lounge (v.) to pass (time) in lounging (usually fol. by away or out): to lounge away the afternoon. 1508, from Scot., of uncertain origin, "to lounge about, lie at full length," The noun in the sense of "comfortable drawing room" is first recorded 1881; in the sense of "couch on which one can lie at full length," 1830. Lounge lizard is from 1912, originally in reference to men who hung around in tea rooms to flirt.
if i had my time over, i'd slap some sense into my young self and encourage him to learn at some arabic/persian so i'd actually be able to read/understand at least some of the titles of books from the past. my podcast recommendations provided akbar's chamber in the field of islamic history podcastery this week and i can hardly be blamed for getting deep into this episode on zakariya al-qazwini immediately. i haven't listened to anything else yet but on the basis of this i'd highly recommend
pleasingly, my algorithms threw this up the other week. it's unlikely i'll repeat the exercise but, happily, i'm at a stage where i am actually paying a lot more attention to what's going on in my back garden - hand lens, close focus binoculars, making mini environments - and even making moves to resestablish my portable lab! anyway, here's this
one of my favurite soundtracks - here it is adapted for piano. an ideal start to the week
after yesterday's post, here's this. fabulous. if you've an afternoon to burn you could do far worse than have a browse through the history of music in peru
i was having myself a luiz bonfa moment so here's the popular vocal arrangement and a more recent and rather lovely instrumental version
after yesterday's post this. altho i do precious little now, i love boxing training more than just about anything because it's just so physical. sure you'll see people banging away at at bag but that's just (bad) punching, boxing is all about movement and lightness which is why this guy is just a joy. he has lots of simple looking, largely equipment free drills. oh yes, they look so easy! lol
i know almost nothing about steelpans but a pan drum has been high up on my list of instruments for the house for a while so i was loving this
i was out and about the other day when i bumped into a swedish girl in a shop. but that's brilliant, i said (in swedish. i speak a bit of swedish. and off we went. comprehension was a major stress for me when i lived in sweden, in large part i think because i thought 'mastering' the language would help me live there (as it turned out it wouldn't have mattered if id been born there - an issue for many in itself - i wouldn't be making a living in sweden!) and latterly this became a real problem. in the interim i've really chilled out about it but, having left the country, my swedish has eroded exponentially because there's no one to speak it to.
along the way i lost contact with my spanish friends and, while there's a lot more people working in shops, there's little scope for an actual conversation - annoying as my spanish is better than it's ever been. that it's important was the feeling i had when i'd finished speaking to the swedish girl - as if a pressure valve had been released, that just for five minutes i didn't have to exist in english.
and i think that's the key. i love english. i love its history, its utility, its playfulness. but i also love to be able to manifest myself through a different filter and that's just not possible in a country as obdurately monolingual as this. i could then, as i did in sweden, get very stressy about it all, or i could just accept the fact that i live where i live and it is the way it is. i need to pay more attention to my swedish, take care of it a bit, make more of an effort. the others likewise, amybe less time, maybe less duo, but set decent targets.
i'm not a social media creature and covid killed any desire to speak to anyone online ever again but that's my choice. my target will be to be able to read, be able to listen and i'll just need to accept speaking badly!
things i've listened to recently that have been of use -
