Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Moral indignation is jealousy with a halo. H G Wells

I've been thinking about it all day. It feels like a cerebral itch. I can't stand it. It's one of those things that will go around and around in my mind, round like a spiral in a circle, like a wheel within a wheel. Never ending or beginning, on an ever-spinning wheel. Oh, no, wait - that's the windmills of my mind, my mistake. Anyway, suffice to say it's been driving me crazy.

Who are gh and tr? Please, I have to know. I've scoured my mobile phone, and all of my address books and I can't place these initials at all - give me a clue at least!? If it was just g and t, I'd know it was the spirit of my favourite tipple.

Tonight's image is the Picture of the Day from NASA. It depicts what is technically and poetically referred to as a reflection nebula. Find out more about it at: http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_701.html

Today was a strange sort of day at the Naval Museum. Everyone's working exceptionally hard and it's been a constant learning process for me. I had no idea that so many people were involved in the creation of the exhibitions we see in museums: designers, researchers, writers, photographers, curators, conservationists - and one person in charge who has to co-ordinate the lot. Bugsy not me, that's all I can say.

Usually the days at the Museum go past in such a whizz-bang of a blur that I have no time to think about anything other than nineteenth century sailors (nice work if you can get it). Today though, my walk home felt a little melancholy. The sights that usually fill me with a strange delight - the leaves falsely lit in gold, the chill breeze - made me feel sad. I walked home the long way, detouring through Gunwharf .

I know what you're thinking, Sarah if you're depressed, I'm not sure that Gunwharf is the right place to be - and you're right.

There are few sights more soul destroying than a residential shopping mall, but I took a trip to the book shop there and found..............drumroll...................promenade of dancing girls doing the can-can............................chain of sailors doing the hornpipe..........................................a round of auld lang syne for luck.........

WHERE'S MY COW? by Terry Pratchett.

In case I haven't talked about this book enough, it's a Discworld based book and it's absolutely fabulous, featuring such wonderful lines as:

"If you lose your cow you should report this to the Watch under the Domestic & Farmyard Animals (Lost) Act of 1809. They will swing into action with keenness and speed. Your cow will be found. If it has been impersonating other animals, it may be arrested. If you are a stupid person, do not look for your cow yourself. Never try to milk a chicken. It hardly ever works."

Obviously, I started to cheer up immediately. I'd already read this book seven times before I bought it. That's how good it is. Get a copy. Now.

When I got home I did a new meditation that connected me more usefully to the sense of loss I felt on the way home. It's the first meditation I've done using this particular mudra (the position of your hands), which is supposed to open your mind and connect you to your emotions. It certainly did that, as I felt very emotional throughout, though I didn't cry because it ruins your breathing. Twenty minutes after the meditation I was leaping about the living room like a lunatic to a cheesy Euro Happy House tune.

I'm either slowly moving closer to enlightenment, or moving slowly towards a nervous breakdown. No, that is not up for a blog vote.

Today's Beautiful Things

1. Remembering Steel Magnolias: "Laughter through tears is my favourite emotion."

2. Sunset at the museum over a cold metal sea.

3. Where's my cow?

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