22:36 - 17.07.05
Magic
The cabbie who brought me home after I picked up groceries this morning was of the Sikh persuasion. He mentioned he was still a little tired since had partied late in to the night last night. A good friends'wedding. Sikhs seem to celebrate lifes milestones with joy and frequency. It is a very close knit community in that respect although politically it is one of the most fractured. Since I had just wastched Bride and Prejudice the day before I though I might as well get the low down from the expert. WAs the scenery and the dancing authentic? He couldn't speak directly to that since he hadn't watched the movie yet but he listened while I described the dance sequences. No was I certain it was really set in the Punjab. Well Amritsar is the site of the Golden Temple of the Sikhs and that is where the story took place. Bedides I recognized some punjabi being spoken. I think he was a bit sceptical about that because most westerners can't even hear the separate words let alone interpret them, but I've been hearing them for more than a quarter of a century. If babies can pick up the language of their family it seems to me I should be able to do at least half as well. Besides I also can pick out some Hindi - it isn't the same. I think the temple sacrifice in the Indiana Jones Temple of Doom was done in Hindi if you want to make the comparison dear diary. That ritual was an actual sacrament to the destroyer goddess Kali. Kali is from the Hindu faith.
My credit card apparently was one of the ones where hackers stole data from the card company and the replacement they promised a couple of weeks ago finally arrived Friday. I called them this sfternoon to set that up and confirm receipt. I don't know what is wrong with postal delivery to our home but it should not take ten days for letters to go through the system when they are sent locally like my paycheques or even nationally like the card. There was a bust of employees at the postal sorting palnt about a year ago. They were culling the mail or any goodies they could shake down. I wonder if all the theives were caught?
Exactly 24 hours after I received the new Harry Potter book Half Blood Prince, I finsihed it. I had meant to do that last night but my youngest snaggled it as I was writing to you and didn't put it down until he had polished off nearly 400 pages too. I really enjoyed the book. Depending on how much reading of other mythologies and cultural root stories readers will find this book richly layered with all sorts of nuances capturing several traditions. There was a significant amount of humour woven through out and I laughed out loud quite frequently. Good jokes. As in the other books there is a fair amount of foreshadowing for the next installment although without knowledge of some of the allusions one might not realize the value of the clues being offered. The first time Harry enters Dumbledores ofice in the first book is one of the keys I think. I know already who R.A.B. is even though the reference itself is vague the context isn't. Ceridwen's cauldron and Shelob's lair both I think. Or watch Lord of the Dance. One thing JK Rowling does is offers a lot of clues on her website as well. The relationship with Ginny was projected when she revealed about a year ago that Ginny's full name was a variation of Guinevere. Uh huh. Good writing.
My youngest is at the Stampede grounds again - last day. Yee Haw. He won a stuffed loch ness monster/ogopogo if one wants local colour on his first day and claims he has won more this time. His buddy was at the grandstand show with him when we talked a while ago. He had just won a really nice belt buckle so they were both pretty giddy. I'm glad they're having so much fun. Time to go finish up dishes and feed the cats though. Tough job but someone needs to do it.
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