2006-05-12 14:13

Smörgåspost

§1. Prinsessfrockwatch

It is Noo Yoik Party Prinsess Madeleine otherwise of Zweden:

Prinsessan Madeleine intog New York i natt.
I ljusrosa klänning gled hon in på galamiddagen inför Volvo Ocean Race.

A light pink frock, yes.

§2. Cricket!

It may be the earliest ever start for a Test in Eng-ger-lnd, but the pitch seems to be in reasonable shape: the 'LndandWales are crusing at 457/4 as we type, with KP set fair and slogging hard and Collingwood nurdling invisibly in support.

§3. Unseasonal ungoodwill, Twinkletree-flavoured

Twinkletree, Twinkletree, watch where you drop
You're hurting the touristes, and that's got to stop!
Twinkletree, Twinkletree, mind where you fall
'Cos touristes have lawyers who'll ruin us all!

(Traditional Czech Czildren's Rhyme)

It is sound advice:

A BRITISH tourist injured by a falling Christmas tree while visiting Prague is to receive compensation from the Czech capital, a court ruled yesterday.

Judge Jaromir Jirsa ordered the city of Prague and an agency organising a traditional Christmas market on the Old Town Square in December 2003 to pay £60,500 to Malcolm Tuffin, 56, who suffered serious injuries when the tree fell on him.

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2006-05-11 15:48

What we'd be reading if our spicy brain worked

It is Ian Hacking on autisme in the LRB. (The current one if Borders is to be believed.)

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2006-05-11 13:05

Flowers and treeses, spreading sneezes

It is the beechpollencloud, as seen from Espace:

Här är chockbilden för alla pollenallergiker.
Från rymden kan man se gigantiska, gula pollenmoln breda ut sig över norra Europa.
- Vi kan förvänta oss höga halter av pollen ett bra tag till, säger Kerstin Alm Kübler på Naturhistoriska riksmuseet.

Here are the shockpictures for all hayfeverishes.
From space you can see enormous golden pollenclouds spread out over northern Europe.
"We can expect high levels of pollen for a good while yet", says Kerstin Alm Kübler at the Natural History Nationalmuseum.

Our zweetie is suffering from this one; we - who are prone to the sniffles - are currently not, but we do of course have the jingle-jangles. (It's a pile of fun in the distributed Imperial household, for sure.)

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2006-05-09 13:06

Why I am still so very quiet

We're back! We have shingles! It is grown-up chickenpox! We cannot especially recommend it as an accessory for a busy weekend break in Abroad! We cannot even especially recommend it in the comfort or otherwise of your own home!

We do, however, now have medical support for our theory that baths are intrinsically superior to showers: our doctor, who prescribed olive oil for our ears a while back, has now prescribed salt baths for our irritated skin. (We suspect she may have always wanted to practice medicine in a resource-starved Third World country, and with the state of NHS finances and the demographics of our neighbourhood she has a servicable likeness. Socialised medicine is a wonderful thing and a great leveller and we for one wouldn't have it any other way.)