Friday, May 26, 2006

Warmer - but still pretty damp


A few days ago I published a picture of our beloved tram which Bungus particularly liked and I thought I would continue the pictorial story with an interior. If you look in the top-right corner of the shot you can see the Underground type map of the system , and generally how clean and airy they are. The second picture is the lovely Salvation Army Man in Eastwood (another feature of the town). Not being a band expert I am not sure enough of my facts to call it his 'bassoon' but whatever it is, he plays it beautifully and has an extensive repetoire of popular music, not just hymn tunes. Yvonne loves to put money in his tin because he pauses in mid blow to say "God Bless you mi' dear". We send money annually to the Salvation Army because whatever disaster befalls whoever, wherever in the world the SA are amongst the first there and they do so much for all sorts of people-with-problems in this country too.

We decided to do our own shopping in Bulwell Morrisons and to pick up and deliver Beryl's few bits. I did some computer jobs like installing an uptodate version of Java Runtime because a warning about the vulnerability of the old one had been posted on WUforum, and Ray drew my attention to it. It took me longer than I expected. It was obviously going to be a fairly lengthy download so at one stage I left it to it. Returned in an hour to find a window which needed 'next' clicking. You can't win !

Yvonne did loads of washing, again ! It's difficult to understand how just two people can generate so much. Tonight we watched Terry Jones do an excellent hour on the 'Barbarians' and how cultured the Celts actually were. We've all grown up to believe the Roman version of history via Tacitus and it is only recently being discovered how flawed that narrative is. It was a fascinating programme which showed and told us so much that we didn't know; next episode next week. And tomorrow evening The Culture Show returns. Yvonne says I ought to spend most of tomorrow in bed, or at least lying down, because my ankles are revoltingly swollen again. I won't attempt a description of how they look - but I'm sure you can guess.

One job I can cross off my list is 'send a selection of holiday pics to the family'. I selected just 5 pictures, because can you think of anything more boring than your parents' National Trust Weekend photographs?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

Like the pictures muchly. But I do not think it is a bassoon, which I see as a sort of small black didgeridoo (about 2'6" lomg and 3" diameter?) with an attached slim bent silver tube down which one blows. I think the SA soldier may have a tuba. I agree absolutely about the valuable work done by the Sally Army. As a trainee Sapper in the late 50s, I found their refreshment van a most welcome sight when out on 'field engineering' (blowing up raiway lines, building Bailey bridges, blowing camouflets, erecting barbed wire fences and entanglemnts, digging 'atomic trenches'(!!), learning 'knots and lashings' and how to measure the width of a river from one side only without anything more than a stick). I had a Lyons' apple pie and two ring doughnuts with a cuppa every morning. The SA's happy clappiness in the Citadel is a bit embarrassing (on balance I think I would prefer the men to kiss each other) but they really do great work for anyone (I mean anyone) who needs it.

RadioG seems to create his own computer problems whereas mine just arrive unheralded. Currently, every snap I take appears 27 times in Picasa and I do not know whether it is the programme or the camera or me that is at fault.

I hadn't realised that the xxxxxxs where such dirty people, but a day without 'a load' is not complete for Sandra. My mother washed on washday, ie, Monday, and Sandra finds it hard to believe me when I insist that I do not ever remember having a pair of trousers washed or dry cleaned (or that most men did not wear underpants because they had knee length vests to wrap around).

I taped the 'Barbarians' and hope to watch it before Christmas (just so long as it doesn't interfere with'Emmerdale' or 'Corry' !

National Trust pictures might be more interesting to others if figures were added - scantily clad glamour models for instance? Me? I'll put up with just buildings but please don't let that stop you being adventurous.

Oiriginally posted by Bungus
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