Random

[icarus_chained]

I went walkabout today, because I'm itchy and I've this big, horrible exam tomorrow which is driving me steadily into the horrors, and I badly needed to relax. And in the process, I discovered a couple of things I hadn't known before.

I found out that either the cathedral carrillon plays continuously between 5:30 and the Angelus chimes at 6:00, or they let some madman in to have fun with the bells today. I'm betting on the former, but, this being the city it is, I wouldn't rule out the latter, either. Either way, I had the pealing of bells for my accompaniment today, for one quite lovely half an hour.

And I also discovered that, tucked away at the end of a cul-de-sac a couple of streets from campus, there's a memorial to the 'officers, non-commissioned officers, and men of the city' who gave their lives in service of the empire during the South African Wars of 1898-1902. For some reason, that struck me as mildly incongruous. I mean, it's such an odd war to pick, considering all the wars of empire there have been, and then all the wars of the 20th century. But I found it oddly wonderful. No matter where you fell, someone, somewhere, remembers you. Even if only as a faded name chipped into stone beneath some rather terribly misspelled graffiti (and just for that, I've probably just spelled some incredibly simple thing wrong).

It's amazing what you find, if you forget what you're looking for.