king ralph

It's been quite a while since I last posted - a combination of being busy with stuff that isn't interesting to write about and a general lack of inclination.

Some strange things happened last weekend, however. I was best man at a friend's wedding, which gave me a lot to think about, and I may post about that, but I was in a distant frame of mind as I was driving home along the M6 on the Sunday, which may partly explain why, for a short while, I seriously believed there had been a disaster involving most of the royal family.

I don't spend much of my time thinking about Liz and her relatives (though I'm vaguely aware of the visit by Anne to our fair city in a few weeks' time), so when a convoy of six police vans and cars suddenly sped past on the opposite carriageway with their lights flashing, I assumed that there must have been a major crash and continued on my way.

Shortly afterwards, however, my car radio was interrupted, as it's set to do, by a traffic bulletin from another station. The little display on the radio read only "traffic info", so I couldn't tell which station was responsible.

Instead of an announcer's voice, though, they started to play the national anthem. Had a member of the royal family died, I wondered. I wasn't aware that any of them were ill.

Then the anthem's second verse started. That's rarely played these days. It must be something serious. Perhaps more than one had died, then. Were the police vehicles rushing to the scene of a terrorist attack? The verse rolled on. Had the royals foolishly all gathered in one place in a rare moment of mass vulnerability?

Eventually, when the music ended, a voice bizarrely started spouting some urban street poetry. Then the 'traffic bulletin' ended and the radio returned to whatever I had been listening to. I'm certainly not disappointed that nothing serious had happened, but it was an odd few minutes followed by a definitely unsettling feeling of anticlimax.

two firsts in one day

I'd been wondering what it would be like, and now I know. I had my very first bee stings today, and they weren't as bad as I'd expected, thanks to quick reactions by Nick at the beekeeping society. Both stings were through latex gloves and the barbs were removed quickly so little venom entered my system. Shortly afterwards, it was as if it had never happened, and no sign of an extreme allergic reaction, which was a relief.

The other first today was sighting a greenfinch at one of our bird-feeders at the allotment, confirmed by a quick check on the Internet when we returned home. I'm not much of a twitcher, but I enjoy watching the various small birds that fly nervously back and forth to grab a morsel of grain.

whole lotta love

For a long time, I didn't like using my personal music player. The main reason was because the bud earphones hurt my ears, but I also resented the way the music invaded my head. It was right in there, intrusive, relentless and demanding.

Now, however, I have a pair of headphones that hook round behind my ears, and although they're uncomfortable after a while, they're much better than the others. Being able to listen for longer means that I've now found that I like the direct contact I have with the music. It's just the two of us, and although I can still hear external noises, they're distant and can't intervene.

To my surprise, it was the music of Led Zeppelin that finally clinched my new appreciation of this way of listening - albums II and IV. I'd never really listened to them properly before, and dismissed them unfairly.

Now, I've borrowed the boxed set of Zeppelin albums, and I'm working my way through them. I've not discovered anything quite as good as II or IV yet, but I'm enjoying it nevertheless.