Still cold

Brrrrrr. Is actually the main thing I'm thinking at present. It's not even that wonderful bright, clear cold you sometimes get in winter. It's cold, grey and overcast, which seems unfair.

This week I've been doing a lot of dull stuff, too, to match the weather - mostly sorting and throwing away old magazines and other junk from my office, reviewing my budget and making a few financial tweaks, and things like that.

This weekend ought to be more interesting.

Tomorrow is my parents' wedding anniversary (which I admit is more interesting for them than for me), but I shall probably speak to them at some point. It reminds me that they were snowed on on their wedding day, which I suppose puts our current weather into perspective.. They will have been married for 44 years!

Then at the weekend, after spending Saturday morning at work, I shall be going to the theatre in the evening, to see Lenny Henry in 'Fences'. I saw his 'Othello' a few years back, and was really impressed, so I'm very much looking forward to it.

And the Bath Literature Festival starts this weekend, and I shall be going to my first event on Sunday - a talk about maps.

In Which I am Cold

Yesterday was icy cold - it kept trying to snow; there would be a few flakes of snow, then it would give up again.

I went into Bath to pick up some books and tickets from the wonderful  Mr B's, and to run a few other errands - including popping into the Post Office to buy some of the new  Jane Austen stamps, celebrating the 200th anniversary of the publication of Pride and Prejudice. There's something rather nice about being able to send a stamp featuring 'Persuasion', from Bath. Although I am not sure whether there'll be a legible postmark.

I love this building. Even though it's not a Library any more.

Today I woke to find we had had a tiny bit of snow overnight. Just a light dusting, visible of the roofs of the cars, and on windowsills, and gone within an hour of sunrise. However, the cold makes me think I must have a touch of squirrel, or bear, in my ancestry, as I just was to curl up and hibernate, emerging occasionally for honey and nuts.

I learned yesterday evening that my application to be a giver for World Book Night again this year has been successful, so I shall be handing out copies of Patrick Ness's 'The Knife of Never Letting Go' on or around 23rd April, which makes me happy. It's great sharing books, and I loved watching twitter last night and  seeing lots of other people getting equally excited about joining in, too.

Family, and the Right Kind of Sparkly Vampire

This post is a bit late, for obvious reasons.

Last weekend, I travelled up to Birmingham, to visit my sister, and to see Sleeping Beauty at the Birmingham Hippodrome. Originally, the plan was for both of my sisters to be there, but K couldn't make it (which was a shame)

I haven't been to a ballet for a while, and I don't think I have ever seen Sleeping Beauty, so I came to it with an open mind. Having seen, and enjoyed, several of Matthew Bourne's previous productions I was expecting something non-traditional, and, light-hearted, and that's what we got.

The ballet opens in 1890 (which, in a neat twist, is the year that the original ballet was first performed), with the Princess's coming of age being in 1911, and the ending, when the sleepers wake up, in 2011.

(Photo (c) Sadlers Wells Theatre)

Bourne has got around the somewhat troubling idea of a total stranger kissing an comatose young woman who immediately falls in love with him by introducing as the Princess Aurora's love interest the gardener, Leo. And the Lilac Fairy (the original Fairy Godmother) is in the production 'Count Lilac', a Vampire Fairy (or Fairy Vampire?) with fangs and wings, who bites Leo so he can survive long enough to wake Aurora. I think I can live with a sparkly vampire who is also a fairy godmother!

The ballet was on the Saturday evening, and on Sunday my cousin and her husband and son came over for lunch - I haven't seen them since my sister's wedding in the summer, and J is not quite  2 and a half yet, so as can be imagined, he has changed and grown a good deal since then.I like him. We had a fun afternoon, and I was sorry to have to leave, especially as it was snowing as I set out, so not a lot of fun to drive in!

R.I.P. Tybalt 1998-2013

This is a really hard post to write. I'm sitting in a house which feels a lot colder and emptier than it ever did before.

I met Tybalt in 1998. I'd just managed to move out of shared, rented accommodation into a place of my own, so pets became a possibility, and I pretty much immediately started to look around for a kitten.

Kitten!

There was a card in one of the local pet shops offering grey kittens, free to good homes, and I'd always rather fancied a grey cat, so I arranged to go round to see them. They were adorable, and then their owners  said 'oh, and there's a tabby kitten from another litter. He's a bit older" so I explained that no, I really wanted a grey one.

And so, inevitably, 20 minutes later I was driving home with a small, fuzzy, annoyed tabby kitten in a cardboard box on the seat beside me, and he has been with me ever since.

I named him Tybalt, after the character in 'Romeo and Juliet' and on the basis of the notes on my school copy of the play, which said that Tybalt was a common name for pet cats in Shakespeare's day.

He never lived up to his name. He wasn't a rat-catcher, he wasn't a fighter. Indeed, if I didn't love him so much I might be tempted to say he was a bit of a wuss. He did run away from a rabbit, once. Admittedly, it was a large, and aggressive rabbit, but still. He used to moths, and the odd wasp which got itself trapped against the glass in the windows, and he tried to catch the vultures on David Attenborough's 'Life of Birds' (I had a really small TV then)

He was very nervous, to start with, and would rush off if I had the temerity to cough, or move, or breathe too heavily while he was sitting on me, but as he got older he got more relaxed. After 10 years or so he would even, occasionally, sit on people other than me, if I wasn't available.

Unlike many cats, he was unfazed by travelling, and after a few minutes complaining, would settle down in the car and snooze his way through the drive, and would then be perfectly happy in whatever new house I took him to.

He came to my parents home for Christmas, when he was younger he came with me to my grandmother's house (where it took him around 5 minutes to find the airing cupboard) and after these visits, he would always remember the houses, and be able to find his way to the warm spots, and to whichever bed I was sleeping in, without any difficulty, even after over a year.

He could be playful - my friend Stacy sent him a quilt filled with catnip, which he loved (the video was from when it first arrived)

He could be beautiful, and elegant, and sometimes he could be goofy as anything.

about 18 months ago he developed thyroid problems, and lost a lot of weight before he was properly diagnosed and stabilised, and he's started to slow down.

He spent a bit more time lounging and snoozing, and a little less playing, but he still enjoyed life, and in particular the extra treats and meals he got to try to get his weight back up.

He continued to hold me responsible for the weather, and for anything else of which he disapproved,

Whenever I went away, leaving him to the tender mercies of visiting minions, he would loudly proclaim, on my return (and often while standing next to a well-filled bowl of cat biscuits) that he had been cruelly starved and neglected in my absence, and he would always forget and forgave, and be curled up on my lap purring loudly within minutes.

This morning, when I came downstairs to give him his breakfast, he was as pleased to see me as he normally is, but I found he had not eaten his supper, and he had no interest in his breakfast, or even in his sardine (the delivery method of choice for his medication) and he was wheezing and not breathing well.

He couldn't be bothered to hide when I got his carrier out, or to protest when I put him in it, or to hiss at the vet when we got there. I had to leave him there, so they could start treatment for likely acute anaemia, and do tests to see what was causing it. I got a call about 2 hours later, to confirm that the blood counts showed he was very anaemic, but that he was sleepy, not too stressed, and they were going to treat the symptoms while they waited for more test results to identify the cause, but then an hour or so later there was another call. He wasn't responding to the treatments, his condition had deteriorated a lot, very rapidly, and he was fitting. They didn't think he would make it long enough for me to get back to the vets so I could be with him while they put him to sleep, or fair to him to make him wait for me.

And now I am sitting here, in this suddenly empty house, with tears running down onto my keyboard, because I've just been able to write a whole post, without anyone walking over my keyboard, or butting at my hands until I remember that laps are for  cats, not laptops, and move it so he can sit there.

Tybalt. 1998-2013

Fun, and UnFun Things

It's been a busy couple of weeks. last Friday I was due to meet my dad's cousin, M, for a meal, and to go to the theatre to see The Mousetrap in Bath.

We'd booked at a nice restaurant near the theatre, we had out tickets, I arranged to take a short lunch break in order to leave work a little early, to give myself time to go home and change, and it was all intended to me a nice, relaxed evening.

It didn't work out quite like that.

On my way home from work, I stopped to fill up the car. And when I got back in the car, it wouldn't start. It made a little feeble cough and that was it.

So, I called the RAC. Who said, cheerfully, that it would be about 2 hours for them to get to me. Which would mean they wouldn't even arrive until 45 minutes after out restaurant reservation, and I'd be lucky to get to the theatre at all. However, it seemed that it was the battery, so I kept my fingers crossed that it might recover on it's own, enough to start, given a little rest. It didn't, but after a Looooong rest, it did condescend to start. So I called my cousin to arrange to meet at her home rather than in town (on the basis that then if it did it again when I stopped, I would be stranded at her home, not in the middle of Bath) And I was hopeful that the time spent with the engine running outside my house, and then the drive to hers, would be enough to recharge the battery enough to allow me to go home.

We didn't have time to eat together, but did make it in to Bath in time for the show.  It's fun, in a predictable way - and despite the murders, it has a lot of very funny moments. The touring production is going all over the UK, I think the tour as a whole lasts about a year, although this is nothing compared to the London production. I can't help but feel it must get a little dull for the actors, though. According to the programme notes, there have been actors who have stayed in the show for 10+ years !

Oh, and my car did start again, so I think it was probably just the cold, plus not having driven much for the two days beforehand. I shall pop into the garage and see about getting a new battery, as I suspect that it perhaps getting towards the end of it's life!

At the weekend, I met up with my parents, as my christmas gift from my brother was delivered to their home (late. It should have got there in time for christmas, when he and I were both there). We thought it would be a good excuse to meet halfway and have lunch, rather than them just posting it to me. And it was. We met up at a pub, and had a leisurely lunch (including succumbing to the lure of the dessert cabinet) and I got to come home with Vol.3 of the Absolute Sandman, so it was a bit of a win all round.

It's still cold

..in case you were wondering.

The snow in my street has mostly gone, washed away by the sleet. But the higher parts of my drive to work are still snowy.

Also - did I mention it's still cold?

It's cold.

Also, I have a cold.

Transport and Theatre

It stopped snowing yesterday afternoon, but stayed very cold, so today the pavements and the road in my street are all sheets of ice, as there's been enough traffic to compact the snow, but not enough to clear it. It looks as through the roads further out are mostly clear, so I should be able to get to work on Monday, provided we don't get more snow. Although  getting to the end of my own road is likely to be interesting, knowing that the road is clear beyond that is reassuring

I went out this morning to see how bad the going was likely to be, and then walked down to the station in order to get a train into Bath,  to go to the theatre.

The train was late, and horribly crowded - to the extent that there were people unable to get on, at Avoncliffe. It turns out that Bath Rugby were playing at home this afternoon, which no doubt was part of the reason for it being so crowded. It makes me hopping mad that they never put on any extra trains (or even extra coaches) despite that fact that trains on match days are *always* packed. I imagine that the snow and the lateness made it even worse than usual. And they have just put the fares up. Grr.

Once I got to Bath, I grabbed a pasty for lunch, and took a few photos of nice buildings with snow on them, then back to the theatre to see 'Quartermaine's Terms'

The play, by Simon Gray, is set in a school teaching English as a foreign language, in Cambridge in the 1960s, and is presented as a series of scenes in the staff room, over a period of around 2 years.

There are lots of funny moments, but the play is ultimately a tragic one.

All of the characters experience their own personal disasters, whether in the shape of an unfaithful husband, a dependent and critical mother and unsuccessful love life, a daughter's suicide, a partner's death, snobbery and lack of professional appreciation or family breakdown and failure as a novelist. Everything is presented through the medium of staff room conversation, so practically all of the drama takes place off stage, and we only ever get a partial and understated view of anything.

Quartermaine himself (Rowan Atkinson) presents as, perhaps the saddest of all. He appears to be a well-meaning but ineffectual teacher, and to have no life beyond his job.  Throughout the play he is ignored or taken advantage of by his colleagues, who use him as a babysitter for their children, but forget or turn down his own invitations, and the play finally sees him facing the loss of his job.

There was a little too much of Mr Bean in Rowan Atkinson's performance for my taste, pushing his character from pathos to ridiculous once or twice, but despite this is was an interesting play, and I'm glad I was able to see it.

It is going to the West End now, for (I think) a couple of months - I shall be interested to see what the critics make of it.

My train home was late, which was actually a good thing for me - it meant I was able to get on a train 10 minutes after getting to the station, instead of missing one by 3 minutes and having to wait half an hour, and it was reasonably empty, too, so I got a seat.

The walk home from the station was hard work, due to the ice, but having spent a lot of time over the past 48 hours looking for my yaktrax I gave up and bought some new ones (well - these) when I was Bath, so I was able to walk safely.

And I called into one of the local mini markets on the way home and bought a lime, so the well-earned G'n'T I gave myself when I got home could be properly garnished.

Tomorrow, I think I shall try to make another batch of marmalade. It's a nice, warm, indoor occupation.

Snow Day

The BBC has been forecasting heavy snow for today, in tones appropriate to an impending apocalypse. I have to admit that I was a bit sceptical, and was expecting to wake up to a heavy frost, or a dusting of snow. However, just in case, I did decide that I would do my grocery shop on the way home last night, rather than on my way home tonight.

However, it turned out that they were right, and I woke instead to about 2" of snow (Not a lot, by the standards of those places which have proper winters with 6' drifts, I know, but a lot for us here)

 I still thought that I would be able to go into work, but by the time I was ready to leave, 90 minutes later, I decided that would not be such a good idea, as it had been, and still was, snowing quite hard, in additional to which the local police were advising against any but essential journeys, and I saw my opposite neighbour leave, slithering all over everywhere, so I decided that working from home would be the better option.

I think I made the right choice - we ended up closing all of the offices at 2pm so everyone could get home, and I think all of those who were able to get in were either close enough to walk, or had 4x4s.

It continued to snow for most of the day,and we ended up with about 5" of snow, and the bits of road around my house had just enough traffic to compact the snow into a icy mess.

I spent the morning working, but did go out a little later for a short and chilly walk in a monochrome world.

There were lots of bits very decorative bits of ironwork, and the few other people out and about were all friendly. And of course, getting a bit of fresh air and exercise is always good!

I'm not sure Tybalt agrees about that part. He approved of me being home all day, and he approved of the heating being on all day, but he very definitely didn't approve of my poor management in allowing all this cold, wet stuff outside the back door and the front door at the same time!

I was supposed to go to the theatre this evening, in Bath, but that isn't going to happen, as I can't drive there (It's further, more hilly, and on smaller roads than the trip to work would have been, and it's now dark and freezing...) and although I could potentially get a train in, it would involve a cold, dark walk to and from the station, and probably a wait of about 40 minutes for what would be the last trian back, which of course may be cancelled. Fortunately the theatre was very understanding and I was able to change my ticket for one for tomorrow's matinee (when, assuming the snow hasn't gone, I should be able to get trains both ways). It's not such a good seat, but much better than missing the production altogether (tomorrow is the last day).

Marmalade and Exercise - a study in stickiness

It's turned very cold again these last few days,and they are threatening us with snow, although I suspect it may not come this far south. I think we may get it as sleet or rain, instead.

On Friday I went into town and bought around 6 lbs of seville oranges, to make marmalade, and yesterday evening I did the juicing and chopping peel stage of the first batch (using around 2 lbs of oranges, which is as much as will fit into my largest saucepan without overflowing at the boiling sugar stage). By the time I had finished, it was too late to finish the whole process, as the peel has to be boiled for about 2 hours, to soften it, before you add the sugar, so I left it all to soak in water over night.

This morning turned out to be very cold and frosty but also clear and sunny. This is the sight which greeted me from my bedroom window as I made the bed.

As my friend Spacedlaw commented, ideal weather for a walk. I agreed. I spent the morning making marmalade, but once that was done, and a dozen jars sitting cooling (and, I hope, setting!) in the kitchen, I set out for a walk.

path

It was cold and bright and beautiful, but also very wet and muddy.

stream

And did I mention cold? I took a circular route, and the sun went it when I was at bout the most distant point, so the second half of the walk was both colder and, as a result, brisker, than the first half!

1st batch of marmalade of 2013

When I got home (at which point I had to change not only my shoes, but also my jeans, as they were so muddy) I was happy to find that my marmalade seems to be setting nicely.

And I was very good, and have cleaned up both the walk-related muddiness, and the marmalade-related stickiness, and vacuumed everywhere, so I have a nice clean, citrus-scented house, and a marked feeling of accomplishment.

Car Insurance

It's that time of year again. When the Car Insurance needs to be renewed.
And the insurer sends out their renewal documents, and their letter, explaining that they have tried all they know, with their expert knowledge and experience, to find you the absolute best price on renewal, and then you do some research and discover that, if that is the case, they are obviously really, really crap at searching, since you can find 10 or 20 quotes for the same cover for less. Usually including one from the same company...

This year, my renewal quote was nearly 10% higher than last year's premium.
The quotes for the same cover, from other insurers, were significantly lower than last year
The quote I found from the same insurer, via price comparison sites, was almost 25% lower than the renewal quote. (Yes, the same policy - exactly the same cover, excess, underwriter etc) And it wasn't the best quote quote out there.

Which, even for an insurance company, is pretty bad.

So, Zenith, no, I won't be renewing with you.

The policy I have now bought cost less than 80% of what I paid last year.( I didn't go for the cheapest quote, as the companies concerned were ones with poor reputations for customer service). So, the 10 minutes or so I spent shopping around has saved me over £70, compared to what I'd have paid if I'd just accepted the renewal quote. And, as it happens, the cover is slightly better, too!

I suppose that enough people must just auto renew to make it worth their while to lose the custom of the rest of us, but I can't help thinking it would be nice if you could trust the buggers.

Oh, and apparently paying for car insurance triggers the automatic fraud alert on your credit card. Who knew buying insurance could be such a suspicious activity?

Happy 2013

I can't help feeling that the first post of a new year ought to be exciting and contain lots of new things, but I haven't any new and exciting things to share.

I still have a cold, and  this week feels as though it has been going on for ages, despite being a short (3 day) working week.

So I'll just have to say Happy New Year everyone, and let us hope that 2013 brings good things, (and a little less rain than 2012)

Family and Holidays

How was everyone's Christmas? (Or non-Christmassy holiday celebrations)

I had a quiet time, with my parents and siblings (and a brother in law and sister's partner) - it was consistently wet, with alternating rain and snow,so we didn't end up going for any walks, or indeed leaving the house except briefly to visit other relatives on Boxing Day, but despite, or perhaps because of, the lack of other activities, we had an enjoyable time.


A small cohort of us rang for the local church service on Christmas morning, we all (including Tybalt) watched the goldfinches and tits on the birdfeeders outside, Tybalt met [one of] the cats who live next door, and also had a lot of fun playing 'wrong side of the door' (my parents house has a *lot* more doors than mine does, AND they have carpets, which means that he cannot be left to scrabble at the door, as this leads rapidly to  scratched carpets, which is Not On.

He didn't succeed in getting to the turkey, despite his many attempts.

I returned home yesterday, and have today and tomorrow at home before I go back to work. I've come home with a nasty cold, so I'm not planning to stay up late tonight - I think I shall have an early (and solitary!) celebratory glass of cava and then go to bed early to help fight off this cold!

2012 has been a very mixed year, with a lot of personal and work-related stress, and family-related happiness. I'm hoping 2013 will be more even, and better, on a personal level.

And I hope it will prove to be a happy and successful year for all my friends out there in the internets!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!