This is new. The BBC’s weather forecast is specifying the colour of tomorrow’s and Wednesday’s cloudy skies:
Isn’t that nice?
Category: Small pleasures
Nice juxtaposition
Flicking through my photos of our Norwegian cruise, I just spotted this portmanteau mountain made up from the shots either side of the one I was on:
Sunglasses
I bought my first sunglasses of the spring earlier, at the end of a lunch hour spent scrunching my face up against the brightness of the day. I was looking for a geekish pair to go with the actual anorak I am wearing (not this instant, as I sit in my office typing, but as part of today’s outfit), but I work in a district with a limited supply of shops selling anything anyone would actually want to buy, and the only sunglasses on offer were the enormous kind preferred by Victoria Beckham, Cheryl Cole and other people I don’t want to look like. (Well, OK, I would be happy to look like Cheryl Cole, I’m not crazy. But I don’t want to dress like her.)
My eventual compromise solution was some fairly enormous sunglasses, but with thick white plastic rims which stop them from looking like something impossibly glamorous that should be teamed with skinny jeans and an enormous bag, since given the choice I would always go for flared jeans and a tiny bag.
These are they:
When I came back into the office I stuck them on my head, and had an immediate rush of summery feeling. It was brilliant.
I went to Norfolk, but it was shut
My beloved and I spent three nights at the Victoria Hotel in Holkham, on the north Norfolk coast, last week. It’s a beautiful part of the world and a little like visiting the 1950s. Church doors are left open so the curious passer-by can wander in and have a look around; there’s a red pillar box and an old-fashioned phonebox on every village green – and, best of all, there are free, clean public lavatories which are abundantly possessed of soap and hand towels. It was all so civilised I didn’t know where to look.
They do like to close things for the winter, but although Holkham Hall itself only opens to visitors during the summer, we were looking forward to exploring the grounds and perhaps meeting a deer or two. A sign told us to turn back barely a minute up the drive, so we went back to the hotel where the receptionist helpfully rang up the Hall and was told that it was because they were “gassing moles”, which I imagine is the only time that has ever been used as an excuse for anything. I was so charmed I almost didn’t mind missing out on the park.
Slightly more disappointing was our failure to spot any seals on our seal-spotting excursion. We caught brief glimpses of a couple in the sea, but having been told by our ship’s captain (the most authentic Norfolker I have ever met) that there were “usually” six hundred of them sunbathing on the sand, we were hoping for more. I did get some pretty photos of the sea, though:
I tried to warm to Norwich, but they need to move the station so that the eager visitor doesn’t have to walk a mile up an unlovely hill lined with takeaways to reach the city centre. On the other hand, the shop assistant in Waterstone’s was very friendly indeed, so it wasn’t all bad.
I am now trying to plan a career move which would allow me to live in a cottage overlooking the sea. I’d be happy in any of the towns along that stretch of coast, but I especially liked the look of Salthouse, Stiffkey (pronounced “Stewkey”, and you’ll be glad I warned you next time you visit) and Cley Next The Sea. If you happen to have property for sale in any of those, do let me know.
Small pleasures for January
This month, I have been mainly enjoying camomile tea, mashed potatoes, the smell of hyacinths, series 4 of Lost and roast beef with Yorkshire pudding. I unreservedly recommend them all.
(I’ve two long books posts waiting to go up, except I’ve lost the instructions for linking to Amazon in such a way that if anyone buys a book from them via me, I get cash money. As soon as this position is rectified, I will be back with more to say.)
Observations made in the course of a walk in St. James’s Park
- The lake is almost completely frozen over. If you stand on the bridge and peer down into the water, you glimpse some interesting objects suspended in partial cryogenesis: twigs, leaves and feathers are to be expected; Starbucks’ cups and biros less so.
- The birds are, for the most part, unconcerned by the frozen lake. They perch on the ice looking mildly bemused, occasionally pecking at something on the surface in the hope that it’s edible. One seagull stood in the same place for so long that I worried her feet had been frozen to the spot, but it turned out she was just stopping for a think, and soon moved on.
- St James’s Park is as pretty in winter as it is in summer, and less busy (though not by much)
- Somebody somewhere is making a fortune selling black woolly hats with “LONDON” emblazoned across them. Every other person I passed was wearing one, having presumably miscalculated the amount of clothing necessary to sustain life in this weather.
A joke
Q. Why is Christmas the best time to buy philosophy books?
A. Because the Schopenhauers are longer.
(I apologise. That wasn’t in a cracker, but it could have been. One of the more upmarket sorts of cracker, perhaps.)
Seasonal songs
I’ve realised, too late, that I should have created my own online advent calendar by embedding a video for a different Christmas song each day. Well, it’s too late to do it from the 1st, but it’s not too late to start now. So from now until Christmas, except on the 19th-22nd inclusive when I will be out of the country and may not have internet access, I will link to a new Christmas song each day from among my personal favourites. We will begin with an item which is neither an embedded video nor even a video at all, really, but it’s one of the happiest Christmas songs there is: Andy Williams singing Sleigh Ride. Make sure you listen all the way through; it gets better as it goes along. Just like advent.
Another advent calendar
Radio 4’s Today programme also has an online advent calendar, with each day’s offering an “audio treat” from the past eleven months of early morning broadcasting. Although as I write it’s after 7pm and today’s entry isn’t available yet. But I mainly want to draw it to your attention because it will almost certainly feature the moment several months ago when Charlotte Green suffered a fit of the giggles whilst announcing the news of a death, and if you haven’t heard it already you really ought to.
You’ll be delighted to hear that I eventually found a real-life advent calendar which didn’t feature chocolates, although it is a bit godly. But I suppose that’s forgiveable. It’s from Oxfam – are they to do with god? I can never remember.
Glad All Over 