Roads now ridable, but bike not: The lights don’t work and it’s not clear why. I think it’s a cable, the one with the switch in, that has failed. Just as I was really feeling the urge to get some miles in.
Later: I found the fault, after poking around with a volt-meter and eliminating one possibility after another. They now work and are ready for tomorrow’s commute. Fog & mist is due so they better be bright.
Can’t cycle, it’s too slippery on the ice. No exercise means I can feel the cold, my spring is getting wound up quite a bit now. A decent ride brews warmth from within for days.
Last resort is the gym. Gulp.
Cold eastern air: gripping tight, coating everything in a hazardous slippery skin. We’re heading down to -7° tonight. Survive.
Woolies: Woolworths has closed. A big national chain over 100 years old or something. Erm, folks are quite nostalgic about it. But wait I say- have I ever bought anything there? Er, no- it was a crappy shop
Cycling: was about looking for an open cafe. All four of the main ones in Market Bosworth were shut for the post-festive break. They’re to stay shut for at least a week it seems – Pah!. It’s been one cold ride, though only my feet really complained. I was very thirsty by the time I got back: the drinks bottle was frozen: that stopped the flow. Inside were large flakes of ice, like a Slush-puppy, which blocked the nozzle.
Incident: I had an unfortunate incident with a bread knife today.Cutting a baguette, it kind of ricochetted and caught my thumb. That was hours ago, but it really smarts now. Marilyn Manson was playing on the iPod at the time: I suspect a connection there.
But there’s a charm that is greater still:
When my love’s eyes are lowered
When all is fired by passions kiss
And through the downcast lashes
I see the dull flame of desire
F.Tyutchev (translated from Russian by …who knows)
Hear it in Russian in this Tarkovsky film Stalker
Smell: the house smells of spent coal/wood fire*, the sun is out but the year 9 reports loom.
*Better than yesterday’s smell, damn that cat.
Worst sunrise time today, slowly but slowly it gets better.
Cold feet, but that’s all. The sun broke out later but was very weak. It went away not long later.
Damn: the MOT needs booking before the car Tax.
Spent all day shopping for a music player for the kitchen. I really did get fed up with cooking in silence.
Except I didn’t, I got to Birmingham hungry after a train ride talking to an ex-pupil ( which was a real pleasure). Borders bookshop have the sort of Cafe with comfy chairs & sofas so I sat myself there with food & a coffee. It’s rather comfortable, so I stayed a while and read the book.
It would appear that you can alter the sensation of reading a book by changing your place. A book seems quite different if you read in a public space or at home in the quiet.
This book is deceptive, it seems easy to read, the language and voice are simple and conversational but the thoughts are much more. The author plays with seemingly incidental events and conversations amongst characters and serves them up in a way that gives them gravitas. You as reader can get drawn into this; if you do, you start to notice incidentals in your surroundings. So there am I, reading this book and absorbing the idea that things we do and see that are trivial are actually important and significant. We often don’t get to find out what the significance is, but gradually they reveal. And just like in “life”, some threads in Murakami’s books don’t ever resolve into anything. Life, as we know- is without plot: such a narrative is all imagined. Don’t we do this all the time- seek order out of the haphazard mess we are surrounded by? For now, most of the book remains unread, but there are some tantalising chapter titles to get to.
Micycle 