Monday 11 January 2010

Sunday 10th January 2010 - Another Fifteen Minutes

          My spies call me early to tell me I'm in the local paper.  On the way to breakfast, I stop off at the drug store to buy a copy, and, not only am I in the weekend edition (this Glasgow runs to a daily paper), I'm on the front page, in colour.  I eat breakfast behind dark glasses, so as not to excite the local ladies too much.
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          I escape unrecognised, and head back to indulge my favourite Sunday morning activity, which is soaking in a hot bath.  I used to read several sections of the Sunday Times like this, ruining the paper in the process.  Now I read some chapters of my current book.  The motel doesn't run to a bath plug, but this is no problem for a resourceful traveller like me, and a yougurt carton full of pebbles serves just as well.  As usual, I have to have a cooling shower and lie down for a while afterwards.  It's one of the things I do to make myself feel well-off.
 
          The bank tells me its now 20 degrees Farenheit, which is nice for a brisk walk, if I wrap up well and don't go too far.  The snow is gradually disappearing.  I expect it will start to thaw in a few days, and then we'll have black ice problems at night.  I'm going to stay here for anther week till things get closer to normal.
 
          Later that night, I'm chatting to someone who has clearly been there a while.  The barrmaid shows her special constable's badge, and sends him on his way.  I ask her if she's her brother's keeper and she looks at me intently, a bit surprised at the question, and says "yes, of course I am".
          The TV is showing a basketball game.  One of the teams is called the Blazers.  In Britain, that's a rather rude name for the people people in the sport who don't play.  During the frequent breaks in sporting events, the TV advertises gentlemen's products, like beer and viagra.  Tonight there is an advert for cialis, which, it seems, is a bit like viagra, except it prides itself in being soft. I wouldn't have thought the marketing people would have wanted to raise (if you'll pardon the expression) that notion in the minds of the target audience.  Anyway, I suddenly notice, in the small print (adverts for pharmaceuticals in America seem to consist almost exclusively of small print, including all the ways it might kill you) that this cialis goes under the pharmaceutical name of tadalafil.  I wonder how many of you know that the little musical riff that Windows commonly uses to announce events is called, in the files, "Tada".  It's kind-of appropriate, don't you think?
         

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