Saturday, July 26, 2008

Birds, butterflies and the gay gene

Managed to watch our video of the John Barrowman programme, "The Making of Me", last night. Which was all to do with trying to find out exactly how gay JB is. Great fun on the whole! And we are now all looking at our finger lengths and working out how many older brothers we have between us in order to see how gay we are. Or did I miss the point somewhat? Anyway, as Lord H and I have a job-lot of five older brothers, plus one younger brother (hello, Lord B-I-L!), then we are probably gayer than the great JB by far. Though Lord H is able to navigate without having to turn the map upside-down, you'll be pleased to hear. That said, we are distinctly not talking about my bent middle finger - per hand. Lord alone knows what that says about me ...

Anyway, after the programme, I told Lord H that next week's should also be interesting as they'll be focusing on Colin Jackson. Lord H, looking puzzled and concentrating on the end of the JB programme, said: Oh. Will they be trying to find out if he's black then? Hmm, I fear we may still be missing the point here in downtown Godalming.

So to today. Lord H and I have spent the whole day out (as it were). We visited Rainham Marshes in Essex, and a very nice place it is too. Great cafe, hurrah! And huge and colourful flocks of butterflies, including two marvellous peacock butterflies, which I haven't seen for a while. Birds spotted included herons and little egrets, and we heard (but sadly never saw) the reed warblers.

From there, we attempted to drive to Bough Beech Nature Reserve using the satnav system on Lord H's new iphone. I fear that, being both a woman (by gender) and a gay man (by the number of brothers and the shape of my fingers), my expertise with maps is low, and my expertise with maps that move is entirely beyond hope. I attempted to follow the instructions on the list, which were completely wrong, and by the time I'd worked out that the little blue ball on the image (ie us) was going in the wrong direction we were already whipping down the M25 heading away from it. Groan. Anyway, due to Lord H's instinctive navigational skills, we took the next turning off and made our way back. I then gave up with the instructions and just followed the little blue ball until it eventually landed in the right spot. Actually it's much like one of those games you get in fairgrounds where you have to jiggle the little balls into the holes in order to win. I fully expected that when I finally got us there the iphone would produce fireworks and a big message saying "Well done, Anne - you are a bloody genius!" But sadly, no ... Ah well.

Bough Beech is nice though - we saw loads of gatekeeper butterflies and - result! - two spotted flycatchers. Bliss indeed. The people in the centre were initially scary however but ended up being quite sweet. Perhaps they don't see many offworlders in that part of Kent? I can't say I'm surprised if the satnav has no idea which road they are on. Which just goes to show how modern technology is indeed cutting people off from their neighbours.

Tonight, I'm hoping to do a little more to Hallsfoot's Battle and then generally I'm just chilling.

Today's nice things:

1. Wondering how gay we are
2. Birds
3. Butterflies
4. Conquering the iphone satnav - of sorts.

Anne Brooke
Anne's website

2 comments:

Lover of Books, Films and Good Coffee Shops Everywhere! said...

Well Peter can do a strange thing with his fingers. Most people if they hold their hand out flat (palm down) can't lift their fingers up much but Peter can curve his up quite a bit - looks a bit like a double jointed thing (not sure what that means???)

Rainham Marshes looks good - another one to add to our list of 'must visit'.

Have a good day - think it's going to be glorious weather.

Anne Brooke said...

Ah, our menfolk are a strange lot, Sue ... but hey we always knew that!!!

Yes, do visit Rainham Marshes - good cafe too!

Hugs

A
xxx