Weekend Roundup

[liadnan]

Soooo. Not much work on so I feel like rambling. Feel free to pass by...

Drinking happened on Friday evening, though they had moved by the time I got there to the pub which others had sworn they didn't want to go to (the pub by the Golden Hind near London Bridge. Shrug, I was fine with there all along). Drank much gin before staggering off to Waterloo and thence to Hampshire.

Saturday I spent sitting on the terrace at home getting sunburnt (which, in a perverse kind of way, I rather like), for the weather was Scorchio!. I remembered that last year I had finally worked out how to make something approximating to Greek-style frappé, and then later I remembered that there was gin. And evening came and morning came, and behold, it was very good. Finished Don Quixote and also Two Middle-Aged Ladies in Andalucia, Penelope Chetwode's (John Betjeman's wife) account of riding round Andalucia in the 1950s. I'm rather fond of eccentric middle-aged Englishwomen.

Remembered to take three pictures (two prints of Burne-Jones paintings and one of Beardsley's illustrations for Salome if anyone cares, which I doubt) to my Uncle Peter for framing (he isn't a real uncle, but he is a very good picture-framer and a family friend prepared to give a discount when he's in the mood).

Also remembered to recover my London map of c.1560 from behind the wardrobe. Well, I say "my". Look, no one else is claiming it. Fascinating thing anyway, Tottenham Court Road, Shaftesbury Avenue and Oxford Street all appear to be nothing more than hedge line country lanes, though most of the street plan even outside the City remains unchanged, save for the works round Aldwych and Kingsway, which was all redone in the 19th century.

All in all the only downside to the weekend was missing the Monaco Grand Prix due to the fact my parents still don't have a TV. Avoided going to morning mass with parents by simple expedient of still being half asleep. (At some point I shall explain just what I mean when I describe myself as an agnostic semi-practising liberal Catholic, but not in this post...)

Dad seems to be developing difficulty breathing, but otherwise seems no worse.

Came back in time to catch 24 and Six Feet Under. Memo to self, trying to watch two programmes at once by constant flicking back and forth is not a sensible option. Caught part of This Life too, I'd forgotten all the stuff involving Egg's father.... is it sad to be nostalgic for the mid-90s incidentally?

I took this morning off in order to sort out various housekeeping/practical stuff that had accumulated. Didn't actually do most of it but hey, I made a list...

Various odd items on the Today programme this morning. Like the invention of ultra strong sticky tape which could suspend someone from the ceiling by one hand. Leaving aside the question of whether this means if you touch the stuff you are in deep shite, I could have sworn that the chap they brought on to talk about it was introduced as "Professor of Condensed Metaphysics". Reason suggests that it must have been "Condensed Matter Physics" or something, but I am now intrigued by the discipline of condensed metaphysics, which sounds far more interesting. Then there was the piece on the Beagle 2, which was all very interesting but.... I know it betrays deep-rooted elitism of the worst kind but I couldn't help finding it rendered slightly incongrous by the fact that the chap for this one sounded like a member of the Wurzels. Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa... T'was a sight more edifying than Jack Straw's attempts to re-invent logic anyway. Were I in their shoes I think my reaction now might be to hold my hands up and admit they may have been wrong on the immediacy of the weapons threat.

Todays wise words of wisdom... checking that a rather old and slightly leaky zippo works when you have just refueled it is unwise. Doing so while you are still holding in the same hand the rag which you have just used to wipe off the excess naphthalene is positively bonkers. Never, ever do this in a living room full of piles of paper. One day I really am going to blow myself up or something.

My adrenalin thus flowing once more I decided to saunter into work... and here I am...

The shoulder strap of my laptop case appears to have spontaneously turned into a Mobiüs strip somehow. Bizarre.

Right. Suppose I should do some work really. Oh, and book tickets for Dream of Gerontius on Friday, keep forgetting to do that.

Comments

[boondockeorla.livejournal.com]

and how would one obtain a degree in condensed metaphysics? oh what an amusing ramble....thanks
ps - think i've done something very similar once or twice with my zippo