2008 — 8 October: Wednesday
I wuz robbed. I've just sat through the whole of the terrible Jonathan Ross Film 2008 programme waiting to catch the item about Dorian Gray and, of course, they somehow forgot they'd promised it both in the "Radio Times" and the online schedule. Still it was good to see and hear Michael Deeley.
Time for tonight's picture of Christa and a very young Peter, methinks:
Christa and Peter in Old Windsor, late 1980
But I don't think I'll listen to much more of Glenn Campbell with Janice Long — I'm too tired. G'night at 00:36 or so.
That's better!
It's 09:16 and the sun is, as it were, burning the eyeballs out. Some condensation on the window downstairs (that's DIY double-glazed) suggests it was pretty cool overnight. Time for a cuppa.
Well said, that man... dept.
Simon Jenkins delivers a scathing view of our guvmint's progress so far. Snippet:
As for the House of Commons, where has it been? The date of its return to work is fixed by the grouse-shooting season. Its members and media acolytes have spent the autumn in a
Neronian bicker over the survival of the prime minister, which was never in doubt, while the western financial system imploded.
As the Commons roamed the moors, the US Congress negotiated, revised and passed an emergency banking bill inside a fortnight. A congressional committee is already investigating
the Lehmans failure and is tearing Wall Street executives asunder. On Monday the Icelandic parliament, older even than Westminster, passed an emergency bill in hours.
Hard to argue with that. But I see a Darling chap has just come out with his hands dripping with tax-payers' money...
Can we now get back to normal stuff, like the guidance being sent to primary and secondary schools on recognising signs of incipient terrorism? Of course, it may already be too late for these friendly-looking chaps in London (they look beyond primary school age). And I suspect their minds are already quite firmly made up:
What, I idly wonder, is the world coming to? The front cover of the issue of the Spectator magazine I glimpsed in Waitrose a few minutes ago says (of the present financial mess) "It's all the fault of the Left". Right! I'm off to the seaside while the sunshine lasts to give the gulls a chance to vent their feelings on me. (It's supposed to be lucky, rather than mucky.)
What adventures... dept.
Back, only slightly shaken, though again somewhat stirred. Since my last trip to Keyhaven was back in February, I decided to pack my primitive sausage and ham and tomato sandwich, and a couple of plums, and set off again. It was lovely, clear and sunny, though (I observe) just as lonely as before. This time (while he was fishing) I got me another egret, to go with the one here nearly sixteen months ago near Totton. (Je n'egret rien!) Today's "watch the birdie":
Musical accompaniment on the way down was mostly Finnish stuff, with an overlay of police sirens in the bits where they closed off the road through Brockenhurst1 as I was on my way back, hence an adventure-filled diversion deeper into a bit of the New Forest before I could get back on track. Time now (15:36) for another spot of supplies shopping. It's all go — indeed, it's nearly all gone.
£53,000,000 a year compensating motorists who hit potholes is, it seems, more than local councils spend per year on road repairs. And (I must have blinked and missed it) it seems HP has taken over EDS. Now Private Eye will therefore have someone new to lambast over missed dates and budgets in guvmint IT contracts. I think I shall curl up this evening with my glossy new (WH Smith) guide to all things Open Office-ey:
But first, a bite to eat, I guess.
Verdict?
Pretty good. Rather poorly proof-read, and a couple of hangovers from other, similar guides ("Essential website creator", for example) but basically clear and easy to follow. The join line, by the way, is just visible in the top left hand corner on the right of the "new" flash. It marks the bit that (for some reason) Photoshop Elements didn't quite turn into a seamless panorama — the magazine was just a centimetre or so too wide for my flatbed scanner, so I had to take two scans and "merge" them.
Next task: pay off a credit card before the whole financial system of the West goes into terminal meltdown. Done! Next? Well, it's nearly the end of Radcliffe and Maconie so how about adjourning downstairs for a cuppa and a DVD? Sounds like a plan.