Lochaber no more

I wanna go to America. I heard the Proclaimers song "Letter From America" today and it's made me feel like a visit over there. Not that the song's supposed to inspire that kind of feeling in people, but it did it for me. I don't think I can really do it this year, though, however much I rearrange my schedule, what with going to Germany next week and everything. I suppose I shouldn't complain.

Anyway, am I going to do any good in the various competitons and record attempts over the next week? I'm quite hopeful of successfully memorising 270 binary digits in a minute on the Friday, if all goes well. Which will be nice. I'm sure I'll do very unexceptionally in the mental calculation world cup itself, but in that it really is the taking part rather than the winning that I enjoy. As for the memory, it could go either way. I'm more interested in getting good scores in the numbers and cards rather than defying the odds and the lack of English translations to win the competition outright, but I'm really still not sure at all how well I'll do. It'll just have to take me by surprise, like all good things.

Went down to see Grandma today, and she gave me seven new pairs of socks. She (quite correctly) always assumes I don't own any socks that aren't full of holes. I seem to wear the things out at an astonishing rate. Perhaps I should learn how to darn. Another thing I should do is get a video camera. Whenever I see Grandma I always have the idea that someone should tape her telling her life story - I honestly think it would make great TV, because she tells it so well (she can talk for hours, uninterrupted) and because it really is fascinating in a real-person's-view-of-history kind of way. It's another thing on the things-to-do list, anyway.