2012 — 24 February: Friday

The comparative emptiness1 is more than compensated for by the slow-crawling vehicles at and near every educational establishment in the district, it seems. I hadn't realised the extent to which legs had fallen out of use. Though there is plentiful evidence of vigorous human breeding activity in the last decade or more...

Tea, Mrs Landingham. I need tea! Must be refreshed in time for my lunchtime natter with Iris.

Now this, I did not know:

Penderecki wired up psychiatric patients to encephalogram machines and played them an earlier piece of his, the Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima, and then translated the graphs of their brain-waves as they reacted to the music into the textures of Polymorphia.

Tom Service in the Grauniad


I bought 'Threnody' on vinyl in 1971, but never found it an easy listen. It was culled from my collection. [Pause] Some time before 19th February 1994 (the date of my earliest home-printed and neatly bound 'complete' catalogue of stuff).

Right. The next crockpot is doing its thing, and it's time to set off for my rendezvous.

Rather later

It's now 17:37 and the crockpot seems to be coming along nicely. We lunched at Brambridge and then I showed Iris one of our local six-mile (or so) local loop walks, starting from the little carpark above Shawford. Then I nipped home to shower and change, load the washing machine, and head out again for a cuppa and a file exchange with Len. His cats haven't half grown!

Finally back at Technology Towers to contemplate my evening meal and entertainment options... including a full set of Beethoven Symphonies recorded by Decca between 1986 and 1989 with Christopher Hogwood and the Academy of Ancient Music on "authentic" instruments. I swapped these for my set by Roger Norrington recorded by Nimbus.

Not much point playing anything until the washing machine has finished its spin cycle, however.

Please tell me...

... this isn't working as designed:

Error message

All I wanted to do was log-off from one of my online banks. Good ol' WebSphere, heh?

  

Footnote

1  Of the shopping aisles in Waitrose somewhat before 09:00.