QM Gym

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-2~0°C, snowing- quite a lot

Snow: ‘snowday’ looks likely tomorrow. If so, I can catch up on that marking bag. This snow creaks and pops underfoot in that ideal snow way. No hills for skiers here though. A sledge would do me.

Fixed the fizzy legs- for now. Had a session in the school’s gym, on the rowing & bike machines.
Teeth :

I could get a piece of meat
From a barren tree
Nothing ever spoiled on me
You brought this
You dipshit
Nothing ever spoiled on me
That cloud stomps around my house
Does whatever it pleases
It teases me
What the hell?
Never was a baritone
Till you stepped in
Never dried my halters on the line
This hairdo’s truly evil
I’m not sure it’s mine
You’re so tall

It’s like I climb a waterfall

That cloud stomps around my house

Does whatever it pleases

It teases me

What I said was get me a drink

Alright?

What am I supposed to sit

And look at you all night?

All girls cry

Like I said, I don’t know why

Kristin Hersh

Legs’ fizz

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-5~0°C, still, with hard hard frost.

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

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2.5°C, sun, snow & rain.

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.

Frank Zappa: "To hang all this desperate sociology on
the idea of The Cloud Guy who has The Big Book, who knows if you’ve
been bad or good – and cares about any of it – is the chimpanzee part
of the brain working."

And:

Richard Dawkins: "The God of the Old Testament is
arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and
proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control freak; a vindictive,
bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist,
infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal,
sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully."

while on this topic…

…so there!

to be expunged

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+1 to +3°C, fog, but the snow’s melting.

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.

Ivy breath

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-2~ +2°C, clear & still

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.

…probably all gone by morning.

Winter beach

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-6~ +2°C, not counting wind-chill.

Drove home last night late, in the valleys, temperatures dropped to minus six. It was all dry and little white so no real problems. The car coped apart from the screen-wash jets froze and didn’t work for the whole trip.

The car’s service+MOT cost the earth, there must be a better way to keep the thing going. It’s going back because the new brakes aren’t right- not if the warning light is true.

…sorry, this is boring.

Seven

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2~-3°C, clear; so, colder later?

Seven: great film from a long line of thrillers in this genre.the film has: Silence Of The Lambs, The Abominable DR. Phibes, all those gritty New York distopia storys including Batman. It doesn’t matter that the story wasn’t desperately original, it was however, so well executed…
Besides: it’s damned cold tonight, -3°C and dropping. I am though, warm, acclimatised and well fed. Hope the car’s service doesn’t sting too much next week.
Schools’ are out: and I feel less daunted by christmas this year, can’t remember last time it seemed this way. Something that hasn’t changed is the winder holiday is certainly ruined by Christmas, but not letting that happen from now on. this Whisky tastes fine (Iona, from the Tobermoray distillery).
From yesterday: a very feint one

…almost a seasonal theme.

Eight legged Coconut

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5°C, some more rain, it wants to sleet I tell you!

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

…I’ve been grinning about this story all day.

malaise

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3~5°C, miserable showers.

Deep, bone-aching tiredness. I know, I say this every year, but you can’t get used to this. The holiday promises to be: Whiskey, snow, chocolate and fine company. Bet I don’t end up clearing the gutters though. Christmas day is in the middle of the holiday this time, so shouldn’t spoil the break too much.

Consider this: slow gradual change to lower energy light-bulbs that produce less heat, so the thermostat asks the boiler for more, thus offsetting the benefit & raising the house’s power consumption again. I suppose the reduction in overall consumption must be felt when the heating is off. Erm, hold on…

The Copenhagen summit: world leaders meet to tackle the world’s second biggest problem. Wonder when talks start for the main one, the one that causes this all. Not heard a peep for years so it must be building up to be a big one.
More news reaction: Govt. have moderated the new rules for vetting adults who will work with children. Now there will only be 9,000,000 people vetted instead of the proposed 12,000,000 in England. It’s not clear how much vetting costs compared ot a full CRB check or how the numbers are divided, The CRB check is I believe £50, and registration £65 for each entry. We must be looking at a figure close to £1,000 million for both.. Good that there hasn’t been any recession, otherwise we wouldn’t be able to afford it. We live in an extremely wealthy country as you can see.
I have been vetted via a CRB check this term, but I neglected to commit any crimes since the last check a few years ago. Oops.