Posts by David Haywood
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Peter Ashby wrote:
On Calton hill, opposite the Castle with the faux temple remnant on it, sits and old observatory and next to it is a tower. Atop the tower is a tall spike with a golden ball on it.
Yes, we spent many happy hours at the time-ball station on Calton Hill -- where, incidentally, they also have a very magnificent cat!
I agree that the English are anti child...
I must say that I found myself quite depressed by the commonly-encountered attitude to children in England (will write more on this subject one day).
We had one particular experience on a train from England to Scotland where the carriage gradually emptied of the English (who'd be staring daggers at Bob, and saying in loud voices "I can't believe people would bring a baby on a long train journey") -- to be replaced by nice Scottish people saying "Oh, look at his bonny wee face!" and fishing in their handbags for chocolate to feed him. An amazing cultural shift as we crossed the imaginary line of the border.
Jackie Clark wrote:
Welcome home Bob's family.
Thank you, Jackie! Extremely nice to be back...
Emma Hart wrote:
Very slightly more on topic, I also giggle every time I see Alan Bollard these days.
Bless you, Emma -- makes me feel my life has not been in vain.
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Thanks for the interesting info on the time balls, James (and Steve).
I'm highly delighted to see that they're now dropping the Lyttelton timeball daily at 1 pm again.
Wouldn't it be great if they also fired a cannon when they dropped the ball? I may have to start a campaign to institute this as a new tradition.
P.S. The time ball at Edinburgh claims to be one of only two still working in the world. But I calculate that Edinburgh + Lyttelton + Greenwich = 3.
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Thanks for all the kind comments, people!
Rosie wrote:
That gun in Edinburgh has always been fired at 1pm rather than noon.
Thanks for the correction, Rosie. I guess, now that I think about it, this must be why they call it the one o'clock gun. I have corrected the article...
Deborah wrote:
And a few months back, [Beauregarde (sp?)] was mentioned in a story here, not just doing an extraordinary job helping someone with illness during a flight, but making the effort to go and visit the person the next day - sorry, can't find the story on-line now.
You're right -- he's an internationally famous nice person! The story is here (search for Beauregard without the 'e' at the end).
Whoops wrote:
Foreskin? Really? A showernozzle?
You wouldn't believe the emails I've had from the Kim Hill interview. No really, you definitely wouldn't. Many, incidentally, supporting my accuracy/circumcision speculation w.r.t to Germans vs. NZers.
Ian MacKay wrote:
Welcome home. I wonder if Bob will get restless after a few days and pack his toybag and start singing:
"I'm Beauregard from Dixie! Hooray! Hooray!"You may be right. I get the impression that he's a little surprised how long we've stayed here already.
Isabel Hitchings wrote:
If it makes Jennifer feel any better I have, on more than one occasion and always with a little trepidation, breastfed a duplo crocodile.
I shall pass that on. Always good to know that your child is not alone in their strange requests.
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Totally impressed by the posts on this thread. I've been throwing-up sick for the last five days, and reading this has provided some very therapeutic laughs.
Mind you, a couple of them ( Robyn Gallagher and Stephen Judd spring to mind) could almost be described as frighteningly good.
Andrew Llewellyn wrote:BTW, can someone send me a large bag of whatever it is that sustains David's imagination?
In this case, I had just thrown up some chocolate soy icecream. Gazing at the result, I was immediately reminded of the Herald's 'Your Views' pages. Pretty predictable, really.
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Yeah, I was going limit multiple choices -- but that would be political correctness gone mad.
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No longer in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne -- just moved to York yesterday! We're now living a stone's throw from the old city walls.
I'm just doing my usual writey things, but Jennifer is doing terribly brainy linguistic stuff at various English and Scottish universities. Bob is also working hard at linguistics, having recently mastered important words such as 'excavator', 'front-end-loader', and 'steam roller'. He is particularly pleased to be in York -- only a short stroll from the National Train Museum.
Past midnight here, and still recovering from various nasty germs, so off to bed with me...
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Geoff:
Extremely pleased that you enjoyed My First Stabbing! And delighted to find someone that shares my secret list of abhorrence.
I will certainly do my best to get another book out for summer 2009...
Thanks so much for taking the time to drop me a line.
P.S. I've always said that Hamiltonians were particularly discerning in their literary judgments.
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Anna I wrote:
Fantastic as always David!
On an entirely unrelated note, I bought 'My First Stabbing' as a Christmas present for my boyfriend, who is now a Southerly convert. We both loved it; his only comment was that he finished it too quickly!
.... Hope you all had a lovely Christmas and are feeling better.
Delighted that you enjoyed the story and the book, Anna. And may I say that your purchase is a wonderful example to all PA readers...
Bob and I much better, thank you, but Jennifer still coughing like a clapped-out coalminer. It seems the whole of Newcastle has the bug (hope it hasn't reached you down in London)
Hilary Stace wrote:
Thanks David. That story was enjoyed by young and old. But please could I make a request for the future. One day would you write about manatees?
Curiously, I have a very old story (overlong and badly in need of re-writing) about a dugong -- which is quite close to a manatee.
Rudyard Kipling in The Jungle Book has a story called 'The White Seal' that features manatees in an important role (although they were called 'sea cows' in the book). He seems to have been underwelmed by their cuteness, alas.
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Ian MacKay wrote:
Have printed the Otter triumph and will give it to teacher friends to trial. If it is a success I will only extract 50% in royalties.
Oh, I'd be quite interested to hear the results.
Although I should point out that Jolisa's agent (a certain Gemma Gracewood) only charges 0% in fees, AND she has managed to secure a movie deal.
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Yay! Bob-the-baby much better this morning. Christmas un-cancelled as of 10.02am GMT!