Hooray

It took an amazing 139 pages, but common sense has prevailed.

Jackanory

This was first circulated by email in March 2000. I didn't have a blog then...


Let me tell you a story...

In my kitchen cupboard I have a large number of tins. Some are regular old favorites that get used frequently, some are backups in case I run out of fresh veg.

A month or so ago I was cooking my dinner, but hadn't been to the shops for a while so plumped for some pasta with a tomato and herb sauce. I opened the tin of toms and was a bit put off by the general colour and lumpiness of the contents.

"Crumbs!" I thought "That's been in there a long time to go off like that" - until I realised it was baked beans!

No, I wasn't going mad. The label was definitely for tomatoes.

"Bloody hell." I thought again (I live on my own. No-one to talk to) "Big cock-up in the packing factory. Suprised there hasn't been a big news story about it".

I was in a hurry, and I think I ended up having the pasta with ketchup.

Now, dear reader, cast you mind forward to last night. After the dance rehearsal I was feeling peckish. So I go for my usual sausage rolls dunked in tomato soup (Hey, I said I live on my own. We all have our secret favourites, so don't lie to me).

I reach for the tin of soup, open it, and there's BABY SWEETCORN!

"Huh?" I question.

"Eh?!" I exclaim.

And then my mind starts to make connections.

Connections with a tin of tomatoes that turned out to be baked beans.

Connections with a time when I had our "friends" 'Tee Hee' and 'Elvis' over to stay....

Connections with the cut and loose label on the tin and the HALF DOZEN OTHERS in the cupboard my eye is only now noticing...

...and my heart sinks. How could they do this to me? My life seems somehow pointless! How will I ever get Sandra Bullock to have my love-child when I can't even sort my tins out!

But maybe McScrunton and Phlegming were lazy... So I reach for the tin labelled "sweetcorn". I open it in trepidation, and there is the lovely red nectar! Aroma of sausage-roll is also wafting out of the oven - maybe life isn't so bad after all, but beware who you leave alone in your kitchen!

Transported to another plane

I've said it before* and I'll say it again** BBC radio 4 is a National Treasure...

So I was having a sleepy Sunday morning, err afternoon - weeell, I'd had the lurgy so what do you expect? - well anyway, the most superb 15 minute program came on the wireless radiogram: Composers in the Countryside presented by Simon Halsey.

Nothing too amazing about that, but the piece he was describing, Fantasia On A Theme By Thomas Tallis, was one of the more evocative I've heard in a long time. Soaring themes with the most graceful undertones, the piece was designed to describe the majestic beauty of Gloucester Cathedral and by 'eck does it succeed!

Not only that but the way the music and the narrator's description of the history of the music intertwine it's almost like they embrace each other.

If you can, plug your PC into your Hi Fi. If not, no worries. But for the next seven days you can have another listen...

Do it and your brain-cells will love you forever.

*err, might've

**and not the last time