Saturday, February 07, 2009
Franklin frets
Get home yesterday to a Franklin who was very concerned to get in. Put on a full scale performance. Winding himself around one's legs. Elaborate sniffings and prancings in front of back door. A very affecting performance; but remembering something I had been told earlier in the evening, I wondered whether what I was seeing as cute was actually an unhappy cat. How many houses besides ours does he visit? Does he get fed in any of them? He is certainly rather thin compared with the other marmalade cat that I know, but maybe that is down to his being old.
The greengrocer at Cheam scores full marks for being open this week, having been open all six days and having got to the market at Nine Elms first thing Monday morning. Apparently there were not all that many customers there that morning. But Mr Cheam got through, as did the supplies to the various nursing homes and what have you on his books. I guess, like the butcher, he needs to supplement his walk in trade in order to make a decent living. All very differant in Epsom market today which, according to the BH, was more or less missing. Why did they not turn out? Saturday must be a big day for a market trader.
Today to Dorking to hear the Brodsky quartet - who despite being trained at the Royal Northern College and not having odd names, must be foreigners as three of them with wedding rings wore them on their right hands. Excellent start with a Chaconne by Purcell. Then the bull fighters' prayer from Turina (a Spaniard of whom I had never heard before), then Beethoven Op. 18.1. Quite unlike its near relation, the 18.4, for which I had a fad a couple of years ago. A stirring Shostakovich No. 3 after the break. Pleased to find out that Schweppes tomato juice does not contain Worcester sauce - which I do not like in that context. Not so pleased to find that, by volume, tomato juice costs only slightly less than wine. Excellent evening and home comfortably before 2200, so we even get to make our cocoa on time.
Last time I wanted to buy a French book - a Simenon - got Grant & Cutler to get it for me and it took some weeks. So made a useful discovery earlier in the week. That is, that it is much quicker to go to http://www.amazon.fr/. Book not turned up yet but I dare say it will next week; the 7 euros or so postage being the only catch. And in the unlikely event that I want something in German they have one too. But neither Spain nor Russia do. What is the Amazon policy in such matters? A good feature was that my UK credentials were good in France, so I did not have to go to the bother of typing it all in again.
And lastly, I notice that a nurse was suspended for some weeks for offering to say a prayer for an old lady. Now while I do not hold with prayers or bossy low church types, the hospital seems to me to have massively overreacted. It is not going to hurt the old lady to have a prayer said for her. She might even have been touched or pleased. And if the hospital felt so strongly about the matter, surely a quiet word in the tea-break would have been quite enough? Do we not have any room left for a bit of private enterprise in such matters? Does our whole life have to be patterned by the busy custodians of political correctness?
So I wonder whether we are only hearing part of the story. Maybe the nurse in question is not liked by her bosses because she pushes her bible a bit strong. Or maybe for some quite unconnected reason. Bad time keeper or something of that sort. One more thing I shall never get to the bottom of.
The greengrocer at Cheam scores full marks for being open this week, having been open all six days and having got to the market at Nine Elms first thing Monday morning. Apparently there were not all that many customers there that morning. But Mr Cheam got through, as did the supplies to the various nursing homes and what have you on his books. I guess, like the butcher, he needs to supplement his walk in trade in order to make a decent living. All very differant in Epsom market today which, according to the BH, was more or less missing. Why did they not turn out? Saturday must be a big day for a market trader.
Today to Dorking to hear the Brodsky quartet - who despite being trained at the Royal Northern College and not having odd names, must be foreigners as three of them with wedding rings wore them on their right hands. Excellent start with a Chaconne by Purcell. Then the bull fighters' prayer from Turina (a Spaniard of whom I had never heard before), then Beethoven Op. 18.1. Quite unlike its near relation, the 18.4, for which I had a fad a couple of years ago. A stirring Shostakovich No. 3 after the break. Pleased to find out that Schweppes tomato juice does not contain Worcester sauce - which I do not like in that context. Not so pleased to find that, by volume, tomato juice costs only slightly less than wine. Excellent evening and home comfortably before 2200, so we even get to make our cocoa on time.
Last time I wanted to buy a French book - a Simenon - got Grant & Cutler to get it for me and it took some weeks. So made a useful discovery earlier in the week. That is, that it is much quicker to go to http://www.amazon.fr/. Book not turned up yet but I dare say it will next week; the 7 euros or so postage being the only catch. And in the unlikely event that I want something in German they have one too. But neither Spain nor Russia do. What is the Amazon policy in such matters? A good feature was that my UK credentials were good in France, so I did not have to go to the bother of typing it all in again.
And lastly, I notice that a nurse was suspended for some weeks for offering to say a prayer for an old lady. Now while I do not hold with prayers or bossy low church types, the hospital seems to me to have massively overreacted. It is not going to hurt the old lady to have a prayer said for her. She might even have been touched or pleased. And if the hospital felt so strongly about the matter, surely a quiet word in the tea-break would have been quite enough? Do we not have any room left for a bit of private enterprise in such matters? Does our whole life have to be patterned by the busy custodians of political correctness?
So I wonder whether we are only hearing part of the story. Maybe the nurse in question is not liked by her bosses because she pushes her bible a bit strong. Or maybe for some quite unconnected reason. Bad time keeper or something of that sort. One more thing I shall never get to the bottom of.
# posted by Jim @ 1:53 PM 
