Smooth, round and shiny

Autumn has definitely arrived here. It's a bit cooler than it was (although there are still times when the temperature gets above 20 degrees) and the leaves are slowly filling the city with a golden sheen. One thing Autumn also brings is conker season. And there are millions of the things around. Each morning and evening between the car and my office my short walk takes me past a row of horse chestnut trees. And each morning and evening I cannot walk past without stopping to pick a few up. Well, I say a few. My desk is littered with them and I hate to think what Joanne's going to make of the ones filling the slots and boxes and compartments in the car when she gets back from Oz at the weekend.

I just can't resist them. Maybe it's something to do with them being so smooth and nice to play with in your hands, or maybe it's something to do with them being so shiny and mottled like an antique walnut dresser. Or maybe it's just a hang up from when I was twelve and the walk on Sunday mornings from church to my nan's through People's Park in town that involved stopping and hunting under trees for conkers all autumn and relishing the feeling when you found one and finding a suitable stick to lob up into the tree to try and knock down that elusive conker not wanting to leave the safety of its bough. Conkers were rare in those days. Everyone wanted them, everyone at school played with them, and they were a commodity. Today, especially here it seems, you can quite pocketfuls lying around on the grass each morning and then again each evening. It seems such a waste to walk past and leave them there, all smooth and brown and shiny nestled among the green green grass. So I don't. I can't. I don't know what I'm going to do with them all though.

With Joanne being away at the moment, the rare evenings I've been in have led to me watching some stuff on TV that I might not normally watch. Like an English dramatisation of the Mayor of Casterbridge. Or the first half at least. I presume the second half is on next week. I remember studying the book at school and not really enjoying it. It could have been the fact that we had to write essays on it every few chapters discussing the characterisation and interplay between key characters and such like. But after we left school I always remembered the novel fondly. I even bought a copy a few years later but never got around to rereading it. So when the chance came up to watch it on TV it seemed like a good idea. At least, it will have been a good idea if I find out when the second half is on.

But yeah, it's been a pretty busy week really. No busier than usual I guess, just what I've done has taken more time. Like on Monday at touch, perhaps as there's only a few weeks of playing left, we played half an hour or so longer than usual so that it was past half eight by the time I got home. On Tuesday I rushed out of work to the gym for the boxing circuits class thing before making my way to Lisa & Steve's for our bible study group via the supermarket and then ended up staying till 11 chatting to Ruth and Lisa and Anthony. And then last night, again a rush to the gym followed work before I arrived at church for week four of the Christianity Explored course. After setting up, the discussion times, the talk and clearing up afterwards Joel, Ryan, Tim and I headed out with a quick drink and again it was after 11 by the time I got home. It's been a non-stop week.

Oh, and yes, I am missing Joanne. The house is empty without her.