2010 — 6 October: Wednesday
A gloomy start1 but we're determined to get a walk in (a bit later than our usual time to give the rain every opportunity to move further away). Neither of us likes walking in the rain. It's 09:43 and I've just been listening to Phill Jupitus on BBC 6Music — he has an interesting set of radio reminiscences out that I was leafing through on Monday. Though in the end I opted for the latest Stephen Fry slab of autobio. (Half price in WHSmug.)
There's a nice quote from Somerset Maugham sneaked into a report of the latest survey of North American human sexual behaviour:
Half a century ago, the writer Somerset Maugham opined that there is "hardly anyone whose sexual life, if it were broadcast, would not fill the world at large with surprise and horror". He may, finally, be right.
I wonder how many "rampant rabbits" are shifted over there?
Time to prepare a packed lunch, methinks. The sun is now shining. Good sign.
Back
From an enjoyable six mile tramp around the roads of Hinton Ampner in glorious sunshine with a cool breeze and lots of fluffy white things up in a blue sky. I shall be seeing Dr Fang at 10:30 tomorrow, which I hope will leave me in a fit state to chew over some gossip with Len at lunchtime. Toothache is one of those things sent to try us, but "for what?", I wonder. Don't give me any of that tripe about suffering being good for the soul, either. I just don't buy it.
No cheery email from my friends at Staples, either. Grrr. Time to (carefully) munch a somewhat late lunch — it's 14:34 but I needed a shower first.
I don't usually answer the door when I have only a towel on, but I made an exception for my young friend from UKMail as he was here to collect the damaged bits'n'pieces and return them to Staples. Turns out (of course) he can only pick up stuff in its original pristine packaging, but at least he's willing to testify to having seen all the damaged goods. I've told Staples I'm prepared to write off the costs of the two bookcases they have so far failed to supply in three attempts and given them one month to collect the various and variously-damaged failures from my garage. After that, I'm off to the tip. I can't fault them on helpfulness, but execution is an entirely different matter...
I shall now also, of course, be on the lookout for a fresh pair of decent bookcases to fill the gap in my little book warehouse.
These boots were made etc etc
The first time my boots were on the web (here) I was defending myself against a homicidal pheasant. Today, I suggested to Mike that he include my booted foot to give an idea of the sheer scale of some humongous fungus. Click the pic to see it:
I take a size 12, by the way.
And these little fellas, exploiting a horse apple in the middle of the gravel road, are as near as I can manage life-size:
Ain't Nature grand when she's not too busy sending "ouch" signals along dental nerve paths? It's 17:51 already. How did that happen?
Chance in a million
Closing the blinds and drawing the curtains a few minutes ago, here's what fell through the time-honoured venetian blinds postal delivery system:
I could not defend any accusation that I am (and Christa was) hopelessly romantic. We both very much enjoyed this early comedy vehicle for Simon Callow and Brenda Blethyn. And series 3 includes a rather young Stephen Fry (though I confess I'll need to watch it again to prove that). I've been awaiting this DVD since last April. Right! Time (19:07) to heat up, and cautiously chew, an evening meal. I think any extended period of toothache is a sure-fire way of losing weight.
3 Quarks
Because I don't visit them daily, I don't catch things like this as quickly as I might otherwise... Let alone this...
G'night.