After Dropping Diana Off At Work,

I continued on to Norwood Lakes, 

there is no car park here so it is on street parking only, so a walk to the park passing the rather nice house at the entrance, 

in the park some maintenance was on going, 

bolting a bench to the ground, I guess some idiots had tried to throw into into the lake, 

clear skies, and it was hot! 34 degrees I am lead to believe, Lee and Sue are in Sir Lanka and the Maldives, out there it is only 35!

looking towards one of the pair of grebes had been nesting, they had now gone, I suspect the nest had become waterlogged, 

the small island in the middle of the photograph was where a pair of grebes had been nesting as well, I had a few photographs of them from my last visit here, 

and here they are, out of the camera, 

and cropped a tad, 

the same here, 

I did not do much else when I returned home, it was so hot, so I only played with these two, lots more to play with when the weather changes and I am inside on the computer, onto my evening meal,

first a read and a sherry,

followed by bangers & new potatoes with spring beans, 'Cheers!',  after my meal a documentary, titled, 

Natural History Museum: World of Wonder, what a wonderful look at what goes on behind the scenes at the museum, I then fancied a period type film, so,

The King, it was, I had watched it before, but just fancied watching it again, after which I started a series based in Sicily, 

ll Gattopardo, The Leopard, the first episode of which I found most enjoyable, the sets and costumes so unbelievably good, I am looking forward to the next one, as it finished Diana arrived home, so a coffee and a chat as we watched a episode of New Tricks after which Diana was off to bed, for myself a play with the camera looking at the moon, 

I cropped this slightly,

and made the same photograph black & white, after which I too was off to bed.

I Was Still A Tad To Burnt,

to go downstairs in the sun today,

so I decided to add the discs that were missed when I transferred my music between my old and new telephone, but first something I had never done before, as we were short of milk for my Weetabix I decided to cook myself a fried egg sandwich, so I found the oil and poured a goodly bit into the pan, on with the hot plate, after 5 minutes or so it looked the same, not like water that boils, anyway, one way to test it, I poked the liquid with my finger, note to self, do not do that again, after a few minutes of cold water from the tap the tip of my finger seemed a tad better, by now I knew the oil was hot enough, for 2 reasons, 1 burnt finger, 2 it (the oil), was now really smoking, so in with the 2 eggs, again 2 things, there were bits of shell everywhere, but before I could fish them out the eggs were cooked and I could not see the bits of eggshell anymore, so off with the heat, I poured the oil into a mug, (I had seen Diana do this), then as it was hot I thought I would wash up the pan, Crickey! the steam exploded off of the pan, I never realized it was so hot, next butter the bread make a mug of tea, and enjoy the first crunchy eggshell friend egg sandwich I have ever made, (I think I will leave this cooking malarky to Diana in the future), on to ripping a few hundred CDs, the Windows Media Plyer that was on the computer was just so slow, and often froze, so I bought this:

Nero CD Ripper, it was about £6.00 a year, so a 1 year subscription it was, from putting the CD into the player to ejecting the CD it copied to my computer about 6 minutes, and the good news was that doing other things like this morning posting the blog did not slow it up at all, just after lunch I picked up Diana I had dropped her of at 04.00AM this morning, no sooner than we arrived home her driving instructor was here, a 2 hour lesson, when she arrived home a real treat, a 30 day aged steak each, with lashings of onions, mushrooms, spring beans and new potatoes for our evening meal, after which we settled down for a couple of,

 Deadliest 60, then our film for the evening,

 I Am Legend, I just like these end of the world movies so much, I guess it started with me reading War of the Worlds as a kid, but back to I Am Legend, years after a plague kills most of humanity and transforms the rest into monsters, the sole survivor in New York City struggles valiantly to find a cure, to little too late springs to mind, but great special effects, after which Diana was off to bed, a Have I Got A Bit More News For You, before I too was off to bed.

I Was Going To Have A Quiet Day Upstairs,

I had a cunning plan,

but Diana asked me to call into town, to pick up a parcel, so out into a hot, still, blue sky day, past the snail mail box,

lots of people going to and coming from the park,

and this is where I was headed,

a parcel pick up point, and as usual the machine did not recognize my telephone, so tap in the numbers, again, and again, after a couple more tries,

 just as I was about to give up success!

back into the park, the peonies in the front garden of Foxgrove Lodge,

 really starting to open up now, 

the ones in the side garden,

opening but not as many petals as the pink one, 

the roses were putting on a good show as well, 

the aroma of this one in the air before I neared it, 

blue skies, 

as I made my way back past the snail mail box, 

at home I started on my cunning plan, I was going to try and copy my music from my old telephone onto my new one, it took an age, for the first batch I received a message it would take 15 hours! which went down to 8 hours, each few minutes the estimated time getting shorter, this brought me up to my evening meal after which I finally finished, for some reason a number of folders had the list of songs in them, but no music? so I guess I will over the next few days have to put them one one at a time, still 90% copied to my new telephone successfully, next for myself a couple of films, firstly,

 Unbreakable, this suspense thriller unfolds as the audience is introduced to David Dunn, not only is he the sole survivor of a horrific train-crash that killed 131 people he doesn't have a scratch on him, now I am sorry to burst your bubble but despite the message at the end of the film that the character Elijah Price goes to jail, this is not based on a true story, I followed that with,

 Being John Malkovich, here is what I commented last time I watched the film,

 'Craig, a puppeteer, takes a filing job in a low-ceilinged office in Manhattan, although married to the slightly askew Lotte, he hits on a colleague, the sexually frank Maxine, she's bored but snaps awake when he finds a portal leading inside John Malkovich: for 15 minutes you see, hear, and feel whatever JM is doing, for me there were no 'highs' or 'lows' in the movie it was just so riveting to see what was going to happen next', 

after her work Diana called in to visit Kai on her way home, after Diana arrived home it was feet up for a Midsomer Murder, before we were off to bed.

I Had A Very Quiet Day,

whilst Diana was at work, 

first thing give the fox a few peanuts, today he was joined by a magpie, 

and a crow,

then for myself a day in the back garden, listening to such delights as Just a Minute, and of course Round the Horne, it is a BBC Radio comedy program starring Kenneth Horne, first transmitted in four series of weekly episodes from 1965 until 1968, the first episode of Round the Horne was heard on 7 March 1965. Listeners immediately took to the characters introduced, such as Julian and Sandy, Dame Celia Molestrangler, Fiona and Charles, and Rambling Syd Rumpo, a little about Round the Horne,

image BBC the whole show is held together by Kenneth Horne, a most likable chap, it was a BBC Radio comedy programme starring Kenneth Horne, the show was created by Barry Took and Marty Feldman, who wrote the first three series. The fourth was written by Took, Johnnie Mortimer, Brian Cooke and Donald Webster, Horne's supporting cast comprised Kenneth Williams, Hugh Paddick, Betty Marsden and, in the first three series, Bill Pertwee. The announcer was Douglas Smith, who also took part in the sketches. All except the last series featured music by Edwin Braden, played by the band "the Hornblowers", with a song in the middle of each show performed by the close-harmony singing group the Fraser Hayes Four; in the fourth series, the music was by Max Harris with a smaller group of players than the earlier series, the programme was transmitted on a Sunday afternoon for a family audience, but writers Barry Took and Marty Feldman took advantage of the permissive air of mid Sixties Britain to insert lots of saucy humor, 

the most popular characters, Julian and Sandy, spoke in Polari - the underground slang used before the decriminalization of homosexuality - and produced several catchphrases that passed into common use, a little about them, Julian and Sandy, played by Hugh Paddick and Kenneth Williams respectively, both were in the show playing a couple of camp out-of-work actors, at the time of the shows male homosexuality was illegal in the UK, laws meant that any male homosexual could be arrested by the police, this led to the development of a secret language so that gay men could converse without being understood in front of straight members of the community similar to Cockney rhyming slang, the language was called Polari, it was widely used by the British gay community from the 1900s to the 1970s, it meant that there was a show within a show in which the producers of it the BBC did not know what they were broadcasting! I stayed in garden for the afternoon, 

and as I found out, that was a tad too long, as I settled down for my evening read and a sherry it was obvious that I was going red, 

for tonight instead of a Sunday lunch I had the last of yesterdays cottage pie, 'Cheers!', then feet up for a couple of films, firstly,

 Monty Python and the Holy Grail, King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table set out on a quest to find the Holy Grail...as told to do so by a cartoon God that lives in the clouds, great comedy, but as it started Diana arrived home, and mentioned I was going red, anyway we watched the film together, I am not sure she grasped all of the humor, but she found it funny in places, after that it was a Midsomer Murder, then as Diana was so tired, she was off to bed, for myself a Bangers & Cash before I too was off to bed.

I Thought I Would Play,

with one of the photographs,

I took on my last visit to Norwood Lakes, 

I was lucky that a grebe came quite close, so when I cropped it, there was still lots of detail in the photograph, then a bit of a chore, arranging my holiday insurance, the first company took an age, and a long time for a quote, plus I had to call my doctor to find out if the drug in the Ascend Plus trial I am on, (which lasts 5 years), was licensed or un-licensed, which also took some time, the good news is that the second company did not need any information about the trial, so I now have 1 year multiple trip travel insurance which having paid extra for it includes cruising, all of this brought me up to,

my evening read and sherry, it was so hot it was 'T' shirt time, 

next a small prawn salad,

and a cottage pie, 'Cheers!', again not much on the television, so a couple of films it was, 

Bugsy, from the blurb:

"The true story of gangster Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel, his tumultuous affair with the tough-talking Virginia Hill, and how he founded the Nevada-based city that would go on to be known as Las Vegas."

although some commentators claim it is highly fictionized, not having read a biography of Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel, I can not really comment, but for myself it was an enjoyable movie, I followed that with, 

Oblivion, we had watched the film before, it was for us a great movie, the story in Oblivion was so neat and the special effects brilliant, just a shame that it was not received well by many critics, I really think it was a neat movie in so many ways, then a treat, a Mrs. Brown's Boys was just starting as it finished Diana arrived home so feet up for a Poirot before we were both off to bed.