On Monday morning I finished reworking the
rhymes for my translation of “L'homme à la tête de chou" (The Man with the
Head of Cabbage) by Serge Gainsbourg.
I
worked on my journal.
Around
noon I cleaned the three camera tripods that I got from my upstairs neighbour,
David. The silver Davidson tripod looks even more beautiful now than it did
before.
For
lunch I had the can of mixed beans that I’d gotten from the food bank and added
olive oil, seasoned salt and garlic.
I
was going to do my exercises in the afternoon but I wanted to listen to Amos
and Andy while doing so. It took so long for Winzip to open that I just skipped
the exercises all together and got ready for my bike ride. I found my back tire
was flat so I went to the fancy bike shop next door and bought a tube. I gave
the measurements as 700 X 320 but the guy said, “Are you sure it isn’t 700 X
32?" That made more sense and I saw later when I took my bike out onto the
roof to change the tube that it was 700 X 32C and I’d thought the “C" was
a “0”. I checked my tire for where the puncture was and found a small piece of
glass that was just slightly pushing through the inside. I dug it out with my
jackknife.
I
got confused when trying to put the wheel back on, perhaps because it was
upside down rather than clamped to a stand like at Bike Pirates. I had to bring
out my spare bike so I could see where the chain went.
My
neighbour Benji was hanging around and watching me change the tire.
I
took it for a test drive and it was mostly fine but then I saw the chain was
outside of the chain guard. I didn’t want to take the wheel off again so I just
bent the metal of guard out of the way and it was okay.
The
whole process of changing my tube took the same amount of time as a ride
downtown and back.
For
dinner I had a potato, a carrot, sautéed mushrooms and the last of my pork ribs
while watching two episodes of The Adventures of Robin Hood.
The
first story was episode eight of the fourth season and the final appearance of
Alan Wheatley as the Sheriff of Nottingham. Sir Geoffrey Gilbert returns with
his squire Roger from the Holy Land. He is showing Roger his property when they
are confronted by the sheriff’s men and told they are trespassing on the
sheriff's property. A fight ensues but Geoffrey and Roger are outnumbered and
knocked unconscious. Robin and his men find and help them recover. Geoffrey
says that this is his property but it has changed. The boundary of his property
is a prominent stream but the stream is gone. Robin finds that the sheriff has
had a dam built to change the boundary in his favour. Geoffrey challenges the
sheriff’s claim and wants to take him to court. This would be very expensive
and so when Friar Tuck points out that the next day is a “Love Day" when
he can preside as judge, they agree. A Love Day in medieval times was a special
day set aside when disputes could be settled outside of official courts as long
as the person serving as judge was educated. The proceeding are held on the
disputed property with the body of the court in the bed of what used to be the
stream. When court begins Robin and his men begin to tear apart the sheriff’s
dam. The sheriff sends his men out to look around while court is in session.
The men discover Robin and his band disassembling the dam. There is a battle
but the sheriff’s men are defeated and forced to labour at breaking up the dam.
When Tuck is ready to give his ruling he throws his arms in the air. That is
the signal for an arrow to be shot upstream to where another archer will shoot
another and so on until Robin has the message to release the water. Tuck
declares that the boundary is clearly the stream and so the sheriff thinks he
has won but suddenly he is swept over by the torrent returning to its natural
place and Sir Geoffrey has his property back.
In
the second story a poor serf named Will Stukley is arrested for having no money
to pay his taxes and the sheriff decides to make an example of Stukley by
sentencing him to being hanged at sundown. When Robin learns of this he
disguises himself as a meat merchant and gives women his meat for the price of
a kiss. He causes a riot in the Nottingham market by undercutting the other
merchants but this is his intention because he wants an audience with the
sheriff. When the sheriff learns that this is no ordinary merchant but that he
has a large herd of cattle and sheep he offers to make a deal with him to buy
one hundred head for twenty pounds. This is an unlikely meeting because Robin's
face is not disguised and we know that the sheriff has met him on more than one
occasion. Nonetheless the sheriff rides out to the countryside with the
merchant and of course while riding through Sherwood Forest the sheriff is
captured. The sheriff is told that whatever happens to Will Stukley will happen
to him and so he writes a letter to instruct his guards to exchange Stukley for
him outside the city walls. But some of the sheriff’s men are hiding on the
walls waiting for the sheriff to be safe so they can fire their crossbows. At
that moment however Friar Tuck leads a funeral procession out of the gate and
into the line of fire, thus shielding Robin and his men.
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