Lackadaisical Me

Repeat after me: "This ain't the Marriott"

Well, I tried. I attempted. I deigned to commit. But alas, sloth intrudes and a general need to lie in bed feeling dead to the world makes you succumb for a few days of beached nothingness. And getting infuriated at Hollyoaks - Max died, no one I personally knew cried; Shipwrecked 2008: Battle of the Islands - they should all be drowned in the South Pacific, or at least marooned there ... for-bloody-ever, and Alicia in Africa: "You go patronise a whole continent, girl!". In chronological order.

Or is that just me?

I got back from Manchester late Thursday night. Blame the trains. My Littlehampton conductor said to me: "That's a long way!". I really didn't know how to respond. "YES, IT IS!" Sarcasm or enthusiasm of tone where appropriate turned into a couple of options. I also considered the relative nature of the journey: I wasn't exactly coming back from the Moon. Instead I opted for the silence of the stunned; or more truthfully, the silence of one who simply cannot be arsed. That's what six hour train journeys with a cross-London interlude end up doing to you.

The BotB experience was exhausting and delightfully Kubrickian in its synchronicity with the concept of corridors. We spent a lot of time in them. As I took in the colours and sensations that further saturated this already soggy quiz-life, I realised a couple of things: 1) sheeettttt, I should have tried to unleash a full strength Broken Hearts team on the show 2) I had probably broken the record of number of hairstyles sported by a quiz contestant during the last ten years - a dream I had subconsciously fulfilled with the dodgy locks so long that it was blasted with something called a hairdryer, that fried my scalp. Ouch. Oooh. I almost murmurred: stop, please. No more. Leave it be.

However, there's a few more options left: the Grant Mitchell crop and the Alex Kapranos sidey. I'll consider them all before deciding to chop it all off and go back to the 'crop francais original'.

I'll add more tomorrow in the sketchiest detail possible - and oh did you see a South African horse called Archipenko win at Ascot yesterday? Weird as ... - but here's some of the new FE again:

FE: VII
1 Born into an old noble family in Ovstug in 1803, which Russian Romantic poet joined the Foreign Office in 1822 and accompanied his relative, Count Ostermann-Tolstoy to Munich, where he fell in love with the Bavarian Countess Amalie Lerchenfeld who inspired such poems as Tears/Slyozy, K N., and la pomniu vremia zolotoe, and remained abroad for 22 years?
2 One of the most distinguished virtuoso pianists of the 19th century, which German composer's works include (Op. 1) Fantaisie et Variations sur des differens Motifs de l’opéra Euryanthe de C. M. v. Weber; the operas Florinda, ou les Maures en Espagne (1851) and Cristina di Svezia(1855); the work for voice and piano Les soirées aux Tuileries. Douze mélodies allemandes; and the instrumental work Mélodies anglaises?
3 Best known for his illustrations of the Kalevala, which Finnish painter produced such paintings as Lake Keitele (1905), Ahlström family (1890), The Aino triptych (1891) and The Defence of the Sampo (1896)?
4 The Tugu Monas, meaning 'the National Monument tower', is a 450 ft (137 m) tall tower in which capital city, symbolising the fight for the country's independence?
5 In which year was the Tōkaidō Shinkansen, the first ever Japanese high-speed 'bullet train' line between Tokyo and Shin-Ōsaka, opened?

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Answers to FE:VII
1 Fyodor Tyutchev 2 Sigismond Thalberg 3 Akseli Gallen-Kallela 4 Jakarta 5 1964