2010 — 15 March: Monday
This time it's getting on for 01:57 and I've just been preparing one of the shots Mike sent over a few minutes ago of (I think) a heron that I'd spotted during our walk. We couldn't get any closer:
Before that, I'd spent the evening over in Winchester for a meal and a couple of films: the oddly enjoyable comedy "Meet Bill" and the always enjoyable ensemble piece "Playing by Heart". Thankfully, whatever had been clogging up the north bound motorway earlier (causing me to detour off it and go up and around via Badger Farm) had entirely cleared away by the time it came for me to retrace my "steps".
Of course, there were plenty of other life-forms in evidence:
G'night.
Next time I open my eyes...
... it's bright sunshine (a contrast with the starry display just a few hours ago — Ursa Major was vertically overhead at the time, if that's a clue) and already 09:44. Time for a cuppa. "Start the week" has just finished. Tut, tut.
I don't always catch "Doonesbury" as regularly as I once did (giving up my daily paper has that effect) but there's a lovely colour weekend special here of a banker's hopes and dreams. It reminds me of Shel Silverstein's 1960 cartoon sequence of a failed young bank robber who then joins the bank, spends a lifetime working his way up through the ranks, and — having finally become the president — makes off with the contents of the vault with the help of his equally-aged getaway driver who now has a gig as his chauffeur. It's a prescient metaphor for UK politicians and Eurocrats.
My first good guffaw of the day came within the first two minutes of this interesting programme. It was the bit about a North American lady who, after a 30-minute chat with a lady atheist in Seattle, actually (and to her evident astonishment) found herself wondering why she wasn't an atheist too.
Not bad, too, to read one of the early comments made to this item about a proposed BBC biopic of Kenny Everett. Source and snippet:
I remember once a doc on Van Dyke the artist and the researcher turned up with a load of stills of Dick Van Dyke ... happy days Mark Quality Thompson
Gimme some credit
Surprised? You could have knocked me down with a credit card. The UK loan sharks are firmly convinced that self-regulation is all they need. "We are pleased that our evidence on unsolicited credit limit increases and the re-pricing of existing debt has conclusively shown that existing practices do not need to be overhauled." Well, they would say that, wouldn't they? (Source.)
Guess who's just got back...
... from a quick, Borders-free, whizz down to the seaside at Bournemouth neatly in time to listen to some of my very favouritest Stravinsky (Firebird suite) while supping a much-needed cuppa? That's right; me. And Mr Postie has left a couple of deposits for me on the front doorstep. Cool. It was cloudy, but excellent visibility. Nobody was in the pier's office, either, so I had me a nice, leisurely, free stroll right out to the end and back. If you faced the Needles and then turned clockwise through 90 degrees you were lined up nicely on Durlston, though I admit I couldn't see the globe even with my (corrected) vision.
Put kettle on, mother!
Somehow, I don't think I'll be bothering with these again after my first exposure to them a few minutes ago:
All I'll say is that mine didn't really end up looking like the example on the pack. No matter; I shall chalk it up to experience, and move on. It's now 19:29 and pitch black out there. But the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra is on the radio. And a fresh cuppa is removing memories of the taste of the pesto marinade.
So to today's incoming. I managed to get the last copy of the April issue of "The Word" and the May issue of "Computer Shopper". Having given up my sporadic searches1 for the Dahl treasury I picked up Matilda in the Waterstone's down there, and the Hugo Young. One of the two DVDs was recommended by young Brack a couple of days ago, and the other stars Princess Buttercup:
