test please delete

[DoctorStrangelove]

Morning.

Tuesday.

Grey.

Foggy.

Misty.

Drizzly.

Sunless.

Have I mentioned it's grey?

Curiously warmish side of chilly out though it's 12.2 deg in here, 12 deg in the kitchen, 11 deg in the leanto.

1023 mBar, 30.2 in Hg, 767.3131 Torr, 14.8373 psi, (up from 1020 last night), 68% RH (Lidl electric).

Meanwhile on the 13th of December 2019 it was cold wet & windy in Manchester where LM was for some unknown reason, it was dryish here and the sun came out while I was doing the needful washings, and NF reminded us all that he'd been born 20 miles from Manchester so knew what the weather was like, whereas BR14 remarked that the sun's hat had blown off.

Major Luna Standstill. Who'd have thunk?

It's still grey, maybe slightly less misty, foggy, & drizzly.

Lunch: brunch.

Entertainment: book.

Walk (unabbreviated) walked in the grey gloomy drizzle. Nice enough if you like that sort of thing, like.

Tea: Brains faggots with peas & suchlike. Nice enough.

Entertainment: PM <click> I can't stand (amongst many other irritating things) interviews over phone "lines" which keep breaking up all the time.

Dunno what else there is this evening. Looked in my £5.95 Radio Times without spotting anything gripping and "Shooter (2016)" S2 finished last week..

Instead of "Shooter (2016)" the offering of "Dirty Harry (1971)" was accepted, or rather, the final half hour or so. I also watched sommat else but can for the life of me remember what it was: oh yes, it was a thing on Quest Red about the psychopath Philpott: the one who incinerated five of his children. A real charmer. It analysed his acting during the police appeal etc.

[ladymuck]

Morning all

It was quite bright earlier and now it's turned cloudy. My weather app says low visibility but it's not that bad. Currently 9 degrees with a high of 11 expected. Low chance of rain. Barometer at 1025 mBar.

Having a coffee before packing the car up for the drive to Mum's. I did a shop so she has food etc in the house, even though her eating is getting worse and worse unless someone puts a plate of food in front of her.

[xoggoth]

Ran loony lady 1 to station this morning, she's off to her sister's. Got 12 Xmouse cards this year. Robins, robins, robins, robins...... Boring robins! I'd much rather have dinosaurs on my cards.

[NickFitz]

Morning denizens

Grey day out with traces of overnight rain, but none of that is expected today. It's mild at 12°C, which is what it will stay at until it dips down to a still-quite-mild 7° overnight. The barometers are up a touch more at 1013/1021mB

I've still got a nagging feeling there's something I'm supposed to do, but I think this may just be down to not working on what is, I am told, a Tuesday. Or maybe it's because I haven't yet "wrapped" (i.e. put into a gift bag) the remaining presents. And it could just be that I realised last night that I don't have any dry roasted peanuts in the house, and thought about popping round to Sainsbury's Local for some

The last deliveries expected before Christmas have arrived, including the cheap arm tray from Amazon. This seems adequate for its purposes, at least in the short term, and is now in position on the arm of the recliner I'm not leaning on, bearing the TV remote control and a plate with some all-butter Scottish shortbread fingers, these last with coffee being my seasonally-appropriate breakfast

[NickFitz]

Lunch: sardine toasties (olive oil variant)

It's a bit on the sunny side out now, though still with streaks and patches of cloud here and there

[NickFitz]

Popped down to check the Corolla over ready for tomorrow. Oil level was OK, and such other bits beneath the bonnet as I know the purpose of seemed to be in their appointed places and at their appointed levels, so I set out to do the tyre pressures. As I do this using an electric pump powered from the car, I decided to start the engine to prevent too much drain on the battery, just in case - but it wouldn't start! Turned the key, there was a click and all the lights on the dashboard came on the way they do, but nothing past that, six times in a row

I thought it possible the battery was partially drained as, unlike some cars, that doesn't seem to crank the starter motor slowly but just doesn't crank it at all. So I came up for the little booster pack batteries. I knew where they were, but I haven't used them in years so I thought they might need a charge - except they have the USB socket that's almost never used anywhere, and I haven't seen my lead that fits them since I don't know when but probably back at the old place

So then I spent ages looking for the lead, finding all kinds of other leads but not the special one. Finally, I decided to take them both down on the off chance one of them held enough charge.

Naturally, before faffing around, I tried starting the car again - and it fired into life first turn of the key, no sign of struggling, ran absolutely fine

So I have no idea what was going on. Anyway, I got all the tyres back to nominal pressure, and just in case I took it for a quick drive around the neighbourhood so it was full warmed up and, hopefully, well-charged for tomorrow

It occasionally does that click-but-no-starting thing but always fires up on the second or third go. This is the first time it's just done nothing for six tries. Maybe it's because it's quite damp out, and letting damp air into the engine bay when I was checking the oil affected it somehow, then it dried out during the twenty minutes or so I was up here with the bonnet shut again? I don't have a clue TBH

[NickFitz]

Mundane laundry is on

[NickFitz]

So then I spent ages looking for the lead, finding all kinds of other leads but not the special one.

Just glanced downwards while getting out of my chair and saw the lead, exactly where I'd put it so it'd be safe on the bottom level of the small coffee table

Oh well, I can charge the things now, even though it apparently wasn't the battery anyway

[NickFitz]

As part of the business of sorting things out so the new chair could get in here, the Christmas tree that had been on the floor behind stuff since I hung the baubles on it finally found a position on top of a Kallax 2x2 near the sofa. So I just dug out the fairy lights (which my parents got from Wilko of blessed memory) and draped them around it and thus, for the first time ever, I have an illuminated tree in my place for Christmas!

[DoctorStrangelove]

^^^ Zenchury Om.


^^^ Mine has the Mazda 1952 Coronation lights set on it, with a Fairy Liquid(tm) bottle stuck on the pointy star thing at the apex with a red light bulb illuminating it from the inside.

It stays there all year since I can't be arsed to take it down again.