors of modern morality tales: "Not now, Bernard" by David McKee (RIP) resembles "Little Mary (When the dewy light was fading)": "Mother, raise me just a moment; you'll forgive me when I say you were angry when you told me I was always in your way."
Mon Apr 25 07:50 Comment: Hymn audio & score: Hymn lyrics: Buy Bernard: McKee obit:
Tue Apr 26 00:02 Historia de Barcelona, 26/4: #otd * 0911: Muere el conde Wifredo II de Barcelona (15) * 1556: Justas en el Born (4/i) * 1814: Alegria y peleas al firmarse la retirada francesa (217) * 1918: Pla: A certes hores del dia, a l’hora baixa, per…
Tue Apr 26 09:28 Metres for short distances & miles for long seems to be a thing in England I think a single issue can get me off the voting hook in Leeds: Labour won't talk about the car problem, the LibDems say everything's fine, & the first Green placard seen adjoins a dirty great Range Rover
Tue Apr 26 11:53 Completion bia
Wed Apr 27 00:09 Historia de Barcelona, 27/4: #otd * 1460: Bacanal en el Consejo de Ciento (31) * 1706: Las tropas aliadas entran en la ciudad, supuestamente desembarcando en barcas de pescadores (533/i) * 1919: Pla: La primavera, tan aèria, té, sobre el cos, un…
Thu Apr 28 00:15 Historia de Barcelona, 28/4: #otd * 1770: Traslado del archivo de la corona de Aragón del palacio real al archivo de la Audiencia (17) * 1848: Fiesta de san Prudencio (27) * 1901: Hasta 8 de mayo, graves disturbios promovidos por los catalanistas…
Thu Apr 28 20:06 Toddler aware that we are heading to the Bull at Middleham, but a surprise stop is made at the Church of Mary and Al-Qaeda, to see if any Dante of the Derby is buried there. Toddler enters, surveys the post-Christian jumble, & proclaims in tones of antifaff: "This is not a pub."
Fri Apr 29 00:19 Historia de Barcelona, 29/4: #otd * 1462: Es sacada la bandera municipal en los ventanales de la casa de la ciudad durante la guerra civil (49) * 1842: Romería a la ermita de san Pedro Mártir, 1842 (48) * 1848: Romería a la ermita de san Pedro…
Sat Apr 30 00:25 Historia de Barcelona, 30/4: #otd * 1529: Entrada solemne de Carlos I de España para celebrar cortes (12) * 1599: El sobrino nieto de Andrea Doria dispara contra la ciudad por no recibirle como persona real (98) * 1848: Fundación de la Asociacion…
Sat Apr 30 20:44 Took toddler to her first livestock auction yesterday at Leyburn, but older than the lambs/hoggs/calves/stirks on offer & didn't meet the reserve