Joni'isms

Joni's been making us laugh again.

Bex told me that the other morning after we had all eaten breakfast (I had just left the room), Joni asked her for a "biscuit!", well as you can see it was more of a demand really...anyway, you know the motherly drill "No Joni, you've just had your breakfast," etc etc. Well, Joni seemed to take that fine, and she started to stack the breakfast things- the plates, then the cups- on top of each other, tidying up for mummy. When she had finished she said "Coffee, all done!" and Bex (surprised?) "Thank you Joni!". Whereupon Joni, meekly, asks "...biscuit?"

Not so funny, but it made me laugh, how when Becky (again I miss out) went to the petrol station today Joni asked her on getting back into the car whether she had any "sweeties?" as we sometimes do buy sweets with our petrol (a wonderful combination). Becky told her no, but that she could have some when they got to Redcar, where they were headed. When Becky got to Redcar she told Joni "here we are in Redcar" and Joni with a flash of understanding shouts "sweeties!"

Joe...

Brian has just sent me this funny e-mail, Joe is his little (one year old) boy:

I'm sitting at the computer
Joe is trying to attract my attention
I'm more or less ignoring him
my peripheral vision picks up his outstretched hand
I outstretch my palm
to facilitate the receivement of his proffered gift
I receive the gift
it feels odd
I look at my hand
it is cupping excrement
why did i forget to re-nappy him?
now i must hunt for stray fecal matter
it's a good life

Blog+

*podcast removed...far too embaressing! This never really took off anyway, did it...;-) 8/2006* Well, I've decided to spruce up the blog, seeing as it's now officially summer time! Yes, we had an hour less in bed...so I've added some new features, you know, the calendar, the "what I'm listening to/reading/watching" bits and the linklog, but most importantly (and most experimentally/most likely to be ditched) is the weekly MP3 podcast which I'll put up on a Sunday (hopefully) each week. That's right! Add my feed to your podcast software (see the XML link) and you'll automatically be sent the new "show" (that's a laugh) when it's ready.

Now this really is just a test for the moment, I haven't decided on a format, or really what to say: but I think it's likely to be "my thoughts on this weeks blogs", you know, anything further I have to add, that sort of thing. Sounds great doesn't it?! I joke of course...No, that's the thing: I want to make it interesting to listen to, and a first step in this direction is to add background music. What I've decided is to play (at least for now) a different song each week by the band I was once formerly (and proudly) a member of, Junior Elvis, and to offer this song on the Sunday blog for download just in case you want the full version.

In case podcasting's left you behind a bit, or it may be that you've no inclination to "get into it", I'll post the weekly MP3 in the Sunday blog too: you can see the little "listen" icons above, well the first one's the "show" and the second is the "song".

About this weeks "show". Just a test really. I hit the record button, and spoke. It's a lot harder than I thought to "think on your feet"! So it's boring, I think. The song's good though (IMHO). Any suggestions on how to improve things? I didn't want to talk like a DJ for a start, I have an idea that it will be less of a radio show, and more of a ...well, like a "Mork calling Orson, come in Orson..."! A weekly one to one with my imaginary listener...I'm not going to edit the MP3 once I've put it down either, and I'm not going to read from a script or prepare: you can have it (or not), warts'n'all.

Losing my memorial...

Today is Nisan 14, as if you didn't know. Well, if you are a Jew or a Jehovah's Witness (or possibly some other fundamental Christian group member) you probably do know. I know, but that's because I was once one of the above, as you've often read here. What I am now...who knows. A human being with leanings towards the teachings of Jesus? Some, perhaps many, would call me a Christian. But on with the blog!

Nisan 14 in the Jewish calendar was the date on which Jesus and his disciples gathered together and ate the "last supper", at which Jesus commanded his disciples to "keep doing this in memory (or memorial) of me". The Bible tells us that he gave his disciples bread and wine to partake of and that these mean his "body and blood", which he gave for mankind that very day, or today in fact, around 3pm (depending on which gospel you read) nearly 2000 years ago. Nisan 14 began last night, after sundown, and ends at sundown today (as all Jewish days do). I would imagine that close on 10 Million Jehovah's Witnesses (including "interested" non-witnesses) gathered to celebrate the memorial of this event last night, but it was the first time in at least 22 years that I was not one of their number.

Even though I have explained my reasons for not believing what I used to believe, not attending last night was very hard for me. I can imagine how upsetting it must have been for my wife not to have me attend, and it will upset my mother too, when she finds out. More important of course is whether I have offended God by staying away. I honestly don't feel that is the case and so I feel I've done the right thing.

It's quite simple really: either witnesses are right, or they are wrong. I believe they are wrong, so I didn't attend. If I was to attend, that would be an implicit admission (voting with my feet) of there being truth inside the "Watchtower", and although there undoubtedly is, it is surrounded by the teachings of men, like a present wrapped up in a game of "pass the parcel"- there are so many religions like this I think, that have a core of truth, but each with different wrappings. So why choose one over another? Because it has fewer wrappings in your opinion? Why not get to the core of matters, that is, God himself, as (probably) revealed in the Bible? The hard part is knowing when to stop pulling off the paper, and some may say there's no present underneath it all...I don't know. I do know that God doesn't dwell in "hand made temples" as many religions practice (even if they don't preach it), and that there's no man or group of men that can stand between me and him, not according to the Bible anyway.

What I'm getting at in my cumbersome roundabout way is: I didn't attend because I don't think the witnesses are right (organisationally) and therefore their celebration can not be completely "right" either*. And if I did think it was right to attend, I imagine Jesus' description of the Laodeceans would apply to me if I did: "you are lukewarm, and I am going to spit you out of my mouth". In other words: I'm not settling for lukewarm here, or sitting on any fences. If I went last night, why not go to every meeting? I didn't and I don't and I won't.

*as a footnote to this: In a way, I celebrated this event in similar fashion to most witnesses present last night, as I thought about the events that took place all those years ago, and tried to relate that to myself today. Well, this is what most witnesses, or should I say, this is ALL most witnesses do at the memorial, as the bread and wine is "passed" among those attending but (this must be curious to read if you are not familiar with the witness interpretation, but imagine being there!) in most locations, nobody eats of the bread or drinks of the wine. It is passed, and that is all. To understand this you have to understand the witness conception of there being two "hopes", and therefore two "classes" of people destined for these hopes-one a heavenly hope for the heavenly class, the other an earthly hope for the earthly class. Here follows (I couldn't be bothered typing this all in!) photos of the section "Two classes of Christians" from the book "In search of Christian Freedom" by Raymond Franz, former member of the governing body of Jehovah's Witnesses. Excuse the fingers, and apologies if it's a bit hard to read! Anyways, it may not interest most of you discerning readers. If you want the full "gen", ap*state though it undeniably is (to the official governing body sanctioned teachings of the Jehovah's Witnesses), click on the pictures for bigger (almost readable) versions (they're in order of page, top to bottom). *sorry about the smaller size of these - imageshack took the bigger pictures down. *

The verdict...

Well, this is what it was like.

I had a tube put into my arm, into which was placed the sedative. I remember laying on my side looking at the bright red, green and blue light streaming from the tip of that tube and thinking to myself "that's big...". I was trying to impress these things on my memory, to see if I could remember the point at which I lost consciousness (the point I stopped remembering: impossible to do)! However, no need, because the next thing I recall is the tube being inside my stomach, and retching, and water coming out of mouth, and someone saying "you're doing really well, it's nearly over", and then I remember being pushed out of the room where I had the gastroscopy. That feeling though, of suddenly being aware of an object being moved around in my stomach...not becoming gradually used to the tube as it moved from mouth to stomach, but suddenly being shocked to find it right inside...is one I won't forget! Even now my belly is "sore" in a weird way, on the inside, like someone's been poking it- which they have. I didn't think I slept at all afterwards but I must have, as when I went back out to see Bex and have a reviving cup of coffee (and a digestive biscuit!) she said I'd been nearly two hours, but it felt at most about half an hour to me.

They didn't find anything, which is good I suppose. My stomach is slightly inflamed though, and so I've been given omeprazole to take, 30mg a day. I've had it before and it's really good, but I think it makes me feel dizzy, I'll have to see.

Listen: I know how to stop the acid. I simply have to stop drinking coffee and alcohol, and stop eating chocolate and crisps and chips and hot spicy foods like (insert any Indian dish here). The verdict? Give me acid any day!

Gastroscopy...

Later on today, I'm having an Gastroscopy. I'm obviously petrified, as you would guess if you know me. Becky's had one though, so has my Mum, and they both tell me there's nothing to worry about: anyways, I'll be sedated, so I won't know a thing about it anyway. Apparently you can choose NOT to be sedated, and just have a spray to numb your throat before they push the tube down, but on thinking about it I'll take the cowards way and be knocked out. It's a shame, because I suppose that would have made a good blog! "And then they told me to swallow again, and all I wanted to do, again, was be sick, and I'm thinking, I'm choking, I can't breathe, why oh why didn't I get a sedative, as the tube that feels as cold and big as a lead pipe presses further and further into my helpless body....", I can imagine it would go something like that! So it's just because of these acid attacks I get, they're going to look and see whether there's a reason for them. I hope they find one and I don't too. Oh dear. I'm starving as well! No food until afterwards, if I feel like eating afterwards...

There's something else I could say about today...but I'm not going to. Yet.

Something I can say is wow, what a beautiful day! (for a hospital visit?) The sun really has his hat on, and so did Joni just now when we went out to walk in it- you can see her hatting it, and trying (again) to escape her shadow, below: to think that three weeks ago the beach was covered in snow, as you can see from my post on 3/3! It's got to be unusual for this time of year, I mean, it's 17°C!! (that's the orange on this map-we're on the top right edge of it):

SkypeIn!

Two blogs in one day? Yes, but SkypeIn is here! In Beta form only, but it seems to work fine: so now I can call out, and receive calls, without having to use a phone. Or to put it another way: now I can have a fully working telephone, pay a penny a minute for calls, and pay ZERO line rental to BT, or NTL, or whoever. Skype is getting our money, and these companies are worried about it, I just know they are. We got rid of our landline in expectation of this, and we haven't been let down. The only (unforeseen) drawback is the charge to use a land based "number", but this only works out at about £1.50 a month, so again, not complaining. It's better than NTL's £9.99 line rental. I've got a number rental going instead! AND there's free voicemail, which I know NTL charges over £1.50 per month for ALONE. A weird thing you can do to test SkypeIn by the way: use Skype (if you've activated SkypeOut) to ring your SkypeIn number, you'll find you can test the voicemail, though I don't think you can pick up on yourself. The number itself (+44208816****) as you can see is a London based number (all UK Skype numbers seem to begin with that number format-surely not, only 9,999 numbers?) , which I suppose may incur national rate for local friends that ring us, but so many have these packages that include national rate as local, or that give free weekend or evening or all-the-time calls, that I don't think it's a big problem. Hey, uncle Pete, you can call me real cheap you old cockney sparrer'! And as Paul pointed out to me: I'm now a Londoner with a genuine London number! Here's the new Skype panel: observant Skypers may find we're only a click away:

Joni's shadow...

A few days ago we went for a walk just after sunset, and as we walked along under the bright street lights we noticed Joni staring at her shadow. She would stop, and start walking again, all the time not taking her eyes off it! And then she really made us laugh: she began to try and "shake" her shadow: first, she lifted one foot way off the ground, but that didn't seem to work. So then she started to run- but it ran with her! And then she started stamping on it with one foot- "go!go!"- Becky and me haven't laughed so much in ages. She then tried to lift Beckys' foot off the floor-perhaps if Joni couldn't escape, she could help mummy to!

We were out walking again yesterday and Joni had her little pram with her (for the first time) with her "baby" (dolly) all nicely tucked into her blanket inside. Well, as we walked along, Joni suddenly pushed the pram out in front of her, then caught it up again and pushed it along a little further, then pushed it out in front of her....I was dumbstruck, I just stood and looked at Becky: this is exactly what I do to Joni when we take her out in the pram, because she likes the sudden speed of me pushing her out ahead, and here she was doing it to her dolly! The reason I'm so impressed by that I think is she's never seen me do it, as she's always been in the pram, so I think it's clever that she could do it to her dolly just the same.

One more Join-ism before I grudgingly start Uni work for the rest of the day: yesterday we went down to the allotment and did a bit of digging (a bit? Our hands are covered in blisters! I said to Bex, if water blisters are full of water, which they seem to be when they burst, could someone lost in a desert rub his hands together till he got water-blisters, and then drink the blisters-water? ;-) and of course a lot of worms were dug up as we turned the soil. I looked up and Joni was standing there, holding a worm, which I thought was good-she doesn't seem scared of creepy-crawlies (unlike me). When I looked again though, the worm had gone, and Joni looked at me and said...."pocket"....and yes, it was...

Rivers...

Today we had a trip out to Richmond in the car, the weather was lovely and mild and (occasionally) sunny too; we had two of Beckys' sisters with us, and poorly noni of course (she's just cutting her back teeth AND she's full of cold). For me it was just great to get away from the PC, from work, from everything. Sitting above the little waterfall below Richmond, as the river Swale spreads out in front of you and seems to be all around you, you get to understand and wish for that peace the Bible promises to the righteous, it being "just like a river". Maybe it's the white noise effect, the one that sends people to sleep in front of the static on their TV (although there's not much of that these days- a symptom of our 24 hour culture). I think there's more to it though. I think believers in Creation and believers in evolution would at least agree on this point: surrounding ourselves in nature is surrounding ourselves in our original element, the cradle of our ancestors, and it feels like "home" whether that home be Eden or some African plain.

I found out where that river flows into the sea when I got home. It has such an interesting journey. I hope this journey is interesting to you if you live somewhere near me, or even if you don't.

The River Swale has its source in the Yorkshire Dales, the North part of. It flows out through Richmond and meets the River Ure just East of Harrogate, which the Ure flows through, having also journeyed from the Dales- its source is only 6 Miles South of the Swales'! So when these two rivers meet (at their confluence), as far as I can tell, they're renamed the Ouse. Anyway this happens fairly soon after they meet- it may be down to local council boundaries or something (I never realized rivers changed their names so much, I suppose you may as well give two big rivers that join a new name!) and the river flows onwards, through York, first of all slowing to pick up the river Nidd, which has also journeyed from just East of the Dales (Angram resevoir in fact). It travels straight South from York, and four Miles out joins with the smaller Wharfe, yet takes the Wharfe's direction- East and seawards! Whence came the Wharfe? Again, from the Yorkshire Dales, and it was born only 6 Miles South of the Ure! And yet another to meet from there....but first, out of Selby it meets the Derwent, which harks from different climes- from the North Yorks Moors, just North West of Scarborough...(this being the nearest of the rivers to me-as an aside, the Esk river also flows from the NYM but flows straight out at Whitby, a little journey indeed!) the Ouse oozes on and about 7 Miles further on joins with the River Aire and at THAT point becomes the (to be) mighty Humber, which takes (most importantly) these two and the Calder and the Don from the Peak district. Whence the Aire? Yes, the Dales, Malham actually, a favourite tourist spot (Malham cove). The Ayre seems to flirt with canals, or man has certainly flirted with the Aire- just West of Skipton (on the edge of the Dales at the beginning of its journey) it is made to join, via the Leeds-Liverpool canal, the rivers Alder and Ribble- both of which head Westwards ho, to the Irish sea- so I suppose one could travel (by canoe?) from sea to sea! That's another story. The Humber of course flows into the North Sea South and East of Hull. Wow, what a journey! Only 110 Miles as the crow flies for my beautiful Swale to the sea, and yet rivers don't go as crows, they twist and wind and take their time. How long I wonder, does a drop of water take to travel those miles? I'd love to walk beside the Swale from source to sea, from its fast bubbling birth to its slow, graceful death.

How often do we examine the beginnings and the ends of things? I was present when Joni was born, yet I've never been present at a death. I would like to be. Of course, we are all flowing there, but we have the chance to flow with others, and to look whence we came at witnessing births-and to where we are headed, by witnessing deaths. Of course, these are closer together than we would think: we are returning whence we came, to the vast regions of non-existence. Yet why do we not like to witness death? Because it is not usually the slow and graceful death of a river. Let me tell you, I couldn't get the thought of my great uncle Mikey out of my head yesterday: I didn't see him die, but I was with him hours before. This was a dead man, a tube leaked a mix of blood and urine from (whence?) his liver, into a bag beside him, for all to see. Where's the dignity and grace in that little journey, indeed in that little death? Do not expect it yourself.

Here's a nice photo of Joni anyway, taken today. Joni began nearly two years ago, she flowed from me and Becky, and flows onto death; yet she will meet many and become someone different to what she is now, before she arrives there.

Drowning...

...in the most unbelievable amount of work from Uni. The "group project" is especially difficult, but huge also, and after just losing Peter (he bailed out!) unfortunately I'm left in a group which comprises two very weak (but hardworking) programmers, and myself. Does that sound boastful? Very well then! It's just that I'm sick of working my ass off for other people, only to then share equally in the credit with them. Oh well. I feel like I've just entered the tunnel on this project, and the deadline is only three weeks away- I hope the light at the end of the tunnel is only three weeks down the tracks, at the moment I can't see it....

Found (at last!) someone with an online version of "Breakfast of Champions" so I've copied my favourite quote from it below. Enjoy.

"Trout wrote a novel one time which he called How You Doin’? and it was about national averages for this and that. An advertising agency on another planet had a successful campaign for the local equivalentof Earthling peanut butter. The eye-catching part of each ad was the statement of some sort of average—the average number of children,the average size of the male sex organ on that particular planet—which was two inches long, with an inside diameter of three inches and an outside diameter of four and a quarter inches—and so on. The ads invited the readers to discover whether they were superior or inferior to the majority, in this respect or that one—whatever the respect was for that particular ad.

The ad went on to say that superior and inferior people alike ate such and such brand of peanut butter. Except that it wasn’t really peanutbutter on that planet. It was Shazzbutter.

And so on.

And the peanut butter-eaters on earth were preparing to conquer the shazzbutter-eaters on the planet in the book by Kilgore Trout. By this time, the Earthlings hadn’t just demolished West Virginia and Southeast Asia. They had demolished everything. So they were ready to go pioneering again.

They studied the shazzbutter-eaters by means of electronic snooping,and determined that they were too numerous and proud and resourceful ever to allow themselves to be pioneered. So the Earthlings infiltrated the ad agency which had the shazzbutter account, and they buggered the statistics in the ads. They made the average for everything so high that everybody on the planet felt inferior to the majority in every respect.

And then the Earthling armored space ships came in and discovered the planet. Only token resistance was offered here and there, because the natives felt so below average. And then the pioneering began."

Vidblog...

For those who wanted (or may want) to know how to add video to your blog, it's really simple: just upload your .wmv file (you can convert most video to this format using the windows movie maker, provided you're using WinXP) to a web host (for example to the web space given to you by your I.S.P.) and copy and paste the code in this little tutorial (right click this and save target as...) into the html view of your new post- I would suggest having your video something like 370 pixels wide or less, and your file size no bigger than 1MB, for the dial-up crew. I just got upgraded to 2Mbps the other day (not rubbing it in or anything ;-)

I did something yesterday that I haven't done a long while- I picked up my guitar. I did more than this in fact- I restrung it and learned a new song! Well, an old song. Hearing Nic Jones version of "Annachie Gordon" prompted me to musical action, the tips of my (left hands') fingers are a painful reminder of how long it's been!

Wheels on said bus...

I was looking at a few jogging sites on the internet yesterday, and I came across a training plan for a hundred Mile jog! Who the hell runs these distances? I put the question to Paul and he reminded me that:

"I used to go and help with checkpoints, etc while my Dad and other club members would do 100 miles over a weekend. Crazy distance."

I thought I'd parody the site above and see whether anyone finds it useful, I mean, why stop at a measly hundred?

I borrowed a book from Brian, I think I'll be quoting oft from it in days to come: on the first page there's a wonderful quote from Goethe:

"The conflict of faith and skepticism remains the proper, the only, the deepest theme of the history of the world and mankind, to which all others are subordinated."

I love that. Anyhoo, caught Joni on our crappy vid-camera singing about a bus, the pictures a bit dark (even after filtering through VirtualDubMod), but she sings the end so well - "All...day...LONG".

Did they do it?

I came across something really interesting today in "Too loud a Solitude" by Hrabal, a book that's an excellent rubbish story, or a story about rubbish that's excellent. He mentions in the course of his fiction the "fact" (it has the ring of truth about it, but I'm enclosing that statement of fact in inverted comma's because it's embedded in fiction and I haven't as yet found any non-Hrabal references to it!) that on the publishing of the proofs by Copernicus that we live in a heliocentric, or Sun centered 'universe' a group of monks devoted to the idea, or at least so used to living with the idea that the Earth is center of the 'universe' (so that this idea was closely tied in with their belief structure as a whole and viewed as being just as much based on scripture as these other beliefs) committed mass suicide rather than have to come to terms with the fact.

Now, what comparisons could be made! What's devastating about this is that heliocentricity is not taught in the Bible per se, or to put it another way, the very few places the Suns "rising" and "setting" are mentioned are hardly explicit teachings on the construction of the solar system- even we who know its construction refer to the Sun as doing these things, it's just our "point of view"! Are there people who base important parts of their belief systems on a very few verses in the Bible, verses that could hardly be said to be an explicit statement of a certain fact, for example of a way to worship God, a "right" view of him (or his Creation, as above), verses that could be seen differently by different people, depending on their "point of view"? If God wanted it to be known for certain where the Sun was in relation to the Earth, wouldn't he have made it clear? If worshipping God through a certain man-made organization is so important, wouldn't he make it clear? Wouldn't this be just? In my view, the important things in the Bible ARE clear, for a just and loving God does not hide, nor does he hide his teachings: "he is not far off from each one of us", and Jesus spoke "on the rooftops"- not in secret.

Let me ask you: do you read from Jesus' words here, the establishment of a new "organization" of men to handle his dealings in the late nineteenth century? If you don't, then you agree with me, but 5 million would disagree with you:

Matthew 24(NIV):
45 Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time?
46 It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns.
47 I tell you the truth, he will put him in charge of all his possessions.

When Jesus wanted his disciples to understand a parable, he explained it to them, but not so with the above and some may say this is because it's clear what the meaning is: it's not an explicit teaching revealing a new and future earthly organization, but a reminder for Christians to carry on where Jesus left off. Yet those that see a (hidden to the majority of people who call themselves Christians) teaching about such an earthly organization here have in effect made this organisation the center of their universe, with even the glorious Son revolving around it, instead of the other way round. For by choosing to answer "I am that slave" where Jesus himself did not (he just ASKED, "who is..?") they are in effect taking the responsibility from Jesus, who has not yet said to whomever he chooses "you are the slave". Unwittingly perhaps, they have usurped Jesus' rightful place at the center of a Christian "church", but the true facts of the matter when learned (in my case) has had, and yet will have (in others) a huge effect on their view of the universe.

Deaths "To do" List...

Bex went out last night with a few friends and had a good night by all accounts, I was asking her about it today when she told me something Annabel had said: Annabel, who works in an old peoples home, is continually upset at the (very practical) books they keep. Of the two books she mentioned, one contains a list of people waiting for rooms in the home (recorded against their addresses?), the other contains a list of people currently in the home, recorded against their room numbers and (possibly) the date they're admitted to the home. Both books are hundreds of (filled) pages long.

If you looked through the book of people in the home from the beginning, you would notice that every name is crossed out, until you got to the last few pages perhaps when names that are not crossed out stand amongst those that are: listen: a person comes in, and is admitted to a room. A person dies and is crossed out, and the next person on the waiting list is contacted, to be moved into the newly available room-possibly moving in (as attested to by Annabel) on the same day.

The cold logic of this list merely reflects the cold logic of death, doesn't it? Imagine your name on that list, the list gradually filling up with names after you, and the names around you being crossed out one after the other...I imagined it, and wrote up my own list below. I suppose I get L Davies room in March '43 and K Humphries gets my room after me, in July '43. I'm not in long: 4 Months. That's better than some though. Notice there's no date out. Is that because I don't really leave?

Sit down and write your name down. Pause. Then cross it out. It feels really weird, in the context of the above. Who's room will you get? Who's going to cross out your name? Who's going to get your room? What do you want to make sure of before the crossing out day comes? What do you want to have done, what do you want to know, what do you want to feel and believe, before you vacate your room? You better had do it now, whilst you're still on his "to do" list...

Results...

I received my first semester (second year) results yesterday, and didn't really understand them, as they were given as marks out of 100, and not as grades (e.g. A,B,C etc). I got a 74 (Networks and Communications), a 66 (Database development),an 81 (Object technology) and a 72 (Formal methods 2). This is an average of 73, and on asking Brian whether this was OK (he did his degree in English Lit at Teesside) was surprised to find out that 70+ is equivalent to a first class degree. Long way to go yet though, but I was very pleased with myself on hearing that! It's all downhill from here...down the hill I've just climbed, back to lazy days and books and films and no bloody computers humming in my head night and day....

Snowman on the beach!

Today we awoke to find Saltburn-by-the-sea covered in snow, something we rarely see. I hauled Bex and Joni out of their warm beds, yes out of their beautiful sleep because I wanted to show them something more beautiful (it's hard convincing Bex anything is more beautiful than sleep)-I wanted them to see the beach...it was covered in snow too, I've never seen that before, it was so pretty! Now it's melted, I have these memories to share, the pictures I took, of the snowman we built. The sea-spray soaked the snow covered sand where stood the sandy snowman. How's that for alliteration? Anyway, click the pictures for bigger versions.