2010 — 9 March: Tuesday

Whoops! It's crept past midnight before I noticed. I've been browsing through some of the "Alice" material. Not only Martin Gardner's annotations, but also a nice little book I have of various illustrators who've tackled the tales. I also have a collection of his (Dodgson's) letters.

G'night.

Another nice, sunny start...

... to the day. Having just heard journalist X ask politician Y whether President Bush called David Cameron and (if so) what he'd said, I switched immediately back to a music channel. I don't think I could bear to hear any more on that front. Time (08:46) for a cuppa. I think today may just turn into a day for a picnic at the seaside.

And, just in case my friend Gill isn't already down in Panama trying on new hats, "happy birthday, dear girl!"

Back!

I took my main co-pilot out for a spot of bird-spotting from that bench in Keyhaven within sight of Hurst Castle and then, after being chilled to the bone, we adjourned for a spot of lunch at the "Gun Inn". Next stop was the Skoda dealer in Sway for him to sniff and generally admire the new "Yeti". It was jolly fresh in the wind, but the sun stayed out for most of the trip. Now back at the ranch (at 14:19) the clouds are all around. Still, I'd managed to fit in my shopping before we set off, and the laundry is now doing its thing. It's almost like being organised.

Today's next task,1 it seems, is to advise Brian on his next choice of A/V amp (what with it being Spring and that being what an older chap's fancy is apparently turning towards). After a nice hot cuppa, of course.

Next thing I know...

... it seems to be time for the evening meal. Crikey. It's 18:22 — is there a crockpot in the house?

Yesterday (and today) my munching happened to coincide with a fascinating (though irritating) programme called "Fake Britain". And tonight I caught up with part #1 of the "Wonders of the Solar System". So I shall obviously have to keep an eye out for tonight's "Horizon", shan't I? Perhaps it will shed some light on those dark flows. Just call me a couch potato. Actually, I have been thinking about revisiting the whole of "Northern Exposure"... :-)

Grrr! The hour I've just spent watching "Horizon" perfectly illustrated the criticisms I made of BBC2 science documentaries in my recent submission to the BBC Trust about the Director-General's "Strategy Review". As for the media studies moron who thought it a smart idea to age footage artificially. Well, all I'll say is his or her (I suspect "his") efforts looked beautifully crappy in hi-def. Once again, a simple talking head approach would have conveyed the same amount of information in about 10 minutes, leaving far less chance for me to get bored or irritated by the dumbed-down presentation style. (I should have retreated upstairs and just listened to the soundtrack.)

And they say there's...

... nothing new under the sun? I'd never heard of the Bohlen-Pierce scale. Sounds odd!

  

Footnote

1  Tomorrow's, by contrast, is to buy a birthday card for Bryan. Never an easy task.