2010 — 1 January: Friday — frozen rabbits!
Happy New Year. It's 01:34 and about -1C out there. Just returned from a pleasant evening of chit-chat over at Cathy's place in the light of the second full moon in a single month (hence "blue moon", I learn). It's just occurred to me: thirty years ago to the day, Christa and I were playing an all-night session of "Trivial Pursuit" with our friends Hugh and Yvonne over in Old Windsor while listening to a similar all-night session of wonderful rock music on BBC Radio London. I still have the recording of the music, now on minidisc.
G'night!
Here we go
It's bright, sunny, and still frosty at 09:35 — I need a cuppa! Training the aging brain, heh?
Many longheld views, including the one that 40 percent of brain cells are lost, have been overturned. What is stuffed into your head may not have vanished but has simply been squirreled away in the folds of your neurons.
I know that feeling.
Speaking of "longheld views", I first saw the fine wall painting on the side of my in-law's house ("mansion" was nearer the mark) in September 1974, and you can see a tiny bit of it here. Today's picture dates back to July 1963, a month or so before Christa went over to Nebraska on her High School exchange programme. (That school, by the way, still has her on its mailing list, as I discovered just a couple of days ago.)
Since I shall be out and about later today, I'm not making my traditional New Year's Day trip to the seaside. Instead I've been doing what Christa always liked to do: listening to the concert live from Vienna. Besides, it's freezing out there!
Type casting
My good friend Mike commented that only I would be nerdy enough to make my last DVD purchase1 of the decade a film named after a font. While he may well be right, there are some kindred spirits interviewed during the film. I haven't time to finish watching it right now, but here's my favourite quote from the first 35 minutes:
It's the whole Swiss ideology; the guy who designed it tried to make all the letters look the same. Hello??? You know, that's called an army. That's not people. That's people having the same f**king helmet on. It doesn't further individualism.
Erik co-wrote "Stop stealing sheep & find out how type works" back in 1983. And, yes, I bought my copy in October 2000. Sad.
Later, much later
Arrived safely back home at 22:22 after 82.7 miles and frost of -4C (with, if the crystal clear sky is any sign, less still to come). A wonderful evening meal and chat in good company. Plus the first fish soup I've ever had — delicious, too. And one glass of what turned out to be the best of the various wines on offer; Chateau Neuf something or other — it was red and very tasty! But as Andrew said, back to the baked beans tomorrow...
I'm also predicting an early night, for a (considerable) change. Since Christa's death I have very rarely 'retired' before midnight. Methinks it might be good to try to get back on to a slightly more normal cycle. We shall see.