2009 — 25 March: Wednesday
How can it possibly be 50 years since the publication of Alan Garner's excellent book The Weirdstone of Brisingamen? As I've said, I can remember seeing him clopping around Wilmslow and Alderley Edge in the early 1960s... Shame I missed the radio interview (and until Brian re-instates my BBC audio capture on my Linux PC it will have to stay missed). Never mind; today's the day we get to retune our Freeview sets (or just watch Freesat and ignore the terrestrial digital world).
Time, I think, for tonight's picture of Christa. Given the scene of part of our walk yesterday, here's one of the very first pictures I took with the Canon as Christa and I walked along the same part of the bank of the Itchen back in March 2007:
Christa at the Itchen, 18 March 2007
G'night. (To the sound of pounding rain, as more or less promised.)
Here we are again
It's 10:43, sunny, windy, breakfast is as distant a memory as the second cuppa. Freeview is retuned. I've been browsing a fascinating site for sore Blu-ray eyes. And this chap has even taken a close look at one of Christa's and my all-time favourite titles. "What clock? Aah, such clock!"
Suddenly, it's 13:58 — the BBC's rather wonderful "Listen Again" player can have that effect sometimes. Scanning has reached that wonderful movie Klute, the next batch of laundry is whirling around downstairs, lunch is tucked away in the tum, and Mr Postie has just cheerily dropped off a Mike Leigh film I haven't seen:
Tick tock
A quick sprint out to the foody place in case the weather does what the BBC seems to be predicting. Plenty of cloud. Some sun. Some blue sky. No rain. But the barometer has certainly shown a drop. I'm beginning to realise that the BBC makes and archives more material than I can actually ever absorb. Life is too damn' short. Soon be time for tea at this rate... I've decided to have a date with James Lovelock tonight.
Ahead of that, I've just listened to the wonderful 30-minute interview with, and about, Arthur C Clarke conducted by Heather Couper. I missed this back in October 2005 (what with still then being an IBM wage slave) but I heartily recommend it to all sentient beings — not least for the snippet it contains that was recorded at a 1974 Mensa meeting in London where Clarke had the task of introducing Asimov. (Link.) I must check my copy of Asimov's voluminous memoir to see if he told the truth about this...
Tsk, tsk
Guess who forgot to re-tune the little Freeview box I use up here in the study just for BBC 6Music? Of course, I have to take it downstairs as it's a bit tricky without a screen attached. And isn't that Lovelock fella a sensible chap? It's somehow got to 23:21 and I'm thinking a spot of supper will ease the horror of the piled-up dishes. If one is going to be a domestic slob, it behooves one to be a total domestic slob...