I had the same problem because I used to live in Slad which is surrounded by countryside and is where the book Cider With Rosie is set so going for a run was always a nice experience and I would run past Laurie Lee's local The Woolpack every day. Then I moved to Gloucester which has no countryside and a few times I got some nasty comments from complete strangers while out for a run. One time some middle aged guy drove up beside me while I was running on the pavement, beeped his horn to get my attention and then gave me the middle finger before driving off. Very strange thing to do. I ended up using an industrial estate so I was surrounded by factories which was a far cry from running in Slad but at least it was away from weirdos.
^ There are weirdos galore, all over the world. Slad looks beautiful! Is that industrial estate where you run in the north of town? Maybe you could go a bit further north: on the sat pic the area between the A40 and Broadboard Brook looks promising. frustrating thing for me today: I had completely forgotten about my anxiety but my therapist tried exposure training on Tuesday and now I keep getting little reprises of the anxiety. That's a bit more training than I had bargained for but at least I am getting better at controlling these mini-fits. And being nervous has one definite advantage: I mended all my socks, gloves and other damaged items and ironed all my laundry to calm my nerves If the light at the end of a tunnel turns out to be a train, try to catch a free ride.
you pull out your handy red torch, stop the train with it and catch a ride. Or you press against the wall. (Tunnels are always wide enough for a train and a pedestrian, in case of evacuation)
So my anti-mask friend doesn't consider science to be a valid counter argument against her, but she uses the Bible to defend her side.
Sappy, sugary Christmas carols being played... everywhere... during the month of December. Cheers, -CM-
@Delta Vega maybe we can cheer you up? Biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiig hug! better? frustration here: my district crashed through the critical infection threshold at warp 9. Now we have much stricter local lockdown and a nightly curfew. What's most annoying is that now we may only meet one other household and there must be no more than 5 people. Prob is my family is 5 people but 3 households. So I'll have to stay alone for Christmas. As atm all non-vital traffic is forbidden, I can't deliver the cookies I am baking for my family and don't trust the mail with such fragile freight. I shall propably have to use a (vital) business trip to arrange for a meeting with my sis at the district border for the cookie delivery.
I used to have a job that had me in retail stores all day, and yeah, the music selection was torture this time of year. What makes it worse is if they included some of the more religious Christmas songs that actually sounded good it wouldn’t be nearly as bad. Instead they play fifty versions of Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire and all the other schmaltz bombs on a half hour loop. I’m an audiophile first and an atheist second damn it!
I'm also an atheist, but some of my favourite Christmas songs are the religion-based ones. I guess that is a little weird if you think about it.
Normally I'm not a big fan of Christmas music. However, considering the rambling, non-melodic, over-autotuned noise that passes for pop music these days, now I'm actually relieved to hear Christmas songs when I go shopping. Not at all weird. Good music is good music. Just like you can appreciate an attractive person of your own sex without being gay.
Have to admit - hearing Xmas carols nonstop in Hawaii makes for even more of an odd feeling, esp when the singer is Hawaiian. Kinda like the version of John Denver’s ‘Country Roads’ when they sing about being ‘West Makaha’... Cheers, -CM-
Just found out that the Star Trek wine will not be shipped to Germany. This is disappointing. It could have been a special gift for my husband. By the way, the wine would also look good as a decoration in the kitchen.
I have a chapped chin from wearing a mask that has become damp, in chilly weather. Mask-itis? Mask-chap?
@Michel : have a look at Amazon. There https://www.amazon.de/Geeky-Chef-Dr...=1&keywords=geek+drinks&qid=1607945542&sr=8-9 is a book with alien drinks, including blood wine. It seems to be available only in English but will arrive before Christmas (if the Amazon workers end their strike). 2 sorts of ginger bread, different sorts of shortbread, tiny chocolate cakes with a jam filling, cardamom meringue cookies and a few sorts of homemade chocolates. today's argh: I spent 12 hours yesterday, manually upgrading a board with a database error that kept breaking off the automatic upgrade . Tonight I just have to do a little cosmetic surgery on the layout and hunt down an incredibly well hidden orphaned command line that causes error messages on the admin control panel. I wish there was an automatic repair function for boards, like the one nature developed for DNA strands. and argh #2: TBBS refuses to let me post the link to the book as a hyperlink with my own text. Highly annoying