Pleasures Of A Sedentary Existence

We've reached that time of year when you can have it sunny or you can have it warm(ish) but you can't have it both. We had a week of mild but wet and now we're having a bit of bright but cold. I don't find myself spending much time outside- which I regret.

We settle in the TV room for an hour or two every day, round about tea time. Recently we've been mostly watching old detective shows on ITV 3. I am very fond of Suchet's Poirot (and of the show's production values), not particularly enamoured of Whately's Lewis (a decent supporting actor who has been moved into the lead- and it's an over-promotion because he lacks the charisma: they should have centred the show on Laurence Fox's intense and enigmatic Hathaway) and am beginning to enjoy Geraldine McEwen's Marple. She's not the character Agatha Christie wrote but I'm not sure that matters. To be honest I find Christie's Marple rather dull (a bit of a Mary Sue perhaps) whereas McEwen's Marple is puckish and sleek. Marple's producers seem to have had a policy of employing comedians in straight roles: we've had Rob Bryden and Alexander Armstrong and Dawn French and Catherine Tate and Russ Abbott and loads more. It generally pays off because comedians understand timing and the value of underplaying- whereas straight actors don't always. The first episode we watched featured a look-at-me-playing-a-silly-old-duffer performance by Simon Callow (who I generally like) which was quite unbearably awful.

Tea bags contain plastic (who knew!) and even those that don't contain some sort of strengthening substance that won't break down on the compost heap- so we're giving them up and resorting to leaf tea. We could be drinking the leaf version of our usual blend but since we're changing our ways we thought we might as well experiment a little- and I'm currently drinking pure Darjeeling- which is dark and smoky and we're liking it so much I can't see us going back. But we're not stopping there; we've got other teas on order. As T.S. Eliot said, "Old men should be explorers".

The book I have on the go at present is Carol Bowman's Children's Past Lives.

Election Latest

The Lib Dems have been leafletting us like never before. Their most recent communication is a message from ex-Tory MP Sarah Wollaston, saying how dreadful Boris Johnson is and how the party has been taken over by its right wing- all of which is beyond dispute. Her conclusion- that we should therefore support the Lib Dems is rather more contentious.

Still, it's interesting that Wollaston's new party think it's worth making a pitch to disgruntled Tories. The polls are all predicting a Tory landslide but I do wonder... Johnson appeals to certain types of Conservative but is anathema to others.

Who is Johnson exactly? I was reminding myself yesterday of his past- and how, as a young journalist, he made his name as a reporter on the Daily Telegraph's Brussels bureau- sending home articles that were clever, amusing, tendentious and highly unreliable.

People who were around Johnson at the time testify to the following characteristics

1. All consuming ambition
2. Emotional neediness (he does so want everyone to love him- which may partially explain his sex life.)
3. An inability- or reluctance- to work with others.
4. Workaholism (never believe the reports that he's lazy; when it comes to things he cares about- for instance his career- he's perfectly capable of burning the midnight oil).
5. A shortage of temper that can be alarming.

Enough of that. I doubt that he's fit to be PM, but then who is?

Was May?
Was Cameron?
Was Brown?
Was Blair?

We had our first communication from the Labour Party this morning- and I've posted it in a window where it will be seen by the odd deliveryman (or woman) most of whom are Eastern European. It's the least I can do.