pigeons and pears - reading - (spoiler alert)

horsemouth is currently reading seeing the novel set four years after the events in saramago's novel blindness.

the people are no longer blind (and seem to have mostly forgotten about those events). it is the day of the election. in the capital city of the un-named country. after a slow start in the (admittedly rainy) morning at 4pm the people suddenly rediscover their enthusiasm for the practice of democracy and show up at the polls on mass. voting has to be extended by two hours.

'it was gone midnight when the counting finished. the number of valid votes did not quite reach twenty-five percent... there were very few soiled ballots and very few abstentions. all the others, more than seventy percent of the votes cast, were blank.' 

the first chapter has gone very quickly. 

the other musician of bremen  was round to visit. he arrived with a 4 pack of estrellas - so they had two of those and then set off on a walk up to (and round) the waterworks (yes there was a coffee and a tea and photos were taken). on the way back en plein soleil they had a pint at the princess of wales before returning home and polishing off horsemouth's last beer and the final two estrellas. howard then proposed a beer in the pub on the way to the tube (er. which they did - and liking the experiment, they repeated it). there were some photos there also.

the photos of horsemouth continue to be good (horsemouth's photos of the other musician of bremen less so).  

the other musician of bremen likes to claim all these beers are signs of horsemouth's incipient alcoholism (and true horsemouth's relationship with the drink are not ideal). nonetheless he feels that the other musician of bremen is (if not an equal) then at least a mostly willing participant in this activity. 

they also replaced the bridge on the hohner acoustic in the correct (original) angle (but sadly, by sods law, did not return it to its earlier jangling sound). 'the other' sang through a few things. horsemouth sang through a few things. they got the 12 string out of its case and contemplated it.  

under normal circumstances horsemouth would have cooked and fed his guest but sten was engaged in 'processing'  vast amounts of pigeons and pears.  yesterday horsemouth cleared an area of the living room floor to permit it to be mopped and walked upon (today it is once again covered in random shit). this ladies and gentlemen is progress (sten style). 

oh the comedy. 

other than that horsemouth's room (at least) continues to look good. 

today is a monday. horsemouth is unclear about how best to serve it.