Things that I learned over the past week

• If you want to get a seat on the crowded morning train to work, don't go to the front of the platform, go to the back - the last two carriages are almost empty, and the 30 seconds it takes longer to get to the exit of London Bridge are a fair trade for not being squished like a sardine in a can.
  
• It's not dusk here earlier than in Scotland; it's just that nearby houses and plane trees block the sun and make my living room darker.
  
• Pocoyo is a very sweet children's TV show that not only has Stephen Fry as narrator, but also accompanies the scene of a photo exhibition with the Promenade from Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition". I like intelligent children's TV.
  
• My easy chair can unfold (back rest back, leg rest up) and is a perfect place to sit and read. And read. And read.
  
• Back when I was in the UK for the first time, my exchange family had Weetabix. I tried, but found them to be bleh. I tried them again the other day, and yeah, great! No need for added sugar, even, just two bix (or rather the Sainsbury's wheat biscuits, same ingredients, more folic acid, which is a Good Thing), a handful of fruit, and milk. Yum!
  
• Iceland (the stores, not the country) is good to get frozen veggies from. Spinach, for example.
  

In other news, Alder Hill seems to be in a revitalizing / rejuvenating stage. \o/ I look forward to seeing what people will do with it, and I hope it will grow into something more than "the place for people to hang out who are dissatisfied with other chat rooms." (I don't mean this to be disparaging, by the way, but it is what happened before.)