Well, dear readers, Friday is upon us like so much fish, I am feeling garlicky due to some excellent garlicky garlic bread and feeling creamy due to some very creamy spaghetti carbonara. What a smashing start to these here notes, all food related. But let me not jump ahead, let me return to those thrilling days of yesteryear or yesterday anyway, which wasn’t really all that thrilling but here we are on a new day so maybe today will be thrilling. I did almost watch a motion picture last evening, a new Blu and Ray of The Prince and the Showgirl, starring Miss Marilyn Monroe and Mr. Laurence Olivier and directed by Mr. Olivier, photographed by the amazing Jack Cardiff, and written by the fine writer Terence Rattigan (from his play, The Sleeping Prince, although you’d never know that from the film’s credits). I saw it when it came out in 1957 but remembered nothing about it. I had the DVD, which I don’t think I ever watched. All I can tell you is the transfer is stunning, with gorgeous color and Marilyn looks incredible. That’s all I can tell you because six minutes in I fell asleep for all but about ten minutes during the midway point, for almost all two hours of it. That is because I only got five hours of sleep. I was up at ten because I had an eleven to twelve Spectrum man coming out to port over the landline.
He arrived at about 11:45, very nice fellow. The first thing he did was show me how everything having to do with the line into the house was in the red, meaning the line was extremely weak and intermittent. That would explain a lot, actually. So, he went out to check it and came back and said whoever set it up and installed it tied this and the back house together, used cheap wiring and he was going to give me good wiring and my own line into the house. So, that all took about an hour, but he showed me his meter and all that red stuff was now green. He did the phone thing, which now has to be plugged into the modem. The modem and router had to be reset and he waited with me until everything was working perfectly. He left around 1:45. The only thing that isn’t working on the phone is voice mail. I called about it, but they were going to have to reset the modem and router again to fix the problem, which they do over the phone, but I was in the middle of uploading the fixed episode one to Amazon so I said I’d call back and do it. But the more I thought about it the more I didn’t care. First off, the mailbox has been full for ages and it’s literally all spam messages. Do I need to ever call voice mail when I have to go through all those? No. I haven’t ascertained whether the voice mail will actually pick up, but if that’s working then I won’t call back. If that isn’t working, then I will. Well, looks like I’ll have to call back because voice mail isn’t picking up and I need it to. Oh well. Marshall came by and we uploaded to Amazon, which, with our new wiring, only took about twenty minutes – much faster than before. I’m also whizzing around the Internet much faster. After the upload finished, we drove to the mail place, where I picked up a small package and hold your hats and hallelujah, a green envelope. Finally. Then we tried to figure out where to eat and were heading towards Hugo’s when Marshall came up with a great suggestion – Barone’s. I don’t think I’d been there in a year. I have no idea why, since it’s less than ten minutes from here.
We drove over there, got a nice booth, and I had a small salad and the carbonara and he had their amazing scampi and we shared garlic bread and he had a little bit of my salad so he could taste their great Eyetalian dressing. I was so full I could barely get up from the booth. He drove me back home and I lent him Sundays and Cybele, which amazingly he’s never seen. He was intrigued because it does play an important role in the new book, which he’s read. He left, I caught up on e-mails and stuff, then finally sat on my couch like so much fish and slept to the strains of The Prince and the Showgirl, which I’m looking forward to watching tonight.
After I woke up, I finally canvassed the Kritzerland show cast about which Sunday in April would/will work best. We’ll see what they have to say.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll do whatever needs doing, I have some book stuff to do, some Sami stuff to do, I’ll try not to go back to Barone’s even though that’s a temptation, I’ll have some telephonic calls and then I can watch, listen, and relax.
The weekend will be more of the same and tomorrow she of the Evil Eye comes so I’ll go have a light breakfast and do errands and whatnot.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up when I’m up, do whatever needs doing, do some book and Sami stuff, eat, have telephonic calls, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Friday – what is currently in your CD player and your DVD/Blu and Ray player? I’ll start – CD, nothing. Blu-ray, The Prince and the Showgirl. Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have all new wiring for Spectrum and phone and that it’s green all the way. I’m wired, baby.