2009 — 10 October: Saturday
I'm surprisingly tired — it's been a very long day. Well, I know what was going through my mind when I took tonight's picture of Christa (in August 2007) but I wonder what was going through hers:
The corkscrew hazelnut is doing fine, by the way. I also snaffled another pair of pears from the pear tree. (Obviously!)
Big Bro has suggested I stop feeding the black economy and get myself a heat pump. I have gently straightened him out, unlike the hazelnut. G'night.
Lovely sunny start
Which helps dispel the gloom of yesterday's central heating system news. I can begin thinking about how to give access to both ends of each radiator and to all the "buried" pipework. (Buried, that is, under fitted carpets and floorboards.) I suspect the garage is going to serve as a buffer space while the poor ol' car sits and shivers on the drive. Still, that seems to be the norm around here. I've looked at ground heat source heat exchange and heat pump systems, but the amount of room I have to play with is minimal. Nor do I relish pipework going down as far as 100 metres, which is casually mentioned in one of the articles I read.
Of more immediate concern is my errant pilot light on the boiler. But that's another story. It's 09:12 and I have a hot fresh cuppa to hand. Nearly all's well.
Moog
I've been quite fascinated by the Moog and its effect on music since Walter/Wendy Carlos ("Switched-on Bach" anyone?) and briefly getting hands-on one (the mini-Moog) at the South Hill Park arts centre in Bracknell well over 30 years ago when Christa and I attended a series of evening lectures on music and technology. Today's "Grauniad" whets my appetite for more by plugging an upcoming1 BBC4 documentary. (Friday 16th October at 21:00)
Afternoon delights
While I enjoyed listening to Ian Richardson's reading of "Shadowlands" I've not yet been able to bring myself to watch the film version with Anthony Hopkins and Debra Winger. I shall dip my toes into the water, however, with the BBC Radio 4 afternoon play. I reserve the right to hurl a brick at the "off" switch!
It was excellent. Right, what's next Mrs Landingham?
One of the "station I.D." breaks during NPR's comedy quiz "Wait, wait, don't tell me" has just categorised the BMW Mini as a "37 mpg car with go-kart handling". While it's fair to say it was Christa's favourite car — she bragged about it back in April 2004 to some of her Nebraskan High School chums — I think she might have had a word or two to say about the accuracy of that description.
Could this be true?
So, just how popular is IKEA? It's estimated that 10% of living Europeans were conceived on an IKEA-produced bed. It's time you learned a little more about the company, its reclusive owner Ingvar Kamprad (who may or may not be worth more than Bill Gates), and his continuing quest to install flat pack, streamlined fixtures across the seven continents.