BOOJUM! Visits Bowlee

Which Is A Giant Car-Boot Sale In Bury
     For those members who live outside the UK, Conrad will explain.  A "Car Boot sale" is a venue where members of the public pay a small fee for a position on-site, park their car there and display wares for sale, usually on a paste table.  There are certain common items on display: clothes, children's books, DVDs, Fifty Shades of Grey*, crockery, computer games and various rusted tat from the back of the garden shed.  Occasionally there are a few books that Conrad has an interest in, thus -

Plus a cookbook - which isn't macho enough to display (actually downstairs in kitchen)

     Of course it was heaving with buyers - being sunny always does that.  Conrad was able to zip around and get back to the car before everyone else as he is only interested in very specific things (see above - military history, military fiction, murder mysteries).

Coincidence Stalks Conrad
     Yes indeed.  There I was, sitting gloating about my books, until I noticed a small spider spinning a web on the driver's side mirror.  Happening to glance at the left-hand mirror, hay pesto!  There's a small spider spinning a web on that one, too, in the same position.  I lowered the windows to get a better photo - and they both beetled off (so to speak) and hid, and didn't come out again.
     "O Noes!" I can hear you say.  "Denied!"
     Almost.  Be prepared to used your imagination here:

Imagine a micro-Shelob on each mirror, gentle reader

     Go look at the photograph featuring the books.  See the small paperback?  That's "The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club", by Dorothy L. Sayers.  Conrad has been after a copy for simply ages, so he swooped upon this one, o yes indeed.
     A couple of rows later, what does he espy?  Well, yes another copy of "Fifty Shades Of Grey" and a video of "Spiceworld", that goes without saying; what else but another copy of  "The Unpleasantness At The Bellona Club".
     Like buses, eh?

It's Not All Walking
     - as Vick and Bob used to say.  There is a small weedy pond abutting the car park, where various ducks were having a refreshing paddle:

Whoops.  Looks like the ducks ducked

     Given the heat and the sun and lack of shade, Conrad felt a bit envious.

Ah Yes I Did Mention Rusted Metal Tat, Didn't I?
     Darling Daughter found a lantern.
     No! Not a Chinese lantern.
     No!  Not a burnished metal artefact with spotless glass sleeve.
     No!  Not the skeletal carcass of a chicken (pretty close though)
     This kind of lantern:

Only the rust holds it together

     Predictably both parents went into full "It's not staying there!" mode and it has, indeed, moved from the kitchen table.  Perhaps, and only perhaps, to get cleaned up.

Against The Day
     I knew you'd love to know how I'm getting on with Mr Pynchon's monster opus.  Well, I am now up to page 245.  Lew, one of the central characters, has moved to England in 1900 AD, and Pynchon's English characters come across as English, and he even manages convincing paragraphs about cricket**, which is an achievement for an American - given that they never experienced the noble sport thanks to that "Revolution" stff.
     The text did throw up two unusual words.  A duet is being played by flute and "syrinx".  What on earth is a syrinx? mused Conrad.  Sounds like a - no, let's not guess.  What does Google tell us?

The riddle of the Syrinx

     So now we now better.  Also, Conrad is sure a classical composer has a duet for syrinx and - another instrument. Delibes? Saint-Saen? Someone of that ilk.
     Next unusual word - "Quotidian".  If Conrad was lazy or lacked creativity, why he'd just use this in one of his hilarious*** "definition" articles.  Instead he looked it up.
     It means "daily".  Bit anticlimactic, that.  I mean, "Quotidian" - it sounds like one of the minor lords of the Underworld - as in  "Quotidian", Lord of Missed Appointments and Getting Into Work A Bit Late.
     No?  Maybe it's just me then.

Finally
     As ever, Conrad exploits cuddly animals for blogging promotion.  I know it's wicked, but it doesn't come naturally, I have to practice:

Edna protests at animal exploitation.  Tough!

*   No exaggeration.  I think I saw twelve copies going today.
**  I can't even begin to go into the complexities of this game
***  They are so hilarious!  They are!