Some things...So I am updating this more than I thought that I would. It is very handy having free internet in the room, and very useful that everywhere is on the internet, so I have it all fired up anyway. It's been a horridly hot day today; humidity has been at 84% and it's been trying to rain. A bit like London at Wimbledon time then! Apparently, it's going to be sunnier tomorrow, so we'll do more of the touristy things then, I think.
But for the moment, and whilst J has a doze (I am not sleeping again, it is very boring), some random thoughts...
On the plane I listened to a mediation thingy (I say thingy, cos I don't really know what it was; perhaps a demonstration?). I must admit, I was expecting it to be a load of old arse, but it was actually quite good. It recommended seeing yourself in a hall with a floor made of marble (why marble though? It slightly worried me that it was so specific), and with the walls made of stone, and with a load of wooden doors in them. Above one of the doors was my name (how did they know I would be there?), and through the door was my private place. I must admit to seeing the Hall as being a bit like Hogwarts (as to which; will I be able to re-read all the books before the next film?). But I was quite comfortable with the idea of the private place and deep breathing. And it did help a little today to calm me down when we managed to completely stuff up being on the Subway, and getting on Express traings instead of local ones. The trains are air conditioned (which is nice). The actual stations, not so much. So I was getting all hot and bothered. So hurrah for the little-bit-wanky-but-actually-OK meditation for calming me down.
Over breakfast (this is in sort of the wrong order, I now notice) the telly was on, and there was some evangelist spouting something (the sound was not up very high, but it was God stuff). In one of the hiatuses (hiati?) in the room, I heard him saying that the Bible says that if you ask God for something he will give it to you. Well, that's just not true, is it? Leaving aside the existence of God completely (and it's probably best to do so), it just isn't true that if I ask for what I want I will get it. There are a whole raft of things that I just won't get however much I want them; a father to give a present to today being just one of them. Now I've always pretty much accepted that, but it does gall for someone to bang on about believing right, and the Bible saying something that *isn't true*. It's annoying in the extreme. But rant over on that!
We went to the Strand Bookstore also today. It worries me that I know that Robert Pattinson (a) plays Edward Cullen in Twilight (a film I have not seen adapted from a book I have not read), (b) is from Barnes, and (c) was run over there last week whilst filming another film in which (d) he is rumoured to be having an affair with his co-star. Really, my head is filled with so much rubbish. I am sure that I could lose some of it. But anyway, there are 18 miles of books (who measured? Really, who did, cos it's all pretty windy, so you'd have had to do it with string, I reckon?). I got that feeling that I often get in shops with
too much in them, that I just couldn't focus on looking at anything, because there was
too much. In the end, I had to leave with only three books. And the two bags that an excessively cheeky friend asked me to get for him. But it is a wondrous shop, and I would like to go back at some point with time and money, and an empty suitcase. And possibly Inspector Gadget, or someone equally tall, as the shelves go up to the high ceilings, and were too high for me to reach some of the books.
Oh, and in a thinking about words stylee, I was thinking about the use of stuffs today. Stuffs, I think, it perfectly acceptable for a concatenation of otherwise unlinked things. Whereas stuff is better for a concatenation of otherwise linked things. I bet I use neither in that context though, and I am employing a degree of sophistry. Which is a bad thing to be doing all told.
As to which, word of the day is tutelary. I have no occasion to use it, but I quite like it nonetheless.
