journal of a writing man

ventilated winter window
   sometimes it sucks
   sometime it blows

winter is coming
   slowly but sure
   the dead leaves hide away

Christmas grows closer
   winter sneaks in
   while people shop

Friday November 30, 2007

Beautifully bright and sunny for much of the day yesterday and I revelled in it. As with all truly beautiful things there is a terror to it, too, for at this low point of the year the sun stays close to the horizon, shining full into the eyes.  Most people wear sunglasses against the glare.

Winter Europeans are pallid, worm-like creatures, though, tending to short tempers and sullen expressions.  H.G. Wells thought that something of that would typify our descendents in the far, far future. Morlocks, he named them, and placed them in vasty underground warrens, far from the sun.

Morlocks is not a bad name for many folks I see about me so it may be that Wells had the right of it and the evolution is manifest already. Is it me being sour or would devolution be a better term?

It wasn’t so very bad in Taunton, though. For some unaccountable reason the town was sparsely populated with people, and not a lot of shopping was going on. We were there at my suggestion, having just picked up the car from Taunton Ford, and I’d been ready to encounter massed shoppers and have something to grumble about.

Couldn’t do it.  It was actually rather pleasant. Graham has, by dint of careful wheedling and gentle persuasion, encouraged me to accept Starbucks as a necessary evil, part of High Street life. Well, yes, necessary perhaps in a Morlockian sense.

We took our coffee in a strangely quiet environment.  I had a small black coffee and a toasted cheese-and-ham sandwich. Both of them mediocre in presentation and in taste, and neither of them for a moment warranting the high-falutin’ foreign names that Starbucks like to bandy about.  My cheese-and-ham sandwich, while pleasant enough in a bland kind of way, was about as far as you can get from Croque Monsieur as you’ll find anywhere this side of the Rocky Mountains. Have a look here if you want to see a real Croque Monsieur. Starbucks can call it a panini all they like but their product is nothing like the real thing.

The good part was that we were able to sit in the window and so I could contemplate the roof scapes of old Taunton, the one above and somewhat askew in a time-travel sense from the sad commercial shop fronts beneath them.

Taunton roofscape

I had only one simple errand to carry out, Graham had several, so we separated and went our different ways, meeting back at the car. Then, home, a completely innocent snack of sliced tomato in unbuttered olive bread rolls, and a late siesta after a short session at the desks.

My new desk, plain and simple, is an attractive workplace, not intrusive, just there. That’s a quality I admire. I try to be much the same myself though it is difficult when dealing with so many Morlocks.

Thursday November 29, 2007

A busy couple of days, to IKEA in Bristol yesterday and then to the Ford service dealership in Taunton today.  IKEA was completely successful and we were able to pick up the last of the furnishing for my new study and for doctoring the house ready for sale.

We’re aiming to have the house ready before Christmas. Not necessarily to instruct agents until the start of business in the New Year, but to have everything ready to hit the market before we shut down for the big end of year festival.

The car came through the annual service with flying colours. No problem with the clutch, and the aircon regassed with no further problems.  Even the tyres passed as first class.  The car drives nice and tight again, and it’s a joy to have air conditioning once more.

The engineer did not say so but it’s clear to me that the clutch problem is not with the machine but with my operation of it.  I need to have a close look and think about the problem and re-learn my clutch control.  Perhaps going so far as to book myself in for a couple of advanced driving lessons.  I do know that I have allowed some laziness to creep into my driving.  It’s a problem I have to fix.

The courtesy car they gave me for the day was a brand new Fiesta.  I wasn’t impressed.  Once more Ford seem to have dropped the level of fit a couple of points.  I can get a darn nice Renault or Fiat for the same or less money, with a full inventory of driving and comfort aids.  And Ford in the UK does not take automatic transmission seriously on small cars. Where familiarity with the Fiesta might lead me back to Ford, lack of safety and comfort will not.  I’m reckoning on keeping this car for no more than another three or four years, and shall start saving for a replacement as soon as we’re established in the next house.

I think I heard someone say today that the official start of Winter happens next week. That’s probably a little previous. So far as I know the first day of winter falls on the solstice, on December 21st or 22nd, and coincides with the shortest day.

Roll on.  I’ve not had the best of years and while I most assuredly do not want to wish the time away, I’ll be glad to start over again when we get winter out of the way.

Graham has not had the opportunity officially to announce his plans for the future–critical people are not available just now. He expects to be able to go public next week, though.

Again, roll on.

Wednesday November 28, 2007

Yesterday’s highlight was a bonus Northern Exposure. It turned out to be the one where poor Walt gets addicted to his light visor. Singularly appropriate since it was the day I started back on the fluoxetine for the winter here.

 To the Ford service place in Taunton to book the car in for its belated annual service. I have a bad feeling about the bill for this one–I think the clutch may need attention–so I insisted on a courtesy car rather than sit around twiddling my thumbs in strange semi-industrial places.

Come what may, the next car has to have an automatic transmission.  I’m not as quick on the clutch pedal as I used to be, and it’s telling.  I doubt this car will last as long as the previous one.

A strange day, though, yesterday. Sorting out stuff I’d rather not think about and about which I positively refuse to write.

Today starts early, up and writing at 05:00 and now, at 06:20, still decidedly quiet and sleepy in the close. Not a single light to be seen and I have heard only one car. Perhaps there was something gripping on late-night TV and they’re all sleeping in. I doubt it was the latest UK political shenanigans. That’s a blessing. Almost everybody in real life is far too sensible to lose sleep over politics.

Hey ho. We have a big treat lined up for today and I want to get showered and shaved and ready for an early off.

Keep safe.

Tuesday November 27, 2007

I’m having a truly Grrr day.  Can’t write about it. Not sure I’d want to share it if I could.

So, until tomorrow, eh?

 Grrr.