A scene of domestic bliss - even though neither of us drink anymore somebody might call in who does.It was quite late when I went into the office and the sun was shining through a gap in the curtains and I thought it looked pretty - and, nicely structured.
The 'scratch and dent man ' arrived and worked out the cost of repairing the dent in the rear nearside panel (Roys) and the scratches on the front nearside wheel arch (mine) and unfortunately the price was much more than I expected. I wont publish the figure because I don't want Roy having a heart attack. I think Y's original idea of just leaving it unrepaired is probably the best notion. None of the 'damage' stops it going and I'm not intending to enter the car in a 'concours d'Elegance' competition. I hope I've spelled that correctly because I know we have at least one reader with more than a smattering.......... p.s.- I know my spelling is OK - because I just wiki-ied it, so I'm making it a live link. Quite an interesting read, but Wiki so often is ! N'est ce pas? Ha Ha!
And AnonymousRob, I will e-mail you the chap's contact details. He seemed very competent and reasonable and was quite happy for you to go on his list. My particular dent is simply more serious than I thought.
I know Picture 2 is boring but in my pursuit of perfect coffee I have begun to grind only enough beans for one filling of the cafetiere. At the stage illustrated we all know the aroma, but when ground and brewed the coffee often seems to fail to reach the hoped-for heights. Sometimes I use my old fashioned espresso pot whereby the flavour is first rate, but it only produces one decent sized mug. OK - 4 espresso-mugs but that doesn't come anywhere my caffeine dependency level.This Starbucks method talks good sense.
Before leaving cookery matters I have a gremlin question. When you break an egg-shell very carefully, wanting to fry or poach the egg why do the gremlins make sure that the yolk splits? Yet when you break 4 into a basin to do scrambled eggs and it doesn't matter, they leave each yolk in pristine wholeness. Is my paranoia playing up again? Or do these OAGs afflict other people too?
Quotation of the day ...Emerson yesterday, Mark Twain today :-
"I don't give a damn for a man that can only spell a word one way"
I guess that Mark would have been a member of our anti spell-checker and pro typo gang. No doubt the leader.
Strictly come Dancing was an excellent show again. John Barnes wasn't so good this week and for me, it was touch and go between Letitia and Alesha. In the end I voted for Alesha because of her outstanding performance in a ballroom dance where she had to be elegant and controlled. Y voted for Gethin and Camilla. They were good but I felt it was all Camilla and the judges agreed. Be interesting to see tomorrow night. If Kate has to do a dance-off, she will be out - there is no doubt about that. But she is such a nice girl and apparently very popular on the telly.
Comments now....Glad we agree about the artificial look to today's carnations Jill and you are right about the pictures. The crossword was easier today. By 9am I had finished it except for one clue about a worn-out horse nearly tired. The answer was only 4 letters but I couldn't get the word 'spavined' out of my head. In the end Y put 'Mare' in which I'm sure is right but neither of us know why.
Bungus. You would think 'discarded cami-knickers wouldn't you. You are quite right about retirement and income. And what an old romantic you are ! There is a quote (no time to research it) about wealth not being about having lots of possessions - it's all about having few wants. There was a marvellous obituary in this mornings Telegraph about Joseph Stawinoga who has lived for the last 40 years in a tent on a central reservation in Wolverhampton. He has been revered as a god by the Hindu and Sikh communities for giving up all wordly possessions. They have taken him food and blankets and things on a daily basis.
Sorry its been such a long one this evening. I got carried away. Sleep tight and I'll catch you tomorrow.
Strictly come Dancing was an excellent show again. John Barnes wasn't so good this week and for me, it was touch and go between Letitia and Alesha. In the end I voted for Alesha because of her outstanding performance in a ballroom dance where she had to be elegant and controlled. Y voted for Gethin and Camilla. They were good but I felt it was all Camilla and the judges agreed. Be interesting to see tomorrow night. If Kate has to do a dance-off, she will be out - there is no doubt about that. But she is such a nice girl and apparently very popular on the telly.
Comments now....Glad we agree about the artificial look to today's carnations Jill and you are right about the pictures. The crossword was easier today. By 9am I had finished it except for one clue about a worn-out horse nearly tired. The answer was only 4 letters but I couldn't get the word 'spavined' out of my head. In the end Y put 'Mare' in which I'm sure is right but neither of us know why.
Bungus. You would think 'discarded cami-knickers wouldn't you. You are quite right about retirement and income. And what an old romantic you are ! There is a quote (no time to research it) about wealth not being about having lots of possessions - it's all about having few wants. There was a marvellous obituary in this mornings Telegraph about Joseph Stawinoga who has lived for the last 40 years in a tent on a central reservation in Wolverhampton. He has been revered as a god by the Hindu and Sikh communities for giving up all wordly possessions. They have taken him food and blankets and things on a daily basis.
Sorry its been such a long one this evening. I got carried away. Sleep tight and I'll catch you tomorrow.
I voted for Letitia tonight, she has improved so much.
ReplyDeleteCrossword, I was going to show off tonight and say I finished it in less than 15 minutes, I went through all the Across ones straight down, one after the other, EXCEPT the worn-out horse one. I too ended up with 'mare' but don't know why. I kept wanting to put in 'hack' (not knowing all these horsey words like spavined) something to do with hackneyed?
I couldn't see the photos, I got a little white square with a red cross in it?
Wasn't it a great obituary?
We watched Ian Hislop's 'Not forgotten' on Channel 4, about the role of women in WW1, it has been shown before but we missed some, this being one of them. Excellent.
I am sort of looking forward to 'Cranford' tomorrow, it being one of my favourite books, but the trailers I find very irritating, all silly women flapping aprons....
For me, as for Jill, the pictures failed to materialise (I too got a little white square with a red cross in it).
ReplyDeleteI can understand you accepting the cosmetic damage to the car. But what about Roy’s? (None of my business, of course! Just curiosity). Further, I do not quite understand how you can recommend the repairer as being ‘reasonable’ when you thought the cost excessive.
Your French will soon be more accurate than your English (not that I think you are incompetent in the slightest, just a bit careless sometimes!)
Thanks for the Starbuck link. I never know how much coffee to use but will have a guide from now on (although it will continue to be ready-ground, not beans. A bit like stuffing mushrooms for me)..
I never have yolks breaking. Perhaps you try to be too careful?
I haven’t seen the crossword in question but, if ‘mare’ fits, is ‘a’ the only known letter? If not, how could ’hack’ be an alternative? But if it is, ‘hacked off’ means ‘fed up’ which means ‘tired’ (a ‘hack’ is also a journalist if that provides any sort of connection).
But hold!
Roget provides ‘jade’ which my Longman dictionary defines as ‘A vicious or worn-out old horse’ (or ‘a hussy’)
Half cynic – half romantic. A satyr (satire) perhaps?
I have always (since the age of 12 or 13) considered cami-knickers to be the ultimately romantic/erotic item of lingerie. And, at about the same age, we had carnations similar to the one pictured which I thought beautiful (still do). Perhaps some sort of Freudian connection or slip (a less romantic undergarment).
Having never been desperately short of money, it is easy to say that it has never strongly guided my judgment - I twice changed jobs for a lower salary, aiming (unsuccessfully the second time) for increased job satisfaction. I really do think there are more important things. I always admired the traditional Irish attitude (which I interpret as ‘if you only need 5lb of potatoes for tomorrow, why dig up 10 pounds today’) and always felt the Arabs have a similarly laid back view of life, ie, ‘Allah-keefik’ (God will take care of it) or ‘maleesh’ (it doesn’t matter, forget it) which are used in much the same way as the Russian ‘nitchevo’ or the French ‘ca ne fait rien’.
My grandfather had a friend (I think they met in the trenches of the Great War) who was a protestant monk who had given up all his possessions in pursuit of holiness. He was very nice man (I remember him visiting our house in his rough long brown dress) but I have never felt inclined to tread that particular path.
I shall probably give Cranford a try. I once attempted to read ‘North & South’ and, although there are some excellent passages, I couldn’t do with all the words. I’m essentially a 20th C novel reader, mainly American, although ‘Candide is one of my favourite books and I once read straight through both volumes of ‘The Decameron’ and also ‘The Golden Ass’.
I can see the pictures now......
ReplyDeleteI also thought of 'jade' as in jaded but didn't know it had anything to do with horses. It fits better than 'mare'. I did realise that 'hack' didn't fit in any more than 'spavined'.....
Rest assured Graham that it isn't only you who breaks egg yolks when they don't need to be broken. Happens to me all the time. As do other events that always come at the wrong moment, unlike you however I call them Murphy's moments.......
ReplyDelete