Joie de vivre

Let's be joyous. Why not, after all? The human brain may be trained to nitpick and see the worst in everything but that doesn't mean we have to let it get its way. Let's be merry instead, and embrace the great joy of life! Sometimes it's normal to be happy, but don't spread it around and worry the other humans as they might not be able to handle it. They'll think you're high on carrot cake and call an ambulance.

Oh, it would be nice to be truly that happy. It has happened on occasion, with small epiphanies here and there. There has been some singing in the rain while walking down Penglais Hill, or fantastic bursts of clarity while staring out from Constitution Hill to the sea or at the Beeston weir. There are even good reasons to be happy now, with an interview to come on Tuesday and progress being made in swimming, but somehow the moments don't quite come. It's the curse of the seasonal gloom, as darkness creeps in ever earlier. However, the good news is that we get back to real time this weekend, as the dreaded British Summer Time finally goes away. Real time, oh joy!

Oh, British Summer Time, I had finally forgotten you and stopped remembering two times simultaneously all the time, and now you're gone. I hope you're abolished before next time. On Sunday, we will go swimming on regular time and I won't be out of synch with everyone else any more. Yippee! It's lovely to finally be making progress with front crawl and breathing. Absolutely lovely. It's not as happy as euphoria, but still rather nice. It's also nice to put up fliers advertising 'Oliver Bain, PhD, Mathematician At Large', but perhaps in more of a skewed sense of enjoyment.

There are now only four episodes of 'Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea' left before the end is reached, and a sense of loss is looming in the distance. It has been a wonderful ride and this fourth season was far better than expected. Oh, cheap and silly show, you have been uplifting. The latest episode featured Frostmen trying to steal the Seaview's reactor to power their spaceship, and it was of course daft. Daft is not necessarily a bad thing. Coming soon on DVD: 'Batman'. It's brilliant that it's finally coming. Joyful, in fact.

Holy Sea Sponges, Batman!

O.