Strange Goings On At The Post Office.
I've been quite busy today, starting with more school planning even though the Internet was down for some unknown reason. Then I headed into town to post a parcel. It was rather strange at the Post Office. When I walked in the place was almost empty, just one man who had walked in before me. This is so unusual, due to most of the local Post Offices being closed down in the last 10 years the queue generally winds around the Post Office often right out of the front door. As we waited to be served the sight of a curtained off cubicle in front of one of the serving windows prompted me to overcome my British reserve and chat to the man. We speculated on the purpose of this Heath Robinson looking structure with ideas ranging from extremely private posting (mine) to dancing girls (his). I did ask the counter chap about it and apparently it's for biometric scanning of anyone who comes in to renew their driving licence or passport. Big Brother! (Peter did a course on biometrics as part of his degree and the scary things are 1-It's not 100% reliable so you could be arrested? or worse for program error and 2 - all the information will be kept centrally and we know how secure that can be. There have been enough recent cases of information lost or stolen or simply given to the wrong recipients to make me seriously worried.) I didn't have much else to do in town, just a quick visit to the library and to the health food shop (for oat bran).
It was quite warm and sunny in town. This is a view down one of the few remaining medieval lanes, the still being used alms houses on the left while on the right is a specialist comic book shop and straight ahead is a coffee shop in the former tea-rooms which used to be the first girls' school in town.
Turning the other way looking up Paternoster Row can be seen the tiny building of the old grammar school, this was built in C14 and was the original boys' school. This thoroughfare is unfortunately the haunt of the local alcoholics. The girls by the bench were drinking those awful alcopops (sweetened flavoured alcoholic drinks) but I hope they don't fall into that category.
Back home the sunshine disappeared but it was still warm so I did some more weeding of the bank. It's looking quite bad once the weeds have been pulled out so I may have to do some major refurbishment next spring. Either reseeding or even buying turf.
(Out of order) I finished gluing craft wire to our scrabble board and now we have a non-slip board with the tiles staying in place even if the board gets jogged while being turned around. Only one drawback in that the board does not fold flat but I can live with that.
After my weeding I took some time out to relax with a cup of tea and a book. I feel so refreshed when I am completely surrounded by nature. I even had my own personal lap warmer in the form of a fat black cat though he does demand a few cuddles in return for gracing me with his presence.
It was quite warm and sunny in town. This is a view down one of the few remaining medieval lanes, the still being used alms houses on the left while on the right is a specialist comic book shop and straight ahead is a coffee shop in the former tea-rooms which used to be the first girls' school in town.
Turning the other way looking up Paternoster Row can be seen the tiny building of the old grammar school, this was built in C14 and was the original boys' school. This thoroughfare is unfortunately the haunt of the local alcoholics. The girls by the bench were drinking those awful alcopops (sweetened flavoured alcoholic drinks) but I hope they don't fall into that category.Back home the sunshine disappeared but it was still warm so I did some more weeding of the bank. It's looking quite bad once the weeds have been pulled out so I may have to do some major refurbishment next spring. Either reseeding or even buying turf.
(Out of order) I finished gluing craft wire to our scrabble board and now we have a non-slip board with the tiles staying in place even if the board gets jogged while being turned around. Only one drawback in that the board does not fold flat but I can live with that.
After my weeding I took some time out to relax with a cup of tea and a book. I feel so refreshed when I am completely surrounded by nature. I even had my own personal lap warmer in the form of a fat black cat though he does demand a few cuddles in return for gracing me with his presence. 
