I'm getting very tired of this eyepatch, vision is slowly returning to my right eye and the unaccustomed vista is distinctly marred by peering through this nasty piece of plastic. The cold is also biting deep...which presumably means all these years in the South have turned me into a big softie. If my parents were still alive they'd no doubt disown me...again.

At some stage I must go out and see the last Hobbit film before it disappears from cinemas, I see they've cast Billy Connolly as Dain Ironfoot which should be entertaining. I love the story he told about his first meeting with Peter Jackson who asked him if he'd read Tolkein to which he replied " No....and I don't like people who have!", good to see age, sobriety and Parkinson's hasn't mellowed him.