2010 — 5 March: Friday

Oops. It seems to be a bit (02:03) late again. Need sleep lest I fall asleep on the planned walk near that pub with no name.

"Mean Girls" turned out to be ridiculously enjoyable, and the extras were very interesting too. Must remember to look up Rosalind Wiseman — she wrote Queen Bees & Wannabees which was the book that attracted Tina Fey's attention. G'night.

I had no idea...

... travel costs had got so high. "FILTH" used to mean "Failed In London Try Hong Kong"1 but I see that the HSBC boss is getting a boost to his pay: "a £300,000 a year pay rise the bank is handing him 'in recognition of the relocation to Hong Kong and the associated fixed costs of living that will be incurred'." When I relocated here from Old Windsor in 1981 I picked up a one-off set of expenses that came to less than half my salary, too. (Source. Why doesn't he look happier?) The only minor difference between us, I guess, is that he's already being paid more each year than my life-time total earnings. What a cunning stunt becoming a banker is!

More (delicious) rubbish here. But now (09:36) it's time to get ready for a blast of freezing air and sunshine.

"Santo subito", indeed!

The campaign to transmogrify (for want of a better word) the late (but not much-lamented in my case) Pope JP II from a decaying corpse to a saint has been somewhat derailed by the relapse of the nun who had been claiming a miracle cure. Oops. (Source of this miraculous nonsense.) And there's a story about JP II's habit of whipping himself, too. "Good God!" How (self) mortifying...

In more rational news, I'm back from an excellent 7 mile ramble near Selborne in glorious weather. Life remains good. And, by the way, I've just gone through the 19,000 miles total in the Toyota. Toot, toot.

This Canadian soprano (Measha Brueggergosman) sounds like a fun person.

Later

To the probable detriment of my blood pressure, I've been catching up with Roger Bolton's excellent BBC Radio 4 "Feedback" programme. He's questioning Tim Davie Director of BBC Audio & Music who, although paid half what his boss gets, is considerably more articulate. But he's still failing to answer the flood of protest against the proposed closure of BBC 6Music and the Asian network. He's failing to answer direct questions, and seems content to pass the buck to the BBC Trust for their 12-week consultation period. Our Mr Davie strikes me as a true politician, in the very stinkiest sense of the word. There's a Guardian interview with him here, too. What can one expect, I wonder, from an ex-Proctor & Gamble brand manager?

He says he wants fewer, bigger, radio networks and claims no money is being taken off the table for digital. But dissipating some excellent 6Music shows across the surviving networks has got to be about the poorest option he could have devised. Radio 1 and 1Xtra are appalling. Radio 2 has been ordered to attract more listeners over 65. Radio 3's classical diet is hardly a good fit. Radio 4's often inane political chattering and talk format is completely unsuitable. Radio 5's sport is out of the question. BBC7 is essentially all-talk, too. That only leaves the World Service. So who does he think he's kidding?

Incoming

Meanwhile, "Nurse Jackie" grew on me to the extent that I gave in and found her waiting for me on the front doorstep this afternoon:

DVD

And I have a heavy date with some metal music in less than an hour!

  

Footnote

1  And "Empire Made" was a label all too often applied to cheap plastic rubbish made there. Not any more!