I was sorry to hear of the death of Paul Newman, who was one of my early cinema heart-throbs, having seen "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" in Leicester Square just after it opened in London. I'll never forget the excitement of that jump into the river on the big-screen - "Hell, the rocks'll kill ya'" - and younger audiences raised on "Starsky and Hutch" and "Dukes of Hazzard" etc will not appreciate how ground breaking the "buddy" concept was at the time. I admit I prefered Robert Redford's looks as a teenager (although didn't he age much less well than Newman?) but I loved the twinkly charm of Newman, which apparently belonged to the private man too.

You also have to admire any film hunk who managed to stay married to the same wife for over 50 years and resisted punching all the idiot strangers who demanded to stare into his sapphire blue eyes; not to mention the millions he raised for charity with the profits from his sauce company, having decided he was personally rich enough...

We won't worry too much about "the Silver Chalice". A sad loss.

Has a lovely run in the sun yesterday around the Kingswood/Mogador area of Surrey. I tried to take close-ups of trees with berries, but didn't get the focus right. So here are my more general views:

Nice tree, don't you think?

The dog wouldn't stand still!

I liked the curve of this branch.
Very soon after I took this, David, Myra and I lost the trail. We found it briefly, only to lose it completely soon after. Luckily David had his mobile phone and we were directed back home, but arrived at least 20 minutes after everyone else. Serves us right for too much chatting and not enough running!

I loved watching the Olympics and the Paralympics and enjoyed our triumphs for a change! If the Olympics were a celebration of the human physique at perfection of form and performance, surely the Paralympics were a celebration of the human spirit at perfection of form and endurance. No-one can say that the paralympians were things of beauty, on the outside, but what examples of ability against the odds.

And a triumph too for whoever invented, for example the sport of Boccha (sp?) to display the skills of people who could hardly control their movements, or could hardly make a move, at all. Mind blowing, all of it, and certainly puts most of us in our place when we grumble about minor aches and pains.

Roll on 2012!

That's what I did yesterday. Whilst I spend hours at my computer, I'm not much of a one for adjusting the settings, but whilst once again sorting through wedding photos (I know I'm getting to be a bore, but I don't care) I decided to put a favourite one of the boy as wallpaper on my screen. I do know these things are possible, even though I hadn't previously attempted it, you see. So I did that to my satisfaction, but whilst there, came across the screen savers option, and on a whim, clicked the choice of having a random slide show of my photos.

What a joy! I do tend to wander about alot during my computer use (which is why I can claim to be watching TV whilst patently on Facebook) and yesterday I kept returning to the screen to a view from an almost forgotten holiday; a family or friend's special occasion; a favourite picture of my menfolk, and yes, some pictures of the wedding, and they all took me by surprise and brought a smile to my face.

I should have done it sooner. Now I can't wait to see who comes up next!

PS. This is what's on my screen as wallpaper now.

The weather is so foul I'm staying in. Between watching the Opening Ceremony of the Paralympics in Beijing and the qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix tomorrow, I've been sorting out yet more Wedding Photos.

This is one of the ones I've been waiting for - the full Travelling Away Team group picture. All those lovely people who travelled from other countries to be there on the Big Day. In fact, apart from Lewis and Keighly who had come from Vancouver, a considerable trip itself, everyone else had crossed continents!

Linda sent this one and called it "Mates." More properly, it's mates reunited. Jenny and I were saying what a nice hour we'd spent together, the morning after the wedding, catching up. She hadn't seen Joyce for about 6 years; I hadn't seen Linda for about 6 years; Jenny hadn't seen Linda for over 10 years - and yet the time gap was immaterial, we all just picked up where we left off. Joyce was meeting Linda for the first time and commented later "You have such lovely friends". I do.