An early night would have
been good. If only next door hadn't been shrieking at each other I
might have managed a little extra kip. My beloved came home from
flogging candles at 2am, and then snored like a thing possessed for
the rest of the night. I didn't want to sleep anyway.
And so up early, a quick
bite of brekkie, and off to work. I was glad to see that the
temperature had risen and that the car wasn't covered in ice. Thank
heavens for small mercies. The morning's news had something
of interest. Last night at astro club we wondered if Patrick
Moore's house would be sold; we thought it would make a marvellous
museum. Apparently that was what Sir Patrick wanted, and it might
just be a museum for budding astronomers. His house was a special
place, and I was once privileged to be shown around it. And given
cake in there too.
It would be good for
others to have the chance to see how this iconic figure lived. Mind
you, the punters will have to buy their own cake.
In other news it seems
that car
road tax discs are to go. In this modern age, sticking a bit of
paper in the windscreen is seen as somewhat old hat. Police will use
number plate reading technology which will probably spot miscreants
more easily than trying to identify forged discs. Paper driving
licences are to
go as well. Personally I'm amazed it's taken so long for the
technology to catch on.
And then there was the
announcement about a new species of primate having
been discovered. Shock horror - it's only just been discovered
and its an endangered species already. Am I the only one who isn't
amazed by this news. this can't come as a surprise, can it? Any
species which has gone so long without having been discovered can
hardly be commonplace, can it?
Some news items should be
headlined "Dur!!"
Also there was the
announcement of the discovery of the world's
oldest cheesmongery. It would seem that as well as iron and fish,
cheese has been monged since antiquity. Archaeologists have
apparently unearthed evidence that cheese was being made over five
thousand years ago.
I'm no expert, but
regular readers of this drivel will know that I have dabbled in
matters arky-ological from time to time. Personally I can't see how
anyone could distinguish fossilised Wensleydale from a manky bit of
broken pot, or a random rock.
But news isn't news
without piss being boiled. This morning not so much boiled as
simmered. Why is it that those in positions of high office are
expected to apologize for that which happened so long ago? The leader
of the opposition is to apologize for things the
previous government did when he was just a lowly back bench MP,
and the governments to apologize for Alan
Turing's conviction for his homosexuality in the 1950s (which
was actually illegal at the time).
How can anyone apologize
for that which happened so long ago, and about which they could not
possibly carry any responsibility?
A few years ago I was
very conscious that I was very out of touch with current affairs, and
had been so for some years. That was the reason why I started
listening to Radio Four on my way to work in the morning.
It would seem that I
never missed very much of note...
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