Dark Matters

In More Than One Sense, Too
Firstly, I am able thanks to my innate multi-tasking abilities to watch an episode of "Poirot" whilst also typing out the noble lines that greet your sight*.  And what is the soul of every episode of "Poirot"?  Why, MURDER!
     You can't get much darker than that, can you?  Listen to this line of dialogue:  "it was that face again!" and you just know that it won't be a happy, smiley, jolly, laughing face, eh?

Okay, okay, so this is a happy, smiley, jolly, laughing face.
Only because he's investigating a MURDER!

     Then again, I suppose the plot and flow of "Poirot" doesn't require 100% concentration -

 - and that's today's coincidence sorted.  Who was I banging on about last night but Captain Black.  And who's just been introduced in "The Tragedy of Marsdon Manor"? nobody but - Captain Black.  Ahum.

     Then you have to appreciate that, to appreciate the light, you must contrast it with the dark.  If every day was a dance amongst the posies on angel feet sipping ambrosia out of silver cups, you'd have nothing to contrast it with.  You'd be miserable.  Trust me, a diet of ambrosia will pall eventually.  You'd be pining for grilled bacon and Lorne sausage fried in lard, with poached egg and Worcestershire sauce.

This heart-attack-on-a-plate helps you to appreciate a granola-and-spinach smoothie diet.

     Finally, we have "Dark Matters", a sci-fi series that I'm about to set to and watch.  Since it is new to me, I am not going to risk losing the plot whilst typing out BOOJUM! so it and I shall make our acquaintance later on.

"The Men Who Made The S.A.S." By Gavin Mortimer
After yesterday's horribly self-indulgent satire of the publishing world as an intro to this work, let us get down to business about this detailed and remarkable book.
     The Long Range Desert Group, whom I shall abbreviate to LRDG, set themselves up at the oases of Kufra and Siwa, an enormous distance from the Gaberdine Swine of Cairo, which meant a lot less likelihood of antediluvian colonels paying a visit.

Kufra

     The LRDG made the desert their home, unlike the Axis, who feared and detested it in equal amounts.  If pursued into the depths of the dune sea, the perfidious Brits would lure their enemy off into the trackless wastes.  So often did they fail to return that the Axis patrols were forbidden to follow into the sands.  Instead aircraft were to be the weapon of choice, except that the LRDG jeeps bristled with machine-guns and were not to be taken on lightly.  When the Luftwaffe bombed the oasis at Siwa five of their eight aircraft failed to reuturn.

The oasis at Siwa.  Probably a little less battered than in 1942

     Then there are the quieter yet no less effective methods of obtaining intelligence.  As Colonel Bagnold pointed out, tracks in the desert lasted for weeks, months - even years.  A canny eye could work out what type of vehicle made them, where it was going, how many there were, even how much weight they were carrying and what constituted that weight.
     The trackless wastes, less trackless than imagined, you might say.

The Dip
Supposedly, Yoghurt, Dill and Walnut.  Conrad picked up the recipe yesterday, went into the kitchen to make it and realised that he didn't have either dill or walnuts.

Here it is

     Along with multi-tasking, Conrad can improvise, so he used basil and pine nuts and it turned out quite well, thanks for asking.

"The Shadow Riders"
Which is a fillum.  Never heard of it before the weekend, not really interested in watching it, although my eyes did move back and forth across the screen.  It stars Sam Elliot and - who else?  Someone other.  Anyway, it's set in the 1860's during the American Civil War.  Thus, it being made in the Eighties, careful location selection is necessary because you can't CGI anything in or out - like "Poirot" but more so.  Conrad also wonders if the production crew plot the flight paths of aircraft and local airports to prevent the need for overdubbing or halting the filming.

Tom Selleck!  That's who!

     Whatever the location, even though bright and sunny, it is definitely windy and looks COLD!  I can imagine the cast struggling not to fluff their lines so they can move on quickly to the next location ...
     Also, rowboats.  We see three rowboats being brought to shore from a ship out in the bay.  Conrad's little grey cells never rest unless ladled to sleep with a bucket of gin, so he promptly wondered who was doing the rowing.  It's not a skill you acquire overnight, it's a tricky job and you can't put your actors at peril of perishing in the briny deep.  Just who are these extras?
     I don't have an anwer, and may never have, or I may get back to you on this**.

That cold, windy beach

Edna, Pondering
As you surely know by now, Edna is quite the smart cookie, able to problem-solve at the drop of a hat, or a hefty beret if no more rigourously structured headgear is available.

     Here she is dining on a potato hoop that had been placed on the horizontal bar beneath the desk-top; she managed to sniff them out and knock them off in order to eat them.  You can see the marks where two others had also rested.
     Edna also has a fair sense of discretion.  Allow me to illustrate -

The paper bag held a single stale doughnut.  It was tempting, thought Edna.  O so tempting!

     From where I was sat, typing away as if dancing among the posies, unable to see the bag with the Tempting Doughnut, until I heard an exploratory rustle.
     "Edna!" quoth I, and she sheepishly assumed the position above, clearly not interested in doughnuts, no matter how tempting they might be***.
     
Good grief!  Nearly a thousand words already?  That's what comes of sitting down and plotting and planning two and a half sides of A4 narrow-ruled-worth of blog scrivel.  There's loads left over.  Well, it'll come in handy tomorrow as I'm doing overtime and wont get in until 19:20, as tonight.
     And these words take us over 1,000, so time to knock it on the head tonight.

Pip Pip!

* I nicked this from Hilaire Belloc.
** I'm so fickle <snickers>.
*** Yeah right!