2008 — 16 November: Sunday
Good heavens, suddenly it's 00:49 and time to look up and give my database a rest, I guess. So what about tonight's picture of Christa?
Christa and Peter in the Bournemouth surf
Makes a change from the grey and vaguely drizzly day it has mostly been, doesn't it? G'night.
We're here because Urea
To quote one (of many) fine lines from Professor Harold Baum's superb Biochemists' Songbook which I happen to have in both first and second editions — I even have a cassette of some of these fine songs, though the lyrics are what matter. ("Urea" is performed to the music of the Gendarmes' Duet, I gather.) Amazing what you can dig out of a database, isn't it?
Now here's an unexpected benefit from soaring petrol prices...
Clothing-optional coves, lakes, ponds, rivers, waterfalls, meadows, and paths are less crowded than they have been in a decade. Many people, it seems, are cutting back on their driving, even if it's to their friendly nude beach.
It takes all sorts and, more important, a better climate than we have here! Time (09:29) for a spot of breakfast; clothing-optional (of course).
What, do you suppose, suddenly makes an expensive KVM switch go on the blink? Damnable technology. Directly plugging in the mouse and keyboard solves the immediate problem of course, but rather clobbers the usability. <Sigh>
Blast!
Just (12:25) back from a fruitless quest in Hedge End for a replacement KVM ("KVM? What's that?" asked young spotty John in PCWorld.) Oh well, I needed to do more than a spot of tidying up, dusting, and rewiring up here. And I really must recouple two or three of the PC(s) properly to the hi-fi up here. So that's my Sunday. But first, a cuppa and a bite to eat. Dunno who the chap is1 on Private Passions this week, but he's got mighty fine taste in music.
Aah! The lost art, indeed, of the mix tape. I spent more time than I'm willing to admit making compilation tapes from my music collection. I even put larger collections of favourite tracks on to VHS hi-fi tapes at one point. Example (click to zoom, if you dare!):
A typical 104-track VHS hi-fi LP compilation tape
I'm still waiting for some of this music to appear on CD.
A treat in store, I hope
The BBC is putting out a new dramatised variant2 of that wonderful novel, The Good Soldier Svejk. I'm a bit of a fan...
... and have been since 1973. Joseph Heller apparently claimed that, had he not read Svejk he would never have written Catch-22. I cannot imagine a world without both Christa and Catch-22! I bought my first edition Svejk hardback (in September 1973 for £2-50 when that was quite a chunk of my weekly income) in the small independent bookshop in High Wycombe a hundred yards or so up the steep hill towards Holmer Green. I recall the shop was run by a chap with a booming voice, some forthright opinions, and an extremely smelly pipe.
In stark contrast to this satire, I defy anyone to listen to the "Poetry from the Front Line" programme unmoved.
Is that the time?
Better start heating up some veg to go with my chicken, I guess. Scrub, scrub, scrape, scrape, chop, chop! Might just be ready in time to see whatever it is on the Antiques Roadshow that has been valued at £1m — I know someone who would have liked to see that...
It turned out to be a 1/20 scale model of Gormley's "Angel of the North", owned by the council that commissioned it. Excellent.
Now then. Having seen off Mr Fry in Hawaii (as it were) do I catch Mark Lawson interviewing Quentin Blake? I can decide while making a final cuppa, I guess, having virtuously done the dishes already. What a life of domestic domesticity! Just like everyone else.