Going Home.

On Melancholy Hill.

Stories.

Why do we hold back, sometimes - why do we let go?

I don't know.

Maybe we all have these little spiels nestled in the depths of our minds - directing our thoughts, our actions, the words we use so casually, yet so deliberately.

There's this scene in The Weather Man which has stuck in my mind somehow. Closing scene, I think, where the protagonist explains how his choices in life gradually diminished; his paths converged, and he ended up as just 'the weather man' on TV. Interesting how little, reading the synopsis, I remember of the rest of the film.

Maybe I really should go into psychiatry.

Disaster.

Note to self: Some things in life just cannot be meddled with.

Just tried making some beef noodles with dumplings, seeing as I had spare minced beef, mushrooms and flour I needed to use up. Accidentally put a little too much water into the mixture (had turned the tap a little too vigourously) and realised I had not enough flour to compensate for it. And then remembered I had cornflour - half a packet, in fact, a relic from years past that I had to use up as well - and made a spur of the moment decision to add it to the mixture. Thought that since it looked similar and had a role in thickening stuff up it'd work. Somehow.

Seemed like a good idea, at that time.

Obviously it wasn't, and I ended up with a semi-gooey texture, similar to that of sweet-and-sour 'sichuan' soup from dubious Chinese restaurants. Yes I do mean semi-gooey, it occupies that middle ground between an ill-meaning suspension (well technically it is one, isn't it?) of unidentifiable constituents¹, and goo². Like a food play experiment gone very wrong.

Eww indeed.

Am not looking forward to eating it.


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^1.I didn't add any oil - if I did would I have turned it into an emulsion, perhaps? Need some chemists' input here.
2. Interestingly, type 'goo' into yahoo search and google dominates the search results?! Wrong on so many levels, isn't it.

Missing.

I honestly believe there's a part of you that lingers in those closest to you; a part that will always remain missing, until you meet again.

Some say absence makes the heart fonder, the passage of time brushing away the little imperfections that grate on you when you're in constant, close contact. I say the cliche is true - nobody's perfect, and we can only decide what we notice, what we remember, and what we hold important.

I think I've only become more of a softie than the one I used to be years ago.

How ah, how. Becoming an old man already, leh.

Why we listen to music.

To reminisce, to reinforce, to enrich, and to find empathy in those whom we might not otherwise have the fortune to meet in our mundane lives.

Cold!

So it's been snowing intermittently since before christmas here, and the arctic conditions here seem likely to remain here for the next week at least. In fact, the whole of the UK (not just Scotland) has been covered by snow these past few weeks. Lots of nice pictures have been taken of the wonderful scenery, I've taken some here (below) as well. Now you might think all is wonderful and nice, but note the thick layer of snow that's surrounding the car. I (along with several others) have not been able to get the car out of the carpark as it is just too slippery, and there's not enough friction to get up the slight slope; I've been forced to get the bus this week, which is in itself alright, if not for the freezing temperatures outside. It is now -6 as I type this btw, and I've included a pic of myself below. (sorry deleted it by accident) Yes I'm wearing a nike ACG jacket, and you can't see it, but I'm wearing two layers of socks. In my room, and in front of the warm laptop. (I've had to wear socks even in bed, that's how cold it has been)

Yes just rambling on here, but really there's just nothing else to do - wanted to keep fit but I can't drive to the gym, and I think it'd be somewhat suicidal to go jogging in these conditions. Oh which reminds me, I've no pictures but yesterday I was in the city centre and some of the pavements were completely frozen - it was quite some fun seeing everyone walk gingerly (and yet still slip) going up and down the street. Until I slipped too, and was glad my fleshy bum prevented some serious damage to my hip/back. But you didn't need to know that, and I did garner some sympathy (and laughter) from some old ladies standing outside the supermarket, so it wasn't all that bad, thankfully.
That's the remnants of a snowman I tried to build, btw. It had got decapitated when I came back in the afternoon.