Below Zero

My word, it has been cold today. After my fun snowy excursion in town, I got off the bus to find that the world had changed into that strange super-frozen cyclone from the film 'The Day After Tomorrow'! I actually ran home from the bus stop, as the cold was making me gasp slightly in surprise.

A lovely day though, starting with 30 lengths of Brixton pool completed with Alex. Arms ached a bit, it has been a while, and realised that my main problem with pool swimming is boredom. As much as I like the sensation of being in the water, it does make you feel like a fish in a tank going round and round and round ...

Ran into Laura's friend Kate in the pool, who looked happy and healthily pregnant. Good to see her, it has been a while.

Then off into town after yummy mozzerella salad lunch to do some exploring, photo taking and thinking to take me on into the next stride of my book. With a little detour via the stinky cheese stall at Borough market :) Started off at Marylebone, then London Bridge, then Monument and beyond, then home. Need to spend some reasonable amount of time at the V&A at some point, perhaps tomorrow. But the whole city, especially City itself, looks splendid in the snow, like a film set. Clearly I have seen 'Bridget Jones' Diary' too many times.

Then back to the freezer of Brixton, but was happily warmed to jump into our centrally heating flat (thank goodness) to find Charlie, Alex, Andrew and Erika playing Super Mario Kart. Joined in and did pretty well whle we nibbled at cheese and pizza. Andrew and Erika disappeared off to see Avatar, while Alex and Charlie proceeded to thrash me at Ingenious. Sigh.

Cement my disappointment by spending the rest of the evening with Charlie defrosting our fridge freezer (the first time in 3 years, well overdue). Not sure if we were very efficient, putting the food outside on the window ledge which was definitely at very low temperatures, using paper towels, a bath mat, a spatula and a hairdryer to hack away at the thick tundra that our freezer had become. But it is done now, another good household task complete, along with the bedroom tidying, study tidying, lounge tidying etc. Who need Spring to clean?!

Any tips on efficient freezer defrosting are very welcome for the future though!

Tomorrow, we are all pootling round to Andrew's at 6 for dinner, a casserole apparently. Bring it on, winter indulgence and extra carbohydrates!