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Friday, June 24, 2005
London [4]
After the big birthday on Monday, it was the big gymnastics trip for me to Hemel Hempstead. Alice was in good form. You shd see the muscles. If I had abs like that...!
It was of course stinking [literally] hot, especially up in the gallery at the gym. I took video of some practice moves and of all her routines, looking strong and accurate. She doesn';t expect to do better than 6th in the British Championships [July 9th].
Sophie & Jonathan motored up for dinner at Alberto's in Hemel -- noisy, but the food was good.
Alice is looking after the house while Sally & Leman are away, struggling to know how [inexperienced] to water the garden properly. The roses are doing well, so she must be doing something right, but then so are the nettles.
I got back to the hopelessly sweltering flat in London late. I was not much use for anything yesterday except watching on TV Henman lose, & young Andrew Murray win, at Wimbledon. Thunder forecast for today.
Remembering Robert Creeley's discourse upon teeth in 'Presences', I hit on this in James Thurber [Lanterns & Lances] p117:
"'Take teeth, then,' I told her. 'Last year in London, somebody asked me why Americans thought teeth were so funny. I explained that it is not teeth, but the absence of teeth, that we regard as funny, and also, the absence of hair.'...If the falling apart of the human body is funny, then death should be the biggest laugh of all. I think I saw this concept forming when the edentulous mouth was first deemed to be uproarious."
It was of course stinking [literally] hot, especially up in the gallery at the gym. I took video of some practice moves and of all her routines, looking strong and accurate. She doesn';t expect to do better than 6th in the British Championships [July 9th].
Sophie & Jonathan motored up for dinner at Alberto's in Hemel -- noisy, but the food was good.
Alice is looking after the house while Sally & Leman are away, struggling to know how [inexperienced] to water the garden properly. The roses are doing well, so she must be doing something right, but then so are the nettles.
I got back to the hopelessly sweltering flat in London late. I was not much use for anything yesterday except watching on TV Henman lose, & young Andrew Murray win, at Wimbledon. Thunder forecast for today.
Remembering Robert Creeley's discourse upon teeth in 'Presences', I hit on this in James Thurber [Lanterns & Lances] p117:
"'Take teeth, then,' I told her. 'Last year in London, somebody asked me why Americans thought teeth were so funny. I explained that it is not teeth, but the absence of teeth, that we regard as funny, and also, the absence of hair.'...If the falling apart of the human body is funny, then death should be the biggest laugh of all. I think I saw this concept forming when the edentulous mouth was first deemed to be uproarious."
Posted by: Tony Green / 1:24 AM 
