2010 — 27 August: Friday
I love the sound of breaking glass.1 The morning is distinctly autumnal, but still above the trigger for my heating system. I'm delighted to report my cheeky Xmas hint was spotted. Fingers crossed! But, on the down side, I'd shut my grill pan away behind its fancy glass door yesterday and thus forgotten to add it to last night's small pile of washing up. Bother.
Some shopping beckons, and a flying visit to R&E to blag an afternoon cuppa. I think I'll give the care-home a miss today. One can deal with only so much happiness in one's Life at a time. So, time (08:38) for a tannin-filled pick-me-up.
Isn't technology wonderful? Whatever, as they say, will they think of next? :-)
Meanwhile, this programme about the ridiculous Millennium Dome serves merely to remind me of the waste of time, money, and effort. (Not to mention the fact that the date was out by one year — and means nothing in any case!) I hardly believe its failure "would have been a disaster for the country" either.
Millennial memories
As for the much-hyped "millennium bug", I had this to say to my friend Carol over in New York a couple of weeks into the January of 2000:
Even more pleasing was the £2K or so I was paid as an overtime "bonus" for having agreed to carry a pager and stay sober and within 20 minutes or so of the Hursley Lab on and around the "millennium" date change... just in case.
Keep watching the skies...
I stumbled across a fascinating FAQ on Dyson spheres. Plus — how cool is this? — I think Paul Davies has, in passing, dissed Scientology. Source and snippet:
Religion is the one area in which an immediate impact would be felt. All the world's major religions were founded in a pre-scientific era. The sacred texts and the various creation myths were formulated long before humans had a good understanding of the natural world or the nature of life. More importantly, they are directed specifically at human beings and human society. Knowledge that we share the universe with myriad other sentient beings would inevitably diminish the sense of human specialness that most religions foster... No religion focused on one species and one planet could retain credibility.
I wonder why their comment facility is currently disabled. And, by the way, why would the aliens even need to be intelligent? Oh well, time to come back down to earth and get some food in for the long weekend. It's 10:46 and reasonably bright out there.
Crikey, the Waitrose car park was full to bursting point. Now, here's a neat image:
Fended off a cold call from the Anglian double glazing pirates, plus a missed call on my mobile, and yet another undisplayable text message. Is it time for lunch yet?
Blue-eyed, they may be...
... but I'm still not very keen on our little arachnid chums. Mind you, without Christa and Peter, I'm learning to deal with them unaided.
It took local photographer Tomas Rak three weeks to capture this stunning photo.
Later
The programme "trail" at the end of the Ruby Wax piece mentioned, and I have now therefore just "pre"-ordered, the next volume of Chris Mullin's diaries. I devoured volume 1 with great relish.