A blog by Ross of Penge (formerly of Balham)

I blogged pretty extensively during 2014 and early 2015, but got out of the habit. In the time since there has been a huge amount I've sort of wanted to write about (politics, terror etc) but I haven't. I tried several times, but anger and frustration about what was happening prevented me from getting things down in a coherent form. Given I couldn't express what I felt, and it didn't seem like it would make a difference anyway, I let it lie fallow.

It's now early 2017, and I'm back, blogging about my attempt to do the first month of the year without social media. After that, who knows?

And why gateway2thesouth? Named after a famous sketch popularised by Peter Sellers:

"Broad-bosomed, bold, becalmed, benign,
Lies Balham, four-square on the Northern Line."

I lived in Balham for 23 years - longer than I have been anywhere else, and it still feels like one of the places in the world I most belong.

Monday, 6 January 2014

Back to Life, Back to Reality

I’m sure many of you had a similar experience this morning when the alarm went off at 6:30 or similar. Can it really be this dark/cold and windy? Oh yes.

I was pleased that my train was only a couple of minutes late, and reasonably quiet – the posh schools either had an inset or a late start.

Today is apparently Blue Monday - the most miserable of the year (copyright all newspapers) as people face up to the never-ending bleakness of January and being skint etc. I was actually quite looking forward to today – my first in work since 20th December, so I've had the same holiday as most school kids. And I feel much refreshed for it, but did feel that I was starting to drift. Yes I was making it to the gym etc, but I probably got to diminishing returns by about New Years Day. So this morning (I write this in a snatched early lunch-break) has been about trying to figure out what is urgent and what is important, and how I should be spending my time over the next couple of weeks. I have that horrible feeling that there is something really urgent that I should be doing but haven’t remembered.

Oh well, it will probably occur to me this afternoon.

Elsewhere, I rather enjoyed Sherlock last night – my only criticism after last week’s trains farce being that I wish Benedict could have mimed playing the violin a bit better – using perhaps two strings and a little hand movement. But a nice episode that wandered seemingly aimlessly, before coalescing around a rather nifty plot. The programme was called “The Sign of Three”. There is a Holmes short called “The Sign of Four” which I haven’t read for years, but the name Sholto and killing at a (temporal) distance rang a bell – not sure much else did, but correct me if I am wrong. (I have tried to write this obscurely enough to avoid spoilers.)

And today is my first day of 5:2 dieting – after so many friends and work colleagues have extolled it. I am skeptical (of course) – as much of my willpower as anything else. I eat healthily anyway, but like Goldie the Blue Peter dog, do not know when to stop.


I won’t be writing a blow-by-blow diet blog but will let you know how it is (and I am) shaping up as we progress. 

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