Neighbor across the way
While I was looking up Roger Daltry’s pile, I spotted a thing calling itself the Mary Poppins House. One kilometer away as the crow flies (Google Maps has a neat measuring device which told me that).
Yup, sure enough – P.L. Travers lived there while writing Mary Poppins. It doesn’t appear to be open to the public, though.
I read and loved all the Mary Poppins books, but I never looked up Travers before. I am not surprised to learn she was odd. She was an Aussie who moved to England in her twenties. She had fleeting relationships with men, but lived for some years with a woman with whom she had an “intense” and “ambiguous” relationship.
After parting ways with this woman, at the age of 40 Travers adopted a little boy who was one of seven children. She never told him he was adopted, though, and he never knew until the age of 17, when his twin (!) appeared at her door drunk and demanded to see him.
I highly recommend the Poppins books. They are dark and strange and trippy and `not in the slightest like the movie. I can see why she hated it.
April 14, 2022 — 8:00 pm
Comments: 5
Go fish
I did not know that Roger Daltry lives in East Sussex. He has a bigass house in Burwash, a place we’ve visited many times on account of Bateman’s, Kipling’s old house, is there. Daltry’s lived there since the early Seventies.
He built four ponds (you can see them in the photo there), stocked them with trout and lets anglers come play.
Sounds fab: “Located near Witherenden Hill, the house is built of brick with stone dressing and has twenty rooms and seven bedrooms. It features a tile roof, clustered chimneys, stone fireplaces, stained glass windows, oak panelling and a gallery seventy feet in length.”
I’m not a huge fan, but I like what he’s done to the place. He’s managed to buy up land to make it a huge estate (420 acres, which is pretty huge for the overcrowded South of England) which he’s covered in cows and scenic attractions. And he’s not even hogging it all to himself.
If’n you’ve ever wanted to go fishing at Roger Daltry’s place…and, why not, I guess…the map is here.
April 13, 2022 — 5:46 pm
Comments: 5
Hey kitty! Kitty! Hey! Hey kitty!
Yes, it’s a kitty. My cellphone camera, she is not so good.
I tried to get this handsome black cat’s attention for five minutes on the way to work today and he just stared at me like I’m koo-koo bananaspants. He was neck deep in the long grass and staring out on the morning like he owned it.
It has been said (on Twitter, I feel sure) that people who like cats react to the sight of a cat as though cats were mythical creatures that the cat person has never seen in the flesh before.
April 12, 2022 — 7:20 pm
Comments: 4
I am a big giant baby
Between work and my art club, I was in town for nine hours today. I attended two meetings and I had to take minutes at both. I’m shattered. This is stupid.
Really, how did I work twelve- and fourteen- hour days year after year? I’m a shell of my former Stakhanovite self.
The picture? When I’m going to fob you off with a nothingburger post, I often comb through my old images for an old image to go with. The context for this one is our dishwasher broke down. Pic tickled me for some reason.
April 11, 2022 — 7:01 pm
Comments: 11
More Real Estate with Auntie
Eh. I kind of don’t like this one. The Deer Tower in West Sussex.
It’s an 18th Century (feh! Modern architecture) faux castle that once belonged to Judy Garland. It’s not that big – just three bedrooms – but I reckon it gets its £6.25 million price tag from the 120 acre estate overlooking the South Downs. That would be nice to have!
That spacious master bedroom gives me the willies. I think I’d feel really vulnerable sleeping with all that open space around me. I’d rather sleep in a closet.
April 6, 2022 — 6:53 pm
Comments: 6
Space clerk!
Omigosh, omigosh! Remember that game I was playing before I bought the VR headset? The one I liked? The one that boils down to an inventory management game? I did not realize – they released a free patch to make it compatible with VR. I’m managing my spaceship inventory with my own hands, y’all!
I got talking to a young family on vacation in town today. Parents and three little kids. Mom was holding the lead of a dog – I think it might have been a Labrador. I am not good with dogs. Big handsome beast.
Anyway, the kids were crawling all over him and he was lapping up the attention. I looked at the dog and said, “well, hello” and he went nuts – snapping and lunging.
The woman apologized and said, “you’ll have to excuse him – he was a lockdown puppy.”
She said he’s fine if you ignore him, but if you speak to him or make eye contact, or speak to her, he goes nuts. He has no idea how to sort out people who are a threat from people who are not. They have hope he will gentle down eventually, but this was the first time he was out and about around strangers and he was utterly lost and bewildered.
Now think what we’ve done to children.
April 4, 2022 — 5:31 pm
Comments: 8
There’s someone’s relaxing afternoon ruined
Spotted in the parking lot at Aldi. We’re back to going in person every couple of weeks now and I would be embarrassed to admit how much of a bright spot that is in our lives.
I have found a fishing game for VR. A friendly redneck with a down home accent sells me gear and sends me on fishing missions. It’s fun and all, but I had to quit after a while last night. I kid you not, my arms got tired.
There’s a weird, not-ready-for-prime-time quality to most of the VR applications I’ve used so far. A lack of polish. Not bringing the A Team.
I think that’s a sign it’s still a young technology. So many products rely on, “gosh, it looks so real!” that not enough has been put into making it look good. Or be fun to play.
To be fair, though, I’m mostly consuming free content right now. Having splashed out for the rig, I’m not comfy splashing out on a bunch of AAA games yet. Some of them are very pricey!
Wait until Skyrim VR hits the Steam Spring Sale.
March 29, 2022 — 7:38 pm
Comments: 14
Another day in ‘ronaville
Bone idle. That’s me.
I really don’t feel awful, but I’m snuffly and gross. I wouldn’t appreciate me snotting all over the place, if I wasn’t me.
So I stayed home today. And I’ll stay home tomorrow, too.
I’m good at this.
March 24, 2022 — 8:12 pm
Comments: 4
Exotic sands
Everything in Sussex is coated in a fine red dust at the moment. You only really notice it on the cars and window glass. This happens every few years.
What is it? Sand from the Sahara Desert! It gets into the upper atmosphere and then blows over on a storm (Celia in this case).
It also turned the sky a weird color.
My dudes, I have discovered something that has nothing to do with the sands of faraway North Africa. I don’t drink and play computer games. After only a few sips, my fine motor control goes to shit and it stops being fun. But I thought I’d try my new toy after a couple of G&Ts.
I have come to realize that VR isn’t fine motor control. It’s gross motor control. In Angry Birds, you hold a slingshot you can feel in your left hand and pull back the bands with your right hand. You can even stand up or lean over to get a different view. I was *awesome* at it after a few.
I don’t mean I was noticeably better. I mean I was hilariously, ridiculously good. I mean I was an Angry Birds Olympian. The more alcohol reached my system, the better I got.
I went back and easily three-starred all the levels I’d missed. Except one. It was well past my bedtime by then and I was in danger of over-slosh on a work night.
Guess what I’m doing tonight. Good weekend, all!
March 18, 2022 — 6:49 pm
Comments: 6
Please enjoy this inelegantly named moon
Worm moon. Also known as the Crow Moon, Crust Moon, Sap Moon, Sugar Moon or Lenten Moon. But the article says Worm Moon is the most popular in Britain.
Most people assume it’s due to earthworms in Spring, but the article says some bullshit about native Americans. The Brits love them some red Indians. They also still use the expression “red Indians” which makes me wince a little. I feel sure that would get you screamed at by a bluehair in the States.
It’s technically not full until tomorrow night, but more visible here tonight.
I can attest. I came in and looked up the moon because I went out to put the chickens away, and there it was in all its wormy glory.
March 17, 2022 — 6:29 pm
Comments: 13