On Tuesday morning, since it was my
birthday I gave myself a break from memorizing “Flash Forward” by Serge
Gainsbourg.
For
song practice I did mostly only the songs that I especially enjoy singing.
At
around 8:30 I went to Freshco to look for something interesting to have for
breakfast. They had cherries but they were quite expensive and so I only got
one bag. I grabbed strawberries, Bavarian sandwich bread and five year old
cheddar. They had a new item called salami chips and I was curious enough to
get a bag. I picked up jalapeno kettle chips, Hagen Das vanilla ice cream,
lemon dish detergent and rice crackers. Folgers dark coffee was on sale for $4
less than usual. What I found for breakfast were frozen Portuguese custard and
egg tarts. For dinner I bought a pack of frozen spinach and feta rollini.
I
had three of the custard tarts with coffee for breakfast. They were sweeter
than I expected or wanted them to be but the shells were good.
Last
year I bought a negative and slide scanner from Nick Cushing but never tried to
use it until today. I was worried that there would be a steep learning curve
but it was fairly simple. It was difficult at first to figure out which way up
to put the negatives as some of the photos came out as mirror images and I had
to flip them later. Also when I tried to upload the first set of photos to my computer
I clicked on "format" instead of the usb symbol and ended up erasing
my scans, so I had to do them again.
I
scanned four frames from the early 1980s that were of my girlfriend
Whitefeather and I when were travelling up to Uxbridge on some weekends to
visit her son who was imprisoned at a horrible Catholic reform school called St
John’s Training School. One shot shows me doing the Scorpion yoga pose in the
middle of the driveway of the school. There was only one shot of Whitefeather
but I do have other pictures of her in other envelopes.
Another
set that I scanned were photos of my daughter Astrid, my ex-girlfriend Dorita
and myself at my place in 1998. Boy was this apartment a mess in those days! It
still could be considered a mess now but comparatively the difference is
drastic. It was like a hurricane and torn through.
I
had fun with the scanner and now that I know how to use it I’ll try to get all
my old negs and slides digitized. But I’ve got lots of other stuff to do as
well so it will take a long time.
For
lunch I went to get a spinach and potato roti at Ali’s. I've been buying roti
from Ali's for years and they've always been good but maybe this time the clerk
misunderstood my order. The roti had spinach and some potatoes but the rest of
it was full of all these nasty vegetables like celery and cabbage. It was
disgusting. I had it with a beer and got on with my day.
I
had some of the rollini for dinner with two beers. It wasn’t bad but the feta
could have been sharper. It tasted more like ricotta.
I
watched two episodes of The Adventures of Robin Hood.
In
the first story Prince John is coming to Nottingham and the whole shire is
required to provide food and lodging for the prince and his entourage. A
deserter from the Crusades named Lucas is transporting barrels of fine wine to
Nottingham. While his driver sits at the reins, Lucas has decided to take a nap
in the wagon. In Sherwood Forest Robin and his men confiscate the wagon and
take it back to their camp, not noticing Lucas. Lucas watches from under the
hay and sees that Lady Marian Fitzwalter is an associate of Robin Hood. When
Robin learns that his friend, the penniless Sir Richard of the Lea will be
forced to entertain four guests, he decides to take some of the wine to Richard’s
castle. Lucas continues to hide in the wagon and then slips inside Sir
Richard’s castle. After Robin leaves Lucas boldly approaches Richard to
blackmail him with the information he has acquired about his and Marian’s
relationship with outlaws and their disloyalty to Prince John. Richard agrees
to pay the 1000 crowns but has no money and so he signs a promissory note
saying that he will pay when the harvest comes in. When Lucas has the note he
says that it will serve as proof to the sheriff that Richard and Marian are
traitors and he will be rewarded beyond what he asked for in blackmail. Richard
and Lucas sword fight but Richard is not very good and Lucas escapes. When
Robin hears of this he is sure that the sheriff has not received the news right
away because he is busy outside of Nottingham making preparations for John’s
arrival. Robin goes to Nottingham and occupies the sheriff’s chair. There are
people outside waiting for an audience with the sheriff and Lucas is among
them. Friar Tuck tells Lucas he can enter and he speaks to the back of the
sheriff’s chair. Robin asks to see the note and after Lucas hands it over he
reveals himself as Robin Hood. He asks Lucas how he thinks he has avoided
capture for so long under the sheriff’s jurisdiction. Lucas does not know and
Robin explains that it’s because he and the sheriff are in league. Robin tells
Lucas to leave town but he stays and approaches the sheriff and the captain of
Prince John’s soldiers. He tells the captain that the sheriff is in league with
Robin Hood and the sheriff kills Lucas with his sword.
In the second story
there is a surgeon named Calend in Nottingham who turns out to be a runaway
serf. The law states that if he can remain free within the city walls for one
year and a day he will be a free man. One year has passed but in the final day
the soldiers are closing in on him. While Calend is treating Little John for a
serious wound Robin poses as Calend and makes several legally documented
appearances throughout the city. He visits a lawyer, Marian and several others
that keep ledgers. Finally Calend is taken to hide in plain view in the
sheriff’s audience waiting room while the sheriff is out trying to capture him.
The one year and a day passes just as the sheriff arrives to arrest Calend. He
is a free man.
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