The everyday blog of Richard Bartle.
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8:57am on Saturday, 4th July, 2026:
Weird
When you put them near each other, it's clear these Hornsea Pottery squirrels are cast from the same mould.
Somewhat ironically, squirrels didn't live in Hornsea or the rest of Holderness until about thirty years after these ornaments were made, and there still are only a few pockets of them. The first live squirrel I saw was in York.
In Colchester, they live in our garden and feast on walnuts.
8:26am on Friday, 3rd July, 2026:
Anecdote
This café-made French fancy has about eight times the volume of the Mr Kipling ones you get in the shop.
Wife: Those French fancies look good, but they're a bit big. Do you want to share one?
Me: No, I want a whole one all to myself.
It was delicious.
8:59am on Thursday, 2nd July, 2026:
Anecdote
Well, I watched the England game yesterday despite knowing the half-time score.
My younger daughter arrived during the break.
Me: Do you know the score?
Daughter: Yes, but you said you were recording it and didn't want to know.
Me: Have there been any goals?
Daughter: (hesitantly) ANY goals?
Me: Sigh. So DR Congo got one. I wanted to know because if there'd been no goals then we could have skipped the first half.
Daughter: (helpfully) There was one goal.
Me: OK. So we're one-nil down at half time.
Daughter: Oh well, you can skip it after the first five minutes, anyway.
I should have known better. This is, after all, the woman who, when asked at her baby's gender-reveal party if there was anything inside the balloon she was about to burst, replied "only blue paper".
I didn't skip the first half, but watched the whole match. Only the hydration and half-time breaks were skipped. England really do like to put their fans through the wringer.
Next time, I'll ask her if it's goalless at half-time. Unless the answer is "yes", it'll probably still be a risk, though.
8:16am on Wednesday, 1st July, 2026:
Anecdote
England are playing DR Congo in the World Cup this evening. The kick-off is at 5pm.
We're looking after our grandson until 6pm. My wife won't let him see a TV, computer or mobile phone screen, because she has reasons. Therefore, we're going to have to record the match and watch it as-live at least an hour behind time.
I'm hoping to avoid any spoilers, but if England score then we'll know it from the noise that will erupt from the pub down the road.
When did Congo get a PhD?
8:39am on Tuesday, 30th June, 2026:
Weird
Oh no! Following Germany's defeat on penalties in the world cup, their veteran goalkeeper, Manuel Neuer, has retired from international football.
This means that my attempts to persuade my wife that he looks like a 1990s-era Tom Hanks have also ended in failure.
8:15am on Monday, 29th June, 2026:
Weird
Our local shop sells pastries baked on the premises. Most of these are savoury ones nobody wants, but some are sweet and sell out fast.
Recently, they introduced a new flavour, mango. There are some seeds involved, too, probably passion fruit.
This one looks cheerful.
I should have removed the seed at the top left so the face was clearer, but it's best to be honest about these things.
9:25am on Sunday, 28th June, 2026:
Weird
Seen for sale in Smyth's:
I like the way they say it's a replica, in case anyone thought there was an actual football stadium in that box.
7:46am on Saturday, 27th June, 2026:
Weird
Flying Tiger sells colouring books.
They seem to be intended for use in gentlemen's lavatories.
9:24am on Friday, 26th June, 2026:
Weird
This patch of grass at the front of our house boasts an impressive number of weeds.
I didn't even know we had that many. It's only been three years since we had it returfed.
They must know I'm not going to mow them in a heatwave, so they've all come out at once to taunt me.
8:11am on Thursday, 25th June, 2026:
Weird
If ever I discover a new variety of apple, I shall call it "Aisfor".
That way, I'll get free advertising in every book that teaches the alphabet to English-speaking children.
8:23am on Wednesday, 24th June, 2026:
Anecdote
Our inflatable paddling pool is made up of three toruses stacked on top of each other.
It seems that in the twenty years since we last used it, only two have developed leaks.
My guess is that they were punctured by bites from the monstrous insects that live in our shed.
8:47am on Tuesday, 23rd June, 2026:
Weird
Marks & Spencer have recently been giving out stickers for players of national football teams. You get one pack for every £20 you spend.
We don't go to M&S very often, but when we did a week or so ago, these are the players we got in our sticker pack:
There are fifty stickers per collection. Not all of them feature players (some are managers, some are emblems, some are "legends"), but my four did.
You will notice that the sticker for Jude Bellingham looks a little different to the others. This is because his is shiny, and that scanned badly. Shiny stickers are usually rare in collectible card sets, so I was interested to know just how rare he might be.
It turns out that there's one shiny guaranteed per pack, but there are only seven cards that are ever shiny. My chance of getting a shiny Jude Bellingham was therefore one in seven, or just over 14%..
What about a non-shiny Jude Bellingham? It turns out there aren't any. The fifty different stickers includes the shinies (or "shinnies", as the M&S web site calls them).
Hmm, so what's the chance of getting any particular other player, say Leah Williamson, the England women's captain?
There aren't supposed to be any duplicate stickers in each pack of four, and there are 43 non-shiny stickers, so the chance of getting Leah Williamson is 3/43, which is just under 7%.
The chance of getting a particular shiny is therefore just over twice as much as the chance of getting a particular non-shiny.
That's not how these things are supposed to work!
Adam Wharton has played for England only four times, three of which were as a substitute, and is not part of the World Cup squad.
8:25am on Monday, 22nd June, 2026:
Weird
Seen on the M25:
The image is a little blurry because my wife took it on her phone using WhatsApp, which compresses already-compressed images. Whatever, it shows a van operated by J W Loft and Sons, who are in the business of doing loft conversions.
It's nominative determinism in action.
8:52am on Sunday, 21st June, 2026:
Weird
A friend of my daughter's husband lives in China, and sent them a package of Chinese goodies. These included a box of Dragon's Beard Cake.
It's supposed to be the Chinese equivalent of candy floss, but it's nothing like it. It comes in solid blocks that are crumbly and taste of a mixture of peanuts and sesame; there's supposed to be some coconut in them, too, but (fortunately) I couldn't taste any of that in the ones I tried.
So far, I've eaten three of them. They suck the moisture right out of the mouth. I've had to drink something to get them to break down enough that I could swallow them.
Either:
I'm eating them wrongly.
Something happened to them during transit and they're not how they should be.
They're meant to suck the moisture out of your mouth.
Hmm, I could use the ones I have remaining to write on walls.
8:47am on Saturday, 20th June, 2026:
Anecdote
The ermine moths infesting our apple trees have really done a number on them.
They've killed one tree already and some of the others are looking as if they need the last rites, too.
Fortunately, they only attack apple trees, and we have some pear trees in the mix. This means we won't need to change the name of our house ("Orchard House") if they complete their act of devastation.
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Copyright © 2026 Richard Bartle (richard@mud.co.uk).