Reeves Corner shops 18 months on

These shops and the flats above are still empty following the Reeves Corner fire of August 2011 which destroyed the historic furniture store building opposite. There was a widely used shot of a woman jumping from a window into the arms of a firefighter which was taken here. Gradually they've been cleaning up and removing the scars of the fire but you can still see some burn marks above the shop shutters. I like the mural, I think it's a woodpecker on the bottom right of it. It brightens up an area that desperately needs it.

Today it was a strange mixture of sunshine and heavy snow showers. The day began abruptly when I was woken by children shouting in the street and thought it was a bit light outside to be before my alarm. That's because it wasn't. My radio alarm failed me. It froze at 4:42 am which put me into a state of sci-fi movie confusion about where I was, what time it was and was I awake or still dreaming. Having ascertained the radio was wrong, I jumped out of bed and managed to only be about 15 minutes late for work.

I had to leave work early to go to the doctor. In the end the doctor was running late anyway. They'd just announced on the news that white smoke had been seen and we had a new Pope when the doctor called me.

Tomorrow looks to be a hectic day at work because of the way the work calendar is. I'm hoping it won't be too crazy. I am so so tired and looking forward to getting to bed.