2008 — 4 Mar: Tuesday, and sunnier weather?

It's 00:45 and sleep is roaring towards me. It's gone much colder, too, but the BBC weather forecast suggests the possibility of a mini adventure later. Watch this space.

Far-flung commentary

According to Brack in NZ, the word "factoid" (I used it a couple of times in yesterday's jotting) is one of "100 Words Almost Everyone Confuses & Misuses" if the second entry here is itself a solid enough factoid. I'm sure I confuse and misuse a great many more words than that. Koestler inevitably raises his head, however, as the usage quoted mentions Marilyn Monroe too.

Oh well, it's now 09:46, breakfast has been loaded, and it's time to figure out how to enjoy the frosty sunshine safely today. Better start checking the traffic info. I do hope Her Maj won't mind my minor breach of her Crown Copyright here (though I certainly don't ever remember voting to give her permission to own such things in any case, and it's at least partly funded by all that tax I've been paying all my adult life). Traffic doesn't look too bad, actually:

Morning traffic snapshot

The perils of a bookstore

There's a lovely little piece here by Paul Constant in "The Stranger". Worth it for the graphic alone, but I laughed at the penultimate paragraph, too. There are some wicked graphics here, too. Subject: designs for Dubya's presidential library. (I'm told he hasn't finished colouring one of the [two] books yet.)

He's back!

About 103 miles later, and at a little after 16:00. You'd have enjoyed some of the trip, Christa. I was heading for Durlston Head, via Bournemouth, Poole, Corfe Castle, and Swanage.1 You took me there just under a year ago, ...

Christa at Durlston car park, 22 March 2007

... and I thought it would be nice on such a sunny day...

Swanage beach, 4 March 2008

... to return there to scatter some of your ashes. So far, so reasonably good, except that I'd actually intended to take the chain ferry over to Studland as a useful short cut. Plus, regardless of what the Highways Agency traffic data shows, lots of chaps were reworking the road surfaces in Swanage at exactly the point you needed to get to to drive through to get up to the Durlston country park. So I've had to put that little side trip on hold just for the moment. Don't worry, we'll get there, my love! And I used the chain ferry (£3 single now) on the way home. Another first for our Yaris.

Curiously, although the Swanage main beach long-term car park was practically empty, the toilets there were locked (nobody needs to pee in the winter in this country, it seems) and the ticket machine is a day ahead of itself...

Swanage beach, 4 March 2008

Man cannot live by what's left of his packed lunch alone, even if man is now having to live alone! So, after taking some expert defrosting advice over the phone from my expert defrosting consultant (thanks, Lesley!) I've just enjoyed the second third of that pork loin casserole experiment from yesterday. (She did point out that since I only cooked it yesterday, I needn't have frozen the portion I consumed today, but that advice came 24 hours too late.) Still jolly tasty and the Tupperware container survived the thermal round trip — here's hoping the bacteria didn't!

Last minute decisions... dept.

My ex-colleague John, who has nine working days to go until his own early retirement, has (in my humble opinion) left things just a little late to start asking the sort of questions he's now asking me. But then, what IBM planner ever asked questions in a timely manner? I long ago learned2 that, in IBM (if not anywhere else) there was never time or budget to do it right first time, but always time and budget to fix it noisily and accrue greater credit later. (Some might label me cynical.)

The possibility exists, it seems, of there being a tasty pub lunch at the far end of tomorrow's planned3 walk. That's just as well, as my rudimentary sandwich-making skills are in need of a rest. (In truth, the most difficult part at the moment is getting a section of clingfilm out of the container and wrapped safely around the sandwich before the dreaded static renders it useless.) Did you know, by the way, that fresh peppers also go mouldy? What is it with fresh food, dammit! Right, back to Studio 60.

  

Footnotes

1  Christa, you'd have been tickled pink to see that Swanage is twinned with Rudesheim! I'd never noticed that before.
2  From Ben Riggins ("father" of CICS) who joined IBM the year I was born!
3  Not that the planning is complete yet (but it's only 23:44 so there's plenty of slack).