British weather is notorious. We have a long standing tradition of beginning conversations on that topic. Today will be no exception. Hurricane Bill (or what was left of it) certainly made an impression. It didn't rain throughout the week but we had some heavy showers and yet more amber triangles on our television screens every hour. Today is sunny and bright, a hazy vista of pale blue sky and silver edged cumulus on the horizon. It's also distinctly cold. Hang on, isn't this August? What happened to Global Warming? I thought we were all going to die of heat stroke?

Seven Year Service

It's no good, my old guitar has served well but it needs a fettle. So off I went down to the local music store and asked for a seven year service (my description, not theirs). The resident guitar guru asked to see my guitar and promptly rattled off an annoyingly good solo on it, declaring it was fine.

Yes... But the intonation might be off?

He shrugged and told me he couldn't complete the work before October anyway because he's getting married and won't be in the workshop until then. What? You mean to tell me you're having sex and not fixing my guitar?

Researcher of the Week

Recently I've been bumping into an old mate of mine. I used to play in bands with H during my days as a local wannabee drum hero, and none too suprisingly, he still plays bass guitar even after twenty five years. He does sessions in London now and good for him. However, he also now haunts the library as I do but his intention is to research medals, and every time I see him he's buried in family tree and military websites collating information.

I asked him curiosity how many medals he'd researched. About six hundred, he tells me. All that work and you just know H won't do anything with it.

What is it with people in this town? There's another guy I know who's an expert on the American Civil War, and someone who's given lectures over there on that very subject. Some people might be able to tell you which units fought at the Battle of Anyoldburg, but he can tell you who their commander was, what he had for breakfast that day, and the name of the dog he fed the scraps to. But he won't write a book on the subject.

I know the gentleman concerned is strongly anti-war in his thinking (perhaps that's no bad thing considering) and considers the glorification and entertainment aspects of military study as undesirable. For that reason, he always concentrates on peripheral issues dealing with his favourite conflict and dislikes discussing the actual confrontations themselves, despite being supremely knowledgable about them. All that research and it will die with him. Surely the study of history is to perpetuate knowledge and understanding?