2008 — 18 May: Sunday
Well, I don't have a clue how it happened, but it seems it's already well past midnight. I've been slaving over a hot scanner for much of the evening. I shall call it a night, though, as I need to be daisy-like for tomorrow morning's walk. And I need to allow time to prep a packed lunch, too. At least I hit the foody bits shop again. They appear to have run out of quince jam, which is a shame (though I only belatedly realised that this fancy "Tiptree" stuff is still typically 50% sugar, which can't be good for a chap).
Wonder if I missed anything on TV? Doubt it. By the way, we didn't always have a 50" screen; the one here1 was a mere 20":
The black monolith on the left behind Christa was one of a pair of Celestion Ditton 66 studio monitors left over from my hi-fi reviewing days back in the mid-1970s. They had a lovely sound, but went to the local tip after I'd destroyed them by foolishly demonstrating to niece #2 (the helicopter pilot, now) the film Top Gun and over-amplifying (through a rather fine Technics power amp rated at well over 200 watts per channel) the jet take off soundtrack from my original LaserDisc copy of that film. They were excellent speakers; I should have known better! As for the kitten — I'm afraid he went (along with his brother) after I discovered cats have fleas. And (like my Dad) there's something about me that cat fleas adore — some kind of cat(flea)nip quality to my blood, perhaps?
In the midst of Life... dept.
... we are in debt, it seems:
Debt advisers say financial institutions must take some responsibility for encouraging debt and the government should do more to educate people about financial responsibility.
But they also say a large part of the blame also rests with the individuals who have borrowed so much.
Good grief! Talk about a statement of what Carl Giles would undoubtedly have called "the bleedin' obvious". What would Homer Simpson say? Well, it's 09:40 and Nat King Cole is crooning away "When I fall in love". The sun is shining, the packed lunch is, erm, packed. The walking route is perused. The evening's DVD is set to be Paris, Je t'aime (although I was only ever there once,2 actually, back in July 1969). Still, I discovered that there was, at the time, a branch of WH Smith (in which I bought the John Updike classic "Couples" that, for bizarre reasons, was legally unavailable in our Benighted Kingdom).
Flying kittens downunder... dept.
Hah! This just in from NZ. Niece #4 recently won a trip in a helicopter, and (having changed her mind about a career as a policewoman) now wants to emulate her older sister by becoming a pilot too. Her mum is having kittens at the thought... I've suggested she just keeps watching Mr Gere in an Officer and a Gentleman! Right; just about time (10:05) to set off for Winchester, even though Lis is online right now...
Back, temporarily
Very pleasant weather for a very pleasant 9.5 mile ramble around parts of the South Downs way setting off on foot from Winchester and quickly leaving the noisy M3 behind us. (Trust me, a walk along the length of "Long Field" out to Chilcomb will have that effect.) A brief encounter with nettles quickly solved by a crushed dock leaf (my, that takes me back a few years). Some philosophical chit-chat intermingled with esoteric discussion of the idiosyncracies of video systems. Some photos (we were high enough at one point for amazingly clear views of Fawley, Calshot, and even the Island). As is becoming usual, I had only the wide-angle lens with me — no matter, the landscape will still be around (I hope) long after me.
It's now 16:20 and I'm resting and refreshing, as it were, before popping back for that Parisian DVD, preceded by some Bolognese and, in all probability, a small glass of wine. What a life, heh? Christa, some of your roses are out, the poppies are magnificent, and the vine is coming along nicely. From what you did last year to make the garden low-maintenance (relatively speaking) it's obvious to me now that you knew all along what was coming — certainly more than you ever admitted. That was very brave of you, my love. Thank you.