It’s been cold. Very cold. VeryveryveryveryVERY cold. Yesterday at 07:10 it was minus, that’s MINUS 6.5d! The Vixen looked like an ice sculpture. It was, mind you, a glorious day. But cold.

It was cold again today too. I don’t know what the temperature was at 07:10 because I was not then properly up (evening duty today). But the fish pond is frozen over for the fifth day in a row (the fish are cheerily swimming around under the ice!), the grass was crisp and crunchy, the bird bath is frozen solid and everything was covered in white. At one point, after The Builder had poured hot water around the (plastic!!) duck to free a hole to let some air into the pond, I saw a blackbird hop down onto the side of the pond, then onto a flower pot, then onto the spout for the fountain and then gingerly onto the ice so he could hop around and get a drink! It was another glorious winter day.

I fear they may be over, though. The glorious bit, not the winter. The Met Office is forecasting snowy chaos and catastrophe for tomorrow. I wonder why they think Thursdays are a good day for weather chaos. The last great storm we had, three weeks ago, was on a Thursday too.

It’s no wonder I have turned into a Phatt Phrannie. I have been pondering how it is that I have failed to lose any of my excess kilos, despite a wholesome and healthy diet of chocolate, chips (no, no ¾ not together) and wine. Then it crossed my mind that I used to walk in from the Botanical Gardens, either when I lived there or after parking the car there once we’d moved. That gathered me 7000 steps if I walked both ways. Now I mostly come in by train, or with The Builder, Ecclesall Road being absolutely horrid to drive on after work at this time of year. Plus, Clarissa and I used to go out for a wander in town once or twice a week, which would garner me around 1 or 2000 steps. Then she buggered off to Leeds and I more or less stopped going out at lunchtime unless I had something I absolutely had to do. Hmmm. I bought a new pedometer. And for the first three days I had it, hardly troubled it at all. No wonder I put weight on that I’ve been unable to shift. Absolutely no exercise at all!

It was OK at the weekend, because I shifted all that rubbish. Yesterday I made myself go out for a walk at lunchtime, which gathered 1500 steps. Today, though, I have reached and even surpassed the target. I was looking out the windows at the back of the house and realised that there were men in yellow coats working up at the top of the Wetlands. The Builder and I kitted up and wandered off for a sticky. They are putting fences and observation hides along the top of the hill, on the path that leads to the derelict railway bridge. It was a lovely walk. The sun was shining very brightly. Most of the mud was frozen; that which wasn’t was very sticky! There were coots walking on the frozen wetlands and lots of seagulls drifting about in the unfrozen bit. There were people out walking their dogs and many, many birds darting about. Gathered me about 5000 steps (though some of them were quite small steps, going over the sticky, sticky mud, but still - a step is a step!). Must Do Better on the walking front. Haven’t done any proper walking for simply ages.

I have got my First Semester major assignment back, and I’ve passed it :-) I have been lying awake at 03:00 most mornings worrying that I had written a really good answer to an entirely different question and that I would therefore fail first semester and be treated with scorn and ridicule by my colleagues at work. Happily this awful fate has been averted *and* the lecturer said nice things about the essay part of the assignment. I did not wake up at 03:00 this morning. Grin!

And in honour of the family history of high blood pressure and my raised result before Christmas, I have bought a digital BP monitoring device. It’s amazing how much lower it is when I measure it in bed, first thing on a Saturday morning!!!!!!! (What do you mean, that’s cheating?)

The laptop, Marlo and the fruit bowl all tried to commit suicide on Saturday evening. The whole lot came crashing down off the dining room table. Made me jump, it did. Or, more accurately, The Builder yelling and shouting made me jump! All is well. Everything still works. Except the laptop lost its space bar, x key and alt key. I can live without the alt key. I can even live without the x key -- you can still get an x, if you push in the right place. But it's a bit inconvenient not having a space bar. The laptop has gone to computer hospital. £20 to reaffix the keys. £30 (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) extra to get it done in 4 days rather than 14-21. Tsk! And I still won't have it for the weekend :-S