Chicken gulasz, autumn, snails and wigs

OK, so the flu doing the rounds at work (people are dropping like flies - flies with the plague, but flies, nonetheless), and I have had a general feeling of crappiness the last couple of days. I tried to head it off by taking Nightnurse before I developed the full symptoms, but this seeems to have dragged it out rather, without the descent into aching joints, head, etc. I have bought myself chicken gulasz from North Ealing Supermarket, in the vain hope that mixing it with rice will invoke the spirit of a Jewish mother and cure me of this affliction - and, of, course, reminding me of this Sendak book from my childhood.

Autumn has also appeared in London with a vengeance. Darkness descends at 7ish, and the general drizzly gloom has now also arrived. Which makes me quite happy. I do enjoy seeing lights in this kind of weather, be they car headlights, the lights on the motorway, streetlights, or even Acton in the distance from the Central Line. The snails were out in force on my way back home tonight - usually I have to dodge slugs on the way back, especially if it has been raining, but tonight there were masses of snails. Every step was filled with fear as I ventured along Madeley Road, the next could be followed by a sickening crunch and an overwhelming sense of guilt. How do snails survive in the modern world? I read an article over the weekend questioning how humanity will evolve given the radical changes in our circumstances over the last 2000 years - but this has also had an impact on other species too...

This makes me laugh a lot....