G'day boys and girls. Moving very slowly into January and 2010 over here. Like most other burrowing marsupials, I'm in semi-hibernation mode at this bleak juncture in the calendar, so I'm hardly at my most alert or motivated. Slowly but surely though, this will change.
Sub-zero temperatures haven't helped of course. It's as cold right now as I can ever recall it being, but as y'all know, it's Forever Summer in my mind. This is no easy task I can tell you. I mean, just take a look at that pic up there. A time-worn snapshot of post WW1-era smalltown, hard-times Britain? Nah, a pic taken from the doorway of my local Sainsbury's earlier today.
That's the state of play in Cruel Britannia as I type, pop-kids. As Daphne Du Maurier once wrote, it's grim Up North. However, years of yogic discipline and self-deprivation have given yours truly the ability to completely blank out my immediate surroundings at will and mentally repair to my favourite sun-lounger on Sonic Beach, far away in time. This is why I'm such a sunny, warm, agreeable person, pretty much all the time. Seriously, anyone who knows me would tell you the same.
Peace, out.

And lo, Cruel Britannia did completely close down and grind to a halt. Because of snow and ice. In January. Who could've seen that coming? Schools closed, cars abandoned, airports shut down. All for the lack of some grit being thrown on the roads, from what I can see.
And with that opening observation, bang goes one of my Nu-Year's resolutions - ie, not moaning about the weather. The sad truth is, I enjoy it too much. It's one of life's pleasures for us hard done-to Brits. So as long as cold weather in winter continues to be headline news over here, I'll feel justified in moaning about it.
In other news I'm currently in the process of assembling another mix for your Nu-Year's delectation, which I'll be posting as soon as it's finished. Ok, Forward my little friends...