2008 — 16 December: Tuesday
Happy birthday, Christa! To think you would have been 63 today — incredible. Absolutely incredible.
Christa in Brynja's studio, August 2006
You were looking straight at me when Brynja took this. Remember? Oh well, g'night my love. Sleep tight!
Freezing and misty
Well, Christa, it's entirely appropriate weather for my mood, this morning, after what I can only call a long, dark, tea-time of the soul. Sleep was largely elusive, and my thoughts showed me all too clearly how very much I miss you. In so many ways, and for so many reasons. No surprises.
That said, it's 09:25 and in a few minutes I'm off for another walk, my love. In a personal first, lunch will be a smoked salmon sandwich! Call it a birthday snack.
The "Book of the Week" is fascinating, and is being beautifully read by Imelda Staunton. Right, time for the "off". Brrr! Roll on, Spring.
Fascinating Aïda
I had to call the BT operator a few minutes ago to remind myself of the magic number you need to find out who called you (1471, for my future reference). The combination of my birthday-twin Christopher's head cold and my crappy digital ansaphone put paid to any chance of my understanding the garbled sounds he'd left on the phone when I got back after the enjoyable, but chilly, walk (seven miles, again around Sparsholt, but sticking1 to roads, this time). Very thoughtfully, he and Gill will try to get three tickets for us to see Dillie Keane and her chums in a couple of months.
Heidi has just pushed a nice card through the door, reminding me (not that I could forget!) of the (noisy, laughter-filled) gatherings of the German gang of ladies that would take place here on Christa's birthday for the traditional coffee and cakes. I also had a card and one of those "round Robin newsletters", too, from the woman whose family Christa stayed with in Nebraska during her High School exchange year. Another one who doesn't yet know about her...
It's now 17:12 and I've almost warmed up!
Drawing software
I've long been a fan of, and a user of, the Xara software package. I used it first in its "ArtWorks" incarnation on the RISC OS range of Acorn PCs. It is, if I'm honest, one of the few applications that now keeps me on the Windows platform, and there have been some (quite slow-moving) open source efforts to produce a variant of it on Linux. I also keep an eye, from time to time, on Inkscape which has now, I notice, got itself some decent-looking documentation.
I first came to appreciate the advantages of vector graphics as I prepared a DTP package of Shary Flenniken's wonderful cartoon artwork for her to try to persuade her to publish a collection. I would scan a frame and then run the computer overnight while one of Saint Pilling's programs traced the bitmap and turned it into a much smaller, and scaleable, "draw" format file. ("Draw" was an object-oriented drawing program packaged with the Acorn PC, and one of several powerful reasons for using that platform. Indeed, the IBM Hursley software Lab had several keen Acorn users, though I admit we were regarded as an odd minority.)
Our performing flea
I'm listening to the play by Colin Shindler that deals with the shameful episode of the witch-hunt initially triggered by people like the journalist "Cassandra"2 (William Connor) after PG Wodehouse3 — I agree naïvely — made his "Internee broadcasts" during the second world war. In 1981, one-time Tory MP Iain Sproat's excellent book "Wodehouse at war" comprehensively demolished any lingering doubts as to Wodehouse's complete innocence. (The shamefully long-secret MI5 file turned out, in essence, to be empty though Plum had been driven into exile nonetheless.) George Orwell had already defended him back in 1945. (More here.)
Goodness, it's suddenly 19:05 and I'm starving hungry. This won't do at all. In with the last of the latest and greatest crockpot. An entirely appropriate meal, given the weather, it seems to me.
Time to watch?
Having also now listened to yesterday's Wodehouse play (equally enjoyable) by Tony Staveacre, I'm catching up on the recent "Horizon" programme Do you know what time it is? because this was the topic of part of our walking chat earlier. This is actually the very first "time" I've used the iPlayer. And it worked first time, too. Video quality is fine in a window about 14cm wide, and sound quality is acceptable (though not great). No lip-sync problems, either, but still vastly different from the 50" plasma screen and sound system experience available to me downstairs, of course. The quick-cutting "MTV" style panning and zooming, and background music, are irritating, but easily tuned out as I listen while I type on the other PC at the same time.
Brane worlds, heh? Well, it was fun watching the slow-motion popping of the balloon filled with water... So we're all travelling through time at the speed of light? Cool! Time for a cuppa. It's 22:07 and seems to be pouring with rain.