I had two great uncles who were killed in WWI, both were Jesuits. Apparently the mortality rate of Catholic priests was disproportionately high.These photographs are of the Canadian memorial at Vimy Ridge. They were taken on a field trip when I was studying Literature of WWI at Sussex University The memorial is spectacular. That said I found the regimented ranks of graves in the many cemeteries scattered across Normandy and Belgium, be they a small group of five or six, or thousands as at Tyne Cot, more poignant. Read Girl on The Run's wonderful poem about her recent visit to Ypres here
Boys' Toys
Eager readers will note that I have not blogged recently. This is because I have acquired a new toy, an Acer Aspire One Mini Laptop. It is brilliant. It boots up in seconds, has all the software you need ready installed, includes wifi. And though tiny, it is perfectly useable.
What more could you want? Well, being a boy I have spent four days fiddling with it to download new software and update some of the existing. Its operating system is a stripped version of Linux, Linpus, so fiddling did mean fiddling in the root directory with a system I have not encountered before. However I did find some very useful sites which I list in case anyone else is tempted.
Ten Tweaks for a new Acer Aspire One is the most useful.This FTP site has lots of software to download.
And the Acer Aspire One Forum is generally helpful - all possible questions are answered in it somewhere though they do take a lot of hunting to find.
Smoking and Drinking
After 20 days without alcohol I had a couple of bottles of wine with Sue over the past two days because she has been staying and it would have been rude not to. But as the no smoking is starting from tomorrow I shall have to return to the wagon till Christmas.
