2010 — 22 January: Friday
The forecast is for wet, wild, and windy. We shall see. Mind you, the fridge is only sparsely populated and Peter is generally hungry so I guess I shall have to do something about that regardless of the weather.
The ever-reliable Late Junction plays on, but I'm flagging somewhat... G'night, at 00:10 or so.
So far, so wet
But, so what? It's winter. Still I shall get some breakfast in before going out. A very grey day... [Pause] Still pouring as lunch approaches. Boring weather!
I note (as I look up from my self-imposed labour of shifting piles of books from Point A [generally in the vicinity of Junior's bedroom] to Point B [generally elsewhere] in my ongoing struggles with entropy) that the pouring is now more of a drizzling. It's 12:54 and I could, as the Terminator put it, "use a vacation". Now, where's the ladder I need to get up into the loft? Tell me it's not behind an unstable pile of books...
<Sigh>
It doesn't seem to want to stop raining so the heck with it. Out I go. Grizzle, drizzle. It's only H2O after all. It's 14:47 and I'm compelled to admit I don't much care for this weather. Wonder what's on in the cinema?!
Returning from Waitrose with a small but pleasing sense of domestic achievement, and some supper likely to be pleasing to Junior's critical palate, I note that I'm now receiving junk mail purportedly from the AOL Instant Messenger service team. (Remember their users had an early reputation for ONLINE SHOUTY IGNORANCE.) I am commanded to click a link generated exclusively for my account. "Which in your case, you have not got."1 How thoughtful.
Interesting to hear "the [Sutherland] portrait is a remarkable example of modern art" versus the more private verdict "it makes me look as if I am straining at stool". Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Sad to hear of the death (on Monday) of Kate McGarrigle. I missed that. Somewhat harsh to hear Professor Roger Luckhurst describe "Avatar" as execrable when compared to "District 9". It takes all sorts, I guess.
Whatever next?
I don't think I shall watch "Newsnight" tonight! Unbloodybelievable!
Dunno exactly when Junior plans to arrive, but I can't wait any longer — I'm hungry... It's 18:08 and still seems to be wet out there. [Pause] He rang a few minutes ago, tells me he is under the weather, but will be here somewhat after 22:30, poor chap. Sounds tired and run-down. I'd better not subject him to "Avatar", I guess. There's a nice piece on it by David Denby in the New Yorker. Right. I shall let my Freesat PVR watch the material on Brian Eno for me while I relax with the next chunk of the Pallisers. We're almost on the home straight, as it were.
Keep calm and carry on...
... even if the terrorist threat has just been raised to "severe" here in the benighted Kingdom. And how's this for a factoid from our loyal opposition's shadow education secretary?
More children who were eligible for free school meals sat GCSEs in media studies than in physics, chemistry and biology combined.
Is that a good thing or a bad thing? The mind boggles.