1.1 I have sought to explain the taxonomy of messaging: short-text messages, e-mails, and blogs. The blogs, I explained, are for the more reflective, the enduring compositions.
2 I was treated this morning by a dentist whom I had not seen before. You may remember that I reported the loss of two fillings. As I have not been discomforted, I was at ease when I entered the room. The dentist put on a mask and and eye-protector; she also put and eye-protector on me. I left the chair with two new fillings, including a filling behind one of my front teeth, the one which was broken by a cricket ball some 50 years ago.
2.1 I was also given the news that 'many of [my] teeth' will not outlast me. There's 'a gum problem'. The problem, I was told, can be addressed by a life-long commitment to a programme of gum maintenance. In the meantime, I am to return in two week's time for a further filling. At that time I will learn more about the programme, and I may begin it.
2.2 I then observed the division of labour. The dentist entered what I understand to be a description of what she did. (The entry was in dentist-script, you understand.) The dental assistant then took the card and entered what I could readily understand: £100.
3 My plan did not survive a contact with the dentist. I had intended to go into the Lighthouse, with your laptop, so that I could seek to re-trace what Mike West and June Vincent had done after I left. (Of course, I should have stayed; of course, I should have made it plain that I needed a step-by-step record of what they had done.) However, the thick lip slowed me. I have waited until I can have an egg and a cup of tea. I will then be ready to continue with the affairs both of the credit union and of the local division of SSAFA, the well-known, or not so well-known, military charity.
3.1 However, I must go into the Lighthouse sometime today. I'll need to read and view myself into the task. According to June, I had set up the
4 I also sought to explain Shangri-la to Andrea. Now you had just added to your distinction from the rest of the population of the town. In all probability, you will find that no-one else has been there. You have. You have been to Shangri-la. Record your senses, your emotions. Maybe there is something in the place which will take you towards Nirvana; alternatively, perhaps you will remember the place because you took apple pie there, or close to there, together with a cappuchino.
4.1 Of course, there is the possibility that you have been admitted to Nirvana. After yak's milk and suchlike, after further exercises at high altitude, after being exposed again to the feeling that it was time to return to East Grinstead, you were given the apple pie and the cappuchino. As you enjoyed the foods, you were in the highest state of feeling, the altitude aside. You were in Bliss-land, you were in a place, a condition, from whence unease had been banished. Whilst you may already have left, you will be left with the recollection that you were there. The Shangri-la of the imagination. The private bower.
4.2 However, before I leave the topic, I can imagine that you have been taken to a place called Shangri-la. After all, I remember the Flanagan and Allen song which included the lines 'Underneath the arches, down Paradise Way .... . And there's many a house, no doubt, which are called Shangri-la (or Dunroaming). Perhaps the Chinese (central or regional) government has given the name to a likely place, somwhere in the south-west, somewhere close to Tibet, somewhere close to the fabled valley.
5 The day is dry, still, and overcast. It could be a day for Lewes. However, I think that I will postpone the concluding visit to Pells for a further day. I will take my (last) chance on tomorrow. If the pool opens tomorrow, then I will have to go. A chap will have to do what a chap has to do.
5.1 There's a Chums' lunch on Thursday. There will also be a game of bridge. The Excel frame awaits the direct entry of the scores. No news from Alan Lloyd.
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Stayathome.
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