-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.
3°C, thin but dark skies
I’m no aficionado, so it’s new to me this impression of Macbeth. I’m talking about Rupert Goold’s film version. It’s the Cold War Warsaw Pact setting, the uniforms and location. It’s like some hideous Stalinist interrogation camp. These plays presumable are always teetering on the edge of over-acting, but this one never steps over into discomfort. I hope to get a DVD version soon; a far better way to watch it, at over 2 & half hours I will have to tackle this in parts.
How on earth do I insert symbol characters on this laptop?
8°C, grey (min 5C)
Quick, we’ve only got a few days. this is a respite from the chill. Wash the winter woollies, clean the garden before the next blanket of snow.
Feeling the wind-down towards the winter holiday. It’s 07.30 but still dark, compare with summer when I’d be back from the dog-walk by now and doing the next chore on my list.
Busy day with luck.
Snow turns to mud
3°C, mostly dry & sunny
Plus temperatures today. At last a ride into work, I’ve needed this so much. The last two miles saw me with second thoughts, snow started which covered up the tarmac enough to hide the patches of ice that were so obvious earlier. No crashes though & I feel so much better- my blood feels cleaner now.
Vairations In Static
-12 to-10°C
For part of the journey, we dipped into -12C air. Yeah, it’s colder than last winter. It’s like a scene from “let the right one in”, or maybe Narnia out there.
This is a jolly album, it has folk overtones with complex overlapping rhythms & percussion. Beginning to think that I like it.
-7 to -3°C, thick freezing fog, no wind.
New CDs: Beirut- the Flying Club Cup
Olafur Arnalds: Dyad 1909
Olafur Arnalds:Variations Of Static
The frosticles haven’t dropped all day. They usually do in this kind of freezing fog, a bit of sun releases their grip on trees’ twigs, but today, the light was too weak. So there they are, all coated in thick furry crystals of ice, white , stark and ragged. Sometimes they look as if covered in broken glass, or some crusty crystalline industrial chemical.
Sorry to go on, but this is really penetrating cold- worse when it’s damp & we’re due a minus ten tonight. Should I leave the heating on low all night?
-10 tonight, thick fog
0°C, fog & black ice.
Black ice: rain all day yesterday, then the sky cleared at night. The resulting black ice was scary to say the least. On the footpath, you could stand still, and look down to see yourself slowly moving even on a shallow slope.
It’s not brilliant this car. The engine is starting to misfire occasionally, oddly enough near the end of a long drive. The boot doesn’t always close properly, there is the whirring of an electric motor that pulls it shut, but a rear light cluster seems to stop it- maybe the car is not that well put together. Also, I miss the fuel consumption gauge; it’s nerdy I know, by it would help you get used to gear changes on a 6 speed diesel car that you don’t know.
It’s got curvey door mirrors, so what? Well, with the mirror mount with stylish curves the wide view is actually blocked by the mirror bezel. What’s worse is that unnecessary blind spot is also a view blocked by the door post when looking rear-right. How stupid. the other irritation is that the seat is too small. The boot doesn’t always close, it seems to snag on a mis-aligned light cluster. Oh dear.
Micycle 