2009 — 4 April: Saturday
Good grief, it's 01:35 already. I've been working my delighted way through the extras on the Blu-ray edition of Body Heat. I'd forgotten it was also Kathleen Turner's first film. Amazing.
Tonight's picture shows Christa in Meisenheim. Any Meisenheimer would be able to pinpoint the location, incidentally — the cathedral square immediately adjacent to her parents' house. Behind her is part of the old city wall that was also incorporated into the parental garden. I took this shot in September 1977:
G'night.
Time to get stuffing...
It's a mere 08:24 and, since Brian Matthew is once again filling the airwaves nicely, I may as well set to work in the kitchen. Weather's a bit dull but not actually raining. Now, where's that cuppa?
Thank you, young Mr Postie! (See below, a minor-league reminder of my recent outing to see Dillie Keane and company.) Meanwhile, it's now 09:54, there's a second cuppa in hand (indeed, nearly drunk). I've peeled, sliced, diced and filled the next crockpot — I'm trying a tiny variant in the "mint" department, going with a couple of small spoonfuls (spoonsful?) of "store-bought" sauce rather than starting from the fresh stuff. Ten minutes saved, heh?
Breakfast (better late than never) now that my appetite has recovered. Commentators are busily commenting on the G20, only going to show that n economists are easily capable of generating n! conflicting opinions and theories. As for the focus on the clothing worn by the spouses of the boring men in grey suits...
Purity
The talented chap behind the "xkcd" web comicstrip goes from strength to strength...
I wonder where he'd place "Economists"?1 (Recall the opinion of Mencken, too, on the two left-hand specialisms.) Lest you skip a hypertextual visit over to the original, I should add that the text title popup on the graphic suggests: "On the other hand, physicists like to say physics is to math2 as sex is to masturbation." Priceless. Actually, I heartily recommend a visit, if only to howl with laughter at his take on Parking.
In later news...
... the pot has crocked (and a dose of delightful stuff has been extracted from it for the evening meal [it's 19:37]) and the dishes done. I gather there is also now a-plan a-foot for a-little ramble tomorrow ahead of what looks like worsening weather.
I've also been listening to (and sometimes shouting at) the radio, doing some further scanning of a few remaining photos (prints, in this case) of Christa and Peter from earlier days, a bit of reading, some catch-up CD ripping, and rather a lot of sighing as I contemplate the state3 of some of the ID tagging lurking in the depths of some of my MP3 library. It's all very well keeping multiple backups salted around, of course, but keeping everything in sync is a fish of a different smell. Specially as I'm making it up as I go along. Still, I've made sure the necessary folders are shareable basically from every machine in the house now that I no longer run a wireless system. (Except when Junior or Big Bro needs it.)
I've also frequently deliberately allowed myself to be distracted, too — I'm still retired, you know!
ERNIE's (much) diminished attractions
The credit crunch has finally hit home. I'm one of an estimated 1,075,065 winners, this month, of the newly-reduced £25 prize. ERNIE also says "The new £25 prize has allowed us to keep the chances of each Bond number winning a prize at 36,000 to 1, even with the lower interest rate" — when Christa and I were maximising our Bond holdings as part of a cunning retirement plan (!) those chances were nearer to 20,000 to 1, dammit. (And the prizes were higher, of course.)
Bankers still have no shame
Good ol' Guardian:
Bankers say their bonuses contributed to tax income and were spent on cars, restaurants or homes that indirectly created other jobs.
That's alright then.