Well, it was for the most part – with the notable exception of the deluge that I encountered on my (pedestrian!) trip from Beckenham post office to my flat a few days ago. Caught in t-shirt and shorts in the downpour, all I could do was chuckle with amusement as I strolled back home – entering the building at the same time as one of my neighbours, I caused him no end of amusement.
Well, you dress for sun, you get rain – who’da thunk it? Welcome to the English summer! But the weather has been glorious for the most part, and with the lengthening days my mood lifts exponentially – and my mind turns to leisurely pursuits.
And in that respect, I’ve been totally sucked into the English culture – as soon as the clouds break, we want to go abroad! What a bizarre cultural phenomenon – mind you, last year’s wintertime trip to Australia delivered a huge shock at both ends of the trip, so there’s something to be said for enjoying the seasons as you’re accustomed to them, and not rocking the boat… 🙂
Work continues to burgeon, keeping me off the streets and at my desk. I’m still selling the car, though, as it’s a case of just too little, too late. But I’ve got my beady eye on a few potential lower-cost replacements; we’ll see how it pans out. And *if* the bloody thing sells at all – it’s been advertised for a few weeks now, and I only had calls from 4 potential buyers (two of whom turned up, then never called again!), and a few dozen canvassers trying to get me to advertise in their publication. If I’d a tenner for every time I said “bugger off!” over the past few weeks, I wouldn’t have to sell the car at all!
Ah, but there’s a bank holiday weekend coming up, and lots to do with it. As well as finishing off a few bits of work, I’ll be dusting off the mountain bike, pumping up its flabby tyres and heading out to find a park that’s not overrun with families, there to scratch and tear around the woodland paths to no purpose but screamin’ good fun! There’s more, but it’s classified – I could tell you, but then, er…. well, you’d know, and it wouldn’t be classified anymore, would it? (note to self: find a different cool movie line to quote!) Apart from anything else, I need to eke out the happenins, or I wouldn’t have enough material to update the website more than once a month. Oi – none of that!
There’s plenty of other news in the world at the moment, anyway, not least the US forces pulling out of Falluja in Iraq – I’d imagine after the carpet-bombing of the last couple of nights, the people of that unhappy place will be breathing a collective sigh of relief. Bush must be sick as a parrot just now, digging for Kofi Annan’s phone number in his trashcan…
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, President Blair in his infinite wisdom has announced that he’ll be handing the decision making on possibly *the* most complex document ever to come out of the Brussels political super-computer to the great British public, in the form of a referendum on the EU constitution. Now that’s an interesting thought: without serious widescale education as to the content and potential effects of said document, I can’t see how that could work. Tony trying hard to set himself up as a global statesman, methinks, with an ill-advised manoeuvre that can’t do him any good – interesting that he’ll allow a referendum on this, but not on whether we should go to war without evidence or aggression to start the proceedings off…
Finally, as a follow-up to last week’s diatribe, this article on the BBC website tells of the first man in the UK to be arrested on suspicion of “phishing”. Nail ’em up, I say! Crucifixion’s too good for ’em….!!! 🙂
And on that happy note, I shall wish you all a very happy and hopefully reasonably sane May Day bank holiday weekend. Hopefully with more of that summery-type weather….