2008 — 17 April: Thursday
It's just gone midnight, and (again) time for the proverbial placeholder. More later, no doubt. But a puzzling thought for tonight: how come it's already half way through April? Where's this year gone already? Amazing. All that time and so very little to show for it. Well, apart from the 4,000 or so further miles since my Test, I suppose.
I have no idea...
... if this little chap is a skylark, but he was the only thing visible in the sky where all the larking sounds seemed to be coming from yesterday! Such a joyful song.
The first cuppa has just (09:42) been sunk, and I suppose I shall have to work out what to do for the rest of what looks suspiciously (so far) like another sunny day here in retirement land. I expect I shall think of something suitably enviable. Though it's not going to involve much more of what's on BBC Radio 3 at the moment. (Liszt's paraphrase of Verdi, played by Barenboim.)
Monsieur Le Crockpot
Has been stuffed and set to "stun". Actually, I'd overlooked what I'd already laid in for this next extravaganza so the expected morning shop can now take place at my leisure later today. I must say, I feel a picnic lunch coming on, so I'd better finish the brekkie and get cracking. By the way, if you're reading this Cathy, I never had you pegged as an apiarist! Or was it just for the letter "B"?
Government bondage games
I may have mentioned before that I'm a financial klutz. I just used to hand over great wodges of my salary to Christa and let her get on with it (which, judging by the estate I have just inherited, she did to excellent effect). In latter years, after I'd cleared the mortgage (25 years to the month after we first took one out in 1976, though not the original one, of course) I just carried on making the "payments" to her for her to salt them away. Reading this item makes it abundantly clear that the whole game has long since changed. I still don't understand how the major driving force behind a country's economy can be its housing stock, but I suppose that's marginally preferable to relying on the motor industry. So much for the service and knowledge-based economic miracles, heh? If it really is "the worst banking crisis in 80 years" and if it could really have been headed off "by action in September or October" (that obviously wasn't taken) then when may we have the dubious pleasure of seeing some heads1 rolling?
Just to remind me... dept.
I know I spend far too much time using my various PCs, but it's a hobby. Keep an eye here (Windows) and here (Mac).
He's back!
44 days since my last attempt, and about 91.9 miles later (this time I twice used the little chain-driven Studland ferry), and at a little after 16:30. You would have loved it, Christa. Sunny, clear, brisk wind, tremendous waves, not too many grockles. I made it right up to Durlston Head, via Bournemouth and Swanage.2 You took me there just over a year ago, ... The gorse is all out now, and it was rather warmer than either last month or last year. Better not get too snap-happy though as we are fast on the way to becoming a police state, it seems. And with not terrifically well-informed Constables, it appears.
Name that bird
Mercy me! I appear to have taken 80 snaps today. Let's start with this beady-eyed little stealth bomber, shall we? Click the pic to see him in a wider context.
What a bomber!
This fella, on the other hand, is clearly a Stuka:
Where's Christa got to now?
Try as I might, though, I could see no sign of Christa anywhere in the vicinity of the wonderful Globe. I could swear she was there just a short year or so ago, dammit. How strange. Click the pic to see more, (including one of the pictures I took of Christa on the same spot last year).
There's another one here.
Memories are made of this... dept.
SF writer Lois McMaster Bujold (with her superb "Vorkosigan" series) got there way ahead of the people in this article!
Other random finds
I also love to find examples of what could be called the law of unexpected (or unintended) consequences. Here's one regarding Cuban cigars and the US Department of Homeland Security. And even a charming3 chap like our one-time Home Secretary Jack Straw apparently is sometimes aware of the pitfalls of over-zealous legislation, bless him.
Ever heard of a drug called "ayahuasca"? I hadn't until I read this. And this despite having read rather too much by Carlos Castaneda in earlier (higher?) times...
Name that movie... dept.
Before you click on the excellent picture!
