g r e y

This was the day's forecast for a week or so ago...
There had been a couple weeks of straight sub-zero temperatures. Side roads were still slick from snow and ice left in the first week of the year.













And today's?




Nothing much has changed in between except those five degrees. Those five degrees have made a difference though. I need one less layer under my jacket. And my fingers are no longer reeling in numbness and pain when I get to work after cycling through the dark. The days are lengthening a few minutes at a time and this week I arrived at work in what could no longer be describe as darkness. But rather perhaps, greyness.

I think I've seen one brilliant blue sky this year. One cloudless afternoon. One short glimpse of colour in the city.



London can be a grey town. The concrete and buildings stand tall and damp in un-sunned streets. The workers shuffle and stride to avoid each other in a million shades of grey and black. I think that's why I enjoy bright colours so much. Small acts of joy in the face of 'grey cloud'.

I think that's why I got so excited by my new purple long-johns. They protrude from my rolled up slacks on my cycle to work and when the dawn comes my lower calves shine purple against the asphalt. I went for a run in them last week too, exposed from the knee under shorts in the rain.













But if we look way forward on the five day forecast, there is light.



Looking forward to those sunny intervals.

52/52

The Tipping Point - Malcolm Gladwell
Just Another Emperor: Myths and Realities of Philanthrocapitalism - Michael Edwards
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie - Muriel Spark
The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald (again) ***
Death and the Penguin - Andrey Kurkov
Lolita - Vladimir Nabakov ***
Reading Lolita in Tehran - Azar Nafisi
Word Rhythms from the life of a woman - Elean Thomas
Mister Roberts - Alexei Sayle
Daisy Miller - Henry James
To the Lighthouse - Virginia Woolf
Memoirs - Pablo Neruda ***
Mental Fight - Ben Okri
Bury my heart at Wounded Knee - Dee Brown
Laughter in the Dark - Nabokov
As I walked out one midsummer morning - Laurie Lee
The Language Instinct - Steven Pinker
the city in which i love you - li-young lee
Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom - bell hooks
Story of your Life and others - Ted Chiang
Native Son - Richard Wright
Being Peace - Thich Nhat Hanh ***
We Real Cool - bell hooks
American Blue - Elizabeth Alexander
And Still I Rise - Maya Angelou
The White Man's Burden - William Easterly
Fragrant Palm Leaves - Thich Nhat Hanh
The Rose That Grew From Concrete - Tupac Shakur
for colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf - Ntozake Shange
Half of a Yellow Sun - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie ***
A Way of Being Free - Ben Okri
A Man for the People - Chinua Achebe
Dreams from my father - Barack Obama
The Miracle of Mindfulness - Thich Nhat Hanh
Walk in the Woods - Bill Bryson
The Sexual Life of Catherine M - Catherine M
Amrita - Banana Yoshimoto
Driving Over Lemons - Chris Stewart
Four Huts: Asian Writings on the Simple Life - Burton Watson
Teacher Man - Frank McCourt
A Burned-out Case - Graham Greene
Things Fall Apart (again) - Achebe ***
Look we have coming to Dover! - Daljit Nagra
Major - Todd Balf
Story of an African Farm - Olive Shreiner
Armadillos & Old Lace - Kinky Friedman
Penguin Modern Poets 9: Levertov, Rexroth & Williams
The Book of Tea - Okakura (again)
The White Tiger - Aravind Adiga
On Chesil Beach - Ian McEwan
The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea - Mishima
Pedro Paramo - Juan Rulfo




A very good year in books.





Happy New 10 amigas!

I just found this again, and can't remember if I shared it before... A little kitchen sunshine from 2008:

synecdoche O-nine

For my first lesson of my first class of 2010 I need a good introductions activity. I figured a top moments of 2009 would do pretty good. Break that ice right off!
So I sat and thought what would be my top 09 moments?

And there were a few things that jumped right out. Namely being the best man for the best wedding of the year. That was pretty sweet. Growing a couple of mighty moustaches, that was pretty good too. Then my mind wandered...



In truth 2009 hasn't been an endless string of spectacular new experiences or big changes. No stand out occasions or huge epiphanies. But rather it has been a long and pleasant span of mostly-enjoyable life... and I've rarely been hungry for anything.

I finally picked a career and got a practical qualification... even if it was a career I'd already begun. I moved back to London and got a job - a paying job! Which allowed me to live within my means instead of without. I work 4 minutes walk away from where I studied at University which is odd in that there is so little cross-over of all that encompasses.

I picked up another suit... and my wardrobe is now more shirts than Ts. My orange hat is still my winter wardrobe of choice. I have jumpers for every occasion.






So I guess, I hope, when I look back on 2009, rather than a blank of specifics I can recall the general impression instead.

2009... it was alright; and that's no bad thing.