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Rough rides
Went to the Isle of Wight yesterday. My careful plans were almost scuppered by the cancellation of the train I had to take to meet up with the rest of the group. Fortunately, the schedule of the next train due to pass through the station was changed so that it stopped to pick up stranded passengers, or customers as they are now called. The ferry journey at the end of the line was disappointing. Forward motion was slower than I expected; that up and down was greater. The ride in the little train from Ryde was noisy and bumpy; it was so bumpy that it was a wonder no one fell out of their seat. I was glad to get out at the end of the line. We were to have fish and chips before returning home but I decided not to because I felt it risky to travel on that train without an empty stomach. Thought for today
Republicans are the party that says government doesn't work, and then they get elected and prove it.
P J O'Rourke, (1947 - ) American writer
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1.6.08 20:02
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Loss of respect
I have less respect for Libby Purves after reading her column in today's Times. She wrote about the decision by a police force to use common sense in policing instead of targets. She wrote: As a ludicrously harmless middle-aged mother I was miffed when a rookie policewoman gave me three points and a lecture for stopping with one wheel on the zig-zag lines in an empty small town late on a wet Christmas Eve, while my son quickly used a cash machine...
Stopping as she did implied that she was either ignorant, unobservant or lazy. She should have been miffed at her behaviour not that of the police officer. Zig-zag lines are by pedestrian crossings. (They are also by school entrances but from her description I think it more likely that they were white ones by a crossing and not yellow ones by a school.) She is not that harmless if she stops where she poses a hazard to other road users. I imagine she would be the first to admit that driving should be taken seriously. Following The Highway Code is not just for learners; it is for life. (See Rules 191 and 240--in the current edition of course.)
Thought for today
Reading is a particularly effective way of joining up life's endless separations.
Jeanette Winterson, Times, 31 May 2008
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2.6.08 20:03
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Misunderstandings
There is a daily item on the Today programme on Radio Four this week about care homes for the elderly. The words Nursing Homes and Care Homes are used interchangeably. This is a mistake. The former are the latter but the latter are not necessarily the former. Those in nursing homes need a lot of care; they can do nothing for themselves.
In today's episode there was a report from a woman in her 70s who stayed (unnecessarily) in a care home for a week so that she could see what it was like. She was there under the guise of having mild dementia to give her carer a week's respite. She said that residents sat in the lounge where the telly was on all the time although all ignored it. No one spoke. From the end of breakfast to the start of supper there was an air of boredom. What did she expect? The problem with care homes is the residents. What stops them from turning off the telly and talking to each other? Their dementia.
A few years ago I visited a care home which was advertised as caring for people with dementia. As soon as I walked through the unlocked front door I thought that it was unlikely that anyone with dementia lived there. Round a table in the large hall were sitting about six old folk, chatting animatedly. They may have had difficulty living independently but dementia was not the cause.
Care homes, presumably, are the last resort. If life is not pleasant in them, what was it like before?
On Saturday, as I walked back from my early morning walk, there was condensation on car windows. Someone had drawn with a finger on one window--the outline of male genitalia. The following day I walked with a group. We stopped by a gate leading to a field to admire the view. Others had stopped before us but for a different reason; on the ground was a used condom.
Thought for today
The question of how to ignore our fellow passengers has been displaced by another dilemma: how to talk to those who are not there.
Joe Moran, on train travel in Queuing for Beginners, 2007
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3.6.08 19:57
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A dry day
There was no rain today. I joined a group for a ten mile tramp through woodland. The sun shone through the trees onto foxgloves which were tall and healthy, as were nettles. There were plenty of those. There was also plenty of mud on some of the tracks.
There was another report from the woman undercover in the nursing home on Radio Four this morning. She has yet to mention the food. Chances are she will be glad to return to her own home so her bowels can return to normal. The food and the inactivity in care homes are likely to have a constipating effect.
Thought for today
We must rid ourselves of the delusion that it is major events which most determine a person. He is more deeply and lastingly influenced by the tiny catastrophes of which everyday existence is made up.
Siegfried Kracauer, 1998
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4.6.08 20:15
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A shopping expedition
This morning I went to one of the larger neighbouring towns to search for a pair of lightweight walking boots suitable for summer. I had hoped to buy a pair like the ones I have that are falling to pieces but, such is life, that sort is no longer made. Anyway, I did buy a similar pair and now will be reluctant to wear them unless it is dry; I don't want them to get dirty.
Having looked in two shops before choosing the ones I bought, I was exhausted. Shopping is not for me; I tire quickly. I can walk ten miles with little difficulty, but shopping wears me out.
Before I bought the boots, I went into Marks & Sparks to look for a bra. What an effort that was; there were hundreds to choose from. Many had wire in them. I thought underwired bras were for women with huge boobs, but even small sizes were underwired. There were 'T shirt bras'. I wondered what distinguished those. Sports bras I can understand, but not T shirt bras. I wear T shirts, but never think of wearing a special bra under them. Eventually I found something that I thought might do and tried it on. Fortunately it fitted so I bought it and rushed out.
Even buying it was not straightforward. I waited until the cashier by the fitting rooms had finished serving someone, and then handed her my package. She took it and told me that I had gone to the wrong end of the queue. What queue? I thought, and looked round. There were three women, two of whom were chatting to each other, standing about six feet away. They must have been the queue. I said sorry and was prepared to wait for them to be served but the cashier continued with my purchase. The other women said nothing. I am used to supermarket shopping where, as soon as there is space on the conveyor belt, one plonks one's goods on it. I am not used to shoppers standing so far back. It shows how little I shop.
Thought for today
If you can look back on your life with contentment, you have one of man's most precious gifts--a selective memory.
Jim Fiebig
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5.6.08 20:26
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Hotting up
Summer weather now. I have planted out most of the veg I was nurturing in my greenhouse. All that remain are the french beans and the reserve runner beans. Sweat dripped from me as I dug the patch for the sweetcorn today.
When I went to shut the greenhouse yesterday evening, I came out quicker than I went in. There was a hornet in there buzzing against the glass. It was huge--almost the size of one of my little fingers. I held a narrow plank of wood by it and hoped it would land on it. This it did and, fortunately, stayed long enough on it for me to move the plank outside. It then flew off, like a miniature microlight, and headed for trees.
Thought for today
Malapropisms, neologisms, spoonerisms, mispronunciations and other verbal exotica poured out of the President [GWB] in torrents. Rogue nouns would suddenly wander into his sentences and refuse to leave. Verbs, prepositions, tenses were locked in permanent conflict.
Ben Macintyre, The Times, Saturday 7 June 2008
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8.6.08 20:18
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No time for waste
I dislike waste and that includes time, wasting time. My failure to read instructions about planting lettuce plants led to my wasting time. I bought two trays of ten little lettuces on Saturday; today I transferred them to bigger containers. Then I read my book about growing vegetables and realised that I had planted the lettuces too close together. D'Oh! I dug them up and planted most in separate pots and left the rest in the long containers. They can stay in the greenhouse at night, out of reach of slugs and snails, and come out for fresh air and sun in the day.
My runner beans have been chewed by blasted invertebrates. The book about veg warns that slugs and snails like runner beans. Keep a watch out for them it says. That's all very well, but as they come out when I'm in bed, how am I supposed to do that?
Thought for today
Email makes both meaningful and meaningless communication easier and allows us to conduct electronic conversations that could be more quickly and efficiently conducted by the old-fashioned technology of talking. ... Emails have not dispensed with the need for human interaction, or the bottomless capacity of work to generate time-wasting and redundancy.
Joe Moran, Queuing for Beginners, 2007
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9.6.08 20:55
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