Patience: very impressive film seen at The Electric Cinema. We had the luxury seats; sofas with waitress service (orders by text message). High points- the acting worked wonderfully, especially the lead character’s mother who had a role that could easily have been overdone. It wasn’t, it worked. The low points- maybe my failing, but I struggle with New York accents sometimes, so some passages of dialogue were lost on me. The problem for me is it sounds like they only pronounce the first half of each word. It’s all quite mumbling. They probably know this though; it was parodied in the film Dick Tracy (1990), remember the character ‘Mumbles’?

Sky is leaden heavy with rain today, not that I minded. It’s been a rather tumultuous week. I’d like to pull the threads that are woven through the last month. Pull them hard so that they straighten out. They’d be easier to follow straightened out. You have to be careful though, doing that just makes the oddly twisted bits knot up so that you can’t undo them.

Tomorrow will see the downpour. I can plant my new plants and skip watering them. Too many Lupins. Look out for a bloke ignoring the rainfall, padding about deciding where to put site them. At least the potted ones can move.
Tired and blurred now; everything I see is blurred like the asbo kids on TV. Best to bed.

Photo from my mobile. The quality is worse than usual probably because the light was fading. Pictures in full daylight are clearer.

Puzzling over the missing few minutes of my life yesterday. Need to speak to the witnesses to find out how long I was out. Still feeling the effects today; interesting because I have never had memory loss before. Problem now is that I get up to do something, and walk to whichever place, and forget why I’m there. Yeah, I know everyone does this from time to time, but this is happening most of the time today (and yesterday).

The cuts to my nose, the ones that were glued, were probably caused by these glasses getting crushed against my face on hitting the ground. I will try to claim for a replacement pair.

Ice rink in work. A leaking pipe spilled water over the car-park for days, the resulting ice is inches thick and so interesting to drive upon.
Lack of exercise is driving me nuts, the restless fizzing in my legs, can’t sit still for long. Hope for sleep. Some snow may arrive in the next 12 hours.
despite all of this, I am not at all cold. Good eh?

Proper winters, like when I were a lad, were like this.
Resolve: after an interval of a few years, I may be teetering on making a new year’s reolution. It revolves around DIY jobs at home. If I can get just one done each week, like on the following list, then the satisfaction should be like the one I feel when going into the shed. A man and his shed, I know. Last week, I cleared out the shed and scrubbed the floor, then threw out all the accumulated debris from years of mending things. Now it’s refreshingly clear. A feeling that should return by doing other jobs too; not just as diversion activities when I have reports or marking to do.
like: paint door frames, weather-proof gate, paint back door, fix fence, re-felt shed, draft-proof windows...

News: for the sake of free speech, also, apparently, Ireland has this blasphemy law. Note the great quotes.

And:

Summary: Christmas day, 37 miles, walked quite a bit across the icy patches. Boxing day- 46 miles, only 1 icy walk. I am able to sleep once more.
Presents:

…

Christmas is not easy, though some instinct tells me it should be.

I want a new name for this holiday, ‘Christmas’ will be expunged, but a replacement is not clear. It could be something ridiculous like "winterval" but such a word should only be used for making fun of Birmingham City Council. The driver from VW said "Happy Hogmanay" to me, which is the best suggestion yet; even if it is for New Year.
Hope for a complete melt tomorrow, I need to get out on that bike.

In lieu of cycling: pulled the ivy crawling up the house front. Its fingers reached obscenely through air-bricks, the TV-antenna and into roof-spaces. It pulls away easily but not without loads of noxious dust that has left me with a thick throat and hacking cough. That stuff is poisonous isn’t it?
Desperately need some exercise- but the black-glazed roads are a bruising threat.
I’ve been gardening, you can’t see it in this photo.

This cheered me up today, I made the kids watch it in one lesson because it amused me so much. Poor kids.

I’m out of chocolate.