test please delete

[NickFitz]

Tea has been chicken casserole with chips and peas. Very nice

Already down to 0°C outside. It's not going to be a warm night

[ladymuck]

A very lovely episode of The Repair Shop today. Those motorcycle boots were fab but I couldn't help but think the clock was cursed and shouldn't have been fixed.

[ladymuck]

The final entertainment for the evening was the latest two episodes of the Uncanny podcast on iPlayer.

Why are there no recent spooky goings on? It's not like everyone has eReaders, and got rid of their books, and Marie Kondo'd the bejesus out of their belongings.

[NickFitz]

The final entertainment for the evening was the latest two episodes of the Uncanny podcast on iPlayer.

Why are there no recent spooky goings on? It's not like everyone has eReaders, and got rid of their books, and Marie Kondo'd the bejesus out of their belongings.

FWIW, here's Hayley's Worst Ghosts of 2021

Quite a bit of telly was watched this evening, starting with one of those US border cops things. Then some of a new Traffic Cops whilst dining.

Then a further episode of Dopesick, which continues to be excellent

After that, Air Crash Investigation looked into a Russian crash from 2011 which killed the nation's top ice hockey team; a bit like the Manchester United air crash for that country, it seems. Which reminded me that I'd been thinking of rewatching Chernobyl, so I then watched the first two episodes of that.

Down to -2°C out now

Goodnight all

[eek]

Just got an email through about cheap upgrade options for my forthcoming stay in Sofia.

Now it was a great deal £1400 for 3 weeks but there are two slight problems there

1) Last few times I stayed there I was automatically upgraded to a suite if at all available (the staff and management liked me). Now I'm not likely to get a suite for 3 weeks but all the other rooms are utterly identical so an upgrade is pointless

2) I didn't book it and couldn't using either of the two schemes that it was purchased under (which is a shame as the discount available was v. v. nice).

Thankfully it's cancelled without a hassle and I've mailed them to point out I'm not the Lufthansa engineer they think I am.

[WTFH]

Morning all
Light cloud out there and a fair amount of frost on the ground, but apart from the bracing temperature it was a pleasant walk with The Dog^TW

Still smirking to myself about a contractor who, for the last 6 months was told his contract was ending at the end of 2021 (he's been on site for 7 years). He was convinced he was irreplaceable because even though he was supposed to be working on one project at a time, he always found ways of getting himself involved in other project, then failing to deliver (or de-scoping) on the main one, blaming the other projects.
He thought he couldn't be replaced and daren't be let go. Even though he was out of contract, he's been getting involved in things and hinting at new work he needed to be involved in...
Right up to yesterday morning when his AD account was deleted (automatically when a user has finished and their hiring manager has not requested their account be kept open).

If he was based in the UK, he'd be HMRC's wet dream. In the last 15 years he's been on 2 client sites - the other one he worked on for 8 years, doing the same thing. He lives in the EU, isn't a UK or EU citizen, runs a UK Ltd and makes his big purchases (e.g. cars) in Switzerland for tax reasons.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Morning.

Dry.

Sunny across the valley boyo with the top of the hill a rosy colour.

Cold in here at 13.9 deg.

1013 mBar (down from 1018 mbar last night), in Hg, Torr, 66% RH.

Thursday apparently; washing day tomorrow. Sic transit glorious Mondays & all that.

^^^ That was then; now it's pissing down & 10 10ths grey grey grey grey grey. .

Bob's progress: https://dilbert.com/strip/2022-01-06

Still pissing down. :

Lunch: pea & ham soup with Morrisons sunflower and pumpkin seed bread, bramble jelly sandwich on same, yellow corner yog, 0.91 pints of good Glengettie tea.

Entertainment: 10 seconds of the Oz Customs thing, 15 seconds of the news about the Oz Customs thing, tennis related, 5 minutes of the NZ Highway patrol.

More Freecell frustration: 83.46% running average on this box.

Plus the interweb is up & down like a whore's drawers.

One minute it's the wifi connection, the next it's the modem thing going tits up.

Freecell score on other box: 72% running average 84%.

Not a good day.

Tea: the final portion of chilli con carne with rice, some fruit cocktail, a yog, 0.91 pints of good Glengettie tea.

Entertainment: Discovering Peter O'Toole.

Quantum Leap S3 E17 "Glitter Rock": the rock music one: shades of the PF Norton Warburg caper.

Discovering Nicholas Cage.

Trucking Hell S5 E6: Rory! But Michael & some other geezer first: great to see Rory on it again.

NCIS LA S11 E1 "Let Fate decide": run of the mill stuff with guns, a good deal more satisfying than QL.

Roswell S2 E5 "End of the World": one of those "I'm back from the future to change things" things. Quite poignant in its way. The future is not written & all that without the jeep & the alsation dog, just a wedding dance for a wedding that never happened.

[ladymuck]

Morning all

Blue skies. Chilly at -1 with a high of 6. Rain expected this afternoon. Barometer up to 1020 mBar.

Another rubbish night's sleep. This time waking up very hot and sweaty. I had closed the window due to it being a bit cold overnight but perhaps that was a bad idea.

[NickFitz]

Morning denizens

Took me a while to nod off, but after that I had a pretty good night's sleep. I didn't set any alarms, figuring I'd let my system decide when to wake me, and it's a much better way to start the day

Interestingly, although these days I always feel like I needed the full eight hours, said system is apparently OK with around seven to seven-and-a-half as long as it gets to wake up on its own terms

Cold day out: currently 2°C and not improving much during the day, though supposedly rising to as much as 7° after sunset and no worse than 2° overnight. It was sunny not that long ago but has now opted for "partly cloudy" (actually grey and dank) and there's rain (40% - 70%) and maybe even a touch of snow (80%) predicted for the afternoon. Barometers: minimally up at 1006/1014mB

[NickFitz]

Lunch: a couple of Southern not-fried drumsticks

Turkey soup is in the process of becoming in the InstantPot™ so I may sample a small bowl of that later too.