Every now and then I think up a new blog gimmick, then I forget it after a few days. My latest wheeze is to tell you every day what I was doing at 16.00 local time. Why on earth you should care I don’t know, but it will give a series of arbitrary snapshots, and at least at 16.00 I am likely to be reasonably respectable.
At 16.00 today I was at the desk in my Accra bedroom, reading The Extermination of A British Army by Terence Blackburn, taking notes from it, and listening to Death and Transfiguration by Richard Strauss.
If you happen to be with your wife in a moment of intimacy at that specific time – we will understand when you post 17.00 for that day (chuckle!)
Courtenay, you rascal, you beat me to it!
…Does it take 55 minutes to get his boots off?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHnFgmNWtfM&fe…
Beautiful and serene.
When very young I attended Sunday school at the local church, the Church of the Transfiguration. I had absolutely no idea what the word meant as it was never explained to me. I even sang in the choir. Years later we found out that my brothers and I were despatched to church so that pur parents had nookie time. And on a Sunday too!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transfiguration_of_J…
Not me mate…have to behave myself for my wife at 18:00 ( cheers and a chuckle)
At 4pm I was mainly fixing me ol' dear's shelves. Don't think it's a gimmick Craig. Think it's nice. It's only March and domestic politics may get a bit of summer madness. Be cool to check in and just touch base like the (seeming) analysis that Fortnum & Mason's philanthropic arm is really rather splendid and a definate best practice model to be considered. Plus, top quality 'pick & mix' section too! Hurray
And while you were away Craig the King of Bahrain has been tipped off about your intentions to give him what for so he has announced he is not coming to to the Royal Wedding.
"Bahraini ruler rejects UK Wedding invite" http://www.presstv.ir/detail/171759.html
Isn't this all a bit phony? I mean, we have NATO bombing hospitals in Libya on behalf of our Al Qaeda allies in Benghazi, who apparently employ torture as required and lynch black people, and all we hear about is whether Craig is having a shit or hanging out the laundry.
Hi
What specific information do you have about the revolt being run by Al Qaeda other than Ghaddafis assertions?
Cheers Paul
Actually Canspeccy it’s a family thing and provides insight and safety – Cameron tried it on WebCameran then abandoned the idea realising he was his exposing his soul Android giving too much away – deception is ‘de rigeur’ after all.
Heck! Why does this Android tablet keep replacing ‘and’ with ‘Android’ I’m sick of it.
At 1600 I was taking things easy, thinking it was 1500. Frickin BST…
Is there any fun at all in your life, CanSpeccy?
"reading The Extermination of A British Army by Terence Blackburn"
I don't know the book but does it recount the time when Dost Mohammed gave Elphy Bey a good tolchok in the yarbles? Ah! But then Alex Burnes would already have gone to the Great Korova Milk Bar in the Sky by that point.
angrysoba
It does indeed – it is really a compendium of contemporary Indian newspaper eyewitness accounts, skilfully stitched together. There is quite a lot of material on Burnes among it, which as you surmise is why I am reading it.
It sounds interesting. Will your book contain a few pictures such as this one?
http://thegrumpyowl.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/0…
Probably not that one. A few days earlier Dr Brydon was one of a group of officers who held a meeting and decided to abandon their troops, who were on foot, and try to cut their way out on their horses. He was the only one of them who made it. He was not really the sole survivor, of course. Several dozen white prisoners were eventually released and my research definitely indicates many more native soldiers survived than previously noted, many losing limbs to frostbite or ending up in slavery.
I remember reading that there were a lot of people from the march out of Kabul who were taken prisoner and I assumed that William Brydon couldn't possibly have made it to Jalalabad on his own with only a hat to keep the top of his head on. He must have had some help not recorded in the famous picture of which there is a clearer picture here:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/6d/Rem…
That said, debunking famous myths are all part of interesting histories. Looking forward to your book.
The provenance of that painting of Dr Brydon (by Lady Elizabeth Butler) is referred to in this post from this interesting blog.
http://mountainsofourmind.blogspot.com/2009/11/af…
Thanks. It is a fantastic painting.