Hot heat!

Yesterday was the hottest 27th October in England for 117 years! Wowee!

It was hot - I noticed, and I think the weather people were probably right!

Heat is good, but I suppose cold is pretty good too, in its place. Everything is good, did you know that? Shut up, you say, stop being so positive! Well, sorry but I'm not being positive - this is just the hard facts, as I see them!

Hot things are good - hot baths, hot weather, hot food, saunas and things that make you sweat! And cold is good too. It gives you the feeling of being alive, but in a different way. Cold, the colder it gets, makes you more aware of the value of life. Warmth makes you feel alive too. All weather is my favourite, but one really good temperature is the one which is exactly the same as your body temperature - there is no difference between you and the outside so it feels like you have no body!

Being alive in the world is good, but it can be a bit of a burden at times...I don't know if you noticed that. So it's good to have some relief from that. Happiness is the best answer. That's another thing that takes away the feeling of having a body. I think. I would like to find out!

Bring us all happiness, bring us hot and cold in the right places! We can share them if you like!

Nice

Today: some of my favourite letters in different writing systems. Let's start with English, or Roman letters as they are known. The English alphabet was the very last thing I thought of when I was wondering about my favourite letters. But I remembered I use it all the time so obviously it has some importance! But which is my favourite letter? I'd like W if it were more round and not so sharp. O is good, the shape of a mouth saying O! S is quite nice, you feel you have got somewhere by the time you have finished writing it. Well, we'll have to come back to this. Now let's travel to some different alphabets!

In Greek my favourite is Phi:


The sound is "f". I like the round shape and the balance of the letter. It is good to write. It is also the first sound in "Philip", which is a Greek name. The name means "lover of horses", but spelled with two Ls (Phillip) it would be "lover of fat"!

In Cyrillic (Russian etc) my favourite is the sound "zh" - like the J in jewel but softer, like the French G in blancmange. Again it's the balance of the letter and how pleasing it is to write it:



In Hebrew writing I'm not sure of my favourite. I like Shin ("sh"):


Perhaps it's my favourite. Perhaps not. But then I don't know any Hebrew to speak of, and I can't do the handwritten form so let's move on to another language.

My favourite Japanese letter is the sound "Yu" written in Hiragana (not an alphabet but a 'syllabary' because the symbols are syllables, not letters used to spell syllables like in E n g...l i s h):


It's a nice one. It's rather like Phi from earlier. Obviously I like circles! Oh well, I like it. I'm sure it is used for nice words as well as ordinary ones. And ordinary words that are nice. But most words are written using Chinese characters (Kanji) so you're not so likely to find the Hiragana Yu used in a word. Hiragana is for writing out pronunciation, for bits at the end of words, and other things a bit like that. So a word with the sound Yu could be written in many ways. Here is one example:


The sound is Yu, only it's a different character this time. But I still like it.

So why no favourite English letter? Do I only go for foreign looking shapes? No, but you can only find beauty where you find it. It's not my fault if my own letters don't look so great! Tell you what, today I'm going for G. It has a peculiar shape, and reminds me of all that's peculiar about English. All those letters you don't pronounce and words spelled the same but pronounced completely differently! How funny. It is a kind of nonsense! But it is a special kind of nonsense. OK now I will use my letter G to say (for now) GOODBYE!

Vanity

There was an extremely vain man on the train today. Every aspect of his appearance looked as though it had had hours of consideration and bother invested in it. And it was only a few seconds before he started to look at his reflection in the glass door. He was having a good check and making sure that everything was as neat as could be. The only thing was, there was one place he couldn't see in any mirror. And I was the one looking at that place. On the back of his neck was a line of angrily erupted red boils! Yes, boils! What did you think I was going to say? A bit of fluff? A hair? No, it was exactly as I reported it.

It reminds me of the famous 'hide everything' method of tidying up. Just push everything under the carpet and the house will be tidy again. Oops, it doesn't quite work, does it?

Appearance, appearance. He wanted to look under control. He was trying to fool people, I suppose. And I saw a book today that tells you how to change your body language to get on better at work. It's the same thing, the same kind of lying. Do these people not believe they could truly be charming-looking or have genuine positive body language? I suppose not. They don't have much confidence in themselves, then.

I have confidence in them. That is of no great benefit, since I will never meet any of them, but I do meet some people occasionally. And I am talking to you too. Perhaps you will believe me a little bit, and have some faith in yourself, like I do. So then nobody needs to spend hours in front of the mirror disguising him- or herself. We can all have a look in that mirror instead and see a great friend there - you, me, us. Sometimes I give him a quick wave - we are on a lot better terms these days.

Oh, vain people! How very silly. They all looked nice before they started putting paint and chemicals on themselves. Believe me!

Distance

Are you far away from me?

Then how is it you are reading my words here?

Which one are you going to believe: the map or your spirit? One says I am miles and miles away, one says I am near. When you think kindly of something, it comes near too. Doesn't it? Or is the map still telling the true story?

And time, what of that? Years pass by but it seems like only yesterday you were doing those things. Which is correct, the clock or your spirit? Is there something wrong with you that means you cannot be believed, or should we trust your feeling?

Today I saw Beat Takeshi in Zatoichi. Zatoichi, the blind masseur - where is space to him? When he hears you he is with you, next to you, in your place, seeing your movement and moving with you. Everything is close.

And someone who remembers everything, what is time to him? Everything is close, and time is something false. Everything is close.

Come closer! Or, at least, no need to go further away.

Rain

A lovely rainy night.

A lovely rainy night with cool air too.

A lovely rainy night with cool air and home not far away.

A lovely rainy night with cool air and winter coming soon.

A lovely rainy night with winter coming soon and home not far away.

A lovely cool rainy night with water pouring out of the sky.

And an umbrella.