05 Tuesday Jan 2016
Tags
I had an interesting discussion with a friend, a few days ago – about… well, about past and future.
Yes – yes, he is the kind of friend with whom you chat late at night, and wax philosophical, and at one point he said that it bothers him that he will not see all of the future. “The best part of the show – and I’ll miss it.” Continue reading
31 Thursday Dec 2015
Because it’s New Year’s Eve, because I’m reading Scottish things and I’m in the mood, because I love this version arranged by Robert Shaw, because the end of December makes me maudlin beyond the telling, and just because.
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot
and days of auld lang syne?For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne,
We’ll take a cup o’ kindness yet
For auld lang syneWe twa hae run aboot the braes
And pou’d the gowans fine;
we’ve wander’d mony a weary foot
Sin’ auld lang syneAnd here’s a hand, my trusty friend,
And gie’s a hand o’ thine;
We’ll take a cup o’ kindness yet
For auld lang syne
What are you going to do tonight? It’s theatre for me: first night of a French play first, and then a late dinner with the company. We have a saying in Italy, that what you do on the first day of the year, you’ll do all year – so it can only be a good thing if the New Year finds me in a theatre and in the company of theatre folks. And then of course, on the same principle, I’ll make sure to write at least a little – but that’s for tomorrow.
For now, Happy New Year’s Eve, O Readers.
25 Friday Dec 2015
Tags
Christmas, Christmas carols, Christmas tree, Clare College Cambridge, Gustav Holst, Personent Hodie
And music… ♫
22 Tuesday Dec 2015
Posted in Things
In a couple of days it will be Christmas – again.
A messier Christmas than usual, what with both my mother and myself being down with bronchitis, and other and sadder things… Continue reading
15 Tuesday Dec 2015
I must have been truly good, this year – because Saint Lucia, the gift-bringer, has outdone herself.
Together with the prettiest Christmas mug ever, an adorable velveteen elephant, a box of twelve old glass ornaments for the tree, and a sinful plate of candy, she brought me books & movies.
First of all, D. K. Broster‘s Jacobite Trilogy, already stashed away in view of my Three Day Christmas Reading Spree. And because I have a soft spot for Jacobites – thanks to Stevenson’s Alan Breck Stewart – I can’t wait. Saint Lucia seems determined to make me discover a vintage historical novelist each year. It was Rosemary Sutcliffe last year, and now Broster… Continue reading
05 Saturday Dec 2015
Posted in Things
I suspect this is on its way to become a Scribblings tradition: it being December, WordPress turns up the snow, which hardly shows at all on my mostly white blog.
So I post a snowy and darkish and largish image – just to enjoy the e-snowfall…
So now it shows. This year it is the Snowflakes from the Los Angeles Ballet’s Nutcracker.
And, while we are there, the music to go with it: ♫
24 Saturday Oct 2015
Posted in Things
You may have seen this misquoted as Nietzsche, but it is actually a piece of k-wisdom from a 1935 interview.
Heartening, I’d call it. In a cold, clear-headed manner, if you like – but yes: heartening.
13 Tuesday Oct 2015
Posted in Lostintranslation, Things
I. Big translation job. University press, collection of essays, hideously strict deadline. I was hired today, and they are already breathing down my neck.
II. Slightly smaller editing job. After months of silence, now they wake up and are, of course, in a hurry. And here’s the (long) new chapter, and can I finish it by Saturday, and when can they send the next?
III. Flu. Or perhaps not quite the flu, but still. I’m just beginning to feel vaguely human again, after three days of fever and cold.
IV. Revision – because yes, there is that, too.
To think that this morning my mother waltzed in, took a good look at her only daughter, and pronounced me in need of a little vacation… But the fact is that, for the next two or three weeks, I’ll barely have time to breathe… So I’m not even sure I’ll post very often or very brightly until, say, the end of October.
You are warned, O Readers: if you find Scribblings lagging behind, you know why.
17 Thursday Sep 2015
Posted in Things
Tags
I’ve got thracheitis.
Ain’t it just great? I was perfectly well, and suddenly I started coughing like mad, and it hurts when I do, and the doctor says it’s tracheitis.
Trouble is, tonight I should begin doing readings for authors at a small literary festival, but frankly I doubt I’ll be able to. Quite apart from the temperature and everything, even with codeine, I doubt either the authors or the audience would appreciate it, if I were to cough (brayingly) with every third (very scratchy) word… And that’s how things are, right now. Continue reading
03 Thursday Sep 2015
Posted in Things
A slightly bizarre but delightful thing happened to me yesterday.
An elderly lady I have known all my life stopped me in the street, saying she had something to ask me. She was frowning so hard that I did a quick inventory of what I might have done to displease her – not that I am in the habit of annoying old ladies, but you never know – and drew a complete blank… But no – it was nothing I had done.
In fact, “There is a word I need,” the elderly lady said. “A word you use for a place that is falling to pieces…” Continue reading
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