Penguins

On Saturday I took Hannah to see March of the Penguins.

I think she enjoyed it - she's mad keen on penguins - and I found it interesting. We had seen adverts for the DVD while on holiday in France last summer, and I was tempted to get the DVD even though the commentary was presumably in French.

antidecluttering

In the new year, full of good intentions, we always have a good clearout of old junk. Some of this is to make room for new stuff just received as a gift; some of it is because new gifts replace old stuff; some is just getting rid of stuff we don't want.

That's the good bit. Then we spoil it by heading off down to IKEA to buy a whole load of new things to fill up the house. The end result is a house that's just as full of clutter, just a bit better organized. And the organization will decay over the year, and in early 2007 we'll repeat the cycle again.

We also found out that the accident I had must have damaged the satellite navigation system in the car too. It works for a bit, and then freaks out. Proceeding round the North Circular, we were suddenly instructed to d a U-turn. Coming up the M11, all of a sudden we were told to turn right at the roundabout.

However, while in London we did have a good late lunch at Garfunkel's.

District ADM

Went to the Cambridge District Annual District Meeting yesterday.

Ringing beforehand was generally good; a few hiccups due to Great Shelford being an anticlockwise ring. Usually once you're into changes and settled down, everything goes smoothly, but it was interesting how even good touches faltered as they came back into rounds.

The meeting saw a couple of elections of personal note. Amanda was elected a member, and yours truly got voted onto the district committee. I have no official responsibilities - I'm not an officer or anything so important - but there are a couple of extra committee members to give a wider spread of representation. I'm hoping to contribute more to the district - one first target might be to actually ring at all the towers, which is something I've failed to do despite being resident here for almost a decade and a half.

Sluggish traffic

Traffic on the way to work in the morning seems to be getting worse.

I'm not at all sure why. It could be seasonal (the operation or not of schools seems to make a disproportionate difference). It could be partly the weather (rain makes an obvious difference). Or - and this is my fear - it's a systematic trend.

Whatever, it's a pain.