Once Works Well was pure technology. Now it seeks merely to divert.
Pansy subjects - Verse! Opera! Domestic trivia! - are now commonplace.
The 300-word limit for posts is retained. The ego is enlarged

Monday 17 November 2008

Look on my works ye mighty, and despair

To post one’s face or not? Plutarch recently came out full frontal, others disclose only a carefully chosen part. With herhimnbryn it’s ankles and feet clad in multi-coloured stockings, while Rosie provocatively offers an ear lobe plus pendant.

I belong to the obscurantists since I doubt even my wife could honestly identify me as the marine creature here on the dashboard. Two or three months ago I posted a slightly more recognisable photo in context with a different subject and it drew no comments whatsoever. I took the hint.

In any case with B. Bonden Esq it’s la technologie c’est moi. That’s why I’m aping The Observer series on writers’ workplaces and providing a view of the hardware I surround myself with. Perhaps those who are shy about their faces will be more forthcoming about their digital pulpits.

The deep kitchen table came from Ikea for I cannot stand being cramped. At the far end the colour printer is encircled with a modified plastic crate on top of which stands the scanner. A wireless router and Skype impedimenta crown the computer. Apart from a few techno-manuals the books are French, mainly novels. The upper shelves support my collection of forklifts, souvenirs of my life as editor of a logistics magazine.

From the window I can see the tower of Hereford cathedral.

10 comments:

Unknown said...

What's in the wastepaper basket? Always interesting!

Roderick Robinson said...

A good try, but it's not the waste basket. Second-hand Jiffy bags and large A4-plus envelopes. For some reason or other the latter, when new, cost a fortune.

Sir Hugh said...

"Blessed is he who has found his work;let him ask no other blessedness"

Avus said...

So...the spire of Hereford Cathedral can be seen from your work window and you cycle by the River Wye to your hairdressers.
I think you can rest assured that you have it made, Barrett.

Roderick Robinson said...

Avus: You're encouraging me to boast. When we bought the house the adjacency of Wales wasn't a factor in our decision. But what a bonus it has turned out to be. The Principality has revived that long-forgotten pleasure of the fifties "going for a drive". The Elan valley and the scenic route between Llanidloes and Machynlleth are just two of our unexpected delights.

Avus said...

"Going for a drive" - I remember that! Over my many years of motorcycling (from Kent) I used to have to reach Guildford before the roads became free and stimulating; then Andover; now it's Salisbury Plain.
I count myself lucky to have driven/ridden in the later halcyon days of such - now all gone. Perfection would have been "A skittish motorcycle with some blood in it" (T.E.Lawrence) in the twenties/thirties.

Roderick Robinson said...

But not as skittish as a Brough Superior.

herhimnbryn said...

;)

Roderick Robinson said...

Does the weather in Perth ever merit such cosy knitwear?

herhimnbryn said...

Cosy knitwear required on rising during winter mornings, when wearer has omitted to buy slippers (again). Seven winter mornings with frost this year. Yes, seven!