The Mansion, Renovated A Little

Yes Indeed!
The great big enormous front window has been replaced - as well it ought, since it had sunk, gapped, blown and condensed - with a slightly smelly but pristine new set of glazing that cuts out sound and draughts, and all in time for winter.  Well, not that the demarcation between what we laughingly call "summer" and the rest of the year when it's even colder and wetter is very precise, yet when that time comes our windows will be a source of comfort.

Also comes with added force-field

Vietnamese - The Language
Every day Conrad travels past a row of shops on the A57 that are Vietnamese: a cafe, a hairdressers and a food shop.  Normally the bus pauses thanks to traffic, leaving time for Conrad to ponder in - always a worrying and potentially dangerous situation.
     "Why all the diacritical marks?" he pondered.  "In fact, why does Vietnamese use the Roman alphabet at all?"

Vietnamese diacritical marks

     Originally the Vietnamese language used the Chinese alphabet, until the French arrived in the Nineteenth Century and in between conquering stuff and cooking, the Roman alphabet came with them.  As you can see from the illustration above, the marks inform what tone is to be used when speaking the words, and tones are crucial when speaking Vietnamese.

Kritical Marx.  Close enough.

Where Do I Start?
With the volume "Nery 1914"

At the top

     The events here took place at the fag end of August and the beginning of September, so they may well get mentioned on television in the near future.
     Anyway, back to my fascinating anecdote*.  Not long after starting this slim volume, Conrad realised that it began at page 307.  Eh what?  Where were the 306 preceding ones? Had the spine come undone or the glue not stuck?  Was this just a collection of pages copied from the Official History that sits not three yards away from Conrad as he types these very words?
     None of the above; the book is an extract from "Journal of the Royal Artillery", Volume LIV, Number 3.

The Osier
No!  Nothing to do with firemen.  The Osier is a type of tree, thank you very much, part of the Salix family, and is notable for producing long, strong branches that can be used in the construction of tools, baskets, walls or small buildings.

Before

After

     One of the oldest human artefacts discovered by archaeologists is a fishing net made out of osiers, from 8000 BC.
     So.  There you have it.  The humble osier, foundation of human technology and development.

Cherry Ghost
The first album by this lot ("Thirst for Romance") is a classic that will be around for decades.  Their second album ("Beneath This Burning Shoreline"), although good, suffers by comparison.  And there was a three-year gap between them, the idle rascals - simply unsupportable!  Led Zeppelin used to manage two albums per year, you know, back when musicians had a work ethic -
     - where was I?

Cheery Ghost.  Close enough

     Ah, yes - "Herd Runners" is their third album but Conrad knew not of it's release.  This is because "Q" is delivered to the Mansion, but it is Sally's publication and if she doesn't allow Conrad to view it, if in fact she chooses to make a bonfire of it in the sink and mix the ashes with acid to render it toxic papier mache, then - why, that's her business.
     She is moving out in a fortnight, however ...

A Little Musical Critique
Normally I pick on Simon and Garfunkel and their songs about zombies and embezzlement, but today I was forcefully struck by a line from a song called "Blood Buzz Ohio" by The National.

"I was carried to Ohio in a swarm of bees"

     which made me stop and think.
     There are two interpretations here.  Either the narrator is the world's smallest individual, and we're talking about being an inch high here, or these are some GIGANTIC-ASSED BEES.

It's big and bee-shaped.  Also rather pathetic

     I vote for the latter, this is clearly the musical equivalent of an Asylum horror film, and all the more so because in "Terrible Love" he starts singing about spiders**.

Caught Out
Being a very sad man***, Conrad has been watching the giant crane at Victoria Station, wondering why he never discovered it moving the big structural girders that make up the (literal) backbone of the new tram station.  A clip on the MEN website showed the movement being done at night, because - er - because - um - because the construction company workers are eeevil and would shrivel up in the daylight?
     Well, no, because Conrad got a shot of one girder being moved in daylight today.
     Maybe the vampires swapped workshifts with the werewolves.

Werewolf work force: gives new meaning to the term "mooning"

*  It is fascinating!  It is!
** Conrad maintains a wary tolerance of the ones that live on the outside of his windows, as long as they stay outside.
*** "Man" rather than alien-spy-wearing-a-human-skin.  Hell of a job to keep it clean and uncreased, you know.