A Slightly Surreal Post

I often walk past this house in St. John's Wood on my way home from work. They really do it up for the winter holidays, as they also do for Halloween. They must have a whole room dedicated to storing inflatables and lights. It looks like a pretty big house so I guess they can spare the space.

Today is our last day before Winter Break, and I thought it was going to be a half-day -- but it turns out that no, it's a full workday. And we do still have kids around, though many of them have already departed on their holiday travels. It hopefully won't be too busy, and I do have some cleaning up to do in the library so it's just as well.

And now for the surreal part of the post:

This gigantic green, smiling banana just appeared the other day in the senior student gathering spot. Who knows why? For a while it was in the center of the action, but now it has been banished to the top of a shelf, where it looks like it could roll down on someone at any moment. (It wouldn't do any harm.)

And here's another house I sometimes pass on my way home from work -- with the sculptured spider and goldfish outside. Last night they were still ornamented with skeletons (including a fish skeleton), presumably for Halloween. Maybe they'll be wreathed in holly for Easter.

I think the house belongs to this guy, who describes himself online as an Austrian surrealist artist and "keeper of spider house."

Last night our TV entertainment was a movie called "The Invasion" with Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig. Through the whole thing I kept saying, "This is just like 'The Invasion of the Body Snatchers'!" Well, it turns out to have been a deliberate remake of that sci-fi classic -- but not so deliberate that it's a mirror image. It came out in 2007 and apparently didn't do all that well, and it is a bit clunky despite a high-profile cast including Veronica Cartwright, Jeremy Northam, Jeffrey Wright and Celia Weston. But it was diverting and it got my mind off work, which seems to occupy all my time at the moment.

I got some good work-related news yesterday, though. We've extended a job offer to a new assistant, to replace my colleague who departed in October, and I believe that offer has been accepted. So my workload should lighten when she joins the team at the end of next month. Maybe I'll even have time to answer blog comments!