Another post which starts with my thanks, this time to everyone who passed on congratulations and best wishes to the new arrival. John, I'm still trying to decide if your remarks were ironic
Graduates of our generation will recall the days when the government encouraged undergrads to live in sin, (as we called it then, young man, yes, yes) since one of you would lose her grant if you married, but the other didn't become eligible for a married man's grant.
It's been a quiet couple of days from my point of view, and it's a little difficult to concentrate on this post as I'm counting the hours until I see Sheila again. Anyone would think it was three years, not three weeks, I know.
Yesterday was a regular shopping, loafing and DVD watching day. Today, as the weather was still quite good, no ice to speak of and no wind, I took the chance to come through to Great Haywood, fill the water tank and tie next to the Junction Bridge.
In fact, I did a do-si-do with Moore2Life, who were just leaving that mooring to come onto the water point. With any luck, when Elanor arrives with Sheila, she'll be able to park on the broad pavement of the road bridge, I'll pull Sanity forward onto the water point again, and loading up the shopping and luggage will be fairly easy.
The Junction bridge is still very slippery, and likely to be worse tomorrow if the forecast freeze occurs tonight. Elanor is driving across to Lincoln to collect Sheila, saving Graeme the hassle of driving over this way when of course they are in the merry chaos of adjusting to the new arrival.
I've emailed Sheila a shopping list, and then spent the rest of the day remembering stuff I should have put on it (Sheila's closed down her email account at that end now).
I watched The Return of the King yesterday and today. Just as I was finishing and watching the credits, there came a bump as Jampak's stern hit Sanity's bow. When I went out to see what was going on, it turned out half Jampak's crew was overboard in the freezing water off her bow. By the time I'd sorted myself out, her stern had drifted out into the middle of the junction and I couldn't get on to help haul the casualty back on board, which was not a pleasant feeling, so helpless.
They managed it in the end, and all seemed to be well, but it was a nasty moment. I went back and finished watching the credits, deciding as I did so that I reckon Faramir came out of it better than Aragorn, as, given the choice (in my dreams!), I'd rather have Miranda Otto than Liv Tyler.
Finally, I'm going to take a chunk of this post to share my misgivings about the new Google Latitude service, whereby you can advertise your location to selected friends, either via your laptop, or (what the service is really aimed at) a GPS enabled mobile phone.
You have to sign up for it, and on the face of it, it seems just one more internet based networking facility, but once done, it means Google knows where you are, all the time. Google now collects an awful lot of info about you if you let them.
I started a discussion on the canals-list about it, the conclusion of which seemed to be that it's probably OK, given the voluntary nature of it at the moment, but what happens if the state demands that data from Google for its own purposes?
I'm now undecided; unlike Andrew Denny, I won't be signing up for it as I value my privacy more than keeping track of where my friends are. I'd rather have the excitement of bumping into folks unexpectedly, and between blog, email and mobile, it's not hard to arrange a rendezvous with someone if you want to meet up for a particular purpose.
Hey ho, next time will be a post with Sheila back (yippee!) so don't be surprised if it's a shortish one
7 comments:
Well, Bruce I can't decide whether you're just an old romantic or whether you're simply skilled at woman management. Publicly admitting how much you've missed Sheila will be accumulating you brownie points faster than the snow can drift!
(well, it would in our house, hint hint Richard)
Sue, Indigo Dream
Bit of both, I reckon. (Sheila may be along in a moment.) As I get older, I certainly get more emotional; I got quite weepy at the end of TROTK, and not just over Miranda Otto!
Cheers
Bruce
The Lord of the Rings is one film (set of films) that I think is better than the books. You've made me want to watch them again now - what else is there to do in this weather? (don't answer that!).
Sue, Indigo Dream
Well I tried looking up romantic in my engineer's dictionary ...
Richard
i have been following your blog (as well as Moore2life and Hadar) - no I'm not stalking you :) but in 6 years my mortgage here in Jersey will be paid off and I plan to let it out to give me a monthly income so I can either buy a narrowboat or widebeam (not decided yet). I have to say your blogs have given me a tremendous insight to the daily on board living on the canals. I plan to hire a canal boat soon so I can give myself an insight into what life would be like. I have no boating experience whatsoever so this should be exciting. I am a very minimalist person and have just the basic possessions. Look forward to following your blog throughout the coming years.
Hi Bruce,
I came across this blog post, and thought of you:
http://blog.wired.com/business/2009/03/googles-latitud.html
Jeremy
Thanks, Jeremy - very interesting indeed. Mind you, I still agree with the bloggers final conclusion.
There's a lot of soc psych to be done around this area of microblogging your status every half hour, and related concepts like Latitude.
All the best
Bruce
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