Launch above...

Glider Spin - K13

Check out this video on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vD_9BL-2GPU

Gliding is fun!

Progress - what progress?

There's no more paint going on that woodwork. We did a tiny bit of work while I was on holiday after New Year, but it was very minor. A little bit of bog at the end of the the north east gable above the laundry door. A bit of end tile hole filling at the lower reaches of the north wall and on the west-facing roof. We even bought some special paint stripping material (hideously expensive) for doing the lead light windows. It's still in the box. We haven't even watched the DVD that came with it yet. Are we serious about getting this job finished? I wonder...

I'm having trouble waking up these days - which is good in one way. It means I'm not having much of a problem staying asleep. I always wake up for a wander to the loo about 0400 though. I hate that. I was up too late last night, after a day of not doing very much I was not so tired. I did manage to have a long sleep-in on Saturday - which i suspect is at least partly the reason for not getting to sleep earlier last night. All this obsessing about sleep. It must be a sign of advancing age. I am advised to get up and do a minimum of 20 minutes walking before starting the rest of my day. Something to do with getting the hormones working in my favour - the psychological benefits that come from feeling I can make the world move past me - of power in being able to do this. Something like that. It does seem to help, so I'll keep at it.

Back to blogging? Maybe some painting too...

I now need to finish what I started just over a year ago. Painting the rest of this house. I can think of loads of other fun things to do at the weekends, but the painting needs to get finished somehow, and Lynne's studiously avoided mentioning it for months. Excuses are hard to find when the sun's up early and late, and the weather is fine.
I'm sure I must be ready to paint for relaxation - now that the Uni final project report's finished. Anyway, I just need to print and bind it now, while the academics grade my electronic copy. What a relief it is! No. Really!

One Year Ago in St. Andrews

It was a great night - just one year ago - after being at Hampden to the Scotland vs. Italy match. They beat us, but it was a great night at Aikman's listening to Fraser's band while drinking Erdinger with Heather and Hoegaarden with Paula. Just as well I didn't get started on the Leffe eh?

Familial music keeps us in the other lane...

Well, I'm back to the first lane - but I've got a foot in the
other lane too. Here's a visiting musician borrowing a handy guitar for a quick jam. The nippers were soon off to get their recorders to play along to the Mission Impossible soundtrack. There is more about this occasion.

the Other Lane, the shortest day

Today is the winter solstice - but it's a long day at work for me.
The other lane indeed. I'm back on what I once thought of as 'the hamster wheel', but I'm glad to say it doesn't feel at all like a hamster wheel - despite me choosing to commute with the masses - sitting or standing on a crowded carriage with all the office 'bots, most of whom create themselves a little bubble by plugging in their own personal audio entertainment. This is the human zoo. I haven't seen so many new strangers so regularly ! Maybe I'll start to recognise people - even start to nod to familiar faces (avec ear buds) if I start to form a habit about which part of the train to travel on. I suppose it's important to make the most of the train experience - especially when I'm on one for a minimum of 1 hour a day. A good book perhaps? Taken in 10 x 30 minute chunks a week? I could drive, but why leave our one car idle in a car park nearly all day?
Hamster wheel? I don't think so. If the cap fits, wear it - but being on a hamster wheel is not my concept of what I'm doing. The work itself is fun, and I know it will sometimes be hard, but if I can come home and do my own stuff, forgetting about it until I get back there each morning - I'll be able to keep enjoying it - to keep having fun.
Meanwhile, she who can sometimes be obeyed, is not painting - it's very cold weather - and instead is entertaining des enfants during their school holidays. It's 4 degrees outside, and I probably should get back under the doona, since there's no sense in tapping away here until the sunrise! I need to be on a train well before that anyway. A bike ride perhaps - in the dark, with plenty of winter woolies on? Maybe not. Brrr!