Thursday, February 16, 2006
Jake's geeky lament
Roses are #CC0033, Violets are #0033FF....maybe that's why i didn't get any Valentines card this year! =-p
Eavesdropping
Overheard in the Museum Restaurant at lunchtime:
Valley’s lady mid 50’s talking to a young girl who must be here on an exchange (She had a European accent that I couldn’t place).
“Dafydd is the Welsh for David”
“I’ll tell you what my father was like”,
“My teacher in school told me that the Amazon was the longest river in the world. I went home and said ‘In school today, I learnt that the Amazon is the longest river in the world.’ My Dad said ‘No it’s not. It's the Nile. The Nile is the longest river in the world’. I said ‘But Dad, my teacher said it’s the Amazon’ I said, because I would stand up to my dad, my sister wouldn’t, but I would. He said ‘No it’s not. You go back to school and tell your teacher it’s the Nile. The Nile is the longest river in the world”
“I went to my teacher the next day and I told her my Dad said it’s Nile, she said “No it’s not, it’s the Amazon. You can tell your father that it’s the Amazon’. I didn’t tell him again and I always put it as the Amazon in school, like my teacher told me”
“You see, in those days, they didn’t know where the Amazon started and where it finished and there were bits in the middle they hadn’t found. That’s why my Dad said it was the Nile”.
“To his dying day he swore the Nile was the longest river in the world”.
Two gentlemen in expensive pinstripe suits. They were probably solicitors or barristers.
The older of the two (looked in his 60’s), as his friend was putting down the tray with their lunch on, picked up the stainless steel tea-pot and exclaimed in a frightfully posh voice:
“My Lord! I haven’t seen one of those since I was in the S.A.S.”
Valley’s lady mid 50’s talking to a young girl who must be here on an exchange (She had a European accent that I couldn’t place).
“Dafydd is the Welsh for David”
“I’ll tell you what my father was like”,
“My teacher in school told me that the Amazon was the longest river in the world. I went home and said ‘In school today, I learnt that the Amazon is the longest river in the world.’ My Dad said ‘No it’s not. It's the Nile. The Nile is the longest river in the world’. I said ‘But Dad, my teacher said it’s the Amazon’ I said, because I would stand up to my dad, my sister wouldn’t, but I would. He said ‘No it’s not. You go back to school and tell your teacher it’s the Nile. The Nile is the longest river in the world”
“I went to my teacher the next day and I told her my Dad said it’s Nile, she said “No it’s not, it’s the Amazon. You can tell your father that it’s the Amazon’. I didn’t tell him again and I always put it as the Amazon in school, like my teacher told me”
“You see, in those days, they didn’t know where the Amazon started and where it finished and there were bits in the middle they hadn’t found. That’s why my Dad said it was the Nile”.
“To his dying day he swore the Nile was the longest river in the world”.
Two gentlemen in expensive pinstripe suits. They were probably solicitors or barristers.
The older of the two (looked in his 60’s), as his friend was putting down the tray with their lunch on, picked up the stainless steel tea-pot and exclaimed in a frightfully posh voice:
“My Lord! I haven’t seen one of those since I was in the S.A.S.”
Monday, February 13, 2006
Lines on Facing Forty
I have a bone to pick with fate,
Come here and tell me girly,
Do you think my mind is maturing late,
Or simply rotting early.
Ogden Nash
Come here and tell me girly,
Do you think my mind is maturing late,
Or simply rotting early.
Ogden Nash
How wrong was I about last Thursday?!
A rough chronological rundown of last Thursday:
11.30 Phone call from Mother in doc’s surgery (she had an emergency appointment - turns out she was injured by a mammogram a few weeks ago). Father being taken to Hospital, Blood Pressure V. Low & breathless. I panic, phone Spud and blub a bit.
1ish Get to hospital. Can't find Dad on reception, fear that Mother may have made ambulance do detour to Sainsburys. Find Mum in waiting room, Dad being wheeled past to have chest x-ray.
Time gets a bit hazy after this - Told that Dad has clot on his lung. He's given an injection of fast acting blood-thinner in his stomach. Me and Spud look away. I can see Mum’s thought bubble ‘Casualty Live! The Musical’.
Tea trolley arrives - He grins, the grin of a Tea-Pot Head denied his fix for several hours. Dad necks a cuppa down in one. His blood pressure rises. NHS may consider IV PG-Tips as treatment for pensioners.
4.30 Go to Mum & Dad's to pick up jimjams, toothbrush & sudukos - at this point he's staying in overnight.
4.40 Scoff fish and chips from chippy.
5.30ish Phone call from Dad - he's having blood test at 8, if it's ok he can come home at 9.
5.35ish Tell mother it's great she's so positive, but we ought to take Dad's jammys just in case.
5.40ish Uncle Barney says we should put a blue light on the LoveBus because it's been to 3 different hospitals in 2 months.
6.45ish Get back to Hospital. Dad in waiting room fully clothed (previously in fetching hospital gown).
Wait, wait, wait. In this period, mother extracts an old lady's life story, her address and those of her children and grandchildren.
Spud says he's going to start paying for BUPA - Mothers laughs so hard, she clutches her right breast 'Stop it. It hurts when I laugh' - possibility she may have weed herself (not asking if she did)
Wait, wait wait. Mother moans like a pensioner.
11.20 At last! Dad given the OK to go home
Drop folks off safely. (Feeling guilty that getting in and out of Lovebus is taking its toll on Mum's knees)
Get home - Chow outside waiting and crying. Next-door's cat asleep on our bed. Takes 10 minutes of chasing, bouncing on a bed and making loud noises to get rid of him. Bed 1.10AM.
Dad feels fine Friday. He and Mum went dancing.
11.30 Phone call from Mother in doc’s surgery (she had an emergency appointment - turns out she was injured by a mammogram a few weeks ago). Father being taken to Hospital, Blood Pressure V. Low & breathless. I panic, phone Spud and blub a bit.
1ish Get to hospital. Can't find Dad on reception, fear that Mother may have made ambulance do detour to Sainsburys. Find Mum in waiting room, Dad being wheeled past to have chest x-ray.
Time gets a bit hazy after this - Told that Dad has clot on his lung. He's given an injection of fast acting blood-thinner in his stomach. Me and Spud look away. I can see Mum’s thought bubble ‘Casualty Live! The Musical’.
Tea trolley arrives - He grins, the grin of a Tea-Pot Head denied his fix for several hours. Dad necks a cuppa down in one. His blood pressure rises. NHS may consider IV PG-Tips as treatment for pensioners.
4.30 Go to Mum & Dad's to pick up jimjams, toothbrush & sudukos - at this point he's staying in overnight.
4.40 Scoff fish and chips from chippy.
5.30ish Phone call from Dad - he's having blood test at 8, if it's ok he can come home at 9.
5.35ish Tell mother it's great she's so positive, but we ought to take Dad's jammys just in case.
5.40ish Uncle Barney says we should put a blue light on the LoveBus because it's been to 3 different hospitals in 2 months.
6.45ish Get back to Hospital. Dad in waiting room fully clothed (previously in fetching hospital gown).
Wait, wait, wait. In this period, mother extracts an old lady's life story, her address and those of her children and grandchildren.
Spud says he's going to start paying for BUPA - Mothers laughs so hard, she clutches her right breast 'Stop it. It hurts when I laugh' - possibility she may have weed herself (not asking if she did)
Wait, wait wait. Mother moans like a pensioner.
11.20 At last! Dad given the OK to go home
Drop folks off safely. (Feeling guilty that getting in and out of Lovebus is taking its toll on Mum's knees)
Get home - Chow outside waiting and crying. Next-door's cat asleep on our bed. Takes 10 minutes of chasing, bouncing on a bed and making loud noises to get rid of him. Bed 1.10AM.
Dad feels fine Friday. He and Mum went dancing.
