Monday 10 December 2007

Half a century is nothing to the Sage

It's the Sage's turn to visit the Dark Metropolis tomorrow. He has, as ever, bought timed train tickets to enable to conduct his affairs in the least possible time, and it was only to please me, for I have been too often delayed by public transport, that he allowed an extra half hour which he confidently expects to spend cooling his heels on Liverpool Street Station. I usually work out train times at off-peak rates so that I can spend the most time for the least money, because there's always another museum or gallery or bookshop to visit, but he is rather less frivolous than I and is rarely side-tracked.

So I will be home alone - for the morning at any rate. There is much to do, but also many distractions.

I made some particularly tasty game soup this evening, which I served with cheese scones. "Cheese scones and cheese? enquired Ro, evidently thinking his mothers exuberance had got some way out of hand. I explained that there was so little cheese in the scones, so that I could explain away to myself the eating of one, that I felt I had shortchanged him and his father, so he forgave me the gastronomic tautology.

I spent a busy hour on Saturday Christmas shopping courtesy of the internet. I am going to Norwich on Wednesday to meet my sister-in-law for lunch and exchange presents, and have a couple of errands to run there. The rest I will buy in Yagnub. I cannot make a fuss about shopping, although I haven't any idea what to get for the Sage this year. The truth is that he's impossible to plan to buy for as the things that most of us think of as treats leave him more polite than ecstatic. All manly suggestions assume that every chap is a very large child or one who is fanatical about sport, or possibly alcohol, and the Sage is none of these. He is indifferent to music, reads to gain information and doesn't care for gadgets. He prefers old things to new, and particularly likes items he has had for years and is used to (he has never become entirely used to me, because I am mercurial and enigmatic, but then he wouldn't wish to become Dull). Someone complimented him on the suit he was wearing a couple of weeks back - he had had it made more than twenty years ago, which makes it one of his newer items of clothing. It still fits of course, but so does his Old Boys' Blazer, which, with his Old School Tie still gets hauled out for the occasional reunion, and he bought that back in the fifties. The nineteen fifties, that is.

23 comments:

badgerdaddy said...

Top man.

Z said...

I don't exaggerate about the age of his clothes, do I? Though his suits, if ever he wears one, are very good.

Monozygote said...

Top Man? Hardly!

Z said...

Ha ha, you're quite right of course. He's never heard of the place.

dharmabum said...

why the dark metropolis?

Dave said...

Clothes never wear out. Even when you're not allowed to wear them in public, they still have a second life for gardening/decorating.

Anonymous said...

Mr. KW's mother is equally challenging in the present-buying category. This year she has requested a pair of washing-up gloves and a sticky hook from which to hang them. I despair.

Z said...

Just a figure of speech, honey, used because his business today is of a financial nature (ooh! he's earning money! And what a coincidence, for I've been spending it!).

Dave, I might not have quite explained that the Sage sees no difference between the clothes you wear in public and those you wear for gardening. What is this 'allow' of which you speak? The Sage doesn't ask me for permission, any more than I do of him.

Z said...

Oh crumbs, KW. Even the Sage wouldn't think of asking for that as a present. I sympathise.

Reminds me of when one of Al's staff retired. A customer gave her a packet of dishcloths as a retiring present - after all, he pointed out, she'd be spending a lot more time in the kitchen now...

Anonymous said...

aka BW says:

I have a suspicion that it is much more acceptable for men to adopt this attitude than for women. But *I* don't care.

BTW Ham at LondonDailyPhoto has sucessfully found a way to use Haloscan and keep old Blogger comments. It's not the only way (I've seen people do it so you don't still have to retain the blogger line below new posts) but I don't know how that's done, and can't remember who in blog history did it, so we can't ask them.

Z said...

There are plenty of quite posh women around here who take that attitude, but it's easier to get away with if you are young or quite old. I haven't reached the latter category yet, but you are still in the former one.

Thanks. I will look into it.

How do we know said...

you are tagged! :-)

Z said...

*hot-foots to HDWK*

Anonymous said...

aka aka BW says:

Please z, may I have the luxury of posting a message to HDWK here, in the hope that she may see it? I followed her link and am so cross at what I read that I tried to comment (but can't, as she doesn't allow non-Blogger comments, and doesn't have an email address I can see.

Here's my comment - it's about a sponsored link post she has done promoting a company that writes your college papers (etc) for you.

Just popped over from z's...

Probably shouldn't say this, and no doubt you'll delete it, but...

This kind of cheating (and, make no mistake, it is cheating, and if students get found out, they will be thrown off their course) really dismays me.

Bloggers promoting this sort of cheating as a good thing (however desperate they may be for money) is something beyond my comprehension.

Did you go to university (or your country's equivalent)? I haven't looked... but, if you did, you are devaluing all the hours you put into getting your qualification with this kind of false 'advert'.
I am dismayed.

Z said...

I have posted the relevant part of your comment on HDWK's site, BW, and added my own comment, that my reaction when I read it was much the same as yours.

luckyzmom said...

I am sure that I commented. I must have forgotten to publish.

Z said...

That made me cackle with laughter. A good note to go to bed on!

Anonymous said...

aka BW

Thanks z :)

Anonymous said...

Form is temporary and class is permenant, the discerning gentleman, visiting their favourite outfitters, would certainly hope a well made suit would grow with them.

The Boy said...

Do his cloths never wear out? I have these large manly legs you see, and the insides of my legs rub the material to thiness and beyond. Means I have a number of suit jackets with no matching trousers. Most inconvenient. I've moved to blazers so I don't have to bother with matching trousers.

Anonymous said...

aka

boy - buy 2 trousers with every suit jacket. Works for Mr BW :)

Z said...

Indeed, Ad, a gentleman's suit should never be indiscreet enough to show a bulge.

Boy, the Sage has delightfully slender legs and has never had that problem. Mind you, for the last 18 years he's not had to wear a suit to work. BW is right though, buy (or have made) an extra pair of trousers - don't keep the second pair for the first to wear out though, as the jacket will fade slightly with cleaning and you will notice it. Or, if you don't your wife will.

Anonymous said...

Ah yes, z's right, wear the trousers on alternate days, and let them air in between (hung outside occasionally too). They need dry cleaning less frequently then too, so, better Value, and better for the environment!