Sunday 15 January 2023

David Frankham


            On Saturday morning I worked out the chords for the eighth verse of "J'ai pas d'regret" (I've No Regrets) by Boris Vian. There are only two verses to go. 
            I finished memorizing "OK pour plus jamais" (Okay for No More Always) by Serge Gainsbourg and looked for the chords. No one had posted them and so I worked them out for about half of the intro.
            I weighed 83.7 kilos before breakfast, which is the lightest I've been in the morning in at least two weeks. 
            In the late morning I went to No Frills where I bought five bags of cherries, two packs of strawberries, spoon size shredded wheat, kettle chips, skyr, and something that cost $11 but I couldn't remember what it was, nor did I see anything new in my place that would explain it. The receipt just said PCSP Delict ext. Now I remember that it was a bottle of olive oil. 
            As I was putting my bike away I was playing some music. My upstairs neighbour Sean stopped to chat and asked what was playing. I told him Harry Chapin but he'd never heard of him. I sang him a bit of "Taxi" and he told me I had a not bad singing voice. He thought Chapin sounded like the singer for Air Supply but I couldn't hear the similarity. He said that he finds singers like that just stay at a certain plateau on all their songs but he prefers singers with more colour. 
            A few minutes later I was unpacking my groceries when Sean knocked on my door and asked if I had time to chat. I invited him in, pulled up a chair for him in the kitchen and he was here for about half an hour. He was nervous because he's studying for his Canadian Citizenship Test and he would be writing it tomorrow. He said there are sixty answers to memorize, they ask twenty questions and one has to get fifteen right to pass. I said it's funny because most people that are born here probably wouldn't be able to pass the test. I tried a practice one and got six wrong. But if I'd even cursively studied a few of the dates beforehand I would have passed. The dates are stupid questions to ask though. Who cares whether Port Royal was settled in 1602 or 1604? 
            I weighed 84.4 kilos before lunch. I had saltines with five-year-old cheddar and a glass of half lemonade and half cranberry juice. 
            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and back. 
            I weighed 83.7 kilos at 17:30. 
            I was caught up on my journal at 19:06. 
            I read some more of Jane Eyre and got to the halfway point. I've got two days to read the rest, plus the secondary reading of an essay, so I have my work cut out for me. 
            Mr. Rochester has been called away while his guests are still enjoying his hospitality. A Romani fortune teller arrives and the guests decide to amuse themselves with her. But she knows intimate details about their lives and makes some of them uncomfortable. Then she calls for Jane but not by name. She again reveals the contents of Jane's heart but then reveals herself to be Mr. Rochester in disguise. Jane thinks it was a dirty trick but accepts it. She reveals to Rochester that someone from Jamaica named Mason has come to see him. Rochester seems afraid. Later Mason is stabbed and bitten by the madwoman Poole who lives in Rochester's house. Rochester treats him and sends him away. Rochester has a tender moment in the garden with Jane. 
            I had a fried egg, sunny side up, a warmed naan, and a beer while watching the fourth season premier of The Beverly Hillbillies. This is the first season that's in colour. 
            Drysdale and Jane want to take the Clampetts yachting. No mention is made of the yacht he already bought Jed two seasons ago. Granny refuses to go because Jethro has talked her into fear of sharks. But Granny gets her head stuck in the bars of the stair banister and promises to come if they get her out. Jed tells Drysdale to go ahead while they take care of Granny. Drysdale says to meet them at pier 21. 
            Since Drysdale is wearing a fancy sailing uniform Jethro asks Jed if he can get him one too. So he goes to the movie studio and gets him an authentic looking admiral's uniform. They drive to the docks and see a ship marked 21 and think it's what Drysdale was talking about, but it's a navy battleship. The sailors all think Jed's a real admiral and fall all over themselves to please him, including letting Jethro recklessly drive. Meanwhile Drysdale and Jane go looking for the Clampetts in a rowboat with Jane doing all the rowing. Jed thinks that the ship they were on is the one he was supposed to consider buying, but when he hears that it costs $6 million and that there are 200 men to feed every day, he tells the commanding officer it's a pass. But the lieutenant thinks that means they passed inspection and he is thrilled. 
            The lieutenant was played by David Frankham, who was born in England and served Britain in Malaya and India during WWII. He worked for the BBC as a writer, announcer, interviewer and producer from 1948 to 1955. He moved to Hollywood in 1955 his first acting job was in five episodes of Matinee Theatre. He co-starred in Master of the World, and appeared in the Star Trek episode "Is There in Truth No Beauty?" His autobiography was titled "Which One Was David?" 
            I read another twenty pages of Jane Eyre. Jane's abusive aunt Mrs. Reed is dying and has sent for her. Mrs. Reed still resents her but regrets that she was so mean. She also reveals that Jane has an uncle who asked to adopt Jane three years before but Mrs. Reed lied that Jane was dead out of revenge for Jane telling her off before having been sent away to school five years before that. 

            I looked for bedbugs and found two, one on each side of the frame of the old exit door at the head of my bed, about a meter up.

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