30 April 2012

CARER FILCHER

Oh how funny - the opposite to our case where it was the Care Receiver who pulled off the purloining.

Bloody hell, wish someone had found and reported the theft of my own treasures.

" ... not expensive but had a high sentimental value ..."

That's exactly what I explained about the girls' heirlooms when one of the desperate excuses of self-disgust was that my knick-knacks were just cheap jewelry. Actually, there weren't all - the gifts from Cassie Woo were high grade bling, but that's not the point, is it? It's clutching at any old straw to turn the mirror from the deed.

"Heartless ... now suspicious ..."

Well yes, instant suspicion, but you also acquire the instant ability to 'read' the larcenous environment and either hide potential loot or get in there first and nick the opposition's good stuff to even the score.

Oh do listen to this, absolutely spot on. I could have been dictating it straight to copy:

" ... not expressed remorse. Wer all have things which happen to us in life, but we don't go stealing.

The real punishment ... is the loss of good character."

Alas not in the case of Villa Thefti.

Metal box said to have contained art materials and high-grade vellum paper ~ "all on paper" as per a Will, but nothing of the kind, it turns out: can't see any fronking drawing paper, just bits and bobs of unfinished sketchings.

As for codicils, extensions, etc for a Will ... never took place because the avocat moved address and the relevant documents were in my file and never asked for.

25 April 2012

HACKING IS LAZY - Murdoch

Harry Evans in cracking form, hilariously mimicking the prince of darkness and tearing him to bits.

And James - does the boy speak english?

Counsel Robert Jay suggesting that Murdoch jnr seemed to be a bit thick in not spotting that there appeared to be a quid-pro-quo in the govt pushing for approval of the BSkyB bid after riding to 2010 election victoire with support of Murdoch papers.

What is Jimmy's clear reply?

"I simply wouldnt make that trade."

Worse than double-speak gobbledy-gook and delivered in his ghastly american accent, to boot.

Late breaking: this just in, hilarious Huntgate tree saga. This has legs.

Even Later Breaking ~ 'Making that trade' ~ My own daughter mails me from Olympia WA USA.

Evergreen State, since you ask. Triumphing, she is. Acrorss the board. Thanks again for asking.

Unwisely accuses her old man of inventing Americana Murdochiensa to make Rupert's boy look silly.

Para 8, my darling.

"During a sometimes terse exchange, Robert Jay QC, counsel to the inquiry, suggested that News Corp expected support for its BSkyB bid as a form of payback for its support of the Conservative Party in the general election.

Mr Jay suggested:

“You are somewhat blind to what might appear to the rest of us to be obvious, namely that this is in part a quid pro quo for that support?” Mr Murdoch said:

“There is absolutely not a quid pro quo for that support … I simply wouldn’t make that trade. It would be inappropriate to do so and I simply don’t do business that way.”







24 April 2012

GARDENRY EPIPHANY

Lawd have merceh ~ I'se seen the light.

Mum, i was so wrong.


23 April 2012

WHENCE LUDDITE?



a term too much loosely bandied around. useful refresher.


22 April 2012

test new blogger


trial run new blogger


testing new blogger and the html workings.
need to see why the photos dont come out.
here are some examples using the automatic line space and here
and here i just want to get a good text size and font, sized fotos and well placed
Not sure i like the auto
, will revert. im suspicious, I like to see the html
comme ca.
  • Let us see how this look to the right of this text.
  • 21 April 2012

    "achievement transformed into hobby"

    at last someone has said. it's a bloody hobby got too big for its boots.

    i'd sit there at the table taking it full on drone drone gardenry drone blah blah and id ask my mother what if i spent meal after meal droning on about my hobbies - that would shut the place down.

    then it occurred to me as she retrieved her mad twisted dont u talk to me like that ...

    "hang about, do you even know which are my hobbies?

    name them, name one ... name one fronking hobby that i brought with me to this fragging job"

    μητροπανος θες

    Bloody new-style Blogger won't enable me to make even the simplest tribute,

    This was meant to hail the great Mitropanos but i cant make head nor tail of what it does to my html

    I was also going to tip a nod to athens news for its discerning front page.

    Urbi et Orbi

    Always wanted to throw that line away in some chat or chapter and today is my chance.

    Lovely Clifford and Avis Owen are in town - I believe the correct address is 'Doctor the Rev'd Clifford Owen' but I will consult Debrett's - and a reunion luncheon arranged just round corner to which the faithful will bring food 'n' flagon. My kind of Saturday knees-up.

    I shall engage both former and present vicars in light discussion and then casually chuck some plundered points from Charles Moore's Spectator's Notes for 7 April.

    I've been drawing from both paras all week, and with good effect:

    "It is interesting that David Cameron sends out an Easter message each year.

    Such a thing is a symptom of the decline of Christianity. When Britain was a Christian country, no prime minister would have thought it necessary (or proper) to speak urbi et orbi.

    Today, Easter takes its place alongside Eid, Diwali, Rosh Hashanah, Gay Pride etc as a day for which No. 10 issues public blessing.

    Mr Cameron is at pains, however, to speak of Christians as ‘we’ and to remind everyone that the nation has ‘an established faith [the more accurate word ‘Church’ is avoided] that together is most content when we are defined by what we are for, rather than defined by what we are against.’

    This is an excellently Anglican way of looking at things, and I am sure Mr Cameron is sincere. But it is also his positioning for when he tries to introduce homosexual marriage — ‘I am for it,’ he is implying, ‘you are against it. Therefore my approach is more Christian than yours.’"

    The other has been a leetle more difficult to slot into my Corfu conversations but has worked splendidly on Facebook with my former Amazon co-workers back home in Seattle:

    "The Prime Minister is right that Christians should not waste all their energies opposing things, but he does not realise how difficult he is making it for them to follow his rule.

    Most past reforms in relation to homosexuality — decriminalisation, age of consent, even civil partnerships — may or not be opposed by Christians but they are not central to any religious understanding of society.

    Gay marriage is different, because it is not merely a matter of extending rights to minorities. It is the abolition of the idea — central to civilisation throughout history — that marriage is for a man and a woman.

    It is a profound redefinition for which there is no direct warrant in any mainstream religious teaching ever. Marriage is a social institution, not a private one, and so Christians cannot simply say, ‘You do what you like and we’ll do what we like’: their concept of marriage is inextricable from their view of society.

    For this reason, they would be bound to oppose polygamy, and the argument against gay marriage is equally strong. The secularist retort is ‘Stuff you, why should you decide?’ and it is one that has some force in modern circumstances.

    But this is not Mr Cameron’s line: He loves the via media and said this week that he opposes secularism, yet he has made himself the prisoner of the secular dogmatists."

    19 April 2012

    look back angry

    FORMAT SCREWED: yo! just to let you know that i do know the format is all screwed up. idiot 'blogger' has 'updated' itself without asking and so the code is full of spans and divs and brs and font families et al crap and the font size changes altho' it doesnt show where or how in HTML editing mode.

    Bear with this all as i look further into it.

    LOOKING BACK ANGRY



    Oh dear, that bodes no boot.
    Looking back is the new forward up here in Corfucius Heights and the pent-up pavlovian anger of six years Gab 'n' Gardenry the only pandoran box of feelings left me.
    But I did have to smile the other day:
    I stopped off at the cemetery because it seemed the right Easterly thing to do and because down by the prison was the only place I could park for my intended stroll round the bustling esplanade, and because I thought I'd get some photos to send my brother to placate and give a good impression.
    The plot looked a bit shabby and I made a note to make a note on the calendar to tidy it up before the CMG bunch arrive.
    A day or two later Kosta addressed me excitedly about visiting the grave and planting 'luluthia' all around.
    Well, you can imagine my amazement ~ how the dickens did he know about my cheery extra verse to Cee-Lo's song, and what a marvelous cheeky memorial.
    Groovin' thru Gouvia baubles bereft
    Where even the luluthia have the stench of theft
    I nodded and grinned appreciatively and told him 'Carry on' and 'Any time' and all the things one says on these occasions.
    I also took him down to point out our luluthia (hacked to within an inch of its olfactory buds) as if to enquire,
    "That? You mean plant that over the grave?"
    He nodded and grinned even more excitedly so I nodded back and muttered about 'kali synechia' and sent him back to his murderous hacking ways.
    Met up with a pal a few days later and told her my Luluthia Tale and she burst out laughing and gave me various fond pecks, the sort that keep a man's spirits up and hopeful:
    "But luluthia is just Greek for flowers. All he meant was to go to the grave and make it nice."
    Maybe, but it's still a good cue for the song - the realsong, not the wimpo six-letter version I link to here out of respect for beady-eyed family readers of my postings.

    17 April 2012

    Hymn to the organist

    Absolutely riveting article about organists and organ playing.

    I had no particular interest in organs - because I was ignorant. Now I can't wait to meet one - even Lionel, but preferably a comely female organista - to show off my knowledge and appreciation of their skills/

    A delight to share this.

    STRING THEORY

    But first you have to get past the rapid-fire delivery and Peter Sellers accents.

    7 UP HITS 56

    Remember that riveting prog following them youngsters?

    Fascinating - with clips.

    16 April 2012

    Thieving by Any other Name

    aide memoire to thievery synonyms.

    now n then when im describing the theft of the jewels, the more hardcore devotees go ooh ow dont say thieve or steal ...and i go 'ok. fine by me take yer pick but at least choose a word that connotes removal of someone's treasures behind their back.

    someone suggested a helpful test guide: imagine my mother removing an equivalent family treasure from my bro's villa thefti, same underhand tricks etc ~ what language would my brother use and what word would he apply to the 're-location'.

    Synonyms: appropriate, boost [slang], filch, heist, hook, lift, misappropriate, nick [British slang], nip, pilfer, pinch, pocket, purloin, rip off, snitch, swipe, steal

    Related Words: burglarize, knock over, rob; loot, pillage, plunder, sack; carjack, hijack (also highjack); pick, rifle; poach, rustle, shoplift; collar, grab, grasp, nail, seize, snatch, take; mooch, sponge; abduct, kidnap, shanghai, spirit.

    Synonyms budge, dislocate, displace, disturb, relocate, remove, reposition, shift, transfer, transpose

    Related Words bear, carry, cart, convey, drive, haul, lug, tote, transmit, transplant, transport; replace, supersede, supplant; alter, make over, modify, redo, refashion, remake, remodel, revamp, revise, rework, vary

    pilfer: to take (something) without right and with an intent to keep

    Synonyms appropriate, boost [slang], filch, heist, hook, lift, misappropriate, nick [British slang], nip, pilfer, pinch, pocket, purloin, rip off, snitch, swipe, thieve. Related Words burglarize, knock over, rob; loot, pillage, plunder, sack; carjack, hijack (also highjack); pick, rifle; poach, rustle, shoplift; collar, grab, grasp, nail, seize, snatch, take; mooch, sponge; abduct, kidnap, shanghai, spirit

    THE GOOGLE ART PROJECT

    A run-dont-walk site.

  • 'Gigapixel' allows for studying works in detail

  • Wossit abaht

  • Works of art and cultural institutions world wide

  • Started February 2011 with 17 museums in nine countries; now 151 partner museums in 40 countries
  • 15 April 2012

    NAGASAKI

    I dont read a word of Japanese but I was fascinated by the minimalism of this blog by a pal of a visit to Japan for various cultural and diplomatic and literary exchanges.

    Lovely food pics.

    In English ~ There's a 'translate' button with the usual stilted results.

    14 April 2012

    POTS & PLOTS

    Took so long to download and dither over captions for this scattered collection that my Facebook album for Saturday/Sunday has overtaken it.

    long views of mum grave


    13 April 2012

    POOR BOY BLUES

    Stumbled across this and it was perfect for my mood.

    Wonderful Easter lead-up! My calendar my own.

    Looked over the previous years' calendars, full of plans marked in, each one shot down by maman's last minute trivia, none of worth or fairness.

    Living by lists which is the way to go for me until i've dismantled my slave habits. Wonderful vaccuums to fill; still odd to be able to craft my own life and not mentally water plans down to accommodate last-minute dictation.

  • Playing all the music I like and only just recently not instinctively moving to reduce volume on the good bits.

    Disciplined days ~ ruthless running hours because it's my choice, not running dog obedience.

  • Cooking by puter - hilarious happy scenes, buy ingredients, learn from Youtube, sprinting back n forth between skillet and screen. Some triumphs.

  • Mowing lawn and shearing loose ends. Some berk turns up to check I'm OK.
    "Aha! gardening, good exercise"

    I snarl, "Good exorcise." I do not offer him refreshment.

    Refused all invites to Easter dinners. Foolishly waiting for last-minute dream date. Lying to one n all that i'm like sooo booked up with all the kind folks taking me in.

  • Fencing ~ the German girl is mailing me daily. Too proud to admit that she n her man are distancing. She broke me and, now I'm over it, I tease her about it and we pretend our lives are too full for each other.

    Where eat? - She knows all the places and asks me where i'll celeb Pasqua, I tell her still not sure, she asks with whom I'll be eating and I say none and she, being very German, chides me for not organising my life better. Secretly, she is pleased. Games we play.

    I tell her I will grab her for a decent nosh at the last minute and she feigns resistance.

    "Why to eat out at expensive restaurant? You all the prices are elevated for Easter."
    I tell her because i dont have a good cook like the German girl to make the perfect meals as I choose the music and act as assistant to open the good wine we can buy sans corkage and the fresh ingredients from the market.

    She is silent.

    Games.

    She asks me am i playing the music I like and sends me an AC/DC track (which she calls Acca/Dacca).

    "But i dont like AC/DC!"

    Cook for such a man?

    "Wait! You dont wait to hear it and you decide? I am going to cook for such a man?"

    I listen to it and it's gentler than i thought. I reply, 'ok, so it's not so bad'

    "But i am always telling you so."

    I tease her further: she lived in Crete for 3 years and then came to Kerkyra and married a Greek. She introduced me to Mitropanos and now denies it. I count the cockcrows.

    I say thanks but no thanks to Acca Dacca; I send her Haris. She doesnt like my finding gems on my own.

    Pleaser teaser: I'm loving this Easter prep. There's something about teasing someone who had you sobbing in the bath, but this time protected by a carapace.

    At first hearing i thought it was a spoof on that Team America 'Im so ronery'.

    Alors - a gentler Καλό Πάσχα to all y'all.





  • ALIGHTED on Anna Baddeley's agile Omnivore e-mag, my attention having been drawn by Uncle Simon plugging it in his Democracy blog. Which is what uncles are for.

    Stalker Perve Alert: I love - nay, insist on - seeing what people look like. First thing in a chatroom is 'perve' everyone else.

    I'm not sure if Niece Baddèle is the actual editrice of Omners but she takes a very nice photo.

    And yes, a sprightly little mag, if a leetle confusing to find my way around - or at least to retrace my steps - but that's my fading eyes because, yes, there is a link back home but it's in teensy 4pt.

    CHOP CHOP ~ Very clever 'hatchet job' page and well-chosen hatchetees.

    adam mars-jonesADAM MARS-JONES ~ So that's what AM-J looks like: 12 years in London publishing press hackery, sending him review copies, meaning to badger him at press junkets ... never knew what he looked like.

    Seeing his face in sprightly Omnivore was a bit like the shark in Jaws rearing first time from the foam.

    And do you know? That looks very much like Adamo in Ms Badders' FB photo. Gad, these literary old goats to get around, I mean, landing a bit part in a hottie's profile pic?

    I'm reading the latest Jim Lynch and he features a Baddeleyesque chickadee temptress who catches the eye of an oldie.

    He's warned,

    "She's the perfect age ... old enough to know how to make you look like hell, young enough to think she's justified."

    Oh. Em. Gee. Doesnt that just nail us courtlier gents bang to rights?

    I mean, truth up chaps - a knock-out babe like Anna Banana chooses to illustrate her FaceBookery with a foto that includes you?

    Dude! I would be forever finding excuses to make folks Google her just so jealous fellow geriatrics could go

    "Bloody hell! But that's you there! WTF are YOU doing in the same photo?" (Preen smirk snigger)

    But Cor what a corker. (or however people speak these days)

    Orgiastic obsession ~ stratified pinkness ~ splayed ~ shuddering ..

    I can't tell you what a pleasure it is to be able to type those words and then scurry for cover behind Ms Baddeley's skirt tails.

    They're from the Omnivorous review of 'Hot off the Press: The Quiddity of Will Self' by Sam Mills, which I found a bit confusing.

    will selfQuothed the reviewer,

    "He might be a friend of Will Self but Nicholas Royle in The Guardian didn’t think Sam Mill’s cock and bull tale The Quiddity of Will Self went too close to the bone(r)"

    Did think it went too close? Didn't think it went close enough? And is it Mill or Mills?

    No matter, all forgiven for doing a Bron Waugh 'Bad Sex' job on the cocky Will:

    "So, imagine my surprise as I plunged deeper and deeper into Sam Mills’s extraordinary odyssey of orgiastic obsession to encounter lines such as “My cock soared Selfwards”, “Her left hand, splayed across the final pages of Great Apes, pressed it against her stratified pinkness … her climax shuddering up, up, up to Will …” and “I sweep into his cock, feel myself fly as it rears up like a rollercoaster.”

    The cock, it almost goes without saying, is Self’s."

    ROWDY BRATS ~ Moving on from the C word ~ and there's no convincing segue I can think of - this just in from Uncle Simon and I speed to post it in the hopes it brews discontent between Dreaming Spires and Prospero's Cell.

  • KIFISSIA HOTEL, ATHENS, 1997

    See SB's comment:

  • "Anna's on the right
  • Far brighter than me.
  • First from Oxford, could have been a don to the sound of bells ...
  • And she goes into publishing.
  • Such a waste - pout sulk stamp of foot.
  • CH note ~ Actually, I can save you some angst there because it's not really publishing, is it, not like we knew it?
  • Nay, lad, in our day it'd be up before we went to bed, lick Linotype clean, walk 20 miles to printers, edit jacket proofs (50 lashes for each typo), walk 20 miles back, hide behind arras from visiting author who 'just happened to be in the area' ... etc.
  • No worries, Uncle Si, some handsome bearded lit crit will ooze into view and that'll be it.



  • 12 April 2012

    EASTER FEASTER

    Wake betimes - 0630hrs, on the dot - and consult my list of new habits I have resolved to hard-wire into my DNA soul.

    I bought this book and it makes for horrendous inspiring reading: what a mess I've been in.

    1. "Wake". Check. So far so good.
    2. "Rise". Figures.
    3. "Serieusement, UP. Out of bed. Wake is not rise. Rise is rise." Damn, this is a good list.
    4. "Walk Sambo"
    5. "Feed animaux"
    6. "Prepare brek". No, you mean check email and faff. 'PREPARE BREK'
    7. "Knee-bends" as kettle boils; calf exercises on hall step
    8. Clear debris: hang clothes, junk junk, replace books on shelf, CDs and DVDs back on rack. Plump cushions.
    9. 50 shoulder stretches with Pilates band, 30 bicep stretches.
    10. 50 tummy crunches: And a 48 ... 49 .... 50! Nae problem, laddie. Nuther 10 to show off ... 59 ... 60. [Now check email?]
    11. "Eat breakfast"

    Brek over, now I can check email and phone messages. Brisk replies, delete delete, print for 'pending' tray, delete delete, forward to brother for him to carry his weight on this whole Probate hassle. Time up!

    Yo! Cool list, clever book.

    Easter week ~ plan day.

    Google wozzup - too confusing or outta date.

    Notice splendid use of 'crucification'.

    Remember for song for church summer chansonerie, 'Cross, lost view of.'

    'Don't block my view of the cross, brother
    There's a green hill far away
    Jesus be the Boss, no other
    Crucification, name of the game.

    Chorus:

    Take my hand, girl, say you love me true
    Not that it really matters,
    Lord have mercy, I'm crazy 'bout you
    Thought i'd won the jackpot, but you dont give a toss
    I got a friend in Jesus and I got my eye on the Cross

    That'll do 'til the good verse comes along.

    Re-surf, "Easter week corfu 2012 what to do?"

    Rue D'Emoca: damn me if that Sinbad hasnt wheedled his way into the algorithm ... and it's got everything I'm after including:

    " ... week's started and there’s municipal tidying of verges ... men on scooters bearing their strimmers like crusader’s swords ..."

    [Damn i like that strimmer bit; note to pinch to impress my readership. No chance of being busted, like nobody reads him so I'm safe there ...]

    Great scene for my movie "Seven Strimurai": The bully baddies all wielding gleaming AK47s from Lidl Monday bargains ... muah ha hah!

    In they zoom to rustic KoraKickAssiana confident of easy plunder and rapery and boum!

    The honest rustics are ready for them innit: strim them off at the ankles and then work up to the goolies. R-rating minimum.

    Them blades on Boadicea's chariot won't be in it.

    But I digress.

  • " ... Sweep. Do housework (ugh) ... ... fires forbidden after April 30 (aye, there's a point. Shock Kostas with my native knowledge).

    Read Mark Edmundsen's piece in NYT about hungry heart and get teary about my girls. Phone them and tell them i'm sending a link I wish we could read together. They are awake, of course:

  • Georgina abed reading improving literature.

  • Anna clubbing
    "Shrup, you guys! My dad's calling me."

    'Your dad like talks to you? I thought he was like in Greece or stuff ...'

    "He is!"

    'Omigod omigod! That is soo cool, like my dad is in Queen Anne and he like totally nevah calls me ... can I talk to him?'

    They are never allowed because I use my George Sanders voice and they interrupt with OMG are you like the ... crypt keeper?

    Worth and Truth: Never wise to read Baddeley-sahib: his scribblings resonate with worth and truth and maturity et guff and catch me off guard so there's a real danger of me being distracted into bad habits (dread word!) such as grabbing the mower and doing my pasqualian thing and tidying the place.

    As I emerge from my 6 years of cowed slavery, I'm picking my way into healing and one of them is to distinguish between tending this wonderful garden under orders and doing it for me in my time and with a modicum of self-respect.

    Some twit came up to see that I was ok and crowed "Gardening! Good exercise!"

    No, i scowled, good exorcise.

    Sent her packing. Yesterday's toady. New kid in town.

    List: food shop. [Oh do i have to? Bore]

  • Make list. SNOOPS (stuff never out of permanent stock)

  • Press ups - nobody bonks a weakling. Summer is a cumen in, and so are the buff yachties. (Point taken.)

    God, the place looks neat. Oh, right, the list. Consults: post letters by noon. By noon, you slacker? I'm like way ahead of you ... envelopes pre-stamped n all. But good point, shop at Scovto so's to pass Elta.

    Nokia texting off the hook. Where was I last nite? Much missed at the boozeria, great scene.

    See me beer o'clock at the Navig'?

    And the Devil took me up the mountain and said

    'Lo! From here you can see all the bars of Corfu. Welcoming smiles, one of the gang ... there Louise choosing her sexy garb, there Miranda and her shy smile and confiding in Suzi that Leo was fading and she might just could come out of hiding for you.

    Over there the German girl of the stern emails and lunchability.'

    Behind me!

    Surf Demo Krakatoa. Useless. Nil advice on birds. That Carrie must've made him take it down, 'Demo does Dasia' ~ hottest page in town. No, here it is - disclaimer, page removed to avoid competitive lawsuit from Hustler and Grecian Babes. Sic transit.

    No worries, Hustler is roobish since i stopped writing for it.

    15 new emails but The List forbids me til after lunch and i've washed up and everything tidied away.

    Oil and Hone shears: set out to give jardin a fashionable 'haircut'. Approach pergola - ugh , pull-ups. I can't do them pull ups. Every day, pull ups. A young man's job.

    In Sam's eyes, 'Don't back down, massa. Every day you do 'em and you say the same thing. Don't back down'. (And he's right.)

    I give it a feeble try ... 10, 11, 12 ... gasp puff (joking) ... think summer, think short sleeves, think convex bicepettes ...