My dear family & friends, 8 Dec 2008
You probably noticed that I didn’t write a letter last week. I’m hibernating. It gets dark here sometime between 16h00 and 16h30 and it’s difficult to motivate oneself to carry on with the day as if the sun were still shining. I’m ready for a beer by 16h15 as if the day is over, even if the sun did only poke its nose above the horizon at around 08h00.
It has also been cold, very cold some mornings; cold enough to freeze the bird bath solid and leave the canal with a thin layer of ice. Have you ever seen a duck ice skating? Me neither, but I’m hoping to see it soon. I usually see plenty of ducks on the canal but they seemed to disappear when the canal froze over. It’s like they’re hiding. I’m just waiting for one of them to forget. I have this image in my mind of a duck trying to keep its balance while making a duck landing on solid ice. I’m expecting a good laugh.
The dogs are quite good at avoiding slippery patches on the sidewalks and paths on their twice daily excursions. I follow them closely but still occasionally find myself practicing the wild ballet of someone trying to keep his balance on ice. I haven’t fallen yet, but I know it’s going to happen. At night, when I take the dogs out to lift a leg before turning in, the frost on the ground and the roadway looks like millions of tiny diamonds sparkling under the streetlamps. I have also finally learned the difference between frost and hoarfrost. Frost is when water vapour condenses on the ground (or other objects) and then freezes as the temperature drops. A hoarfrost is when water vapour freezes in the air and then the ice particles settle on the ground; it almost looks like a light dusting of snow. We’ve had a couple of hoarfrosts over the past two weeks.
I’ve felt the cold as I have never done before. When I was 17 I jumped off a roof (after retrieving a tennis ball) and snapped the heel of my right foot. They call it a parachute fracture because it’s the most common fracture experienced by skydivers. The point now being that I can hardly walk in the morning or when it gets very cold. At these times my foot feels about as sore as it did when I broke it 25 years ago leaving me limping around.
It’s coldest after a clear night with no clouds to trap the heat in. I like to go outside and look up at the stars which seem to manifest themselves so seldom behind the clouds. I always look for Orion which is clearly visible in both the northern and southern hemispheres. When I can see Orion it means I’m not too far from home.
There haven’t been too many happenings over the past two weeks. Most important was that our landlord wrote to tell us that she will not be renewing our tenancy agreement when it expires at the end of March. So we’re looking for a new place to stay. Our landlord would clearly like to get a higher rental from the property which we have also clearly indicated that we won’t pay. It’s just a bit of a bitch to have to go through the process of looking for another place to stay which is a bit more difficult because we have dogs. Landlords aren’t keen on dogs.
Last weekend we went to a birthday party for one of Lucia’s Spanish colleagues, Monica, who is spending a couple of years here in the UK. I met a journalist and someone in the PR business here in the UK and arranged to meet them again during the week to discuss the industry and jobs. Like any other sector it seems that they are going through a tough time given the global economic difficulties. I wasn’t too surprised by that, but they did give me some leads.
This past Friday night we had Ann, Richard and (daughter) Polly around for dinner. They stayed overnight to beat the zealous drink driving rules here in the UK, which left Richard and I to debate the problems of the UK and the world until 03h00. The others went to bed.
And last, but not least, I bought a new Skypephone from Amazon. (Our old one was still useable but was giving problems.) This one plugs directly into the broadband router as well as the telephone line. This means that we don’t need a computer to use Skype, and that we can use both Skype and the normal telephone line from the same handset. It works like a dream. Well, I say that, but I had to buy a separate telephone ringer because the Skypephone doesn’t ring loud enough for me (because I’m going deaf in my right ear and it’s getting worse.)
This coming weekend we’re off to Portugal for a couple of days. The long range weather forecast says we can expect bright sunshine from Thursday through to Sunday. We are so looking forward to it.
Love, light & peace
Llewellyn
You probably noticed that I didn’t write a letter last week. I’m hibernating. It gets dark here sometime between 16h00 and 16h30 and it’s difficult to motivate oneself to carry on with the day as if the sun were still shining. I’m ready for a beer by 16h15 as if the day is over, even if the sun did only poke its nose above the horizon at around 08h00.
It has also been cold, very cold some mornings; cold enough to freeze the bird bath solid and leave the canal with a thin layer of ice. Have you ever seen a duck ice skating? Me neither, but I’m hoping to see it soon. I usually see plenty of ducks on the canal but they seemed to disappear when the canal froze over. It’s like they’re hiding. I’m just waiting for one of them to forget. I have this image in my mind of a duck trying to keep its balance while making a duck landing on solid ice. I’m expecting a good laugh.
The dogs are quite good at avoiding slippery patches on the sidewalks and paths on their twice daily excursions. I follow them closely but still occasionally find myself practicing the wild ballet of someone trying to keep his balance on ice. I haven’t fallen yet, but I know it’s going to happen. At night, when I take the dogs out to lift a leg before turning in, the frost on the ground and the roadway looks like millions of tiny diamonds sparkling under the streetlamps. I have also finally learned the difference between frost and hoarfrost. Frost is when water vapour condenses on the ground (or other objects) and then freezes as the temperature drops. A hoarfrost is when water vapour freezes in the air and then the ice particles settle on the ground; it almost looks like a light dusting of snow. We’ve had a couple of hoarfrosts over the past two weeks.
I’ve felt the cold as I have never done before. When I was 17 I jumped off a roof (after retrieving a tennis ball) and snapped the heel of my right foot. They call it a parachute fracture because it’s the most common fracture experienced by skydivers. The point now being that I can hardly walk in the morning or when it gets very cold. At these times my foot feels about as sore as it did when I broke it 25 years ago leaving me limping around.
It’s coldest after a clear night with no clouds to trap the heat in. I like to go outside and look up at the stars which seem to manifest themselves so seldom behind the clouds. I always look for Orion which is clearly visible in both the northern and southern hemispheres. When I can see Orion it means I’m not too far from home.
There haven’t been too many happenings over the past two weeks. Most important was that our landlord wrote to tell us that she will not be renewing our tenancy agreement when it expires at the end of March. So we’re looking for a new place to stay. Our landlord would clearly like to get a higher rental from the property which we have also clearly indicated that we won’t pay. It’s just a bit of a bitch to have to go through the process of looking for another place to stay which is a bit more difficult because we have dogs. Landlords aren’t keen on dogs.
Last weekend we went to a birthday party for one of Lucia’s Spanish colleagues, Monica, who is spending a couple of years here in the UK. I met a journalist and someone in the PR business here in the UK and arranged to meet them again during the week to discuss the industry and jobs. Like any other sector it seems that they are going through a tough time given the global economic difficulties. I wasn’t too surprised by that, but they did give me some leads.
This past Friday night we had Ann, Richard and (daughter) Polly around for dinner. They stayed overnight to beat the zealous drink driving rules here in the UK, which left Richard and I to debate the problems of the UK and the world until 03h00. The others went to bed.
And last, but not least, I bought a new Skypephone from Amazon. (Our old one was still useable but was giving problems.) This one plugs directly into the broadband router as well as the telephone line. This means that we don’t need a computer to use Skype, and that we can use both Skype and the normal telephone line from the same handset. It works like a dream. Well, I say that, but I had to buy a separate telephone ringer because the Skypephone doesn’t ring loud enough for me (because I’m going deaf in my right ear and it’s getting worse.)
This coming weekend we’re off to Portugal for a couple of days. The long range weather forecast says we can expect bright sunshine from Thursday through to Sunday. We are so looking forward to it.
Love, light & peace
Llewellyn
