test please delete

[ladymuck]

Morning all, London time

Sunny. Currently 17 degrees with a high of 26 expected. Barometer at 1021 mBar.

I hope it rains while I'm away or my plants might not survive.

Just getting ourselves ready for the next part of our trip. Off to Honolulu via JFK and LAX.

[NickFitz]

Morning denizens

Up very betimes and drove across town to get my hair cut, this being the day that my preferred hairdresser works. She gets there about seven to miss the traffic, which was also my intention. Sure enough, I was able to get over there in about ten minutes, which would have been twice as long later in the day and probably three or four during rush hour; and I was also able to nab the closest street parking spot to the shop. The return journey was similarly smooth sailing, with the whole business taking no more than forty minutes or so from setting out to returning

She warned me that she might not always be there early on Thursdays for a while, because her husband has cancer

When I was leaving, I bid my usual farewells, and added that I hoped his treatment went OK. She just shook her head and mouthed "It's untreatable"

It's another sunny one out there, now up to 16°C and reaching 25° later. The barometers are up some more at 1010/1018mB

[NickFitz]

Morning all, London time

Sunny. Currently 17 degrees with a high of 26 expected. Barometer at 1021 mBar.

I hope it rains while I'm away or my plants might not survive.

Just getting ourselves ready for the next part of our trip. Off to Honolulu via JFK and LAX.

The Met Office forecast for your neck of the woods suggests possible showers from Saturday onwards, so the plants might be in luck

Bon voyage!

[DoctorStrangelove]

Morning.

Thursday.

Sunny.

Dry.

Warm in here at 23 deg, 24 deg in the kitchen, 22 deg in the leanto.

1014 mBar, 29.9434 in Hg, 760.563 Torr, 14.71 psi, (up from 1012 last night), 70% RH (GDR hair), 65% RH (Lidl electric).

Meanwhile on the 17th of June 2019 there was much discussion of scamming bastard phonecalls.

90 days! Poor old Bunter the fat owl of the remove.

Walk (abbreviated & altered from yesterday's altered route) walked in the sunshine with the sun mostly hidden by the trees, which was good.

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

Entertainment: Y&Y Gap Finders: some shopkeeper chap (Mark Neale: Mountain Warehouse) with a Physics degree from Oxbridge, having been born in Ebbw Vale & brought up in Abergavenny though he didn't sound like it. Sliced Bread: UV steriliser.

Freecell score in the unbearable heat of the afternoon:87%, running average: 85%.

Entertainment: Trucking Hell S1 E4: no Rory.

Tea: chilli con carne (last portion) with pilau rice, stewed gooseberries (Morrisons, reduced) with custard, 0.91*1.55 pints of good Glengettie tea.

Entertainment: PM: stuffed full of obnoxious Tory apologists.

Wheeler Dealers S13 E12 1976 Porsche 912E: the ep where Edd does 34 retakes (apparently). Bought: $25k including a refurb set of wheels, total: $31,016, sold: $35,001. Much faffing about with torsion bars, refurbed the air metering unit thing, reinstalled the air con compressor & associated bits, replaced the injectors, totally pointless $3k spent on changing the black trim for chrome by tubp'lard. Well at least it didn't get a fecking wrap, which is a plus.

Trucking Hell S7 E1. Amusing enough. Those of a certain age could do the "he's fallen in the water" Eccles Little Jim thing.

UFO bollox on Blaze.

[NickFitz]

Lunch has been zingy chicken and lentil soup with seedy brown bread

Mid-morning, I looked out of the study window and saw a huge plume of smoke rising into the sky from beyond the houses in a nearby street. I thought the fire must be fairly close by as it was so big. But it turned out it was nearly three miles away, and therefore absolutely enormous

Just checked and it's still burning! Not quite as much smoke now though.

[NickFitz]

No more smoke, though I believe the fire isn't completely out yet from what the local rag says. They had to use water from the canal on it at one point

[NickFitz]

Tea: chunky breaded cod with chips and beans

I even went all fancy and squeezed a slice of lemon over the fish

Accompanying that, an S6 episode of Trucking Hell that I'd watched up to the first commercial break the other week, because the gold diggers show was of such recent memory. The car, by the way, was a Porsche - a 912E, I think; I didn't pay much attention as I've probably seen it at least twice before

[NickFitz]

I didn't watch anything further after Trucking Hell because I was tired from today's early start and not really in the mood for watching stuff

So now, another early night, as I'm planning another early start tomorrow

Goodnight all

[ladymuck]

Evening all

It's dark so I can't see what the cloud situation is. 22 degrees.

Just arrived in LA. Local time 21.14 on 15 June.

[NickFitz]

Morning denizens

Up very betimes again, this time to head over to Big Sainsbury's to do the shopping and fill the car up. Due to dithering, I didn't get there until around 7:25, and it turns out that's too late to avoid the rush hour traffic on the way back. I normally head up the ring road one leg, then turn inwards, then cut up an inner ring-ish road and so home. But that inwards route goes through a former village with a shambolic apology for a crossroads at its centre, and the traffic was already backed up a good half-mile from there by the time I got to it. So I doubled back and went a couple more legs of the ring road, at which point I was able to cut onto local roads I know well from student days wandering around that area, and so home avoiding any more major routes. It still took about half an hour to get back though, against about twelve minutes to get there. Next time, if there is one, I'll get there earlier and do the quiet route back

Anyway, the shopping has been put away and the car is still full, so that's that all dealt with. It's another sunny one, now up to 19°C with 25° expected again, and the barometers are trivially down at 1009/1017mB

Coffee should have brewed, and I suppose I need to think about doing some work. I'm very tempted to pop round to the cob shop though; a bacon cob would really hit the spot right now