The weather's variable, so are you

It’s Thursday night. Question Time will be on soon. What have I done today to make me feel proud? Nothing, and not just today. I’ve done bugger all for the last week.

I enjoyed my day off on strike, but I’ll not enjoy the effect it will have on my next wage. The ConDems are still refusing to budge on the important issues (to the Unions): pay more, work longer, get less; and today’s debate in Westminster showed that Labour are all in this together with the Government. As for my (hardly unique) personal situation, can I get an answer from any politician on the subject? No. Why do they give them e-mail addresses when they never use them?

The strike, or the thought of losing money (typical Scot), had another effect; I was struck down by a mystery virus, which resulted in my missing the BBC SSO on the Thursday night and Friday’s recital at Kilmardinny Music Circle. It’s just as well I get paid so much that I can afford to throw money down the toilet. Recovery was a slow process, so Saturday and Sunday were written off, too, though I did manage to start Christmas shopping. Isn’t the Internet wonderful? Then winter arrived.

After two days of snow, ice and public transport, I was ready for the knacker’s yard. I had to go to rehearsal on Tuesday togged up for a trip to the Arctic (in 1911) and, although I enjoyed it, I arrived home smarting from the loss of nearly £20 for dinner and a taxi. Wednesday brought brief respite from the haemorrhaging of money and the inclement weather before the mother of all storms hit Glasgow like a bunch of bigoted morons on a day trip to Manchester.

Although I was very much alive in 1968, I don’t remember the great storm. There have been many nights subsequently when I thought my window frames were going to be sucked out of the wall and sent into orbit around the nearest earth-like planet, but few stick in the mind the way Bonfire Night 1996 and Boxing Day 1998 do. I can’t say if it was worse today (I’ve not heard of any church spires being blown down in the centre of Glasgow, for example) but being sandblasted by salty rain is not something I’ve ever experienced. It’s the little things that let us know we’re alive.

So, we’ve had almost everything this week: rain, wind, hail, sleet, snow, ice and sunshine (not necessarily in that order, but sometimes simultaneously) and thunder and/or lightning have been forecast. I don’t recall seeing any fog. There’s still time.