Wednesday 25 October 2023
Two months to Christmas. I now most definitely have a far greater understanding of the complications of travel plans for Christmas. Last year, I think because we’d only just moved to Scotland, it was kind of okay and we’d worked out where we would be and the weather was obliging in terms of our travel days. However, this year it seems more challenging. What I’d really like is for my mum to be up in Scotland with us and to have a white Christmas. The white Christmas element is by far the most realistic/likely component of that. It is such a frustration how unreliable public transport is in the UK. Anyway, fretting about it all two months in advance is pointless, as was writing a whole paragraph about it.
It is exactly 07:30 and it’s considerably darker outside than I expected, meaning I have been getting up a bit later the past few days, probably because it has been noticeably darker around my getting-up-time. Sunrise here is 08:02 and in Lewisham it’s 07:41. Sunset here is 17:50 and in Lewisham it’s 17:47. Wow, we still have a few extra minutes of sun in the – hmm, pre-18:00 is “afternoon” in my mind, so a few extra minutes of sun in the afternoon. I so, so wish our clocks weren’t going back on Sunday. I don’t mind it being dark in the mornings, knowing it’s getting lighter. I hate that next week the sun will set shortly after half-four. Sigh. This is an annual rant on my part and with certainty I am not the only person to think this.
Fibre broadband. Unannounced, two Openreach vans appeared yesterday afternoon and digging of a trench for cables commenced. The trench/pipes/cables will be about 32 metres. They dug what looks like one of the hardest areas yesterday, about two metres through a bank. I’m thinking that digging could take a while. I thought it best not to point out to them the three or so metres that Mitch dug for a deeper trench on Sunday and how ludicrously efficiently he dug, and he was one person not two. Not that the two men who were tasked with digging a trench (I bet they so wish we were able to have overhead cables) were slackers or particularly inefficient, it’s just that Mitch is exceptionally good at seemingly everything remotely practical. I will, however, try not to watch and compare the digging team today. Sunday is our last Mitch/handyman day for the year and we don’t think he’ll be working here anywhere near as much next year, which is great for him and his projects but alarming for us.
I walked up to our nearest loch yesterday, getting home shortly after sunset. I rarely walk around when it’s that ‘dark’ but I enjoyed the stillness and evening light. I was going to say that I should do that more often, but with the shorter daylight hours, I suppose I’ll have to.
Tomorrow, if all goes to plan, and it could easily not, I’m going to Glasgow for the day. I kind of feel ready for a bit of a city fix and figure I might as well make use of an extra hour of daylight at the end of the day. Oh dear, I can hear myself being a bit whiny about shorter daylight hours. It’ll pass and I’ll embrace the Oodies and huggable bowls of winter food. Ah, see, that’s my error, I haven’t yet made a stew that I can put in a huggable bowl.