Old men, spectacles, email from Africa

" Above all, old men are dangerous, who have only the memory of things past left them, and have lost the remembrance of their repitions." I read this in John Florio's contemporary translation of Montaigne's essay on liers, and take it to heart.

In the opticians waiting for a check up, I see five recesses, in each more than 100 spectacle frames - nearly six hundred in all; but they can't see me.

I was gladto have been included in Glare Grant's first email from Africa, where she speaks of the lions, and other wild animals she has seen in her first couple of days in Tanganyka. She it was, who started the idea of noting three items every day, which have given pleasure, and which I and others have taken up. I'll be following her adventures with pleasure and interest.