Thursday 23rd December 2010

And so this is Christmas.

Today is the first day of my Christmas break, the weather is cold, but not cold enough for snow. what ice we have left is melting making pavements treacherous.

Yesterday, being the last day of term, as it were, I spent at home, well, working from home. as we had a funeral to go to.



So, at least as I do most of my work with a computer, i can work from when it suits. Well, when it works. Setting up the internet connection and then the VSP; that can take an hour, as it did yesterday. But, in time it works, and i get on and deal with dealing with my work mail and other stuff. It's all magic really.

And then it was time to scrub up, put on the suit and head to the crematorium. Fog had come down, and so we cruised at a safe 50mph, whilst some folks headed past at silly speeds with no lights on, all whilst heading blindly into a bank of fog.



It seemed like half the town had turned up for the service; there was standing room only, and we had to stand at the back of the balcony. Fine words were said, we listened to his favourite songs, and then the curtains closed and we filed out; said kind words to the grieving. And then we climbed back in our car and headed for home.



On the way back Jools and I stopped off to watch a double-headed steam tour thunder through. we arrived a few minutes before it was due to find half a dozen gricers already there. Word came through via text that the train was ten minutes late, and so we tightened our coats, stomped our feet and double checked the settings on our cameras.

Then, we saw three lights from the mouth of Guston Tunnel; out of the gloom and mist they came, smoke everywhere, it rushed towards us; my camera whirred; and then it was under the bridge and it was heading away, leaving us wreathed in smoke and steam.

we got back in the car and headed home. we made lunch and sat down with a hot cup of coffee after turning the heating up another couple of notches.

I did some more work as the afternoon turned towards evening, and then at five turned the computer off, and that was it for my working year.

I made chorizo hash for dinner; washed down with a bottle of home brew, and we settled down to listen to the final Radcliffe and Maconie show on the wireless.