2008 — 28 October: Tuesday

Goodness me, it's getting more than a tad chilly. I predict an increase in my gas bill at this rate. But now it's time for tonight's picture, from late 1980 (or quite possibly early 1981):

Christa and Peter in Old Windsor, 1980/1

She really was a fabulous mother, and very good at the job... G'night.

Bright sun...

... and quite thick white stuff on the tiles. Nice combination, but time to start stuffing my next crockpot if I'm to eat tonight! Brrr. OK — done. Next? The first cuppa. And if it stays this sunny and clear blue-skied I may just venture out on a little adventure. I'm retired, you know. But breakfast first, I suppose. It's already 10:12.

Home again...

That was nice! A quick burn down to, round, and back from, the sunny seaside town of Mouth-of-the-Bourne. I admit, as I set off for home the darkness of the gathering clouds made me wonder if snow was in the offing, but (back here, at 15:14) there's still a bit of the sunny stuff left. Definitely rather overdue for another cuppa. It's a month since I last hit the bookshops over there. I "done good" today:

Jock Sturges is a superlative photographer; he's been on my "automatic buy" list since 13th July 1996 when, on a day trip to Oxford with Peter and his NZ cousin Claire, I found his second collection "Radiant Identities". I added his first collection "Last Day of Summer" to my shelves a month later when Christa, Peter and I were over in New York for a fortnight staying with my dear friend Carol. John Ravenscroft (aka John Peel) wrote many articles over the years — this new collection was at half price in Borders so that was also a no-brainer.

The minor flurry of music CDs now en route courtesy of Amazon had better bring the month's acquisitions¹ to an end, I think. Speaking of flurries, it seems we're lucky not to have snow right now. Most of the traffic in most of the country sounds pretty foul.

It's 20:35 — I think I shall set the rest of the crockpot into accelerated cooling mode, make another cuppa, and watch a DVD. Is this the life, or what?

Footnote

¹ Although (obviously!) I no longer have Christa around to look askance at my various acquisitions, it was just after we'd returned from that New York fortnight that she came up with quite a radical proposal: don't buy any more books until I've read all the ones I have — now there's a thought! Out of mild interest, I've just asked my little database how many books I've bought since she made that radical suggestion. Came the answer: "3,843" (including the two above, one of which I've read) which is less than one a day (though, I admit, not all that much less!)