where 10 June 2008
We never know where we are. Yes, you can master geographical accuracy – nice if you have got that kind of mind, and damn you if you have that total ability (mine is limited and easily pleased = oh look there’s the bathroom, oh look this is my stop, oh look there’s the shop better get some cat food, etc). Sometimes you’ll need a map (that goes for lots of life, geography or no, and those maps may not always be totally helpful because seismic shifts happen in the strangest ways) and some buy a sat-nav system – there is one used by the drivers on the film and she’s quite strict – hates being contradicted and say’s ‘recalculating’ in a really cross, pissed-off voice.
To make a long story less long, I have discovered a lad on set who is from an amazing family – and he too, I am glad to report, is a gem – he is of the Polish clan Zarnecki. His Dad is a Space Scientist (I know, I can hardly continue because how many times in a life are you going to be able to say that?) who worked on systems that went into the Hubble telescope, the Giotto visit to the tail of Halley’s Comet and the landing on Titan, Saturn’s largest moon. He ‘does’ information retrieval of the most specific kind (yep, I think I can claim that as ‘tis outer space o’ which I talk…)
Our lad’s uncle is a major specialist in all things Chinese at the British Library.
His Grandad is an expert in Romanesque architecture and was captured and escaped twice during the 2nd World War – on one occasion while being marched around Caen Cathedral he asked the German warders if they might do it in the opposite direction so he could see the sculptures he’d dreamed of, but had never experienced, and they thought he was being a wise ass and were extra awful to him – he really did just want to see the carvings…
Seems to me that in the 18th and 19th centuries these guys were the explorers of the world…and I have a direct line driving me most days…tomorrow could be the edge of it all, my sweets, as there is no longer a final frontier…I know where I am, nearly.
