Saturday, May 29, 2010







Thoughts du jour:
We are soon off to France for my niece's wedding, however her father-in-law to be is very ill and they may have to high tail it to New York, get married there and race back to France for the party her father has planned so carefully. The wedding of his son two years ago was in the French Alps and was spectacular, spectacular. I identify with the albino croc.. The bloke in the bowler represents what I might have worn for the wedding, if another brother, who lives in Blighty, can of gotten hold of the bowler tres large for my swollen head. Brolly is optional and not de rigueur these days. The clock face is for a wild plan to turn a piece of vacant land near where we live into a very simple sun dial. I will propose this outrageous idea to the multi-millionaire, who owns much of the lots around here. He owns a Honda dealership and his receptionist suggests I make an appointment with him when he is less busy, perhaps in the high summer, I guess. The drawing like photograph is POD from wikipedia. I like the way she has been photoshopped. I return to work on Monday after a prolonged absence. I will ask for another different schedule, perhaps with Thursdays and Sundays off. At my age, the strain of my work is beginning to tell quite significantly. The managers are insulated a bit more than the front line workers, who are mainly younger, stronger and still very dedicated. I have never worked among so many 'do-gooders', and they have sustained me for ten years, the longest I have ever been in one job. Enough for now. "'See you in the funny papers", as a friend used to say.




I JUST TRIED TO GET RID OF WINDOWS AND REPLACE THEM WITH LINUX. MORE COMPLICATED THAN I THOUGHT IT WOULD BE. First WINDOWS IS VERY TENACIOUS AND THEN IT TURNS OUT MY LAPTOP, WHICH IS SLOW ENOUGH ALREADY IS NOT FAST ENOUGH FOR Linux. Still I WOULD SO LIKE TO GO BACK TO THE WAY THE COMPUTER WAS WHEN I GOT IT. It SLOWS APPRECIABLY DAY BY DAY NOW. I SUPPOSE THIS OBSOLESCENCE IS A BUILT IN FEATURE TO GET ME TO BUY NEW EVERY THREE TO FIVE YEARS. Pity, BECAUSE THE KEYS AND SCREEN ARE STILL FINE. I AM VERY HAPPY WITH THIS European Samsung. I’ve TRIED OTHER LAPTOPS AND D O NOT LIKE THEM AS MUCH. The KEYS ARE VERY LARGE AND THE SCREEN WIDE. I HAVE STUBBY FINGERS AND TOUCH FINGER TYPE LOOKING AT THE KEYS. Their ACTION IS COMFORTINGLY DEFINITE TOO, NOT SOFT LIKE MY WIFE'S. The ONLY PROBLEM IS GETTING STUCK IN CAPS!

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

I just dreamed of a blue house here in Toronto. It does not exist here according to google. What is this about Facebook? There is a site for people to leave that excellent networking site, because they are fed up with having 6ooo friends they don't actually know. My Facebook site has about thirty people I do know and I find it useful and entertaining, especially as I can follow their posts on my cell phone. Why are people turning into Luddites all of a sudden? Big brother is not intrusive and we are well past 1984 and the horrors predicted by a brilliant writer, who was nevertheless virulently anti- communist. I would have not been that unhappy in soviet Russia in my youth, I feel. East Germany perhaps, certainly not Hungary and I think I would have been happy to perform my function in a society according to what the state deemed to be my talents and rewarded them appropriately. Perhaps this sentiment is why I left England and settled in Canada, rather than the USA, which in many, many ways I greatly admired, but there was a downside of what I knew about the States, and their anti -communism was part of that downside. Unlike my eldest, I have little bile reserved for "nanny states". I think a government should promulgate, "The greatest happiness for the greatest number". This is because of the political philosophy to which I was exposed at an English public school. I did not consider myself a socialist until quite late, working on TV documentaries for Granada in 1970. It was from Manchester that I applied to emigrate here and I was accepted quite easily because another accident of my youth made me bi-lingual and my trade was deemed to be one which was short of technicians in Canada. My best friend was a uni-lingual accountant and he was refused one year later. These are early morning ramblings on waking from this dream of a blue house. Jung claims that the house in dreams is a symbol of the self, hence the ridiculous dream in ourwaking life of owning our own. But why blue? I suppose blue is the colour of protection, of being shielded and of providing what we crave for others. It is time I soon got back to work.

Sunday, May 23, 2010












These were a long time coming. What do my blogging friends think of them? I found a note in my handwriting in the drawers next to my bed. It read, "Angela Kershaw 2006 "Women in Europe between the wars: Politics, Culture and Society", Ashgate Publishing pp145 ISBN 07546 6845
Sounds boring but won't be!"
I found the book in our Toronto library system, but lost the note: Knowing it would turn up, I kept the book, which disappeared. When I reported this loss to the library, they charged me 135 dollars, as it was their only copy. Recently I found the book and was reimbursed. Then I found the note, reapplied for the book and found a very interesting article about the photographer. These are just a tiny fraction of her work. So what do you think, or know about Claude Cahun?
We are off to Paris and Marseilles in three weeks and I am determined, mainly for other reasons, to visit the museum of the thirties, the Louvres and the Galleries Lafayettes. Maybe catch a movie, but, sadly, I just quit a three weeks smoking binge, so I won't be able to smoke even one Boyar.






Wednesday, May 19, 2010

"Achievement tears" changing to "Rewards"
Enough with fighting.
Enough with war.

WHAT
ARE THEY
DOING
OVER THERE
Knowlton Nash was never my favourite delivery.
Truth is false.
UGLY Visitors.
End ugliness.
Let us visit in peace.
Never mind, these are just early morning drops from my eyes.

Monday, May 17, 2010

As if C'est what is being besieged by lurid spam. I will port the content over here.

Monday, May 10, 2010

from Greek ou (not) + topos (place).

Sunday, May 9, 2010

Saturday, May 1, 2010





A Quebecois cheese called Rondu?