2013 — 31 January: Thursday
Walking is a bit tricky, today.1 In local, and far more minor, medical news, I shall be popping into Dr Fang's in a couple of hours. Let's hope the rain has eased off before then. And lest I forget, there's a forlornly-empty crockpot hassling me. Last night saw me consume the last of the pre-Xmas chucky eggs :-)
I was sufficiently impressed by last night's "Looper" that I'm now going to give the director's earlier venture "Brick" another try...
Christa and I were rather exasperated by it on our previous attempt, an astonishing six years ago almost to the day. My, how Time flies heh? Who knows? Perhaps I'm not quite the same chap I was back then.
Plums...
... are not just a breakfast cereal topping. Having browsed this — source and snippet:
It was said of Edward Gibbon, author of A History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, that he lived out his sex life in his footnotes. The footnotes here are often eye-poppingly fun. We learn, among much else, that Wodehouse was descended from Anne Boleyn's sister, Lady Mary, as in The Other Boleyn Girl. (He was also related to Cardinal Newman.) And that a previous recipient of the Twain medal Wodehouse is about to get went to — Benito Mussolini. (Who knew Il Duce was such a wag?) In another, we hear that in 1941 the Queen Mother ordered 18 books for little Princess Elizabeth, the present queen, all of them by Wodehouse.
... my copy is now on its way from "The Book People".
[Pause]
It's currently nice and sunny, though with a chilly wind. My next dental date is in August. The crockpot is now stuffed and set to "stun". There's a new cuppa to be supped. And I've just heard the next episode of Armistead Maupin's engaging "Tales of the City" — yes, I was listening to Woman's Hour while slicing and dicing — though it's awfully hard for me to 'hear' anyone but Laura Linney as Mary-Ann Singleton. How it can possibly be over 30 years since I first read these linked stories boggles my mind.
I need to stay close to my phone for the next 24 hours or so in case I get called for any hospital taxi services. Still, there's always plenty of things not to do as I pursue my enjoyably placid retirement career "busy doing nothing, working the whole day through". [Pause] As I let my lunch salad get a bit nearer room temperature on the kitchen windowsill I see that Mr Postie has just delivered another opportunity to watch Emily Blunt this evening:
There are worse ways to fill the idle hour :-)
I've just heard...
... on the steam radio someone whose book I read (after initially spotting John Lanchester's amusing review of it on the "New Yorker" web site) quite some time back. This time, he was talking about quantum biology and how his theory involving it might explain our sense of smell. Sadly, there's no longer a Borders ready to sell me a half-price copy if he writes another book.
I've also heard from my friend's 'hubby' that all was running smoothly in Winchester hospital, and that her surgery was about to start.
I've been admiring the latest entries in Wikipedia's "Picture of the Year" competition. I greatly envy young Tracy Caldwell Dyson as she gazes at the planet from low orbit. (Link.)
The less said about "Super 8" probably the better. Ever onward. At least the crockpot was tasty. "Your sister's sister" is superb, however.