Monday Oct 11 2010

Hi kids and family,

Many thanks for the DVD's Stef. Great stuff, especially Kenneth Horne and Amateur Transplants. Together with the complete 'I'm sorry I havn't a clue' and 'I'm sorry I'll read that again' from Adam (all 30 years of them!) I'm set up in comedy for the rest.. er, for quite a long time. Brilliant!. I did persevere with Oscar Wilde 'Lord Arthur Saville's crime' but could not really get into it. I have read and enjoyed most of Wilde but have never read the short stories. The Canterville Ghost, well too much sugar for me. I am well into Peter Knight's  series about the King's Coroner turned detective based in 1121. He probably pinched the idea from Umberto Ecco, 'The name of the Rose'. Oh, and thanks for including the Mastersons - very funny and I am cramming it all into my iPod at this moment. I am a great fan of Paul Merton.
I have heard nothing from the hospital, so cannot make plans at the moment. They say 3 days for a kidney removal, so I want it today or tomorrow or my Art Class is at risk on Friday. I will keep you informed.
Karolien, sorry to miss your birthday, and thanks for your message.
Good weekend not doing very much. Bernadet has been busy making a digital photo-book for Opa's 84th birthday, and we can hopefully make it it available as there are photos of all the family, not just the seven sisters. Sunday, a lazy day watching the formula one race, waiting for the pit-stops so you can see people running around and changing the tyres. The rest is not very interesting. There are two men with things to lift the front and the back of the car up so that others can get the tires off and on. They do this once every race, about 18 times per year. Fabulous salary, best hotels, travel all over the world. And probably have masses of those belly-button girls falling all over them after the race, the ones who hold the parasols over the drivers with bovine smiles. Jobs of glamour and life-style and no brain required. I bet the the guys in Praxis moving boxes around imagine themselves at Monaco. Up - and down. Right, thats work over for a week or two, I'm off to the Marriot for a crate of Bollinger and a couple of Ferrari girls.  Pure jealousy. And my man Webber didn't win again, but spoiled brat Vettel did.
Adam I have sent you some text. But you would't know that of course at the Priests College where the worldly internet is forbidden temptation. By the way, did you know that priests are not allowed to change all of their underwear in the same room? That is why churches have both a Vestry and a Pantry.

Then to the golf course with Thijs, Merel and Emma. We debated, since Emma has never played and the other two only once, whether we should go on a 'real' course or stick to the mini-holes where the fairways are no more than 50 meters long and there is a flag at the end, but where the green starts is a mystery, it is all one morass. We opted for the real course, Emma indignant that she should have the chance. My father played the saxophone, but there were saxophone players in abundance. 'Can you play the violin?' they asked him? 'I don't know, I've never tried' he replied.

We set of at 5.30 pm from the first tee of the 9 hole short course. Mighty swings and great clods of earth arced through the air as the balls rolled relentlessy forward, sometimes meters at a time. Progress was a little slower than last week's Ryder Cup, but I bet we had more fun. 

Thijs shows how

 The elegant one-handed swing











Merel shows the importance of keeping your eye on the ball....

until after it has gone ...er..

Emma goes for the green

FORE!

Still waiting

 The third hole - and the night is closing in












Could someone shine a torch on the hole please

Off to the 4th tee

It must be round here somewhere

The match was abandoned as a draw after 2 hours and 3  holes. All agreed that it was a most agreeable afternoon and we shall do it again soon..

Later that same day after. Anna is off to Sweden to continue her course. She will return in two weeks to collect her driving license and the Wheely Happy Hippie Bus and return over the glaciers with it to school. 

Merel takes her to the station with her Hippy Bag full of Happy Hippy things. 

Gotta run, as it were. This stuff  should be marketed as a drain cleaner. It works much better than Mr Muscle.

Love you all

Dad

PS Now I know I am definitely not going to heaven. Our tasks this week for the Crejat Academie included 'An abstractified line drawing including recognisable human forms in the style of Henri Matisse'

That's my mentor on the left, which may get me a point or two.  I could not scan A3 so you have to imagine the gap is not there, or perhaps it is meant to be part of the experience.  It is by no means a last supper, just any old supper with sateh, beer and ciggies.

Finished two or three of these and went for a walk with Irene round the Green Lane after dinner. I must be doing alright because I could keep up with her. I managed to last all day without painkillers until the doctor phoned through that I could collect the correct 'zuur-remmers' of a dosage that matched my total quantity of functioning kidneys. Although it was a relief to take a pill, I also notice that without these things one is more awake. I got much more done today, and certainly with more enthusiasm because I didn't feel that haze that all this stuff brings.I shall try to do without it, but it will probably mean doing it all standing up!.

Thanks for the call, Lisa. Will look forward to seeing you in January.