As It Stands, I Sit

And Quite Comfortably, Too
     Conrad is now on holiday for two weeks.  This comes about because Wonder Wifey is now Wander Wifey, off on her jollies for two weeks, first by air, then by sea, prefaced by an early-hours drive this morning at 4 am.  It was a lot cheaper, quicker and more convenient for Conrad to be chauffeur than rely on a taxi, so - guess what!  I was up at 4 a.m. also.  As Wander Wifey slipped out, Dogsit Daughter took her place so the resident Queen of the Household (a.k.a. Edna teh puppeh) didn't discover the sinister substitution.
     Thanks to this quick-change, Conrad was able to clamber back into bed at 5:15* and get another 4 hours sleep.  At my age I need that beauty sleep!

Conrad on less than 8 hours kip per night.

     Saturday Morning Routine 
     Conrad being a creature of habit, this goes as follows:  get up, get dressed, go downstairs.  Brew a two-pint pot of tea, toast a couple of crumpets, make toast.  Sit and read whilst scoffing bread products; once these are gone, get cracking on note-making.
     As I was up, Dogsit Daughter and Tom Howl decided to walk into Royton, since it was bright and sunny and warm (three things not normally associated with a Bank Holiday weekend), so Edna stayed with self.
     Not much reading done, but!  loads of notation.
     I realise this would be, to most folk, a painful experience most likely administered by a magistrate in lieu of an ASBO, yet it is how Conrad rolls.
     Proof positive:

What kind of tea?  English Breakfast of course!  This being England.  And it being breakfast.

     
The Kraken Wakes
     Anyone who is a regular reader here - and I can AND WILL! check with your ISP to find out, gentle reader - knows that Conrad has been filleting and editing this novel for a few months now.  I've got the characters, the locations, the plot and a couple of artefacts worked out.  Then comes the dialogue.  Going on progress so far, this 240 page novel will have about 60 pages of dialogue, although (wearing screenwriter's green-visored cap) some of this can be replaced by a few seconds of visuals.  I got a lot done this morning, viz:

     Some dialogue has been rendered obsolete by history.  Wyndham mentions "Formosa".  Today nobody would recognise this as actually being the island of Taiwan.  He mentions that practically nobody lives on the Falklands; entirely true in 1953 but events thirty years later make it untrue today ...

Shampoo Bar
     No!  Not a hipster venue in the city where one goes to get the follicular-fur frothed-up by finger-fondling.  A block of shampoo in solid block form, apparently.  Dogsit Daughter bought this product on-line, because it's so much better for the hair than liquid shampoo.  Well, Conrad is willing to accept this on faith.  Mister Hand, a picture of a shampoo bar, please:

Grand Poobah.  Close enough.

Fun With The Elements!
     Magnesium!  Chemical symbol "Mg", chemical number 12:

Either a lump of magnesium oxide, or Manhattan from a mile up

     Today magnesium's principal use is in metal alloys, particularly those where it is combined with aluminium.  The resultant alloy is strong, very lightweight and also dangerously flammable.  It is also used in antacids - solutions to sooth your fretful stomach, gentle reader - and is present in a large number of metabolic functions within the human body.
     It was also used - once - in constructing a Formula One racing car.  Extremely high-speed car, volatile and explosive alloy, half a ton of extremely flammable fuel - what could possibly go wrong?  Google RA302 to find out what, gentle reader.
     Of old, it was also used to blind schoolchildren/illuminate the battlefield, when chemistry teachers would set fire to a strip of magnesium ribbon to show how brightly it burnt.  Answer - extremely brightly, sufficient to give off ultra-violet rays that damage the retina.  As a flare, effective in turning night into day, hence the opposite effect experienced by all those schoolchildren (of whom Conrad was one).

Man Cannot Live By Bread Alone
     Interestingly enough, this is a theme in the latter parts of "The Kraken Wakes".  As a metaphor it ought to perhaps be "Humanity cannot live by bread alone", since many of the ladies I know avoid bread as if it were tainted toxic trash - but not all of them, since some do not fear the calorie-counter.
     Where was I?     
     Oh yes!  Poetry.  The poetic.

  

      This is the view down Tandle Hill Road.  It only stays as picturesque as this for a few days, so you have to get the timing right.  Too early and all you get are trees with buds and no colour; too late and all you get are trees with bare branches.

Puppeh-Pimping Time!
     The photo above was taken whilst taking Edna for her walk, as is the one below:

     Here is one of her looking over Dogsit Daughter's shoulder, an act perhap,s somehow, vaguely, possibly, associated with the Pringles being consumed:

* "Out of my brain on the train, waiting for the - " - lyric from which band?