new hat

hello there


well, here we are again. precisely a year, by conventional measurement at least, look you see, has passed prior to the previous Valentine's Day, which makes it fitting, apt, accurate and most decidedly correct to describe the day today - as in the day i write these words - as Valentine's Day.

was i most fortunate enough to get a gift to mark this date from that fair maiden i refer to as my (considerably) better half? indeed. and, indeed, readers of my previous post will have already seen it, but here we go again.

the gift from my (considerably) better half was not the snow you can see, but rather the most splendid and super "bomber hat" you can see me wearing as i walk in it. for that is, for those of you new to this blog, me you can see in the above image.

yes, there will be a bit more about the snow just now, but for the moment let us look in closer detail at my most splendid new hat.

i have wanted one of these hats for quite some time. how long? however long it has been that i first saw the film Kelly's Heroes i suppose. Oddball was like totes smart in that film, and i always wanted one of the hats he had on so that i may pay homage to him. so that will be around 30 years then, give or take.

that the packaging on this hat said it is a "bomber hat" might well go some way towards explaining why i have never found one. i, you see, was always under the impression that they were called a pilot's hat. thankfully, then, it is or rather was the case that my (considerably) better half elected to look for one on the basis of it's actual name, not the one i presumed it to be.

it would be quite fair to suggest that an awful lot of my driving style has been based on that which was displayed by Oddball in Kelly's Heroes. like him i have always been of a mind that should it be the case that i want to cross a river at a very specific point, then someone should be on hand to come along and place a bridge where it is that i want it to be. also, i firmly believe that any incidents or mishaps that happen to me whilst i am at the controls of a car are down to the issuing of negative waves by others. their lack of ability to focus on the positive beauty around them just brings everything else down with them. man.

also, for a substantial part of the time that i have wanted what i call a pilot's hat - we are talking well north of 60% here - Spiros has promised that if i ever got one then he would start calling me Biggles. so i guess as soon as he sees this he will now have to call me Biggles.

enough of the hat of undetermined name for no, except to say let us see how it performed in the snow. from what i recall of the film, which is a fair amount, Oddball never had to combat the snow when he wore his, driving around as he did making pretty pictures with paint via a tank.

that is indeed one of them metaphorical, or if you like allegorical, reflections of me in the mirror as i prepare to start my engine and have a bit of a drive around in the snow. was i looking forward to doing this? not at all, as i think you can see quite clearly in a later picture, or if you like in a picture to come later on in this blog.

i would, on an unusually serious note, say that this is by far the most serious looking snow we have had in the just over two years i've been back home. whilst these images do not show it as such, it is now very much laying. it's about 1cm deep now, and more is likely to follow. if that does not sound like much, trust me it is enough to make driving - nay, just walking - quite the challenge.

would you like some video of more or less the above scene, so you can see the snow whirling away and battering beautiful Yorkshire, presumably out of the jealousy of the gods? of course you would, so long as your device and browser can support the peculiar format what blogger converts video to.

a particular challenge to driving in the snow is the very special kind of d!ckheads which take to the roads in it. oddly, in this regard, i do not mean there are those who drive with speed - all of us out in this today were driving well below the demarcated speed limit, bar one toss in a red audi going as fast as he could. no, my main issue was an awful lot of cars that are silver and white in colour driving through falling snow without their lights on. this is something which makes them plausibly invisible.

but hey, they were visible enough so that i may have seen them in a way that allowed for collisions and other such matters to be avoided, and here i am, home, safe and tying all of this. but if you are wondering, motorists, yes it is a good idea to have your lights on when driving in snow that falls in such a way that it blankets most of your view.

that last picture above is indeed one of me, in one of them "selfie" things, wearing my most smart hat and getting ready to drive. i would suggest i look somewhat apprehensive and nervous in that image. that would probably because i was. anyone who drives in the snow and assumes it to be easy or a breeze is being rather dangerously complacent.

anyway, time for me to attend to some other matters, and to walk around for a bit, in the house and in such a way that my family may see how splendid and smart i look in my new hat.



be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!