The first of the month and time to see the blog as diary. Forced to drive to the station this morning by son missing bus, I decided to spend some time in the wonderful 'steeltown' of Scunthorpe, (famous for steel making, the man in the "Dog and Parrot" and being inadmissible to search engines or browsers with 'decency' settings), as I'd not been there for quite a while.

Repaired to the second-hand bookshop and bought a selection of maps of India, Portugal and Spain, including Seville.
"You've no idea how many people have been in and asked for something about Portugal today." This seems interesting although much later in the day I wonder if it has anything to do with England v. Portugal in the World Cup. I explain we have a flat in Portugal and wonder if I could advertise it there.
"I think I should ask for a discount"
"Well everything is 25% off."
I hadn't seen the posters saying 25% off whilst England is still in the World Cup. (So that turned out to be the last day of the sale.)

Then visited Tom Dennis cameras where I saw the same Panasonic digital camera in the window that the fellow photographing Kestrel chicks in the Leg o'Mutton reservoir in Barnes had been using. To my surprise it wasn't an SLR but there were digital SLR's by Canon and Nikon to see (one of the latter being the cheapest at about £400 including a zoom lens). But they're still too heavy and bulky for my liking. (Actually, the Kestrel chicks weren't in the reservoir, just in a hole in a tree by the reservoir).

Next to a 'high-street' jeweller's (Ernest Jones - diamond specialists) where had a long and interesting conversation with the very acceptably buxom blonde shop-assistant about the ins and outs of diamonds, certificates, origins and other stones including sapphires, blue, pink and otherwise, rubies and others. It would appear that having a ring custom designed and made might be two to three times as expensive and in one sense not such 'good value' as an 'off the shelf' piece. However, it might be of better quality and 'heavier', not to mention the priceless? value of uniqueness and individuality. A ring ('off the shelf') for £1500 came with its diamonds individually certificated.

Later I try another 'high-street' jeweller's (F. Hinds) and pursue the same questions with broadly similar results. This chain looks a little more 'downmarket' (more reasonable, better value?) and can also have rings made to order by other manufacturers (if that's not the wrong word).

Thence to my second (excluding bookshop) 'second-hand' shop of the day (The British Heart Foundation) where, not having bought a pair of shorts for three pounds in the hospice shop, I buy 'Disgracefully Yours' - about ladies growing old disgracefully; The Road Ahead by Bill Gates et al with a nice explanation of email (1994) (my spell-checker doesn't like 'email' and suggests 'Emil', 'mail' or 'Em-ail' (sic) - Cupertino as bad as Seattle); and a little pocket book of the sacred symbols of The (bloody) Maya. There bump (almost literally) into Dave the trusty mechanic from South Ferriby.

Walking past the bookshop again I decide to pop in and see if they have any books by Thor Heyerdahl.
"Who?"
"I think I'm going to fall over, you haven't heard of Thor Heyerdahl??!!"
"No"
"I looked on the internet about ten years ago", (shop-assistants then barely in secondary school), "and found about 50,000 references for Thor Heyerdahl - I guess today it'd be about 5 million".
"Well what does he write?"
"Difficult to explain."
I try to explain anthropology and "Kon-Tiki".
"How do you spell higher-darl?"
I spell it and it's typed into the database:
"Oh, we had a copy of Kon-Tiki but nothing now unless it's on the shelves and we don't know about it."
"Where would anything like that be?"
We settle on travel or biography but find nothing except I notice "Out of India" by Tim Pigott-Smith and I decide to buy that with the 25% discount so it's only three pounds. Perhaps I should have had a good look at the Taschen coffee-table erotica bearing in mind the 25% off but I didn't. So little time! And it's a hot day.

Returning home I have to turn round when I bump into the tail-end of the Winterton Show parade. At home I snack on fruit and fruit-loaf and spend a couple of hours reading The Shooting Gazette which son has bought 'for a hoot' but left in the car.
It's all fascinating stuff. A different world of 'conservation minded lovers of the wild' who spend their time blasting hundreds of pheasants, grouse, partridges, duck, deer, dove, wild boar, foxes, hares, zebra, wildebeest and impala - to name a few out of the sky or landscape.

It's a fascinating read with all sorts of interesting articles on conservation, guns, dogs, duck punts, arts and crafts and clearly the gentry, from a totally different perspective - but why the hell do they do it? Perhaps I should have bought that biography of Peter Scott in the BHF shop for my possible enlightenment since he, I believe, was once a keen 'sportsman' but gave up shooting in favour of conservation.

Finally to the club (no, not Piccadilly, but the Humber Yawl Club, founded 1883, in Winteringham) for a little chitter-chatter. Show Vijay my Hindi printouts from Google in Safari. Discover England lost but a Portugal-Brazil final is not possible as they would meet in the semi-final (later Brazil are beaten by France so it's an all European semi-final with Italy and Germany besides France and Portugal I think.) No, I'm not interested in football but let's hope Portugal win.

Then a conversation about engagement rings with Lynne. Will I/Won't I buy one before going to Spain and Georgi coming out - perhaps we buy one in Spain?

'Nough for nough (ough nough nought that again!) and at 1.15am time for bed - will backdate post later so it appears under 1st July and not the second.