file under "gratuitous over-use of the credit card"

... arguably necessary as this book is stuffed with wonders

http://www.spectator.co.uk/columnists/all/3454556/and-another-thing.thtml

dramatic scenes at st. george's hospital in tooting ... the loved one had a fall nearby and did some damage to a local pavement ... i expect some cockneys scooped her up and trundled her around to A&E on a barrow

at the new st.george's they have a painting by edward bawden of the old st.george's ... now the swanky lanesborough hotel on hyde park corner

there might be trouble if she finds the sink full of unwashed crockery when she comes home

news of the screws

i was sitting besides a trolley in the accident and emergencies circus this afternoon when a prisoner with head injuries was wheeled in to the next bay

the prison officer who was keeping an eye on things and remained next to the trolley pulled out a packet of crisps and ate them noisily

then he swaggered over to the bin that was clearly labelled for re-cycling only, and re-cycled the empty packet

insomniac's consolations ( i )

i've been awake for almost a week with a heavy cold that likes to shift itself from one uncomfortable part of the body to another whenever i imagine it vanquished

i've always struggled to read methodically ... i'm rarely truly comfortable with larger books, i have a poor attention span and an itch to skip a few pages, and a kind of laziness with small print, especially in long paragraphs

not only did the loved one discover a lectern in a charity shop, but she also she went out and bought a huge "daylight" lamp, the Lumie Brightspark, which is transforming my experience of reading into something more intense and rewarding

now i just need to catch up on all that lost sleep

insomniac's consolations ( ii )

the loved one bought Paintings in Proust for me a couple of christmasses back

on this christmas eve she arrived home from the library with Proust's Overcoat, and it was only after deeply enjoying this little christmas jewel that i noticed it had been translated by the same writer

happy new year mister karpeles, and miss foschini, i am deeply indebted

recette de champignons d'austérité ...

the natives are restless

tate shots: maurice sendak ... absolutely human

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXAjkLUv7dY&feature=player_embedded

gotta new lectern ... her indoors carried it home triumphantly from a charity shop ... the gel dun good, so its an 'appy new year, ennit ?

on the road to crowborough

listen !!! ... the met's connections talks ... a very nice connection thanx to metafilter

http://www.metmuseum.org/connections/

http://www.metmuseum.org/collections/search-the-collections/130015913?img=0

i know little of classical thinking, but i know what i like and this blog often makes me smile

http://consumingantiquity.blogspot.com

she thinks she owns the place ... i half expect to see this profile on a postage stamp

a day of physical and psychological preparation is complete ... i am ready for my encounter with shreks two and three and donkey in the office at four-thirty tomorrow morning ...

should i worry so much about the loved one's mood swings ? is it any wonder i've been losing sleep ?

standard attainment test for year six students of goth anthropology: are insomniacs living ghosts or borderline zombies ? discuss

merry christmas, darling ...

... there just wasn't the time to wrap everything you wanted ...

... but i'll still have just enough time to hang a few more baubles before you chain me to the kitchen sink !!!

if you are female, look away now ...

in the park with the dog ...

getting dark and starting to rain but i'm in my work boots and storm proof coat so mustn't grumble

i discover a size three plastic football ( kids soccer ) and i kick it towards a tree

it bounces off with a satisfying thump

i feel smugly self-important, ( to paraphrase lucy from ponty, more like wayne rooney than george clooney )

however, my second attempt misses by about twenty feet and i slink away furtively

but i hide the ball beneath a fallen tree trunk with the intention of regaining champions' form before the new year

doll smallridge

doll was my mother-in-law for a while

she was full of energy and kindness and laughter

possibly the least complicated person i ever knew

she died yesterday and i've been thinking of her all day

i feel privileged to have known her

the lover's complaint ...

when intelligent extra-terrestrial life-forms eventually re-discover our dead planet and break open my mausoleum and reverently unlock my secret diaries, their lexicographers will ponder with some incredulity on the regularity of the compulsory hoovering in my brief and tragic existence, and they may even feel it is necessary to re-define the meaning of the word “suffering” for the ninety-ninth century

double dyslexia

i stand on the threshold of a shop with a clear glass door

on the inside of the door they have stencilled the word PULL in block capitals, at eye level just above the door handle

i read the word in reverse, and then pull

nothing

the girl behind the counter gestures incomprehensibly

eventually the embarrassing truth dawns

the girl behind the counter says lot's of people do that

john wilkes in fetter lane

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wilkes

australians in the strand ... i'd welcome any interpretation of the ?allegorical? narrative

i was supposed to be christmas shopping but it was a fiasco and i bought NOTHING .... instead, i ended up amongst all the old familiar faces ...

sadeler's engraving of an allegory on death, portraying his friends bartholomaeus spranger and the recently deceased frau spranger ( christina muller ), in whose home sadeler had lodged

i had wanted to know more about spranger's bizarre paintings to begin with, but something intrigued and mystified me about sadeler's technique, and then i learned that he had engraved some of durer's drawings, long after durer's lifetime, works with which i had long been familiar ... and then, just to annoy me, i spotted the name of another sadeler family member in the lower right corner of this engraving ... so i was still flummoxed, and none the wiser, for a while ... was this engraving from a drawing by spranger ?

ah, here seems to be an answer to my question ! yes ! but thanks to sadeler it seems uncharacteristic because it lacks spranger's usual extravagant mannerisms and lurid colours

http://www.evbaeyer.com/pages/catalogues/sadeler.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sadeler_family

http://www.britishmuseum.org/pdf/4%20Durer%20Model1.pdf

( they're on the phone at ) two temple place

http://www.twotempleplace.org/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Temple_Place

http://www.bulldogtrust.org/

we're gonna hang out the washing on the siegfried line ...