Routerlessness: a feeling of disorientation caused by losing WiFi connectivity.
Personal Blogs
I want to go out in a burst of flame
Like a firestorm passing by
Or a small but energetic volcano.
I want people sitting at home to say
“What was that”?
Then carry on as normal.
I tried sleeping on a sledge, but I went downhill overnight.
Technically almost all unmarked mute swans on open water in Britain belong to the monarch. There’s a terrific blog post here that goes into the fascinating legal history of this prerogative.
However there is an exception; ownership of unmarked swans on the reaches of the Medway around Maidstone was granted to the borough by Elizabeth l (or maybe James I). So the swan I photographed on Wednesday is the responsibility of the Mayor of Maidstone.
Read more about Medway swans here.
Mikis Theodorakis has just died. He was a big hero of mine, a great composer and a lifelong fighter for social justice.
On Wednesday four of us took an excursion on the River Medway (more to come on this). Just before we left Maidenhead I spotted this swan squaring up to its own image in a car door. I have a crow living in my garden that pecks its own reflection in the window of the back bedroom, the same thing I suppose.
The big planter just outside the kitchen window has been looking gorgeous for weeks. The flowers just keep coming and coming. The one with dark green leaves and new buds, middle bottom, is a New Guinea Impatients that I bought from the local Coop for £2 I think it was. It's a wonderfule flower that takes my breath away.
Life’s a bright
Blue streak.
A kingfisher
On the wing.
Don’t miss it!
Having recently passed a million views I wondered what the first blog post I ever made was. Checking back, it announced a new record for calculating the digits of π. Back then in 2010 it stood at
2 699 999 999 999 digitsBy about the same time in 2020 the record had reached
50 000 000 000 000 digits
and I don’t think there has been any advanced on that since.
Printing it out might need about 27 777 777 777 pages of A4 or 55 555 555 reams, which would weigh about 130 million tonnes. So not something to try at home!
Just sampling this Belgian Abbey-style beer. The brasserie was founded in my lifetime but the beer stands up well with more venerable monastic brews. I was impressed. 7.5 %.
Here’s the blurb aka tasting notes
St-Feuillien Blonde abbey beer has a surprisingly perfumed bouquet, with a top note provided by the aromatic hop varieties and a delicately bitter taste. Spices provide a fruity touch. Saint-Feuillien Blonde tastes full in the mouth with a robust malty aroma and a dry, hoppy finish. It all makes for an excellent digestive.
A bit flowery perhaps, but the beer really is very nice.
In Kingsor’s Last Summer a character quotes this old Chinese poem
Life passes like lightning whose brightness there is hardly time to see
Although the earth and the sky stand still,
How swiftly time flies over the face of man.
Oh, you, who are before a full glass and do not drink!
Tell me, who are you still waiting for?
The book says it’s by Li Tai Pei and I think this is the same poet as Li Bai
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li_BaiReally overpriced!!! I felt I was paying through the nose.
Klingsor’s Last Summer, by Hermann Hesse.
It’s fiction but I guess from what I’ve read so far that Hesse might have been bipolar.
Some flowers fade quickly.
Therefore some roses fade quickly.
Is this a valid inference?
Source: Thinking fast and slow, by Daniel Kahneman
New to me, I found this in today’s Times
Emmiserate
Actually I think the word is
Immiserate
And it means make poor and/or unhappy.
For a dare.
We used to do the washing up in strict rotation. But we got out of sync.
French for grapefruit, and the name of the chief character in the book Monsieur Pamplemousse by Michael Bond, author also of Paddington Bear.
I don’t know why but the word suddenly popped into my head, and it made we wonder (for some reason) what grapefruit is in other European languages.
Looking at a few, there are basically two strands
1. Many languages, such as German, Danish, Russian, Gaelic ohave borrowed the English word, and that seems to have arisen from the fruits growing in clusters like grapes. I looked at some images and they really do, so the etymology is plausible.
2. Other languages have borrowed from Dutch pompelmoes = ‘fat lemon’, hence pamplemousse and Italian pompelmo etc.
I love grapefruit but I can’t really eat them nowadays because they might interfere with my medication.
They held the card machine to one side of my nose, and I brought my Apple Watch up to the other, to make a contactless payment. I was literally paying through the nose.
The barrister F. E. Smith (later 1st Earl of Birkenhead) was renowned for his sharp wit in court. For example
Judge: I have read your case, Mr Smith, and I am no wiser now than I was when I started.
Smith: Possibly not, My Lord, but far better informed.
Touching your pillow
Watching your pale brown eyes
Never to forget
There’s bigots but no smallots. Why is this?
There were three cats sat in a snug,
Purr, purr, purr.
And shed their hairs upon the rug,
Fur, fur, fur.
Oh god this food is crap.
Hate the decor.
Plates are cold.
This chair is doing my back in.
Really slow service.
Background music is rubbish.
And too loud.
Don’t think much of the view outside the window.
Why did we come here.
Don’t know big mistake.
How many stars?
0/5
I believe in moderation. But only to a degree.
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