Monday, June 08, 2009

Day 84: Another Lazy Sunday

Today's soundtrack: Beethoven - Symphony No. 3 (Simon Rattle and the Vienna Philharmonic)

Wow! Finally, a bit of culture! Told you there was some lurking about somewhere...

Stymied by the continuing lousy weather, we did very little today, if truth be told. We continue to be entertained by the antics of our little furry friend, for whom the word 'yampy' would have to be invented if it did not exist already. Which it does, sort of. Ignore the spellchecker and trust me on this.

I've never known a cat with such a 'healthy' appetite and a complete disregard for the social niceties. Such as stealing food from real people's plates, mid-meal. Such as rooting around in the rubbish bags for something - anything - that's had the merest contact with foodstuffs. Such as eating seed and nuts put out for the birds.

Not wholly sure what to make of this - he's as skinny as a rake, so whatever he's eating is not currently sticking to his ribs. He's relatively recently been de-wormed, so I doubt it's that. I can only assume that his bowel problems mean that he doesn't get as much nutrition from his food as it passes through his guts, so he needs to eat more to compensate. Hmmm - quick word with the vet to test this theory?

Bit of sporting entertainment from the Turkish Grand Prix today. Initial threats of a multi-team walkout over something or other narrowly averted/laughed off (depending on who you believe), all teams lined up on the grid with young Sebastien Vettel on pole, having for once stolen a march on Jenson Button. Not for long though, as a cock-up on the first lap allowed Button to pass him and once again dictate the race from the front.

A poor start and subsequent gearbox problems kept Rubens Barrichello at the back of the field until his eventual retirement, leaving Button almost unassailable in the World Championship. Good on him too - nice lad and he's served his dues in some lousy cars before now.

The rest of the day passed without too much to report. Went back online to butcher a few more goblins in Middle Earth (levelled up to 28 now, fellow geeks) and checked up on Son No 1, who is coming up to stay for a few days in the coming week. Son No 2 off camping in the Lakes for a week, just as the weather turns lousy. Ah well.

So what's with the culture, Paul? Well I have already stated that when in the mood, I'm happy to enjoy a bit of Classical music, and they don't come much better than the Beethoven symphonies. I can't pretend to be an expert (so I won't), I'm very much in the 'like what I like' camp and will pick up bits and pieces when the mood takes me. As far as this is concerned, the mood took me whilst browsing on the Amazon download site, and spotting all 9 Beethoven Symphonies for three quid all in. Possibly a pricing error, and quite a common one that is worth looking out for on all download sites - the occasional pricing of a box set as a single album. I've picked up a couple of bargains that way, on iTunes and 7Digital as well as on Amazon.

So how does YouTube help us illustrate our classical tastes? Pretty well, actually. Can't find any Simon Rattle performances of the third symphony, but here's the first movement, conducted by Herbert Von Karajan. Powerful stuff!



NB: Expect normal service to be resumed tomorrow...

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