alexist

We left the house at 12:30 with the following:

One (1) suitcase, large
Shoulder bag (Alexis)
Handbag (Alexis)
Duffel bag (Neil) primarily containing electronic bits
Laptop bag
One (1) Sainsbury's super-heavy-duty "Bag for Life", containing Christmas cake, banana cake, and 3 large pieces of cheese (wrapped)
One (1) Tesco "Bag for Life", containing Christmas presents
Two (2) Waitrose "Bags for Life", containing Neil's dressing-gown and the cat's food and bowls respectively;
Cat carrier, containing cat.

We stopped at Sainsbury's and bought cat litter.

Neil then remembered that we had a parcel waiting at the delivery office. So we went back to the flat, got the ticket, and went to the post office. It was a very large parcel, containing The Complete Far Side.

We set off properly at 13:30. We got out of London just before 15:00. The ritual stop at Fleet services was made. We then continued down the M3 and onto the A303. We then encountered a traffic jam before Stonehenge. WELL before Stonehenge, meaning it was backed all the way up. So we detoured onto the A30 and met the A303 again at Yeovil. At Ilminster, we stopped again and I encountered the world's dumbest shop assistant. Someone asked her "Do I take the turning for the M5 to Exeter?" Her reply: "I don't know." He was pretty dumb for not being able to read the signs at the roundabout, but she was even dumber for living there and not knowing!

Finally made it to Neil's parents at 19:30. Ugh.

Zoe was fine. Then she met Oscar (Neil's sister's border collie). Now she won't come out of the back of the house (Oscar never goes there--she's going by smell, I assume).

Christmas! Did OK on the present haul, mainly DVDs. Better than I deserved though, we were very crap with the present buying and giving :-)

Neil ate like a pig at Christmas lunch. I was more restrained :-P (Except on the roast potatoes.) Sara's nieces (whom some of you may have met at our wedding) were being super-adorable. Rhiannon had good taste in cheese too; she ate some of the Montgomery cheddar I brought ;-)

And it snowed! Briefly. But this is South Devon; it's not exactly known for large amounts of snow.

Zoe has decided the lounge is safe from Oscar.

Meh. Typically slow post-Christmas period. I have run out of books. I brought two, thinking "oh, I'll probably get some for Christmas anyway". I got one. D'oh! So I've finished one of the books I brought, the new one, and several I've picked off the shelves here. (Not in the mood to start the 2nd one I brought.) And of course, the papers are thin this week so they've lasted me about 15 minutes. Total.

As well as the Boxing Day leftovers feed, Neil's parents had a party for his dad's 60th birthday Monday. So lots of food then, and leftovers today, plus a roast beef lunch at his Nan's! I've told Neil he's going back on a diet when we get home :-) (The mince pies, Christmas cake, etc, don't appeal to me, so I've done rather better than he has. Also, have eaten fewer chocolates, though I did eat too much homemade fudge.)

(also 28 December)

Gah. REALLY annoying columns in both the Guardian and the Independent today, both about religion. The first said that theists had to explain a God who could allow such a big earthquake to happen. I've never had a huge amount of time for the evil-vs-God argument. It makes the assumption that God's benevolence equates to arranging the world for our convenience, and that if our convenience is disturbed, we can infer that there is no benevolent deity. It ignores the possibility that God arranges the world for it all to work well in balance. If a seismologically active planet is the best way to achieve that, then the loss of human life in an earthquake is the price that must be paid. It's extraordinarily anthropocentric (if that's a word) to assume that because humans are the smartest beings on the planet that our convenience matters above all else. Even if one accepts the Biblical view that we are the most important things on the planet, one can still take the long view and believe that an optimum environment for humanity may not equate to an optimum environment for all humans.

(Side point: TextEdit has just flagged seismologically. It suggests either "seismological" or "seismologic-ally". Dumb spellchecker.)

It can be tempting to look at the world scientifically and think "No deity would have arranged things this way; it's too complicated" and think that all the pieces fit neatly, science explains it all and religion is obsolete. I'm not so sure. Science, as much as religion, is a product of the human mind, and is not without limits. Even at its best, it can only explain how things work. In the end, all science can offer us as a wider explanation is the idea that everything is the ultimate product of random forces. I don't find that any more satisfying than a Biblical fairy tale.

The second column was by Johann Hari, lamenting the rise in religion, blaming fundamentalism of various (religious) stripes for world problems, and suggesting that we've turned back to religion because it's nice and comforting. First of all, any belief carried to a sufficient extreme can be used as a weapon (remember Hitler and Stalin, anyone?) And the "comfort" concept implies weakness, and the idea that atheists are somehow stronger because they can face up to "reality".

As a minor nitpicking point, he blamed "Jewish fundamentalists" for trouble in Palestine. What makes the extremist settlers a problem is not fundamentalism, per se. It's a fusion of nationalism and religion. There are other Jews whose observance is stricter, but they are not Zionist.

Jerry Orbach has died :(

We're back home ;-)

Trip took about 4.5 hours this time, including a stop at Fleet--very little traffic, except for a short stretch in Wiltshire (near Stonehenge, quelle surprise)--London was no trouble. (We go from the M3 to the A312 - A40 - A406, and avoid the M25. :-) Actually, it might be the A316 then the A312, but the M3 is just outside the limits of my A-Z, so I can't be sure. You get the idea!)

There seems to be some kind of newspaper shortage today. When we stopped at Fleet, they only had the Sun and Star. Waitrose was out of all the quality papers except the Guardian, and Sainsbury's was out of a lot of them too--forget exactly which but no damn Independent! Neil was a sweetie though; he popped across the road to the newsagents and got me an Indy.

Annoying thing at Sainsburys: sell by date on the 2 pint containers of milk was 2 Jan, on the 1 and 4 pint containers 6 Jan. I wanted 2 2-pint containers (4 pint ones don't fit in our fridge comfortably) but didn't want to run the risk that the end of one would go off before we'd use it. So I got 1 2-pint and 1 1-pint, which should be enough. I hope ;-)

But we're off to Barbados 3 weeks from Saturday :-) :-)

(Must remember to book hotel room for Friday--flight leaves Gatwick at 10:00, so staying there overnight will be a LOT easier!!)