I've not been well this past week.

On the night of Tuesday 24th October I went to bed. Earlier I'd eaten some home-cooked chilli, taped Attachments and played a game of badminton. All well & good. But suddenly things stopped being both well & good as an attack of the shivers hit me. I was hot, I was cold, hot, cold, etc. And, as has happened to me before, my mind left me behind while I went doolally in the dark. I could NOT think straight.

The thing about not thinking straight is not being aware of not thinking straight, if you see what I mean. There I was, a-tossing and a-turning, alternately sweating and freezing, while my grey matter took some time off in lieu. I could read the Sony radio-alarms' LEDs, declaring it to be 03:30, but at no point did it strike me that a brace of paracetemol might be a half-decent idea.

Any road up, lyric time:

Does the body rule the mind
Or does the mind rule the body?
I dunno.
— Still Ill, The Smiths

The upside of sitting around at home, feeling sorry for myself, was watching stacks of stuff on video that had been sitting around for an indeterminate time, eg:

• hours old - Attachments (as mentioned): seethru goings-on
• months old - Rebus: Ian Rankin's Edinburgh cop
• a year old - Il Postino: Italian postman film, on last Christmas

Now and then, in between hitting eject and slamming in the next E180, I'd see weirdness. Could have been due to my temperature, though perhaps more likely to have been glimpses of daytime television. The horror!

If You Take Away With You Nothing Else
Remember kids:

1. look after yourself,
2. five portions of fruit and veg a day,
3. you are the weakest link, goodbye!

Be seeing you!

Ed

I'd never claim to be the most fanatical fan, but I've been paying good money to see Ipswich Town play football on & off for the last 25 years.

First game for me, fact fans, was season 1974-75, a 3-0 victory at home to the mighty Arsenal (with Jimmy Rimmer in goal). Scorers that night, according to my copy of The Men Who Made The Town, by John Eastwood and Tony Moyse, were Mick Lambert (2) and one Kevin Beattie. Also playing that night: George Burley, Mick Mills, Bryan Hamilton, Trevor Whymark and (the original) David Johnson. What names! I was all of 8 years old, by the way.

All of which is a long-winded way of getting to this point: as I write this, Ipswich are 6th in the FA Carling Premiership! S-i-x-t-h! Ahead of Spurs, Leeds, and Chelsea. Oh, and West Ham too.

Having grown up in Ipswich through the 70s and 80s, it was easy to take their level of achievement for granted. Always qualifying in Europe, FA Cup winners 1978, and UEFA winners 1981, before things started to go horribly Pete Tong with the loss of Bobby Robson to England, etc. But now we're back.

Not being a season ticket holder, nor a Portman Plus member, there seems precious little chance of seeing the boys in the flesh this year, alas. But that's the price of success, I guess.

If You Take Away With You Nothing Else
This week's moral is three-fold:

1. enjoy success while it lasts,
2. stick with your local side,
3. and come on, you blue boys!

Be seeing you!

Ed

I bike to work.

Which is great for me, 'cos I'm lucky to live close enough to the office to be able to do this. Cue this week's lyric:

I want to ride my bicycle
I want to ride my bike
I want to ride my bicycle
I want to ride it where I like
— Queen

I realise I'm in a fortunate position, but I'm surprised that more people don't do it. If you live within 3 or 4 miles of work, why not give it a go? It's good exercise, quite good fun, and effectively free.

By the way, thanks go to Thomas's Cycles of Foxhall Road, Ipswich, for keeping my Raleigh Pioneer roadworthy, and for putting up with my complete indifference to basic maintenance.

If You Take Away With You Nothing Else
This week's moral is fourfold:

1. get on your bike & ride!
2. if you're out driving, give cyclists enough room
3. do feel free to honk anyone riding with no lights
4. brush off those old Queen albums

Be seeing you!

Ed

Well into autumn now, and the signs are there for all to read. Leaves are tumbling down, nights are drawing in, and I'm no longer able to change into shorts when I get home from work. So, a time of adjustment for us all.

Not that you'll need any evidence of the middle point (about the nights, for those with a problem with short term memory), but this was the scene up at Wherstead Park after last Thursday's footy game. Not only was it dark come 7pm, but darn chilly too. Brrr. Concensus was that we'll revert to playing indoors from next week, wimps that we are. That tiny dot of light in the sky is the moon, in case you're wondering.

So there was I thinking about the current month, and a lyric came to mind:

October
And the trees are stripped bare
Of all they wear
What do I care?
— U2

(I can confess openly now that I did go through a U2 stage some years back. Heck, I was a student. All my friends were doing it. It was a social thing. There's still the very occasional longing to listen to The Unforgettable Fire, but that's forgiveable, isn't it?)

If You Take Away With You Nothing Else
This week's moral is threefold:

1. wrap up warm,
2. make sure you've got lights on your bike,
3. and if U2 CDs dominate your collection, go out and buy some Coldplay

Be seeing you!

Ed

It was Keats, of course (having just looked it up), who wrote the following words about autumn:

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run.

— John Keats

Now I don't have the full text of "To Autumn" in front of me at this moment, but I think it's unlikely that our friend, the lyric poet, mentioned one key aspect of the current season – conkers! They're just so:

• shiny,
• free,
• and great for suspending on a shoestring for bashing your mate's knuckles in the playground

And because, as our man Keats also said, "A thing of beauty is a joy forever", here are a couple of (digital) snaps I took at the weekend of the 278 specimens that we collected. Yep, I did count them.

Some conkers

More conkers

Be seeing you!

Ed