cold shirt

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9° to 4°C, rain then cleared

I didn’t mind the ride to work in the rain, it fell a little thicker than drizzle & blew my road speed downwards. However, I was comfortable. The heated pipes that can be relied on to dry my clothes, ran less hot as we approach the start of spring. Putting on a wet, cold shirt in preparation for the journey home is the bit I react to. It’s a kind of physical jolt from the part of us that does reflex actions. It only took about 3 miles before body warmth raised the temperature of the water that had soaked through every layer of clothing this morning. Body heat is good at that, and you generate more of it at speed.

Shining Tor

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0 – 6°C, Snow , wind & sun

Drove from Macclesfield to Buxton on the way to Alstonefield for a foodie feast. In the village pub has an excellent range of food including the amazing pudding pictured below. That snow shot was taken in a layby in Deryshire. I pulled the car into a stopping place and I got out with my camera-phone. Just as I was turning the snow yellow- a couple of heavily wrapped cyclists rode by on thin tire, racing bikes. They did look rather nervous at the top of what must be a big big climb, and not because they’d spotted me. The fog was too thick for that.

Here is food that I’d journeyed through snow for. Look at the photo from left to right- there is honeycomb, chocolate mousse and lemon sorbet. All of that was presented on a skid-mark of chocolate sauce on the square plate. The most spectacular part was found inside the mousse. The brown cylinder of rich chocolate was rather rich but once cut inside- it bled from the wound a yellow-orange thick sauce oozed. That alien blood was rich and tangy and countered the rich sticky body of the pud.
Most striking.


Go and try some!

Crying Shame

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+9 to 0°C, Sun, wind & snow

Rosie has a good 2 hour run on Formby Beach. She slept well in the evening but woke with a haunting mournful howl. A dog nightmare? I’ve written about them before here, but it’s impossible to confirm. I claim dog-owner’s intuition.

Two weeks on

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9°C, sunny. CR56 miles

After 12 days I am recovered. Today’s ride was far better than I expected, I have lost less form though gained some weight (it seems). Anyway, spring is in the air, flowers out and the sunshine bright enough to show up how much cleaning is required.

Influenza

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9°C, white cloud, some wind

Frustration builds when there is no sign of healing. I relented in the end and went to the local GP. she said it’s true, i have the flu’. This is no heavy cold, it’s flu. So no more stupid jokes about manflu. A big part of me dislikes that variety of sexist putdown anyway. Just because it’s aimed at men, does not make it okay.

New book to read has arrived: Zona by Geoff Dyer.

Precious time

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9°C, NW, light cloud

Half-term holiday is a precious time. It’s a time to re-build energy, recover from a stressful job and fix things that need repairing (the house, the car and me). It’s not a time to be set back with a devastating head-cold, running temperature and bostin’ headache. These things happen- yes. But it’s difficult not to spend time, while laid low, thinking of the good things I could be doing.
So the symptoms add up, heavy-cold + the urge to grumble = manflu.

Have I done that self-depricating joke before? Perhaps leave it then.

Magic telebox

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2°C, dry but cloudy (getting warmer, huzzah!).

Over-run by remotes from new gadgets. I only intended to buy a Blu-ray player so I can watch my latest video rental. That first part failed with me feeling annoyed with Argos for mis-labelling the player. I wanted a player with built-in wireless which can then show BBC’s iPlayer on the TV. The catalogue was labelled as such but once I got it home and looked it wasn’t. For that model, you have to buy a USB dongle, otherwise no wireless. This was annoying because the Argos woman said I can’t return this unless it’s faulty. Anyway, they found an alternative, a Sony device with wireless built-in. But…

Behind the counter was a range of ex-display stuff including a FreeSat box that I intended to buy with next month’s salary. At half-price, I took it.

Good things: the best is the picture quality. Not so much the extra resolution, but far more convincing colour and tonal depth than the previous white sky box. the sound is better too. The set-top box will record from TV from next week’s schedule, setting is just too easy.

That draining cold is receding this week. It had better take my cough with it.

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Chopping Eucalyptus

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-1°C, bright sun

This morning I had left is loads of logs, too big to fit in the fireplace. It’s a great way to warm up to chop logs though. My trip to the shops to get a wood splitting maul failed today so I resorted the mallet and bolster chisel. That mallet is a 4lb-er, short-handled type, but it was still rather hard work. The wood grips the chisel thinking it’s in an Arthurian legend.
There is a young guy who lives further down this road who is an arborist. He says it’s the eucalyptus that’s the problem. It’s a resinous wood that hardens as it seasons. I should have chopped it when it was freshly felled. Ah!
Nice guy, he has little work on this week and has offered to call round with his chain-saw.

Get the Maul

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0°C, Ice is drying

Frozen roads this morning made walking this morning simply frightening. There was a glassy layer over everything. Railings and cards looked wet, but touch them and the glassy surface is dry and bitterly cold.

The firewood supply is getting lower but splitting the bigger logs I have takes ages. I’m going to try a maul. It’s a narrow headed axe with a nice long handle that should let me put a big swing behind it. If not, it’s still a good way to warm up on an icy February day.