Trying to catch up

It has been some time hasn’t it? Approximately four months! It isn’t that I didn’t have anything to write, I had too much and before I could get thoughts down more stuff worth writing about happened and so I decided to take a sabbatical. So now for the hard bit, condensing 4 months worth of stuff into 3 minutes worth of reading.

Work continued on the house despite the wettest summer on record, 3 years in a row, where will it all end? The outside of the house is almost finished but it will only be completed after the good weather is here and the clocks have gone forward again. There are 3 rooms inside to be completed and then it is as finished as I can get it to be before I start spending negatively. IE spending £500 to add only £300 to the value. It should be on the market at some point next year.

What else happened? Well I fell over in the bathroom and landed side on upon the edge of the bath. This resulted in at least four broken ribs (the X rays were inconclusive due to the amount of fluid and swelling) and a perforated lung. I spent a week in hospital with lots of painkillers and plenty of oxygen. I was off work for six weeks only returning three weeks ago. I have been told I was lucky as the broken ribs could have pierced the lungs completely instead of badly grazing them. Fortunately Beancounter, The Traveller and Roger Moor have all looked after me.

The weather has taken a turn for the worse and winter has arrived several weeks early. Some parts of Scotland have experienced temperatures of minus 20 degrees Celsius. The outside pipes in my shed have frozen despite plenty of lagging to ensure they would not do so like last year. The peninsula that I live on has mercifully been snow free but already the popular national press has been scaremongering with stories of food and fuel shortages due to Lorries and wagons being unable complete journeys. I have no idea why the UK cannot cope with a few inches of snow a couple of times a year when Scandinavian countries cope with six months a year of the stuff. It certainly makes it hard for the young ones to believe the Brits once ruled an empire upon which the sun never set when they see us get battered into submission by a few snow flakes!

Christmas is almost upon us and the annual orgy of consumerism and self indulgence fuelled by clever advertising agencies has begun in earnest. Shops are advertising sales within the first few days of December in order to attempt those with the least to part with the most. If Christmas really stood for what it was supposed to, the frugal but joyous worship of the birth of Christ, I would be all for it. Sadly it seems that Charles Dickens has destroyed that with his Christmas story. (Brits did not eat Turkey until his tale but ate Goose instead) Never underestimate the power of good advertising to destroy the true meaning of anything spiritual. It makes you wonder how long will it be before the admen and money guys come up with some way of exploiting and profiting from the Dalai Lama?

Until next time when I try and catch up and post lots of photos in the gallery, enjoy the snow.