We Needed A Few Bits And Pieces In Town,

also a trip to the bank,

so I walked with Diana through the park,

the plastic netting protecting the grass now removed,

not a leaf on the trees,

although not frosty it was still cold,

I left Diana at the bus stop and continued past the war memorial to the bank,

next stop LIDL,

and home I spent the afternoon watching a few documentaries, in the evening a sherry and a read,

the author often gives the price of produce in different currencies, but gives a conversion table this one from Batavia, now called Jakarta,

this was rather neat as it tied in with another book I had read and a film, Longitude, reading on to the next page,

where mention is made of Maskelyne and the transit of Venus he was under taking,

the film is a two part DVD Longitude, a real gem, it is two stories in one running in parallel, in the 18th century Harrison builds the marine chronometer for safe navigation at sea, and in the 20th century Gould is obsessed with restoring it, great acting and story, even better so as we saw all 4 of Harrison's clocks when we visited the Royal Observatory in Greenwich in September 2010, back to the film, basically if at sea you did not have accurate time on board a ship there was a good chance that you could be many miles off course as many ships captains found out to their and their crews cost,

the film's main story is that of craftsman John Harrison, he built a clock that would do the job, what we would now call a marine chronometer, told in parallel is the 20th century story of Rupert Gould, for whom the restoration of Harrison's clocks to working order became first a hobby, then an obsession that threatened to wreck his life, for myself a must see factual film,

for tonight a beef supper,

eyes down and tuck in,

I followed with a sherry trifle,

after my meal I continued reading, finishing the book on page 457,

with a piece about the production of electricity, what a really enjoyable read, next a film,

Major Grom: Plague Doctor, it was a Russian all action film where the hero takes on the darker, moneyed side of Russia in St. Petersburg, after which Diana arrived home and it was feet up for a coffee and a chat, we watched a New Tricks before we were off to bed.