A visit to the ancestral home
Spent a long weekend in Plymouth, the old ancestral home. Made sure J stayed behind as he is not too keen on monks, cream teas, craft shops and garden centres, all of which feature heavily in a stay at mum's. All very enjoyable. I bought a hanging basket, a bag full of "stash" (crafting delights), some fancy pickle for J and some stuff for washing the paving. Oh and I put on three pounds thanks to two Easter eggs and other sundry fare.
(You know, I never thought I would become the type of person to have a hanging basket. When I wore razor blade earrings in the punk era, I despised mortgages, hanging baskets and slippers, and now I've done all three).
One of the lowlights for me was the Dancing on Ice final. Mum loves this show but I gave up after about 10 minutes of the new series. The music! And somehow it seems a very tatty, tawdry and feeble version of Strictly Come Dancing. But I couldn't part her from the final so gritted my teeth for the duration (or so it seemed - two hours!).
Torvill & Dean reprised Bolero for the umpteenth time, and then we met the three finalists. I didn't have a clue who any of them were. "Oh he was in the X Factor. He didn't win," said Mum helpfully. This character, a Ray Quinn, went on to win. She wasn't sure about the woman, suggesting that perhaps she was in Girls Aloud, but I knew that wasn't the case. The other chappie was a complete mystery. "Oh Donal's lovely, but he won't win," was about as much as I got from Mrs Malaprop.
Google Street View - ace
I have surveyed our house from every angle on the marvellous new Google Street View. I can report that they came on a Thursday, around lunchtime, because the recycling box and wheelie bin are both out the front, empty; I wasn't at home and it may have been late autumn because the roses look very profuse but lacking in blooms.
Various n'er do wells have been bleating on about burglars being able to case the joint thanks to Google, but all it means is that burgling, like most occupations, is now enjoying the fruits of the computer age. All I can say is that Google Street View uses an awful lot of servers and for that we are very grateful.
Lions and Apprentices
I'm looking forward to a programme tonight on Five about a lion cub that two men bought from Harrods in the late 60s, when you could buy anything there. The lion became too big to be a pet so it was released in the wild, thanks to the Born Free Foundation. A year after it had been released, the owners were reunited. We saw the clip on TV last night. It was very touching, as they called the lion's name (Christian) and he came bounding over, very much like a loving domestic cat but a lot bigger.
And of course The Apprentice is back again this week. Check out this blog for a weekly update! I usually have Sore Misgivings about the format (hackneyed?) and the candidates (chosen for TV and unlikely business moguls?) but it soon hooks you back in. So I will be blogging about it, yah boo sucks Snurgie Boy.
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