The days grow short when you reach September

That’s two-thirds of the year gone already. In a week from now, it will have been quarter of a year since I last washed my car. It’s dark around 8 in the evening and not light until around 7 in the morning. The days grow short when you reach September, and the nights are fair drawing in. What is there to do around here in the hours between work and sleep?

• One can sit in a concert hall, theatre or other venue and be entertained by people much more talented than one’s self. The season for concerts and plays is upon us, and I report on such things on my blog, Best Seat In The House
• One can attend football matches featuring one’s favourite team(s), and I report on that on my blog, Sent To The Stands
• One can still find time to go away for the day or the weekend, and I report on that (sometimes) on my blog, True Adventures
• Once can stay in and watch TV or listen to the radio, and I do that right here.

Tonight, at 19:20 BST, the waiting was over. My world has been somewhat topsy-turvy since Saturday 1 October 2011, and I hope that some stability can be achieved now that Doctor Who is back for a short run. ‘Asylum of the Daleks’ was a fairly good episode, featuring the surprise appearance of a character of which we are destined to see more (how???), but lacking the outrageous humour of Steven Moffat’s previous ‘openers’. It had an epic, big-screen look to it, with some wonderful camera work by Nick Hurran, who had directed ‘The Girl Who Waited’, and really should have lasted ninety minutes. For anyone perturbed by the Dalek voice, this episode must have been a nightmare.

The world of politics has been rather quiet, with the summer recesses both in Holyrood and Westminster, but that doesn’t stop the sniping over the Independence referendum or the Tories’ relentless march towards a society cleansed of all the poor, sick and disabled, even when the Paralympics are taking place in London. One of the sponsors of this event is ATOS, who have hit the headlines many times in the last two years however, in the last couple of weeks, they have passed fit for work a man in a coma, and also got an honourable mention the other day when the story broke of a lady they had previously passed fit for work having died of cancer. Many competitors in the GB team for the Paralympics (not called TeamGB, but ParalympicsGB) covered up the ATOS logo when they appeared at the opening ceremony, and so they should.

Finally, as if my life wasn’t complicated enough, I have finally decided to complete my English Literature degree (*) with the Open University. I sort of started in 2004, and have stumbled along ever since, adding a few credit points as I have gone along, and now I need 240 credits (or four modules at 60 credits each) in order to complete the qualification. This will take me four years; four years in which I have to pass each of the four modules and not drop out of one and repeat it later, as the modules I have already passed will cease to be counted after 2017. I think I can do it. After all, I’m only aiming for a ‘Desmond’ (a 2:2), as I already have a First Class Honours degree, from that same, venerable institution. What do you mean I should tell the world about it? Well, I’m sure that the associated trials and tribulations will adequately fill the hole left by the departure of travel, football and the performing arts to their own blogs. I will, however, need to create a new blog all about the novels, plays and poems themselves.

Did you know that it's been a year (52 weeks) since I resumed (and continued) blogging? Well, it has, and it all began (resumed) here. It's been fun, hasn't it?

*Yes, I’m the one with the reading problems, so how the hell am I ever going to be able to read works of literature in order to write about them? Stay tuned.