Mary went into the kitchen walking very slowly because she was wondering what to have for supper. Now that she was alone she had so much more choice but appetite had not returned after her husband had gone on holiday with his mistress Annie who live next door.
Well I suppose we all need our freedom at times but to do it so blatantly was wrong. Still the fact that he’s already had an affair with this woman next door made it less surprising.
The problem was that he normally cooked the supper so Mary was not used to thinking about the menu. When she was a student she bought a
steak pie in a tin but she didn’t know whether you could buy things like that anymore and anyway Marks and Spencers and it’s chilled food was usually a lot more tempting than tins of meat pies. But she had not planned ahead. She had not remembered to go shopping. she remembered that cats had some very nice food which look like beef pieces in jelly.
Later Mary and Emile were sitting at the table eating beef pie made with frozen puff pastry.
It’s very good Mary cried. Do you like it Emile?
Yes I’m quite converted to pies I’d like a sardine tomorrow or how about making some bread dough and we could have a sardine and mushroom pizza.
So Mary said to him you know I don’t eat fish.
Well don’t worry I will eat the entire pizza for myself,the cat told her. I wonder if pizza express do them? You could have a vegetarian pizza mother.
Yes alright then we can have that tomorrow with one provision that you eat yours outside on the patio
Alright I agree I know that you want to spend some time alone because you are very angry with Stan and Annie.
But we all know exactly well that Stan died some years ago. Is Mary losing her marbles ?
Then the phone rang. Hello it’s Annie they heard.
I don’t like Blackpool much especially my being alone. So I’m going to come back tomorrow and on the way from the station I will call into Marks and Spencer’s food shop. I’ll buy some lovely food and bring it around tomorrow evening so I can tell you about my adventures in the Blackpool Illuminations.
Well am I going mad, thought Mary.
Never mind no one will notice because I was already very peculiar but I’ll be careful not to speak to anyone who doesn’t already know me. Or I will take a vow of silence and say I am a nun. I’m going to build a hermitage in the garden.
Can I be a nun as well said Emile?
Well at the moment a man cannot be a nun but if the rules change I will let you know Emile.
Ways of thinking about literature made the writer’s muse smile She didn’t like nuns and dog’s breakfasts Her teacher at school became confusingly unchangeable. She wasn’t sharing so we heard bells toll, What to read and what to shirk she dismayed us in her uncertainty; books matter; even that we revolved slowly in some planetary action for human salutations This remade powerfully— the way to live; to live improperly was to read art works with the eye of truth and they affected me, and ironised other ways of seeing the ambitions of over-arching theory and hence our being. I was educated to love with all my heart
Short-eared Durham owl meditating over the dale’s edge, shadows the fields and folds in elegant diurnal flight. On windside,careful sight, may swoop to prey and away Your yellow broad-eyed look, at once both sharp and distant, holds me. Oh,silence, oh ,wind on green, Oh. earth, sky. Immense your held vision; Widening, centred, pied geometer of flight, sketch your height and descent. Trees bunched by drystone wall call heart home.
Through the barbed wire fence, I saw a stream
Water washing down to river wide
A field of daisies and wild grasses green
Inside my pulsing heart, the blood did plead
That history and myth can take a ride
Through the barbed wire fence, I saw a stream
So lack of hope conspires to kill our dreams
And memories that lie can be no guide
To fields of daisies and wild grasses green
The silver birches light with sun’s soft beams
In their way, they are discreet disguise
Through the barbed wire fence, I saw a stream
About the cruelty of human deeds
There is a library, shattered and demeaned
By fields of daisies and wild grasses green
Few can bear to enter and to read
What the minds of sufferers could mean
Through the barbed wire fence, they saw a stream
As Icarus was falling unperceived
Farmers tilled their meadows blithe, deceived
Through the barbed wire fence, we saw a stream
A field of daisies and wild grasses screamed
Poetry can never be too concrete but it can be too abstract
Discuss
Can you have an abstract meal in any meaningful sense?
Please write 5,000 words now.
If mathematics is a game what are the rules. Why or why not is this related to Wittgenstein’s ladder
You can write on both sides of the paper at once if you like on otherwise just write on one side but make sure it’s the right side or you will fail immediately with no appeal. We are not talking about sex here but what are we talking about?
Why are the older colleges in Oxford more beautiful than the newer ones?
What did Plato think about beauty?
That’s all one question so take plenty of paper. No you do not need to go to the toilet before you start. We have got some paper here free.
We can’t even give it away now. Wanting a heated toilet seat? Just set our paper on the fire and it will do the trick.
Posted on November 11, 2017 The summer heat made cobblestones like stoves The Coronation happened, I know now We played with melted tar, industrial bairns.
My mother’s hands were black and much beloved The coal and coke had tattooed her, we sa The summer heat made cobbles hot as stoves.
In the road, we played our ancient games The older children passed the knowledge down We played with melted tar, industrial wains.
The bully boys were cruel , did not heed love A little boy had tried to be a clown In summer heat, they beat him on the stones.
We were silent as they flaunted power again; But in our hearts, we knew we’d let him down We threw warn melted tar, industrial wains
And in our phantasy, he was alone. No-one knew who threw the vicious stone The summer heat made cobbles feel like flames We played with melted tar, Christ died again
s to make preparations before you begin something new or to learn something or to create something.
There is another problem that we humans have is that we get nervous about beginning a task especially if we believe it’s difficult so we can spend a long time preparing so that it becomes almost impossible to start
This happened to me my first art class where the teacher asked us to take something to draw
I believe we were using charcoal so I sat there clutching my wooden decoy duck in my left hand and the charcoal in my right hand and I watched as everybody in the room except me began to draw
This went on for half an hour and then I thought I’ve got to do something even if it’s terrible.
At the time I didn’t think it was very good but since then I have seen it in a different light I think it was very good
But the most important thing was I did not leave the room and go away never to return. Of course I had paid in advance so that was a factor, but that was not the main reason
The main reason was that if I gave up at that point I would never ever try to draw anything again.
And there are other situations in life where withdrawing is not a good idea
And I think the most horrible kind is when someone is going to get married and they suddenly run down the aisle of the church before they made their promises.
Well they will certainly never have a church wedding again
That’s not too bad in our society because you can have a civil partnership or if you can live together without being married.
So if you are in that position do not run out of the church unless you are sure that you are making the right decision
Don’t run out just because you are feeling tense and nervous as many people do in churches or theaters or places where it’s difficult to leave because therefore the people whose eyes to look very threatening to person of edge of panic
It’s an illusion because people are not hostile to you when they’re sitting behind you in church or sitting in front of you in the theater
The truth is more painful that most people don’t notice you and you can get up and do a handstand in the middle of the aisle and lots of people wouldn’t notice or if they did they wouldn’t be interested. We are not as important to everybody elsewe sometimes feel especially when it’s a negative feeling.
I calculated that I was in the top 0.1 % of I Q in the USA
But I don’t understand what 0.1% is in ordinary language. Can someone explain it to me ?
I can remember reading the information on the cornflakes box when I was only 18 months old. I have never read a book since then.
My own IQ is very low it is one standard deviation below the norm that means I’m in the lowest 25% of the population and yet I have been to university and got a degree
This proves it is not of any use to work out what your IQ is as it says in the Bible
Thank you for telling me certain free services from my local pharmacy.
If you think I need free contraception am I allowed to tell you that I would like to have a child now even if it’s a virgin birth. But do you think it’s safe at my age?
I am still young enough to get the free RSV vaccine.
I understand that you want to keep elderly people out of hospital in the winter so can I catch a disease in the summer and spend some time in the hospital in July?
As long as they have air conditioning I don’t mind. But please don’t give me steroids.
I see there are about 10 services I can get from the pharmacy but the main problem I have is that I’m not mobile.
Do you think the pharmacist will come to my house or have the receptionist who wrote to me made a mistake and looked up the wrong person on your computer?
I must repeat this if you really do believe that I can get pregnant now please inform me as soon as possible then I can try to find someone to oblige or failing that maybe you could ask God to send the Angel Gabriel round to my house.
God knows that I am disabled and indeed deformed in certain ways but Angels see the beauty in everybody. I do have very beautiful eyes despite everything.
Emile woke Mary up at 7am.It was a Sunday in late October, grey and damp though the sun was still not too low in the sky Go away, she told him.The clock has changed.It’s not 8 am yet.I have to wash my hair as well.Get the Observer out of the basket for me,please. I can’t read. the dear animal replied.And why don’t you rebel and stick to Summer Time? I know Stan wanted to send you to Eton but we couldn’t afford it.Yet you understand days and calenders, Mary joked sorrowfully She got up and found her fleece dressing gown; it was conker brown covered in coloured spots.She went downstairs and gave Emile a Whitby kipper.Then she made some tea and took it upstairs so she could drink it while she came round from her dreams Suddenly Annie ran into her bedroom wearing a long black vinyl coat and red knee-high boots You never locked the back door, she howled like a lost leopard which has had no food for weeks I don’t suppose anyone wants my old TV as it is only 19 inches.And my Chromebook is not something worth re-selling.I do have a new coat. How about Ray Monk’s life of Wittgenstein, Annie asked her defiantly, her apricot lips pouting childishly as the Riemann of Paris lipstick glittered uncannily like an imaginary number in a dream of Godel. The people who might enjoy reading it are by virtue of that , not the sort to steal or buy it on the black market. That is very racist, Annie told her.You should say:the beige market! Then nobody would know what I meant, Mary said lovingly Anyway, do you want to come to Marks with me? They have some beautiful coats in I’d like a pink wool coat, said Mary thoughtfully Quite right ,said Annie.Bring back feminine colours Actually, gay men might like pink coats, she continued.But if they go on the bus they might get dirty.Come to think of it, so will women’s coats They will have to buy pink puffa jackets and we can wash them at 30 deg.Mary whispered Using a special detergent, Annie asked? I have never seen a detergent for washing gay men.I don’t think they will fit into the washing machine.On the other hand, you are small so you will fit in Shall I get undressed first, Annie asked furtively. Yes, I’ll try to put you on a short wash for 15 minutes but it is your choice.Maybe a bath would be safer? No problem, said Annie intellectually.Are you having one with me? You’d better be careful, Mary ad-libbed.It might be sexual harassment. Well, I am not gay , said Annie. You never know till you try, Mary giggled ,like a child behind the school canteen Why, we might become gender fluid and then who knows? And so say all of us Miaow
I left a pan of curry on the stove Hot as ash combined with burning coal Yet when I went back in a cat stood there Eating this strong curry with no care.
It must have had thick skin inside its mouth Before I looked ,it ran out of the house To think it gobbled up our supper so Leaving me with nothing but a glow
So then I made a chilli beef and beans My heart ached as I listened to puss scream Can cats learn that pans are out of bounds? I’d hate to hear again its anguished sounds
Be sure to close the kitchen door or else You too will suffer torment from cats’ yells
I am sorry that I read stories that are deliberately trying to make people anxious.
For example there’s a lot of rumours and even published articles claiming that the government are going to means test state pensions
State pensions are taxed in the usual way if the state pension plus your job related pension or any other pension rise above the personal allowance which is round about 12,000 pound per annum
The state pension will never be taken away from anyone ( unless they move out of Britain)
If if the state pension rises above the personal allowance then the excess will be taxed in the normal manner
To my mind that’s rather low if that’s all you’re living on
But these newspapers and websites publishing the frightening stories make me very angry because they pretend to be helping people by giving them useful information but in fact it’s all lies or mostly it is
The headline is frightening and then the article when you read it is actually saying the opposite of what they are suggesting to you but how many people will read all of those?
So much misinformation around really it’s not just Donald Trump and his fellows
Because they want to affect our emotions they want to cause distress and that may possibly in some cases lead to riots or troubles in society.
And that can lead to complete tragedy
A 61-year-old man was put in prison after being involved in the riots in and believe Rotherham and very sadly he has committed suicide after a few months.
And I blame some of the media for these sort of things because a lot of people don’t understand what’s going on and they don’t know what asylum seekers are as opposed to illegal immigrants and this should not be happening.
I suppose I’m over optimistic because people always like to gossip and create rumours but it’s dangerous now because of the spread of the internet and the devices we have
I apologise for the American spelling of some of these words when I use the dictation and maybe I’ll be able to change it if I do a bit of work
It’s already difficult in this country with rising prices still going on etc and why let your blood pressure be raised by fear. Well a lot of people are not literate or numeric enough to be able to understand what’s going on and they rely on some kind of media but now we’re told the BBC is very left wing so that poly deters some people
Let’s face it some people enjoy being frightened and creating trouble and frightening other people and I suppose it’s always been so and it’s always will be unless we try to stop it.
