With dad

On Tuesday I took a National Express bus from Victoria to Newport to see my dad. I chose this particular journey a few weeks ago as it was a funfare at only £3 (also £3 to get back plus 90p to Victoria and 90p back again). I took two books with me - one on Christ's session, which I am studying at present. A J Tait's 19th Century work is a full and scholarly opus but I made a dent in it. I also had with me a popular work on Copernicus by William T Vollman. I've read three other books in the series (on Darwin, Curie and Rutherford - this didn't read so easily).

Of course, having reached Newport, I still needed to get to Croesyceiliog. It cost me the same amount to get as far as Cwmbran Town Centre (I enquired about a black cab and that would have cost £12!). My dad then picked me up from there and took me to the little flat he now lives in. We had thought of going out for a bit but my nephew William was home ill and staying with his granfer so we just sat and catting and watching TV.

I never see day time TV and if I do it's the kids watching their programmes. So I had a brief introduction to a whole fairly new world. Our schedule took in five programmes.

Dickinson's Real Deal (ITV1 14.30ff)

Spin Star (ITV1 15.15ff)

Countdown (C4 15.25ff)

Flog it! (BBC2 15.45ff)

Deal or no deal (C4 16.15ff)

The Paul O'Grady show (C4 17.00ff)

So that's an antiques show, two gameshows, another antiques show and another games show then an interview show. I'd seen the upmarket gameshow Countdown many times and was aware of most of the other programmes. Spin Star was new to me (Only for unmarried ladies - my dad liked my pun!). The sponsors are William Hill (who on my mental map are only a few doors down from the Antichrist) but it was a well devised gambling and quiz show and somehow watching other people gambling like that doesn't feel wrong. I was particularly impressed with the way the questions were easy yet worth asking. I'd heard of Noel Edmonds' Deal or no deal and was glad to get to the bottom of how it works. It's another well devised gambling game that creates some tension. Paul O'Grady had Julie Walters and Maureen Lipman on selling their books. Both are brilliant raconteurs (or national treasures as he called them) but it didn't quite work with two of them.

Anyway it was good to chat with my dad who keeps quite well though he has trigeminal neuralgia in his face, which cuts in now and again and is a little unsteady on his feet. I'd hoped to see my sister too but that didn't work out and so my dad took me back to Newport for the 6.30 bus home. I did some more reading and then got chatting to a Hindu doctor heading to London for a conference. I thought it was interesting that rather than defending Hindu doctrine she just felt life works better if you believe in God and listen to your conscience.