Solar Eclipse

Who saw the eclipse this morning? I'm not sure whether I actually 'saw' it. Around 9-9.30 this morning I was waiting to see what happened. It had been over-cast since early morning so it wasn't clear whether the cloud would disperse so that the sun could shine and the eclipse be seen in all it's glory. We had been told not to look directly at the sun because of damage to the eyes, as this was covered all over the B.B.C. Breakfast programme from around 6 a.m. They had sent reporters to various points around the United Kingdom, from Lewis in the north of Scotland to somewhere on the coast in Cornwall in the south. I was going to go shopping in Sainsbury's at around 9, but thought better of it because I wasn't sure how dark or, indeed light, it was going to be. Just as I was about to get in the car a large black car turned up in the road outside the house and the man in the driving seat seemed to be busy with his mobile phone. I wasn't sure whether he was hoping to capture the eclipse on the camera in the 'phone, but he sat there for quite a while and in such a position that I wasn't going to be able to reverse out into the road. It went sort of overcast and a bit like early evening, the sort of light you get at dusk, just as the sun is about to go down below the horizon. And then it was over so I was able to get in the car and drive out to Sainsbury's.

Coughs and Sneezes

Carol has been off work since Wednesday with a really sore throat. At one point she could hardly speak, so it was really no good her going in to work as she would never have been heard by the children she teaches. There is enough problems with behaviour at the Academy, without problems being able to speak. 

It is bright and sunny at the moment, but the temperature has been dropping gradually over the past week or so. According to the BBC Breakfast news there has been snow in parts of North Yorkshire and Scotland, and it would appear that we are going to get snow here before the weekend. They had a report this morning on television from Pickering in North Yorkshire, an area we know well as we had a holiday there a few years ago and went by steam train from Pickering to Whitby which was a great journey up over the Moors. 

We had severe snow and ice last winter and as a result many of the roads within Milton Keynes became potholed, many of which have since been repaired. It took the Council quite some time to get round to repairing these holes, but many have only just been dealt with. I have seen Council workers out repairing the road near here, so I suspect someone has decided that it would be best to repair any remaining holes before the wintry weather hits hard.