How can it get this cold without getting frosty? Yes, it's another sunny morning with blue skies, and very chilly. I've had to put on a jacket for crying out loud. I've also noticed an increase in the number of hats worn by visitors to the library.

Of course you'd expect a number of baseball caps anyway. Even I wear those occaisionally, usually when the weather is raining. There was a time when youngsters wore the things at all sorts of silly angles, no doubt to communicate their rebellion against parents and authority figures in general, but that trend seems to have declined. All the baseball caps in view are being worn in regulation style, the way the makers intended.

However there's a couple of flat caps, the traditional headwear of the country gent, now reduced to a fashion accessory for the fashionably challeneged. For the fashion failures, there's a young kiddie wearing a trilby. A trilby? I thought those went out of fashion twenty years ago. And yes, he wears it pushed back, to demonstrate his hyperactive cool. If he reclines in the seat any further, I swear it will fall off his head completely.

Nasty Stuff

Where does all this asbestos come from? Here in Swindon we regularly find public buildings closed while the hateful stuff is removed. I don't actually want to sound too flippant about it. After all, my uncle died a lingering and agonising death from years of contact with asbestos, and that's something I wouldn't wish on anyone.

The latest report in the local paper is that a shocking seventy percent of our schools have the material on site. That does mean, incidentially, that I was exposed to it as a child. Not a nice thing to consider, though thankfully I haven't yet shown any sign of suffering ill effects.

Actually I should mention the standard of journalism in our local paper is not encouraging. Asbestos Here: The newly built Swindon Academy contains asbestos because the material was present on the site. What? Did no-one bother to check before they built the place?

The local council have employed people specifically to remove it from buildings, so clearly they're aware of the threat. Nonetheless, it keeps turning up. The Wyvern Theatre was closed recently while workmen cleaned the place up. I applied for a job as an asbestos remover a little while afterward. What happened to the poor guy I was supposed to replace?

Financial Advice

My stars for today reveal that I should worry about the balance of my finances. And that after I forgot an interview at the bank. Having said that, why do I need to spend money calling an astrologers pre-recorded message about how to avoid debt and disaster? I've seen any number of news reports stressing how much I won't get in benefits in the near future. I think I already know how balanced my finances are going to be.