When I google “crane”, what I want to see is tall pointy things made of metal for shifting stuff around on building sites, not birds posing en masse in a lake. You can’t always get what you want. A further illustration of that same principle came when, this morning, I had reason to google “canada … Continue reading I am the product – Canada goose isn’t a big bird any more
Yesterday I attended a Master Class at the Royal College of Music, in which five singing students, GodDaughter 2 among them, were publicly instructed by distinguished tenor and vocal teacher Dennis O’Neil. It was fascinating. He spent most of the time focussing on the art that conceals art, which meant that I couldn’t really understand … Continue reading Roof clutter viewed through an RCM window
TIL that TIL stands for “Today I learned”. First word in this, which is about piles. IL more about piles here and here. Originally posted at Brian Micklethwait’s Old Blog
At my home on the last Friday of this month (Friday September 28th – which is in six days time), Michael Jennings will be speaking about Iran, and in particular about how he recently spent some time exploring its capital city, Tehran. The easiest link to learn more about Michael’s amazing globetrottings is to this … Continue reading Michael Jennings explores Tehran
Recently I bought a CD set of Showboat, and yesterday I listened to it. Showboat is not really my kind of thing. When it comes to singing, I tend to prefer either Schubert or the Rolling Stones. I bought this Showboat to learn more about a lady called Janis Kelly. As you can see to … Continue reading An ideal Showboat
Last Sunday morning I was trying to have a good old lie-in, but instead I got woken up early by a giant anteater. Yes. Having been woken up, I looked out my window towards where all the din seemed to be coming from, and this was the scene I beheld: At first I thought the … Continue reading A noisy anteater
This morning, I was half attending to the Test Match. And I was switching back and forth between the Cricinfo page that showed the latest few deliveries with written ball-by-ball commentary (“live”), and the version that showed the complete England scorecard (“scorecard”). I was doing this because I was trying to track how the England … Continue reading “Attention” that isn’t
I don’t believe I am the only man to have been deranged by the heatwave in the manner I am about to describe, in fact I know that I am not, because I had one of those How-Very-True You’re-So-Right type conversations with GodDaughter2’s boyfriend, Only The Other Day, about exactly this matter. I refer to … Continue reading Heatwave jacket derangement syndrome
I have just finished hosting my latest last Friday meeting. It seemed to me to go very well, despite, and arguably because of, the low turnout. The fewer people show up at a meeting, the more subtle the conversation can be. Each question can get really answered. Tamiris Loureiro was the speaker. Unusually, she actually … Continue reading A Jordan Peterson evening
Mark Church, the Surrey commentator-in-chief, tweets the gory or glorious (according to taste) details of Surrey’s recent run of triumphs in the Country Championship: Surrey’s 5 straight wins: Innings and 17 runs Innings and 58 runs Innings and 89 runs 7 wickets Innings and 183 runs 6 wins in total this season Good numbers those … Continue reading Surrey’s hot streak continues