Kitchen Work

            On Sunday morning on my Christian's Translations blog I finished editing “On n'est pas las pour se faire engueuler" (We Didn't Come Here to Be Shouted At) by Boris Vian. But there is another version of the song in which alternative words are used at the end of the third line of the second and third choruses, so I have to find English translations for those words that have the same rhyme.

            The heat was on this morning and though it was uncomfortable during song practise it actually cut down on the humidity and made it a bit easier to tune my guitar.

            Around midday I washed the southern wall of my kitchen and the casing of the radiator. A lot of big , thick chips of old paint came off but it’s cleaner now. 

            Next I have to clean the book shelf that sits on top of the radiator casing. In a week or so I should be back to cleaning the kitchen floor.

            For lunch I had a sliced turkey, cheese and cucumber sandwich.

            In the afternoon I skipped my exercises and a bike ride so I could finish writing my Food Bank Adventure and it was done and posted just in time for dinner.

            I had a fried egg and a toasted bagel with a beer while watching two episodes of the Adventures of Robin Hood.

            In the first story Sir Dunstan of Travers, a friend of Prince John, comes to Nottingham and asks for the hospitality of Marian's estate, which she cannot refuse. Marian has learned from a friend of the sheriff that Dunstan is carrying a fortune in gold to Scotland to bribe traitors there to join Prince John against King Richard. She sends word to Robin that Dunstan will be travelling by the Mill Stream Lane. Robin decides to ambush him where the lane meets the Saxon ruins. But Marian learns that night that there is no gold and its existence is merely an elaborate rumour that Dunstan spread as bait to capture Robin Hood with an elite band of ruthless mercenaries. It is too late to stop Robin from waiting for Dunstan at the ruins and so Marian dresses in Lincoln green and takes her bow to the ruins where she fires an arrow that Robin recognizes as a warning from her of a trap. But the archer is detected by Dunstan and almost captured. She is wearing a kerchief as a mask when he grabs her. Robin pins his sleeve to a tree just as she breaks away but as Marian breaks free, turns and runs the kerchief comes off in his hand. Robin and Marian escape but that night Dunstan tells Marian that he will find Robin's accomplice through her kerchief. That night Marian tries to sneak into Dunstan's bedroom to steal the kerchief from his strongbox but he catches her. Dunstan sends word that if Robin surrenders then he will not reveal Marian’s complicity to the sheriff. Robin surrenders but as he leaves for London with Dunstan he says to Marian that he would like to see the sheriff’s face when he hears that Dunstan has done what he could not accomplish. That is a hint for her to tell the sheriff what has transpired because he will consider Robin to be under his jurisdiction. The sheriff intercepts Dunstan and there is a battle between the two and between their forces. Dunstan has almost defeated the sheriff in sword battle when he turns to throw a knife at a soldier with a crossbow. The sheriff kills Dunstan and Robin escapes.

             In the second story Henry the minter is loyal to King Richard and a friend of Robin’s. The sheriff wants to depose Henry even though he is minter by royal decree. Robin comes to Henry with stolen silver to be made into money to help the overtaxed serfs. But the sheriff’s men see Henry's light on past curfew and come to search his shop. Robin fights them off and Henry has no choice but to join him in Sherwood. Days later Little John robs a wagon and brings back to camp a crate that it had been carrying. The crate contains the minting anvil that Henry had ordered from London before he was outlawed. Henry begins making coins from the silver Robin has in store and Robin begins distributing them to the poor. When the new minter of Nottingham gets hold of one of the coins he goes to the sheriff and shows him that the coins in the villages must be counterfeit because they are pure silver. The coins the new minter is making are only three-quarters silver. Both he and the sheriff have been profiting from making coins out of base metal and so the counterfeiters must be stopped so that comparisons cannot be made. The sheriff catches Friar Tuck distributing coins to the poor and so Tuck is arrested. A Tuck’s trial Henry shows up disguised as a representative of the Royal Treasury. He shows the court that their minter has been stealing and so the sheriff has to promise to re-mint all the coins in pure silver using silver from his own vault. Tuck is set free.