I read this book a couple of weeks ago. I experienced a little trepidation when I started reading it, because I worried that it was going to be highly academic and therefore a real trial to get through. I shouldn’t have worried; it was magnificent. The whole first chapter – it might have been a long prologue – was about how Europeans treated the Greeks and their inherited heritage (hmmm, just occurred to me those words are related), from the Englightenment onwards – which explains a great deal about the received tradition, really. Just for that it was worth reading – why a classical education was stressed (to keep the upper classes different from the masses, in his opinion), and pointing out the things that 19th C historians glossed over, to make themselves feel better (slavery, poor treatment of women, what Athenian democracy really meant). He goes from the Mycenaeans and Minoans – what we know – through to the closure of the Platonic Academy in the 4th C AD by Christians, meaning that for the last part he spends a lot of time looking at the East, which is different from most other books on Greece, which will stop with the conquering of Greece by Rome.

I learnt a lot. And it was a pure joy to read, too – I genuinely looked forward to picking it up, because his style was entrancing, something too often lacking in academic books, especially ones about classical topics.

In Human Rights the other day, we were talking about slavery and ways of getting rid of it. One of my kids said: “Miss, when all else fails: nuclear warfare.”

I guess he has a point – an ultimate one, but still a point.

We just watched Stealth, because we missed it at the movie – Joshua Lucas, Jamie Foxx (how could they do that to him??) and the not-tarty Jessica (Biel, therefore, not Alba). It was ok, if different from what we were expecting. With a tagline like “Fear the sky”, you would expect that the whole movie would be about dealing with the rogue AI in the stealth ‘plane. Some is; some isn’t. It’s not a bad movie – certainly not in the Flight of the Phoenix category – but I must say I was a bit disappointed by the plot. And J was disappointed by the CGI, and the poor quality thereof, for a movie made in 2005.

I’d still recommend it – when it goes to weekly – as a brainless action flick.

Library Spice, on JJJ, played the first song by the Raconteurs yesterday (or the day before?). It was called “Steady as she goes.” Their first album is due out mid-year.

So what?

The singer is Jack White.

And it was way, way cool.

They had new eggies yesterday.

However.

Many of the eggies were white – dead. And this morning, there were no eggies. Just some of the goop they get wrapped in sitting on the intake. So… they obviously decided to scrap that batch. Interesting. And a little sad, I must say.

Otherwise, the tank is looking healthy. Fido keeps growing.

Mum came over last week for the Aud Open – it’s the third time, so I think that counts as a tradition. The first time we did it, she looked at me incredulously and asked why we’d never done it before (mostly because I’d always gone home for summer, of course). For the first time we went to a night at Rod Laver… Mum wasn’t a huge fan. Thought it was a very different crowd – lots of after-workers, many of whom were drinking. We saw Hingis smash Zvonerava (?), and sadly we watched the Pou get beaten by Grosjean. Actually, I think it was more like Pou losing than Grosjean winning, although Mum claims this was because Grosjean was too good.

Mum is the fan. I don’t mind watching tennis, but it is infinitely more fun for me with other people around.

We went to two days – one at Rod Laver, one at Vodafone. It was ok; not the best tennis we’ve seen, but good. We saw Sam Stozer win in the second round, which was great – that same day we went outside and watched Healy win, which was also good. Entertaining mostly because Healy’s brother and some drunken mates were in front of us, and they were very loud. We saw some other ok stuff, but generally it was just that – ok.

Right now, though, I am watching Baghdatis trying to take down Federer in the final. I watched B’s semi – truly nail-biting. He’s a legend; at least, he will certainly become one, for the next while, probably despite what happens tonight. If he so much as wins a set I imagine he will make a whole heap of little Cypriot, and little Greek, kiddies start playing the game (as happened in Argentina [which I realise the other day must have silver somewhere…] thanks to… whatever his name in the late 70s/early 80s), which is all good.

Federer has just broken back…

I have watched more sport in the last two weeks than in the previous – I don’t know – 6 months or something. Tennis, cricket… and the winter Olympics soon – I do love a bit of that. And of course the swimming trials. But the Commonwealth Games? Pft. I’m leaving town.

I was a little bit scared by this book. It is by Geoffrey Robertson, QC, and so I rather worried that it would highly technical and legalistic, and completely impenetrable to me. How wrong I was.

It’s about the only lawyer who was willing to take on the brief to prosecute Charles I after the two civil wars between him and the Parliamentarians. Thankfully it gave an enormous amount of background info on Charles, the Puritans, Cromwell, and everyone else involved and the times etc too, else I would have been completely lost – this is so not my area.

Cooke is my new hero. He was suggesting changes to the lawyer profession – things we simply take for granted today – that did come to be until the nineteenth century, largely because, I think, many of the MPs being asked to consider the reforms were themselves lawyers – often practising ones, at that. And they were not going to rain on their parade, were they?

He was given a farce of a trial after the restoration – after going to extreme lengths to ensure a fair trial for Charles – and was hanged, drawn and quartered. And then pretty much forgotten.

Ah, fickle Clio.