Tuesday, November 5

Arthur - Stage Next


Arthur and I re connect at Waterloo Station, Platform 17, to walk across London via Euston Station, the Strand, Fleet Street then the City and Shoreditch and finally Bethnal Green, where we catch a train to Richmond. On the way we find a pub.

Arthur, age 59, retired this year following 35 years at TRW and then Northrop Grumman, which acquired TRW, a satellites business, where Arthur one of the lead engineers. He informs me a big challenge, working on a satellite, is the "realisation uncertainty" or knowing what is actually being built. This not so obvious when there are 100s of PhD technicians modifying and tinkering a highly complex objet

Arthur is now working through his reading list and working on a house in Los Angeles while he retains his penthouse flat in London NW1.  Over dinner we discuss Plato's reading of Socrates which became, many believe, the foundation of the Bible.

Meanwhile, a badger-cull aiming to kill 70% of the countryside badgers kills only 65% or 940 badgers. This is the lead BBC story, 11AM.

Tax admin: "Do you know what nationality you are?"
Me: "I'm British."
Tax admin: "That's OK, absolutely fine."
Me: "Well thank you."

“Run with the painters. I always did."
--Kurt Vonnegut