2006 — Day 13 - help! No more Sopranos
Not that I'm a telly addict, you understand. (Did you catch the interview between David Chase and Mark Lawson? It seems the character of Tony's mother Livia [while behaving much like the character of the same-named wife of the Emperor Augustus in I, Claudius] was closely based on Chase's own mother.)
If you can read this, the power is back on, the server is up and running, and all is well with my little cyber world. If you can't read this...
$9,000,000 for a portrait of Mao by Warhol? Truly this is a strange planet.
This modern life
Today's visit to Waitrose brought an unexpected bonus to counteract the dreadful "pork and game" pie for lunch: a freebie magazine showing and telling me how fabulous at forty-seven is the divine Emma Thompson. It's something to read while waiting for the wheels of HSBC to grind, I suppose. I must say I'm finding it curious how humourless are the people you deal with in our High Street financial institutions. Of course, it could just be that I don't take money as seriously as they do, though they're happy enough to take it away from me, with what would once have been called gay abandon.
I managed to turn one of the retirement gift vouchers into a trio of interesting magazines:
- New Scientist, which is celebrating its 50th birthday, but rather spoils the impact by immediately hitting you in the face with a two-page ad for the new BMW X3, yet another Chelsea tractor, boasting 286hp. Personally, I would have thought an "ultimate driving machine" would have to be a little more environmentally friendly.
- Linux Format, which just might shift me off Ubuntu and on to Mandriva 2007 (I'm unhealthily keen to try out the "cool 3D desktops").
- What Video & High-Definition TV, which is usually worth skimming, if only to see what Barry Fox (Adrian Hope?) has found to moan entertainingly about.
In a previous (freelance) existence in the middle to late 1970s I often wrote for a similar set of audio magazines (published by Michael Heseltine's empire). I once managed three appearances in one issue (under three different noms-de-plume), and can still appreciate a class act when I see one.
In an all-too-rare example of my being ahead of the curve, I already have a replacement light switch for the bathroom. Of course, it still means I have to remove the one that's failed, and for that I'm going to need a lot more light than I can currently bring to bear on the problem. Sparks may yet fly!