Today the talk on the town has been the thundersnow that occurred in the night, about 4.30am! Everyone was talking about it, asking each other if they heard it. I had never heard of the term until today, apparently it is a thunder storm with heavy snow. Many people I spoke to talked about hearing what sounded like two sonic booms, the first waking them up, the second louder and longer. I didn’t hear it.
It is a unusual occurrence and so reached all the news in The Guardian, BBC News, Sky News and The Standard, to name a few!! Many folk called the police thinking a bomb had gone off!!
However, I had wrote at the end of yesterdays blog (Day 255) that lots of snow was forecast through the night. I woke up opening the curtains, with excited anticipation to see lots of snow, but alas there was none.
BUT on our walk to the bus, I saw a melting snowman near the canal (Blog Cover Photo) that wasn’t there last night, so I guess some folk made it in the snow. Going by the size of it and it was partly melted, I guess there was quite a lot of snow through the night.
I couldn’t sleep last night, so now I am annoyed that I didn’t look out the window!
Could this unusual occurrence be related to the super full moon on Monday night that caused my phone to break 😉 (see Readers Corner on Day 254) ??
Another thing that caught my eye today, was a news article about Newburgh in Fife.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-55131048
Every year they have a competition for children to draw a Christmas picture / character, the winner has their Christmas drawing turned into Christmas lights to be displayed in Newburgh High Street. The tradition has been going for 19 years, with many of the old winners being displayed each year with the newer ones. It costs £7000 to store the lights and turn the drawing into Christmas lights. Due to the pandemic this year, they decided not to go ahead, but there was an uproar and locals raised the money so it could go ahead this year.
Readers Corner
Two posts today.
Anna
Anna sent me a message after reading yesterdays blog (Day 255) saying:
“Following on from ‘It made me smile’ I remember for rag week when I was at university, we had different themes for our meals. If you didn’t dress up you had to pay to enter. One night it was ‘one item of clothing’. A lot of sheets were used as togas but Ed was brave, he turned up wearing just a sock. A small group gathered to see if the dining staff would let him in. It was a resounding NO, because for health and safety he had to wear shoes!”.
Thanks for sharing that story Anna! When my friend John Scott, was starting out as a stand-up comedian, he started one of his show at The Stand Comedy Club in Edinburgh wearing only a sock!!
Heshani
Heshani posted a Facebook comment on yesterday’s blog (Day 255) of the blog cover photo saying:
“Nice photo.”.
Thanks Heshani! The original photo was Honey the Dog just sitting, but she looked so cold and fed up, I called her and then as she ran towards me, so I took this one. I sadly deleted the other one, as it would have been funny to share.
I am sure Honey gets fed up with all the photos I take of her for the blog!! I don’t even put them on her Instagram Account (http://instagram.com/honeythedog_lab)
It Made Me Smile
I saw this in the Metro today and it made me smile 🙂
Christmas Music Corner
Today I have been listening on Spotify to the Christmas album that I bought in the summer 1995!
It was the summer, when I decided to celebrate Christmas in July! I am not quite sure why – something to do with thinking how crazy Christmas songs are only played at Christmas. And that I was wanting to lift my mood, so decided to create Christmas in July. Plus, everything was really cheap in the shops – the Christmas Tree, decorations, wrapping paper, Christmas Cards, etc…all which I put up in my flat. I even put a Christmas song in the background on my answering machine message!!
I couldn’t remember the title of the album, but I recognised the album cover, it was a double CD box!
The Best Christmas…Ever! @1993 Virgin Records
The description:
“42 Christmas Crackers including Bing Crosby & David Bowie, Elton John, Band Aid, Cliff Richard, The Carpenters, Wham!, Shakin Stevens & Slade”.
As I come to the end of today’s blog, I am not on Discovery, but in my flat, Honey the Dog seems very confused!!
I have been here painting all afternoon and evening, the flat is looking good. This week, I realised, that travelling back and forth between the boat and my flat each day is tiring and I only have about 5 hours each day in the flat, so decided this weekend to spend time painting. Also I plan to clear everything remaining in the flat out of it, so only things I want to leave here for the new tenants will stay.
Still no home for Thomas the Tartan Travelling Trolley Bag (see Day 216), so unless I get a last minute message from someone wanting to give him a home, he will be heading to Trolley Bag Heaven. Although Brian has just said he wants ‘One Last Photo’ with him before he goes, but I fear it maybe too late!!
Things I am definitely going to sell, will probably stay in the flat. The rest will go to charity shops, recycling or the boat. When I moved a month ago, I took about 90% of my stuff to the boat, but left the rest in the flat, the clutter is starting to annoy me. Tomorrow, I am hiring a car to make things easier to transport, I will also have to go and buy some more paint!
Last night, I decided on the idea of putting lots of coal on the wood burner before going to sleep, with the thinking that it will burn slowly through the night and I will wake up nice and warm in the morning. I put the wood burner on the lowest amount so a little bit of air could get in, with 4 layers of coal. It worked – I woke up this morning and it was still burning. However, it got sooo hot through the night, I didn’t think that the coal would give off so much heat. I didn’t get up to look at the temperature, but I slept on top of my covers in my boxer shorts and was still to hot, I didn’t sleep so well!! This morning it was 23 degrees and eventually at 11am, when I left the boat I turned it off, it was still 18 degrees. I won’t be doing that again. I return to the ‘drawing board’ to find the right formula.
This evening, I am using tradition ways of warming up, flicking a switch!! Although, a lot easier, it seems to easy and not so fun!!!
Today the weather has been wet and windy, apparently there is a lot of flooding in Edinburgh today. It’s been cold too.
Hope you’ve had Fun Friday!
Jim xx