2011 — 16 February: Wednesday
Just a placeholder1 until I've caught up with some more sleep.
There's a strange...
... bright almost sunny thing up in the sky at the moment. The moment being 09:13 or so. I'm off on an expotition to the Sounds that are Richer (down in Soton) with Mike, who's after a moving coil cartridge (pre)-pre-amp and a pair of small speaker stands. Breakfast, Mrs Landingham, and make it snappy.
Those little white lies...
... can cause no end of trouble. Though the end — generally speaking2 — is held to justify the means.
Tubular Belles
I'm just back from trip #1 (of 2) to Soton, where I successfully snaffled my next issue of the Word music magazine and showed a small amount of financial restraint in these straitened times by putting back the latest issue of "Ubuntu User" when I realised it now costs £7-99. No trip passes without a quick flit around Waterstone's where I saw those no-longer quite so enfants terribles of the UK art world (Gilbert and George) have a book out collecting their "urethra art" postcards. I don't know which is more depressing, the fact that it exists, or the fact that it's regarded as art. But de gustibus non est disputandum.
In happier news, there's been a cash offer for dear Mama's house and I'm very much inclined to accept it. I shall be fascinated to hear Big Bro's "opinion" though even he would have to concede that both I and our solicitor / estate agent / cousin handling the sale have (as far as I know) rather more experience of the UK property market than he does.
And I have just had both electricity and gas meters read on behalf of the same new supplier, which suggests the switching I kicked off last November has finally all gone through.
Time for Trip #2
My chauffeur just called to say he's on his way. It's noon plus a minute and the sun is still mostly visible. [Pause] And back, mission accomplished, in time for a spot of lunch. It's 13:25 and, if the weather stays like this, we shall venture out on a walk tomorrow.
This just in from NZ: "Go4it" :-)
Next item (having devoured all the pamphlet junk picked up in Richer Sounds, read "The Word", and done a full scan on BlackBeast while the freebie CD plays) is another cuppa. It's 15:20 and the music is good.
Good grief
While I'm delighted to learn that I apparently failed to develop any of the "classic" symptoms of clinical depression...
The single largest group — about 50% — showed very little sign of shock, despair, anxiety or intrusive thoughts (the hallmark symptoms of acute grief) even six months after their loss. Those subjects were also screened for lethargy, sleeplessness, inability to experience pleasure and problems in appetite — the classic symptoms of clinical depression — and came up clean on those as well. That didn't mean that they didn't still miss their spouses, but that they had returned to somewhat normal functioning, contradicting the popular maxim of widowhood that "the second year is harder than the first."
... I'm really not sure I want to read the book she reviewed. I think I'll just settle for "somewhat normal3 functioning", thanks very much :-)
Searching...
... until the (JC) Penn(e)y drops, it seems. Fascinating. (Link.)
As is this blog from the chap at Google dealing with webspam.
I need the Land Registration Certificate...
... for dear Mama's house. It must be here somewhere as I distinctly remember seeing it last summer as I was scanning dear Mama's will. We have a sale agreed, subject to contract. [Pause] Amazing what you can find while you're busy looking for something else, isn't it? For example, I now have the instructions for both the new central heating boiler and the water softener. And of course I (eventually) found the fancy legal paperwork, too.
Now, having stewed a few more plums and done the dishes, it's 21:33 and I reckon I've earned another cuppa and the right to watch some more episodes of "Larry Sanders".