2011 — 24 April: Sunday

Easter greetings from Christa!

Christa

Having watched "9" — an engagingly odd little piece of animation — I've reverted to radio... If there's any finer late-night jazz than Norma Winstone singing with Ian Carr's "Nucleus"1 I've yet to hear it. Nonetheless, it's time for some beauty sleep ahead of another walk in a few hours from now.

Happy Easter (or whatever) from me, too, by the way. G'night.

Breakfast now being...

... a repast of the recent past, I have a few minutes in which to pack a lunch and throw on (not too many) clothes for what looks as if it's going to be a warm walk. It's 09:21 and very sunny out there.

I don't imagine...

... for one moment that publication of Greg Muttitt's book on oil and politics in occupied Iraq will change much, but at least it confirms that one of our recent UK Prime Ministers (the one who converted to the Catholic church) was, indeed, better named as Tony Bliar, as "Private Eye" tended to refer to him. Snippet:

Tony Blair, 6 February 2003: "Let me just deal with the oil thing because... the oil conspiracy theory is honestly one of the most absurd when you analyse it. The fact is that, if the oil that Iraq has were our concern, I mean we could probably cut a deal with Saddam tomorrow in relation to the oil. It's not the oil that is the issue, it is the weapons..."

Paul Bignell in The Indy


Erm. Which weapons were those, Tony?

Following my post-walk...

... shower, and as my neglected latest cuppa cooled downstairs, I was sitting on the floor in what used to be Christa's study, browsing gently through a book that had somehow failed to make its presence known to my database. It's "A Random Scrap Book", compiled by LF Salzman, and was printed and published for him in 1957 by W Heffer and Sons Limited — the Cambridge firm I came to know very well during the nine months I lived in Meldreth in 1971.

It has a lovely essay on books, with an observation on translation that Christa would have been tickled pink by. Here's an excerpt:

Translation

The earliest translation I remember Christa working on2 (for a colleague of hers in Royal Holloway College) was a dissertation on the mating habits of giraffes. I expect you can imagine how much fun I had teasing her.

Mercy me, it's 18:59 — I'd better feed myself. [Pause] Just finished watching the last extra on the "The Quiet" DVD. Excellent little movie. Now then, what's next, Mrs Landingham? It's 22:32 already. Oh yes, fetch the laundry in off the line, and catch up with Guy Garvey's finest hour on BBC 6Music.

  

Footnotes

1  I bought this particular album (Labyrinth) while in my apprentice digs in Hatfield when it came out in 1973. It occurs to me that that was quite a few years ago now, dammit.
2  She rejected the challenge of tackling a work of romantic fiction written by the wife of a department head. Neither of us could keep a straight face while reading her turgid purple prose.