Today I learned
Thursday, September 8, 2011 at 10:56AM
all sorts of things. Keeping my notebook close to hand and jotting down this and that throughout the day is a great exercise and though I’ve usually got a small book to hand with a pencil tucked inside, Shimelle’s class prompts me to pay a little more attention and take a few more notes.
For example, a conversation with a WI friend this morning gave me cause to investigate the Order of St Lazarus and St John and the Queenhithe Ward Club. I was writing a report for our monthly newsletter about the lovely people we’ve entertained to lunch during the past month and of course, instantly learned a great deal from five minutes googling.
Would I feature this on my daily page? Possibly.
But a little later on, I was in the kitchen listening to Radio 3 and heard Sarah Walker play Rameau’s La Poule. She introduced it by stating it was her favourite piece of music featuring chickens.
Huh?
My hero and I mulled over this and considered alternatives, if indeed there were any? The first one he came up with was the Funky Chicken or the Birdie Song and reacting quickly before this could be taken any further (please, use your imagination!) I was humming the tune I associated with chickens.
“You know, da da da-da da, da da da-da da, doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo..” (as so on).
Well, I was up to my elbows in flour and sugar at the time, baking a birthday cake for a colleague to take to my meeting yesterday afternoon.
My hero sighed and realised I wasn’t going to leave it there. He got out his iphone and looked for “chicken” on Spotify. There appeared a long list of weird and totally offbeat answers, none of which bore any resemblance to the music I was thinking of.
“It’s by Debussy or Mussorgsky,” I said. “Might be Pictures at an Exhibition. you know…da da da-da da, da da da-da da, doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo..”
One click and it was playing. Baba Yaga’s Hut on Chicken Legs.
So, my page for today’s LSNED class features the story presented in the same format as I’m working in for this book. The page is an envelope made from a magazine page (I think this was a photo of a staircase in a grand house), the brief journalling is printed onto a shipping label (happily acccepted by my HP printer if I whisper “epson” very quietly in its ear as I press the “print” button) and the full story on a card inside the envelope, together with any other ephemera from the day. The picture is from a favourite film, Howls Moving Castle, which was loosely based on the Baba Yaga story.
What on earth will I learn today?!
Reader Comments (3)
Thank you for introducing me to the Order of St Lazarus. As you can imagine St John is more familiar to me. I like your idea of using magazine pages to create envelopes. Thank you for sharing.
Enjoy your week-end!
I like your post:) I am almost caught up and have almost got my papers ready to make the proper book.
Shall I tell you what I learnt today? Well, my little boy was waiting at the top of the drive and as his taxi came he waved and blew me a kiss.
My heart was drippy doo dah :) I went to mush. So I learnt to see something I already knew but didn't always take time to think about - that special mother-son bond :)
End of soppy music!
Well, you swept around the whole universe with that learning and I would have stopped with the funky chicken, I am sure. Loved the post and the page is delicious!