Saturday, September 05, 2009

Yesterday and today

We spent yesterday mainly with our other two grandchildren, Little A and J,
while their mum and our daughter (B) went shopping. B is returning to part-
time work as an environmental health officer in a month's time, so we'll
carry on seeing/looking after them most Fridays from now on. The little ones
are coming up to their 3rd and 1st birthdays, and J is not far off walking
by himself. How time flies!

As regards time flying by, I think it's amazing that the Romans used the
same expression some 2000 years ago ~ "tempus fugit", and interesting
to hear about a Roman soldier here in Britain writing back to his mum in
Italy (on one of those clay tablets), asking her to to knit a pair of
socks for him. Unfortunately, this letter was never sent, so the poor chap
had to endure the winter cold here without them. Rubbish postal system.

Later on we went out for an evening meal a couple of streets away, chez my
MIL ~ organic trout fillets with steamed organic veg (spuds, carrot, runner
beans & cabbage), with a few raspberries to follow, plus some white & red
wine ... all very nice.

In the evening, I walked to the top of a nearby hill (where the BelleView
reservoir is) for a Belle View of last night's sunset, and to take some
photos of it. However, by the time I got there, the light was fading
rapidly, so I didn't get any good ones really.

We watched an episode of "Dexter" last night on our DVD player/TV. One critic
said it's "deliciously dark", and so it is. I give the series a 5 star
rating ... it's brilliant. We've only got one episode of the first series
left to watch, but I see on the internet that there are three more series
available. For a bit of light relief afterwards, we watched "Mock The Week",
which was very funny as usual.

Today, I pottered around (well, if you could call doing stuff on a PC as
"pottering around"), while Mrs C went for a session on "Alexander Technique",
at a private clinic around the corner, and later, after having a coffee with
me, she saw a client for counselling. She doesn't usually work on Saturdays.

I've been busy putting together a programme of talks for the Computer Club
I help run, and trying out Google's Streetview, which I will demonstrate to
CC members this coming week. Our local locksmith is quite hard to find in
the Mapperley area of Nottingham, so I looked up the postcode on the net
(TouchLocal), did a Google search for the postcode, and then looked up and
down the main road on Streetview for the locksmith and the nearest bus stops.
I think Streetview is useful for finding businesses ... it will save a lot
of walking/motoring around.

Later on this morning, I made some houmous from pressure-cooked chick peas
(it takes about 25 mins to cook a large batch of them, and then you can
freeze any surplus chick peas for future use). We vary the recipe slightly
from time to time, but we're aiming to create a houmous similar to the one
made by Malcolm at our favourite veggie restaurant, Cafe Nomad. Anyway,
I made some delicious houmous, and we ate some of it at lunchtime.

Mrs C and I walked into town later, to see a murder mystery play "The
Late Edwina Black", which was on at Nottingham's Theatre Royal, and which
was excellent. A very good plot & good acting. We saw another play in the
same series 2 weeks ago, "Suddenly At Home", which was very good too.

For the evening meal: a veggie-burger with home-made tomato sauce, together
with the usual veg and a glass of Shiraz wine ... a TV dinner, as we sat
down to watch the "X Factor" on ITV, which had the usual mix of a few
outstandingly good singers and the rest who were really bad (or mildly
entertaining). I'm always amazed how some people think they've got the
"X Factor", when it's plainly evident that all they've got is the
"Crap Factor". They are either tone-deaf or delusional, possibly both.
However, it does make interesting TV to watch. I think the singer Lucie
Jones is a star in the making - she has a fabulous voice. Here's a video of
her performance tonight, singing one of my favourite Whitney Houston
songs.

I've probably said this before ... that I think Simon Cowell is spot-on with
everything he says about the people who come and audition for the show.
He speaks his mind, which some people don't like, but in the music
business as in any other, you can't promote useless people or unrealistic
ideas.

The Beatles were back on TV last night ... co-inciding with the re-release
of their entire album collection. Mrs C and I enjoyed watching the oldies,
going back to late 1962, when their first single came out, and when we were
young ourselves. Oh, the wonderful 60s.

4 Comments:

Anonymous lom said...

What gets me with the X factor is that their friends and family encourage them to do it. When I start singing my son is always the first to say STOP. haha

5:25 am  
Blogger Kevin 'In Salford' said...

X-Factor: 99% are delusional. 1% can actually sing. But why all the 'sob' stories? They make me cringe even more than the 'singing'. Good laugh though, and superb entertainment for Saturday evenings.

I watched some of the 'Beatles Night'. Made me feel old! I too can remember the Beatles first single being released. And the Rolling Stones first one. And ........! Though I did enjoy (for the umpteenth time) the 'Help!' film later. But still can't decide if 'Hard Day's Night' is better - maybe it was due to Wilfred Brambell stealing the limelight?

8:19 pm  
Blogger justin said...

Hi LOM ~ yes, the families and friends are very supportive, which is bizarre also.

I've seen the occasional clip from the Beatles films, but never got round to seeing them, Kevin. I don't think I'll make the effort to see them, unless I'm laid up with a broken leg.

10:49 pm  
Blogger Kevin 'In Salford' said...

Ha! Fair enough. And I think I can see why. I guess it also helps if you can fully appreciate 'scouse' humour (of which there's plenty in their films) which I once said doesn't immediately make you laugh, it falls at your feet with a thud for you to think about first! (Like the classic picture of the office chair with the castors removed and replaced by bricks for it to stand on!).

8:29 pm  

Post a Comment

<< Home