My stepfather is one of the few people I know who still says "pi-ah-no". I expect there are more of you out there, but drug up as I was in the wilds of Scotland, if I had added "pi-ah-no" to my pronunciatory infelicities, my dead body would probably have been discovered in some dour and dreary dyke, a frightful warning to the Sassenach to encroach no further.
In a perfect world, I would first buy him something better on which to listen than the Walkman and mini-speakers which live by his chair. Perhaps for his birthday I could embark on such a fearful quest, one which would meet with much resistance and protest about unnecessary extravagance. I should seek a system which is small and unassuming in appearance, yet with excellent sound reproduction – not Bose, which even he is bound to have seen advertised, and to have realised that, where no price is published, it must be exorbitant. Were I to find such a system, my mother could then inherit the Walkman, in order to listen to Maggie May in the kitchen, something I know she would welcome.
It can be difficult for our generation of conspicuous consumers to offer small creature comforts to the older one. If my mother knew my annual book budget (and no, I don't either) she would probably be shocked to her core. On the other hand, it's considerably less than my annual mother-budget which, on the whole, she doesn't notice. "Had you thought what you might buy me for Christmas?" she enquired on Sunday. "Well, sort of," I replied, suppressing the thought of the fairly hefty sum I'd put in her bank account to pay for her – much needed – new camera, and thinking instead of the rather beautiful pale green wallet in softest nappa leather which I had just finished wrapping. "But you've got a birthday coming up immediately afterwards. What would you like?"
Can anyone recommend a really good coffee-table book on cave painting?
4 comments:
I know someone who says piano like that! There ain't many of them left.
Have you bought the Hewitt 48 which has just been reissued as a 4disc set and very reasonably priced? The Bears and I spent hours and hours listening to that over the Autumn months.
Where a system is concerned you might find something by Denon that would fit the bill. I'm not certain how easy/difficult it would be for you to get to Darlington, but there is a branch of Music Matters there and certainly the people who work for them in the Midlands really know their stuff and are very very good about meeting your size and financial limitations. I can't recommend them to highly.
I know just what you mean about the budget and the generations! somehow lost your blog (my totally absent memory - couldnt remember the name properly!) so very glad to have found you again via Hannah Velten.
Thanks everyone!
M&M, have I said it's nice to see you back?
Elizabeth, sometimes the budget quibbles are over the silliest things (can I get them to buy a new set of wine glasses?)
TTalk: Darlington isn't impossible at all - the only problem with going to look is that I might decide my own system isn't really up to scratch. I've got 3 months until my stepfather's birthday so that should give me time to do something though. Thanks for the suggestion.
Now, about that book on cave painting...
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