Slight change of plan

Posted by Tania Kindersley.

TWELVE DAYS TO GO.

I was going to write you a lovely little shaggy dog story, about me and competitive streak. What could possibly have been more fascinating?

Lucky for you, it is 5.45pm and I have run out of steam.

I was supposed to be doing Things Other Than Work this afternoon, so I could start the big edit tomorrow with clean eyes. But even the massive displacement activity of redesigning the blog could not entirely keep me from doing a bit of book. I kept away from the manuscript, and did some mild quotation wrangling instead. It’s always quite diverting to illustrate one’s thinking with pithy quotes from famous people. (The only problem comes when they make my point much more cleverly and funnily that I have. But still, good for humility.)

I have collected a lovely little clutch from Oscar Wilde, Dante, Roald Dahl, George Bernard Shaw, and the wonderful Hedy Lamarr. We featured her in Backwards because not only did she start her film career by running naked through a forest, but she also invented a technology which is partly responsible for making your Wi-Fi work today. That’s the kind of juxtaposition that tickles me. I was reminded today of all the interesting things she said, including the perennial cherry: ‘Any girl can look glamorous. All you have to do is stand still and look stupid.’

Now I am thinking I might just read a quick book on the Victorian woman before bed.

So the fingers have no energy for typing any story, shaggy dog or not. I am sorry about that. But it might be for the best.

 

Some quick pictures of the day:

The colours this morning were astounding. Here, a bright shaft of sun, coming out of a black sky:

The elegant sheep:

Moss and lichen:

Rowan tree:

The hill, from a wider angle than usual:

Dog of the Older Niece and the Man in the Hat, who is staying, having fun with her stick:

Pigeon, all gracious and moody in black and white:

And oh, the blinky eyes. THE BLINKY EYES:

Today's hill:

A faint thought is scratching in the back of my mind. Something happened today, apart from the latest portents of another banking crisis. What was it? Oh yes, the Prime Minister gave his big conference speech. He exhorted Ordinary Decent Britons to call on the famous bulldog spirit. So that is exactly what I am going to do.

But that was not quite it, either. What, what, what? Something really important, which is not being mentioned on the news.

I've got it. He came out, forgive the pun, unequivocally in favour of gay marriage. This will not make headlines, but I think it is HUGE. Big enough for naughty capital letters. A Conservative prime minister, publicly stating his support for gay marriage, not in spite of, but because of, his very conservatism. (Interestingly, this has always been Andrew Sullivan's argument, over at The Dish.) I think this is a miraculous cultural shift of the highest order, and if I weren't so tired I would do a little dance.