27 November 2011
What on earth happened to yesterday?. I sat down in front of my laptop this morning expecting to edit yesterday’s blog and found that I had not written one. What I normally do is to prepare the blog the day before I publish it and then read it through the following morning, make any small editing amendments and then publish it. I recall now that yesterday I was having so much trouble with Dragon – for example ,in dictating this entry the cursor just shot up seven lines and started inserting my dictation into my previous entry. So after about 15 attempts I gave up and forgot to go back later in the day to have another try, that’s the sort of problem with which I have to put up. If I don’t keep an eye on the screen all the time anything might happen.
As I said very little happened yesterday, in any event, and unless something is happening or somebody’s coming here, one day is much the same as the next. Once I am showered, dressed and deposited in my study chair, I will stay there for next 14 hours, quite often not knowing which day of the week it is. (I remember when I did my law play in Budapest, – see 19July and 7 Nov .2010 entries. I had been cryogenically frozen and was thawed out in order to sit as an arbitrator between some earthlings and some aliens. When I appeared in the room, covered in frost,, in order to give verisimilitude to the performance, we contrived for me to appear .as if I had been teleported in and my first line was “where am I ,I don’t even know what day of the week it is”. Some wag in the cast had infiltrated the audience and shouted out “He never did!”)
Fortunately writing the blog and dealing with my e-mails keeps me busy until lunchtime. The only extra thing I did yesterday was to go through the Lord’s application form for tickets for the matches this forthcoming summer. (‘How’s zat’ for optimism!)
All members get preferential treatment over the public in buying tickets, for their guests. On the more popular days, such as the Saturday of any Test Match, even the members are put into a ballot, . so it is completely potluck in what tickets you get.. This year we start off in May with a Test Match against the West Indies, then there is a one-day match against Australia before the South African team arrive for their Test Match in August. Incidentally, this year, the Saturday of the Test Match against South Africa falls on my 78th.birthday and I have invited my son-in-law and my two grandsons there if I am well enough which will be grand, as I always wanted to take the boys who up to I t now. Previously, I didn’t think were old enough to sit there for 8 hours, but their dad tells me they are keen, so we will see .I just hope that I am successful in the ballot for that particular day.
Last year I invited 14 guests, for various matches over the season and, like this year, had to make the decision in January, about what tickets I needed I really did not have any idea whether I would be strong enough to go to Lord’s, so I sent everyone their own tickets to meet me in the ground or, if I wasn’t there, enjoying my friends company. Well, I’m still here, one year later, faced with the same dilemma. Undoubtedly weaker than I was this time last year. However, I’m not going to stress myself out about it again and will only invite two or three of my best pals. Yesterday, I checked with my oldest friend, 93-year-old Geoffrey Hanscombe, to see if he thinks he will be up to it. ‘By Jove’, he said, ‘absolutely’ in a good strong voice, so I suspect he will be fine. Apart from the momentous decision on who to take nothing much of note happened today so this is a welcome short entry for the reader.