HALLOWE'EN. Had to wait a long time in Sainsburys even at 10am: suspect this is the first taste of pandemic Christmas shopping.

B. texted to say that he would just come for a distanced walk with us on Dec 25. He is very properly concerned about transmitting COVID from his work to parents.

Announcement awaited from evil Boris Johnson re putative shutdown till Dec. Not that he's evil because of that - compared with his attitude on Brexit, his coronavirus handling has been almost sensible.

8
Breezy SE
1300 RAIN HEAVY at times
1530 stops
<8
Some sun

8
1430 DRIZZLE
1500 stops

To Tescos early at 0730 - lucky too, because it was just starting to rain as I came home an hour later.

0700 8
0830 RAIN
1600 cont

Felt quite anxious in the morning, that cold, bright anxiety like Oct 1999 or Mar 1995. Coronavirus situation getting very grim these last few days, not helped by celebrity cunts boasting about how they're going to ignore the anti-infection protocols at Christmas.

HEAVY SHOWERS
Some sun

1000 RAIN
1130 stops
PM STEADY RAIN

Sun Cold
Increasing cloud

RAIN overnight
AM HEAVY SHOWERS
PM Some sun

0730 4 Ci
->Sun
0900 8
Some sun-breaks PM
1600 RAIN
Progressively windier

Early sun
->8
1300 SLOW SHOWER

Much sun

Horrible dark rainy day, was glad to be working at home.

Watched Public Eye at lunchtime; I've been watching it a lot these last few days, it's real quality stuff. I've got to that place I get to in such situations where I begin to feel its camera is following me; when I went to put the recycling out in the tipping rain, I could almost see my BW 60s face, and when I got back inside, I had a strange urge to make myself a cup of Nescafe on a gas-ring.

0400 RAIN 8
cont till c.1300
1600 RAIN
1800 <8

Some sun
PM Warmer

0700 8
0900 <8 Sc-allop
Sun crepuscular rays
->
More sun
Windier

Early brightness quickly turned to 'yellow sky in the morning', I but had my doubts about whether it was the kind that means rain - it was too Hubble palette blue-and-gold.

Second-coated the windowsills in the afternoon. A dry, grey, cold afternoon. Realised it'll be darker next week when the clocks go back.

About 4pm was doing the weekly analysis while watching an excellent ep of Public Eye, one where he comes out of prison and wanders round Brighton. Was conscious of an unusual feeling of well-being, a bit like John Dyson thinking of the butter in the refrigerator, or Adrian Mole with his toast and dripping and concentration camp play.

0800 ~4 Bright
->->8 S

Typically 8
Sunny periods esp PM

Boris Johnson has made some truly despicable, faux ingenuous comments at no-deal being inevitable because the EU supposedly didn't negotiate fairly. This from a man whose government openly admitted to breaking international law.

8 S
1400 Some sun

Essex has duly been put into Tier 2 - which means my parents, my sister and I have to decide which sibling is in the support bubble. If it's still in force at Christmas, I suppose we won't be able to share a Christmas dinner.

Cold
Some sun
HEAVY SHOWER

0700 SHARP SHOWER
->
Some sun
Cold

The corona news has been getting steadily worse this last week or so. I'm starting to feel oppressed by it the way I was months ago. The problem is that a critical mass of people have started not taking it seriously. This is one benefit of spending so many years consuming SF/F: when it all started in March I knew exactly what one was supposed to do during a plague.

Looking out of the bathroom window in the afternoon and seeing the low, wet grey clouds, and the trees losing their leaves, I was quite shocked that it wasn't still summer. There was something eternal about summer 2020.

8
1200 FINE RAIN long spells
2030 cont

≤8 Cold
Early sun
1400 SPOTS OF RAIN
1600 RAIN

Much sun
0800 ~4 Ac
1500 6 Cu
SPOTS OF RAIN

≤8 Cold
1200 SPELL OF LIGHT RAIN
1700 RAIN till 1800

Marvellous bit in Irish Times today about how Johnson/Cummings' strategy was 'like trying to play chess with the sea.'

Found fine Keynes quote in that Kynaston history of the City, about how the US forced Britain to make sterling convertible after the war, about England being 'sticky with self-pity' and failing to accept that its place in the world was no longer what it had been.

1300 5/5 Cu/Ci Sun
1830 0

AM RAIN ≤8 Dark Breezy

Much nicer weather. Slept well 9-5am.

Sun
Typically 4 low Cu
Breezy
Cold

HEAVY SHOWERS
Some sun
c.1500 THUNDER SHOWER
c.1600 RAINBOW

<8 Occasional sun
c.1100 SHOWER
Colder
1800 RAIN

Another wet day. Evil Donald Trump is still in hospital. I don't hope he dies, because that's the sort of thing his people would do. Also, him dying and him not dying could both work out well, or badly, for us. And finally, I don't really care if he's alive or dead, he's just a cunt.

8 S
LONG SPELLS OF RAIN

Too wet to do anything in the garden other than harvest the last potatoes. That's 5 weeks of spuds I've had.

8 dark Sc
SPELLS OF RAIN

8 low Sc
RAIN
WINDY at times

Slept pretty well, sometimes when I woke up it was raining, other times it wasn't, which for some reason I found pleasing.

SPELLS OF RAIN overnight
0700 8
Clearing slowly
1500 4 low Cu Sun