test please delete

[NickFitz]

The shopping has been done!

I managed to only spend around two-thirds of the usual amount, so only about twice as much as I'd intended

However, part of that was down to there being some very nice bits of meat (various kinds) with decent expiry dates. Once again, the plan to "use up all that stuff in the freezer" will be put on hold

Just before I went out, I spotted a big brown spider up by the curtain rail in the living room. I assume it came in last night when I had the windows open until I went to bed. I decided that both it and myself would be happier if it went back outside and although it took a bit of catching due to having gone up behind the curtain rail, I eventually managed to catch it and chuck it out, where it fell among the small plants with big leaves that grow in the flowerbed at the base of the building. That should give it some cover from birds and such while it assesses its new situation

[sadkingbilly]

That's the way to do it

Sadly, this has come down from the Cabinet Office and when they tell departments to jump, the only thing the Chiefs are worried about is how high. And the Civil Service, at least at the levels that I'm grade-equivalent to, is beholden to the principle that nobody is irreplaceable. Fair enough really; if a company goes bust because the one person who knew everything was hit by a bus, it only affects a few shareholders. The same thing in the Civil Service could mean the entire apparatus of the State stops working (even more so than usual)

oh, dear, would that be a problem?
really?

[ladymuck]

oh, dear, would that be a problem?
really?

Yes, would anyone notice?

[NickFitz]

Yes, would anyone notice?

Depends whether you ever buy Scotch whisky in Morocco!

Morocco was charging very high duty on Scotch whisky imports for some reason - much higher than for other spirits, even whiskies from elsewhere. So the Scotch Whisky Manufacturers Association asked the department's Export Support Service for help, and it was able to convince the Moroccan government that they'd misinterpreted their own regulations, so the excess duty was no longer charged. As a result, if you go on holiday to Morocco and buy a glass of Scotch, it'll be much cheaper than it would otherwise have been

[NickFitz]

Lunch has been a Dickinson & Morris pork pie

The cloud has cleared somewhat now, and it's getting warmer

[NickFitz]

Phone call from the GP. Apparently the latest test results are back in an acceptable range so there's no point doing anything

[ladymuck]

Phone call from the GP. Apparently the latest test results are back in an acceptable range so there's no point doing anything

[NickFitz]

Tea: rack of ribs and chips

This was accompanied by a new(ish) Trucking Hell. I notice that all the archive ones involve Crouch Recovery, so I wonder if for some reason they were unable to film with them for this series.

It's got quite cloudy again. Not in a rainy way though, and there's nothing on the lightning map

[xoggoth]

Feeling pretty low this afternoon so went for a sunset wander round village and then called in at local club. Just me and neighbour, dunno how they keep going.

[NickFitz]

For tonight's major motion picture premiere, I thought it was about time for something a bit more intellectual than the usual mayhem and sci-fi stuff, so I selected what many professionals in the field of English Literature say is the best film adaptation of Emma by Jane Austen: Clueless (1995). It was fun in the way these things are, which is probably what people said about Emma in 1816. [touches earpiece] I'm just hearing of a review of Emma from 1816: "There is no story whatever, and the heroine is not better than other people; but the characters are all true to life and the style so piquant, that it does not require the adventitious aids of mystery and adventure." So there you go; it's like that

And then I disposed of the messy obligation to finish rewatching the Nonsense Trilogy by rewatching Inferno (2016). This one actually isn't too bad if you forget its association with the earlier two; it's an action thriller full of hokum, but at least there's not too much of the pseudo-intellectual symbol stuff, and only one anagram. They could all have been quite decent films if it hadn't been for their plots

Finally, the recent online chatter about S2 of The Last of Us reminded me that I never got around to finishing S1 thereof, even though it's good. So I finished watching that, and can now watch S2 - as long as I remember that I'm watching it, which I seem to be pretty bad at

Goodnight all