2011 — 10 April: Sunday
And again (at 08:23) it looks like yet another fabulous day. Mike and I will be wandering the wilds of Buriton in a couple of hours, though Brian won't join us on this occasion.1 I note it's "all change" on the early morning BBC 6Music schedule of DJs but the music remains excellent. Having been somewhat let down2 by a couple of my recent film choices last night it's very nice to hear from Mr ex-Pinpoint over the pond — he's interested to hear what I make of "Mary and Max" so I shall move that up the input stack.
I thought for a change this morning I'd have a photo by Christa rather than of Christa. How's this for chilling out? I don't need to see the film processing date on the slide to be able to deduce this was early in 1982. The relatively large size of Peter's "comfort blanket" at this point is a dead giveaway. Since it travelled literally everywhere with him (and, indeed, we sometimes had to return home to pick it up if we ever forgot it) it was abraded away to a mere husk over the next year or two. Christa and I were both quite glad to see the back of it :-)
It was weather like this during our first winter down here in what we'd assumed would be the tropical south that very quickly persuaded us to get our cavity walls insulated despite the fact that we couldn't afford it (relative poverty of an IBM salary,3 recall). Brrr!
See what I'm missing?
Actually, I'm not (I don't pay Mr Murdoch any money, on principle). But I know someone who's a fan...
In fairness I should add that I did watch nearly two and a half episodes of the original series when I was lent it by said fan. My mistake may have been to watch on Blu-ray where the stylised slo-mo gore was just a little OTT for my taste.
Next on my list?
Now this sounds like a worthwhile future acquisition. Source and snippet:
I think of all the people who come and go in my book, she is my favourite. Worse than being airbrushed from history, she was never written in. She had a brief flash of celebrity as Byron's daughter, but no one, with the lone exception of Charles Babbage, had a chance to glimpse her formidable mathematical powers. We can see it now in retrospect. She could never publish under her name; never belong to a professional society; never even attend university. Yet, working with Babbage as an anonymous younger sidekick, she surpassed his vision of what his proposed computing machines could do and could be. "First programmer" is apt. She was a genius.
Talking about Ada Lovelace, of course. Mind you, Babbage was no idiot. His 1864 "Passages from the life of a philosopher" is one of my favourite books.
It's time for me to shovel in breakfast and make a packed lunch. Not to mention get dressed. Off I go. (09:44, tick-tock.)
We don't often...
... venture quite so far afield, but the weather and the walk (a new one for both of us) plus the bench seat at a well-populated duck pond for lunch made it well worth the while. Driving legally through two radar gun speed traps (having been given several visual warnings by oncoming bikers) on the return journey was also nice. Pix to follow, I don't doubt. First order of business: a shower and a cuppa. It's 15:10.
Animals everywhere
Although Mike has an eye for the birds, I'm always surprised at some of the creatures he seems to miss on our woody rambles. Today's example...
... from that scary 1979 film by Ridley Scott.
Canada geese are amphibious, it turns out. Click the pic for proof...
Later
"Mary and Max" turned out to be a delightful film.