The Highs, The Lows, The Day, It Goes -

Ha!  Uncharacteristically Poetic For BOOJUM!
     If you were here yesterday, dear reader, then you will have empathised with my protracted skrike about the worst possible combination of weathers: cold, wet, windy and raining.
     Today was the opposite!  Bright blue skies, actinic sunlight and nearly sub-zero temperatures.  This is what winter is supposed to be about.  No, Victoria, it isn't "cold", "freezing" nor is it "brass monkey weather".  It is "crisp", "bracing" and "Conrad is perky" weather.
     Earlier tonight the council gritting trucks were out.  These guys are very, very rarely wrong when it comes to predicting freezing crisp weather - I can remember a couple of times in the past two years - so hopefully we will get another morning reminiscent of dawn on Titan!

Jupiter as backdrop, plumes of water, temperature of minus 90, what else can you ask for?

TRAFFIC!
     If the above item was Conrad in lighter mood, almost ethereal in tone, this item is Conrad as snarling junkyard dog! (as I believe is the phrase over the Pond)
     "Why so hostile?" enquire you, the reader.



     Well, go on, enquire!

     Thank you.  Because of the ridiculously heavy traffic en route to and from work.  How did that happen?
     Well, up here in Royton I believe it was a tidal wave of shoppers heading in to the retail park at Elk Mill this evening.  They jammed the slip-road like a rubber-footed barricade.  That's after Conrad endured delays getting even that far, since obviously Something had happened on the motorway and backed up traffic -

<short pause for blood pressure to fall>

The person who invented traffic jams should be shot, hung, beaten with baseball bats, hung again, shot again for good measure, poked in the eye with a pencil and have chilli powder dusted into their underwear, although not necessarily in that order.

Dog Sausages
     No, these are not sausages made out of dogs!
     Yes, these are sausages made for dogs!
     Once again I hesitate to mention Anna, since she's bound to want a co-scripting credit for BOOJUM! if this happens again.  However, "sausages for dogs" are real, exist in the here and now and you can get them from Aldi - she assured me.

Hello - can we get a quote about dog sausages?  Hello?  Hello!  Can we - oh never mind.  He's eating dog sausages.

 Catering At The Mansions
     Conrad has been busy tonight.  Despite being stuck in traffic <see above for foaming rant> he managed to sort out the Limoncello's second stage.  This amounts to creating a syrup, decocting it into the vodka-lemon zest mix that already exists, then shaking and leaving it for a week.

It looks more palatable in real life, promise.

 Conrad's Little Helper
     Allow me to introduce my electronic scales.

Red.  Scaley.  No dragon puns, please

This is such a useful gadget: grams, ounces or Tare.  Conrad wonders how he got along without it before.

Lastly, Literary
     I bought the novel "Let The Right One In" this weekend, and am maybe 20% through the book.  The novel's protagonist, Oskar, is a whole lot less appealing than the Swedish film's lead - the novel Oskar is a fat, cowardly shoplifter.
    And that makes the book better, IMHBCCO*.  Oskar here is a real outsider, bullied and tormented and despairing.  Not at all an Everychild.

Now, I really must be going.  That wargame won't game itself!

*In My Humble But Completely Correct Opinion