Ides of March.

[Bierzo Baggie]

One of the things that caught my attention on this forum was its high-brow literary content. Hey, even old Will Shakespeare himself writes here. Must admit that I’m a bit of a Shakespeare dunce. We had to study MacBeth at school and to try and maintain the attention of a class full of 14-year olds the teacher had the bright idea of showing us Polanski’s version on video. It was great, loads of blood, lesbian witches....I became a Polanski convert almost immediately....Shakespeare continues to escape me though.

Anyway, the expression “Ides of March” has somehow survived from my schooldays, stored away in my subconscious along with catchy 80s summer hits and irritating jingles from adverts (“Bachelors
savory rice..now it’s twice as nice” ....why has my selective memory malfunctioned in this way?). “Beware the ides of March”....I looked it up with google and sure enough it’s from Shakespeare; Julius Caesar, Act I, Scene II. What exactly is an ide? Well according to varying sources it’s the 15th of March, it’s the 15th of any month and it’s the beginning of Spring in the Roman calender. I’ll go for the last one. So there you are, Spring is near and will soon be painting new colours on the landscape, bringing fresh scents to the hedgerows, longer days..etc..etc... “Viva los ides of March”. Good name for a title. Good name for a band even.

Incidently, Shakespeare and Cervantes both died on the same day and 2005 marks the 400th anniversary of “El Quijote”. Everybody is supposed to read it. I’ll wait for the Polanski version.

Nearly forgot about the running..
Two lunchtimeH4Ls.
Monday. Railway route. 24 minutes. Windy.
Tuesday. Canal route. 28 minutes. Cold but sunny. Ran through a flock of sheep and goats. The sheepdogs scare the shit out of me but they’re only doing their jobs. Don’t kick big dogs on principle.