h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Another birthday today - they really are abundant in our family in November. Son No 2. He went to Berlin for the weekend, even managed to get Son No 3, who lives in Berlin, out of bed and had a meal with him.

I'll hear about that soon - at the latest Christmas when they all come home. When I phoned this afternoon he was at a flea market and it seems they were having lovely weather.

This evening there was a concert in our little town. Saint-Saens' Christmas oratorio and Bach's Wachet Auf. It wasn't perfect by a long chalk, but it was certainly Christmassy. In January I shall have a chance to sing the Saint-Saens myself. It sounds fun. There are only 5 parts of it that the choir actually sing. There is a great deal for the 5 soloists to do.

Better get to bed now - I have a dentist's appointment at 8 in the morning.

It's just occurred to me that I haven't kept to my original idea for these November journals. I really intended to take an event from my own personal life and ponder on it in on a general level. Getting towards the end of the month, I've noticed I'm not the only one who has reverted to just jotting down the events of the day sometimes. Also the sheer magnitude of the project and the reading involved (if you want to do it properly and read everyone's journal) has meant that people are keeping it short out of consideration for the readers. Well, that's what I intended and now I've gone on for too long....

I've come across a wealth of different things being broached in these journals. It's a real eye opener to hear about life in different parts of the world, written straight from the heart.

I like the matter of fact details from every day life. They are the little drops of existence that disappear otherwise. Unlike the multitude of photographs that we are exposed to in Facebook or on people's phones - words carry far more weight as they include emotion and explanation of events. The expression a 'picture is worth a thousand words' photographs cannot explain all there is to know about a situation.


sorry, I got carried away too! and droned on.

I'm just reading journals of people on my friends list (with Gosho that's enough to keep anyone going.) Some have been interesting, some thought provoking, and some have produced a response from me.

Don't know the Saint-Saens but I do think he's greatly underrated. Even in his lifetime he was lampooned for doing it too easily. As though struggling makes something better or more interesting.

Sad that he is remembered now almost exclusively for a piece he refused to publish, it was so slight.

There is a bit of unison singing in the S-S Christmas Oratorio. I met one of the singers at the dentist's this morning but I couldn't ask her about it - well, I could, but she couldn't answer: She'd already been in for her treatment!