danieldwilliam | (no subject) (Reply)

For my birthday My Lovely Wife has bought me a Freeview Box with a Digital Hard Drive. It is the successor to one we had a few years ago which died (taking with it a series of Damages and a series and half of Mad Men. It’s a joint present really. Which is fine.

I hope that the machine will enable us to watch better television. MLW can watch things she likes when I’m out. I can watch things I like when she is out. We can watch things we both like when we are both in. I also hope it will help us watch less television but allowing the TV to stay switched off except when we want to watch something specific. I usually find that the question we ask when the programme we are watching is “what shall we watch next?” not “What shall we do now?” So I hope that having our television watching made more conscious and more concentrated will encourage us to spend more time not watching the television.

I was also given, by the Captain, two Lindsay Davies books. A Falco book I haven’t read yet, Alexandria and a book about the English Civil War, Rebels and Traitors. Very much looking forward to them.

From Bluebird I received two Laural and Hardy films. A compilation of early shorts and one of the last and most political films they made. Bookending ahoy.

WidgetFox sent me a Diana Wynn Jones book. I’m looking forward to that very much as she tends to pick things for me that I would like. It’s almost as if she pays attention to what I say, has an encyclopedic knowledge of genre fiction and delights in expanding my horizons. I should totally let her pick my wardrobe or something.

My aunt brought me back a bottle of rhubard wine from Orkney. It’s a lovely colour and if it tastes as nice as it looks will be delicious. Not sure if it’s to be drunk at room tempreture or slightly chilled.

I may have to have a drinking party. I have lots of experimental bottles of things which need to be sampled. If they are awful, what better way to get rid of them than with friends. If they are delicious discoveries what better way to discover them than with friends.

EDITED: to add two late breaking gifts.

From N, a friend of, mainly MLW, who stays with us in August when she is up singing in the Festival, the now traditional manly shaving and grooming product. This time some very nice smelling Sandalwood shaving crème.

From my sister, a lovely card, with a picture of me taken at her wedding on the front and a mango splitter. Yes, that’s right, a splitter for mangos. To be fair, MLW and I eat more mangos than the average family I’m sure and they are right tricky to peel. Apparantly it’s one of three small kitchen gifts. I look forward to the second and third installment. Perhaps there is some grand plan. Perhaps it is an elaborate joke. In any event I have a mango splitter now. The Captain has decided it is his and has been putting his dried mango into it.

I'm very grateful to everyone who sent a gift.