Shortly after finishing Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, I was very amused to be referred to as "The Gentleman" by some library patrons, although of course I hope I am far kinder than he. Much more recently I was surprised at the circulation desk by a South Asian fellow giving my hair some envious complimenting.

I have been consistently wishing I knew the various other languages the library has material in - mainly Chinese, Korean, Tamil and Russian - so I could shelve them with a bit more care.

One of the houses on this street has had Halloween decorations up for a week or two. Never seen those so close before. Also saw trick-or-treaters with my own eyes for the first time a few days ago, while heading for home once the library was closed up for the night.

On a separate, recent occasion I was looking out the train window and discovered that ibises range far nearer where I live than I had previously suspected. I had thought they were only an inner-city bird (around here), but they were nesting rather definitely not there.

Is that everything? It never is. Let's post anyway.