Saturday afternoon

It may seem to be stating the obvious, but 10-and-a-half hours’ time difference between me and home can make communicating difficult. Using Skype over the internet is terrific from a cost point of view, but coordinating people is tricky! I’m sure I’ve woken people by mistake with text messages at ungodly hours, and I know I’ve been woken by the same. Still I guess that’s something we have to accept.
Having a blog diary which doesn’t have a work focus is also a bit tricky when nearly everything I’ve done so far has been work. Today (Saturday) I actually posted Christmas mail and postcards, which meant a visit to the Post Office. It’s been a long time since Post Offices were open on Saturdays in Australia, so that was a novelty to start with. Then there was the queue, which extended out into the street and comprised a motley assortment of rugged-up people laden with oddly shaped parcels and letters. Although it took a bit of time, everyone was very patient and understanding, patting the deaf lady’s hearing dog and playing with the bored toddlers. A group of teenagers collecting for charity in the High Street had all donned Christmas hats and were singing carols – not all together in a group as you’d expect, but whichever carol they fancied, and they were wandering about shaking their collection buckets while singing lustily. It didn’t make for good music, but it got people smiling and reaching into their purses!
Yesterday I had to go to Oxford St on the way to my work appointment in Cavendish Square. I was right in my earlier assessment. The crowds are down. Nearly all the shops have some sort of sale on in an attempt to attract people. Selfishly, I rather enjoyed being able to walk at a decent pace along Oxford St without being knocked about by the crowd, but it must be hard on the retailers.
This morning I watched the antics of a group of grey squirrels in the garden. They may not be the most popular creatures as they’re so much more aggressive that their lovely native cousins, the red squirrel, but I enjoyed seeing them bound over the roofs at the bottom of the garden, leap onto the fence, landing like thistledown and then scampering after one another in the hope of stealing whatever food the leader had managed to find. In the cold weather their coats are magnificent.
I’ve also been marvelling at the logic of a rail transport system that has two single tickets end up being markedly cheaper than a return ticket booked on exactly the same trains. I’m heading to Bristol and Birmingham in the course of the next few days, and have bought single tickets for each stage of each journey. Interestingly, buses, though a bit cheaper than advance purchase rail tickets, indicate that the journey times are appreciably longer. I like trains, anyway.