Plan B

Had some sad news this morning as an elderly neighbour has died; we’re a small community and he was a sweet man, totally in love with grandchildren and gardening and self sufficient in vegetables. Sort of person the world could do with more of.

I had planned to go to my beloved London today and wander The South Bank, admire some art and then snuggle down in the Member’s Room at The Tate Modern to do some writing. But there was a monumental screw up by Network Rail with over-running weekend engineering works that meant all the stations between Woking and Surbiton were shut and all the trains cancelled. As public relations screw-ups go this scored eleven out of ten, not least because they didn’t share the detail. I mean, if it was because of safety or because they had discovered a still breathing Egyptian Mummy under the rails at New Malden it would have been good to know. But it’s difficult to empathise with an information black hole. For my part I was philosophical; there is always next Monday, but for a lot of people it meant serious inconvenience or worse.

Incidentally the autocorrect just changed philosophical to Hilo Sophia Loren as I was writing. Spectacular. I didn’t even know Hilo was a word. Apparently it is a small town in Hawaii with bubbling lava rock pools. As a word in its own right it means a Polynesian navigator and is (rarely) used as a man’s name. Good to know. But now the song “Hilo Sophia Loren” to the tune of High Ho Silver Lining is stuck in my head.

Mind you it could be worse. Earlier today I couldn’t get Ra Ra Rasputin out of my head. Interesting lyric that. The rhyme is slightly off. It should be Ra Ra Raspu Teen Lover of the Russian Queen; or Ra Ra Rasputin lover of the Russian Quin. Okay I’m being picky. It’s a weird song anyway and Boney M were a weird band.

Anyway Plan B: I went into our local town centre and dropped my old Panasonic lumix LX-100 off for repair (hopefully) - it’s a good little camera and although my GX-8 is excellent it doesn’t quite fit in the pocket like the LX-100. Then had coffee in a quirky lounge bar that has opened up and found they have a whole vegan menu. Brill. I shall go back when I don’t have a full stomach, which may not be for a while given the amount of cake we still have in the house.

Spent the afternoon being creative in a whole lot of ways. Nice to be writing again. And learning more about procreate. Slightly addictive software. I am dreaming of blend modes and layer transparency ...