Propping up the eyelids

I almost fell asleep across my parents kitchen table this morning... at least, it felt as if I just closed my eyes I'd be gone.   We went over for two reasons - firstly my sister was down with her two youngest children (11 & 13) and her man so we wanted to see them; secondly Dad had a tree that needed cutting down so Mr H was doing the honours while there were extra hands there to help, and to kill two birds with one stone, as it were.  

I don't know how people cope with having loads of family around at Christmas, it makes me feel quite claustrophobic. Trying to find enough chairs/plates, who wants tea/coffee/whatever, lots of people talking at once.. I know some people thrive on the hustle and bustle but I just want to escape to a quiet corner somewhere with a good book.

I haven't done much physically over the last few days, other than the odd short dog walk, but I realised that we have seen friends/family every day since Friday. Combined with a drive up to the Cotswolds and back, I can't believe how exhausting it's been.   Tomorrow I have a day off from talking to anyone other than my husband and my dog, hurrah!   

Oh, we talked about the dinghies last night... one of them is a single-hander which I sail on my own; the other is a 2-man old wooden Firefly which I sail with Mr H.  We agreed to keep them (not that I was going to be making any big decisions now anyway) and just carry on pottering about in it as we do now.  ie. not worrying that we don't go out every weekend or for hours at a time.   I must stop comparing myself to the other people in the sailing club, those who are passionate about it.  The sort that go racing on Boxing Day even when it's -6C and there is 3" of ice on the slipway.

While they are doing that, Mr H. and I willl be getting on our walking boots and woolly hats and heading for higher ground.

No hangovers here

We had a fairly quiet Christmas Day, as we normally do.  In the morning we opened some presents and dug the veggies out of the frozen ground for our evening meal, then Mr H took Django for a walk while I did a bit of tidying and a bit of chilling out.   My parents came over in the afternoon after they'd watched the Queen's Speech; we played some vingt-et-un (aka Pontoon) and Mr H. went bankrupt, even as banker!   I said it was a good thing he went into Forestry. 

Our evening meal was melon and gravadlax, followed by roast pork and home grown veg, and Christmas pudding. My parents went home about 8pm so we had some time alone to just relax and watch some comedy on iPlayer, and open some presents we'd kept over. 

Not what most people would consider a 'traditonal Christmas Day' - we didn't overeat or drink very much; we didn't have a big pile of presents, just a few.  We didn't go to church because we don't any more - and why go at Christmas when you don't go the rest of the year? 

Best present for 2010: a pair of Grivel Spiders from Mr H.  These are like mini-crampons which fit in the instep of your boots for walking on snow or ice.  Having them meant that the three of us could go out for a lovely walk on the Forest today, where normally I would fear to tread...

If God isn't out here as well as in church, then something's definitely wrong.

Who am I? Where am I?

OK, what day is it? Thursday? No, Wednesday.. I think? 

At lunch yesterday (was it?) somebody commented about saving themselves for Saturday. "What's happening on Saturday?" says I....   somehow it seems odd that Christmas Day is also an ordinary day of the week.

Yes I'm still totally out of sync.  Every time I post on Beautiful World now, I have to pause and think what day it is, in case I'm trampling all over the Thursday theme (again).

Only about 16 hours til Mr H is home.  Not that I'm counting you understand.... ohhhh no.  This week I have been living on jacket/baked potatoes because all the food I have in the house is designed for two people and I don't want to waste eating any of it on my own.   I think maybe I have been anticipating next week more than I realised...?

I couldn't be bothered to find a photo for yesterday's post, sorry about that.  When I first started posting I never put a photo in, but now I like to have an illustration of some kind.   Hey, just for fun, here is my very first post.

Today's is one that Mr H sent me last night, I think it is Stow-on-the-Wold but anyway it's definitely the Cotswolds. I love the colour that the streetlights, the darkness and the camera project onto the scene.

 
One more day of work and then I'm done; though tomorrow's work is going to be a bit patchy - partly because of the things I can and cannot do (as the database has now been 'frozen' for end of year maintenance), and partly because of my boys coming back. 

I'm sure no-one will notice.

A quick one

Just a quick one as I'm about off to bed...  Since I worked a bit on Sunday I am completely out of sync with what day it is at the moment, and keep forgetting when I posted, or didn't!   I had an ok day today - after a bit of a crisis day at work yesterday with 4 of us flat out out trying to sort out a major issue, this morning I had a few fallout e-mails to deal with but not too bad.   Then we had our office Christmas lunch at a restaurant in town; it was pretty low key, no-one was drinking much for various reasons, but it was nice and relaxed and good company (we always invite 4 or 5 guests). The food was lovely, and normal sized portions - it was so nice to go home from it not completely stuffed and not drunk!  

In fact I worked for another 3 hours after I got home until my best friend G arrived bearing a few groceries I'd asked her to get while she was at the supermarket.  And knowing I'd been out to lunch she also came bearing pizza to save me cooking, bless her.

Mr H called me at about 5.30 to say he'd arrived in the Cotswolds ok.   Apparently the motorways were ok, and not too busy, but the conditions were worse when he got off them; he was going to tell me about some 'dodgy' moments, but I don't want to hear them.  Kind of in the same way I don't like it if we stop at the bottom of a mountain for him to point out the routes he's taken up it which to me look like death traps.   Do the stuff, come home safely, but don't tell me about how you nearly fell through a snow cornice, ok?  

So, that's the long bit of the journey done, but not necessarily the hard bit!  He's off to his brother's in Stow-on-the-Wold for tomorrow night;  he came through there and said there's a foot plus of snow, and it looked like people had just stopped and left their cars in the high street, which made it a pain to drive through. 

Two more sleeps!

Spot's Spot: My last night?

Well I have been watching Dad pile up stuff that looks suspiciously like he's going somewhere... I know the signs!   I'll do my miserable 'oh I suppose you're leaving' look until he picks up something of mine and puts it on the pile, and then I'll bounce manically around in excitement ooooohhh!

It's been b.... jolly freezing up here recently, though we haven't had as much snow as everyone else, apparently.    Still we haven't been out on the hills quite as much because he can't get his sticks in the ground, or see the planting mounds, so I've spent some time in the office.   Here are some pics of me at home (by the bed) and at work this week:

Still my bits have been freezing and sometimes I have to put my coat on, good thing Mum sent it up.  This is me in the works van, don't I look important!?

 

So anyway, I overheard Dad and Mum talking last night and I think we are going home tomorrow - or maybe to Uncle P's for the night which will be cooooool!  He loves me and always ruffles me up so that dog hair goes everywhere.   

I'm a little confused though because Dad has been packing some of his climbing gear and stuff that we wouldn't normally need to drive home.  Big thick clothes and boots and stuff, and lots of food.   I wonder if it's anything to do with the snowy stuff?

A friend for Spot and more snow

I awoke this morning to the sound of someone's house alarm going off, and a large bleep from behind my head, and the realisation that my digi-clock wasn't on.  Hmm, no power then!  It was 7.45am so time to wake up anyway... but I considered staying in bed for a bit as it was nice and warm, so I opened the curtains and lay and watched big, wet, sticky snowflakes falling outside.  But I can't lie in bed for long so was up and boiling water for tea in a saucepan on the hob by 8.30.  It's at times like this I'm so grateful I have a gas cooker - and a lighter - so it was still fried egg on toast for breakfast!

I went out and put some more bird seed on the bird table and in the feeder. Minus the crutch spikes as they are superfluous in snow and just get clogged up. Unfortunately most of the bird food seems to be getting eaten by starlings and jackdaws at the moment, but the dunnock and blue tits do still get a look-in. 

Then I decided to build a snowman, as I didn't build one last time it snowed and I was in the right mood today.  Except that it wasn't really snowman shaped, so I turned it into a snowpuppy!  which was much more fun and it makes me laugh every time I look out the window and see it sitting waiting for a biscuit.

Today I had designated as a Study Day so I sat upstairs in the spare room/studio/study room and read about senses and perception, and attention.   All interesting stuff which helps to explain my 'selective attention' as in not noticing things, and how we can drive to work and not remember anything much about the journey.

It's hard to work though with this view in front of you:

...and starlings squabbling over the suet, or doves sliding down the birdtable roof and hopping inside, or a blackbird perched on the edge of the snowy veranda roof.

The snow is thawing already, but the skies have cleared so I expect it will freeze tonight and be icy tomorrow.   Mr H doesn't have much snow in Ayrshire, I think it all fell on N.Ireland before it got to him.  But all I can think about is what conditions are like between here and Scotland... I can't bear the thought of he and I being separated by snow for Christmas. 

I think I'll spend the rest of the afternoon choreographing a one and a half-legged 'Thaw Dance'.

Friday ramblings

Well, what a week it's been. Is it really only 7 days since I was sitting in Mr H's flat before flying home?    I had my good office day on Monday, then the snow came on Wednesday night, and seemed to bring with it low voltage electricity into the office which meant the servers kept shutting themselves down. It turned into a frustrating week, work-wise. 

Yesterday I braved a walk round to the post box while the footpath still had enough snow on it (rather than compacted ice) but today I didn't allow myself out.  My sister called me this evening to check that I was looking after myself and not doing anything stupid - she knows what I'm like!  Tonight we are forecast rain and sleet on top of 6" of snow, and ice; so heaven knows what it will look like out there tomorrow.

The long, snowy rope that is my washing line

So, the servers were on and off for most of the morning while they worked out what was the matter with them.  It's worrying how lost we feel when we don't have the links to which we are accustomed.  If the broadband goes down it feels as though we're cut off from the world!   This weekend I am work duty for the King's Cup, in exchange for depriving them of my presence (obviously not a fair exchange, what could possibly replace my scintillating company?).  So, I hope that all is sorted out otherwise I won't be able to login, and I'll have to call on the boss for help to sort it out; it's not like I can just pop down to the office is it.

Anyway, this morning I used some of the down-time to have a hot shower and (sorry but I'm going to mention The C Word) write a couple of Christmas cards, the sort that also involve writing a letter.  I am always disappointed when I get a card from a relative or friends I haven't seen or talked to for ages, and it just says To Juniper and Mr H, Happy Christmas, love from Aunt Ethel.  What a waste of paper, frankly.  

Going back to the weather, I have pretty much made the decision not to go to my OU tutorial tomorrow, as I don't like the sound of rain/sleet on top of ice and snow.  However, I will reserve final judgement until the morning as I don't have to leave til 9am (a friend is lined up to give me a lift). The subject we are going to discuss is mainly research methods - correlations, IVs and DVs and interpreting scatter plots, confounding variables (I love that phrase) and experiment design.  Now I find all that stuff fairly logical and straightforward; I'm sure some of the 'what ifs', questioning, handling data, finding data patterns, and taking nothing for granted at work help in some strange way. I'm not saying I know it all, but on the other hand I know some people really struggle with it, and it might just do my head in to sit through 2 hours of people Not Getting It.

What animal was this?

My town awoke this morning to 6 inches of snow, so I decided I wouldn't be going into the office today after all.  The snow is ok but I wasn't so keen on the steps up to the office...

I got my priorities right and went out and sorted out the bird-feeders before breakfast; a robin was out mooching around trying to eat the frozen seed so that had to be fixed.  First footing it across the lawn, I always hate to spoil it!  normally of course there has been a DJ out in it before me, but not this morning.  My tracks out to the bird feeders were interesting...

I did discover I got snow-balling in my crutch crampons, will need to vaseline them like horses hooves! I thought I was going to get a snow-day off today, as I couldn't log into the server, so could check e-mails but not do anything else. My boss is stuck at his house out in the Forest and various others can't get in - great I thought, no-one there to re-boot the server!  But sadly I've just heard that someone is there and re-booting as I write. 

Ho hum, I thought I could get on with my work on confounding variables and correlations, I'll have to save that for later.

Happy Monday!

I spent most of yesterday working on my second essay, and every time I itched to put a semi-colon I put a full stop instead. Aaaaghh it hurt!  ok deep breaths.  It's nowhere near finished and isn't due til after Christmas but it's good to have a first draft down. I also need to put in the references, and an intro and and outro which are the hardest bits not to sound waffly in!  Then the second part of the assignment is analysing statistics, so that shouldn't be too hard if I put my logical head on.

I was going to go into the office today, but had a lousy night's sleep; it must have been the glass of wine I had last night, I'm supposed to be avoiding alcohol while on DHC.  Still, when I did sleep I had 'interesting' dreams about friends discovering they had two children they didn't know about and tasked me to find them. I was expecting kiddies but they turned out to be about 18.   The night before I dreamed about riding a temperamental horse that talked, and meeting a lady who had fallen off her penny-farthing bicycle. 

Anyway, I decided to work at home, and can always use the excuse that there's a light frost this morning and our steps to the office are 'treacherous' in the winter. I chose that word carefully by the way, I want to use it before the local press do. Last winter a friend and I ran statistical analysis of the words they used to describe the conditions. I remember that 'treacherous' came out top by a mile. Though to be fair, in January we did have rain/freeze/rain/freeze which resulted in everything being covered in an inch of ice - I needed my spiky walking poles to walk to work, because it was like walking on..well.. ice.

Treacherous walk to work, Jan 2010