2013 — 8 September: Sunday

To my annoyance, and not for the first time1 yesterday's care-home invoice 'next payment' date has managed to creep forward by another couple of days ahead of the original printed schedule of payments I picked up at the start of the year. That, combined with the surprisingly (?) intolerant nature of the Barclays online banking interface (which manfully resists my best efforts to persuade it to disgorge "future" payments and transfers dates once I've set them up) has once again forced me to make a second 'instant' monthly transfer to ensure funds are in place in time.

I have better things to do than dance with ugly banking systems. And (also not for the first time) I'm struck by the thought that it's clearly not a system well-designed for purpose. I'm no connoisseur of the things, to be sure, even after grappling with seven different variations in the last decade or so. But I strongly suspect dear Mama (at 97) would be lost without trace even without the dementia. Furthermore, a working lifetime in the IT industry (an industry characterised by its strong tendency to ignore, rather than learn from, the past) is no guarantee of an innate understanding of the latest yoof-oriented system. Why, for example, would anyone but a moron wish to conduct online banking from an inherently insecure cellphone?

Last night's...

... moving pixel display, which drifted over the midnight barrier, was the surprisingly-good "Love is all you need" — an obnoxious new title for what was originally scripted as "The bald hairdresser". It turned out to be a Dogme 95 style ensemble piece of considerable emotional power and had infiltrated the dream that was rattling around as I re-entered the (slightly) more conscious world I inhabit during daylight hours. I may yet now search out Susanne Bier's earlier film "In a better world" though (I confess) the synopsis would not be accurately described as "a barrel of laughs". Or even "Troubled water" to see another performance from the remarkable Trine Dyrholm. She can do more with her eyes than seems possible.

Though I ended up ordering "A Royal Affair", I still blame Mark Kermode (of course). Fingers crossed.

As often happens...

... after a brief renewal of my exposure to the wit and wisdom of Chuck Lorre (the first four episodes of "Big Bang season #6" in this case) I've once again dipped into that fine set of Vanity Cards to see what I've been missing. Here, for example, is one he self-censored last November. Good stuff.

A spy has just tipped me off to the repeats (on BBC Radio 4 Extra) of other David Sedaris material I managed to miss on both its first (and later) outings. Thanks, Tom!

If the heavy showers...

... today are any clue (not to mention the coolth!) I'd say summer is once again no longer icumen in. My way of expressing such a trite thought would have made Christa smile...

Christa, 1977

... which was always one of my favourite hobbies :-)

It doesn't please me...

... to hear from the care-home this afternoon that dear Mama has taken another tumble (yesterday evening, on this occasion) picking up a few bruises on her arm and head in the process. But it does serve as yet further proof — as if I need any — of just how impossible it would have been for me to look after the ol' dear adequately on my own here in Technology Towers. Christa occasionally mentioned her expectation of one day looking after Betty for her last few months; it simply never occurred to me that the older generation would in this case so far outlive the younger! By nearly six years already, amazingly.

Life has a mighty peculiar sense of humour, it often seems to me. [Pause] It is very aggravating, when entering one's PayPal password, to fail to realise that one has accidentally hit the CAPS LOCK key, don't you agree? Nearly as aggravating as when one's Interweb malarkey connection resets without warning. In mid-flight file transfer, naturally. There would, after all, be no point at all in it resetting while not in use, would there?

  

Footnote

1  Though at least my subconscious triggered an alarm this morning, prompting me to check as soon as I woke up.