9 November 2018 (Friday) - Cover Versions


For the dogs, last night was just like the first night of cub camp. Everyone was far too excited to sleep. I went to bed at eleven o’clock and got an hour’s sleep before "er indoors TM" came up and then spent most of the night arguing and fighting with the hounds. She finally went downstairs (followed by the wolf-pack) at quarter to four and I got two hours relative peace despite Pogo coming to check on me every ten minutes.

Over brekkie I had a look at the Internet as I do. Not much was going on, but I had a few emails this morning. Coursera had congratulated me on completing the astroarchaeology course, and half an hour later had then sent another email saying that I had nearly  finished it.
And then Amazon made me think. I’ve recently read a couple of rather good e-books on my Kindle app. They each cost me ninety-nine pence. Bearing in mind that the Kindle app uses long-established technology there aren’t that many overheads. I am reliably informed that the author gets about a third of that money
Amazon had sent me an email suggesting I buy the “Game of Thrones” prequel e-book for twelve pounds ninety-nine pence. Which is actually fifty pence more than they are flogging the hardback version for. Nice little earner for them!

Yesterday as I walked to my car I asked my phone if there were any delays on the way to work. It said there were; it estimated my arrival time at five past seven. I asked my phone the same question at the same time this morning. It said there were no delays and estimated my arrival time at seven minutes past seven.

As I drove to work the morning's news was the usual mix of trivial and ridiculous. There is a Dutch chap who is taking legal action to have his age legally reduced. He is sixty-nine years old but doesn't feel it. In much the same way that a man might want to be a woman and can legally swap gender, he feels he identifies as a younger person and wants to be legally recognised as such. He's prepared to give up his pension and he also says that being twenty years younger will improve his chances of getting a job and of getting his end away on the dating app Tinder.
I would have thought that at nearly seventy years of age, the urge to try to pork random would be on the decrease...
The Prime Minister is also under fire from the DUP. She's in an impossible position. One of the main reasons that the masses voted for Brexit was so that Johnnie Foreigner *wouldn't* have unhindered access to the UK. However one of the main reasons that years of fighting in Ireland stopped was the removal of the border between North and South. Either we have it and the violence starts again. Or we don't and there was no point at all in having Brexit.
Which is it to be?
Interestingly the global birth rate is falling. This is widely seen as a bad thing, but bearing in mind there are far too many people on this planet, is it really? Mind you with the average British mother only having one point seven babies, I hope there will be enough people to pay my pension...

I got to work far easier than yesterday. The same journey at the same time of day took eighteen minutes less. Today I was only two minutes later than Google had estimated. I had a rather tiring day – the lack of sleep took its toll on me. But an early start made for an early finish.
Once home I walked four dogs round the block. That took some doing. And with dogs walked I opened my post. A little while ago I saw that there was another CD of covers of Sparks songs being produced. I got the first one some twenty-one years ago from HMV in central London. Featuring some musicians af Faith No More, Jimmy Sommerville and Erasure it was rather good. The second came two years later and I thought was even better. Ten years passed before I got the third from an obscure website, but it wasn’t too shabby at all.
I’m afraid that the CD which arrived today was a bitter disappointment.

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