August 12

 

I have been reading The Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie and one thing that really strikes me is where everyone knows where they were at a particular time.

Policeman: Where exactly where you when you heard the gunshot?

Mrs B: I was out in my garden.  The village clock had just chimed a quarter to six.

or:

Mr C: The milkman always delivers my milk at approximately twenty to six and I had just heard him place the bottles on my neighbour's front step so it must have been between five forty two and five forty four that I heard the gunshot.

Policeman: Not five forty five?

Mr C:  Oh, no.  By five forty-five, he was already across the street.

At supper, I ask everyone if they knew where they were at 3.45 this afternoon.  It's actually quite difficult to pinpoint exactly where we all were.  I am sure it would help if we had a village clock that chimed out every quarter of an hour, but even then I wonder if most people can recall where they were at an exact time during the day.  And alibis?  Well, that's even more difficult.

Sian and I can say we were at the stables between 2 and 3, but then I did not watch Sian the entire time.  If there had been a murder at the stables, could I have done it?  Could I have driven back to Bulawayo, committed a murder and then driven back to the stables and made it look as though I had been sitting in the car the whole time?

After horse riding,the plan is for me to drop Sian at some other stables where she does volunteer work while I go to yoga.  Sian is apprehensive as she doesn't know if she should go home to do some schoolwork instead.  She tosses a coin - it's heads which means she goes to the stables and I go to yoga.

During the class, the teacher mentions something about blocked energy and how we must let the chi flow unobstructed. I can't help thinking that chi spelt QI can get you 33 points on a triple word score in Scrabble.