Has the sun forgotten to get up?

It was so dark in the kitchen when I woke up this morning that I entirely missed the cereal bowl and poured Shreddies all over the work surface. To make matters worse, I only noticed two hours later, and spent ages clearing up the mess.

It's been gloomy, drizzly and murky all day: '"Has the sun forgotten to get up this morning?" asked Topsy. "No" said Mummy, "it's just a nasty foggy day."'

I went to the gym after lunch and was horrified by how cold it was. Cold and wet. It got right into my bones within seconds. People seemed miserable everywhere I looked.

My two favourite gentlemen were at the gym again today, having their usual "word-association" cyclic conversation, which I was thrilled Nathan finally got the opportunity to hear. For those who didn't read my post about it a few weeks ago, these particular two men are always heard having a conversation across the changing room, which starts with a name - today's was "Steve" - and always goes in the same direction... "Is that the Steve who lives above the motorbike shop?" "No, that one's Steve Brown, this one lives down near the Pineapple pub.""I tell you who used to go down that Pineapple pub. Maureen's son... What's his name?" "Steve?" "He ain't called Steve..." "John?" "John Palmer?" "No, Maureen's John..." And so it goes on. It's clear from their chatter that they've lived in these parts all their lives, but they never talk about the same person for more than a few seconds... And then the cycle takes them onto the next name. I think they're both a little deaf, as they shout very loudly.

I came back from the gym and basically went insane, almost grinding myself into the ground on these blessed Brass scores! There's a huge amount of work to do on them, and I've put twelve solid hours in already today. There's something rather unnerving and disorientating about the experience of spending long hours plugged into headphones. It's rather like being under water.

I stopped working at 10 and ate a rather late tea before watching Penelope Keith's fascinating Channel 4 documentary series about villages, whilst Nathan slept on my shoulder. Bless.