4°C, grey, with traces of fog.
Running a trial of the newest Norton Internet Security suite. Nothing had changed over the years- it still slows the laptop down appallingly. At this rate, my patience will run out before the trial does, so will remove it.
+5C, same fog.
Tilda Swinton plays a slightly different role in Julia. I liked this one, despite the rather frantic endless feeling of peril. Go and see it.
Chronic Tendonitis: says the doctor. It’s worse right now, because, I think, I have a cold. I mean that there is a repeated coincidence where aching tendons occur when I have a cold. Is there a link? Does the virus attack membranes in joints at the same time as all that action in the nose & throat?
The doctor didn’t think so, but I will still look out for and studies on this. You have ot be careful about this sort of thing because as human nature- we are prone to look for patterns, sometimes where none exist.
3°C, fog.
My cold continues to worsen.
BBC: “Its survey of 2,170 people aged 16 to 25 revealed almost half had problems such as self-harm and insomnia” news story of the day. This is so typical, there is no comparison with people in work. Half can’t sleep, or worse: how many people with a job have the same problems? No mention.
+2°C, fog & rain
I have a cold, but it’s my precious holiday. Damn
-6°C,
It’s the 20th today, a good time to start christmas shopping you must agree. Icy roads are mitigating, certainly no trip to Birmingham this year. Oh, and this December is said to be the harshest for a century!
No cycling for a week it appears, the ice is against it. I have done some tiling in the kitchen. Prepare to be impressed; it’s the white tiles you know…
You can’t see the unfinished bit in this shot.
Crazy laptop widget thinks it’s -11°
-7°C, brighter, snow is setting harder.
Christmas Carol service at St. Pauls in Brum last night. Very nice, as was the German market. Forecast says “vewy fwozen with vewy heavy snowfalls with a bweeze picking up”. the streets of Birmingham are thick with snow, a foot deep in places.
A turbo session today then.
-1°C, snow.
Don Van Vliet Died this week. It sounds like a cliché, but I harbour the feeling that I grew up with his music. Though he gave up the music business a long time ago to concentrate on painting, he’s still there in my mind, and my iPod.
He followed the other great creative genius of American culture- Frank Zappa. Two characters that redeem the notion of intelligent creativity in that most capitalist of nations.
Snow, rather heavy. -1°C will drop to -4°
End of term, end of Mazda 6,start of a big rest. How nice to get the old faithful back; they’ve done a grand job on it. Despite liking some things about the car, I’m not that impressed with the fuel economy though. It has no fuel meter, so it’s not until you re-fill that any economy can be calculated. It came out at 35mpg. I was expecting 10mpg more.
Holiday now, you can tell how much you need it by the listless empty feeling that I reported last July. there is a headache nearby and a roughness in my throat- but sod it, let’s blame the coal fire.
3 to -4°C
Grey grey. White, white, now dark & hard hard ice. Minus 5 tonight. Only one day to go, but I tire past the point of suspecting an oncoming cold. Is this all there is?
4C, thin clouds.
Bad weather is rolling over the horizon, an ‘icy blarst’ say the weather reporters. Probably no more cycling this week. This seems to be all I post about these days, blame excessive workload for that. There is simply no time for painting.
Spirit of Turpentine 