Not specifically for the eyes or posture, but for overall approach and attitude to situations like this:

• Marcus Aurelius’ quote: Begin each day by telling yourself: Today I shall be meeting with interference, ingratitude, insolence, disloyalty, ill-will, and selfishness – all of them due to the offenders’ ignorance of what is good or evil. - and stoicism in general.
• Imagine them sitting on the toilet. You can’t take them too seriously like that.
• Take a longer perspective: consider whether this interaction will be of any significance at all in 10 years time?

Just finished Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Shroud, after a bit of delay in the middle. Some good world-building and interesting concepts, and an engaging tale - but not quite up with Children of Time, I’d say.

About a third of the way through Iain M Banks’ Use of Weapons. It seems too focused on the flashbacks - which have not coalesced into a cohesive whole so far. There is still plenty of time, of course.

Comments like that say far more about the person saying it than about the person being described most of the time, I’d say.

I’d need to know how good the describer is like in that area before I could make any assessment about the describee.

I had a nap yesterday afternoon, which is probably the first for several months. However, I am on holiday for a couple of weeks now, so will probably be having more over that time.

Shadow (2018) - beautifully designed and shot, particularly in the first half. Relatively gory for a wuxia: I didn’t mind but my wife, who is quite sensitive to such things, found it too much at times.

As with Zhang Yimou’s earlier House of Flying Daggers I felt that that it didn’t really reach a conclusion as much as ended the story and then drifted to a stop.

Definitely worth seeing though.

No. I’m not interested in interaction when I am buying or selling something. Nor playing games, or getting or giving social strokes or whatever. I will do that on separate occasions.

I will pay the price asked or I will look elsewhere.

I don’t drink either - or any other hot drinks. I have never liked them.

There was a while when, every other year or so, in the depths of winter, I would get it into my head that my tastes might have changed and would accept someone’s offer of something: tea, coffee, hot chocolate or whatever. But I’d always end up taking one sip and realise my folly.

And, no, Iced tea or similar does nothing for me either.

a skiff that they had managed to build with canvas and ropes that they had brought with them, and wood that they had cut in the forest where they had hidden ; they had made this boat waterproof by means of a thick layer of tallow. These prisoners, from Arras to the wood in which they had hidden near the coast, had walked only at night, using the moon and the stars to guide them. The administration of the Navy tested the canoe made by these four prisoners; 6 men embarked, steered it with oars and held the sea without a drop of water entering.

What they are describing there is a Currach.

There is a window for “Where were you when…?” questions, I think.

• Kennedy? Nope.
• Moon landing? Just about.
• Challenger? Yep.
• Princess Di? Yep.
• 9/11? Yep.
• Lockdowns? Whatever…

I think that I am drifting past that window nowadays.

• Worked for their local team, and was quite happy to challenge/push back on unreasonable top-down asks.
• Quite happy to admit they didn’t know stuff and asked for advice and ideas - and, of course, credited the appropriate team members for things that worked, but took responsibility themselves if things didn’t go well.
• Displayed authentic emotions and enthusiasm for the work, rather that present a bland corporate mask.

A satsuma. The penultimate element of my lunch.

The ultimate will be a banana, in a few minutes.

I’m peripatetic - I move between 3 different offices in a typical week, plus occasionally WFH. So:

• Coastal heath, birch & oak woodland, the sea off to the side and a nuclear reactor in the background. In the autumn we’ll get a starling murmuration in the later afternoon.
• A small stretch of rough grass and a river wall, with the top of a couple of abandoned military buildings over the top of that. The occasional hare or barn owl will pass by.
• The lawn and occasional ornamental trees of a moderately-sized country house with a shallow valley and more woodland behind that.
• A tussocky lawn, a couple of larch and a spectacular old oak, then a mixed alder and ash covert with a small stream behind that. Hares, a great spotted woodpecker and the occasional stoat put in an appearance.

Beautifully shot and some fine performances all round. Very much a character-based one though. Don’t go into it looking for action or fast-moving plot.

• The Studio - First episode - seems fun, but too similar to The Franchise just at the moment, and without the subtle wit of that one.
• The Righteous Gemstones - part way through season 4. This season lacks the coherence of the previous ones and seems to be be relying on continuous gross-out humour to make up for that. There was a natural end point with season 3. I will give this another episode, but may abandon it there.
• Adolescence - I completely agree with those who say that it isn’t the kids who need to see Adolescence, but the parents. I found that there was some heavy-handed moralising in eps 2 & 4, but 1 and 3 were intense and excellent and all of them were technically impressive.
• The White Lotus - another compelling season of the wealthy and damned paraded for our judgement. Fine performances from Posey, Issacs and Goggins particularly.
• The Residence - I wasn’t sure about episode 1. It seemed to be trying too hard and not nearly as funny as the director seems to think, but episode 2 was much improved. I’ll continue.

Threads (1984). I was in shock for a week when I first saw that. No horror film has come close.

If these were lab conditions with known airflow and volumes and window sizes and air temperatures and solar gain and so on and so on maybe someone could give you a useful answer, but without any of that, I’ve no idea and I doubt that anyone else will be able to tell you either.

1177 B.C. The Year Civilisation Collapsed- Eric H Cline. I think that meets your criteria - although ‘narrator isn’t annoying’ is obviously wildly subjective. I listened a while back and found it very interesting. I will be listening to After 1177 B.C. sometime soon.

Cold air will enter the stairwell at the bottom. If it is cold outside, it will probably be at least a bit warmer in the stairwell, so the air will warm and rise to the top of the well. It’s probably still cooler than in anyone’s room, though so that will be what the 4th floor residents are noticing.

To air the well most effectively, I’d suggest opening a window at the bottom and at the top and maybe putting a heater at the bottom as well. That would cause the cold air entering at the bottom to rise more rapidly and then exit through the top window. This may not be particularly efficient from an energy use POV though.

With the top window open and the warmer air in the well the 4th floor may even get less of a draft doing this, as the air would be getting out that way instead - unless there was a wind blowing in through that top window.

Beach with other people? Nope. No interest at all.

Deserted beach, where you can roam, explore cliffs and rockpools and so on? Well, they have an atmosphere, so maybe sometime.

Forest? Yes, definitely. Hiking will take you away from anyone else, and there will be plenty of opportunities for wildlife spotting one way or another.

Adrian Tchaikovsky’s latest: Shroud. So far, it hasn’t grabbed me in the same way that Children of Time did, but I’m enjoying it and am interested to see how the worldbuilding goes.