A really nice day

Weather: Sunny day all day today. Which is nice. According to the weather pages temperatures have been running below average, despite the El Nino running throughout the Winter, which rather messed up the snowfall at one critical Winter Olympics venue.

The news from back over the other side of the world seems promising; A 'Great Reform Bill'. Home information packs scrapped. A bonfire of the Quangos also seems likely as the UK can't afford them.

Although I won't going back anytime soon. Life over here is too good. Plenty of living room, and there's none of the clamminess that I recall, leaching the very heat from your bones. It gets cold over here yes, but not the soggy, heat stripping, energy depleting chill that I recall from English Winters. Even with a foot of snow on the ground and five degrees of frost I've been in shirtsleeves clearing the drive with a snow shovel.

There's, for want of a better term, a silken feel to the air around where I live. Rarely harsh or dispiriting. Although getting Mrs S out and about on a less than ideal day proves difficult. "It's alright for you Bill, you've got a cold weather metabolism." She tells me.

Which is true to a point. You needed to be naturally warm blooded to survive Winter patrol work, which I much preferred to the endless whining, backstabbing and bitching that used to go on in the old mess room of my foot patrolling days. Still, I'm out of that game now, and doing much more interesting and stimulating work to earn a crust. A lot of neglected skills have come in useful, and I feel much happier. At least if you disregard the constant frustration of waiting for immigration to put the last tick in the box.

What the hell. It's been a gorgeous day and I'm feeling nicely chilled, figuratively speaking.