test please delete

[ladymuck]

[xoggoth]

And the front path is starting to look like a wildnerness

My entire garden is like a wilderness. Left it too late to start mowing the lawn and then couldn't bring myself to get rid of all the nice Lady's Smock and other wild flowers.

[NickFitz]

It's continued overcast here today, though not in the way that suggests it might rain. The mundane laundry is now on, and the recycling has been taken over to the bins

[NickFitz]

The gas and electricity people sent me a letter about a bill I paid weeks ago, and I've been unable to log in to their online service due to an unspecified error, so I phoned them up earlier to get it sorted out. They admitted the bill in question had been paid about a month before the letter was dated and said to ignore it, and went on to fix the problem with the online account, which was helpful.

They then suggested that I let them install a smart gas meter, to go with the smart electricity meter that's already here, installed last year at the behest of the previous owner. I had wondered why they only had the electricity meter done and I figured I'd go along with it, so they made an appointment.

But investigation after work revealed the probable reason: the gas meter is in the cupboard under the sink in the kitchen; the electricity meter is in the other half of the building and on the ground floor, in the area where the storerooms are. And apparently the meters need to connect wirelessly, as the leccy one does the actual work and sends the readings in. The likelihood of them managing to connect successfully is minimal at best, which would explain why it wasn't done last year

So I got on their web chat (now I can log in) and cancelled the appointment

[NickFitz]

Tea: chicken in red wine sauce with chips and peas

And the mundane laundry was dry, so that's been offloaded into the laundry basket where it will sit until the next time I launder something

[NickFitz]

The car earlier was the Fiat Panda 4x4 that we've seen them make ridiculous at least twice before; unsurprisingly, they did it again. SORN, and the MOT expired in January. And then various gold diggers are starting their seasons still, there being quite a few teams in this series.

Later, Inside the Factory on rice pudding. I like the greater number of side quests allowed by the longer running time, but when Cherry goes and observes the entire process of jam making in less than five minutes, it does tend to make one aware of how much of the main strand of the show is filled out with the bloke talking a lot of bollocks to factory workers who've never done him any harm and now have to pretend to be entertained by him

And so to bed to finish off Sam's account of September 1666. He's got all his household goods and possessions back after the fire, which got as far as the bottom of his road, only a hundred yards or so away, but no further. He was quite distressed for a couple of days that some of his big books seemed to be missing, but they turned up in a stray hamper at a friends house, so it all turned out right in the end

Early night now, to be ready for Friday tomorrow

Goodnight all

[NickFitz]

Morning denizens

Up betimes to welcome in the glory that is Friday

It's grey out, and gone a fair bit greyer to the point of being properly overcast just in the past thirty minutes. Currently 11°C, an expected high of 16°, the barometers are trivially down at 1015/1023mB, and there's a 20% chance of rain for a few hours starting at noon

[DoctorStrangelove]

I hope it doesn't rain this weekend. The lawn is in desperate need of a mow. And the front path is starting to look like a wildnerness

OM.

Morning.

Friday despite me thinking it was Saturday.

Dry.

Sunless.

White sky.

Grey.

Cool in here at 17 deg C, 19 deg in the kitchen, 15.5 deg in the leanto.

1024 mBar, 30.238 in Hg, 768.1 Torr, 14.85 psi, (unchanged), 75% RH (GDR hair), 71% RH (Lidl electric).

Meanwhile on the 7th of June 2019 there was a rather prescient discussion of Flu pandemics, and the changing of the electoral results following same when the elderly die off, though that wasn't the result of the Spanish Flu which killed the young adults.

Walk (unabbreviated) walked in the grey gloom. More info discovered re the tipper truck accident: some lune was riding in the tipper. Note to self: it's safer to fall 6 inches sideways into a leat rather than 20 feet down a fecking ravine.

Lunch: scrambled egg and poached tomato on Morrisons sunflower and pumpkin seed toasted crust, bramble jelly and marmalade on slices of toast, red pippy corner yog, 0.91*1.55 pints of good Glengettie tea.

The soon to be lawn patch has been dug over. Knackered now.

Tea: breaded haddock, some apricot halves, a yog, 0.91*1.55 pints of good Glengettie tea.

Entertainment: PM.

Wheeler Dealers S12 E12 1982 Alfasud Ti cloverleaf: bought (at auction inc buyer's premium):£4830, total: £5797, sold: £6k8. Took engine out, changed cam belts (it's got 2), did the shims on the tappets with a magick tool, changed the front brake discs & pads, refurbed the rear suspension, changed the water pump, welded a patch on the inevitable rust hole. Taxed to October, MOT to June.

Villages by the sea: Botallack in Cornwall: tin mine, copper mine, arsenic works. He's going down a mine. Feck me, rather him than me. Hard rock mining.

Wynne Evans Welsh 1970s: more archive stuff.

"An Inspector calls" with that Alistair Sim.

Dial 999 "Special Branch": naughty foreigners attempt to kill a septic nuclear scientist to foment division between the US and the UK. The plod are issued shooters in this one, so obviously SB use different rules to the previous lot.

5Select: Britain's Bloodiest Dynasty with Dan Jones: Henry II with a mention of Stephen & Matilda at the start.

The flittermice are busy tonight and ?Venus? is very bright towards the west.

Britain's Bloodiest Dynasty with Dan Jones: Henry III and Simon de Montfort.

[NickFitz]

Big Sainsbury's has been gone to - the proper big one, too. Nobody else masking that I saw, as usual

But I think I got whatever I needed, including the new Viz

And the car was filled up, as going down to visit my Mum has me using petrol at pre-lockdown levels

Lunch was a couple of sweet chilli chicken thighs from the hot food counter

And the route over there (but not back, for reasons) took me past the old flat, where the chestnut tree is in full flower and looking very nice

[ladymuck]

Afternoon all

It's been a bright but cloudy day. Currently 17 degrees and that's the high for the day. Barometer is down a bit to 1026 mBar.

All go-go-go from the time I logged on today. Much resolved following a bit of a data misunderstanding and people are scurrying around to get things sorted out (including myself).

Time sheet and invoice submitted.

The weekend rain risk seems to have dissipated so I can do my garden tomorrow and Mum's on Sunday. Then I will ache.