Still here - Sort Of.

You haven’t had the pleasure of me today yet, have you?

(Oh, God, I suppose I should explain that the above is an old Brit sitcom joke. OK? Right then.)

The reason is that I’ve been otherwise engaged doing one of four things.

Spending time with Helen - having a solstice bonfire, enjoying a meal, watching a Harry Potter film, and listening to her rant about a variety of things; mostly the fact that commercial breaks kept interrupting the Harry Potter film.

Spending what seemed like almost as much time waiting for her delayed train to turn up this morning, and for another delayed train to arrive at the station and carry her homeward this evening. It seems the British rail system has even more trouble with cold weather than it does with autumn leaves. I once spent four hours sitting on a train stuck out in the wilds with no power on a very cold Boxing Day night. That was fifteen years ago. Nothing changes much.

Going through the two hour process of lighting a fire in my living room much later than usual. It hadn’t been practicable to do it while Helen was here, for reasons that would take too long to explain.

Sitting in front of said fire watching a rather good little comedy horror film called Severance, because it was a lot warmer there than it was in my office. We’ve got -10C again tonight, with more snow forecast.

So, here I am now with nothing of any consequence to say except: Happy Solstice. Oh, and when the clouds clear the full moon, it looks absolutely splendid shining on the icy landscape.

I might think of something else to say later when I’ve permitted myself the luxury of supplementary heating in my office and my brain thaws out. Hopefully.