2010 — 6 March: Saturday

"Every now and again" I unearth another picture of Christa. Here's one I took on her little Minolta back in May 2004. I have to say our giant snail1 has not been doing too well after another five years or so of benign neglect, not to mention frost damage:

Christa in May 2004

I think I shall have an early night for a change. I'm tired, and I could use the beauty sleep despite the excellent music. G'night.

A (crockpot) stuffing I'd better go

If I want a nice hot meal tonight. Last night's was a rather lazy chicken tikka masala and Bombay potatoes. Thanks Mr Waitrose ready meals — very tasty. I shall just let Brian Matthew wind down and then it's out with the latest kitchen peeler. Meanwhile, I concede the point (to Amazon) that I bought The Philadelphia Story from them. It is, after all, one of my favourite films. But how they can conclude that I would therefore wish to buy "Furry Hamsters from Hell" baffles me.

It's not every day that a steam train chuffas past just as I'm finishing slicing and dicing veggies. It's nowhere near as sunny as yesterday but no matter. We got our two walks for the week.

Nicely put

I found myself nodding in agreement... but then I usually do with this author's stuff. Source and snippet:

As it happens, I have myself sometimes been the recipient of such abuse: if, that is, one can be said to be the recipient of anything that remains in the virtual world alone. No subject is too recondite to provoke the insensate rage of those who disagree with the view the author has taken of it. Indeed, it sometimes seems as if fury leading to ill-mannered personal abuse and foul language is the predominant mode of disagreement in our society, at least among those who append their comments to an article that appears on the internet.

Theodore Dalrymple in New English Review


One of the reasons I prefer my simple diary format over a blog with a "comment" facility. Recall Henry Wotton: "...who never understood how deepest wounds are given by praise..."

Save the BBC from itself!

It's noon. That didn't seem to take very long. [Pause] It's now 13:00 and I've just finished submitting my personal views to the BBC Trust about their Director-General's2 strategy review. You can read them here. Right. What's next, Mrs Landingham? A cuppa? Brilliant idea. I'll get right on it.

The BBC Trust online survey is here. It's open until 25th May. Vote early. Vote often!

The bee's knees

Mike sent me some of the photos he took during our walk yesterday. Here's my favourite by a country mile:

Bee

I would have liked to post a scan of the cover of my new "Imagined Village" CD (thanks, Mr Postie) that I'd spotted in Gosport last Wednesday. However, its shiny gold leaf renders the result from my flatbed scanner rather drab, and I'm too lazy to fiddle about with the Canon camera and Photoshop to correct the inevitable perspective distortion I would get by taking a flash photo at an angle. It's a nice cover though, and an enjoyable album.

Later

It's 19:03 and the chunk of crockpottery I didn't eat is now chilling down before I pop it into the fridge. The rest of the evening is now my oyster. As there's nothing of any great interest being broadcast I'm sure I can dig a little something3 out of my own collection to watch, hear, or read. What a life, heh? :-)

  

Footnotes

1  I recall we bought him in John Lewis, and it was claimed that he was frost resistant...
2  Another chap who is paid more in one year than I was paid during a working lifetime. It's a strange world out there.
3  Apart from "Furry Hamsters from Hell", of course.