learning a language

I make no secret of the fact that I really wish I knew how to speak Finnish. Or at least, read it/ understand it (with all due respect there are presently no Finnish people who don't speak English who I want to talk to). I would really like to be in a position to do research on Finnish culture and related things with a deep knowledge of the place and its history. OK, so obviously, really wanting to do it is not going to get me far (more than not wanting to do it at all would, of course). 

I am well aware that this is a kind of pipe dream, but it entertains me and I can't really see how it does any harm. I suppose the only way it does harm is that I could be using my time to do great good, and instead I'm frittering my time away on a silly hobby that is highly unlikely to ever reap anything like a reward. Because, at 58, I'm already disadvantaged in (time-) terms of language learning and it's a very difficult language to learn. 

I did have a book on how to learn Finnish when I was a child, so it's been a longstanding interest, or at least, I was interested in it almost half a century ago and have become interested in it again. I only retain one memory from that book: the information that some (?) Finns might legitimately pronounce an 'n' as an 'm' when it comes before a 'p' (or maybe a 'b' as well?), the example given being 'menen pois': 'Minä menen pois' means 'I will go away'. The main thing I did with that book, which was a uniform language-learner's edition in a series I have currently forgotten the name of, was apply a coloured transfer of a line drawing of Rupert's friend Pong-Ping to the front of it. Meaningless. 

(Pong-Ping far left, looking more insane than I've ever seen him.) 

Anyway with any luck my enthusiasm for this idea will slink away (these passions have typically often subsided once the route to attaining them becomes clear, but I must say that is oddly less the case as I get older than it used to be). In the meantime I find Finnish on duolingo becoming more difficult as I re-do the exercises I breezed through a few months ago - my spelling's getting worse. 

I'm also well aware that Duolingo is not really teaching you a language, but it's keeping one's hand in, isn't it. 

April's party

April turned three yesterday and had a party today. I turned 44 last week and didn't have a party at all, in case you were wondering why you weren't invited. April's party was pretty good. Laurie asked me how Millie was after being in a car crash, and I told him she was doing surprisingly well. Florence held my finger in five of hers. Nicola lent me the Mark E Smith biography (via Laurie, who's just finished it). I talked to Jon Michell about the Virgins (again), I talked to Guy about Arthur Russell and also the Necessaries, I talked to Ellen about where she works which is like, some upmarket bar and what chances there were of persuading her to play the Huon reunion/launch show.
Earlier in the day I watched a bit of Secret Service with Rupert. This is an incredible Gerry Anderson series from 1969 which was the last of the supermarionation shows. It really blends live action with puppetr... er, supermarionation very closely. I had never heard of it or seen it before, it was very cool. If I'd had a dream that I was going to watch a show from 1969 starring Stanley Unwin as a clergymen called Father Unwin that blended a puppet of Stanley Unwin with the real Stanley Unwin, I would think that was appropriate subject matter for one of my dreams, which often do feature odd permutations of popular culture like that. This was not a sodding dream.