the weather outside is (supposedly) frightful…
…or at least if we were to believe the more scurrilous bits of the media, who couldn’t sound more excited if the next Ice Age was beginning to unfold. If – unlike me – you read the gutter press it probably already has, and if not then apparently tomorrow we can expect Armageddon, rather than some extremely cold but otherwise unremarkable winds, a good covering of snow (which was very pretty this morning when I walked to the gym in the sunshine), and maybe even some ice – in February. Who would have thought it?
Thankfully I’m posting from the comfort and warmth of my huge settee after a busy day and chaotic month – sorry! It’s all been a bit of a rush and time has flown, from the less-arduous-than-it-sounds London Winter Run just shy of four weeks ago (sixty minutes and fifteen seconds; slower than I’d hoped for but considering how easy it is to get carried away with the bands, London landmarks and dancing penguins on the way round it’s a miracle I was back in an hour, although I’ll confess that the loose fifteen seconds was pissing me off no end for days). Since I’ve signed up to do it all again next year, I’ve promised myself to try a bit harder and perhaps even remember that I’m being timed in the first place but either way it was a lot of fun! As was the rest of the week once I’d got checked into a proper hotel and had a hot bath and a sauna.
The next London trip is fast approaching and it’s back to cosy Pimlico for a couple of days prior to a long weekend away – I’ll be down two weeks tomorrow to help with the keeping warm if needs must (and just to help if needs mustn’t); some new photos ought also to be winging their way to the galleries very soon, or at least as soon as it’s no longer too cold to stand around semi clothed for longer than a couple of minutes. They would have and should have been done and up by now, but it’s been a busy few weeks and whilst I’m certainly not complaining, the relative respite afforded by the cold snap has been welcome nonetheless. A couple of days of Netflix, ineffectual pottering, looking out of the window and cooking soup will do me no harm at all, especially since the tireless delivery people at Farmaround had no trouble getting here this afternoon with the veg boxes.
So to the immediate future and whilst normal availability is operating, it’s safe to assume that for practical purposes it’s currently taking me roughly twice as long as usual to travel to my flat once the extra getting-dressed-for-outdoors time is counted in, being the polar opposite – no pun intended – of summer when the transition into readiness to leave the house requires no more effort than putting on flipflops, finding the keys and a quick check for pillow marks/stray toothpaste or bits of breakfast down the front (or more usually, in the hair). In a nutshell, this means that the answer to any question whose basis is a booking starting in less than an hour from the time of enquiry is going to be no – as most of those who might be thinking of making such a booking are likely to have to spend some time getting themselves sorted and into the town centre, all anybody has to remember is that I do too. It’s all very easy!
More information about the coming few weeks will be along soon, but in the meantime this weeks Song Of The Week (or month, unfortunately – sorry again) can hopefully get everybody warmed up a bit. There are plenty of versions of DWDTG (among them the Muppets, who I’m hoping to catch later in the year at the O2 – yay!) but the sequel has more fires in the video than the others. And Charlie Daniels is still in it, along with Johnny Cash. Nothing to dislike here then.
Some of those reading will have heard about the passing of my friend Laura Lee, a terrible shame and a real loss to us all. I saw her in Manchester last month on my birthday, and I’m very glad I did – may she rest in peace, and enjoy the newspaper reports.
More soon…
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