I'D RATHER BE A LIGHTHOUSE KEEPER

I'm wearing a stripy jumper (horizontal stripes) and a black woolly hat today. The hat is because it's freezing and the aircon is on, and HR are all still in Cardiff where they can't tell me it's not appropriate office-wear (and they wouldn't anyway). And besides, I just haven't taken it off.

A few moments ago, I saw my reflection in the vending machine.

Jamie walked into the kitchen while I was making faces at myself.

"Alright?" he said.

"I'm wearing a stripy jumper," I said, thoughtfully, "and a woolly hat."

He looked puzzled. I don't know - maybe he was expecting some work-chat, or a banterish-commentary on the snow we're all expecting later. In hindsight, it does seem at best a quirky opener, but then I've never really been one for convention in these things.

He paused for a moment by the water cooler, glass in hand, with half-a-second of raised eyebrow.

"I look like a burglar," I said, finishing the thought.

He laughed.

It's an update to looking like a lighthouse keeper. Sometimes if the beard is a few months in, and I've not managed to find time to go through the Shaving Rigmarole (that's one for another time), I accidentally forget that a thick jumper, a waterproof coat and a warm woolly hat make me look exactly like I should be living at sea on the lonely rocks.

So here I am anyway, looking more like the Hamburglar on the lookout for Ronald McDonald.

I think I'd rather be a lighthouse keeper. I mean sure, the connotation is that you're sort of cut off from the mainland like a salt-spattered old hermit, but at least you're doing something positive. Lighthouses are beautiful structures, reminding us of the presence of both danger and hope - and the one who gets to climb up, and light the lamp could be the last defender of many souls before they're splintered to smithereens on the treacherous rocks. Seems rather noble to me.

Nobler than accidentally dressing up as a cartoon burglar anyway.