Lovely weather today in Wapping...

...really looking forward to my trip back to London Bridge...

Cold Morning...

...this morning, that is actually the Shard believe it or not... ;)

Got picked up by taxi this morning around 6am to be in the office at half seven for the arrival of some engineers and the taxi driver told me that conditions were so bad on the roads that taxis were crashing into stationary cars because they just couldn't see them!  Our drive into Redhill was conducted at about 15mph, working our way from one indistinct pool of orange light to the next...scary!

Freezing COLD!

Oh boy, totally freezing today, had to scrape the ice off the car first thing (the de-icer spray had managed to get lost somewhere too, which didn't help), didn't take my gloves off all the way in (most unusual) and peering out the office window it looks like all the buildings are on fire thanks to all the moisture clouds billowing from the air conditioning units on the rooftops...

In other news, between now and January the 4th I now don't have to work any more than 3 days in any one week! Woo hoo!! :)

Freezing C.C.COLD!!!

Oh Boy...it has been *freezing* the last few mornings, wouldn't be so bad apart from the fact that (patting myself on the head) I'm still walking to the station in the mornings (got my time down to about 21 minutes now, front door to platform bench) but that is certainly more than enough time to both work up a bit of a sweat stomping over the hill and to get freezing cold extremities (which is an annoyingly uncomfortable combination), I'm sure when I got to the station and fumbled to unzip (with numb fingers) my coat a cloud of steam emerged from my skiing jacket...Anyway, there are a few positives, as of yesterday I'm not having to do the trudge in the pitch black, two weeks ago I had a particularly eventful walk - both a fox and I scared each other half to death in the middle of the woods, and then two minutes later I almost squashed a huge toad (sat right in the middle of the path) into strawberry jam...it's just such a relief for the wildlife and I to have fair warning of each others approach... ;)

Oh and of course, it's nice to be able to take the odd picture again, these shots I took on the other side of the hill, not sure how long it's been going on (as it's been too dark to see) but it looks like someone is busy converting the old horse field next to the railway line into vegetable allotments, which is nice, it's been sat there doing absolutely nothing for *years*... ;)

Pictures of Snow - Oxted

- the only commuting taking place was by sledge, to the shops where there wasn't any bread -

- (apart from French sticks being baked in Waitrose) tractors and 4x4s could just about limp around (no buses at all) -

- and the tracks they made meant you didn't have to wade through foot-deep snow -

- make it as far as the station and the signs weren't very encouraging-

- all the "ghost trains" being diverted to trying to keep the lines between Brighton, Gatwick (which was closed) and London...the broken down train stuck for days at Lingfield didn't help much either... ;)

...and we've still got loads of snow at home, heaps of it, mostly now turned to ice...Brrr! I put the hood back on my snow coat this morning, put on a jumper *and* wore a hat...most unusual for me... ;)

Winter on the way...

...(thankfully, or we would doubtless have been late to our various ports of call) clued in by Carol Kirkwood I actually had to scrape a thick layer of ice from the car windscreen this morning before we could depart...and yesterday there were reports of snow in the south east...

Winter is definitely on the way...brrr!

England Blizzard - Failed Commute

Well, we thought we would give it a *try*, despite getting up and seeing that there had been even more snow overnight -

- we swept Poppy the Beetle off with a broom, followed by the scrapers, as much of it had indeed turned to ice -

- and then made our way *extremely* carefully (no gritting *again*) to the main road, where we found evidence of what the kids had been up to yesterday-


- got caught in the enormous traffic jam up the hill, absolutely crept up, almost stationary the whole way -

- finally reaching the sign for the station -

- (it started to snow again on the way, well not so much snow as pelt down with ice pellets), spotting casualties, not sure if they were abandoned or just crashed, but this one was in the middle of what normally qualifies as pavement(and there must have been more ahead, judging by the speed of the traffic) -

- crept along the un-gritted roads and pulled into a parking space at the station (there are normally zero) -


- and slid our way down to the door, which looked like this -

- not a good sign -

- so we snuck in the back way, and the platform looked like it had been abandoned for some time - the sign sort of said it all -

- not a long wait, just nothing...THIS STATION IS CLOSED - the radio had hinted it was the case, and all the websites one normally uses to check these things were down (again), but this just confirmed it...it wasn't going to happen today either...guess we are just too rural to be a priority...

Still, the ice has largely melted in the garden now, so hopefully the railway get it together for tomorrow morning...fingers crossed!

Free Kleenex Anti-Viral Tissues

Just in time...still got a few of the last lot of free tissues, but really only a couple...my nose starts to run and - behold - a bunch of guys (dressed up like they belong in Spamalot) materialise at London Bridge station and hand me a load more tissues! I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but it does seem rather...convenient... ;)

In other news, one of the colonies has sworn in a new leader...(congratulations Mr Obama)...it's just rather a shame that British troops imprisoned and tortured his grandfather during an uprising in Kenya in the 1950s (leaving his family with an understandably bitter taste in their mouths)...so what "special relationship" was that then Mr Brown?

Widemouth Bay and Bude at Christmas

Back to the break now, we spent ten minutes or so defrosting Poppy the Beetle and letting the engine warm up a little bit and then (extremely cautiously) picked our way along the ice covered roads towards Widemouth bay, which looked astonishing (normally only being privvy to it in clement conditions) with the thick covering of ice -


- nothing was stopping Flyingpops though, so we splashed on down to the sea -

- where I got a nice shot of the beach -

- it was (however) a little on the chilly side, so our stay was reasonably brief...next stop was Bude (just a few minutes drive away), as we left we spotted this guy running along the beach with his dog carrying a skull and crossbones and an anarchists flag -

- (a little odd), he looked like he was going to carry on all the way up the cliffs before we left him in our dust...

Bude was much the same as last time I was here (for Tim's Stag do) -

- we checked out the shops (Flyingpops buying a very posh new knitted hat for a couple of quid) and found a gift shop we had been told about which had everything (except the fudge) discounted by 75%, so Flyingpops went a bit mad buying model Campers and Beetles, Cream Tea themed mugs and other touristy bits that had obviously not been selling too well over the summer...and laden down with carrier bags we popped into a little pasty shop -

- for a spot of lunch -

- before heading back to the site to show off our pirate booty and get ready for our trip out in the afternoon... ;)

OMG! It is COLD!

Seriously, -6.5C in daylight...that is pretty cold! I took a little walk around the place (wrapped up very warm indeed) -

Strepsils - Charing Cross Station

So, it appears Fink is not the only one to get freebies on his commute into work. Strolling across the concourse at Charing Cross this morning, I suddenly broke from my conversation with Sarah and grabbed not one, but TWO free Strepsil samples... I can't tell you how they taste as they are still at the bottom of my handbag, but it will be moved into the top drawer of my desk and will be taken out when I get a cold (So far, I've managed to avoid coming down with the one that struck Fink at the weekend).



Special thanks to my commuting friend Sarah, who scanned this image and sent it through for inclusion on the blog and regularly listens to me twittering on (when I'm sure she would rather be reading the paper). I hope your head and arm are feeling better after that very very nasty man let his bag fall from the overhead locker onto you this morning
;o)

Vicks Breathing Sensations

Well this was a bit of happy timing (or perhaps not depending on how you want to look at things) - I've spent most of the weekend lolling around the house in my dressing gown feeling all sorry for myself with a really sore throat and some pretty annoying (and sneeze-ridden) congestion...my constant companions have been olbas oil and sudafed tablets, so it was a pleasant surprise this morning at London Bridge to be handed a couple of tiny sachets of Vicks new "Breathing Sensations" chewing gum, which, if I could smell or taste anything at all, I imagine would have tasted of peppermint and blasted my nose with menthol...neither of those experiences were forthcoming, however, my sore throat *does* now feel slightly soothed, and my nostrils are clear for the first time in three days...might have to keep my eyes open for them in the shops!

Central Heating - On already...!

So much for the Indian summer! Apart from a minor blip (when Timmy and Gayle were lucky enough to have booked in to tie the knot) the weather really has been totally miserable, so much so that over the weekend we decided enough was enough (even though we are barely into October) and attempted to put the central heating back on (and not a minute too soon either, from what I hear there have been several frosty starts around town since)...and annoyingly, it wasn't the simplest thing in the world to actually do either, firstly we discovered that the batteries in the combined thermostat/scheduling device had flattened, and then, thanks to them being out of the machine for too long, all the settings vanished, so I had to re-learn how to configure it (and it has a rather frighteningly counter intuitive, instruction-free control panel)...still not sure it's entirely set up correctly as we didn't get heat until about 10am on Sunday, but yesterday morning it certainly worked - I awoke to a wonderfully warm house, content to wander to the bathroom in the all-together without risk of freezing my nether regions, very pleased also that the thermostat was placed in the stairwell, as the whole house was equally toasty when it came time to drag myself downstairs to make Flyingpops' coffee drink...a good thing too as I am temporarily unable to locate my dressing gown! ;)

Roll on Christmas (my favorite time of the year)... ;)

Winter must be coming...

...the ice rink at Canary Wharf is finished, not quite as big as I thought it was going to be, in fact, it's pretty small compared to Central Park...

...and it was *freezing* this morning, amazing fractal patterns in the ice on the roof of the car though (nature's compensation for forcing us into coats and gloves)...although, nicely, it wasn't blisteringly hot on the tube, even though it was seriously busy, so there is a silver lining to colder starts... ;)

And look - the monkeys are replicating(!), thought they would have preferred warmer climes-

More Freebies today...

...got pounced on in two locations today, *three* people in pink jumpers at London Bridge separately approached me and pressed new ticket holders into my hand (to promote those new "pay as you go" VISA vouchers that are designed to prevent identity theft) and then at Canary Wharf a person dressed up as a giant nose (I kid you not) gave me two packs of vapour release tissues (infused with Olbas oil)...I'll save them for the colds of winter I think... ;)

Sudafed Inhalant Oil - palpitations

Really odd, I assumed this stuff would be just the same as Olbas Oil (Tesco had sold out, so had to get this instead), but *something* in it has a very odd effect on me that *doesn't* happen when I inhale Olbas vapour - when I take a big lungfull after about 4 or 5 seconds my heart starts to race, only for a very short period of time (less than 10 seconds)...but it is a bit peculiar...

I wonder if this is a known side effect (and I should just ignore it) or if I should discontinue use?

Eaten Alive...

Sometime yesterday in London I was bitten by a nasty insect...it might have been on the train on the way home, as that was where I noticed the first one (on my left leg) when I woke up this morning I found several more, all about the size of a ten pence piece and really sore and itchy, I also (I'm sure unrelated) had an angry sore throat and a blocked up nose (and I've been sitting here sneezing all day, getting less and less "Bless you"'s as the repetition starts to grate)...

So - hot and sticky and itchy and bunged up all rolled into one...wonderful...and the best thing to photograph on the way in was a cement mixer...no wonder I'm feeling grumpy... :(

Old Dinks... ;)

This sign has appeared on my local tea machine in the office...hehe... ;) Reminds me of this shot I took while waiting for breakfast before the Ad-Tech conference in September...

It was absolutely freezing this morning on the platform (much colder than yesterday), but was kept warm by the certain knowledge that I am going to be wearing shorts under my joggers on the plane ready for the 20+ degree temperatures (one can't risk overheating ;) in exactly three weeks time at 3pm when we land really very much nearer the tropic of cancer...woo hoo! ;)

(Sorry, I'll try not to go on about it too much... ;)

Oh, just noticed that according to Tommo the film crew are are back! Check it out! Damn, missed it by a week...!

Absolutely freezing...

...today...no clouds and thus predicted high in the middle of London is 3 degrees centigrade...everything is covered in a thick layer of ice, had the car running for ten minutes this morning with the blowers on full and *still* had to use the ice scraper to clear the *inside* of the windscreen! Halfords lock de-icer was wonderful though, distant memories of holding matches to keys in vain are further banished...

Snapped this one at Redhill station while freezing my ass off waiting for my connection, you'd never guess that Redhill is near Gatwick Airport, would you...? ;)

Anyway, speaking of the cold, as I mentioned, yesterday I spent about 4 hours confined in a car with Whittleman, who was very ill with Flu-like symptoms and glugging cough medicine direct from the bottle, being a brave soldier, just hope I don't get it...it was a good day though and I learned something as a result of the journey - as we were driving along, so the on board computer kept on beeping to alert us that the exterior temperature was approaching that where ice may form on the road. This took our conversation away from LOST and on to whether the speed of the vehicle affected the sensor in any way...we got as far as working out that wind chill was probably something to do with convection and evaporation and therefore most likely *not* but neither of us was really sure...Wikipaedia came to the rescue when I got home last night, and just to clear this up - it's only bags of water like human beings that experience "Wind Chill", VW Golf thermometers are immune...(and it's not called "Wind Chill Factor" either, just "Wind Chill", so feel free to correct your TV weatherman next time they say it)... ;)