Demanding Attention
Week from Monday 3rd June 2024 - Currently lots of mad 'rushing' around (hence the high blood pressure, I shouldn't wonder) with two visits to the HORSE PICKLE in the last few days and a bus trip to Gosport to collect my new GLASSES. I'm taking in a couple of CHARITY SHOPS for some light therapeutic relief along the way! (I found a couple of nice CDs for fifty pee each - an EMMYLOU HARRIS and the "ROUGH GUIDE TO GYPSY SWING".)
I am able to enjoy some decent CYCLING coverage this week (blissfully free of all that terrible Eurosport commentary), as this time it is ITV4 who are carrying the CriTéRiuM du DAuphiNé highlights. And with my new spectacles, I can once again read the on-screen numbers clearly from across the room! I'll be cheering on MADS PEDERSEN as our man for the 'bunch sprints'... and here's hoping that GIULIO CICCONE can once again pick up a few green or polkadot points... I've also been staying tuned to watch the TOUR OF BRITAIN WOMEN races, if only to enjoy the (mostly Welsh) scenery. But I rue the lack of ONSCREEN GRAPHICS for the most part - I've rather got used to having things like REMAINING DISTANCE and TIME GAPS being permanently displayed for easy reference.
A very LAZY remainder-of-the-week otherwise (hence not much to write about). I did venture out ONCE, hobbling to the local pharmacy because I'd been advised to get my own DIGITAL THERMOMETER to go with my BLOOD PRESSURE kit. I'm not yet sure what that will tell us, or whether it'll be just one more thing to fret about!
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY (from #TwentyYearsAgo): As all the old veterans gathered on the beaches of France to commemorate the anniversary of the D-Day landings (some seen wearing knotted hankies on their heads, in the traditional style of old Albion), why did no one think of organising a "NORMANDY KNEES CONTEST"?
Week from Monday 10th June 2024 - "Along for the ride and the view..." I'm getting a bit fed up with all this STAYING INDOORS malarkey, so it being A NICE DAY, I took the opportunity for a little WALKIES... Hopped on a series of buses into Pompey, for some 'retail therapy'. I needed to stock up on BATTERIES (my sphygmo' has gone flat!) and PARACETEMOL, but I also felt like indulging myself in HMV, gleaning another box-set by my favourite west-coast psychedelic band MAN...Of course, the thing about physical box-sets is THEY DEMAND ATTENTION and other stuff falls by the wayside. I'm working my way through it all a disc at a time... but meanwhile, a number of BANDCAMP items remain unattended in the "WFSETG"* folders on my hard drive, still to be given the time of day. This currently includes such choice ditties as "Orange Synthetic" by COBALT CHAPEL, another live archive release by CAN and a free download from MARKUS REUTER. But we'll get there!
Even if it WAS being conducted by SIR SIMON RATTLE (so it was undoubtedly a top-notch performance), I found that I couldn't really warm to ARNOLD SCHOENBERG's epic "Gurrelieder"... Like a lot of 'dramatic' works, it just doesn't make for GOOD RADIO - 'Opera' doesn't work without the 'pictures' and the audio doesn't always stand up in its own right, even if you CAN approach it merely as 'abstract' music. Admittedly, there's some NICE BITS (I really liked the proto-minimalist-cum-Wagnerian introduction music), but I got bored with it after about half-an-hour, and watched an episode of "MIDSOMER MURDERS" instead!
Friday brings my fortnightly trip to the HORSE PICKLE, and for once the transport was (sort of) in my favour. I visited the website to confirm that my ride was booked - Okay! fairly encouraging but no actual times indicated - but then they arrived a couple of hours too early for the appointment! I had to do my "PATIENT WAITING" bit in the reception area, listening to RADIO 3 on my portable device. They eventually snuck me in early for my jabs'n'drips. So a fairly prompt service today, things looked very well organised...
[*it stands for "Waiting For Somewhere Else To Go"]
Comments
Post a Comment