Deep and crisp and even

.. were the chips we had last night.  Delicious food, well-presented and served with a smile.  The uncertainty we observed at the beginning turned out to be due to the proprietors having taken over only a few days before.  Fair enough, we think.  A mixed marriage, Asian and white British – an interesting combination, culinarily.  (is that the right word?)  Check it out

http://www.diningpubs.co.uk/pub_details.asp?id=294

Lovely beer garden overlooking the reservoir where we broke one of their tables (in the garden, not the reservoir!)

Thinking deeply, crisply and evenly about my writing, and especially about Seven Days, an early novel which I think I shall rewrite.  I can see a lot more possibilities in it now.

Ok that really is it for now.

Kirk out

Words, words, words…

I used to be a huge fan of Neil Young.  I haven’t stopped being a fan, it’s just that all his stuff is on vinyl and I don’t have a good way of listening to it- not without removing all the stuff on top of the record player and dusting it and checking the needle and and and  *

You get the picture.  I was thinking today, the reason I like writing is that every copy of a work is the original.  Whereas with a painting, there’s nothing like the original work and prints etc can only give a feel for what it’s like, with writing, so long as the text is faithfully reproduced, every copy has exactly the same power as the original.  There’s nothing to be gained – except by the scholar – by looking at the original manuscript.  There’s something very democratic about that – and also something easy, in practical terms.  Especially nowadays in this age of computers.

So.  Neil Young.  One of my favourite tracks was “Words (between the lines of age)”.  I used to listen to it over and over.  It was when he was in his electric phase.

Which brings us to the Dane.  Last night the origin of the suffix “by” came up – in the Midlands there are a number of place names that have this, and it comes from Danish – and that gave another outing to the joke “terby or not terby” (see previous post https://lizardyoga.wordpress.com/2008/09/12/ladimir-and-oestrogen-2/).

Last night was great – an outing to a country pub, an underused reservoir, unseen Perseids, a pound lost and found, a necklace also lost and found, and some good conversation.  Thanks Claire!

–  What is the matter that you read, my lord?

–  Words, words, words

(loosely remembered from Hamlet).

Kirk out

PS Beer festival and curry today.  Mark is going to Nottingham.

PPS Jan, who is a mathematician and therefore To Be Trusted, shares my dislike of “numbers” instead of “figures”.  (see previous post here https://lizardyoga.wordpress.com/2009/05/12/and-another-thing-2/)

she says it’s to do with dumbing down.

*  Missed the chance here to make a joke about “the needle and the damage done”.