Commodore Bob's Challenge and a whole lot of lovingI found the image of the emergency smileyphone on a site called offcolorfilms.com.
Bob from Brockley has challenged 'Dr Meenagh'--me--to list seven things I love, and then tag seven people. I think the latter a greater challenge than the former. Let's see...I guess I should confine it to things that I would, in any mad conceivable fantasy, imagine dying for or seeing worked into a fantasy of paradise after me. I'm going to cheat.
1. My mother, brother and sister, and then my wider family.
2. My girlfriend, and My closest friends.
3. London.
4. The Holy Roman Catholic Church, and Catholicism.
5. Proper western civilisation, which is books, music, a good breakfast, and dinner.
6. The United States of America, the Land of Israel, and the Irish Republic. As seen from Donegal.
7. Reading, thinking, teaching, and talking with open-minded people.
A slightly less portentous list of second-order things would be;
1. Pies, with peppery things and herbs in them.
2. The rule of law, and the Middle Temple.
3. Good music.
4. Cold cuts of really good meat and sausage from David John's Butchers in Oxford.
5. Wine. Really good wine.
6. The company of clever funny women.
7. A really good cigar (which in most but not all instances rules out (6) since even good cigars smell fairly ripe--in fact, that's why they are good cigars).
I also love blogging, looking at ships, travelling in jet aeroplanes, good suits, proper shiny shoes, good desks, cups of hot water and lemon, and jacuzzis. And reading in the gym on the treadmill before doing a load of weights. And intellectual history. And New York, and Paris, and the Cape Cod room beneath the Drake in Chicago. And the women I have been lucky enough to have been in love with. I love the memory of all those who have gone before me, and I pray for their souls. And I love my accumulated titles (2) and degrees (5) and diplomas. And the entire year 1962, for no good reason at all. And science fiction, and comics, and the mind of Joseph Ratzinger (no application of ejusdem generis rules or the like there, please). And I like having loads of money, especially when I have not. I like beans from cans and not from bags, and trains to nice pubs in Somerset and Cornwall. But these aren't things I could not do without.
And of course I love the lesson taught by Jesus Christ that there are things much greater than myself, though I have times when I am a poor student. We are all worms but the light from the cigars makes me think I am a glow worm, as Churchill used to say after downing a few sherbets.
Now, whom I am going to tag? I guess Martin in the Margins, Berenike, Mary from Australia (if she wants to go viral), Conservative Cabbie, Chris Brooke, Anglo Noel, my friend from the comments, 'Anonymous Coward' (if they are still reading) and Barbara Selbach, if she is still reading. Happy listing, and I apologise to anyone left out. If I didn't mention you (and you aren't banned), please feel free to write in....
Comments
1)the ocean on a blue sky day.
2)the pool of sunlight on the verandah which lures me into sitting down with a book
3)candle light. It's so much more flattering when you're of a certain age.
4)chilled sauvignon blanc.
5)the smell of new-mown grass.
6)chocolate
7)the nestling stillness of new-born babies.
8)eating food cooked by someone other than myself.
9)all kinds of music.
10)walking along a beach, a cliff-path or (being sentimental and more specific here) walking from Grantchester to Newnham alongside the meadows.
11) books.
12) English-style Indian food.
I'm thankful for all these things and so many, many more.
Oh yeah, I love my four children more than anybody else in the world and I do have a few friends that I care about. (and to my best friend Val, I think of you every day and miss you loads.)
I like no.1 on the second list. I think that pies are very underrated. Lots of people not from these islands think that we are culinary barbarians, but this is because of a lack of understanding of our pies.
On no.5 in the first list, I guess this means that France does not partake of western civilisation, because they do not know what a good breakfast is.
Many thanks for the comment Mary, I like your list!
http://martininthemargins.blogspot.com/2009/05/raindrops-on-roses-etc.html
I like the new photo at the top of your blog, by the way. The old one took up so much space, I sometimes forgot to scroll down past it and often assumed you hadn't posted anything new.
Does the fact that you're pictured in some kind of food shop have any relevance to the rather unhealthy culinary tastes in your second list?
I have, however, been eating too well just lately, so I'll be on the treadmill and hot water from next week. It seems appropriate to the debtor's prison this country is becoming!
I hope all is well--all the best, as usual!
All the best.