2012 — 17 August: Friday
The thought crosses my mind1 that whoever all this rain we've been enjoying hereabouts normally belongs to must be pretty arid by now. It's getting beyond a joke. It didn't stop Southern Water a couple of days ago on a mission to spread the word about water meters, also hereabouts.
The first cuppa...
... is a thing of the past, and I'm now (barely) tolerating a Wagnerian overture while contemplating breakfast and the chores ahead for the day. As soon as a fat lady starts warbling I shall change channels.
Having just executed...
... one of the more important of my diverse set of terminate-but-stay-resident tasks — fix the comparative emptiness of Mother Hubbard's cupboard — I think I've earned myself a brief respite. In another "first", when I got back to my car I had to clamber in through the front passenger side as the lady in the battered red Nissan now adjacent to my well-parked car was far too busy with her mobile to pay heed to the four inches or so that separated her passenger side from my driver side. I didn't bother to say anything or, for that matter, warn her that her petrol flap was gaping as wide open as her oral orifice. What's the point?
My first really thorough attempt to sort out my CDs, the MP3s I've ripped from them, and where I store and how I index everything has already revealed a number of anomalies, and a few surprises. My Victor Borge "Comedy in Music" CD, for example, has recordings from between 1946 and 1948. It was Dad who introduced me to his "Phonetic punctuation". As for my Roger Payne CD "Songs of the Humpback Whale" — well, it had largely evaded capture by any of my systems. Until today.
Mr Toyota has...
... very kindly sent me a magazine featuring the new (and, I admit, quite tempting) Yaris Hybrid. An eight-year warranty on the battery should just about see me out, I suspect. First things first, though. It's nearly time for my next annual service and "MOT" susstificate. More expense, no doubt.
I'd quite like to know how I got to my present advanced age without owning a copy of "Spirit of Eden" by Talk Talk. It's fabulous. Right! It's time for me to saddle up and head off for a cuppa and a chat with Roger and Eileen over at their Broken Biscuit Emporium. The rain never arrived, and has been replaced by a few fluffy clouds in a blue sky.
It was trying to rain as I drove back a few minutes ago, but the sky is now again blue.
Good news, bad news
Recall the TV stand that I'd found a couple of days ago? Low, heavy duty stands are quite rare. Well, my newest best friend "James" just emailed to apologise — turns out the one I ordered, and (crucially, it turns out) paid for, is (a) out-of-stock, and (b) discontinued in any case. That was the bad news. The good news is that they should have taken it off their web-site, or at least have said it was out-of-stock, before I paid. My 'contract' therefore stands and (without prompting) they say I can have a slightly bigger, slightly more costly, even more heavy duty version, from a different manufacturer but for the same price.
Width 127cm, height 40cm, depth 50cm, and a 10mm glass top shelf suited for a screen of up to 85kg. The 60" Kuro weighs a mere 50kg. Good result, therefore, overall. Now (of course) I have to stay confined to barracks next Tuesday waiting for the courier.