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!

Front Greened

Considering this has been the coldest Autumn here since 1945ish, we actually got quite a lot done during the last month. Here's the place as of today. The bit of green on the frame around the vent is shown on the first shot. Obviously the windows, doors and brickwork need more work. Before painting them any more we need to finish stripping the tricky part of the sash window where the bottom half meets the top. To get that done properly, we need to clear and vacate the two rooms one by one. All that mess on the inside from sanding and finishing.