Month: February 2012

Frozen milk

We woke to the telephone. Being the first day of half term no-one had to be anywhere at any particular time and Cyclo decided that a bike ride was out of the question, so we hadn’t set the alarm. It seems the plumber had been up for hours and it was before 9am. I suppose it wasn’t surprising since the temperature was pretty low last night, down to -14c in some places. Anyhoo, the plumber was ringing as I had left a message last night – for a leak unrelated to the cold. The shower pump – again.

I got up and bought in the milk which had frozen and spilled out into small globules on the doorstep, then took a tray of tea back up to bed, where it was warmer.

Pippi-long-Stocking, the cat, enjoyed eating the milk globules Continue reading “Frozen milk”

Arrows of desire

Luckily for me, St Valentine’s burial in Rome is celebrated on 14th February, which happens to precede my birthday by a couple of days (69, yin yang, nod nod, wink wink, say no more, cheeky!). So every year I get the chance to romance Mrs Janus in good time, to ensure that my birthday will receive the attention it so richly deserves. Yer gotta speculate to accumulate, innit?

But, cherished readers, have you ever wondered what my title is doing in Blake’s famous poem, ‘Jerusalem’?

 File:Eros@Piccadilly.jpg

‘Bring me my Bow of burning gold; Bring me my Arrows of desire……‘ What on earth is the mischievous Eros doing in a hymn? As far as I know, the random or serendipitous demands of lust are not recognised as Christian (or even Roman Catholic) virtues.

Answers, please, on a pink, perfumed blank cheque addressed to yours truly.

Surviving Just

I hate flying and suffer hideously from jetlag for days.

I just made it out of Heathrow ahead of the snow but was still pretty groggy on Monday morning to face three and a half hours on the witness stand at this chancery trial.

God alone knows what the son of a bitch barrister was throwing at me for that length of time, but the whole thing appeared in slow motion with me suffering from aspergeres syndrome!! Or maybe it was more like asparagus syndrome sticking it up’em!  Anyway it was all worth it in the end run and my girlfriend ended up with a 7 figure settlement, so I reckon I must have said something right whatever it was!

Needless to say it has taken me three days monging to even rejoin the human race and now I have to go down toPembroke and sort the bloody damp in the house and retain some builders.  At least it hasn’t snowed down here but seriously cold for the area.  Spousal unit is guarding my leeks that have germinated so that’s bound to be a death knell for them.

This place is disgusting, the whole M4 is a litter ridden wasteland, why they don’t get the bloody parasites out collecting it I don’t know.  Nice to see friends but for the rest, forget it!

Gets worse every time I come here, at least Carmarthenshire is still white but the rest of the place might as well be downtown Bhopal!  Even the air is disgusting up in England.

Roll on the 29th when I can escape.

I shall issue invitations to all to visit me as I don’t think I can stomach coming back here again.

One ray of sunshine, I have some travelling to do and my girlfriend insists I take BMW 1200 of hers, I think it is a 1200 sporty soft top style of vehicle, would of been quite happy with the old jeep,but she absolutely insists. I shall be a major embarrsment pootling about at 55mph in that thing. Oh well, good for a laugh I suppose.

Just to let you know I was alive, if barely.

The Germans have a word for it

It’s Danaergeschenk, meaning a (suspicious) gift from the Greeks. Anybody who has holidayed in the Ægean archipelago will vouch for the locals’ charm and skill as hosts and caterers. And we usually give good old Homer the credit for pointing out the inherent danger in accepting their offerings. But as so often with Homer, that’s just another myth. No, not the bit about Greeks; the idea that Homer said it.

Vase 670 BC Continue reading “The Germans have a word for it”