Category Archives: personal

personal, ramblings

Hiatus Interruptus

I’m very aware that there has been a slight hiatus around here. So as a catch-up here’s a bit of what’s been happening.

A number of things have contributed to the hiatus. Prominent amongst them is that the house is even more upside-down than usual because we’ve had our friend Tom decorating the hall/stairs/landing, and it hasn’t gone as smoothly as we all wanted. We urgently needed to replace the carpet, which was literally falling to pieces – hardly surprising after 30+ years of wear – and it seemed sensible while we were ripping out the old carpet to apply a coat of paint.

The painting etc. which should have taken a few days to do has now dragged on for 6 weeks or more, for at least three reasons: Tom does things well and doesn’t just slap on a coat of paint, but applies two or three coats if required; in an area like this there is a lot more to paint than one expects – not just wallage but all the wood of dado rails, bannisters, and so on – thirdly, and most significantly, Tom has been ill (with the current flu) which has meant he’s had something like three weeks of enforced idleness. Oh and along the way we’ve also had Tom put some paint on the ceilings and small amount of wood in the kitchen and bathroom, so they’ve had a quick refresh.

(Someone is going to ask what colours we chose. The wall below the dado rail has existing, and quite old, Anaglypta-style paper, which is white, as are the ceilings and the woodwork. The wall about the dado has been painted a lovely sunny pale yellow – as chosen by Noreen. It does look rather good.)

But we’re getting down to the end now. There is just a small amount of painting (like a couple of doors) left to do; refettling the door furniture etc. and snagging.

So Thursday of last week we went off looking at carpet. We decided what we wanted, brought some samples home and then changed our minds. The guy came yesterday to take the detailed measurements, which took about 15 minutes. And in the middle of writing this I’ve accepted the estimate and paid the deposit. Will we get the carpet laid before Easter? It’s going to be touch and go.

(The carpet will be a mid-grey with some flecks of colour; hopefully dark enough that it won’t show too many muddy paw-marks – feline or human – but not so dark as to be oppressive. It is also a fairly tight loop-pile as in our experience this is fairly cat-scratch resistant: it had better be, it’s costing enough!)

Meanwhile, I’ve had the flu for the last week. I started to feel rough as we left the carpet shop Thursday a week ago. On Monday my GP insisted I went to see her, despite spreading my germs and not feeling at all OK on my feet, as she rightly assessed that I needed antibiotics to clear my chest. They do seem to be working and I am beginning to recover, although I’m still lacking energy and have a cough and a head full of gunge. It’s been quite a few years since I had flu, and I’d forgotten just how debilitating it is, although luckily it doesn’t seem to have left me with overwhelming depression as it sometimes does. I’m hoping I might be back to what passes for normal by Monday.

And I could do with getting back to “work” as I have an ever increasing pile of stuff to do – every day seems to bring a new demand that I attend to something important.

personal

Ten Things

If he were still alive, my father would have been 98 a few days ago; he died almost 12 years ago at the age of 86. So this month’s Ten Things brings you …

Ten Things I Remember about My Father

  1. He was useless at doing anything practical: I always say he had 20 left thumbs (and I inherited 10 of them). Whenever he mended something he ended up with a piece left over; a nut, a spring, a screw, a ball-bearing …
  2. He was a conscientious objector in WWII. In consequence he spent a year working in University College Hospital, London as a dogsbody and the rest of the war working on the land. This was almost certainly the cause of his crocked, arthritic knees.
  3. In the mid-1960s he was a Liberal local councillor and Chairman of the council’s Public Health Committee. During this time he was responsible for resolving a dustmen’s strike.
  4. He never learnt to drive. He did start having lessons in the late-1950s but following a near accident was so shaken he never took his test. Consequently he cycled everywhere locally until he was about 75 when his crocked knees eventually stopped him – and this was long after his knees were stopping him walking much.
  5. He religiously used the local public library; when I was a kid he went almost every Saturday morning, often taking me along. He was always reading – every evening and always on the train to/from work – so he got through several books a week.

    6. Bob
    My father hated being photographed, so this is one of the few photos I have of him.
    He’s taking a pre-prandial snooze a few days before his 82nd birthday.

  6. He thought computers were one of the biggest works of the Devil: unnecessary, soul-destroying and divisive; they would be end of civilised society. He never understood (or forgave) me working in the IT industry – I had sold out; I should have been an academic or a teacher, something worthwhile.
  7. He was thrifty, even miserly, and guarded his money from everyone who he thought was out to charm it from his wallet. This was partly as a result of an impoverished childhood, partly a result of the war, and also because he saw it as his responsibility to ensure my mother wasn’t short of money after he died.
  8. When I was about 7 he asked my primary school headmaster what he needed to do to ensure I got to grammar school. He was told “nothing” and that because I was always being encouraged to read etc., I would get to grammar school. That was one of the few outward manifestations of the (mostly covert) pressure put on me to succeed (and which may have been the root cause of my depression).
  9. In many ways he was very liberal minded; for instance he viewed prostitution as a valuable social service which should be decriminalised.
  10. He only ever gave me one piece of “fatherly advice”. I would have been about 17 (so in the late-60s) and had a steady girlfriend. His comment was “You’re old enough to know what it’s all about. I don’t care what you do, as long as you don’t have any bastards”.
beliefs, personal, sexuality, thoughts

How to Be a Better Spouse

For Valentine’s Day, yesterday, Scientific American posted an article entitled How to Be a Better Spouse. You can read the detail in the article, but the four headline tips are:

  1. Be nice as often as you can
  2. Think about what your partner needs, even when fighting
  3. Just notice them
  4. Ignore the bad, praise the good

Yes, well, they’re sort of obvious really. But do we do this? Well, not as much as we probably should – I certainly don’t despite 38 years married (eeeekk!!!!), although I must be doing something not too wrong.
But then do these all not amount to the old adage: Communicate, communicate, communicate?
And think on this too … Are these ideas not things we should be doing to everyone, and not just our partners? Do they not all fall under the umbrella of Treat others as you would wish them to treat you? Reductio ad adsurdum.
On the other hand we do have to have these things pointed out to us occasionally so we don’t forget them.

history, people, personal

Where's Flo?

FloFor quite a few years I’ve puzzled over why I am unable to find my maternal grandmother, Florence Elizabeth Coker (pictured right in 1972, about a year before her death aged 88) on the 1911 census. At the time of the census she was 27 and still single (she married a couple of years later and my mother was born in 1915). She was known at that time to be living with her mother and three brothers in the East End of London where she worked in her mother’s tailoring business.
Her mother (my great-grandmother) is on the census with her three sons, one of whom completes and signs the census return. My great-grandfather is known to have left his wife and is on the 1911 census living about half a mile away with another woman, her two sons (by her husband) and a 6-month-old girl who appears to have bee sired by my great-grandfather. [That is a story for another day!]
But where is Flo? She isn’t with either of her parents. Indeed I have been totally unable to find any trace of her anywhere in the country. Was she abroad? I think that’s unlikely, although I can’t rule it out.
It so happens I’m a member of London Historians, and their latest newsletter (February 2018) has an article by Anne Carwardine, a specialist on suffragette history – well this is the centenary of the first round of female suffrage. In it I found the following paragraph:

Census Night
Despite Black Friday, the WSPU maintained a truce for much of 1910 and 1911, hopeful that legislation giving women the vote would soon be passed. In April 1911, the census provided them with an opportunity for peaceful protest. There were two main options – resist (by refusing to provide information) or evade (by staying away from home at midnight, so that you would not be counted). The largest organised evasion took place in central London. Late on the evening of April 1st, small groups of women walked through the streets and converged on Trafalgar Square. A crowd gathered to watch them, although on this occasion the atmosphere was friendly, with plenty of cheers and laughter. After Big Ben had struck twelve, many of the suffragettes headed eastwards, singing “Let’s All Go Down the Strand”. The Rinkeries, a roller skating rink on the Aldwych, was kept open all night for census protestors and several hundred women (together with a few men) skated through the night, accompanied by a band. There was also entertainment – Ethel Smyth conducted the March of the Women, WSPU leaders made speeches and well-known actresses read suffrage poems. Refreshments were available in the nearby Gardenia Restaurant, where suffragettes acted as waitresses for the night. Early the next morning, the skaters headed wearily home, having achieved the publicity they wanted.

Dutifully I have checked a number of other sources and this scenario appears to be correct – indeed it is much more complex than this one paragraph outlines.
This is something of which I was totally unaware!
Now I don’t remember ever hearing my grandmother (who died when I was a student), or my mother, speak about suffrage, votes for women or anything of the sort. Indeed before she died I had told my mother about the mystery of Flo missing from the census and she was as puzzled as I. But here we have a possible explanation. Could she have been one of the partying suffragettes who were deliberately not at home at midnight and hence could truthfully not be counted. Or was Flo one of those who refused to allow her name to be put on the census form (which would have been illegal), a wish which was accepted by her brother who completed the form.
I am never likely to know for certain. But, despite how little I knew my grandmother, I suspect this could well be the answer. It would not have been entirely out of character.
And we think we live in interesting times!

amusements, personal

Birthday Meme

This year’s birthday meme has been unashamedly stolen from Robin Bynoe, with one question added.
Four places I’ve lived:
1. Waltham Cross
2. York
3. Norwich
4. Chiswick
Four places I’ve worked:
1. Waltham Cross
2. Norwich
3. City of London
4. Bedfont
Four things I love to watch on TV:
1. You mean there are four different programmes on TV?
Four places I have been:
1. Washington DC
2. Hartz Mountains
3. Enschede
4. Land’s End
Four things I love to eat:
1. Curry
2. Avocado
3. Smoked Salmon
4. Sausages
Four people I think will respond:
1. ????
Four favourite drinks:
1. Earl Grey Tea
2. Gin & Tonic
3. Champagne
4. Adnams Dry Hopped Lager
Four desert island luxuries:
1. Adnams Dry Hopped Lager on tap
2. Laptop
3. Cat
4. Digital SLR camera
I hereby grant permission to anyone who wants to copy this and join in. The only rule is that you add question to the list.

personal

Ten Things

This month, as it is the beginning of the year, by tradition Ten Things is my wish list of what I’d like to accomplish during the year. These are not necessarily the highest priority things I want to accomplish, nor are they necessarily in any particular order. Some are (relatively) easy; others are going to take quite a bit of work. And they’re not all SMART, so they aren’t true objectives but more “wish list” items.
Ten Things I’m Trying to do in 2018:

  1. Handover AP Soc Hon. Sec. role
  2. AP Oxford conference
  3. Work to improve knees and back
  4. Reduce waste/rubbish/clutter and recycle more
  5. Have a 2 week holiday
  6. Do something not done before
  7. Go somewhere not been before
  8. Visit the Horniman Museum
  9. Walk across London’s Millennium Bridge
  10. Prove my family history back to Tudor time

Notice that these are things I’m trying to do; they aren’t absolutes which must be achieved. So while I will be disappointed not to achieve any of them it will not be a matter for sacking the manager.
You’ll also notice some are things which were on last year’s list; some of that is deliberate but some reflects just how badly I did in 2017, and indeed 2016. Let’s see if we can do better in 2018!
I’ll report back this time next year, DV.

personal, ramblings

Predictions for 2017 — How Did I Do?

This time last year I made a series of predictions about what would happen during 2017. So what did I get right, and what wrong?

UK

  1. Brexit. The Supreme Court overturns the High Court judgement that Royal Prerogative cannot be used to trigger Article 50. WRONG; the decision was upheld by a majority verdict.
  2. Brexit. Article 50 will be triggered in the last week of March by government without the agreement of parliament. WRONG in that Parliament agreed by passing legislation authorising the PM to trigger Article 50, although without any explicit agreement to leave the EU. CORRECT in that Article 50 was triggered in the last week of March.
  3. Brexit. It becomes apparent that no deal is possible with the EU and that the notification under Article 50 cannot be withdrawn. WRONG as this is not yet apparent to the government.
  4. As a consequence, Theresa May resigns and asks Parliament to grant a General Election. WRONG in that Theresa May didn’t resign. CORRECT that there would be a General Election.
  5. Boris Johnson is sacked as Foreign Secretary and relegated to the back benches. WRONG
  6. The new Foreign Secretary is one of David Davies, Liam Fox, Michael Gove. WRONG as it didn’t arise
  7. Inflation will hit 2.5% by year-end. CORRECT: in March inflation was 2.3%; by November it was 3.1%.
  8. The Bank of England Base Rate will be reduced to 0%. WRONG; BoE base rate was raised to 0.5%.
  9. The Pound falls by 20% (cf. 1 January) against the US Dollar and the Euro. WRONG; pound was down 4% against the Euro and up 9.5% against the US dollar.
  10. FT100 falls by at least 10% compared with the start of the year. WRONG FT100 was up 7.6% on the year.
  11. Unemployment rises by 10% compared with December 2016. WRONG unemployment was down from 4.8% to 4.3%.
  12. GDP falls by at least 2% year-on-year; the UK is in recession by the end of the year. WRONG; GDP was up 1.7% as measured 3Q2016 to 3Q2017 (latest data available).
  13. The Government will introduce legislation to implement Nordic model of prostitution. WRONG
  14. The Government also implements alcohol minimum pricing. WRONG; although CORRECT in Scotland.
  15. There is at least one major incident (plane crash, train crash, terrorist attack, industrial accident etc.) with over 50 fatalities. CORRECT; the Grenfell Tower fire claimed 71 lives. Add to that two terror attacks in London and one in Manchester with a total of 35 deaths.
  16. At least one high street name goes out of business with over 500 job losses. CORRECT. Monarch airline collapsed with 1858 jobs lost. Also Jaeger collapsed with 700 jobs threatened as did Multiyork with 550 jobs threatened.
  17. At least 2 major hospitals are forced to close due to finance problems, with loss of jobs and healthcare; there is no allowance for anyone to pick up the slack. WRONG
  18. Two horses die in the Grand National, which is then permanently scrapped. WRONG; all the horses survived the race.
  19. There’s significant flooding somewhere in the UK in March, May and October. WRONG about March and May; CORRECT as there was major flooding in Cumbria in October.
  20. A meteor strike destroys two houses, but there are no fatalities. WRONG
  21. There is finally proof that there are non-native big cats living wild in the UK; there are enough to maintain a small breeding population. WRONG
  22. The Queen dies unexpectedly followed within 3 months by Prince Philip. WRONG
  23. Prince Charles ducks becoming King thus allowing William to take to the throne. WRONG because it didn’t arise.
  24. Other Deaths: Paul McCartney, Bruce Forsythe, Bob Geldof, Michael Parkinson. CORRECT about Bruce Forsyth. WRONG about the others.

World

  1. Donald Trump is inaugurated as US President amid strident protests, possible rioting and several fatalities. CORRECT, although I don’t recall any fatalities.
  2. During the year there are moves to impeach Trump which may succeed. CORRECT although they have come to nothing.
  3. Obama care is scrapped. CORRECT
  4. NASA’s budget is halved. WRONG
  5. An accident (maybe a debris strike?) destroys the ISS with loss of the crew. WRONG
  6. Consequent on the above NASA abandons manned space flight for the foreseeable future. WRONG as it didn’t arise.
  7. Trump visits Russia; Putin visits the US. WRONG, surprisingly.
  8. US imposes severe restrictions on immigration. CORRECT although the courts seem to be unsure about whether the bans are legal or not.
  9. Against all the odds the USA abolishes the death penalty. WRONG
  10. Major banking collapse somewhere in the developed world, possibly Italy, USA or UK. CORRECT; the Italian government had to bail out two banks to the tune of €17bn.
  11. Major cyber attack brings down power/utility infrastructure affecting hundreds of thousands, probably in USA but maybe Western Europe. CORRECT; the WannaCry attack in May affected over 200k systems worldwide including a significant chunk of the UK NHS.
  12. Marine Le Pen is elected French President precipitating an existential crisis in the EU. WRONG; Le Pen lost the run-off to Emmanuel Macron.
  13. Turmoil in South Africa after the arrest of a top politician. WRONG; not noticeably although it seems to have been a close run thing with President Zuma.
  14. President Mugabe of Zimbabwe dies. WRONG; although he was forced from office in November only to be replaced by one of his acolytes.
  15. Consequently the regime in Zimbabwe becomes even more repressive, in an attempt to prevent a civil war; this triggers a mass exodus of blacks to neighbouring countries. WRONG as it didn’t arise.
  16. At least one major earthquake (magnitude 7.5+) with over 200 fatalities in Asia and another in South America. MAYBE: two quakes in Mexico (magnitude 8.1 and 7.1) with 360+ deaths; a 7.9 quake in Papua New Guinea with few deaths; a 7.3 quake in Iran/Iraq with over 400 deaths.
  17. Scientists in Tasmania discover a small breeding population of Thylacine. WRONG; although there were reports of possible sightings in Queensland.
  18. At least two major civilian plane crashes each with over 100 fatalities. WRONG
  19. There is a significant downturn in air travel which causes at least one major carrier to fail. CORRECT; the economic/trading environment was a major contributor to the failure of Monarch Airlines.
  20. At least one conspiracy theory of 2012-16 turns out to be true. WRONG, as far as I am aware.
  21. There’s a major epidemic of a new infectious disease across a whole continent (or more). WRONG, again as far as I am aware.
  22. IBM is bought by/merged with another large US corporation (possible contenders: Microsoft, Apple, Google). WRONG
  23. Other deaths: Rupert Murdoch, the Dalai Lama, Jimmy Carter, George HW Bush. WRONG on all those.

Personal
These predictions were previously redacted.

  1. Knee Surgery 1. Operation on right knee successful although recovery takes >3 months. CORRECT; surgery was very successful although recovery was nothing over 3 months.
  2. Knee Surgery 2. Left knee replacement not before November and probably in 2018. WRONG; operation was done in September and again successful and good recovery.
  3. Pension. IBM reduces all pensions by 10%. WRONG
  4. Deaths amongst Family & Friends. Joan Wayman (before end-January); Cyril; Jessie; Stan Owen. CORRECT about Stan who died in April. CORRECT that Joan died, although on Boxing Day and not in January. WRONG about Cyril and Jessie.
  5. Anthony Powell Society. I am replaced as Secretary as the Society Trustees decide on a new direction/strategy. MAYBE: I wasn’t directly replaced but announced (voluntarily) that I am standing-down at the 2018 AGM so as not to impede the refocussing of the Society.

Well that’s not a very impressive year! Definintely could do better.
I’ll be posting my predictions for 2018 in the next few days, so if you have any good predictions please do share them.

personal, ramblings

My 2017 in Summary

As for the last few years here’s a summary of my achievements and engagement (or, more accurately the lack of it) during 2017.
Yet again it has been a strange year with significant depression all year round (not just in the winter) and in effect two knee replacement operations (OK the first was in the last few days of 2016, but recovery wasn’t!). Despite that I have somehow managed to function most of the time and have been insanely busy, although I will be cutting back commitments during 2018. All in all I don’t feel I’ve achieved anything and haven’t even managed to get anything off the bucket list! So here’s the summary …

At the beginning of the year I posted 10 Things I’m Trying to Do in 2017. The results are in and, yet again, it’s fair to say I lost badly.
1. Keep breathing – WIN
2. Do something not done before – WIN; attended a book launch
3. Go somewhere not been before – WIN;Islip & Brightwell Baldwin, Oxfordshire; Tutbury & Sudbury Hall, Staffordshire/Derbyshire; Stondon Massey, Essex
4. Be drawn/painted/photographed nude (again) – LOSE
5. Walk across Millennium Bridge – LOSE
6. Complete AP London Photography project – LOSE
7. Do more photography – LOSE
8. Monthly Day Out – LOSE; we managed two
9. Visit Horniman Museum – LOSE
10. Significant family history progress – WIN; in that I reconnected with my family in Canada as they told me about my Aunt’s and my cousin’s deaths
That’s a pathetic 4/10. 2018 really can’t get any worse!

Looking at the year through the usual 25 questions doesn’t look any better.
1. What did you do that you’d never done before?
a. Had my photo in the Guardian magazine for 27 May (it was the image from Laura Dodsworth’s Manhood).
b. Attended the book launch of Manhood.
2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
No because I didn’t make any, and I never will.
3. What would you like to have in 2018 that you lacked in 2017?
a. A big lottery win.
b. Free time.
4. What dates from 2017 will remain etched upon your memory?
13 September – left knee replacement.
5. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Only the left knee replacement – and recovery from the right kneee op as well.
6. What was the best thing you bought?
a. Knee replacement.
b. Hilary Spurling’s biography of Anthony Powell.
7. Where did most of your money go?
Other than an exorbitant amount of tax, fuck alone knows.
8. What did you get really, really excited about?
Nothing; I don’t do excitement, just like I don’t do panic and crisis.
9. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a. happier or sadder? – sadder, because the depression is worse.
b. thinner or fatter? – a couple of kilos heavier (it’s called Christmas!).
c. richer or poorer? – about the same.
10. What do you wish you’d done more of?
Sleep.
Sitting in the garden.
Being generally active.
11. What do you wish you’d done less of?
a. Sleep.
b. Depression.
12. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Continuing to breathe.
Knee replacements.
13. What was your biggest failure?
Depression.
14. How many one-night stands?
None – where would I find the energy and enthusiasm?
15. What was your favourite TV program?
Yet again, I’ve watched hardly any TV programmes from end to end all year, mainly because it is all such garbage. But the best of the few? Probably the RI Christmas Lectures.
16. What was the best book you read?
Hilary Spurling’s biography of Anthony Powell.
Laura Dodsworth’s Manhood.
(I must get round to writing reviews of them!)
17. What did you want and get?
a. Hilary Spurling’s Anthony Powell.
b. A second new knee.
18. What did you want and not get?
a. A big lottery win.
b. Cancellation of Brexit.
c. The lack of depression.
19. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
a. Universal acceptance of nudity and sexuality rather than stigmatisation.
b. Everyone being treated properly, as a person, with gender, ethnicity etc. being totally unimportant.
c. Not having depression.
20. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2017?
As little as possible as much as possible.
21. What kept you sane?
Nothing – it’s a lost cause.
22. Who did you miss?
My mother.
23. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2017:
a. All men are guilty.
b. Biological gender is irrelevant to worth and ability. [Well I knew that, but this seemed a good way to encapsulate the concept in a soundbite.]
24. A quote or song lyric that sums up your year:
“Statistics … suggest it is truly dismal these days to have a Y chromosome.”
[Mark Rice-Oxley; Guardian; 21 November 2017]
25. Your hopes for 2018
a. Sanity all round.
b. A government with the courage to cancel Brexit.

Yet again the overall result is REQUIRES IMPROVEMENT; kicking the depression would seem to be one of the keys!
Will the manager last another season, one asks? Or does he still have the full confidence of the board?
Anyway, enough of my misery. How was your 2017? And what are your hopes for 2018?

beliefs, personal, pleasures, thoughts

Winter Lights

In a few days, on Twelfth Night, our Christmas decorations will be coming down. Anything which gets forgotten has to stay up until next year as it is believed to be unlucky to remove Christmas decorations after Twelfth Night.
But there’s an exception. Our lights. Which are Winter Lights, rather than Christmas Lights.
How come?


Almost all major religions have a winter light festival, mostly around the Winter Solstice (in the Northern Hemisphere) to celebrate the turn of the year and to provide light and hope in the darkness of winter.

  • In Hinduism the most important light celebration is Diwali – the victory of light over darkness – which is slightly earlier than the solstice as it normally occurs around early November. Jainism also keeps Diwali.
  • Buddhism, at least in Burma, has Tazaungmon which mostly falls in November-December.
  • Chinese New Year seems to fit I here, as it too is a light festival celebrated on the first new moon between 20 January and 21 February.
  • Islam, at least as practised in Iran, has both Jashne Sade, a mid-winter feast to honour fire and to defeat the forces of darkness, frost and cold, and Shabe Chelle, the turning point, the end of the longest night of the year and the beginning of growing of the days.
  • Judaism, of course, has Hanukkah.
  • The Roman feast of Saturnalia, with its reputation for debauchery, lasted a week and also fell around the Winter Solstice.
  • Paganism, in its various forms – either ancient Paganism or its more modern incarnation as Wicca – celebrate the Winter Solstice as Yule.
  • And of course Christianity has Christmas, which it cobbled together from Pagan Yule and Roman Saturnalia with Christian iconography as pargeting.
  • And let’s not forget St Lucia’s Day on 13 December, a light festival widely celebrated across Scandinavia and some other countries.

I’m sure there are more, but you get the point.
There are many different traditions embedded in these festivals. In fact so many that years ago we decided to create our own. Hence our Winter Lights. So when the Christmas decorations – tree, holly, cards, crib figures and so on – come down the lights remain, just as they preceded the Christmas decorations.
In fact the tradition we created was to put lights in our main windows. They go up on the Feast of Christ the King, which is the Sunday before Advent (so in late November) and stay up until Candlemas on 2 February.
Why? Well, why not? Lights cheer the place up! They add some fun, interest and maybe even some mystery. They give light to scare away the dark during the gloomiest two months of the year. And while the lights don’t banish SAD they do shine a little happiness, and let’s be honest we could all do with that at this time of year.
Yes, OK, before anyone says it, the lights do take a certain amount of energy to run. But if, like us, you standardise on LEDs then the cost and environmental impact is negligible. As an example, the set of lights plugged in by my desk are rated to use 3.6 watts of electricity; over 70 days that’s 6KwHr at a cost of about £1. So you could run four sets for the cost of a couple of coffees, or (in London) the cost of a pint of decent beer. Even my environmentally conscious brain isn’t going to worry too hard about that; maybe I’ll just drink one fewer mug of tea a week.
So if you would like to help cheer the place up, and you have lights that you could like to leave up for a while, why not join our tradition. Together we might even be able to make it into something big.

personal, ramblings

Happy New Year

I name this Year, 2018


God bless her

and all that sail in her

The colour of the message above is Pantone 18-3838 Ultra Violet
“a provocative and thoughtful purple shade” which is the designated colour for 2018.