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Little pleasures
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A chance to exchange notes on the little everyday things that cheer you up when you're down, or make an ordinary day into a better one. Winning move unaltered.
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Despite the winter solstice being two weeks ago, it seems to get darker in the mornings at this time of year, so I look for visual treats on my way to work to try and persuade myself that it's not all a dark slog in shitty traffic. First off this morning, driving to work under a full-ish and bright moon, and the rising sun only hitting the skyscrapers of Rotterdam (seen from my office window) after I got here.
And I have a new thermal cup and my tea from home was still hot.
Watching Rowan Atkinson play George Simenon's Maigret, dubbed into French. If you made him slightly thinner and slightly greyer and have him wear a slightly more worn mack, he would be exactly as I imagine Maigret. The acting, though, is spot on.
My newest happy song is "I Want an Alien for Christmas" by Fountains of Wayne.
Discovering a blurry picture on the internet that showed that in fact there are no missing parts to the loom of the Pelham "Mother Dragon" marionette Mrs Stevie gave me for Xmas, and by simply re-arranging the screw-eyes someone de-arranged for gosh-knows what reason and replacing the long-gone elastic links for the wings and jaw strings I now had a good-as-new puppet to play with even though this one was bought sometime before decimalization. Someone also tied knots in the leg strings so they wouldn't "run" through the screw-eyes, but I got those knots out with two needles (used as marlin spikes) and some patience while Doctor Who ran on Xmas night. S'triffic puppet. Raaaaaaaar!
Driving on the motorway past the same spot every morning this week just in time to see a huge flock of geese, numbering thousands, take off from their overnight roost.
Finding the waxed thread online and using it to repair the Dragon marionette. Thread snapped after I twisted the control strings too aggressively for storage (you do this to stop the lines tangling in the box). Head detached from body, tail detached and fell into component beads. All fixed now, though, including discovering a new and great way to "snug up" knots with only one pair of hands.
Made myself a full English breakfast this morning. Haven't done it in over 2 years, you just can't get the bacon over here, and Ham is not an acceptable substitute. So fried bread. Black Pudding. Bacon and scrambled eggs. Sausages. Tea and toast with marmalade. 'Cos that's the way (uh-huh, uh-huh) I like it.
Seeing that the second-hand 50-year old pear tree we installed outside the house a month ago (to make our new-ish house look less new on this street) is starting to blossom. Good. If it hadn't have done anything, then that would have been quite a lot of money wasted.
I spoke too soon. The tree gave up. Arse.
I saw tons of great local talent last night when I went to see my city's chapter of Christian Youth Theater's production of Seussical, Jr.
A Bank Holiday with perfect weather! Full sun, light breeze, able to take luncheon on the terrace (oh all right then, a chicken and cheese sandwich in the backyard). But, there was cider involved....
[pen] I'm impressed that it tried at all in its first year, after the shock of being moved. Have you given it the love and horse poop that a budding tree needs?
[Simons] It mostly needs water - it usually has reserves of everything else. We've given it buckets and it has rained a lot, and the wood is still green so it may still leaf/live or it may leave...
Being able to look out the window while computing

I'll explain this one a bit more. I had been using one of those bloody stupid iMac computers with a glossy screen. As a result, if ever I wanted to use the computer during daylight hours I had to sit with the curtains drawn or I couldn't see anything but my own reflection in the damn screen. That computer has now died, and good riddance to it, and this high-end Asus monitor I'm using (with a Raspberry Pi(!)) has a sensible matte finish. That means I can have the pleasure of looking out into my garden and using my computer both at the same time. I will never ever ever buy another Mac as long as their fatuous glossy screen practice continues. In fact, as I can't really think of any reason to forgive them for being that stupid in the first place, I may well continue to avoid them even if they stop that dumb behaviour. Still, I suppose boycotting a company primarily for their being morons is slight progress over boycotting them for being asshats. Although, yeah, Apple are asshats as well, aren't they?

BTW this iMac was second-hand from my brother-in-law. For a few hundred quid I think I got decent value for money, but I would never buy any Apple product new.
Watching the unfolding growth of spring day by day, as my back garden has been transformed from a bombsite into a botanical garden. Real easy to do, just find a girlfriend who is a landscape architect.
Being surrounded with angst-ridden and stressed Frenchmen and being oneself at peace. It's that footie again, the trains are all delayed, and I don't care much!
...one month later... [Pablo] Is it brown and crunchy yet? And do you still have the same girlfriend?
[Pen] I am happy to report that thanks to frequent borrowings of the neighbour's hosepipe (with his blessing I hasten to add), verdant greenness is still evident. And even after 10 days in Italy together 24/7, the girlfriend is also present and correct. Great summer!
Knowing that today’s 36C temperature is the last of the very hot weather for now and tomorrow will be in the 20s.
Hah! It's gone back over 30 again! Proper Aussie summer....
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