My wife had gone to work, I’d sent the girls upstairs to get ready for bed and clean their teeth, the cats and dog were fed. At a temporary loose end, the desire to create another podcast had simply grown too strong; I had to…
But what to talk about? Only some uninteresting minor domestic duties left to perform before settling down to, er… not very much apart from thinking about plans for the weekend.
The answer, the inspiration, came from an unexpected source. Have a listen.
Here it is, presented in a cheaper and more cheerful manner. The link, that is.
Why?
Because I can. It’s not a podcast, for I am still not a podcaster.
My grasp of the English language isn’t as wide, deep, or rounded as I’d like it to be. I know lots and lots and lots of words but occasionally some have meanings that elude me. Some long, some complex, some ridiculously short but tricky as…
“Meta (μητά-) (from the Greek preposition and prefix meta- meaning “after”, or “beyond”) is a prefix used in English to indicate a concept which is an abstraction from another concept, used to complete or add to the latter.”
It’s a small thing in a big thing, which makes reference to the big thing and which makes the big thing complete, but without which it wouldn’t be.
This post, for instance; it wouldn’t be complete without a reference to…
But no, I’m not going to. For that would be very silly indeed.
Er… I shall stop talking like the village idiot now.
‘Life’ is now too complex for me, has been for quite some time, and it frustrates all my efforts to simplify situations.
Borrowing from a previous blog post, ‘Paris’:
“Life is complicated. Living it is easy. Put one foot in front of another, breathe in, breathe out, drink, blink, eat, pee, poo, sleep, work, play, laugh, cry. And then it’s over.
There is more, of course. Aspiration. The latest smartphone, TV, games console, car, a house, family, friends, safety…”
I wrote on for a bit in a similar vein. Heck, there may even have been a point to it at the time, but all that’s forgotten already - and by pretty much everyone who ‘lived’ the events of the day the post refers to.
Luckily for me we live in an age where life-expectancy is great enough that, for quite some time to come, I will be yearning for an age that might have existed before even I entered this world. I’m in my forty-eleventh year in this planet dontcha know!
It’s an age of simplicity, this thing in my head, but one in which even the now-simplest-to-treat ailment (scurvy, for instance) could have propelled me in particular headlong into the cart on the way to that pauper’s grave.
One small positive here; we have the choice where we end up nowadays. Ok, we’ve the illusion of choice; the family’s wishes will surely trump mine. Whether it happens or not I’ve at least asked to be burnt when it’s my time.
No cart for me!
*A conversation with myself, sparked in part by @tomas on 10Cv4.
We have a simply great work custom: anyone having a birthday brings in food and shares it with all. Today, 4rthur* (thanks 4nne* for cooking & laying it all out) brought a particularly rich spread, pizzas, cake, pork pies, some, er… tasty things…
I just ate a couple of slices of a Hawaiian pizza.
(pause for effect…)
And again I liked it.
To recap; if you read my recent ‘Pineapple’ post, you’ll see I introduced a foodstuff (pineapple) positioned diametrically opposite to my views on the addition of fruit to savoury meals.
I’m not averse to foodstuffs prepared in challenging ways but pineapple is one of those polarising fruits; tolerable in isolation, downright wrong on a pizza. Or with gammon.**
Or so I thought.
My palate must be changing with age; after all I eschewed the pepperoni pizza, picking up the Hawaiian in preference.
It would appear that 2016 is indeed a year of experimentation, compromise… If only my attitudes to other deeply entrenched beliefs could be moderated in a similar fashion.
Perhaps I need to go around licking stuff - you know, to test if my attitudes can be modified according to taste?
*Names have been changed to protect even the generosity of those wonderful individuals here.
Yesterday I created and posted (if that’s the correct term) my first podcast. (It at least looks and sounds like one.)
Today, whilst I was sat at my desk, a colleague approached and… “48 seconds” he said.
Despite the fact he’d earlier mentioned listening to the audio, and alluded to the (unfortunately fictional) Chorley FM slogan “Coming in your ears”, my expression must have conveyed my abject lack of understanding.
He proceeded to explain, “[REDACTED]”
“Ah,” I replied. Take a look at this.
But it’s not really appropriate to search too deeply for a definition of Internet Rule 34* on a work PC, is it.
*Potentially NSFW link; be careful what you click, children.