November 30, 2021

I had an urge to go into the posh coffee shop after the morning job today. It's not a place I usually frequent because it reminds me of people long gone and happy times lost.

I got lucky and managed to claim Pole Position - the table in the window upstairs that BK, Flatmate and I used to think of as ours. The last time BK visited the UK we sat here, with his new kiwi missus he brought over to introduce to everyone before they settled down to have kids back in New Zealand.

It's a bittersweet place for me. I still see Flatmate's ghost in there every time I walk past, hunched over his chessboard at his favourite table near the counter downstairs.

But today I wanted to go in because of the last dreary couple of years we've had. If we have to have another lockdown it'll be things like this I'll wish I'd done more of when I could - grabbing the moment, taking a seat in a comfy leather armchair, watching the world go by with a fancy coffee and my feet up on the windowsill. The simple, tiny things.

Tonight at work my colleague invited me to join her in cutting out Christmas decorations from a pad of patterned paper she'd brought in specially. "Angels, paperchains, whatever you like," she said. "The shape's printed on the back, you just cut round."

Ugh. I don't like patterns and I especially don't like conformity. While she got busy cutting out snowflakes:

I went for something more my style:

Photo de Jour: Advice

November 29, 2021

I overslept again and was late for work but not so late I couldn't make a tiny detour to marvel at this lovely pre-dawn sky:

Three hours' sleep on a Sunday night/Monday morning seems to be about par for the course now. I can't switch 'busy brain' off after weekend mode, and also I have neighbours who start watching TV around 1am VERY LOUDLY and keep going all night, so.

Took myself off to Big Tesco for breakfast after work as I didn't have time to eat beforehand. Got the Christmas advocaat in while I was there, let's see how long that lasts (the Christmas Baileys is almost gone).

No snow here, although it's chilly. It's not cold enough to close the window during the day, but these pictures did make me want to put socks on.

In other news, I was startled to discover what 1980s German punk sounded like thanks to this story about Angela Merkel.

Today's Photo: Up Close & Personal

November 28, 2021

Got a bit stuck on this song today, playing it over and over as I pottered around tidying up the flat:

After doing the washing up, cleaning out the primordial soup from the veg drawer in the fridge, and doing some mending, it was time to tackle the messy desk again. 

Among the strata I found the bag of exquisite sea glass I picked up from the beach at Seaham in August:

I found the collection of perfect white pebbles I harvested from Saddell Bay in September:

And going back two decades, I found the six small multi-coloured pieces of Rangitoto I claimed the last time I climbed it. 

This made me dig out the photos of Auckland I took when I last visited in 2015. Man I miss that place:

I also unearthed the stone I picked up from the beach at Kaikoura in February 1999, right at the start of my first visit to New Zealand. That was such a happy time and I can still clearly remember the idle, sun-drenched morning where I made this stone's acquaintance:

It too started off as white, changing colour to creamy beige over the years as I turned it over and over in my pocket, eventually revealing its go-faster stripe.

It has to be said, I'm a bit of a sucker for picking up stones. I've invented a belief that if you take a bit of somewhere away with you that means you're contractually obliged (to the universe) to go back there some day.

This means places I have no wish to return to, the hands stay firmly in the pockets; places I love I'll always claim a pebble souvenir or three; and Seaham, well, I should probably move there.

Truth: the days I'm picking up stones are always the happiest days in the very best places.

Today's Photo: Life Should Never Be Small [Pieces of Rangi]

November 27, 2021

Today was excellent. I didn't think about university at all.

Instead, I had a chill out morning, then lunch at a posh pub with my friend Sam and his girlfriend.

Then we took a quick detour on the way home to a farm shop purely to say hello to their on-site alpacas, pig, chickens and goats because absolutely why not.

After that, I went to the launderette and got all my laundry done. There was tons of it (I have an irrational hatred of going to the launderette so always delay it for as long as possible) and once it's dry I'm looking forward to having clothing choices again.

Another absolutely why not is I've decided I'm going to put my Christmas lights up tomorrow. 

Pre-pandemic, I used to get irritated by people starting Christmas in November:

But these days, with the pandemic seemingly going on forever, I'm more sanguine. Let's light up the dark days, haul out the sparkle, get in as much cheer as possible. Let's start now.

One great thing about my Christmas prep is I like to make a tinsel wreath every year. Here's last year's, hanging up in the December window (I got a religious advent calendar last year: went for one with a hare on it this time):

The magic ingredient in the wreath is it's traditionally made out of the (clean) cardboard base of a Sainsbury's takeaway pizza (thin crust = not greasy). I just cut away the inside until it's about the right thickness, then wrap the tinsel and some fairy lights round it.

Which means it's Advent Pizza Day tomorrow. Woo! It comes round faster every year.

Today's Photo: A Delightful Goat

 

November 26, 2021

So much for going outside for an hour after work this morning.

I felt so shattered I came home and went straight back to bed.

I've done a morning shift and then an evening shift every day this week. I'm not used to it anymore and also I'm too old for that shit.

And hurray, there's a new variant. 

So much fun.

Happy Black Friday:

Today's Photo: Then The Wind Came And Blew The Shadow Away

November 25, 2021

As a postscript to yesterday's anthropology happening, it should be noted that when I asked her if she'd gone on to use her degree, she said, "No, I work in Tesco." This was not exactly the kind of motivational talk I needed to hear at the point in my studies where I'm not even sure if I want to go back after Christmas.

Anyway.

My flat has its back to the sun and I'm sure lack of exposure to natural light is what's causing me to routinely sleep through three alarms every morning and get to the morning job late.

I've basically been indoors since March 2020, so with no more lectures this year I'm trying to do One Hour Outside straight after work instead, to get my circadian rhythm back into some sort of working order. 

Yesterday it was up to the park and once round the lake; this morning I fancied walking by a river, so I did a bit of the Rhymney Trail and it was delicious:

There's something about being outside that makes time behave itself: minutes and hours stretch to accommodate whatever you're doing, whereas indoors hours slip by in a moment, and days (or months, in the case of 2020) are gone before you can grasp them.

I sat on a sun-drenched bench after strolling by the river and basked and let the sunlight warm me through; I even dozed off I think, and when I was done it still wasn't even half past eleven.

Today's Photo: Heaven Is A Place On Earth

November 24, 2021

When you tell people you're doing a degree in anthropology, usually they'll nod politely, or ask 'what's that?'

Tonight I worked an extra shift at the library. Chatting to a new colleague I'd not previously met, the studying came up and when I said "anthropology," she said "oh I graduated in anthropology three years ago."

I have never been in a room with an anthropologist before! It was very exciting. After another colleague went home a few minutes early, we the anthropologists actually outnumbered the normal people, a rare and precious moment for both of us I think.

Her course (at Oxford Brookes) sounds much better than mine.

Today's Photo: Winter Roses

 

November 23, 2021

At this time of year thoughts turn to Christmas, and some of us may decide to google 'Christmas cat jumper' just to see what's out there.

Some of us would not be disappointed. This incredible thing is currently the subject of an eBay bidding war for obvious reasons:

It's currently up to a whopping £4.86 with five days left to run and I want it, I want it so bad. It's almost as good as the Tesco Value Christmas jumper a colleague wore to work on Christmas Jumper Day* the other year, which set the standard to beat:

Meanwhile, after a run of T-shirt weather last week, it's suddenly gone all seasonal. The rec was frosty this morning and I had to scrape my windscreen:

Brrr. Time to get the gloves out.

Today's Photo: Autumnal 

 

* when did these things become compulsory?

November 22, 2021

Stuff that's caught my eye recently:

Flat-Earthers Have A Wild New Theory About Forests

The Story Behind Paisley Abbey's Alien Gargoyle

What Squid Game Is Really About

The End Of Normal

How Does Your Personality Type Affect Your Income? (as an INFP I can vouch for the findings of this article)

What Would A City Designed By Women Be Like?

Visual poetry books

How NFTs Are Shaking Up The Art World

Jon Ronson and Adam Curtis on the Culture Wars

This beautiful thing by Golsa Golchini:

And the genuinely astonishing Gapminder.

Today's Photo: Car Park Bruiser

November 21, 2021

 No longer true:

 

[Poorly Drawn Lines]

 

Today's Photo: Susurration 

November 20, 2021

Another backdated one, written 2pm Sunday, as Saturday - ALL of Saturday - was spent in mortal combat with MS Office, most notably trying to work out why it decided to page-number my document '1, 3, 4, 5, 6'. 

I was up and at it by 8am, stopped for lunch at 10.30am, had two or three more lunches after that, then finally closed the laptop around 11pm. After decompressing with Twitter for a bit, I was finally in a fit state to ask "What's for dinner?" at 1am.

(Dinner was a peanut butter sandwich.)

But after another early start to get the final tweaks and polishes done, both parts of the assessment for this module are now submitted and I am FREE*. I have learned nothing about being organised, effective note-taking, leaving things to the last minute, how to format reports or indeed the topic covered by the module, but never mind.

I'm going to wash (remember that?), get dressed (remember that?), and go out for the day (remember that?) to celebrate my freedom. I don't think I've driven out to Barrybados since June or July so will remedy this horrible oversight pronto**.

Today's Photo: The Promise Of Watching Paddington 2 After This Is All Over Will Get Me Through

* Free until the next module in January

** Oh. Have just remembered I should probably get a Covid test first

November 19, 2021

Cause of Death: Microsoft Office.

I've spent all day trying to format the report that's due in on Sunday. It's been so stressful I honestly thought my heart would give out.

You know that bit in Run Lola Run where she just screams?

It's been like that, only without the big win and the promise of a new life at the end. 

I thought I was courting disaster with the last module. I'm really courting disaster with this one. I haven't even finished writing the report, let alone succeeded in formatting the damn thing.

The day didn't start well. A handyman who regularly wanders into my cupboard - sorry, office - for a chat in the mornings tested positive for Covid on Wednesday, and the manager only remembered to tell me after I'd found out third-hand and grumbled to the receptionist about not being notified.

This bloke is usually good at wearing a mask, but when I saw him on Tuesday he'd forgotten to put one on. And as usual, he made me belly laugh, which made him belly laugh, which meant lots of lovely viral droplets being expelled into a space with no ventilation. Rah.

Anyway after the receptionist had had a quiet word with the suit-wearers in the (actual) office upstairs I got a shit-eating email off my manager. She was "unaware that the handypersons came into your room when you were working when I risk assessed the situation."

Fuck those suit-wearing, box-ticking clowns. Fuck the UK Covid response. Fuck everything.

The good news is I've had such a shit month, to self-soothe I bought a kaleidoscope off eBay exactly like the one I used to have as a kid, and it arrived today.

It made me happy for about twenty seconds and then the novelty wore off, just like the original:

Today's Photo: Colour Drama At 3.45PM

November 18, 2021

Saw a sticker on a parcel this morning designed by a person who has never set foot in a sorting office. Never met a postal worker, in fact:

There's a reason it's called 'going postal'.

Today's Photo: Transdimensional Space Goat

November 17, 2021

Hung about outside again this morning. It's late-stage procrastination on the two assignments I need to hand in on Sunday and I bloody love it.

There were two huge, sinister crosses in the sky:

I'd normally notch X-shaped contrails up as Sky Kisses and therefore lovely but these were just weird. Probably not some kind of doomsday marker, ha ha ha, nothing to worry about I'm sure. If aliens blast Cardiff out of existence inside the next 24 hours remember you read it here first.

It was a good morning for birds - I saw a family of nuthatches and a cormorant down by the river, then these guys on the way to the post office:

Then there was this. Alien appeasement?

I often wonder how the different the narrative would be around aliens if women ruled the world. Less aggression, threat and danger, perhaps, and more 'Good journey? Come in, I'll put the kettle on."

Today's Photo: Be Ungovernable

 

 

November 16, 2021

More notes from outside.

I think this owl is poorly:

A leaf threw itself at me. I forgot to make a wish!

Saw this chump:

 And a sticker:

The woods looked like a Klimt painting:

And how about this bat door knocker:

Today's Photo: We Are All In The Gutter But Some Of Us Are Looking At The Stars

 

November 15, 2021

Notes from the walk home from work.

The first Christmas tree:

 Somebody disagrees:

Vote for something:

Today's Photo: The Long View