Whew! For a moment there ...

My email in-box is once again flooded an outpouring (or maybe inpouring?) of information of highly variable interest - at least to me. I'm sure the senders, spammers excluded, were enthusiastic in their desire to share various bits with those on their mailing list.

One message in particular caught my eye; the venerable and conservative State Library of New South Wales was notified of a March. Had the current trend to library militancy struck? Nah. "March at the Library" is a listing of the events for this month.

Ah well, back to the Silk Purse Project.

"Author, Author"

Apropos of nothing in particular, today's quote of the day comes from Jerome K. Jerome, whom I first read as a teenager - due only to the fact that I was told that I "wouldn't understand it". Which, incidentally, was correct. I've since re-read Three Men in a Boat twice, and I'm happy to say I do now actually "get" it.

JKJ (which you notice is incredibly close to JKR, but without the same magnitude of fiscal reward) is credited with saying "Idleness, like kisses, to be sweet must be stolen."

I'm not sure that I completely agree with this, as I find I often have to not only schedule my idleness but also make arrangements for an appropriate venue - otherwise it just doesn't happen. Any other attempted dormancy is almost instantly detected by the Fun Police and immediately terminated. To be honest, I'm not certain that the amount of work involved qualifies the "down time" as idleness in the purest sense.

Maybe I'm missing JKJ's message? "Stolen", as in taken from someone else? Would that mean I need to find someone else being idle, then give them my work so I can partake of their dormancy? Gee, I don't' think that's going to work either. Sigh.

Fine Dining and Information Accuracy

A personal recommendation for those dining in Blacktown Australia - officially the nation's largest city, population wise; you could do a lot worse than Hi-lights Revolving Restaurant.

Although only five stories high, you'll get views you couldn't hope to obtain in the finest eateries in New York, Paris, London, Fargo, etc.

Taking around an hour for one complete revolution, during an average mealtime you'll be treated to sites such as the roof of the Blacktown Council Chambers where you can marvel at the vast array of telecommunications equipment; the Westpoint shopping mall rooftop car park where with luck get to watch a real-life Grand Theft Auto in progress; the vista of Blacktown railway station, which was recently awarded the Highest Crime Location on the metropolitan CityRail network; plus distant views to a large number of arterial roadways.

We partook of a fine repast last night, for reasons that would take too long to explain here. (I do try to keep posting to less than 5,000 words.) I chose the rib-eye steak, which although was cooked to perfection, was accompanied by the world's smallest sides; 2IC had the barramundi (fish and chips); and little Miss Sophistication elected the Hamburger and Fries option. Dessert was satisfactorily lacking in nutritional merit.

While the live pianist was a nice touch, my small imbibing of beverages (of the type prohibited at most work sites) did not stop me from detecting the flaw in the musician's repertoire; in celebrating with some other diners at the venue, he played "Happy birthday to me" rather than "Happy birthday to you". It's that sort of sloppy attention to detail that could destroy an otherwise excellent dining experience.