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Spectra space spider
Jul. 5th, 2011 10:57 amToday's email for doctors brought news of a new anatomy book for children: Tummy and Guts, featuring Penny Pancreas and Benny Brain. I'm no anatomist, but that's not where I thought the brain was. Shouldn't it be Penny Pancreas and Lenny Liver? Kenny Kidney?
There is a new book in the Gormenghast trilogy! Er, well, I suppose it isn't a trilogy now there are four books, is it? Anyway, I loved the first two but wasn't all that keen on the final one (more fuel for my mother's belief that the last book in a series is always a let-down), so I'm not sure how I feel about the new one. Perhaps I will wait until it appears in the library. Or, more likely, I will forget about it for a while until one day when I will buy it on a whim and be horribly disappointed.
When my mother asks people if they would like a hot drink, she always says, 'Can I get you a drink? Coffee, tea, Bonox?' Bonox is a brand of beef stock cube. No-one ever asks for it, and even if they did, I don't think she has any. I've always thought this was some little family joke, but yesterday, showing some visitors into his office, my boss said, 'Can I get you a drink? Coffee, tea, Bonox?' The exact formula my mother uses! I said to Brian, 'My mother says that!' and he said, 'Yes, it's from an old, old ad.' For Bonox, I assume. So there we go.
Despite having too many pointless diversions to fill my waking hours, I'm thinking of buying a keyboard. A musical keyboard, I mean. I already own several computer keyboards. I also own a piano, in the sense that it's in my house, but not in the sense that I could dispose of it if I wanted to (it's a family piano). The piano, though, is ancient and not entirely in tune, and last time the tuner came he said that would be as good as it got. So I have a decorative piano. Anyway, I had piano lessons as a littlie; I wasn't terribly good or terribly enthusiastic, and I eventually switched to woodwind instruments. I haven't played any of them for ages, but lately the keyboard is speaking to me. So I'm making a list of pros and cons. Pro: It's good to learn new things (or, in this case, re-learn an old thing). Cons: I already have a shelf full of neglected instruments (a flute, a clarinet, several recorders, several tin whistles and an ocarina); I don't need another sedentary hobby; I was a rubbish piano player anyway. I think the cons have it, don't you? I was looking at sheet music on the internet last night and downloaded some piano music anyway, then I downloaded a few pieces for flute and recorder too. It's just... if I imagine peeking in my own window and seeing myself playing the piano, that seems diligent and clever; looking in at myself tootling away at a recorder like a big pixie just seems a bit sad.
Speaking of recorders, do small children in other countries learn the flutophone? Or is that just an Australian thing? Or was it just an Australia-in-the-early-80s thing, and no-one knows what I'm talking about?
What else? Oh, Telstra/Bigpond, whatever they call themselves. My ISP. I am sure they have a Department of Annoyances. Their most recent triumph has been the announcement that they are closing Bigpond Movies, which is a DVD rental by mail service like Netflix. I'm quite sad about this. I joined years ago when I needed to watch some old films for university, films that weren't in the local DVD stores and weren't available to buy anywhere. Now they've got this mad idea that, instead of renting one of their 45,000 DVDs, customers will instead all choose to download from their selection of 2,500 films. That's not going to happen, Bigpond Movies. If I wanted a choice like that, I'd stick with the local Blockbuster. I think a lot of customers will, like me, take up the offer from another company to transfer our DVD queues to them and get the first couple of months half-price.
Finally, here is a thing: the average colour of the New York sky.
There is a new book in the Gormenghast trilogy! Er, well, I suppose it isn't a trilogy now there are four books, is it? Anyway, I loved the first two but wasn't all that keen on the final one (more fuel for my mother's belief that the last book in a series is always a let-down), so I'm not sure how I feel about the new one. Perhaps I will wait until it appears in the library. Or, more likely, I will forget about it for a while until one day when I will buy it on a whim and be horribly disappointed.
When my mother asks people if they would like a hot drink, she always says, 'Can I get you a drink? Coffee, tea, Bonox?' Bonox is a brand of beef stock cube. No-one ever asks for it, and even if they did, I don't think she has any. I've always thought this was some little family joke, but yesterday, showing some visitors into his office, my boss said, 'Can I get you a drink? Coffee, tea, Bonox?' The exact formula my mother uses! I said to Brian, 'My mother says that!' and he said, 'Yes, it's from an old, old ad.' For Bonox, I assume. So there we go.
Despite having too many pointless diversions to fill my waking hours, I'm thinking of buying a keyboard. A musical keyboard, I mean. I already own several computer keyboards. I also own a piano, in the sense that it's in my house, but not in the sense that I could dispose of it if I wanted to (it's a family piano). The piano, though, is ancient and not entirely in tune, and last time the tuner came he said that would be as good as it got. So I have a decorative piano. Anyway, I had piano lessons as a littlie; I wasn't terribly good or terribly enthusiastic, and I eventually switched to woodwind instruments. I haven't played any of them for ages, but lately the keyboard is speaking to me. So I'm making a list of pros and cons. Pro: It's good to learn new things (or, in this case, re-learn an old thing). Cons: I already have a shelf full of neglected instruments (a flute, a clarinet, several recorders, several tin whistles and an ocarina); I don't need another sedentary hobby; I was a rubbish piano player anyway. I think the cons have it, don't you? I was looking at sheet music on the internet last night and downloaded some piano music anyway, then I downloaded a few pieces for flute and recorder too. It's just... if I imagine peeking in my own window and seeing myself playing the piano, that seems diligent and clever; looking in at myself tootling away at a recorder like a big pixie just seems a bit sad.
Speaking of recorders, do small children in other countries learn the flutophone? Or is that just an Australian thing? Or was it just an Australia-in-the-early-80s thing, and no-one knows what I'm talking about?
What else? Oh, Telstra/Bigpond, whatever they call themselves. My ISP. I am sure they have a Department of Annoyances. Their most recent triumph has been the announcement that they are closing Bigpond Movies, which is a DVD rental by mail service like Netflix. I'm quite sad about this. I joined years ago when I needed to watch some old films for university, films that weren't in the local DVD stores and weren't available to buy anywhere. Now they've got this mad idea that, instead of renting one of their 45,000 DVDs, customers will instead all choose to download from their selection of 2,500 films. That's not going to happen, Bigpond Movies. If I wanted a choice like that, I'd stick with the local Blockbuster. I think a lot of customers will, like me, take up the offer from another company to transfer our DVD queues to them and get the first couple of months half-price.
Finally, here is a thing: the average colour of the New York sky.