Lovely day with P & J - it rhymes OK ?

Legs OK. Y keeps telling me now 'not to go mad and overdo it' but, as I try to explain I've got my place in the next Olympics to consider.

Peter and Joan arrived for coffee and around 12.20pm we set off for Durban House and they had, as requested, reserved us a table in the window of the restaurant. Nice quiet table and the lady was pleased to turn down the music so we could chat. The music was attractive big-band Stan Kenton era so nothing to complain of. All our separate meals were fine and John who now runs it (Bungus and Sandra's chum) came over to chat. The restaurant is The Rocking Horse Bistro so named because of John's incredible talent for handcrafting wooden rocking horses. The are a joy to behold and touch and charmingly, children are allowed to climb on them and have-a-go. They just feel and look quality and once acquired would be in a family for many generations.
We all enjoyed the permanent D.H.Lawrence exhibition and also Maureen's Art Class's exhibition in the Rainbow Gallery. There were some good pieces and viewers were invited to vote for 'best in show' so I marked my slip and posted it in the ballot-box; I don't know whether or not the others did. I know I've published the 'Country of My Heart' exhibit before, but I make no apology. For my taste I prefer his nature writing, articles and poetry to the novels which have always seemed such turgid affairs.

A favourite part of the exhibition for me is this classroom and I'm afraid some of my older readers will remember these desks with the ink-wells. Your books lived in your individual desk and to our form-teacher Miss Spencer's annoyance, contriving to accidentally let go of the lid after putting your books away was hugely funny. A practical joke used to be to drop a small piece of carbide in the water-filled inkwell to produce room-clearing sulphur smells of which Bungus's dog Ralph would be proud.

Afterwards we returned here for a pot of tea before P & J drove home. It gets dark so early - and we know they got there because Peter e-mailed.

Comments....... You are right Bungus about great comics being gloomy and angst-ridden off-stage. No exception springs to mind. And AnonymousRob is right that an an hour in a pub with Reg is much to be preferred to one with the currently popular Iranian comedian. He doesn't seem funny at all - and no doubt doesn't drink either ! Horace 65-8 B.C. perceptively pointed out that no great poetry was written by drinkers of water.

And I enjoyed and approved of Nick Robinson's Blog. Everybody is at it ! See daily quotation below.

AnonymousRob's idea of a blog-outing to Paris by Eurostar is exciting ! Jill could join us at St Pancras etc......

Thanks Pete (Manxislander - his blog is mannanans cloak) for your kind comments. I'm not being clever with the night-time exposure, the camera works it out, and you might find your point-and-shoot does too. See if there's a 'night time' picture setting, put your camera on something solid and click. See what happens. But I won't hear of you putting down your own pictures; I've always thought them great and they do what you want them to do i.e. give a sound idea of what the Isle of Man is like.

Maybe Jill's got AOL probs again but I'm sure she will surface in due course. In any-case it isn't like compulsory homework; you don't need to hand it in on a daily basis.

Quotation of the Day:-

"The man who writes about himself and his own time is the only man who writes about all people and all time"

George Bernard Shaw

A little gentle shopping tomorrow methinks. I feel well up to steering a trolley round Morrisons and I might even cook something, or at least make some soup. Y will keep telling me to sit on my kitchen stool, and I shall keep forgetting. It's soup weather, and set to become even colder. Already down to 32F in Nottingham and the Moon is 99% full.