Anyhoo (yes "anyway" was already taken).

So while the BBC is instructing us to practise being depressed for Monday, I am suddenly feeling happy: despite managing to not sleep last time.

I think it is combination of things. Not least the (relatively) warm and blustery weather. The ridiculousness of one cherry tree in town not only being in bloom, but with unfurling leaves as well, even though it snowed a few days ago (but not enough to settle). I drove back from photography with the window wide open. Not that unusual for me, but I was not wearing a coat or hat. Admittedly I do have to keep the windows open a lot to be able to see out of the car, as it is damp, and the rear screen heater works only well enough to produce smoke the last time I tried using it. That and I could not be bothered to close it after winding it down to leave the car park (yes I am the person who walks through the car-entrance, up to right level, gets nearly to the car, and then remembers I have to use the machine by the door to pay, even though it is free).

The photography course was advertised as for all abilities, but at them moment it is separated between those who were there last term, and the rest of us. I am not sure how good anyone else is. There are few people who obviously got a camera for Christmas, and now need to know how to use it. There are also a couple of people who I suspect protest slightly too much, and water down their knowledge and talent. And there is one really rude woman. Hails from somewhere in the eastern Mediterranean (but with an English name she pronounces as though it were Egyptian), but with a Hong Kong attitude - stand sneeringly and somebody will do it. Such attitudes work well when we are all walking single-file through many doors. Everyone else holds it for the person behind them. She would never touch it. Eventually I let one go, and she looked shocked when it rudely made her aware of its existence. She is just innately selfish, and unfortunately has [probably] always had enough money that she has never had to rethink it. She spent most of the time sneering down her nose at people. Including me. It always amuses me when people do that, as for a start I have much more nose to sneer down (it's about the only it's good for. That and proving I have binocular vision).

Once again I am doing what I do best: focusing on the negative. And that was not meant to be a pun given the context.

Anyway, photography: interesting so far, but not that insightful, but then it is the first lesson. Weirdly the instructor is incredibly like someone I was friends with at school.

Now all I need to do is find an Ilford HP5+ ISO 400 film. When I spoke to the tutor before booking the course she said she would buy films cheaply and sell them on. But now the plan has changed, and I need to find the right film, and then use it before next week. Which means I am now struggling to think of subjects to photograph. And then I realise that I am likely to have the same problems every week. I didn't think this bit through, did I?

[The localest camera shop has 36 for £4.99. Boots has it for £4.69, but they don't actaully have it, and headoffice insists they should not be stocking it, so they have to manually reorder it every time it frequently sells out. They can get for me in about a week or so. Oh. Rumour has it that Jessops do it for £2.99; my source tells me that lots of people were buying it; by the sounds of it two of which are doing the same course I am. Shame really because Jessops usually are useless].

By the way, do not let me forget my labcoat for next week. It's either that or I have to find a suitably stylish and flattering well-coordinated set of old clothes. I knew I had kept it for a reason. It just goes to show that there is some point to science degrees.

Which reminds me, what happened to my request to be reminded about yesterday? What is the world coming to when the people who read my blog cannot be relied upon to do even the most menial of tasks?

One question brought up by this: why are clothes so psychologically important? Last night I wore a t-shirt which has been my favourite for ages, and which unfortunately has been lightly manged upon by a moth (even though apparently it's spiders that do most motheating). But it makes me feel happy, and thin, and bouncy, and young, and confident as just me (more confident - it's not magical). All this from an old Surfers against Sewage t-shirt? Yep. But it just fits me. Not too big, not too square, not too tight. Which given I can drive people trying to sell me clothes mad, as they frantically try to find out which measurement they must have got wrong. Basically imagine a 2-litre lemonade bottle with a coathanger stuck in the top. It's nto quite to scale, but neither am I. Then factor in extra-long but ultra-skinny arms, at which point the assistants say they are just going to check with their manager and never come back.

And before I start bewailing the impossibility of buying shoes (narrow heels; wide, flat arch; long toes; and the killer is low ankle bones), I ought to stop this long and rambling post.

Anyhoo,

PS. Google has me as the first image for Braille [See it in situ near the end of the post]. Despite the image being hosted on the washinton.edu site, and lists that image and that site as well. Thus is the logic of Google.

PPS. Am I the only blogger not commenting George Bush and the great swearing [in]?