2009 — 19 July: Sunday
So, let's see when Big Bro shows up. Meanwhile, tonight's picture is of Christa with our oldest nephew, Florian, who first stayed with us when he was about three or four, I guess. I took this in the mid-1980s when both Bro and dear Mama were also with us, passing through (as it were) on the way back to NZ.
Did I ever post a link to this piece of meta text about Heinlein? (Aha, I see I did!) I never did get my printed copy of Heinlein in dimension (an expensive paperback published by Advent of Chicago, and bought from "Dark They Were and Golden-Eyed" in Soho) back from the neighbour I was ordered by dear Mama1 to lend it to, way back in 1972 or so...
Oh well, definitely time to sleep — g'night. At 00:07, and despite all the fabulous music Bob Harris has been playing.
Sleep having fled...
... several hours ago, I'm now moping around waiting for Big Bro to show up on my doorstep. I'm also girding what's left of my loins for further battle with one new video toy. I've just placed an order for the DVDO Edge.
The aim of this never-ending game is to avoid having to compromise picture quality between my various sources (though, obviously, Blu-ray and the BBC HD satellite channel are currently my two "best" sources). I've chosen an external video scaler and processor2 that (also) includes the same VRS technology as my two Oppo disc players. This is not my first external scaler box — I was perfectly happily using an earlier analogue video external scaler since mid-2006 until I stumbled blindly into this fun-filled world of high-definition digital video processing earlier this year. Watch this space.
It's 11:24. Breakfast is a forgotten memory. Bro showed up about an hour ago, arriving from Swindon. He's had his cuppa. What's next, Mrs Landingham?
Well, it's been fascinating to listen to Sarah Dunant and her Private Passions choices. I share many of her musical favourites, starting with Van the Man, moving on through Leonard Cohen, and finishing with Lucinda Williams. Makes a nice change from the almost invariably high-brow classical choices that guests on "Desert Island Discs" seem to feel obliged to make. Right. Time to go feed self and Big Bro.
Cursed, I am...
... cursed with my two nearest male relatives both having appetites to shame a hungry horse. How the hell did Christa ever manage to stave off their starvation pangs? I can see my pitiful store cupboard depleting at a rate of knots. (Still, I did palm off a three-year-old bottle of finest cheap supermarket shandy on him. Only one more to get rid of.) It's 14:13 — let's hope he can last until tea-time.
As you may perhaps realise, I'm a little over-familiar just now with one or two of my DVD setup discs at the moment. One of them (Joe Kane's DVD Video Essentials) opens with a nice video sequence of a Space Shuttle launch accompanied by Respighi's stirring march — "The Pines of Rome". BBC Radio 3's divine Fiona Talkington has just played us a lovely version of that, by the Brighouse and Rastrick (Brass) Band. It's very different!
Later
I thought it would be educational to leave BBC 6Music's "Freak zone" playing downstairs while Big Bro photoshops his way through some of his endless supply of aircraft photos. I shall keep an eye on him to make sure his ears don't start bleeding. Meanwhile, I've reworked my A/V system diagram to reflect the new video scaler which is, even now, apparently on its merry way to me. What larks, Pip ol' chum, what larks.
Bro managed to identify just over half the components in my current crockpot meal, and also liked the stewed plums that I offered for pud. Hooray; that's Day 1 nearly survived. Now it's time to fire up tonight's video entertainment, though we've already seen the plasma screen in action as we watched a selection of JPEGs3 that he'd cut to a data DVD for me. Sadly, no new pictures of Christa — that well is running rather dry. <Sigh>