2011 — 6 June: Monday
A cooler, moister start1 but a fresh cuppa soon deals with that. At this rate I may even get dressed soon. Today's photo of my little family was one of those "just one more before bedtime" sessions familiar, I suspect, to any parent.
Crikey. It's already 09:24.
Family mystery solved
I got an email yesterday from Michelle — one of the nine people on the planet (that I'm aware of!) who can accurately call me "Uncle". She has solved for me the mystery of what happened to all the books I'd lent to dear Mama over the years. Turns out she'd snaffled them when helping clear out the house in Wombourne last year with her sister Claire. The missing sheep will be flocking home on the 18th June if the trains are still running then.
She will (I suspect) notice some changes around the place since her last solo visit 909 days ago. (The iMac will have disappeared, for starters.) She pondered in her email on the different course her and Claire's lives would have taken had I not introduced them to "the baseball/Muse Twilight world" — a bit worrying to lay that on me, surely? (I can't now remember which of them is Team Jacob and which Team Edward.)
Whenever I hear...
... any mention of E. coli I'm always reminded of the late Desmond Bagley, and his excellent 1977 thriller "The Enemy". I bought a copy in St. Peter Port (Guernsey) in August 1978 during a holiday there with Christa. Bagley was by then a "local" author living on Guernsey, probably to benefit from its lower taxes. I find it hard to believe that I read my first Bagley over 43 years ago.
About the same time I was listening to the music of this popular beat combo, come to think of it...
... though that's an unusual spelling of Roger's surname :-)
My lunchtime munching music was the first album from Alan Parsons. And I'm looking forward to watching the DVD Mr Postie's just popped through the slit in my front door:
Before that, however, I foresee another mission of chocolate mercy over to the care-home. (There was a line in House Season #6 episode 11 [The Down Low] delivered by "13" about what we're all looking for: love, trust, and chocolate. A new holy trinity, perhaps?)
[Pause]
I'm always oddly relieved, on visiting the care-home, to find no evidence of further scrapes and bumps, even as dear Mama's memory lapses further towards total collapse and she moves more and more into the endgame of our so-called intelligent design. There was also an offhand line in Shields' book yesterday touching on the frailties of getting older and the backache that accompanies our evolutionarily unwise decision to walk upright: "Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional." Spoken by a doctor, of course. (I'm reminded that not even the most stoic of philosophers can long endure toothache.)
It's 16:55 and I've earned my next cuppa.
Later
A nice curry (I was feeling lazy) followed by two more episodes of "House" and then some seriously loud music — ongoing — pardon? I can't hear you! I do like living in a detached house. It's 22:57 and the kettle needs testing. Again. Tea, Mrs Landingham?