I’m feeling much better at last. I’m coughing a lot less, which is great, because I broke a rib coughing a couple of weeks ago and it hurts to cough. At least that particular rib doesn’t hurt except when I cough or sleep on my left, and I usually sleep on my right. I have woken myself up a couple of times after rolling onto my left, however.

I applied for a new passport to replace mine that’s expiring in May. The hardest part was getting a passport photo that I’m happy to live with for the next decade. We managed to find an adequately-lit white wall at the weekend, and the rest of the application was trivial after that.

Obviously, I’m only renewing my Irish passport. There’s no point getting a British one now.

On the topic of the UK’s steadfast refusal to just be a normal modern country, they’re giving “heritage protection” to gas street lights that were already obsolescent when they were installed in 1910. A sympathetic LED replacement for the mantle would be completely fine and much less wasteful, and as long as it’s the right colour and sufficiently dim, no one would even notice.

Honestly, if feels like living in a daft theme park sometimes.

Overheard at Surrey Docks Farm, a child of around 7 or 8 looking at two calves and asking their parent, “Are those horses or cows?”

Only a couple of links this week: