Full of Haddock and Other Stuff

Well the decision on what to read was made easily with the purchase of That’s Me In The Corner – the third book in Andrew Collins autobiographical collection. This was just as readable as the previous two though somehow the demands of having to earn a living seemed to take something away from the pure pleasure of the previous two books. The reason for wanting to write the first two was obvious – pure nostalgia and then I suppose the third book had to be written to complete things – to join up to now but somehow it seemed just a list of things that happened – very interesting things on important media but just events. Well it is finished and out of the way and we – or maybe just I - await Stephen Fry’s second volume of autobiography which is bound to be more than the sum of its words should it ever appear. I am sure I had heard he was writing it but maybe I was mistaken.

Not that you can tell but there was a small delay there while I purchased something online. I can actually reserve most books from our library online but these things are special. I have had a full set of Realworld CDs. Of course you must excuse the mercenary spirit within me that leads me to value style over content; all those 10 inch singles still in their shrink-wrap are no use to anyone now are they? Or this either :–

I learn from Balderdash and Piffle (presented by that nice Victoria Coren) that the symbol :- which I use all the time is known by printers as “The Dog’s B*****ks” which has slightly taken the edge of 20 years of using it in official documents. I did once have a manager who used several quite strong words in mixed company which shocked us until we realised from context that he didn’t actually know what they meant. Where is he now I wonder? And while on TV programmes – Andrew Marr’s second episode of the history of modern Britain did not disappoint. We learnt of unlikely affairs all while Andrew tried to save money for the BBC by going to Torquay in lieu of Jamaica to back up the story of Anthony Eden’s flight to Goldeneye after the debacle of Suez. I did try to spot my dad in the shots of British and French troops landing in Egypt but he managed to keep his head down. I will have to ask him about it someday. I did not realise that the whole affair was cooked up between Britain, France and Israel who attacked Egypt to provide an excuse for us to go in as peacekeepers. Now who would believe that we could get taken into a dangerous middle-eastern war on the back of a lie of such proportions today? Well my dad did his bit – in the Royal Engineers they taught him how to blow up bridges and then he came home and the Civil Engineers taught him how to build them up again. And he got a medal any everything. My devout cowardice obviously does not come from him.