Thai Surrey

We are back into a heatwave again and on the Bank Holiday we went to the bi-annual Thai Festival that is held at Milford on behalf of a Thai charity that keeps Northern Thai girls out of the clutches of the Bangkok "sex industry".

There were tents selling Thai goods, holidays and scrumptious food, as well as dances and combats on stage. The lady aloft kept a very poised posture as she was paraded around the site at the beginning of the proceedings.

The finale involved little floats with a candle on them that were launched on the pond as the light faded.

Surrey's wilderness

We are having two sunny days out of three for the August Bank holiday weekend, a record matched only by England's fine Ashes win yesterday over the Ozzies. We decided to have a longish day out to explore the wilderness knows as Hankley and Thursley Commons. The first of these is a MoD area of swooping heather-clad scenery and distant views (see landscape pictures)and the other is a mainly boggy area with board walks and the widest variety of dragon flies in Britain. It was a beautiful walk of about 5 miles; we helped a woman and daughter who were lost; and when we arrived at the end the pub had a much needed and classy bowl of ham and pea broth. We then wandered round the (interesting) village including a church dating back to 1030, when it was under the control of the then Pope. Unfortunately the batteries of my newly repaired camera failed at this point and, unusually, I did not have charged spares with me.

Hope you like the photos.

Where is the good music?

As I grow older I spend less time listening to music and then occasionally hear something that really grabs me, go out and by a CD by the artist and find I only like one or two of their other numbers. Not an experience one likes to repeat but I gather I am not alone in this.

Borders in Kingston have a system where you can hear (snatches of?) tracks on selected CDs but what I would like to do is to be able to forage across CDs and pick up only those songs which appealed to me. Would visiting Itunes or similar allow me to listen before committing? And without spending unavailable hours to do so or buying an Ipod?

Suggestions gratefully received.

House to let

Suitable for blue tits or similar small birds. Guaranteed waterproof, with nice round port hole of north west facing aspect. Note that the port hole itself is not painted so no chance of being poisoned if you peck it. Beautifully clean inside, no nasty splinters to pierce the feathers, and golden paint outside. Probably squirrel proof too. Would suit a pair of birds shortly to be in need of more space.

No need to apply, just take possession before other birds do.

SUPERWOMAN LIVES

... in London. Li Yan has 10 grade A passes at A level. She got her first at 16, another a year later and this year - by now she was 18 - she studied and passed four at school and - in her own time - another four. One of the latter was law, which she devoted a whole month to studying to achieve her A grade.(What does this say about A level Law?)

Her hobbies and interest are not stated, but eating and sleeping could be on the agenda.

She is going to Trinity College next.

Bet she will become an academic and not a homebuilder.

Not fiction! It is on the education part of the BBC news site, but I could not paste in the link.

SUPERMAN LIVES

... in Sydney.

He works like a dervish, cycles rather than drives, reads 800+ page books, watches consecutive episodes of 24 Hours every day, runs to Bondi Beach to spot the volleyball players, keeps up a blog, tears up telephone directories and lights pot belly stoves with his hands tied behind his back.

Beat that!

TV PASS-ONS

About 16 years ago my Dad bought a portable TV and after he died we took it over (TVD1) for a while and then gave it to Grandma (activity TVD2).

Gordon bought a TV from a former colleague (TVG1) a few years ago but handed it on to us when he left for DC (TVG2 - got the coding now have you?). We offered our previous telly to Si and he swopped it (TVBB1 and TVS2) for one he had bought (TVS1) in Hong Kong. However he could not link TVBB to his hi-fi and so we swopped this (TVBB2) for Gordon's (TVG3). Si then arranged to go to Sydney and decided that the Hong Kong telly would work best there, and so we took back Gordon's TV (TVG4) for his (TVS3).

Alas, TVBB seemed surplus to requirements - until today. It has now found a new home with Grandma (TVBB3). And in the meantime Gordon and Diana have bought a US TV (TVGD1).

My Dad's TV - are you still with me? - has found it's way upstairs at Grandma's - how should we code this??? And what is the next move - no smart answers please about plasma screens??

Digital depression

My...er, our...digital camera has been back with the manufacturers for repair for a few weeks because of a missing mode dial. Olympus wnated to charge me £120 to replace it - the dial, not the camera - and so I sent them a dissenting letter. Very polite and diplomatic.

In the meantime we decided to escape to the Purbeck peninsula for a couple of days and terror gripped me. What, without the camera???!! Certainly not!

After thought-provoking discussion and intense counselling, I was persuaded to go and to take my trusty Canon SLR. I soon used up the remaining film. Grief, only 18 shots over two days. How did we cope before digital wonderland? There were compenstions though. Like noticing our aches and pains from walking; the marvellous views unfiltered by a camera lens; etc

And the pictures took only 24 hours to come back. The Purbeck views were decidedly less lively than their digital equivalents would have been. But there was a hidden treasure. A photo of the immediate family celebrating their engagement with Gordon and Diana nearly two years' ago.

Today I rang up Olympus to remind them that they had not replied to my letter of two weeks' ago. After some checking they rang me back to say the mode dial would be replaced - free of charge. No argument necessary.

Wheeee!

(Sample photos to follow, when I have the patience to scan them.)

Grey beards

Have you noticed how many older men have beards?

Why do they grow them - they hide their facial features, prevent others from seeing the nuances of their expressions and generally mask about half of their face. Most have failing sight too and glasses add to the mask. Worse still, many wear peaked caps on sunny days so there is little more to see than their eyes through lenses, noses and ears. How defensive and boring.

Is it to compensate for a bald head? Do they think that a beard adds gravitas? Are they worried about their looks?

Come on chaps, get them off and face the world. Years will drop off your perceived age, and people will respond to your warm smiles.