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Diary

2023 July – I Say, Who’s in Charge Here?, Sniffy, Gorgeous, Duckweed, Flowers

I Say, Who’s in Charge Here?    

Mum has had another hare-brained idea and decided to go up in the sky in one of these contraptions, just to see what it’s like you know.

Mind you, going for a flight has been on her wish list for ages and let’s face it, she isn’t getting any younger.

You wouldn’t catch me doing that in a million years. Also my lack of opposable thumbs might make the actual flying thing a tad tricky.   Mum was sooooooo excited when she came home.  Apparently this is her new hobby and she wants to get her pilots licence now.

Sigh – I expect this is just a fad and it won’t last.

Mum is adamant it will.

We will see eh?

 

Sniffy

Much more importantly, here is a picture of me out on a long walk near Grafham and sniffing something very interesting.  It might be horse poo or fox wee.  I can’t remember but I am taking my time.

Look at those gorgeous skies. East Anglia has great skies – feel you can breathe out here.

I am obviously more interested in breathing in stuff closer to ground level but I humour Mum.

 

Gorgeous

This is a picture of me looking absolutely gorgeous.  It is my normal look. Mum has been shopping and I am optimistic that she has bought me a little something because I deserve it.

I was right, she had.  Yumbles.

I have got Mum well trained now. I don’t expect she would have dared to come back to the house without a treat for me.

This is Penny looking gorgeous too. She is taking a break from work and putting her paws up for a couple of minutes.

She has the dubious privilege of caring for offspring #3.  It looks a pretty tough assignment Penny old gal.

 

Duckweed

Mum and her mad friends went in here for a dip.  It is getting a bit duck weedy so I expect they emerged looking like skanky river monsters. It really doesn’t look that appealing does it?

They don’t seem to care at all.

 

Flowers

Mum has been doing her usual attempt at being green fingered. Some of the stuff she has planted has actually flowered.

Mum seems as surprised as I am.

The Passion Flowers are other worldly and have survived the winter which is a small miracle because Mum did nothing at all to help them.  Her gardening is a bit haphazard really.

Monty would not be impressed.

 

Saffron’s recommendations this month:

Music:

In her incredible six-decade career, Aretha Franklin evolved from teenage gospel star to reigning pop and R&B diva. Just wow. Some simply great stuff.  This is the listing from her greatest hits album to start with.

  • Respect
  • I Say a Little Prayer
  • (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman
  • Think
  • Chain of Fools
  • Ain’t No Way
  • Rock Steady
  • Bridge Over Troubled Water
  • Day Dreaming
  • I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)
  • You Send Me
  • Until You Come Back to Me (That’s What I’m Gonna Do)
  • Son of a Preacher Man
  • You’re All I Need to Get By
  • Baby I Love You
  • Do Right Woman – Do Right Man
  • Something He Can Feel
  • The Weight
  • Don’t Play That Song
  • A Change Is Gonna Come
  • Who’s Zooming Who?

 

And there are all the duets too of course –

  • Eurythmics – Sisters are Doing it for Themselves
  • George Michael – I Knew You Were Waiting for Me
  • Elton John -Through the Storm
  • Luther Vandross – Doctors Orders
  • Keith Richards – Jumpin’ Jack Flash
  • Frank Sinatra – What Now My Love
  • Whitney Houston – It Isn’t, It Wasn’t, It Ain’t Never Gonna Be
  • Blues Brothers – Think

 

Reading:

Piranesi by Suzanna Clarke and published by Bloomsbury.  A masterpiece of weird fiction.  Piranesi lives in the house. Perhaps he always has. Then messages begin to appear, scratched out in chalk on the pavements. There is someone new in the house. But who are they and what do they want? Lost texts must be found; secrets must be uncovered. The world that Piranesi thought he knew is becoming strange and dangerous.

 

Film:

Ghost in the Shell is Japanese Cyberpunk media franchise based on the seinen manga series of the same name,  written and illustrated by Masamune Shirow. The manga, first serialized in 1989 is set in mid-21st century Japan and tells the story of the fictional counter-cyberterrorist organization Public Security Section 9.  In this post-cyber-punk iteration of a possible future, computer technology has advanced to the point that many members of the public possess cyberbrains, technology that allows them to interface their biological brain with various networks. The level of cyberization varies from simple minimal interfaces to almost complete replacement of the brain with cybernetic parts, in cases of severe trauma. This can also be combined with various levels of prostheses, with a fully prosthetic body enabling a person to become a cyborg. The main character of Ghost in the Shell, Major Motoko Kusanagi, is such a cyborg, having had a terrible accident befall her as a child that ultimately required her to use a full-body prosthesis to house her cyberbrain. This high level of cyberization, however, opens the brain up to attacks from highly skilled hackers, with the most dangerous being those who will hack a person to bend to their whims. 

Ooh – give it a whirl eh??

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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