DC

Ooh, got a birthday card today. First one, very unexpected. My parents are not really up to prowling shops to look for cards, and it will be odd if rhionnach gives me one (we tend to think that as we see each other all the time, a card is a bit superfluous), so apart from that there is only a guy I have known since university and a couple of my exes — although one of them may well not bother, as I have not been in contact with her for ages. The penny never seems to have dropped that that is because she moved and I have no idea what her new address is.

The card I got was quite good, too, none of your rubbish. Makes a change.

While I am wittering about my birthday: anyone who wants to join me for a celebratory drink (you don’t have to buy me a drink, but all offers will be gratefully quaffed) on Saturday night (what rhionnach has started calling my official birthday) is most welcome to do so. Here is the information you need:

The time: any time after 7pm

The place: Ingram Bar, Queen Street

I know, not a lot of imagination, but: it is very central, handy for bus, subway and trains (including the Edinburgh shuttle); it also has at least one good real ale on tap (usually two or three, but sometimes they run out, have to settle, things like that) and a stonking range of whisky. Food’s good, too (stops at 8pm if you are looking to eat).

We will be at the back, on the left in the raised area.

As I said, all welcome, and although my birthday is the excuse I am not expecting cards, presents, or anything else. Just sociable people. ;o)

It is odd this week, with rhionnach working a back shift. She hasn’t done that in a long time. I have cooked a tasty curry with the aim of it being available for lunch tomorrow if she wants that, or putting it aside for the weekend if she doesn’t. It smells soooo appetising, though...

I am using Windows at the moment, having just installed a copy of Win98 on one of the secondary drives. Really, this is just to use one piece of software occasionally, an old, now unsupported product which is very basic but does a couple of things really well (and really simply). It is probably as well I did it today rather than yesterday, it would be asking for trouble to install The Software of the Beast on The Day of the Beast. :o)

I keep forgetting how clunky Windows is. Next step: to put a decent OS on the uncontaminated part of the hard drive, set it up as a dual-boot drive.

While doing this I noticed a 20Gb hard disk sitting on the shelf behind me. I have no idea what is on that, I must get a cartridge and check it out. No rush, though.

Tonight I must remember Deadwood is on: totally forgot about it at the weekend. Talking of TV, I caught a couple of episodes of Commander In Chief recently. Obviously the success of The West Wing made someone think there was a market for dramas set in the White House — and, hey, why not have one where the President is a woman? It’s a pity they didn’t think, Hey, why not have one with really good scripts and some decent acting? Every so often Donald Sutherland seems to remember, or at least come close to remembering, how to act, but then he seems to think, Why bother? And I don’t blame him, given how dire all the other performances are. Having said that, the actors are merely living up to the standards of the script, which is written in fluent Cliché. It is OMG BAD! [I think I have been online too long. ;o)]

Good TV (well, on DVD): last night I watched “The Blue Carbuncle”, the Peter Cushing version. They took one or two liberties with the story, but nothing which would have had Conan Doyle turning in his grave (not that much would, he had no real care what dramatists did with his detective). I think it is a little better than the Jeremy Brett version, not least because it does not make the guilty party quite so obvious from the very start. Cushing and Stock made a good team, and Stock’s Watson was no fool. It is a pity so few episodes survive. (More so that so few of the earlier, superior, Douglas Wilmer series survive. When are those episodes going to be released on DVD?)