test please delete

[NickFitz]

Morning denizens

It's a bright and sunny day with a clear blue sky after a frosty night, the frost lingering on such cars as haven't returned to work this morning. We're currently at 0°C ("feels like" -2°) with an expected high of 3°, and the barometers are bouncing back at 1007/1015mB

The fairy lights broke when I turned them on this morning. Probably the fuse, but I haven't got a clue where the spare fuses are since I moved

[NickFitz]

The fairy lights broke when I turned them on this morning. Probably the fuse, but I haven't got a clue where the spare fuses are since I moved

I remembered that the fuses were probably in a box of assorted junk in the hall cupboard and I was right! But only the 5A ones, and I need 3A.

As I quite possibly never had any of that rating, there didn't seem much point searching further, so I went to order some off Amazon. Turned out the best option was a box of 64 of the damn things in assorted ratings. So that'll be something I can pass down to my descendants, yea, even unto the third and fourth generation

By adding assorted other bits of cheap household junk that might come in handy I was able to get the bill up to £20 which enabled same day delivery, so at least by tonight I'll know whether I need to get some new fairy lights next - well, this - year

[DoctorStrangelove]

With luck the lift engineer will come and fix it tomorrow, and I can resume the attempt to get the table and chairs out of here

Donated my dining table to the BHF along with some very expensive ercol chairs. The parents dining table & chairs went to the house clearance auction people.

Morning Afternoon.

Thursday apparently.

Dry.

Sunny.

Blue sky.

Frosty.

Icy in places: nearly went arse over tit once.

Chilly in here at 11.9 deg, 11 deg in the kitchen, 9 deg in the leanto.

1017.5 mBar, 30.05 in Hg, 763.2 Torr, 14.7575 psi, (up from 1009 last night), 63% RH (Lidl electric).

Meanwhile on the 16th of December 2019 LM was Xmas shopping, discovering that Dorothy Perkins had disappeared putting a spoke in one plan, whereas I was getting the car MOTed, NF found his twitter feed thing had fallen over & covbob got what is now a zenchury but probably wasn't back then, and WTFH was on the slopes.

Shopping trips to Morrisons, Aldi, and Tesco done dusted washed dried sanitised & put away.

During which the body of a dead cat was observed on Pendydre, though it didn't look as if it had been hit by anything. Nice looking cat too, apart from being dead.

Lunch: brunch.

Entertainment: part 4 of the R4 thing about the leveret.

Walk (unabbreviated but unaugmented) walked in the sunshine: about 5 miles today.

Tea: beans on toast etc. Nice enough, with some of the Xmas cake (Aldi, reduced) as an extra, plus a mince pie or two (Tesco reduced) as well.

Entertainment: New book.

Vera S14 E2: the end. Until it comes back as Vera's early career: shades of Morse.

Good news: according to the EPG Maigret is back next Wednesday and Shooter S3 is back on Tuesday at 23:00.

[NickFitz]

Lunch has been a bacon bap

No sign of anything being done to get the lift moving

As it doesn't need a lift, I've put a towel wash on

[NickFitz]

Finally got around to unboxing and setting up the two HomePods I got before Christmas! Can't wait to… watch while they download a software update

[NickFitz]

Finally got around to unboxing and setting up the two HomePods I got before Christmas! Can't wait to… watch while they download a software update

Gave them a go without waiting for the update (which adds support for voice enhancement when watching Apple TV, to make up for modern filmmakers being unable to conceive of making the actors audible by default) and the sound is very good indeed. Blasting out Vaughan Williams' Fantasia on a theme by Thomas Tallis and it sounds great

[DoctorStrangelove]

Now waiting for the news story: "Man banned from playing loud classical music in Leicester flat". .

Upstairs neighbour complains "I couldn't even hear my SDS hammer drill it was so loud".

[NickFitz]

Now waiting for the news story: "Man banned from playing loud classical music in Leicester flat". .

Upstairs neighbour complains "I couldn't even hear my SDS hammer drill it was so loud".

I was wondering how loud they go, but I think I'd better wait until everybody else is out, though who knows if that will ever happen

By switching the Apple TV to use the ARC-enabled HDMI port on the telly, I've been able to set it up so all TV audio goes through them even when the Apple TV is nominally switched off. I'll give it a few days to decide if this is better than using the sound bar

Meanwhile, the lift is moving again! It's going up and down a lot and stopping at different floors, presumably so the engineer can check stuff, but I should be able to resume activities involving moving heavy stuff downstairs tomorrow

[NickFitz]

Tea has been Scotch broth with a bit of wholemeal, because I thought it was about time I had something a bit more nutritious than what I've had for the past week or more

This was accompanied by the motorway-avoiding cops thing. I'm thinking that the AirPods, currently sat on the floor, might supply a bit too much bass through the celling g to the neighbours downstairs. I'll have to raise them up - I've got a couple of speaker stands I've had for years that might do for now

The fuses (and other stuff) have been delivered, and the fairy lights still don't work

In fact, about half of them didn't work anyway. I'm wondering if they're maybe a couple of circuits in series, and one had already blown and now the other has too. I'm not sure if it's worth getting into trying to fix them though

[DoctorStrangelove]

Om.