We drove up to the Wicklow mountains at the weekend to look at the snow. On the way up there was no sign but after we passed Enniskerry, there was lots. We went for a 40 minute walk covering the exciting combination of bog and snow; even wellingtons and salopettes were insufficient to ensure entirely dry feet but all very beautiful. And we had spare shoes and socks in the car.
My father has returned from hospital to the bosom of his family. They were kind to him in the hospital; fixing his hip, giving him birthday cake and delivering newspapers to his room between 8 and 8.30 (ah private healthcare). My sister phoned me the day of the operation and she was in his room and she said to me, “Do you want to talk to him?” “Not unless he wants to talk to me,” I said and I could hear him in the background saying, “Not unless she has something particular to say.” Later, I said to her, “You know, I was worried, he is not as young as he once was and he could have died under a general anaesthetic.” “Well then,” she said, “you would have had the comfort of knowing that your last interaction with him was utterly typical.”
All the same, I am very relieved that he is at home and on the road to recovery.
With one thing and another, my father is often called upon to visit hospitals. The Bons Secours hospital presents particular difficulties, as he pointed out to me, because when he phones for a taxi to go to out patients, he gives the name the full French flourish and the dispatcher is baffled and then goes, “Oh you mean the BONS!”
We were supposed to spend last Monday packing to move house on Tuesday. Alas, the carpet fitter who arrived on Saturday arrived with one carpet too few. After some anguish, we put the move off to this Friday. On the plus side, I’m really hoping that varnish downstairs will be dry.
Unfortunately, the Princess had already boxed up all her books and she spent the weekend pacing the house in a state of considerable bitterness. Re-opening of the library on Tuesday was greeted with ecstasy. Meanwhile, the boys have fallen out over who owns what as, for the first time, they have to separate their worldly goods into two rooms.
Wish us luck for tomorrow.
When I first started reading blogs, on the advice of Fluid Pudding, I used bloglines to keep track of them. I was delighted with myself, it was fantastic. What happened? It announced it was going to close down. With great reluctance, I moved to google reader which I found loathsome. Then bloglines announced that it wasn’t going to close down after all but having forced myself to get used to google reader, I decided to stick with it as, of course, google was a massive company and my effort in getting acquainted with google reader would not be wasted as it would go on forever. Who knew what would happen to bloglines?
Incidentally, following a recommendation from Chris Cactus, I downloaded the feedly app on to my phone in February. It wasn’t for me – interface was too trendy and loading too slow and not designed to skip feeds – but I just let it sit there.
What happened? As you know, google decided to dump its reader. Oh the bitterness. Oh well, I have spent the past couple of weeks getting used to feedly and it’s alright I suppose.
I now predict two things:
1. Google will change its mind about withdrawing reader at the last moment (I, of course, will already have committed to feedly).
2. Feedly will go to the wall.
I see that bloglines is still going.
Have you ever filled a hot water bottle with boiling water while reading a book (which you are holding in one hand) and holding the bottle against the work surface with your mid-riff? I advise strongly against.