test please delete

[NickFitz]

Morning denizens

Greyness is receding outside and giving way to a reasonable amount of blue sky with white fluffiness taking up the rest of the space. Mild again at 7°C with 9° on the cards, and the barometers are almost the same, being 1mB down on yesterday at 1012/1020mB

None of the usual wildlife seems to be out and about yet, but I just had a sighting of a rare Wiltshire Farm Foods delivery person making a drop-off to somebody in the art deco block opposite

And my calendar is reminding me that HMRC expects Self Assessment stuff to be sorted out by close of play tomorrow, so if you've been putting that off, now's the time to deal with it

[DoctorStrangelove]

Ok.

Which of the assembled congregation is this then?

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/pictured-d...201317200.html

[ladymuck]

Morning all

Glorious sunshine first thing but now there's a black cloud making it's presence felt. Rain is not forecast until 5pm though so it'll have to wait. It's 16 degrees at present with a high of 17 forecast.

Apparently January and February are the coldest months here, according to the staff who are wrapped up warm and complaining about the cold.

There are two cruise ships in port so HWMBO has decided against going into Funchal for a mooch around while I have a massage in a bid to sort out my stuff neck and shoulder. Later today we have afternoon tea on what is a semi outdoor terrace so hopefully the rain doesn't turn up early.

Yesterday, after sampling the local drink, poncha, we had a fabulous dinner in a local neighbourhood restaurant. Excellent food and service, good value for money.

[NickFitz]

Links are up

[NickFitz]

Lunch was a couple of cold Southern not-fried chicken bits

And then away to the old flat, where I spent some time sorting assorted junk into to-be-binned, to-be-recycled, and to-be-brought-here. Then I brought some of the last of these back with me; odd stuff that hadn't been worth moving before like the suitcase which I hardly use now as I don't go anywhere, the attaché case I haven't used for years (I think it still has some NCR timesheets from circa 2006 in it), and a bunch of cables and stuff which will never be used but which it's important to keep around Just In Case

I need to do some more sorting out at this end really, to make room for the remaining junk

Oh, but I did find one useful thing: the "smart" lightbulb. The living room here has two lights with dimmer switches, but the one towards the back of the room has an undimmable LCD bulb. So I've replaced that with the "smart" one, which immediately recognised that it was back in reach of my home automation controller, despite being on a different wifi network and said controller being an Apple TV, which isn't even the same Apple TV as before because I bought the new one since moving. I'm just waiting for it to turn on, as it's set to do so fifteen minutes before sunrise… and there it is! Sometimes, Apple stuff really does Just Work™

[NickFitz]

Phone call from the agency/consultancy/whatever they are about the "new" gig. It amuses me that their various representatives often seem not to realise that I've already been at ClientGov under different auspices for almost two years, so know all the ins and outs of the place. Still, nice to know they're keen to help if I encounter any problems

And I finally got around to looking at the agenda for the kickoff Teams meeting. Glad to see it's been scheduled for the comparatively civilised time of 10am; not so keen on the item about "mandatory training" but IIRC it's supposed to be redone every 12 months so I'm about due for it again anyway

[NickFitz]

Finally got around to digging out the logbooks V5Cs for the cars and updating their address. Very smooth process at DVLA, I thought

Then I went to update the details for their insurance. For some reason, the insurance for the Toyota went up by about thirty-five quid, plus an admin fee; apparently I should be pleased that said fee was reduced because I made the change online

Meanwhile, the Super Monkey Car's went down: no admin fee mentioned and, as it's now kept in a garage, I shall receive a refund to the tune of £7.25. Boomed!

[NickFitz]

Tea: chicken madras with rice and naan

[NickFitz]

Tonight's car was a Renault 5 GT Turbo, which I'd seen before; must have been on at the weekend recently. It ended up returning to its original owner

And they did, in fact, move on to S2 of the gold diggers. They've started introducing some additional teams now, having presumably decided to expand based on the positive reception of the first series.

The opal hunters found some nice bits; and the sapphire hunters didn't have much chance to find sapphires as they were coping with unprecedented storms and concomitant flooding, presumably the same weather the opal hunters were coping with in recent shows.

And that was that; Monday, the one day when I don't have to decide what to watch because I just watch this tripe

Goodnight all

[WTFH]

Morning all