Delicious, devilish deceit – In the name of Thiago – Day 192


 

Ah yes, the devilish deceiver in question just in case there was any doubt about their identity is of course, my delightful daughter Elisa.

 

Dad had mentioned yesterday that he had planned to pop round today, primarily because he had to get to HSBC in Newcastle and to collect a dish from us. When I mentioned to Elisa that Grandad might need a hand to make sure he didn’t get lost running his one errand in town, she surprisingly leapt at the opportunity.

 

A couple of hours later I learnt why. While they were out on their lunchtime jaunt, she had convinced the old man that she hadn’t had any lunch and a visit to the chippy would be a great idea, but only after he’d taken her to WH Smith to buy a book. And I thought I was a soft touch!

 


 

I have now completed all the video interviews for Virtual Pride 2020 – this has been my big work project for the last 5-6 weeks really. I’ll be having a run through with the producer on Thursday to make sure that the five hours of programming all flows nicely under my stewardship. I’ll have my mate Will helping out as well. We shall be a splendid, sequinned double act. That reminds me, costume changes…

 

The hat has been a constant feature of the interviews. Although not an outwardly flamboyant fashion icon (yet), I am always happy to get into the spirit of things. Sadly, it does appear that my employer is not 100% full square behind me in providing a costume budget, so I shall simply see how far I feel like pushing the boat out. A little bit of indulgence never hurt.

 


 

My consecutive days of blogging – today takes my total to 192 – is running roughly parallel to my consecutive days of learning on Duolingo. It’s an interesting app and I would say that it is a broadly positive experience, although why they think that it is ever going to be vaguely useful to be able to say, write, or even simply to understand the Portuguese sentence ‘O tatu não fala inglês’, which translates to ‘The armadillo does not speak English’, is way beyond my admittedly limited understanding.

 

I love languages, I love the romantic notion of freely being able to communicate in a number of foreign tongues. In my globetrotting days it was something that I took very seriously – learning a few words of the language wherever it was I went. It was something that set me apart from most British people.

 

I’ve never had the discipline to learn a language fluently, but I’m quite proud of the fact that I can hold my own conversationally in French, German and Portuguese. After spending nine months in Moscow in 2002, I also still have a smidgen of Russian, though sadly as the years pass, that just dissipates further and further.



 

Before he signed off for the day, Mark the builder said whatever you do today, don’t open the door and stroll absent-mindedly into here. He’s a smart chap and Angélica is probably training him to understand just how stupid I can be. Writing this sentence has just made me jump up to check that the door is closed and that the cat won’t get stuck. It’s closed. Phew!

 

So just the usual sign off from me before I get on the yoga mat. Keep the donations coming in folks. I’m on an amazing journey but your support every step of the way is what keeps me feeling positive as I grieve for my little man. Thank you.




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