August 2004
Let's raise the tone a little with a sophisticated tale from Sam:
A psychiatrist is doing rounds in his asylum with a couple of students. They look in on one patient and the psychiatrist says to his students, "Sometimes this fellow thinks he's a temptress in a Bizet opera, but today, as you can see from his goose stepping, he thinks he's the World War II head of the Nazi Luftwaffe. What condition do you think he's suffering from?"
The first student replies, "Is he a paranoid schizophrenic with a multiple personality disorder?"
The second student says, "No, I think he just doesn't know whether he's Carmen or Goering."
I popped in to the local shopping centre to post some letters at lunchtime today. I intended to go straight in and out but unluckily for me I happened to time my visit to coincide with the Princess' visit. Her very large entourage, crowds of onlookers and a huge police presence turned my quick trip into a 90 minute ceremony.
I wich I'd had the following info before I started watching my opera DVD, it would have made it all so clear. Sam offers the following:
Opera for the uninitiated:
Fat Bloke sing to Fat Women about his undying love.
Fat Women sings to her Fat Friend about Fat Bloke.
Fat Bloke gets called to war, sings a song
Fat Women struggles on and sings a song to someone fat who sings back to her not to worry.
Fat Bloke sings to more Fat Blokes about the war who sing with him.
Fat Bloke either gets killed (sings a song as he dies) and there is a tragic end where Fat Women kills herself (more singing)
Or Fat Bloke returns a hero (cue everyone who is fat, singing).
Or, the fat woman dies of tuberculosis while the fat bloke sings at her.
Ah, there's nothing like a Saturday morning with a hangover whe the decorators were in the previous day and the smell of paint is thick and heavy! Anyway, last night was a great night beginning with happy hour on the roof (literally) of the Banyan Tree. I don't know how long the moon bar has been there but being on top of one of the tallest buildings in the city it is a very windy experience... but the views are outstanding.
Back in to flat out mode. The new teachers have arrived and are going through their induction process and I find I have a million things to do again. I must keep making diary entries so that you don't think I've suffered the fate of this poor chap:
Angels and Daemons, another great book by Dan Brown. I?m right at the very end now, about 20 pages to go and it?s slowing down a little but nevertheless a gripping tail. The Digital Fortres will be the next of his books I?ll read
A 6km walk around Bibra Lake, a ploughman's lunch, goodbyes to Pauline and we were on our way to the airport for the flight back to Bangkok. A great holiday and no mistake.
What a strange feeling it is when you get back home after a holiday. The only thing I can thing about is when the next holiday is. Still mustn't complain, two out of four goldfish survived when I was away; what was the maid feeding them?
Lots of junk has collected in my email inbox while I've been away. Amongst the funnier of the junk is the following from Samantha:
Stevie Wonder is playing a gig in Tokyo . . . .
He's just finished playing his Seventies classic Sir Duke. The crowd is still going wild when a young man at the front says, "You, Stevie Wonder, you play a jazz chord! Play a jazz chord!"
So Stevie plays an F# minor on his keyboard and goes off on a jazz riff.
The Japanese man says, "No Stevie Wonder, you play a jazz chord!"
So Stevie tries an A and off he goes with the band on this amazing improvised moment.
When he's finished, the lad says, "No Stevie, a jazz chord, a jazz chord!"
By now old Stevie is a little confused. "What do you mean, play a jazz chord? I've just done 2 for you..?" he says to the fan.
"But it best song of Stevie Wonder! It very famous!" comes the reply.
"Ok, well how does it go then?", enquires the blind musical genius. The young Japanese man clears his throat and starts to sing:
"A jazz chord..............to say, I love you..."
Finished my book The Da Vinci Code. Enjoyed it so much that I have bought another book by Dan Brown called Angels and Demons. I wonder how long it will take me to get through that? Getting better at solving the codes though.
There's a great online quest (treasure hunt) linked to the Da Vinci Code book. I'm working throught it right now. If you've read the book have a go too. Click on the link below:
I thought I'd venture into a new music genre. I bought my first opera! A DVD of Puccini's Tosca which I watched yesterday afternoon (with subtitles). The jury's still out.
I reassuruing thought from Nick (not that he is a quadragenerian too):
People over 40 should be dead.
Here's why .
According to today's regulators and bureaucrats, those of us who were kids in the 40's, 50's, 60's, or even maybe the early 70's probably shouldn't have survived.
Our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paint.
We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets, ... and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets. (Not to mention the risks we took hitchhiking.)
As children, we would ride in cars with no seatbelts or air bags.
Riding in the back of a pickup truck on a warm day was always a special treat.
We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle.
Horrors!
We ate cupcakes, bread and butter, and drank soda pop with sugar in it, but we were never overweight because we were always outside playing.
We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle, and no one actually died from this.
We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then rode down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes.
After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.
We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the street lights came on.
No one was able to reach us all day.
NO CELL PHONES!!!!!
U n t h i n k a b l e !
We did not have Playstations, Nintendo 64, X-Boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, video tape movies, surround sound, personal cell phones, personal computers, or Internet chat rooms.
We had friends!
We went outside and found them.
We played dodge ball, and sometimes, the ball would really hurt.
We fell out of trees, got cut and broke bones and teeth, and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.
They were accidents.
No one was to blame but us.
Remember accidents?
We had fights and punched each other and got black and blue and learned to get over it.
We made up games with sticks and tennis balls and ate worms, and although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes, nor did the worms live inside us forever.
We rode bikes or walked to a friend's home and knocked on the door, or rang the bell or just walked in and talked to them.