Inclement Weather

So it's March... And it's snowing.

This is really nothing new. A few years ago, we had snow in April.

In many ways, it's lucky that the weather generally is that little bit too warm for snow. Going by the cloud we've had recently, it's really wanted to snow intermittently for the last month or so, but the worst it's managed is slushy rain.

Not so yesterday.

Oh, it started off innocently enough. Rain and sleet, with a touch of hail... Then it brightened up toward lunchtime and during the early afternoon. Soon, though, portentous dark cloud rolled overhead, as if some great evil had blotted out the sun.

By the time my folks and I were heading out to view another flat (same area, same block, different vendor), a hail of densely packed snow was falling. It looked just like those tiny polystyrene bobbles one sometimes finds in packaging and, when caught in the hand, they were not particularly solid.

By contrast, when caught in the face thanks to the strong, chill wind, the feeling was akin to being sandblasted.

The worst had passed by the time we'd reached the station, and we reached the estate agent in good time. The particular agent who would be showing us the flat was already waiting in the entrance over the road, and we were not the only group to be viewing this one.

In brief, the flat was not bad. While the other one was completely neutral, as all those property TV shows recommend, this one showed signs of having been lived in - the kitchen was in a better condition, but didn't look particularly stylish; there was orange carpet throughout; the smell of fresh paint (neutral, naturally) was everywhere. When the agent said it might need a bit of work, they were right. The bathroom showed signs of damp - possibly mold - over the shower. It look rather like leakage from above, but since it was centred on the shower, it could easily be that it was just condensation that was never properly dealt with. While this place is about £5-6k cheaper than the other, I'm not sure I'd want to offer the full amount...

In other news, I am now properly up to date with Le Chevalier D'Eon, having grabbed the missing volume 4 at Forbidden Planet, and I'm beginning to see how the anime will end up mirroring the real life of D'Eon de Beaumont. It's been quite a clever story, all told, with many twists and turns, and only a few bits let down by dodgy voice acting from the US cast.

I also picked up volume two of Ergo Proxy. Sadly, it is remarkably boring compared to the action-packed and densely-plotted opening volume. While lots happens, it feels like a lot of filler events before the important stuff kicks off. That's probably unfair, considering how much actually happens in terms of events and consequences, but it also feels very different from the first volume. I'm keen to see more, but I fear it may degrade into anime-by-the-numbers before too long.

This time next week, I'll be on my way back from Memorabilia... and I've started considering what I shall be looking for. Part of me is rather keen to get Beast Wars 'red dragon' Megatron (or the icy blue RiD repaint Cryotek), but the more I look at photos, the more I see a deeply flawed figure. Excellent dragon mode, very awkward robot mode (and how, pray tell, does Megatron's 'monster head/weapon' arm switch from his left to his right between original Beast Wars, Transmetals, and this one?) and a terribly ill-conceived 'vehicle mode'. Then there's Tigerhawk - the merged form of Tigatron and Airazor, and intriguing concept marred by the overuse of white plastic, which loses all the molded detail, and odd bits of bright green plastic amongst the chromed blue. Perhaps I'll pick up the 2 new TransFormer Revoltech figures, Hot Rod and Starscream. Both look pretty good, but I've not been that impressed with Revoltech so far. How about TF: Animated? Starscream is a must, Earth mode Megatron would be fun... but the others just don't do it for me. I can see that they're impressive bits of toy engineering, but nothing about them grabs me by the wallet and screams "buy me!".

I also need to be on the lookout for birthday presents for my mate Paul... that should be easy enough, though.

But on the subject of birthday presents, I should probably get on with writing that other one. I think I'd like to have it ready to read as a bedtime story over the Memorabilia weekend...