A silly picture of a frozen beer

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beerpop

So, what do you do if you live in England and you’re a student and you can’t spare permanent space in your minuscule fridge for beer, but then you decide you want a beer? I can answer that question from experience. You put it in your even-more-minuscule freezer and forget about it until it explodes.

Depending upon your definition of the word “student,” you may ask: “What else belongs in a student’s fridge other than beer?” I say: any food you don’t want to go mouldy. I had no witty response to offer to your question.

Seriously, you should see the fridges over here. I aspire one day to be in a position to have a fridge that doesn’t fit under the counter, without blocking a window, cutting out part of the stairwell that causes the ceiling to angle down at one end of the room, or halving, simultaneously, my counter space and my cupboard space.

But, you say, back to the point: what kind of self-respecting student can forget about a beer? I say: a worn-out old one like me, or alternatively, and if you’re at all reasonable you have to give me this: one who has other beers to entertain her/him in the meantime.

All right, you may continue, as if there could possibly be a hypothetical “you” that’s read this far, but what about this silly picture of a beer and a clementine on a black-and-white counter with black-and-white apples?

I don’t have a good answer to that, either.

Love on a bike

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They were holding hands before

I had a surreal experience the other night on my way home from work. It was below freezing, but I was riding hard enough to feel warm, and wondering whether it’s realistic to believe that I might get hot enough to kill some of the germs that are trying to give me a cold. And whether the winter cycling gloves I got this year are really as much less warm than my old ones as I think they are.

A pair of cyclists ahead were holding me off quite well, which makes them faster than the average in this town. I made sure not to slacken my own pace too much, to test whether they were keeping it up or just having a burst of energy. They kept it up.

Then they reached out and held hands.

I still couldn’t catch up.

Note: I couldn’t get my camera out fast enough to actually catch them doing it, and besides that there are obvious problems with the photos.  You’ll just have to use your imagination.

Squiggles

Road noise

This could be described as, in a way, the opposite of using a tripod.

The sun came out over the snowdrops

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Snowdrops

Here’s what they looked like in the middle of February.  A crowd of intrepid little pods poking out of the soggy carpet of leaves.  I can almost see them shivering.

Snowdrops

Galanthus nivalis. Wikipedia to the rescue again.

Snowdrops

Today, it was like they were having a party on the beach.

Snowdrops

The sun came out over them, and they were just lettin’ it all hang out.

Snowdrops

Dancing to music only flower ears can hear.

Snowdrops

They just look like they’re having fun.

My shadow

Me too.  Here’s a shot of me trying to take a picture of myself.  Must have had too many margaritas at the flower party.  Actually, I thought I’d be clever and take a photo to see if I could locate the bug in my eye.  A sure sign spring cycling is just around the corner!  I couldn’t tell if the camera was going to take a photo or not, and gave up holding it in front of my face.  Turned out it was planning to take one, just taking its time about it.

Green tree in the sun

I took pictures near this spot a week ago.  My eyes were so happy to have all this colour reflected into them.  Turns out when they’re not sodden, these trees are actually green, even without their leaves!

Green tree closer

I don’t know if that’s healthy or not.