http://www.spinnakertower.co.uk/

The Spinnaker Tower was built to commemorate the Millennium. That is so important isn’t it? We have a large round number appearing on the calendar. Lets spend £35 million quid so we don’t forget that big number later on. The thing dominates the skyline. Its like a big middle finger rising out of the harbour saying “ha ha, you just paid for this, up yours ” to everybody in the city. Now lack of money is blamed for Care Home closure, bus service cutbacks etc etc. Still we have the tower to look at, and that’s the main thing right?

To paraphrase the immortal Arnold Rimmer, ‘There’s not a word bad enough to describe how what-ever-it-is you are, but you are one, and a total, total one at that. That’s how I feel about some Portsmouth Councillors.

Mum has been put on 40 mg of Citropan as a result of medication assessment at Goddard. She was walking awkwardly on Saturday, bent knees and hunched over. Lodge manager Kaz suspects this is attention seeking. I don’t believe this. I think something is wrong. Tomorrow at 6.30pm we go to a presentation at the Lodge to hear about Portsmouth’s Residential Care Home strategy. So far, all we have seen is more closures.

£35 million quid was found to build the Spinnaker Tower, maybe they should turn that into the worlds first 557 foot tall care home. If not, maybe they could use it as a launching platform for the elderly mentally infirm. The bodies would clog the harbour, but they have enough dredgers to deal with that.

Why do people celebrate round numbers on calendars anyway? Why do people makes asses of themselves on New Years Eve? Why the big party for your 30th, 40th and 50th birthday? If it’s so important then why don’t we change our whole numerical system to binary. That would give us bigger rounder numbers all the time would it not?

Time: I read a book about time recently. I then bought another (I wont get around to reading it until my present book is finished) to study properly. The upshot of the first book was that nobody understands time much better than St Augustine did back in the 1st century AD (354-430), and that we presently just understand the question much better than he did.

I lean toward the view that time had to have a beginning, and so will also have an end, so it’s not infinite. But if eternity has duration, it cannot be measured outside of itself. Matter & Space cannot be considered without a time reference either, though time itself seems the most elusive component. Entropy encompasses the 2nd law of thermodynamics and that permits statistical ‘error’ (for want of a better word). This suggests that time, theoretically, could behave in all sorts of strange ways; even more so than it does during my guitar practice. Without time, my elbow wouldn’t ache.

26th May was the last Blown-Out gig and I have not picked up the Jackson since then. The Spanish guitar is still consuming all my practice time. I still struggle to wrap my hands around it (some stylists say this is a big no-no anyway, but who cares) but at least my fingers are becoming stronger. The right elbow is still aching after every practice though.

7 weeks ago I started to diet. I’ve lost 5 lbs so far. Fine, 5 stone still to go, though I somehow doubt that I will reach that target 10 stone. The good thing is that I haven’t been hungry (much). I know I could lose more if I cut out drinking, and if I cut out drinking, then I could DEFINITELY cut out smoking. But Rome wasn’t burned in a day. Not even a day expressed in binary.

To be truthful, I have been enjoying the diet. I have been enjoying the fresh fruit & veg, and I still have a treat once in a while. Just last week Jan & I had a full blown Chinese ‘banquet’ meal. The pounds are still dropping at a steady slow pace.

I’ve just worked out that at this rate of weight loss, in 5 years 8 months and 2weeks time, I will weigh nothing. My body will have achieved zero mass and I will cease to be an event in space-time. Meanwhile the fruit is very nice.