Friday 13 October 2023
I’m officially cold. It’s 08:45 and apparently 6°C with a feels-like of 4°C, which isn’t as cold as yesterday and there’s no frost, but it feels colder. In Lewisham, I can’t quite believe this, it’s 18°C with heavy rain, apparently. Never underestimate how big a difference there is in temperature around the British Isles. The sun is up between 07:38 and 18:19 around our part of Scottish Borders and between 07:19 and 18:11 in Lewisham. I appreciate the extra eight minutes of daylight in the evening more than I miss the nineteen minutes longer in the morning.
I definitely sense overkill when it comes to my reporting on the cold. It’s hard not to think about it when your nose and fingers are as cold as mine currently are. I have coffee to hand though; that’ll help.
I had an unexpectedly productive day yesterday. I made good progress on the second draft of my novel, did all things blog-related that I want/need to do, finished painting the stairwell dark blue, did a few small household chores, had a bit of a walk and somehow, on going downstairs to make something warming for lunch, I ended up baking a coffee cake. I fancied cake. Lindsay and I baked (and ate) a cake last weekend and I really fancied coffee cake. Anyway, we have cake. Today, I might paint a small area above the staircase the yellow the skirting boards will hopefully end up being, I will continue with my second draft and I will focus on eating the cake I am amazed I suddenly decided to make yesterday. This seems to be a realistic plan for a Friday.
I still haven’t measured up and ordered a new grate (or whatever it is) for the multi-fuel burner. I have no idea how or why it’s taken me at least eight months to do that. I suppose it’s because I hate the burner so much and haven’t even cleared out the remains of the last fire we had in January. I’m hoping that by mentioning it here today, I will make the (not particularly massive) effort to measure and order the grate-thing.
I never used to take much notice of my Fitbit’s hourly reminder to move if I’ve been static for the hour. I now kind of do take notice of it. That seems to be when I get up and have a short break (obviously to ensure my minimum of 250 steps) and sometimes do mini chores. Today, in one or more of those “move” moments, I will, I will, I will go and measure up the grate, clean it out and find where to order a replacement from. I will.