2011 — 17 May: Tuesday

Here's further evidence of the extent to which that initially vibrant Dali blockprint (guaranteed by Athena not to fade) has faded over the last 35 years or so. By contrast, you can also see how Christa tended not to fade after exposure to the sun :-)

Christa

The curtains1 are still in use today, in my bedroom. They show no signs of fading, though they are wearing a little thin in places. Rather like me, in fact.

Crikey. Did you know there are at least 67 foolish MPs in the UK parliament? Evidence:

MPs have voted 67 to 61 in favour of a controversial Bill introduced by Conservative MP Nadine Dorries, which wants schools to ensure that sex education for girls includes 'information and advice on the benefits of abstinence from sexual activity'.

BHA website


Or as "Butterflies and Wheels" put it: "Teach girls to keep their knees together because boys will be boys". Didn't the SPRANS experience of our American cousins teach us anything?

My comix heroine Shary Flenniken had neatly lampooned this particular guvmint idiocy back in 1988 in one of her delicious "Trots & Bonnie" strips, from which I have a tiny snippet here:

Sex Ed 101

Having so far failed...

... this morning to find anything that isn't either depressingly stupid or that is only moderately amusing out on the Interweb thingy, I've decided to publish another picture of my little swanny friend making his (or her) take-off during my recent visit to Abbotsbury. Chocks away.

Swan

This shot was taken about three seconds earlier in the take-off sequence.

Horns of a whatsit

I've been pondering a larger (27") monitor. However, I'm not convinced that the 3" increment over the present 24" screens that I use (all 1,920 x 1,200 — none of this new-fangled 1,920 x 1,080 HDTV resolution nonsense thank you very much) is quite worth the cost. That leaves me also pondering the small number of 30" screens that are knocking around. None of these leaves you much spare change, if any, from £1,000 or so.

To help me defer the decision, I've just spent nearly two hours and nearly £210 in the large B&Q store at Nursling on all the bits and bobs I need to turn one wall of what was Christa's study into a complete floor-to-ceiling set of bookshelves. That will liberate two elderly, quite flimsy, floor-standing units that gravity has been slowly bending to the point where they now both lean sufficiently away from the wall opposite that I've concluded they should now be relocated to the local tip.

And I'm now (13:38) grabbing a quick lunch ahead of a trip, with Mike, into the urban squalor that is Southampton's Ikea store as the poor lad needs some new bedroom furniture. I tell you, it's all "go", this retirement lark.

R.I.P. Glen Buxey-Softley

I'd been back from Ikea for less than two minutes when I received the shocking news that my lovely dentist keeled over and died at work, yesterday, probably of a massive heart attack. And their worry was for my upcoming appointment. Good god! He wasn't even 57, dammit.

  

Footnote

1  Sewn by Christa, I proudly recall.