2008 — 6 Feb: Wednesday, and it's pension time!
Time is 01:21 and I returned from my evening expedition about 20 minutes ago. It's stopped raining, and there are quite a few stars visible. The motorway was nicely empty. The John Waters DVD1 I'd suggested was most (and predictably) entertaining, but for roast chicken read roast beef — a late-in-the-day substitution when Mike spotted a nice piece of topside in his butchers. No complaints from this hungry youngster! Heck, I even tried a dab of horseradish sauce, and I just know I don't like that, or mustard. (Christa loved both, of course.)
More later. I have dishes to do and a late night peppermint tea to down. OK, all done.
It's very odd, but I'm finding that listening to music that (in a sense) "pre-dates" Christa is somehow less upsetting. I don't mean music written before she was born; I mean music that had already made its impact on me before I met her. Very odd, as I say. Music that we discovered together is sometimes a bit difficult. I must, I think, revisit Hofstadter's Le Ton beau de Marot though I know the sections where he deals with the sudden and shocking illness and death of his wife will be very hard going. There's a whole lot more to this grieving process than meets the eye, trust me. Anyway, it's now 02:28 and time for some serious shut-eye. G'night!
I feel the need for another picture of my best girl. Click the pic for the larger variant.
Christa, Michelle and David, April 2007
Taken by Big Bro on 1st April last year. It was a wonderful day out. Playing "piggy in the middle" is Michelle (niece #1) who popped into our world two days after Christa and I were married in 1974.
The pace of probate
Things are moving along now. Before today's lunch expedition (which, we've just decided [following a skylight conversation] will be down in the Calshot direction) I need to hop into a local solicitor and swear a Mighty Oath (which will apparently cost me £7) as things move nearer to my Probate Court Appearance. Before making either appearance, I need to get dressed and shovel in a brick of cold porridge (aka an Oatibix). Oh, and the Family Guy "Star Wars" parody DVD just arrived.
Linguistic games
Eric Blair took a passage from Ecclesiastes and turned it into a strange form of modern English. Do you recognise it? I knew the original, of course, but admit the revised version was new to me:
Modern:
Objective considerations of contemporary phenomena compel the conclusion that success or failure in competitive activities exhibits no tendency to be commensurate with innate capacity,
but that a considerable element of the unpredictable must invariably be taken into account.
Original:
I returned and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet
favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.
Out to lunch... dept.
Having sworn the Mighty Oath (and persuaded the young solicitor to get his innards checked — I kid you not) it was off on the open road, ending up at East End. It's a lovely bit of coast; if you face to the right you can see the Needles, Hurst Castle and Keyhaven (my destination last Friday); if you face to the left you can see the Spinnaker Tower; if you stare straight across at the "Island" you can see the mast of the Rowridge transmitter. Plentiful birds and clouds too, of course.
However, before we got to the coast, I stopped the car for this irresistible photo opportunity. Click the pic for the larger variant.
I couldn't work out what he was finding to nibble, but it had his full attention.
Given the meal2 I've just devoured, I'll start with three or so of the birds. Click the pic for the larger variant.
and lo! the Bird is on the Wing...
When I first retired back in November 2006, Big Bro was on hand that weekend to join Christa and me on a trip to Portsmouth. On a harbour trip he took a photo of the Tower from considerably closer (and I only had to rotate it a few degrees, Bro!):
