27 July 2016

All our times have come

This is my 599th post. I can't believe that a. I've rambled on that much and b. you've all listened. Well, read, I suppose. Anyway...

We all went to Steve's grave today. Took some flowers, did a tiny bit of tidying. There weren't any other flowers there this time, as there have been in the past. I wondered if someone would come along, but they didn't. I kind of hope they do though, and see our offerings and know someone else is thinking about him.

We sat on a bench for a bit, and Sherlock had a lot of questions about post-death rituals. He wants to be a ghost. Slightly hampered by the fact he doesn't believe in ghosts...but as a concept, he wants to believe, and he wants to do some haunting.

He got most excited by being turned into a diamond (Mycroft's suggestion), being shot into space (John's suggestion) and being buried at sea (My suggestion). None of us really knew much about anything apart from being buried at sea, though, so that was his quiz topic of the day. He wants to donate himself to science anyway, but he said once they were done he'd like to be turned into a diamond and then shot into space. Everyone's got to have an ambition, I suppose?


Work has been....work. Good results, bad results.

Sherlock has announced this is how he wants to sleep for our camping trip:

Don't forget where you are and jump out of bed...

I said I thought I'd spend all night needing a wee. John pointed out at least you could just stick your chap out and go.... (I'm also confused as to the ingress and egress...but Sherlock has that in hand..."You'd just carry me and put me in it!" I don't know why I asked...)

Anyway, we have cautiously allowed the possibility of hammocks to enter our plans.


Aaaand now I have to go because Sherlock decided to see what percentage of his body weight of carrots he could fit in his mouth and now there are carrots all over the floor and the dogs are eating them ... never a dull moment.

89 comments:

Kestrel337 said...

Maybe it's closer to the bank than the camera angle made it seem?

A hammock would be lovely, especially one with netting to keep the bugs out. Maybe I can get netting to go around my house? There have been centipedes in the bathroom the last two times I've gotten up in the middle of the night. Not fun.

I hope someone does see your flowers. I think it would be very nice to know someone else was thinking of those who've gone before, even if I didn't know who they were.

REReader said...

Ah. I did wonder what led to his comment about being buried at sea came from.

I agree with Kestrel--it has to be good for whoever comes along after you to know that Steve is missed.

Hey, Sherlock, I've been eating a great many baby carrots lately--they are somewhat easier to fit into your mouth. ;) (Of course most of what stores sell as "baby carrots" are just regular carrots cut up to look like tiny carrots for easier snacking--but they are cute!)

REReader said...

(...what let to his comment about being buried at sea. Delete the extra "came from", please!)

John H. D. Watson said...

There are certainly worse ways to go than being turned into a diamond and shot into space.

Greg Lestrade said...

I think the idea is you 'go' before being turned into the diamond.... at the least, I hope they do the compacting very fast if not!

Sherlock eating carrots is fine. Dogs eating lots of carrots equals .... things I don't want to be involved in cleaning up.

REReader said...

Good point! *considers* Both of them.

I dunno, I think it's sort of nice for there to be a place for people to remember those whom they've lost. Somehow leaving flowers at a launch pad doesn't have the same resonance. Although perhaps if it becomes more common, different customs will arise?

Anon Without A Name said...

Trust a medical and (ex-)military man to consider the scatological practicalities :-)

Greg Lestrade said...

Nameless - I was always taught not to do it on my own doorstep ;)

Joolz said...

It's nice that you got to remember Steve together, sharing these things brings back good memories & stirs up interesting discussions. All of your post-death suggestions sound very interesting, especially becoming a ghost. ;) Who would you want to haunt, Sherlock?

That hammock looks amazing - I always imagine I would fidget my way out of one & end up on the ground, though, so I don't think being over water would be a risk worth taking. ;) Should make for a fun camping trip for you all though. Are you going soon or not til nearer the end of the school hols?

Greg Lestrade said...

We would definitely get a hammock with a net to secure any small wriggly people falling out....

I think Sherlock mainly wants to get in places he's not allowed, rather than really haunt anyone.


Thanks for all your nice comments, everyone. One year maybe I'll spend all day hanging around the graveyard, see if I can find out who it is. It is nice to remember, and I feel very, very lucky that John is so understanding about me doing so.

Greg Lestrade said...

The weather gods noticed i bought shorts. It's rained every day since.

REReader said...

And the question becomes whether it's the umbrella factor or that they've become fashion critics... ;)

Small Hobbit said...

RR - Quick, let's rain then Lestrade won't wear those dreadful shorts?

Joolz said...

SH - More likely it's Mycroft exerting his will over the powers that be to avoid the exposure before he can escape to his summer job. ;)

Greg Lestrade said...

My shorts are nice! I'm not afraid to express myself.

Small Hobbit said...

That might be what Mycroft is worried about.

REReader said...

Well, who can say with weather gods? They must have very changeable tastes, because weather.

Sherlock said...

I want to jump out of a helicopter into a net I bet I could it would be fun like flying.

REReader said...

It does sound exciting, Sherlock! The helicopter would have to be flying fairly low, wouldn't it? Or you'd punch a hole right through the net, I would think. Where did the idea come from--a television show?

Greg Lestrade said...

I don't know where the helicopter part came from, but the rest is because a guy skydived 25,000 ft without a parachute into a net today...or possibly yesterday...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-36935087

REReader said...

...Mad.

I see that he has some 18,000 regular sky dives of experience and trained for 2 years for this. I would think that would be the minimum amount of experience and training needed.

Kestrel337 said...

I find it...interesting? Yeah, we'll go with interesting. Interesting, that he is a Safety and Training Adviser with the US Parachute Association.

Sherlock, you remind me of one of my kids. We'll watch something like that and the whole rest of the family is going 'oh, wow, um, no thanks but good for them'. My kid will be saying 'I WANT TO DO THAT'.

Greg Lestrade said...

Texts received from my husband's phone today include 'pizza for dinner!' 'we bought olives' 'and we got some of that nice prosciutto, love' and a short time later 'can you buy some olives?'...and, in response to my query as to the fate of the earlier olives 'yeah, we ate them. And the prosciutto. Can you get some of that too?'

REReader said...

Hee! Well, some things are just made for nibbling. *looks innocent*

Greg Lestrade said...

Well, after the chaos in London last night and a very late night at work, I'm now off for a few days.
First thing to do...bake a chocolate, mango and ginger cake!

pandabob said...

I want cake!!

Have a good day, you deserve a break :-)

REReader said...

Hurrah for days off! (Cake is a good start. For almost anything!)

Anon Without A Name said...

Enjoy your days off!

As much as I love a good cake, chocolate, mango and ginger strikes me an "interesting" combination of flavours - it doesn't appeal at all to me, but I'm sure your cake recipients will enjoy :-)

REReader said...

I hope everyone is coming up on a fun and restful weekend...

REReader said...

Oh--and enjoy the Olympics!

Greg Lestrade said...

Restful...no.

Brilliant, yes!

John H. D. Watson said...

Happy birthday, love. :)

Greg Lestrade said...

I don't know if I should be grateful or worried that you can be so sneaky!

Nah, obviously I'm grateful - amazed. I've never had a better birthday party.

Lancs. Anon said...

If you're very old like me you'll remember that Brett Sinclair's family motto translated as 'Sneaky is Best'!

Happy Birthday, Greg

Joolz said...

Might we know what manner of delights you have had showered upon you for your birthday by your sneaky husband? I'm sure they've been wonderful whatever they are.

Happy Birthday Greg. :)

John H. D. Watson said...

I've been taking lessons from Anthea ;)

Greg Lestrade said...

Lancs. - I am, on the Sherlock age-scale now 'so old' (accompanied by a sad shake of the head and slight look of disbelief.)

Joolz - we came out for a birthday picnic. Just the four of us and the dogs (Maf already wished be happy birthday by allowing me to stroke her this morning). It's an absolutely gorgeous day here.

Except, gathered in the park like some sort of celebratory flash-mob was...everyone. I mean, I'm sort of expecting you lot to jump out from behind a bush at any minute, if I'm honest. Nicky's here with the kids, Sam and Rach came - and brought Mum! Molly's here, Murray is, Sal, Anthea and Mrs Hudson - everyone! And there's cake and Pimms and footy/rugby and frisbee (when we can get it off the dogs) and kids finding Pokemon (okay, kids and Molly....) and supersoakers/waterpistols and a whole lot of fun and chaos.

And I had no idea!

John H. D. Watson said...

The kids and Molly and Murray... It's contagious.

Joolz said...

What an excellent surprise, well done John & everyone. Hope you enjoy such a fab day, Greg. Happy birthday.

I have to guiltily admit I was also infected yesterday so am also busy catching 'em all. ;)

Greg Lestrade said...

I can't say Pokemon has grabbed me, but I have played more football than is probably sensible for someone SO OLD. The kids love it though.

Love you, John Watson - it's all amazing! And couldn't have picked a better day for it.

John H. D. Watson said...

I love you too. It was a pretty good day, wasn't it?

Greg Lestrade said...

Just brilliant.

And the way Sherlock has just asked you why we're still here makes me think it isn't over yet.... not that I need to go anywhere because these warm evenings are just glorious and I've already had the most amazing day.

John H. D. Watson said...

Well...there might be one little thing left...

Greg Lestrade said...

Mmmmhmmmmm??

John H. D. Watson said...

You remember that place we went for our anniversary, where we stayed the night? I thought it might be a nice end to the day. You know, relaxing...

Greg Lestrade said...

I still have absolutely no idea what I did to deserve you, because you've turned my life around and made me the happiest bloke on the planet.

I would love to 'relax' with you. And Nicky just told us to sod off and stop being soppy in her presence, so we should go!!

John H. D. Watson said...

Well, I'm pretty certain I'm going to keep on being soppy for a bit so I suppose we'd better go, yes!

Anon Without A Name said...

Happy birthday Lestrade! Sounds like you've had - are having - a well-deserved wonderful day :-)

(nice one, John)

REReader said...

Since it is not yet midnight here, I do not have to add "belated" to my Happy Birthday, even if you won't see it 'til after--but it's just extending the celebration after all! And I clear don't have to wish you a special day, as you've clearly had a very special one...great work, John!

Greg Lestrade said...

It was all completely brilliant. (competently brilliant, my phone says - also true).

danger and I are now having a big pub Sunday lunch... And then Sherlock says they have another surprise waiting for me...

REReader said...

Yay for complete (and competent) birthday weekends!

Sherlock said...

He is FIVE TIMES older than me and when I've been alive five times as long as I have been now I'm going to have done a million million things that he hasn't done.

And you should come home soon and not drink too much beer or you might fall asleep this afternoon because of being so old and beer and we've got a brilliant surprise for you so you can't be asleep.

REReader said...

A brilliant surprise sounds exciting!

(A million, Sherlock? You'd better get cracking, you're nearly 200,000 things behind schedule! ;) I do hope you get to do everything you want to do in your life--but it's also good to a few things less so you can do a few things really well. Both ways are good!)

Greg Lestrade said...

I'm completely sure Sherlock has done well over 200,000 things in his life. And will easily reach a million million things before he's 30, let alone 50.

The surprise, by the way, was a three-layered cake with chocolate, strawberry and vanilla layers, along with fresh strawberries, chocolate cream, cherries, some dragon fruit, chocolate buttons and a rainbow of glitter in a sort of colour-wheel effect, with sparklers ("We couldn't fit 50 candles on it, Anthea said we would burn the house down and have to call the fire brigade!").

And we were met at the door by dogs wearing party hats. Maf also wore one ...briefly.

REReader said...

I suppose he does do everything at supersonic speeds, at that!

That sounds like the ultimate in celebratory cakes--way to go, Sherlock and Mycroft (and helpers)!

Kestrel337 said...

I'll add a belated to mine, though. It sounds like a marvelous time.

Greg Lestrade said...

It really was. Im so grateful to everyone who came. Enjoying my last rest day now with John and Sherlock and the dogs -Mycroft's gone back to spy school after spending the weekend with us. So we are dog sitting again. Nice to get out and walk them though.

REReader said...

I was going to wish you a restful last day off, but I think you had more fun so far without bothering with restful!

Greg Lestrade said...

Well done Tom Daley and Daniel Goodfellow!! Bronze medals for the pair of them, fantastic effort!

Greg Lestrade said...

1. Why can't my officers take a telephone message? ' someone called for you ' ' who? ' ' don't know. They asked for you though '

2. It's almost impossible to say 'cheese' clearly when brushing your teeth.

REReader said...

1. It's more amusing this way?

2. Re: photo or dinner?

Anonymous said...

Belated birthday wishes! It sounds as if the most thorough celebration imaginable was had.

Did the shorts get an airing? I was actually IN LONDON (yes, and Edinburgh before that and it was brilliant but very touristy and not really that interesting to those not involved) last week, and we only got really rained on one day, so surely you had a chance to display your . . . um . . . perplexing sartorial taste.

-fA

Greg Lestrade said...

Sadly for everyone involved i didn't find the lack of decent message taking amusing and they all got shouted at.

pandabob said...

Once your age passes double digits there's no excuse for bad message taking!!

I'm glad you had a good birthday Greg, sorry I was rude enough not to wish you a good day on the day ;-).

Does Sherlock have much planned for the rest of his holidays? I can't believe how quickly they're running away with us!!

I hope you have a productive day :-)

REReader said...

Back in the Dark Ages, when I had part time and summer jobs as what was grandly termed an administrative assistant, there were these pink-colored slips of paper we had to fill out completely for phone messages, with spaces for callers name, time of call, phone number of caller, message, whether a call back was requested or required (and no doubt such incidentals as age, date of birth, etc.) (or perhaps not), You could bring in a pile of such slips and hand them out for phone message training... ;D

Weren't you talking about taking a trip this summer to where you all met? (Or I could be misremembering. It's a nicer word than hallucinating, and this heat is frying my brains enough that either is entirely possible.)

Greg Lestrade said...

Thanks Anonybob.

As soon as Mycroft is set free from spy school we are indeed going camping.

RR - they get taught how to take messages a long time ago. There's no excuse. Hence the shouting.and some swearing. Needless to say, message taking quality today is sky high. Shoe size, inside leg, hair color, zodiac sign, the works

REReader said...

A most effective teaching moment, then. :D

Yay, camping!

Anonymous said...

And some people say shouting and swearing aren't effective teaching tools! Know your audience.

Yay camping indeed!

-fA

Greg Lestrade said...

I forget how exciting the Olympics can be. I'm sure Sherlock's announced he's taking up at least 32 new sports since it's started.

Greg Lestrade said...

Oh, and apparently it is/was left hander's day again. (which I'm sure comes around more than once a year.) So I'll give my little south paw an extra hug.

REReader said...

ITA about the Olympics! (Why don't they show more fencing?) (Because fencing is a thing I never think about except during the Olympics, but it's so cool!)

Greg Lestrade said...

I think Sherlock watched a lot of fencing. And diving. And gymnastics and a number of other things a small boy confined to a flat probably shouldn't be encouraged to watch. (Not that he is confined. But when he is, the more...elaborate movements are a bit dangerous.)

REReader said...

Oh, yes, diving and gymnastics, so amazing what they can do! (I do always worry they'll hit their heads, especially in the platform diving and some of the gymnastic dismounts.) But yeah, definitely not things to practice in a rather full space.

I confess that while I do like to watch the sculls and the swimming races, I have no interest in track and field. I don't know why not, but there you go.

REReader said...

Fencing is a nice sport to take up, come to think of it, should Sherlock stay interested. (My brother took fencing when he was an undergraduate, and then switched over to medieval style for his SCA activities--Society for Creative Anachronism. He enjoyed it a lot, even though he never put in any effort to get really good.)

Becca said...

RR, one of the British gymnasts cracked her head/neck really badly on a floor exercise. I was afraid she broke her neck. Not only did she keep going later that night (landing two vaults that put Britain into the team finals) but she absolutely nailed her floor routine during the team finals. That takes real guts.

REReader said...

I saw that, Becca--so terrifying. Wasn't her sister on the team, too, watching? *shivers* These young athletes--it's easy, with all the easygoing interviews, to forget how truly extraordinary they are, not just in what they can do but in their fierce drive.

Anonymous said...

This year there's been people moving house, big-deal interviews and vacation travel disrupting our Olympics obsession. It's kinda disorienting, not being immersed in it. I am always amazed at the obsessive hard work and discipline, super-refined technique, all married to natural ability - it makes even the sports I don't really understand interesting.

(I think Sherlock would do really well in a sport like fencing - one in which strategy and a "head game" is so important as well as the physical technique.)

-fA

Kestrel337 said...

It seems like every year, I learn something new and interesting from watching the Olympics. Of course the gymnastics and diving and swimming are fun to watch, but I really like seeing the sports that aren't so popular in the US. This year we watched two, and while handball was a bit beyond me I will admit to a nascent interest in rugby.

I took fencing for one semester in college. I was much better at my other phys ed class: relaxation. I suspect the reverse might be true for certain young people.

Greg Lestrade said...

I used to know a German guy who was very angry that few countries appreciated handball. We probably didn't help by making a lot of lewd suggestions regarding the name...

REReader said...

Heh!

One of my officemates in grad school was a handball player (at the "for fun" level, not Olympic class!)--6'5", build like a football player (American football, that is), and he would get very annoyed when people would be shocked that he preferred handball. It seems it's a very aggressive game? I don't know much about it, but what I saw was very, very high speed.

Desert Wanderer said...

I just spent two weeks on mids, which sucked except for the getting to watch the Olympics every night. So many cool sports, and some I'd never seen before!

(Belated happy birthday, Lestrade. I'm so, so happy it was a lovely one. You deserve it. <3 )

REReader said...

Speaking of birthdays--happy birthday, DW!

(What are mids?)

Desert Wanderer said...

The midnight shift, also called "graveyard" shift. Notionally 2100-0500, but I never worked less than 12s, and usually 15-18s.

The shift before that is "swings" and the one before that is "days." I think the Met does it differently? Lestrade?

Greg Lestrade said...

It all depends here - different divisions call them different things. When I was in Uniform I always worked early turn, late turn or nights. Now we do 12 hr shifts so it's just days or nights. I know one div calls them mornings, twighlights and nights.

REReader said...

12-hours (or 15-18) are very long shifts. Very long.

Greg Lestrade said...

So John reports that Anthea has delivered an envelope to our flat. Addressed to a Mr Mycroft Holmes. It's on the mantelpiece, just sitting there, looking innocent. As if it isn't important... But we know it is!! I can't even see it and I'm excited.

pandabob said...

It's very important and we need to know!!!!

I hope Mycroft is as relaxed as he always seems about these things but not so relaxed that he doesn't put you all (and us) out of your curiosity soon :-D

REReader said...

What pandabob said!!

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