The welcome return of the Antarctic blast
Jun. 11th, 2006 08:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
todayiamadaisyWe've had a cold snap in the City by the Sea this last week (why does cold come in snaps and heat in waves?). The skies cleared and we got a quiet cold and constant mist that my weather thingie recorded as -5°C on Friday night. The official reading was -3°C, which was the lowest temperature on record for this neck of the woods. Well done us! Happily the rain and wind returned yesterday, bringing cloud cover to protect us, so the minimum last night was a balmy 7°C getting up to a grand 11°C this afternoon. It's blowing a gale outside right now; funny how that's the sound of cold, but the silent still was colder.
*****
The renovations at my supermarket continue apace; they have, rather thrillingly, moved the fruit & veg to the other end of the store. I don't like their new checkouts though. Hmph.
Today I was listening to the music they played. You're not really supposed to register the music they pipe into supermarkets; I read a book about it once, explaining the delicate art of choosing stuff that's upbeat and pleasant, but not challenging or in any way offensive, with a mix that appeals across the ages. I don't think they got it quite right today. It started off well enough with Fatboy Slim's "Weapon of Choice", then moved onto something by Kelly Clarkson and then to the bouncy Safeway jingle ("We're Safeway, the Fresh Food People, with fresh ideas for you!") just in case we'd forgotten what shop we were in.
And then, mysteriously, they followed that up with "Forever Autumn" (by the Moody Blues? Or am I making that up?). That's the one that tootles about in a pretty but melancholy fashion for a while before he wails "My life will be forever autumn, 'cause YOU'RE NOT HERE". Talk about bringing the mood down.
*****
I don't watch a lot of TV. A couple of years ago I didn't have a TV for six months and sort of got out of the habit, and then TV itself - programs and scheduling - is so terrible I don't feel like I'm missing all that much. Most of the time I find the ads more interesting. I was even weaned off my one sad little addiction to Australian Idol by the inclusion of Kyle Sandilands (shudder) as a judge.
And then I realised on Friday there is one program I do look forward to each week and would seriously consider setting the video for if I couldn't watch it at the time: at 8pm each Friday on the ABC, one of their low-budget "factual entertainment" panel shows called Collectors. It's partly about antiques - each week the host or one of the three panellists records a bit about what to look for in Lalique glassware or how museums look after their pieces and so on - but mostly about the odd passions people have. Each week they have a guest collector, who does a recorded tour of the collection in question, then brings a couple of specimens into the studio for a discussion. Sometimes they are obvious collections - stamps or football cards or whatnot - and sometimes... well, there was one guy devoting his life to collecting light globes. He had rooms full of them (and an incredibly understanding family).
I love this, because I've realised it's so alien to my mindset. I'm a dilettante - I get all excited about something for a while and then my interest wanes and I'm diverted by something new and shiny. I simply wouldn't have the patience to track down one of every single type of light globe made in 1959. So I end up knowing a little bit about lots of things, but I don't have a grand consuming passion and I envy those people who do.
Anyway, they also have a viewer segment, where people can send in a video of themselves talking about their own collections. These range from the typical (a little girl who collects erasers) to the interesting (a middle-aged woman who was given a lovely red leather scrapbook when she was a girl and wanted to do something special with it, so she uses it to keep every single Easter egg wrapper she's ever had - the older wrappers are nicer than the new ones and the whole book smells of chocolate) to the professional (a man who collected 50s memorabilia, who was so good they invited him to be one of their proper guests). This week was a woman who collects fingernail clippings; her own and those of anyone else prepared to give them. When she has enough, she glues them onto twee little pictures (you can see her video here if you've nothing better to do). The best bit was when the video ended and the host, a pleasant and cheery young chap, in that moment before he realised the camera was back on him, was watching with a look of utter revulsion.
The renovations at my supermarket continue apace; they have, rather thrillingly, moved the fruit & veg to the other end of the store. I don't like their new checkouts though. Hmph.
Today I was listening to the music they played. You're not really supposed to register the music they pipe into supermarkets; I read a book about it once, explaining the delicate art of choosing stuff that's upbeat and pleasant, but not challenging or in any way offensive, with a mix that appeals across the ages. I don't think they got it quite right today. It started off well enough with Fatboy Slim's "Weapon of Choice", then moved onto something by Kelly Clarkson and then to the bouncy Safeway jingle ("We're Safeway, the Fresh Food People, with fresh ideas for you!") just in case we'd forgotten what shop we were in.
And then, mysteriously, they followed that up with "Forever Autumn" (by the Moody Blues? Or am I making that up?). That's the one that tootles about in a pretty but melancholy fashion for a while before he wails "My life will be forever autumn, 'cause YOU'RE NOT HERE". Talk about bringing the mood down.
I don't watch a lot of TV. A couple of years ago I didn't have a TV for six months and sort of got out of the habit, and then TV itself - programs and scheduling - is so terrible I don't feel like I'm missing all that much. Most of the time I find the ads more interesting. I was even weaned off my one sad little addiction to Australian Idol by the inclusion of Kyle Sandilands (shudder) as a judge.
And then I realised on Friday there is one program I do look forward to each week and would seriously consider setting the video for if I couldn't watch it at the time: at 8pm each Friday on the ABC, one of their low-budget "factual entertainment" panel shows called Collectors. It's partly about antiques - each week the host or one of the three panellists records a bit about what to look for in Lalique glassware or how museums look after their pieces and so on - but mostly about the odd passions people have. Each week they have a guest collector, who does a recorded tour of the collection in question, then brings a couple of specimens into the studio for a discussion. Sometimes they are obvious collections - stamps or football cards or whatnot - and sometimes... well, there was one guy devoting his life to collecting light globes. He had rooms full of them (and an incredibly understanding family).
I love this, because I've realised it's so alien to my mindset. I'm a dilettante - I get all excited about something for a while and then my interest wanes and I'm diverted by something new and shiny. I simply wouldn't have the patience to track down one of every single type of light globe made in 1959. So I end up knowing a little bit about lots of things, but I don't have a grand consuming passion and I envy those people who do.
Anyway, they also have a viewer segment, where people can send in a video of themselves talking about their own collections. These range from the typical (a little girl who collects erasers) to the interesting (a middle-aged woman who was given a lovely red leather scrapbook when she was a girl and wanted to do something special with it, so she uses it to keep every single Easter egg wrapper she's ever had - the older wrappers are nicer than the new ones and the whole book smells of chocolate) to the professional (a man who collected 50s memorabilia, who was so good they invited him to be one of their proper guests). This week was a woman who collects fingernail clippings; her own and those of anyone else prepared to give them. When she has enough, she glues them onto twee little pictures (you can see her video here if you've nothing better to do). The best bit was when the video ended and the host, a pleasant and cheery young chap, in that moment before he realised the camera was back on him, was watching with a look of utter revulsion.
