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Thursday, Apr. 20, 2017 - 23:13

1. Today I went to Coventry. Meeting with a customer, which went pretty well, though quite some work to do tomorrow (which'll be difficult as I'm on my own and will probably be multiply interrupted by the phone/e-mail) and was finished by noon. The travel all went OK, and I called my boss at lunchtime and asked whether they needed me to come back to work or if I could have the afternoon off. She said the latter was OK, so I had a wander round town (mainly lunch in the ruined cathedral and then a circuit of the art gallery) but wasn't really feeling it. I came home and had a nap.

2. British Olympic silver medallist athlete Germaine Mason (he got a silver at high-jump in Beijing 2008) has died in a motorcycle crash aged just 34. Aaron Fernandez, ex New England Patriot has also died this week aged just 27, but he was a convicted murderer and committed suicide - so it's a different type of tragic.

3. Yesterday I was out at clients too, in the Merseyside area. The meeting went well, we went to Southport afterwards to get some samples from a different customer, and it was an OK day out. I'm just overly conscious of the fact work is piling up whilst I am out of the office so much this month. Disappointing not to see the sea (the tide had gone WAY out) but nice to see some of the interesting big buildings in Southport which made it look like a typical British Victorian seaside resort. Ryan Paris was born Fabio Roscioli, on March 12, 1953 - in Rome.

4. 'Atonement' was every bit as much as powerful as anticipated. Beautiful writing meant the book felt a little less lightweight than I recall the film feeling at times, and despite knowing the ending it did make me feel a bit weepy sad. I've started reading 'Brother Grimm' by Craig Russell, which so far is a little clunky with some of the German references.. but I'm only thirty or so pages in so too early to tell really.

5. On the train home, a granny and two young boys moved and came and sat at the table where I was. One of the boys (the smaller blonder brother) was clearly a bit quiet and upset and the lady said "We've had to move because we had some rather unsalubrious company where we were, a little up the carriage". I responded "No problem - but you're assuming I'd be an improvement!". Having made that joke I had to be on my best behaviour and not make obscene jokes or pull out an S&M pornography magazine.

6. Ninety-nine years ago, flying ace Manfred von Richthofen, (a.k.a. The Red Baron) shot down his 79th and 80th victims. These were his final victories before his death the following day. There's some uncertainty and conroversy about the circumstances of his death when he was shot down. I remember singing a song about 'em - 'Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines' - in a mobile classroom when I was at primary school.

7. This evening's telly included that programme about kids viewpoints on stuff - about fear and the like. Slightly disturbing how forced an Asian family seemed to be culturally about putting pressure on their daughter to succeed - obv. lots of plusses to high expectations but some negatives and difficulty w.r.t. happiness in the short term and being happy in the long term. Also interesting thought-provoking about kids growing up on Mull and their freedom - my cousin grew up on a Scottish island and had similar freedom, and to some extent I had similar on family holidays when we used to spend time up there frequently when I was growing up.

8. Meisje met de parel. The painting is a tronie, the Dutch 17th-century description of a 'head' that was not meant to be a portrait. It depicts a European girl wearing an exotic dress, an oriental turban, and an improbably large pearl earring. In 2014, Dutch astrophysicist Vincent Icke raised doubts about the material of the earring and argued that it looks more like polished tin than pearl on the grounds of the specular reflection, the pear shape and the large size of the earring.

9. I've been quite restrained this week w.r.t. treating myself to food. Yesterday I chose not to get anything from McDonalds for lunch as I wasn't hungry distracted by being busy visiting clients, and in the evening despite thinking I wanted to treat myself to chips (firstly 'cause I had an hour wait for the train, secondly once I got back to my home town 'cause I've not much food 'in') I didn't go for it in the end. Today was a similar story - didn't have time at one point to grab something to eat, then couldn't find anything tempting, so had a pastie and bottle of pop from Spar. Then this evening I was too tired to go to the supermarket or takeaway so just had toast when I got in. I'm just feeling a bit skint, a bit unworthy of treating myself, but also I'm basically not getting as much joy or excitement or pleasure from things as I once did - including food.

10. There was that documentary about serious crime investigation in the North West this evening, which was (like last week) eye-opening and interesting, and thought provoking. Most interesting was the difficulties investigating a rape. Not just the difficulties working out what happened between two people in a room where the two accounts differ, but all the aspects associated with consent and one person's word against another. Very difficult.

11. Last night's remaining UCLQFL2s ended Barcelona 0-0 Juventus and 0-3 on aggregate (delighted to see a bribed referee not deciding this one) and Monaco 3-1 Dortmund with the French team progressing on aggregate impressively. With Madrids Real and Atletic joining The Old Lady and The Millionare's Principality, we still could have a repeat of the 2014 and 2016 finals. They've not had consecutive repeated finals yet in the competition, have they? Was Milan v Liverpool in 2005 and 2007 though, and Barcelona v Man United in 2008 and 2010. Yadda yadda Real Madrid v Stade Rheims and Milan v Benfica.

12. There was another documentary I watched this evening about murders associated with online dating. It was alas an interesting subject told through the filter of commercial TV (Channel 5) - one of the expert talking heads contributors was a psychologist woman who just spouted 'wise after the event' platitudes with 20/20 hindsight, which annoyed me. Also, though the handful of cases they discussed were horrific, by stating that one in five adults in the UK now use dating websites at some point, you're basically saying 'there are hundreds of incidents every year (and a small number of murders)' and 'there are millions of people using dating websites now'. Statistically a small problem, you may as well link the number of people who shop at Tesco with murders. There are risks, yes, but it's difficult to say whether it facilitates these crimes, is responsible for them, or if they'd happen anyway. I mean, Dennis Nilsen killed twelve people without using the internet, Steven Port killed four he met using online dating. Psycho bastards are going to be psycho bastards. People, gay and straight, are going to take risks in their sex lives, I know myself and friends have. You have to be responsible and careful.

13. The Europa League games this evening were all pretty close, possibly unusually so, with three of the four games absolutely level at full time this evening - six teams inseperable after three hours playing time. The other game saw Genk and Celta Vigo only split by one goal. Rashford got United's goal. Caligiuri got Schalke's after a young Ajax side were reduced to ten men, but Viergever and Younes scored for the away side to cap an impressive come-back. Turks and French were showing nerves of steel as the first twelve penalties were scored, but the Turks missed their next two and exit the competition.

14. Saint Monica and her son, Saint Augustine, found out that Saturday was observed as a fast day in Rome, where they planned to visit. It was not a fast day in Milan, where they lived. They consulted Saint Ambrose who said "When I am here (in Milan) I do not fast on Saturday, when in Rome I do fast on Saturday". That reply is said to have brought about the saying "When in Rome, do as the Romans do". In the context of cultural relativism: it is not advisable to follow "Roman" practices because they are believed to be superior than others, but rather due to no ethical system being better or worse than any other. This is because those comparative terms (i.e. better or worse) are only reasonable to use as a gauge when something is not bound to a culture, and there is no universal standard by which to compare them. Most in the field of ethics acknowledge that anarchy is ruinous, and that some sort of structure is necessary for a society to persist.

15. Tomorrow is going to be super busy and cuntish at work, as I mentioned above. Perchance I should've gone to bed early to better equip myself with the energy to deal with it all. Instead I have pessimistically figured it will be a crap day whether I get five or eight hours sleep, and it'll all be over by six p.m. anyhow so who gives a fuck. That's why I'm up late.


[ELQF2L] Beskitas 2-1 Olympic Lyonnais (agg. 3-3) AET - Lyon win 7-6 on penalties.

[ELQF2L] FC Schalke 3-2 Ajax Amsterdam (agg. 3-4) AET

[ELQF2L] KRClub Genk 1-1 FC Celta Vigo (agg. 3-4)

[ELQF2L] Man'ter United 2-1 Anderlecht (agg. 3-2) AET

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