Close to the hour

This photograph was taken, of course, at 11.35 **am** (not PM), and is posted partly in hommage to a similar blip taken by Mr A on a much better day earlier this week.

But it serves as a neat reminder that tempus is rapidly fugiting, with the old year descending across the world into the new one.

If I'm bah humbug about Christmas, it's worth pointing out that I'm double bah humbug about the New Year and its celebrations, which seems to me to be the most artificial construct imaginable. None the less, we usually 'do something' for new year, and this year - when we are staying home - is the first one we've not been out for many a year. Curiously, it feels rather satisfactory.

I've spent the day working - initially preparing my presentation for the conference I'm attending across the big pond in early January and then subsequently writing a short comment for a web forum which I'm involved in, on the controversial topic of 'citizenship for sale'. I've made a bit of a meal of the last task, as it seems to me that earlier commentators have made all the key points and I'm left with nothing original to say. But to be honest, after a week off, I'm ready to get my brain revved up again, as yesterday's work-related conversation proved to me.

Anyway, fellow blippers, enjoy your evenings, whatever your position on the New Year shennanigans, and look forward to seeing you all in 2014.

By the way, this one is definitely a #leithinstitution.