Thank you all for your 'get well' messages and I am quite a bit better today. I managed to lurch as far as the scanner - to do a 'scanned' still life and subsequently to mess about with the image in Photoshop. My camera has remained in its bag throughout. Some may say "It would have been best not to bother with the scanner either". But it was fun.My right leg is more or less sea-worthy now and my left, always the troublesome one, is considerably better. Painwise I'm now tolerable. As AnonymousRob points out though - it's not much fun being 'legless' when you don't drink. One more 'lying-down' day and I'll be fine. Peter and Joan are coming over on Friday and we are taking them to Durban House for lunch. Peter is to do the driving and in anycase it is only a mile up the road. They haven't seen the permanent Lawrence Exhibition and we'll be able to pull in Maureen's Art Exhibition at the same time.
I've caught up on reading and forums. And what about this awful business of the mislaid HMRC discs with the personal details of 24 million familes thereon. Although I've mentioned it on WUforums, nobody nationally seems to have grasped the sheer unlikelihood of two CDs being able to carry 24 million separate sets of data ! I fear there is something we aren't being told
One piece of reading was the weekend Telegraph's supplement about EuroStar and St Pancras
However the most informative brief link is their official website, linked above. And the point is made that we can travel all the way from Nottingham ! Seems like a 'must' to me.
I may have mentioned that our Prestige steamer had broken down, and we rely on it so much. It had slipped my memory how easily carrots boil dry for instance. When I rang Prestige a haughty young lady reprimanded me for calling it 'our steamer' - it is apparently an A La Carte, Cook N Steam. Whatever, we soon became chums and she is sending a new 'probe' - she says that that is the bit that always goes wrong. The 'probe' is the bit sticking out the side and a replacement is £16, much better than £50 for a new complete one.
Comments.....I agree with Rob. Don't say Reg, that your 'niceness' has held you back. Everybody I know is of the opinion that your life is a great success. And I don't mind at all reading your comments twice !
Sorry Jill that you AOL is playing up again, and when it lets you post them, you comments are smashing. We've tried and failed over the years to discover possible causes for my back/leg attacks. But, like Sandra's they seem random ! The current pain-clinic advice is that if you have a 'flare-up' as they call them you should 'carry on' and not go to bed. Sandra and I agree that that advice was penned by someone who has never had the experience. Because it is physically impossible to stand up for more than 30 seconds ! Anyway................. Thanks for the further 'bombazine' info. Rob will enjoy that. And yes, Laycock is great. I have a photo somewhere of the window which was the subject for Fox Talbot's first picture. But it was back in the film-camera days and I can't find it so on the left is his original. Great innit?Dear Bungus. I did not mean to attribute strange behaviour to our silver birch. I know they do it; what I can't understand is how the tree works out what to do ? And thanks for the Andrew Motion parody. Much more fun than the original. Thanks for the 'pudding addendum'. As Jill says "just the odd calorie or two" as with Maureen's trifle by the sound of it.
AnonymousRob. Y knows much more about the 19th century than I do, mainly due to her love of the Pre Raphaelite Brotherhood the 19th century novel in general and Jane Austen who was of course a tad earlier. Click for a reading list. Y usually re-reads her Jane Austen each year. I don't like re-reading novels because I know how they are going to end and I get bored.
Today's quotation ..... I like this, even though sometimes it is difficult to live up to:-
"If you tell the truth you don't have to remember anything"
Mark Twain
Reg was once much amused when I told him that I was trained always to tell the truth unless on oath. Sleep tight everybody. An early nght. I keep hearing dismayed groans from the 'telly' room where Y is watching England v Croatia. .......Catch you tomorrow......
No pictures on the blog today, unfortunately, so no comment on the still-lifes.
ReplyDeleteI don't know how much info can be put on a 2 CDs although something says to me that it might amount to 4 substantial novels (8 if they are double sided, I suppose?). I shall enquire.
Eurostar to Paris does sound attractive.
I have no way of knowing whether Reg's 'niceness' held him back but I empathise with him. And I am quite convinced that at least 90% of 'successful' people are nasty and only achieve their 'success' (which usually implies the acquisition of considerable material wealth) by mistreating others. I only base that opinion on observation.
"Sandra and I agree that that advice was penned by someone who has never had the experience. Because it is physically impossible to stand up for more than 30 seconds !"
Really? Doessn't sound like the Sandra I know! (who will invariably deny that there is anything wrong with her at all).
I assumed that you would realise that the secret of how the birch and other trees do it (what they do) is MAGIC.
I take your point about re-reading novels and have no intention of reading 19C novels even once (I have tried Dickens several times but never got beyond chapter 2). But I have no trouble reading 'Catch 22', 'Comfort Me with Apples' and 'Candide' time and time again. Just as I can enjoy watching 'Gunfight at the OK Corral', 'The Magnificent Seven', 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid', 'Hombre', 'The Wild Bunch' and one or two other films repeatedly (I saw 'Gunfight...' seven times in a fortnight in Malta in 1958).
No wonder Y was groaning. Not a good display. All one can say is that Croatia's performance was relaxed and completely unaffected by nerves because the result was immaterial to them whereas England needed at least a draw.
I decided to spare myself the misery and didn't watch England's (abject) performance. McClaren's gone, no surprise there, and Alan Shearer is one the favourites to succeed him according to Sky. Oh dear.
ReplyDeleteI never really got to grips with a number of 19C novels, probably because we had to read them at school. Mind you, I also thought they had far too many words in them or maybe it was just the descriptive passages that seemed to go on for ever. A teacher once told us the authors got paid per word which is why they are so long; is there any truth in that?
Having said all that, the Reading List looks to have some interesting books on it as well as other I would give a wide berth to. Maybe Y should make out a case for the 19C novel?
No problem with using a scanner as far as I am concerned, RG. I view them as another device that, like a camera, uses light to create a picture. I once produced a panel of autumn leaves which had all been scanned; they went down quite well.
I like the still life arrangement as well and the twirl is fun but that's about all I think.
Glad to hear you're moving about.
Rob
Apart from 'Butch Cassidy' I wouldn't want to see your list of films even once......I'm a 'Brief Encounter' sort of girl.....
ReplyDeleteAnd I've never been totally sold on Jane Austen, they seem 'samey' to me and I get them muddled up. Always preferred E.Gaskell and her 'trouble at t'Mill'. Or 'Jane Eyre'. But I do like the Pre-Raphaelite paintings....though I am not nearly so well-informed as Y.
Hope that by tomorrow you can stop doing your Long John Silver impression, and can hobble on two working legs. I understand what you and Sandra say about 'experts' - it's like giving birth being supervised by a midwife who has never had any children herself (if I ruled the world there would be a law against this).
Shall give 'The Street' a go tonight - I have enjoyed the last two episodes.
Thank you for your kind remarks about my comments!