Penultimate

I just did a search through my blogs for "Morse" and sure enough he pops up quite a few times. Not that surprising really given that I'd decided in 2011 (as mentioned in this blog) that I was going to read all of the Morse books from start to finish. In fact it was particularly interesting to look back at this post, as I mention the fact that I was reading the series of books as a way of building up towards the dreaded "Remorseful Day" which I still haven't read yet. Well, we are nearly there now, as I have finished the penultimate book, "Death is now my neighbour", and will have to face it fairly soon.

It was interesting to revisit my observations made at the end of book one - how Morse and Lewis had just started to work together, and how there was a reminder at the end of book one that Morse hadn't yet revealed his first name to the world (something which he has just done in a postcard to Lewis at the end of this book).

As the books have gone on, whilst the crimes and the twists and turns of solving them are a hugely important part, for me it is the relationship between Morse and Lewis that is the heart of the stories (and therefore probably one of the reasons why picking up the last of them isn't a prospect I relish).

I made the same point at the end of my comments about "The Daughters of Cain" when Morse explained how he would miss Lewis if he retired from the force, and in the same way as I did in that post, there are a couple of brief passages from this book that I would like to share.

The first comes mid way through the book. Morse has been admitted to hospital, having just been diagnosed with diabetes, and is told that for the time being, he won't be able to have any visitors, not even if they are close relatives.

"I haven't got any close relatives," said Morse.

Matthews now stood at the foot of his bed. "You've already had somebody wanting to see you, though. Fellow called Lewis."

After Matthews had gone, Morse lay back and thought of his colleague. And for several minutes he felt very low, unmanned as he was with a strangely poignant gratitude.

The second excerpt comes right at the end of the book. Morse has gone for a weekend away, and his companion persuades him to send a postcard to Lewis. It arrives, and Lewis reads it just as his wife is making his usual tea.

Then, turning over the card, he read Morse's small, neat handwriting on the back. What he read moved him deeply; and when Mrs Lewis shouted through from the kitchen that the eggs were ready, he took a handkerchief from his pocket and pretended he was wiping his nose.

Birthday

What is it with me and trips to hospitals on my wife's birthday - this really should not become a tradition!

Sorry about that sweetie - hope you still had a good day!

Love you.

xxxx

Reading update

Again, this blog seems to turn from time to time into a book-based set of reflections. But hey, I enjoy it, and after all, this is a blog written for my benefit, so I don't really feel the need to justify myself to anyone - if you're not interested, feel free to stop reading now!

I am continuing to enjoy my library membership, and one of my latest discoveries has been that I can download an App ("Overdrive") and use my membership to download and read ebooks. So, my first download was "Killing Floor", the first of the Jack Reacher novels, which as it happens I do also own in hard copy form. I'd said at the start of the year that I should finally start off with reading some Lee Child to see whether I'd enjoy them, and sure enough it was a good read. Certainly another one, along with Harlan Coben to add to my list of enjoyable US thriller writers.

This week I have also started the penultimate Morse book, "Death is now my Neighbour", which I don't think I have read before, and which is set in early 1996, so actually a little after my time in Oxford, but the place feels extremely familiar. One particular passage struck a chord with me, as Lewis is sent to the station to see if someone will appear to get on a particular train to London:

"At 9.45am Lewis was seated strategically at one of the small round tables at the refreshment area adjacent to Platform One. Intermittently an echoing loudspeaker announced arrivals or apologies for delays; and, at 9.58, recited a splendid litany of all the stops on the slow train to Reading: Radley, Culham, Appleford, Didcot Parkway, Cholsey, Goring and Streatley ..."

Some of us used to be able to quote all of the stations on the slow train to Reading by heart. It was a very familiar journey once upon a time.

Yesterday, after dropping Nicky and Christie off at the station for their trip to London and the Hyde Park Winter Wonderland, I popped in to Bluewater (for a bit of birthday shopping), and whilst there enjoyed a good look around in Waterstones. So, so many books that I want to read that I don't even dare to make a list! Went in to the Costa at the back for a cappuccino and whilst there read the first half of Carl Hiaasen's "Team Rodent" (again on library ebook), which I then finished off later in the day. It is a pretty insubstantial thing - only 70-80 pages, and is also fairly out of date now, having been published in the late nineties. It deals with the author's dislike of all things Disney, from his perspective as a native of the Sunshine State, seeing what the arrival of Disney has done to Orlando and the surrounding area. As a fan of his fiction, I was intrigued to hear his perspective. However, I didn't learn very much new information. As expected, he had a go at Reedy Creek, Celebration, Animal Kingdom, the failed America project, and so on.

I guess that the only points that I would take away of interest were, (i) we all know that the deal Florida did with Disney to establish RCID was truly amazing and gave Disney carte blanche to do pretty much whatever they liked in their 43 square miles, but apparently in theory their powers go all the way up to and including building their own international airport and / or nuclear power plant, (ii) to a large extent Hiaasen's gripe isn't with WDW itself, but with the tacky and low grade tourist traps that surround Disney property hoping to secure some of the vacation dollars that don't get spent "on property" which is a pretty fair point, and (iii) given that the book is 15+ years old now, it would be interesting to hear what the author thinks about the latest state of affairs.

Finally I am enjoying "The Happiness Project" by Gretchen Rubin, but am only up to February so far, so may have to blog some more about that on another occasion.

Alarming

Finished off Danny Baker's second volume, "Going Off Alarming" today, and another enjoyable read it was too.

In one of the chapters towards the end, he talked about his friendship with Paul Gascoigne, and inevitably shared some comical stories of some of the high jinks they'd got up to back in the nineties. But, it was the last couple of paragraphs in the chapter that particularly struck me:

"More than anything in the world, I would wish Paul to get well and realise, once and for all, how widely loved, respected and important he is. Though these books may include many notable people who have punctuated our pop culture over the last forty years, nobody comes close to making the impression on me that Paul Gascoigne did.

I have never met anyone like him and certainly never expect to do so again."

Beautifully put.

(After all, as anyone who knew me back in 1990 will no doubt remember, it was Paul Gascoigne who reminded us that "There will always be an England".)

Donald

For anyone who is missing the Animation Academy, I thought that the video below was fun, albeit a bit challenging!

Looking through old posts, here are a couple of previous efforts of ours, one of Tigger and one of Winnie (I'm sure we've drawn Donald before - albeit an easier, straight on version, but I don't seem to have taken pictures of our masterpieces).

I look forward to seeing your Donald drawings ...

RSJ

Been for dinner to a restaurant in London called RSJ. Apparently, yes, it was named after a piece of steel.

Food and service decidedly average but company much better.

90:12

We have a new curate at church, and it was his first service with us today. He spoke to us about the parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14-30) and he was excellent at doing so. I'd heard it many times before, but I'm not sure that I'd really listened. He did a good job of asking us questions (and thankfully not expecting answers there and then) about which of the servants we might be - am I using my talents and thereby letting them multiplying, or am I hiding them away like the servant who buried the coins in a hole in the ground? If so, why - is it about being afraid (of what)?

Good questions to ponder!

As our curate pointed out, the parable doesn't end on the happiest of notes, with the third servant being thrown out into the darkness, and so he redirected us to today's psalm, which is no.90, and in particular verse 12:

Teach us how short our life is,
so that we may become wise.

By the way, the words above are from the Good News edition. The Favourite Psalms book that Mum has lent me includes Psalm 90, and it uses the New International Edition words, which are:

Teach us to number our days aright,
that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

... And Party

We have tickets.

And if you can't get the cryptic clue, you'll have to wait until next June to see what for!

The Soldier

If I should die, think only this of me:
That there's some corner of a foreign field
That is forever England. There shall be
In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;
A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,
Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam,
A body of England's, breathing English air,
Washed by the rivers, blest by the suns of home.

And think, this heart, all evil shed away,
A pulse in the eternal mind, no less
Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;
Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;
And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,
In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.

Rupert Brooke
(1887 - 1915)

Pictures

By way of catching up with a few things, some pictures from so far this month, working backwards through the photo stream.

Firstly, here are the new bay trees (thanks very much Mum), now planted up in new pots, and in pride of place by the front door.


Also as part of this weekend's gardening, we've put a couple of bamboos by the side fence on the drive - part of the screening project. We have a third pot, but not a third bamboo yet!


And here is the shed itself (photobombed by the dog), looking pretty cool in the afternoon sun. Been discussing plans with the gardener today for getting several tonnes of gravel delivered so we can start sorting out paths (and then next stop raised beds).


For Bec's benefit, here is a picture of the lodge!


Plants that were by the front door, now relegated to the back to make way for the new bay trees.


The new Christmas ad for John Lewis hit the TV screens on Friday night, and on Saturday morning, our very own Monty and Mabel arrived!


The animals having a 'love in' on the sofa.


And finally, all the way back to last weekend, birthday dinner.