Thread 5 - TalkExiles: "The Planet Goes On Being Round"

[Kucinghitam]

Continuation of previous lifeboat threads (thread 4).

Gather here all ye refugees from the JTT Flat Earth Society, welcome to the reassuringly oblate spheroid of MN! Ye all already know the answers to the questions "How the heck do I format my post?" "Why can't I edit my typos?" "What do those acronyms mean?" and most importantly, "Where is everybody that I used to know?"

So really we're all here just to chat randomly.

That sounds lovely, Gonners. It reminds me of a day on the beach where I watched dogs playing in the surf and the sun lighting up the splashing water and glittering around them as they leapt about. It was beautiful.

We have dogs on the local beaches all the time, though they're not allowed off the lead between 10am and 6pm from May to September. So they usually go earlier/later. because really, what on Earth is the point if you can't run and splash and swim and chase your friends? And, of course, dash over to say hello to your human friends.

MrG is an absolute dog-magnet. I always get a cheerful "Hi there!" but they make a huge fuss of him and he is generally covered in wet sand.

@Tricyrtis2022 you might like this episode of Natalie Haynes Stands Up For The Classics, which is about Ovid:

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07756bd

I've just recently found out that the place he was exiled to (Tomis) is modern-day Constanta, in Romania. I have to go there for work quite regularly at the moment, and I concur in his opinion of the place!

The beach here is very doggy. There's a good path alongside it for the humans, shallow rivers for splashing and a good muddy roll or dig, and a big section immediately adjacent to a park for extra running around opportunities. And lots of birds to chase. There are always a few impromptu packs bounding around.

Poor Ovid, how he hated Tomis. Carmen et error indeed.

It was a glorious day here as well although all that brightness meant that by about 4pm it got really cold and I was glad to get home and put on warmer clothes before heading out to the cinema.

Spent the daytime with one friend and had a lovely lunch. Evening with another friend at the cinema and then back at mine to eat noodles which we'd both got a craving for while watching In The Mood For Love. All in all a top day.

Roughly what are the temperatures around the south East at the moment? I am packing! I will be in Hertfordshire.

I'm by the sea so the temperature will probably be a bit different but we seem to be going from 10-12 at the moment. Today felt warmer than that. Spring feels very close.

MrPSB is scraping ice off the car at the moment - we're south of London

Yep mildish during the day here - 12 - 14 degrees but the nights are still pretty chilly.

Layers. Lots of layers. It could do anything.

I went to a funeral home viewing yesterday to sympathise with the bereaved, and also to fix in my mind the fact the the lovely person who lived up the road won't be round any more. Deliberately arrived five minutes late for kick off and was startled at a queue of well over 100 metres stretching down the road. I hadn't bothered to take a coat, which was a mistake - but did have a scarf and gloves. Forty-five minutes to get in to the family and the coffin, five minutes doing the needful, out again to find the queue was now nearer 150 metres and the people heading in to it after work were just starting to show up.

I suspect the poor family were there for a long time. The decision this morning is whether to go to the church very early and get a seat or show up for the start of mass and stand outside. Then repeat, as another neighbour has also died so it will all happen again 24 hours later.

@SqueakyDinosaur, ooh, thank you! I shall listen to that and send the link to my brother, who will also be interested.

Tomis would have been a bit grim if you were used to living in Italy and the visiting the bright lights of Rome. I'd be a bit pissed off too if I was exiled and the pardon only came over 2000 years after my death. Bit bloody late, isn't it.

I'm kicking myself for being slow. I really wanted to go and see that Vermeer exhibition in Amsterdam- we thought we could combine a bit of culture with a lazy long weekend there - but it's not to be. Sold out. Nothing at all.

I should have carpe-ed the diem while I had the chance.

Oh, that's a shame. I'm sure you can find a bit of other culture somewhere in the city though.

... even if it's just a Rijsttafel binge!

There's the cleaned-up Night Watch, of course. I was so excited about the Vermeers, though.

I've been contemplating a visit to the best guitar shop in Europe, The Fellowship of the Acoustics. They are about 100km east of Amsterdam and have 100s of terrific instruments, acoustic and electric. I used to buy and sell and part-ex with them quite a lot before bloody, bloody brexit. A family business run by real experts and enthusiasts, delightful people.

These chaps:

www.tfoa.eu/en/

Shit. I was hoping to go to the Vermeer exhibition too. I should have realised it would sell out fast. There was one particular painting I wanted to see so I guess I should find out where it's usually shown.

Right, just did that and it's part of the Rijksmuseum's collection so I can go when the exhibition is over and stand in front of it. The Little Street.

That was also the one I wanted to spend some time with! And very good to hear it's a resident piece - thanks for the detective work, there, @NotDrowningJustCrowing .

I was also harbouring a desire to see so many Vermeers all gathered together but had more or less resigned myself to it not happening as my preliminary investigation of Amsterdam as a day trip was unpromising (mum-wrangling means going away overnight isn’t possible at the moment). Sad to miss it (but not as sad as I was about missing the Venice Biennale last year).

I hate to say it, but I have tickets for the Vermeer Exhibition - I went on a trip around Germany to try to see the 6 Vermeers they have there, but one wasn't there.

As I read that it's going to be in this exhibition, that decided me, and I booked back in October - I have tickets for 09.00 on my birthday! My favourite, the one in Braunschweig, isn't going to be there, sadly:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Girl_with_the_Wine_Glass

I was in Venice during the Biennale but some of it was distinctly uninspiring. I guess that's to be expected in any large exhibition though. Weirdly, the German pavilion, which had no works of art exhibited at all, was fascinating. They'd deconstructed part of the building to show the changes the Nazis made to it in the 30s from the 1890s original, and that was far more interesting than you might think.

I wish I could go to Amsterdam again. I love the Rijksmuseum, and the nearby Van Gogh museum (it sets my teeth on edge when the locals here pronounce it Van Go but I suppose British attempts at Van Gogh sound weird to the Dutch).

Nice work, poppysb!

I'm sorry to hear of your neighbour's death @DeanVolecapeAKAelderberry , but also somewhat impressed by the queueing! I've never been to any such event. I've attended a funeral with an open casket or - more commonly - have visited the funeral home, but this has been where you turn up during a certain period, a bit like visiting hours, with no family present. (Mercifully, as most of the time I have been the family and would have hated to receive people like that.)

Ireland knows how to do death.

My Irish friend’s granny died, she’d lived with the family all my friend’s life, so a big part of her and her 5 young children’s lives. After the church service, it was pissing down with rain, so my friend told the kids to wait in the car during the internment. When she got back to the car, one of the kids said “So, has she gone up?” (to heaven). So matter of fact and interested!