Liverpool Lou

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I awoke, thinking of Kranjska Gora.

I've never been there but I've always fancied it.

What's that got to do with Liverpool Lou? 

Why should it have anything to do with her?

Tangential - that's the way my brain works. But when you think of it, everything is connected with everything else. It's just sometimes difficult to see the connection.

I liked you photo, Anna.

George

So busy is it that I am, but still find time to take the occasional photograph.

You are not saying much, Georgie, and I am worrying about you.

Please be letting me know you are well.

Your very concerned

Anna

A poem

BATHOS

Disenchantment hovers
In the night;
A grey bat that flits
On leathern wings
Across the sodden fields of memory.

What can assuage the guilt
That rushes like a rip-tide
Flinging forgotten flotsam
Onto the stony shore of my mind.

I don't know -
But I'll have to leave it there 'cos I'm off down the pub.

Titles

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For once I agree with your tutor: I think that is a great title for your life story.

It's set me thinking if I should revise my own working title (for my autobiography).

My original title was 'The Boy's Story' but I think that lacks punch.

And then, since I was born in a mining village, I thought:

 'From out of the shadow of the slag heap'

What do you think?

So busy have I been Georgie - that I too may boast the degree qualification, but I shall go further than you with my PhD which my tutor say is well easy within my abilities.

You say you were late developer, well I too am late developer and I have travelled a more circuitous road than what you have.

My personal tutor suggest that when I achieve Doctorate I write my life story... a working title for which (he suggest) be
 'The Naked Academic'. 

Smart title do not you think?

Anna

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I did not go to either Oxford or Cambridge, but instead to that fine university, the University of Manchester. 

But enough about me. No - it isn't enough about me... there's more.

Mozart, so they say, was a child prodigy. I, on the other hand, am a late developer, entering university at the age of thirty eight. And I have continued developing ever since, therefore I am expecting my best work is still to come!

Actually, I am a bit low tonight, having removed more stuff from my place. I did not go into my room, I had left the stuff on the landing, and took it down in the lift, with the help of one of the owners of the building.

So I am playing jazz: a concert by Humphrey Lyttleton recorded live at the Conway Hall. It's on vinyl, which some die-hards think is better than the CD. I don't know. I still have a number of 78s and there is definitely something about these old records, maybe the odd scratch and hiss makes the music (jazz) sound more real. Or perhaps that's just wishful thinking. No it isn't!

Anyway, must go now, Anna - the record needs turning over.

George

I am thinking perhaps you are developing shoe and boot fetish.

Nothing wrong in that.

I will have to having the think about a picture of shoe of mine which resemble most about me. And then be deciding whether or not to publish photo.

What strange customs you English have - Throwing small boy in water when he help win race. This does not make sense to me. Why not throw in other boy who loses race?

I like watch this race though - some very big fine men take part. 

You do never tell me which university you attend. Was it Oxford or Cambridge? If it was one of these did you row in Boat Race? (You are not as big as these giant men I see yesterday, but big as some of the men. Also you not small enough to be cox).

Busy I am at the moment, getting a grip with Dagny Taggart.

Anna

Boots

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Here is another photo of my boots. Do you think this one is better, Anna? I can smell the leather when I look at this picture.

You know, it is amazing how boots may be differently represented - visually I mean. I may do a whole series on Boots.

Now when are we going to see a pair of your shoes?

Yours, in search of footwear,

George

You can tell a man by his boots

Ernest Hemingway said 'You can tell a man's character by his boots'
Well, he might have said it - how would I know?

I have had these boots for years, and they were my footwear of choice for my recent visit to Wales. Unfortunately, whilst wearing them, the sole of the right boot cracked in two.

I was attached to these boots.

Actually, I don't think this photo does them justice - I may take another one.

What do your shoes say about you, Anna? Why don't you publish a photo of your favourite shoes!

I have felt a bit off today. Lavatorial issues. So I have not done much. I watched the Boat Race this afternoon. You know it is tradition for the winning team to duck their cox?

Well, tomorrow is another day - so they tell me - and I will launch myself into it with gusto,

Till we meet again

George


I 

Jumping for joy

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I didn't win the Grand National - but then, I'm not a horse.

The horse I backed didn't win either. Mountainous, it fell, so I'm told. I didn't watch the race.

I'm not sure that I think the race should be run. People say the horses enjoy it - but do they? Those jumps are terrifying. The jockeys must be brave little fellows - but at least they choose to do it; I don't suppose the horses do.

By the way, when I say 'backed' the horse, I don't mean I put the family silver on it. It was a modest wager. There was a time when I could not let a day go by without betting on something. But that is many years ago.

You never see a bookmaker riding a bike.

You may detect a slight sombre note  in  this post. It's nothing to do with losing a bet. I have so much to do yet I cannot find the mental energy. But I shall dance again.

Another of my articles has been published in the Lancet. Okay, not the Lancet, but another magazine which deals with problems that beset the human condition.

Perhaps I should say 'issues'. This word seems to have supplanted 'problems' nowadays. And why not! "There are no problems - only issues". Not a bad mantra.

But look here - it's twenty minutes past ten in the evening, and not the time for philosophical discourse.

It is always the time for philosophical discourse - I hear you say.

Well, maybe but I'm going on YouTube.

George

How can the sand blow from Sahara so far away in Africa to land on this little island?

Is this perhaps conspiracy to hide other sinister cause of smoggy weather?

But here in the middle lands of this country we are not noticing the smog. 

Anyways, you say smogness has disappeared from coast of Wales so that is good.

I cannot wait to see present you have brought to me from the seaside town of Llandudno. And also am glad you are taking the time out to visiting the library and communicating from there. Even if you are allowed only the half of one hour (this does not seem long, what a cheese-splitting, mean lot are these Welsh) to e mail or blog. They probably give you more if you ask nicely or say you believe Welsh should be given independence - like those ungrateful buggers in Scotland. In Sweden we are all one country, mostly.

Your Anna 

Oh I do like to be beside the seaside...

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Yesterday I thought there was a haze over the sea. Actually it was over everywhere. Turned out to be a combination of smog, Sahara sand and some other stuff. How strange the light looked.

Anyway, it's gone today. It is a lovely morning and I have just been sitting on the promenade.

By the way, Anna, just in case you don't know, the title of this post is taken from a well-known music-hall song. Ah, what an institution that was: the great British Music Hall. Not that I personally am old enough to remember artists like Marie Lloyd, Vesta Tilley, Nellie Wallace and all that lot but I sometimes look them up on YouTube.

This computer is telling me I have only 5 minutes time left on it, so I will go.

Will bring you a present from the seaside.

George

This was joke about charity scam.

Where is your sense of the humourous?

Good to hear you have cleared room. Now you can go for well-earned stay by seaside, which will do for you good.

Do not bother sending to me postal card - but present would be very acceptable.

Until we conjoin again

Anna

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Let me say straight away, Anna, that I dissociate myself from your immoral and illegal scheme. Yes, I am talking about the charity scam you propounded in your last post, and am surprised that you could think I would besmirch my integrity in such a manner.
Anyway, it wouldn't work.

I was going to boycott this so-called public house, but I have had a busy (and emotional) day clearing out my studio and saying goodbye. I managed to get done what I set out to do, although there is some stuff out on the landing awaiting lift supervision.

Anyway, I really felt like a pint of Kroenenbourg lager so I called at the pub in question - the questionable pub - and enjoyed the beer.

Yes, Dagny Taggart is quite a girl - so was her creator. I could talk more about her and the novel, but am feeling tired and a bit achey, so am off to bed.

Sweet dreams in academia

George