Walk Out To Winter

Ecosse C285, Dave Hamster, 2009

See Christmas? Christmas is a bastard.
-Still Game, Cold Turkey (2005 Christmas Special)

It goes without saying that Christmas is an exceptional time of year at Royal Mail. It's fittingly the antipode of summer. Whereas the sunny season is so light that overtime claims are banned, December is a cash bonanza for those willing to take on as much work as possible - morning prep, doing parts of other walks, IVO, RLB, driving lorries, working your day off. If you need the money, so be it. I'm not interested in working myself to death so I only opt in for the early starts, mainly to deal with gone-aways and do the detective work required of the mal-addressed items that people continue to post every year.

There Is A Light That Never Goes Out

Home From Above, NASA (Public Domain), 2010

Looping hypnic orbit looking down. In the twilight I've looked up. Unfathomable distances separating the beacons. Laser light decoheres and planets resolve as less than a smudge. The universe is an explosion in which we exist. Soon we'll be blasted apart beyond horizons. The stelliferous era will be a faint memory as the stars extinguish and galaxies degenerate. DNA strands huddle round an ocean vent for warmth. Somehow the connection is made. We'll leave the cradle, disappearing into eternity. We'll slide through forever. Slide away.

Listen Carefully While I Sing My Comeback Song

Mirrors, Olly Wright, 2006

When all else fails resort to a post about blogging...

When last January rolled around this blog was stagnating. For whatever reason I couldn't write - whether that be writer's block or the limitations of the interface - and resolved to at least post once a month. From all the drafts and notes I decided to work on one of several delayed (seven years) editions for my old website from school. Having spontaneously returned to form, I quickly found myself facing a self-imposed minimum of four posts a month. By June I had completely exhausted the long-standing pool of draft posts and was either resurrecting abandoned posts, republishing old essays, or simply hoping something would come along and inspire me.