Getting home from central London on the day of the Big Snow (the Saturday before Christmas) required some variations in route. I ended up on the Waterloo and City Line, which (for various historical reasons) only links Waterloo and Bank for those who work in the City; so it was no surprise to find a completely empty carriage on a Saturday. But there was something even odder about it: the phantom balloon decorators had struck again:

For whatever reason, I've felt bereft of inspiration and rather detached from blogs and blogging recently. Even the Big Snow caught me without my camera when it was worth photographing in London, before it vanished into slush. But where I've been spending Christmas - barely an hour away - it was still Christmas-card perfect:

Just imagine!

Only six more months till the days start getting shorter again.

I've never claimed to be spectacular, but today I am completely unspectacled. Fatigue has finally overcome the frame of one of my lenses, which now has a tendency to dangle uselessly (I know how it feels).

Ah well, they had a good innings, and a new sight test was long overdue; but although my prescription hasn't changed much, it still involves varifocal lenses that will take a time to produce. Christmas will be viewed through more of a sentimental haze than usual.

Fortunately, I seem to have become a little more longsighted, which means managing without glasses isn't a great problem for immediate survival, reading or using the computer. However, once out of the house, I'm struck every now and again by a momentary panic, as my brain registers that something is missing, and that not everything in my field of vision is immediately comprehensible. Is this what old age will be like?

What's more, watching TV without my glasses is less than satisfactory, so in the comfort and privacy of home I shall be looking like a refugee from the 1940s, with the lenses held in approximate relationship to each other by an elaborate but precarious arrangement of sticky tape. Don't all laugh.

Party time

We may be having milder weather for a few days, but people are still dressing for winter on their way to work.

Just about.

On the tube this morning, there was a young woman with the regulation woolly teacosy hat, thick scarf and sensible wool coat - from which peeped out fingerless mittens covered in black sequins.

Whether it's the hibernation instinct in all the cold weather, the generally gloomy news around the world or an irritatingly persistent cough, there hasn't been much to inspire a post recently.

But even my inner Scrooge had to crack a smile at this enthusiastic band, on Oxford St today (as did most of the audience - they really were there, even though my camera seemed to miss them almost entirely):