2011 — 6 January: Thursday
To my surprise,1 I note that today marks the end of my fourth year as a retiree — a state I have to remind dear Mama of on every visit when (if) she asks "How's work?". It's 07:40 and raining out there. On days like this it's nice to be retired :-)
Another email from 'technicolor' suggests my second replacement DVD2 of Inception ...
... is 70 units further along the output hopper than its sibling. I wonder if they'll have the wit to stick them both in a single envelope?
Sparked by yesterday's lunchtime chat with Len, my desire to re-read "A Fire upon the Deep" (by Vernor Vinge) was thwarted last night by its absence from my shelves. I suspect it's currently in Peter's flat in Battersea. Probably quicker to buy a fresh copy :-) [Pause] Indeed, there's a new omnibus edition for less than a fiver. Thanks, Amazon!
Could there possibly be...
... anything nicer than nipping out to grab the next tasty crockpot ensemble (except the onions — I still have a tearful surplus for some reason) in the pouring rain and the sweltering +3C of a grey winter's morning? I doubt it!3 It's 10:46 and definitely time for my next hot cuppa. Meanwhile, I see that Mr ChemDry (and his mate) have started work on the saturated house next door with a vengeance.
After numerous adventures...
... I'm now relaxing with a re-heated cuppa, half-listening to Howard Jacobson, having finally managed to get a snailmail "thank you" into the post. £5-33 for a dozen 1st-class stamps plus one for today's envelope? Amazing! I also ended up writing a whole page of A4, by hand. (Couldn't find any of Christa's notelets — they're all stowed away in cartons propping up one wall of her study. Couldn't find my book of stamps. Couldn't even find my pack of envelopes. Plus, my scrawl nowadays is awful, and the writer's cramp was setting in, too.) Then back from the PO via Jonathan's "Arcade Books" (of course). Despite not having my reading glasses I managed to find a little something (on the right — I've already scampered through it; it need not detain us further) to add to the little something (on the left — Klingon poetry, anyone?) that a recent piece in "The Register" put me on to:
I have a video date this evening, and a brunch date tomorrow at the bikers' café. Plus it's also dear Mama's 94th tomorrow, and I have a card from NZ to be popped in. Plus, with luck and a following wind, a lunch next Thursday with a select few wage slaves from the "old firm".
Groan!
Click to see the answer:
From the BBC's "Material World"
Time I wasn't here.