October

and I have been a bit sparse with the posts of late, I know. Unless I get my typing finger out, 2012 looks like coming in at under 80 (?) posts, well below my January resolution of cracking the triple figure mark. That said though, the nights are drawing in, the days are noticeably cooler and our collective motivation for  extended romps in the great outdoors is waning. More time for some idle thoughts perhaps, or then again bargain browsing on Sierra Trading Post (Marmot Vector Gore-tex Active Shell Jacket for only $150!! Me don't need, but me want, oh me so want, drool, slobber, succumb to default setting of mindless consumerism, etc.).
I do have a couple of things from September I will get around to posting at some stage, but not right now. As I don't know where the SD card with the relevant photos on it is, and I am wary of asking Sanae (tomorrow is the big Halloween party for Cian, his friends and his friend's mothers. And you wouldn't believe the amount of preparation that is going in to this thing. Nor the increasingly frazzled nerves its all leading to. Thus, I have hidden myself away downstairs in a dark corner, far from cut out pumpkins and sour apples. Tomorrow, I may well have to flee the house and take to the hills...).
Thankfully there are less participants than the M&M crazed hoardes who came last year. For the past couple of days I have been going up to collect Cian from his nursery school looking like this, and I think it had the desired effect.

Amidst the leaf strewn splendor of the hills, I will continue to (a) forage for nuts and berries to store for the coming winter; and (b) make incremental, one-grain-of-referenced-sand-at-a-time progress on my PhD. This topic will come to dominate my blog, life and quite possibly my death over the next 12 months. November marks the start of my fourth year and I am determined to finish it by this time next year as it is costing me a freaking fortune in time, money and surfable waves. As November 2013 approaches you can expect my posts to rapidly descend into splenetic incoherence until finally you'll just be left with,
All research and no play makes Brian a dull boy
All research and no play makes Brian a dull boy
All research and no play makes Brian a dull boy
All research and no play makes Brian a dull boy
All research and no play makes Brian a dull boy
All research and no play makes Brian a dull boy
All research and no play makes Brian a dull boy