CALM & FANTASTIC

Oops! Looks like I forgot about posting here for Some Years (TM). So, here's what I look like now. Or did last Saturday.

I had my hair cut....

Blurry picture, but this is the reason why I wanted to buy this house.... it has a holly tree in the back garden. I know. I'm shallow. Or a terrible hippy. Or something. Kev's reason: it has a fairly large kitchen. All change folks! We're buying a house! I promise we won't grow up.

Formby Beach last September. On this particular day it was bright but cold, good biking weather, good Formby weather I guess. It's my personal oasis - not geographically speaking, but mentally. Like many people, for whatever reasons, I find it very difficult to 'switch off' from work worries. If I want to stop thinking about work, I have to radically alter my environment and often the beach is the way to do it. Formby, Crosby, even Southport with all its tacky wonder. Lately we've found ourselves falling for Llandudno. The effect, no matter which beach, is that work seems a universe away. All that you can sense is the world around you. The sand, the waves, the seagulls, the dogs and their walkers. Unless it's really sunny, and then the scary female teenagers with false eyelashes and dribbly tans come out.

I never thought I'd be one of those people who complains endlessly about the winter months and the short days. I havea adored winter all my life and loathed summer. I would hide inside as a child when the sun came out. Living 9 months in Algeria as a child had me constantly ill and sunburned. But, I have to admit, I am craving sunshine so much right now I'm considering buying a SAD light. Dammit. And I thought I was a goth. (actually not true, I'm a goth-fraud). It could be that the last 4 years Kev and I have been out on the bike whenever the weather shines on us - int's not mid-life crisis! It's mid-life celebration. But anyway, right now, I yearn for the fresh air and blue skies. Doesn't help that I had a tooth mended today... well, I feel all sorry for myself, so nothing's right.

Just starting season 4 of the US TV series Justified. For the uninitiated, it's a modern crime/cowboy series replete with Southern stereotypes and bad language but also very skilled actors amongst the cast and some beautifully crafted dialogue. Seasons 1 & 2 were memorable, season 3 slightly less so because the nasty-villain-power-vacuum was swiftly filled with too many stereotypes. It would be interesting to compare to classical Westerns some time. Anyway, all worth it for the theme tune by Gangstagrass (fusion of bluegrass and rap).

I feel the need for a holiday, so naturally I'm dreaming of heavenly holidays past. This was February 2013 in Grasmere, in the Lake District. Sadly we didn't see any speeding squirrels but I guess it was a rather chilly day.

It's been a long time coming, but I've finally opened a tumblr account. Currently no-one knows I'm here, shhhhh! We'll see how this goes shall we? So, tonight is Oscar night. I've never been an Oscars fan, but every year some of my students stay up overnight to watch the ceremony on TV and turn up on Monday even more bleary eyed than usual (for a Monday that is). It's their choice. I guess somewhere along the line I decided to value sleep more than something to talk about in the playground/staffroom/smoking area. If I had a greater stake in the outcome of the Oscars no doubt I'd be far more dedicated. As it is, tomorrow's lecture on psychoanalysis and cinema probably will proceed happily without it. Ditto the trip to the dentist in the morning. Creative notes for today: sat and pondered on what kinds of mending jobs my main clown does around town in my story. Then painted a bat on a jar which I'll use to keep my pens in. That's a win as far as I'm concerned.