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Jul. 1st, 2003 04:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
liadnanWelcome to your semi-regular burble through my world... Sorry, this is just jerky dribs and drabs of half-thoughts, but this is an imperfect world.
Weekend... wandered round the British Museum looking at various things... went to the Memory Exhibition (or whatever it's called) while I was there, which was frankly a bit rubbish. Went and had lunch with Adele and Steph after a bit, and then went onto wander around the second hand book market on the South Bank with them: manfully resisted buying anything.
I went to the National Gallery for one of my periodic wanders round the permanent exhibition at some point over the weekend as well, and saw, for the first time I remember, an extremely morbid picture by Salvator Rosa... a new-born baby signs their name in a book, while a terrifying, awful, Death leans over their shoulder and guides the pen. I particularly noticed it because I now have a very strong suspicion that Giger had this picture in the back of his mind when designing Aliens. Also spent ages looking at the Turners, specifically the two his will directed should hang between two Claudes. Amazing... I wonder whether if I had the slightest trace of artistic talent I could work out how Turner managed, almost every time, to bring off those sunsets.
Yesterday I did actually manage to wake up in time to go to Wimbledon. Actually, that isn't strictly true. I was very late, but it was raining at the time and most people have more sense. I think I only went myself because of my deep-rooted bloodymindedness and a desire that I should accomplish at least one thing I had planned to do this long weekend. Anyway, the rain stopped, and apart from one shower stayed stopped, so I actually managed to see quite a good bit of tennis. I also bumped into someone I acted against very recently, who recognised me... could have been a little difficult, but fortunately we had settled amicably and she was a very pleasant lady anyway.
I was musing about sport actually.. I don't follow most sports with much devotion. Racing (horseracing, particularly flat, that is) I care about a good deal; cricket I follow the fortunes of Hampshire and England with vague interest and enjoy watching; F1, I take an even vaguer interest in the fortunes of Jordan and watch when I can be bothered; and I can be interested in long distance yacht racing. The last is largely because I grew up near the Hamble and the Solent, home to the world's greatest concentration of Grotty Yachties (I used to get drunk in the Howard's Way pub and knew the son of the man who owned the real boatyard on which it was based fairly well). We all used to trek down to see the Round the World boats off and back regularly... Also, my brother-who-died was a serious sailor and desparately wanted to do one of those races. Those of you now thinking that psychiatrists might find something to say about my obsession with what he did and wanted to do can rest assured that they have in fact done so. But I digress, as ever...
Tennis is different: I don't really care who wins in the long run, though I usually end up supporting someone in any given match.. the point is that I find it the most beautiful sport to watch, particularly on grass (because of the practical effects of grass, though aesthetically it also helps), as beautiful as fencing (which I keep meaning to take up properly again but is frankly rather boring to watch) ought to be. Snooker is a sort of lesser member of the same class, and is more hypnotic than beautiful. There's also an absence of beautiful east European women with short skirts...
It is not, incidentally, a cliché to say that I would rather watch paint dry than watch football. Watching paint dry can be quite rewarding actually. And golf, of course, should be re-criminalised.
Chambers AGM this afternoon. I think I shall sit in the corner and say nothing. I'm very glad I kept these days as holiday in my diary, I actually have some dregs of energy. Remarkable. I have no intention of wasting said energy arguing about our budget.
On my way back last night I noticed a tube advert for the University of East London, with a strapline of "Everyone's off to UEL" or similar. It was illustrated by a photograph of the statue of Eros at Piccadilly, with the usual technical jiggery-pokery so that Eros was seen flying off his perch. The thing is that, as any moderately observant Londoner could work out after a brief inspection, he's quite blatantly buggering off not to East London, but in almost precisely the opposite direction, down Piccadilly, or possibly Lower Regent Street. I have a nasty suspicion it says bad things about me that I find this amusing. Perhaps he needs to circle over London to gain altitude.
After that, as I walked in my usual daze from the tube station, I passed a small child trotting along with her father (presumably) and muttering to herself.. "'finity and one, 'finity and two, 'finity and three..", I'm glad to see parents are keeping up this honourable tradition of fucking with their children's heads.
I was re-reading my post from a couple of days ago and my internal grammar-nazi told me that "Does anyone but me find..." couldn't be right, that it should be "anyone but I" (does anyone find, do I find). Since my instinct, on the other hand, told me that what I had written was correct, and my grasp of English grammar is generally more instinctive than learnt, I tried to ignore it, but in a bored moment the other day I looked it up in Fowler and was most smug to discover that the point is much argued and the weight of authority is on the side of my instinct (because 'but' in that sense is a preposition rather than a conjunction, particularly when it's in an interrogative clause). After all, one wouldn't say "does anyone except I".
Ignore my sad pleasures then, see if I care. Anyone who does also care, and wishes to carp about the point that I've used 'their' as a singular possessive pronoun in this post can bugger off: it's entirely accepted except by people who are just fundamentally wrong. For the record, even when I do let it out, the internal grammar-nazi only cares about my own posts, it's just a thing I have....
61% of a Channel 5 straw poll said gay couples shouldn't have the same legal rights as straight ones. I'm quite surprised by that. For myself I can't quite see the point of the new Civil Partnerships thing. Since a civil marriage is (or rather, can be) completely distinct (I originally wrote divorced but decided that was unnecessarily confusing) from a religious marriage now, why not simply say that gay couples can have a civil marriage, rather than invent a new category, which will probably be either substantially the same or devoid of substance? The Christian churches and other religions can carry on doing as they see fit, that's their business, so there's no real basis for religious objections. Though there is some historical debate over the possible existence of a Christian rite for the blessing of homosexual relationships in the early medieval church. Memo to self, look up the source for that.
Katherine Hepburn dead... I think I'll remember her most in Lion in Winter, one of my favourite films. Incidentally, I vaguely remember reading that when Audrey changed her name from "My Father Was A Dutch Nazi" there was some argument among the People Who Decide Such Things over whether she should be allowed Hepburn as a surname professionally as Katherine was already in business. Ah, Audrey for choice, always and forever, but Katherine was certainly one of the all-time great actresses.
I decided to put up loads of pictures over the weekend. First off was the enormous one sheet A-Z of most of London which has been rolled up behind the wardrobe for more than a year. Much comedy ensued in the normal order of putting up large posters with bluetack... not level, one corner comes off, other corner comes off, whole thing comes down, redo from start ad infintum. Once ad infinitum, the general idea was that I would put next to it my series of prints of maps of London at various stages in its history, including my framed one of London in the reign of Elizabeth I, which is quite large and heavy.
Hmm. It seems the plaster on my walls is not quite as strong as it really ought to be. Ooops. Large holes now covered up by a variety of postcards, and the framed map back to leaning against the walls. If I don't move out of here for a couple of years, perhaps the holes and dents will mend magically. In the meantime the A-Z poster fell down again and I've given up bothering for the present.
I think that's everything on my mind, so I'll leave you here. Currently re-reading Susan Reynolds Fiefs and Vassals, on the way we understand feudal society and how it bears little or no relation to any social structure that actually existed. I not sure she's right, and I wish she wouldn't keep explaining that she isn't talking about "feudalism in the Marxist sense", whatever that is or was, a thought on which I may expand at some point, though I'm not sure it's a subject in which anyone likely to read this is wildly interested. Also reading Le Carré's A Perfect Spy, and I just finished The Leopard which I didn't find as brilliant as it's cracked up to be. On the subject of books, Lindsey Davies fans who haven't yet got around to it (and why not?, too involved with pre-pubescent wizards or something hmm... or just-pubescent I guess) will be glad to know that her latest, The Accusers is on top form, though she seems to have this inexplicable dislike of lawyers. Having said that my head of chambers is actually a close friend of hers from university days.
Bah. I wrote the above hours ago but wasn't able to sign into my account. In the meanwhile I have gone from being relatively cheerful to being fedup and generally depressed. Such is my life...
Weekend... wandered round the British Museum looking at various things... went to the Memory Exhibition (or whatever it's called) while I was there, which was frankly a bit rubbish. Went and had lunch with Adele and Steph after a bit, and then went onto wander around the second hand book market on the South Bank with them: manfully resisted buying anything.
I went to the National Gallery for one of my periodic wanders round the permanent exhibition at some point over the weekend as well, and saw, for the first time I remember, an extremely morbid picture by Salvator Rosa... a new-born baby signs their name in a book, while a terrifying, awful, Death leans over their shoulder and guides the pen. I particularly noticed it because I now have a very strong suspicion that Giger had this picture in the back of his mind when designing Aliens. Also spent ages looking at the Turners, specifically the two his will directed should hang between two Claudes. Amazing... I wonder whether if I had the slightest trace of artistic talent I could work out how Turner managed, almost every time, to bring off those sunsets.
Yesterday I did actually manage to wake up in time to go to Wimbledon. Actually, that isn't strictly true. I was very late, but it was raining at the time and most people have more sense. I think I only went myself because of my deep-rooted bloodymindedness and a desire that I should accomplish at least one thing I had planned to do this long weekend. Anyway, the rain stopped, and apart from one shower stayed stopped, so I actually managed to see quite a good bit of tennis. I also bumped into someone I acted against very recently, who recognised me... could have been a little difficult, but fortunately we had settled amicably and she was a very pleasant lady anyway.
I was musing about sport actually.. I don't follow most sports with much devotion. Racing (horseracing, particularly flat, that is) I care about a good deal; cricket I follow the fortunes of Hampshire and England with vague interest and enjoy watching; F1, I take an even vaguer interest in the fortunes of Jordan and watch when I can be bothered; and I can be interested in long distance yacht racing. The last is largely because I grew up near the Hamble and the Solent, home to the world's greatest concentration of Grotty Yachties (I used to get drunk in the Howard's Way pub and knew the son of the man who owned the real boatyard on which it was based fairly well). We all used to trek down to see the Round the World boats off and back regularly... Also, my brother-who-died was a serious sailor and desparately wanted to do one of those races. Those of you now thinking that psychiatrists might find something to say about my obsession with what he did and wanted to do can rest assured that they have in fact done so. But I digress, as ever...
Tennis is different: I don't really care who wins in the long run, though I usually end up supporting someone in any given match.. the point is that I find it the most beautiful sport to watch, particularly on grass (because of the practical effects of grass, though aesthetically it also helps), as beautiful as fencing (which I keep meaning to take up properly again but is frankly rather boring to watch) ought to be. Snooker is a sort of lesser member of the same class, and is more hypnotic than beautiful. There's also an absence of beautiful east European women with short skirts...
It is not, incidentally, a cliché to say that I would rather watch paint dry than watch football. Watching paint dry can be quite rewarding actually. And golf, of course, should be re-criminalised.
Chambers AGM this afternoon. I think I shall sit in the corner and say nothing. I'm very glad I kept these days as holiday in my diary, I actually have some dregs of energy. Remarkable. I have no intention of wasting said energy arguing about our budget.
On my way back last night I noticed a tube advert for the University of East London, with a strapline of "Everyone's off to UEL" or similar. It was illustrated by a photograph of the statue of Eros at Piccadilly, with the usual technical jiggery-pokery so that Eros was seen flying off his perch. The thing is that, as any moderately observant Londoner could work out after a brief inspection, he's quite blatantly buggering off not to East London, but in almost precisely the opposite direction, down Piccadilly, or possibly Lower Regent Street. I have a nasty suspicion it says bad things about me that I find this amusing. Perhaps he needs to circle over London to gain altitude.
After that, as I walked in my usual daze from the tube station, I passed a small child trotting along with her father (presumably) and muttering to herself.. "'finity and one, 'finity and two, 'finity and three..", I'm glad to see parents are keeping up this honourable tradition of fucking with their children's heads.
I was re-reading my post from a couple of days ago and my internal grammar-nazi told me that "Does anyone but me find..." couldn't be right, that it should be "anyone but I" (does anyone find, do I find). Since my instinct, on the other hand, told me that what I had written was correct, and my grasp of English grammar is generally more instinctive than learnt, I tried to ignore it, but in a bored moment the other day I looked it up in Fowler and was most smug to discover that the point is much argued and the weight of authority is on the side of my instinct (because 'but' in that sense is a preposition rather than a conjunction, particularly when it's in an interrogative clause). After all, one wouldn't say "does anyone except I".
Ignore my sad pleasures then, see if I care. Anyone who does also care, and wishes to carp about the point that I've used 'their' as a singular possessive pronoun in this post can bugger off: it's entirely accepted except by people who are just fundamentally wrong. For the record, even when I do let it out, the internal grammar-nazi only cares about my own posts, it's just a thing I have....
61% of a Channel 5 straw poll said gay couples shouldn't have the same legal rights as straight ones. I'm quite surprised by that. For myself I can't quite see the point of the new Civil Partnerships thing. Since a civil marriage is (or rather, can be) completely distinct (I originally wrote divorced but decided that was unnecessarily confusing) from a religious marriage now, why not simply say that gay couples can have a civil marriage, rather than invent a new category, which will probably be either substantially the same or devoid of substance? The Christian churches and other religions can carry on doing as they see fit, that's their business, so there's no real basis for religious objections. Though there is some historical debate over the possible existence of a Christian rite for the blessing of homosexual relationships in the early medieval church. Memo to self, look up the source for that.
Katherine Hepburn dead... I think I'll remember her most in Lion in Winter, one of my favourite films. Incidentally, I vaguely remember reading that when Audrey changed her name from "My Father Was A Dutch Nazi" there was some argument among the People Who Decide Such Things over whether she should be allowed Hepburn as a surname professionally as Katherine was already in business. Ah, Audrey for choice, always and forever, but Katherine was certainly one of the all-time great actresses.
I decided to put up loads of pictures over the weekend. First off was the enormous one sheet A-Z of most of London which has been rolled up behind the wardrobe for more than a year. Much comedy ensued in the normal order of putting up large posters with bluetack... not level, one corner comes off, other corner comes off, whole thing comes down, redo from start ad infintum. Once ad infinitum, the general idea was that I would put next to it my series of prints of maps of London at various stages in its history, including my framed one of London in the reign of Elizabeth I, which is quite large and heavy.
Hmm. It seems the plaster on my walls is not quite as strong as it really ought to be. Ooops. Large holes now covered up by a variety of postcards, and the framed map back to leaning against the walls. If I don't move out of here for a couple of years, perhaps the holes and dents will mend magically. In the meantime the A-Z poster fell down again and I've given up bothering for the present.
I think that's everything on my mind, so I'll leave you here. Currently re-reading Susan Reynolds Fiefs and Vassals, on the way we understand feudal society and how it bears little or no relation to any social structure that actually existed. I not sure she's right, and I wish she wouldn't keep explaining that she isn't talking about "feudalism in the Marxist sense", whatever that is or was, a thought on which I may expand at some point, though I'm not sure it's a subject in which anyone likely to read this is wildly interested. Also reading Le Carré's A Perfect Spy, and I just finished The Leopard which I didn't find as brilliant as it's cracked up to be. On the subject of books, Lindsey Davies fans who haven't yet got around to it (and why not?, too involved with pre-pubescent wizards or something hmm... or just-pubescent I guess) will be glad to know that her latest, The Accusers is on top form, though she seems to have this inexplicable dislike of lawyers. Having said that my head of chambers is actually a close friend of hers from university days.
Bah. I wrote the above hours ago but wasn't able to sign into my account. In the meanwhile I have gone from being relatively cheerful to being fedup and generally depressed. Such is my life...
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Date: 2003-07-01 08:52 am (UTC)Just finished Ursula le Guin's Earthsea Quartet and have realised I can't read Harry Potter OOOP for ages now because it just won't stand comparison.
I love John le Carre. Have been rereading some of his myself.
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Date: 2003-07-02 01:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-07-02 02:08 am (UTC)Just started reading The Magic Mountain, something I've been meaning to do for 13 years or so.
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Date: 2003-07-02 02:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-07-02 03:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-07-02 07:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-07-02 07:34 am (UTC)Won't be at Friday pub for a while now - next Friday I'll be in Oxford for Lucy's birthday. Kake is allegedly having a birthday party next Saturday, so if that happens I might see you there. If it doesn't, I'll have a Saturday free anyway, so could do cliquy things. :)
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Date: 2003-07-01 09:33 am (UTC)I'm also a little confused as to the point of the new gay civil thing. I presume they don't want to antagonise middle england by legalising gay marriage, so they're trying to do it in all but name. Which seems rather unecessary to me. But it's a step in the right direction, I suppose.
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Date: 2003-07-02 02:44 am (UTC)Re:
Date: 2003-07-02 02:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-07-02 07:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-07-01 10:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-07-02 01:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-07-01 04:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-07-02 02:45 am (UTC)