An unexpected snow day in Durham

One day, shortly before Christmas, Durham found itself covered in a blanket of snow. It came billowing down all morning and afternoon, transforming the town into a Dickensian novel. I found it heart-lightening to don warm boots and a raincoat and walk through the town taking snaps. There's nothing quite as nice as sitting in your bedroom with a cup of tea warming your hands, watching thick, powdery puffs of snow come falling down.

By evening it had been washed away by rain, as if it had never existed. 

Snow Much Snow

I was incredibly sceptical of all the snow storm talk at first, but am currently eating a massive bowl full of my words. For it is March, it is more than mid-March if you will, and every time I look out my window the snow is getting heavier. Euro News says it's -1 but 'feels like' -6 Celcius. There are about 10cm of snow. I don't actually know if that's accurate or not, but it feels about that. I tried to find a picture from Google Images, but either the search engine doesn't understand English or Google is disintegrating slowly, but it just won't show me what I want. So you'll have to make do with this mediocre picture I took from my room.

The snow from outside my window

I'm chilling (well not, it's balmy in here) in my room, anticipating the beginnings of my new Vonnegut book (a decidedly vintage edition). I just read Slaughterhouse-5, so I'm really excited to start this one, but since I have a 7 hour bus ride to Berlin on Friday, I might try to hold off. I'm also having the staple Breakfast tea and some Lindt sea salt chocolate. Verdict: not as good as salted caramel,  but still very good.

                

The Weakerthans may be my favourite band, so I was overjoyed to discover the principal lyricist and vocalist has a new album out. I'm definitely downloading it to immerse myself in this weekend.

Snowy Saturday

It's my first real weekend day off in what feels like absolutely months, where I have nothing to plan, I amn't feeling guilty about taking time off work, and Leo isn't sitting at home on his lonesome like a big saddo. It's been snowing non-stop all morning, and I had perhaps the healthiest breakfast of my life.

Naturally, I have a cold. The shift in temperature from London's mild weather, and long walks to school early in the morning has messed with me a bit. I always get this viral chest infection, I hope what I have now doesn't turn into it.  I just want to sleep and stay in my really toasty room, but I want to make the most of my first weekend here so I'm going out cycling on my brand new shiny beautiful bike and later I'm going to listen to some folk music.

I've been listening to Kingdom a lot since I got here. Heathers are such a good...band(?), duo(?). Saw their first proper gig and it's amazing how much they've progressed.

I've got some Heinz tomato soup and lots of coffee to get me through the next couple of hours. It would be nice to be asleep. Good day to you.

The End of January

Well, January is almost over, and here's a few things that have been filling my time lately:

I've been enjoying, like everyone else in London, the snow and cold over the last week. The prospect of snow enlivens the school child in me. The prospect of a day off is just too much to handle. I think it's amazing how a touch of cold turns every grown-up into a 9 year old. People need to learn to let go of themselves more.

I don't have a 'job' job as such anymore (my life is slowly disintegrating around me), so I work a bit here and there at one or both of my jobs. Although I'm not earning as much as I want to be, I'm enjoying the whole days off and (even!) evenings free.

In my free time I'm packing my life up, getting estimates for shipping (turns out it's not cost effective to ship books which have only sentimental value), cooking delicious rhubarb and ginger treats, and making soap. My latest soap is pretty lovely if I do say so myself. I made it by smashing up my charcoal tablets into powder and mixing it with cinammon, almond oil and coconut oil for a moisturising, cleansing, sweet-smelling soap.

I have 9 days left in London, and then we're flying away, to Copenhagen to begin the next chapter. I'm making the most of it while I'm here. I'm going to have to go to Allpress at least five times before next week.

One thing I won't be missing is the coldness of Londoners, especially on the Tube. It wears me down. I was made for banter and smiling at strangers, not cold stares and not moving down the carriage and making use of all available space.

All pictures, as always, courtesy of Leo and his point and shoot.