test please delete

[NickFitz]

Tea has been chicken hotpot - last of that out of the freezer. It's nice, but perhaps better suited to colder times

The car was the Land Rover Mk. II, and some of the gold diggers ended better off than others.


And Boris and Nads have both cut and run on the same day! I assume Boris will now run in the by-election in Nads' seat, and vice versa

[NickFitz]

Car pass its MOT, but with a heap of rusty advisories that suggests I need to spend some serious cash if it's going to make it though another one.

Still a pass!

[NickFitz]

Tonight's major motion picture premiere was Best Sellers (2021) starring Michael Caine as an irascible and misanthropic writer who published one major book then chose to vanish from view (so J.D. Salinger) and Aubrey Plaza as the young inheritor of his publishers, who forces him to abide by an old contract to provide one more book and go on a tour to promote it. I really enjoyed this one; generally humorous, but also thoughtful about the business of writing and the peculiar nature of fame in the present day

And then a rewatch of Looper (2012) because it's good and I like it

Goodnight all

[DoctorStrangelove]

Morning.

Saturday.

Dry.

Wanly sunny.

Greyish Overcast.

Less cool in here at 21.6 deg, 23.5 deg in the kitchen, 22 deg in the leanto.

1007 mBar, 29.7366 in Hg, 755.3 Torr, 14.6 psi, (unchanged), 68% RH (GDR hair), 66% RH (Lidl electric).

Meanwhile on the 14th of June 2019 there was much consumption of canteen food (half portions in one case), while NF was doing stuff with {thing} and Github, then intending to Go Shopping, apparently having little other reason for leaving his abode: oh how little we knew of what was coming. Woe Woe & thrice Woe, with knobs on.

Entertainment: Wheeler Dealers S6 E11&12: 1975 Ferrari 308 GT4 Dino: bought: £8750 (from a mate in the trade, this one being somewhat unafflicted with rust unlike the first one he looked at which had spent 7 years in a garden), total: £11,880, sold (eventually): £13k. No MOT so presumably MOT free, taxed to May 2024. Dents fixed in offside front & rear wings, respray, undertray repaired with glass fibre & filler: rattle can heaven, replaced the exhaust manifolds with stainless steel aftermarket versions which took about 2 days: a day to get the manifolds off by lifting the engine and a day to put all the bits back when the new ones turned up. The tubo'lard was less offensive in this early example. Car tax disc showed 2008. First demo of that magic dent removal thingie with the funny weld on hooks that let you pull dents, the dent in the rear wing required the assistance of oxyacetylene to heat the metal up. Nice full body respray. The first guy offered £10k for it, the 2nd offered £12k, the third did the deal.

Lunch: baked potatoes with cheese and baked beans, a red corner yog, bramble jelly and marmalade on slices of toast, 0.91*1.55 pints of good Glengettie tea.

Entertainment: the fridge humming away & my tinnitus.

Three lawns duly strimmed & mown: there'll be no No Mow May next year: waste of time & energy.

Entertainment: The Walking Hills (1949) with that Randolph Scott character: it's a western, however it's set in 1949, quite late in the day for an oater.

In other news: It's Raining.

Tea: spag with the last portion of bol, added to which was some chilli powder to make it more inneresting, the rest of the stewed gooseberries and custard, 0.91*1.55 pints of good Glengettie tea.

Entertainment: PM. Followed by Nick Robinson talking to someone. It went <click>.

Maigret S1 E9 "The Mistake": the 1960 version of what was on the 1994 version a week or so ago. Er, it wasn't last week, rather it was last Tuesday. Somewhat different from the 1994 version, but enjoyable enough, especially since it didn't need subtitles. Quite odd to have the same story on the same channel in two different versions within 5 days.

The Four Just Men E23: The Miracle of St. Philippe 1959. Set in France with everyone doing Clouseau impressions. . This one had Paul Daneman (who I remember from Spy Trap in the early 70s).

[NickFitz]

Morning denizens

Sunny out, with that appearance of a very fine, high haze that presages a warm day. Ans so it shall be: already up to 20°C, with 27° expected by early afternoon. The barometers, though, are down a little at 1003/1011mB

Off south later. Not ideal weather for a drive, given that the Corolla's air conditioning stopped working properly the other year and I've never bothered getting it fixed

[ladymuck]

Morning all

Clear sky. Already hot at 23 degrees with a high of 28 expected. Barometer down a bit to 1015 mBar. Not even a snifter of a breeze.

Busy morning. The bed has been stripped and is airing. First load is on the line, the second is in the WM. House has been hoovered. All windows open in the vain hope of getting some airflow. Now having a sit down with a cuppa before tackling the bins.

HWMBO is on his way down from that Scotland, due to arrive late lunchtime. Then we go off to Tobacco Docks for the Junipalooza gin festival (and a Tequila/Mezcal festival next door). Always a good idea to have to a night out before travelling.

Edit: due to buying the occasional bottle of gin, I have received free tickets to the aforementioned festival for tomorrow if anyone wants them.

[ladymuck]

All bins emptied. Recycling is due for collection on Tuesday but the bin doesn't have enough in it to warrant putting out. I'll just put the food waste bin out, so as not to have that festering.

All bed linen is pegged out on the line. I suspect it'll be dry in about an hour.

[ladymuck]

Well the forecast was wrong. It's now saying the temperature is 30 degrees with a high of 31.

[NickFitz]

Home again

The journey south was disrupted by roadworks on the Desborough-Rothwell bypass, the road being closed this weekend. I made the mistake of following the diversion signs near Market Harborough, which ended up taking me all the way to Corby then down to Kettering. All that was needed was to follow the old route of the A6 through Desborough and Rothwell, but I suppose they didn't want to impose extra traffic on the towns

This meant I was slightly late to collect my Dad and, in the rush, neither of us remembered to take my Mum's newspaper, which she particularly prizes on Saturday for an extensive puzzle section that helps her pass the time. The hospital site she's on now is much quieter than the main one, and so doesn't have a shop open at weekends. But it's also just on the edge of the town centre, next to my old school's estate, so I walked round to a newsagent at the top of the High Street and got one there

When I was at school, that particular newsagent was Out of Bounds because of its extensive range of pornography, far broader than the usual Fiesta and Penthouse you'd find in every newsagent. As it happened, my mother was friends with the owner's wife (I think they taught at the same school for a while) and we occasionally went to things like Boxing Day lunchtime drinks or summer barbecues at their house, which was not far from ours. I always though it was mildly amusing that I was being taken by my parents to the home of a guy whose business had been decreed by my school to be such a profound corruptor of youth that we weren't allowed to go in there to buy sweets

Anyway, I think he's dead now, and the porn has long since been cleared out so it can serve as more of a convenience store and off licence, news and fags (and porn) not being the money spinners they once were

Coming back, I had planned to carry on to the motorway and visit Big Sainsbury's, but it was too hot for driving (watch said 31°C, car said 29°), so I did what I should have done on the way down and followed the old A6. It's been many a year since I've seen the Cooperative Wholesale Society Limited Corset Factory in Desborough, though I know the A6 still ran through the town about twenty years ago; I can't remember when the bypass was built. And then I went to Medium Sainsbury's, which I still don't like very much; I probably forgot something because of the layout being wrong, and whatever it might have been, they might not have had it anyway as the range on offer seems smaller

Now to decide what to do for tea. Given the excessive warmth out, I'm tempted to outsource the effort and have something delivered

[xoggoth]

far broader than the usual Fiesta and Penthouse you'd find in every newsagent

Didn't have even those mags when I was a young teenager. Had to rely on a medical book and my sister's copies of Horse & Hound.

Hate this hot weather. Had a cold shower a few minutes ago and now feel hot as ever.