2008 — 19 September: Friday
I shall just publish my choice for tonight's picture of Christa, and then hit the hay:
Christa and David on the Gorch Fock, 25 April 2004
It was taken by Mike, and shows the two of us on that German training vessel, the Gorch Fock in April 2004 when it was docked in Southampton harbour for a week or so. There's another picture of Christa on board that ship here.
G'night.
Nothing rotten...
... in the state of Denmark? A cheery piece. Snippet:
This is a place where you can leave your baby in the front garden to air in the sunshine; where bank tellers do not shelter behind bulletproof glass; where dropped purses generally get returned; and where the assumption that most people are intelligent and considerate obviates the need for the endless signs, admonitions, pleas and penalties that seem to sprout everywhere in Britain. Add in a small population, uncongested roads, miles of sandy beaches fringed with wild roses, and conditions are clearly conducive, if not to ecstasy, then to a contentment summed up in the Danish word for satisfaction, tilfreds, meaning, literally, "at peace."
Not sure about herring for breakfast, of course. Still, the sun is shining, so that's a good start to the day.
Right! It's 11:20, I've just politely fended off a cold-calling insurance lady, and it's time to shop till I drop. Food shelves do not fill themselves, which is a sad deficiency in my opinion. Why can't we have Star Trek style food synthesisers? It's only a matter of rearranging a few atomic particles, after all!
What better way...
... to spend a sunny late summer afternoon than driving my main co-pilot into the darkest depths of Wiltshire for an "all-day" breakfast bap at the Hill Top café just outside Salisbury, followed by a gentle pootle through the New Forest on the way back? Just back at 15:24 and about to put myself outside a nice fresh cuppa. Makes a change from my traditional Friday afternoon trotting round the bookshops of Southampton, and is just as soul-soothing. Retirement has its advantages. And "hi" to Rob Thomas, spotted in Waitrose a couple of hours ago.
Only in England... dept.
An ex-Prime Minister who took us into a morally dubious war now gets to lecture students at Yale for a term on faith and globalisation, while a distinguished moral philosopher and Baroness suggests people with dementia should be able to end their lives. I find one of these infinitely preferable to the other!
Another cold call, this time with some American motor-mouth rabbiting on about holiday homes in Florida. I just left it (a recording) talking to empty air. It's 19:24 and the inner man has been pacified. What's next, Mrs Landingham? The dishes, I suppose. And a call to Junior to reassure him his ancient Dad is still ticking along.