Sausage Sandwich Game

I had lunch with my friend George yesterday and he said that he had met "a meretricious sesquipedalianist inebriated by the exuberance of his own verbosity" which our late father often said to me and I think was also said by Disraeli in the Commons, referring to Gladstone. I think, but if you know different perhaps you could tell me. My spellchecker has never heard of the word. Knew I would beat him/her someday.

George also told me a story about a link between Oscar Wilde and St Peter's Church just along the road from here in Morningside. Apparently, according to George's source, Wilde based the character Dorian Gray on a chap called Edward Gray, who was a friend of his in London. What kind of friendship is not clear. After Wilde's trial Gray trained for the priesthood but was, apparently unable to find a parish prepared to take him, but he had a rich acquaintance who decided to build a church where Gray could be installed as the priest. So he built St Peter's for him and there he served the good people of Edinburgh very happily.

George's sources are impeccable if not implacable, but I have my doubts about the story. I mentioned it to my friend John L when we were having a coffee later yesterday, but he had not heard the story. He tells me that he has a book on the history of the church and will bring it along to the cafe next time. So hopefully light will be cast. I will post a picture of the church sometime soon.


My Saturday morning radio was recently disturbed when Radio Scotland took Janice Forsyth off air. This meant I had to find some new accompaniment for my ironing etc. Saturday mornings on Radio 4 have never been the same since John Peel went and died on us in Cusco. But what a place to go? So R4 was out. I started listening to Danny Baker on Five Live and what a fine broadcaster he turns out to be. Very funny and inventive. He has a weekly feature called the sausage sandwich game which is one of the greatest of all radio games. Not quite as brilliant as Mornington Crescent but in that league. Incidentally does anyone have a copy of the rules for Mornington Crescent? I seem to have mislaid mine, and it's not the kind of game to play without a book of rules.

I've now had my CT scan and await MRI scan on 3rd of June. I've been given a date for my appointment with the consultant, Mr Douglas Speake, on 5th June, a week on Wednesday. So things are progressing, if somewhat slowly, but progressing.