Ilkley Baptist

I lit the winter's first coal fire, this afternoon. Why does it give me such pleasure to burn stuff indoors? And to enjoy the variable radiant heat of a real fire? It's probably not so mysterious, it reminds me of childhood and the fires which were such an important part of family life.

I wonder if a vintage paraffin heater would give me as much pleasure?

No, not a comment on the eloquent David Nutt's disgraceful sacking. Much more prosaic.

A packet of 16 soluble aspirin from Boots. 79p. A bargain, I thought.

A packet of 16 soluble aspirin (Aspro) from a corner shop. £2.49. Not really surprising.

A packet of 16 'dispersible aspirin' (no fizz) from Tesco. 16p. Don't know what to say.

You can see that, though you lead a restricted life with swine flu, it isn't entirely without interest.

How nice. I have swine flu. Nikki went down with it at the start of our half-term holiday, and I enjoyed my first symptoms on Tuesday evening. It has progressed from there, giving me one night of horrible, repetitive thoughts, and three days, so far, of sweats and shivers, slowly improving, and a dry, painful cough. Today I have to decide whether to preach tomorrow or not. Not sure, but think I will have a go.

I have bought a telescope, second-hand, in fact damaged, from ebay; but now all is mended and I have it working. On holiday I spent a memorable evening sitting in a chair, staring at the full moon rising over the Lleyn Peninsula. Even through my very small, low-power binoculars, it was a wonderful sight. I tried drawing the features I could see, and since I've been home, I've been learning the names of some of the craters and seas that you can spot. There's Tycho, the big one near the bottom with lines radiating out from it that you can just about see with the naked eye. The dark sea that forms the 'o' mouth of the man in the moon is the Mare Nubium. Through binoculars you can see Aristarchus, high on the left hand side, a bright, white crater, which is white because it's recent and hasn't been blackened by the solar wind. Like a beauty spot on the cheek of the moon is the crater Grimaldi, then there are the craters Kepler and Copernicus, Plato and Aristotle, and numerous other mountain ranges, rilles and plains to learn about.

The telescope gives a wonderful image. When I first got it, the moon was full. As it waned, the edge of darkness has moved across the moon, throwing craters into sharp relief. You can see the small area at the edge (the terminator) very clearly. However, the waning moon rises later and later each night. It won't rise until 1am tonight, and won't get above the houses in Lister Street for another hour or two after that. Mind you, there are too many clouds to see it in any case.

So I may have to concentrate on other things. Jupiter is currently nicely placed in the evening sky to the south, and with the telescope I can see the moons, two on either side when I last looked. Uranus and Neptune are nearby, but much fainter. I haven't yet managed to look at the Andromeda Nebula. That should be a good, when we get a nice, dark, clear and moonless sky.

I often look in charity shops for books or CDs. There's seldom anything I want, but you can't rule out the possibility of a wonderful find if you don't look. Today, in Oxfam in Otley, I hit gold. Along with some piano pieces by Hamish MacCunn, Solfeggietto by CPE, and Brahms' Waltzes, there was Gay but Wistful! How about that?

Not impressed? Gay but Wistful is a piece by Percy Grainger, one of the movements of his In a Nutshell Suite (the others are the wonderfully named, Arrival Platform Humlet, Pastoral, and Gumsuckers March). I didn't know a piano version existed, and certainly haven't seen it for sale. Grainger's music is not easy to find. Here, though, is a charming, halting song in a 'popular London style' such as might be heard at the stage shows of George Grossmith, apparently.

It's typical Grainger. Chords are to be wrenched, certain notes 'to the fore,' others trumpet like or harp like, smooth or detached (assiduously avoiding Italian terms), and there's considerable use to be made of the middle pedal; which I don't have.

The MacCunn is nice; terribly sentimental, but with charm and a genuinely Scottish flavour. The Brahms Waltzes I don't think I've got already - certainly haven't played them in years. Solfeggietto is for Joe to have a go at. Oh, I also found a book version of Feynman's famous physics lectures from Caltech. A pretty good day.