Apologies to those of you who live in countries with boring, predictable weather - always hot, always cold, always wet, always dry - because here in the UK we have a delightfully mixed meteorological system where you really can have four seasons in one day, or one season ("Slutch") that lasts for eleven months of the year. Today has been one of those unseasonable summer days happening in autumn - November, no less.
<cue reminiscent string music and a Quantel fade> why I remember last November. Conrad was able to walk from the Mansion into Royton town centre in sandals*. Not that I'm an old hippy or anything, it's just that the weather was as it was today - a brief interval of summer.
"Pusheen"
Conrad has been introduced to this cartoon cat by Sophie** at work. He did notice her describe the shrunken TARDIS of recent Doctor Who history as "Pusheen-sized".
"Illuminate us, Conrad!" I hear your plaintive cries. "Put a picture of Pusheen before us!"
Your wish is taken into consideration:
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| Enitrely accurate in every way |
Conrad came across the first word in his light reading for the day - "The English Civil War", by Lucy Purkiss. The shooting has now begun, after 140 prefatory pages, including several references to "Arminians". Who or what are these, pondered Conrad?
A religious sect, it seems, who believed that one could redeem oneself by doing good deeds during your spell on this mortal coil. This did not sit well with the prevailing religious sentiment of the day, which held that predestination was the way to go***.
Armenians, however, come from the Trans-Caucasus over beyond the Middle East, and have a unique alphabet.
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| Armenian alphabet. |
Fun With Cotton
No! Not Fern. No! Not Dot, either. I refer to what is, in German, "Tree wool"^.
If your memory stretches back to last night, you will remember Conrad posting about the Romanian and Finnish for cotton. Allow me to illustrate:
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| Upper right |
Second down from the top is Bulgarian, which uses the Cyrillic alphabet:
памук памук- and what does this transcribe to in the Roman alphabet?
Pamuk
This is because Bulgaria was under Turkish rule for centuries and retains a lot of Turkish-derived language - which some Bulgarians want to expunge, and which, since it borders on Current Affairs, is where BOOJUM! moves on ...Conrad's Experiences In The Modern Nineveh^^
A.k.a. "Manchester". Yes, today Conrad went shopping.
Conrad going shopping is not a browsing experience.
I have a list.
I go to the shop.
I buy what I listed.
I go home.
Today was a little different, as I was sitting at the 182 bus-stop and an old Chinese lady struck up a conversation with me, in between scolding her husband. Technically, I suppose, this counts as being "chatted-up". Perhaps she wanted to make hubby jealous. It didn't get to the point of exchanging telephone numbers, but it is reassuring to know that Conrad still has the ability to charm the ladies.
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| Manchester. I mean, it's got to be - look at all that water! |
I know this probably isn't riveting stuff, but I bought them and it's my blog, and I took the photos; you can gloss over this bit if you like.
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| "Rare Exports" top left, "World War Z" top right, and the Don at bottom |
"Quiet Flows The Don" is nothing to do with the Mafia! Conrad, wordy film bore that he is, never realised this film existed before today. It is based on the novel by Mikhail Sholokov, set in the turbulent first decades of the twentieth century in the lands of the Don Cossacks, covering the First World War and the far bloodier Russian Civil War. Quite what the film is remains to be seen; it will have a hard job evincing the wonderfully evocative prose of Pan Sholokov.
Wait! There's More -
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| There must be a pun in there somewhere. |
Still More!
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| Gong: "Angel's Egg"; M83: "Digital Realities" Caravan: "For Girls Who Grow Plump" Public Service Broadcasting:"The War Room" & "Educate Entertain Inform" |
Eeyore's Book Of Gloom
A touchstone for our troubled times. If only - hang on, that's nearly Current Affairs - okay, let us see what Eeyore has to say about <thinks but not very hard> Reality Television Programmes!
Enjoy boredom.
It's all you've got to look forward to.
What sage advice!
I hesitate to work the Coincidence Hammer into a post dealing with treasured childhood literature, but after posting about Winnie The Pooh yesterday, I returned to the BBC News website and guess who was there?
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| Yes! The Evil And Sinister Bear |
No! Nothing to do with some brutal engagement of the Vietnam War. No, this was when Conrad sat down in the kitchen at the table, and was promptly assaulted by both Jenny (resident cyborg sentry cat) and Edna (Wunderhund and Watcher of the Wall). Edna got into position on my lap, and then Jenny came and settled, reducing the available room so that Edna had to stand up, and then fell off, and then couldn't get back up because there wasn't enough room.
Bah! So much for sitting and doing a quiet bit of reading. I got up and made soup.
How Do They Do It?
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| It's subtle but the left-hand bulb is dead |
That being so, how does that dead bulb get replaced? There aren't ladders long enough to reach it, and it's too far down to lean over the side and replace it. Does some daring minion abseil down from the thirteenth floor a la Tom Cruise? or do they get lashed-up with safety cables and balance on the bannister?
* Plus the rest of his clothing. Conrad = not a naturist.
** Not that Sophie - that Sophie. No, turn 180 degrees and over by the window. There!
*** So - if you were damned then you could be as wicked as you wanted; in fact you could be as wicked as you wanted anyway, because if you were damned you were damned, and if you were due to shake hands with Saint Peter, that's what would happen.
^Baumwolle.
^^ A naughty city of the ancient world, kind of Babylon-lite
^^^ Were?
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