I saw three of my favourite things on my way home this evening. Three of my favourite Things To See On My Way Home that is.

1. Clouds. Sky. Light!
   I love the light at the time of the evening when it's dark at ground level because the sun is behind a mountain or below the horizon, but it's still blazing in the clouds above you. Something about the colour of the sunset and the angle of the shadows is very appealing. I didn't have my camera, but I was doing 115kph on the motorway at the time, so I probably wouldn't have stopped anyway.  Here's one I prepared earlier, but this evening's view was nicer.
2. Birds. Swooping!
   You know that thing they do? They're in a flock and one of them decides No, I'm a-going this-a-way and they all swoop around to follow the leader. Now that I think about it, it's kind of lava lamp-ish, but each of those dots is a bird!
3. A Train.
   Yes, this is a bit lame, but at night, in the dark, there's this row of windows, suspended off the ground, occasionally breaking up as it goes behind invisible trees and buildings, and there are people inside and you don't know them and you never will and it's just a bit romantic.  Or something.

Sorry about the format. I've been doing Powerpoint presentations all month (kill me now). I do have other Things To See On My Way Home. There's a goose farm near Arklow and the sight of all those white birds in the green fields against the mountain never fails to make me smile. They're also building a wind farm off the coast and that's interesting, but not so smile making.

And construction. Lots of construction. But let's not dwell on that.

Yesterday I got up at 3:30am (!) to catch a 6:40am flight. I was early and the plane was delayed for about an hour and a half, so I could have stayed in bed. I was going to London to give a course in Java but I underestimated the length required to give the content I had and after three and a bit hours I had nothing left to say. I don't like Powerpoint.

I was reading an interview the other day of a woman who seemed quite intense and philosophical. She thought about how things were and how they worked and how they inter-related, and I thought She sounds lonely. I was taken aback a bit as I have been raised to believe that such pursuits are to be applauded and encouraged, but it was all in her head. Literally. There was no sense that people were involved. All the things she talked about that referenced people were in the past and there was a very strong (but somewhat strange) sense that she was alone. Ivory Tower writ large.

I don't know if this perception is correct in this case but it's not really the point. What is the point is that perhaps the intellectual pursuits that I regret not pursuing aren't worth regretting.