This Is This

A couple of announcements before I make a start, and that is that there’s a guy sitting opposite me this morning reading a book called Murder On The Leviathan by an author called Boris Akunin.

Murder On The Leviathan by Boris Akunin.

I’ve never heard of this book, but it’s got a sepia headshot superimposed over an image of a big ocean liner.

That’s a great title, isn’t it? …The Leviathan. I could never write that. My name’s Cliff Jones. Cliff Joneses write This Is This. They don’t write Murder On The Leviathan. They’d lack the cadence.

But then Boris Akunin wouldn’t blog about oven peas, so I’ll always have that.

The other thing is the sad news of yesterday’s announcement that Monty Don has had a stroke. It was described as a “minor stroke”, but to me that sounds like “a bit of a shark attack”, so there’s a tribute to him at the end of this post to add to the numerous I have posted before on this site. Best wishes, MoDo, for a swift and full recovery.
 
Right. I went to The Royal Albert Hall yesterday to see the Dalai Lama and I hope to post some more about that later. It was as funny and moving as the last time I saw him. I don’t know if he’s some kind of enlightened being, or the living reincarnation of the Bodhisattva of Compassion, and I don’t know how much it matters. Just like I don’t know why I beam back a smile and fill up with tears when he walks into a room - maybe neither are important. It’s like religion itself – it’s a medium and what matters is the result. The internet, air, food (yes, there’s the taste, but the substance I mean), electricity – it doesn’t really matter. What counts is what it counts for. It’s all about what you do with it once you’ve got it.

Talking’s good, but it’s what you talk about. Power is fine, but you need to use it for something. Religion’s nothing on its own. What good’s the air once you’ve breathed it? Or stopped breathing it? It’s what you do and who you are that’s important, not the things that allow you to be.

I might write more about this later next week, but right now my train trip is over, so I better post this up and head into work. And to be honest you should maybe think of doing something else. This is just a blog post after all, and will only get you so far.

There’s the Weekend Song on Saturday, which I’ve narrowed down to a shortlist of two and they are both awesome. Which will it be? To be honest, I don’t even know myself but I guess we’ll all find out tomorrow.

Have a great weekend.

Rain over Scotland will drift to the northwest on Friday and tend to die out. Brighter weather will follow from the south with showers and some heavy rain over the weekend. Temperatures will be a little below normal with daytime highs between 12-17C (54-63F). The overnights will be chilly with the risk of patchy frost across parts of the UK especially central and northern areas. Winds will generally be light over the next couple of days but will shift around to the southwest across western parts on Wednesday.

Finish sowing hardy annual flowers outside before the end of May, as later sowings will result in later blooms. Sprinkle general purpose fertiliser around clumps of spring-flowering bulbs and ensure permanent shrubs and hedging are given a generous feed using this or rose fertiliser. Hoe it into the soil’s surface and water in before covering with a mulch of garden compost. Place support frames over tall perennials, or those with a floppy disposition and remember to put eye guards on top of any canes used.

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I’m a pretty conservative drinker, and 95 per cent of my intake is made up of while I consider to be the three main booze groups: whiskey, beer, red wine.
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This entry was posted on Friday, May 23rd, 2008 at 9:24 am. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed, or you can skip to the end and leave a comment yourself.