This blog will not fade into caliginosity!

It's time we all voted for words which we want to save from oblivion. Harper Collins are editing their new dictionary and words like caliginosity (which means dimness or darkness) are in danger of being excluded because they are not used enough. Well, that made me think. Firstly, how do they track this usage? How do they know that people like me, who live in a small hamlet of nine houses, don't sit in the pub each evening being all fatidical about the future of the planet and the amount of recrement that is clogging up the landfill site near Abbeye Village. I don't think I've seen a surveillance camera in the pub, (just a sign which says 'Be careful how you treat your children because they will choose your retirement home!') so how do they know what we are talking about, or, more pertinently, what words we are using?
Anyway, then I thought, if it works like search engine optimisation, maybe we should all use our blogs to promote endangered words up the rankings so I'll leave that gauntlet thrown down for all of you ...

Time Flies

Yes I 've been severely scolded by a certain Mr Hughes from http://www.eariam.blogspot.com/ for neglecting my blog for so long and, of course, he is right to do so. The last 6 weeks have absolutely flown by but there really is no excuse. So I'm back. So to bring you up to date ... I've been insulating the lofts at home. They say it is a DIY job but what a hell of a job it is. I must have swallowed half a roll and also ended up freefalling from one of the loft hatches and ending up with third (or maybe even fourth) degree burns on the inside of my arm. I really pity the men driving the Dyson Insulation vans up and down the country especially in the morning because I know they are heading to a house and then up a ladder into a loft to spend the day in a furnace-like environment, being covered in itchy irritant mineral wool dust. But then, perhaps they are used to it. Maybe they've evolved into a species with special organic lung filters and curved spines designs to prevent regular roof truss concussion, oh yes, and skin which has a special textured and toughened surface to protect against mineral wool fibres. Have a look at them next time you see them. If the driver looks like a Klingon you know I'm right.

I've been contemplating buying a Sony e-reader as the new must-have gadget. I'm not sure if it is a fad and I'm just piggy backing onto the latest craze or whether I will love it and use it and it will inspire me to read a lot more than I do. I've definitely decided that, when the house is finished, I'm going to spend Sunday mornings reading the paper and/or a book. I hear about so many great reads on Radio 4 in the morning during my commute into Manchester but never make the purchase. Apparently you can store up to 160 books on one of these readers - great for long holidays (maybe next year!). Maybe someone will post a review of one of these machines and make my decision for me.