When I rolled out of bed at the crack of 11am, the sun was beaming down from a clear blue sky. I’ve not been able to say that for many weeks.
Because I usually get up even later !
The trade off, and there is always a trade off with weather in this country, was that it was cold. As in…..freezing cold. Then again it’s mid January so that’s fair enough. I love the people who trot out the old chestnut…..”it’s too cold to snow“.
Tell that to the people who insist that getting down an Alpine mountain on two planks of wood is a great way of spending a week off work. Or the Emperor penguins of Antarctica who waddle for miles to the water to get food to bring back to their chicks.
They’ll tell you it’s cold when it snows. Well maybe not the penguins as they don’t say much. I wish they did. Maybe then one of them would have the sense to stand up and say “oi, why the hell don’t we just live closer to the water ?”
I ask myself these questions all the time.
I need to get out more !
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Over the last couple of months, my Fridays have evolved from being Chinese & a Movie evening to a Subway, Chinese & a Movie afternoon and evening.
This came about when I visited a disabled friend who can’t get out due to a life long back problem. I usually see her once or twice a week as she lives both locally and on the way to where I go for the Chinese & a Movie which has been a rock solid Friday calendar entry for many years now.
On this particular occasion she asked if I could bring her a steak and cheese sub and a latte and also whatever I wanted. I had the same sub but with a hot chocolate and I so thoroughly enjoyed this arrangement that we’ve been doing it most Fridays since then.
After a few weeks, the staff at the Subway came to expect my visit and would ask “the usual ?” when I’d go in. I liked that. And using my Subway phone app, I’ve quickly collected 2100 points which would get me 20 hot drinks, or four x 6″ subs or two x foot long subs for free. Good to know that if I’m out and about with no money, I can use my phone to get food and drink. Assuming I pass a Subway of course !
Being a canny Scot, I feel Alexander Graham Bell would’ve approved.
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The Chinese part of Chinese & a Movie just means any takeout meal. This time we fancied fish and chips, and to keep the fish batter nice and crispy, we don’t get it by delivery. At the appointed time I drove to the nearby chippie to get the meals and the quality was as good as ever.
Most of the movies we watch on a Friday have already been watched by me. I may be wrong but I believe I know what my friends like to see so I try to make appropriate choices. Of course they may just be too polite to tell me when I’ve made a crap choice but I think that overall I’ve made good choices over the years.
This time we watched “The Revenant” which, as you’ll know from a previous post, I watched earlier in the week. I think it was well received and it provoked a fair bit of positive discussion afterwards which is usually a good sign.
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Looking at the corresponding Friday in my 1970 diary, I was making plans to get an early summer job in England to make enough money to go touring in America, which would include a dream visit to the Kennedy Space Centre. Schools in N. Ireland always finished for the summer holidays up to a month earlier than those in England. This gave us a head start on getting the summer fruit picking jobs over there that were popular for earning good money back then. I was due to finish my last A Level exam on 16th June and hoped to be leaving the school before the ink dried on my papers. Still not fast enough for me !
That last part became true and less than 48 hours after exiting the school gates forever, I was on a plane heading for England. The rest of the summer did NOT go as planned but more of that as this year goes on.
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Back to now and overnight it got down to 30.7f or -0.7c.
It didn’t snow. Too cold probably !
Retirement Rocks 