test please delete

[NickFitz]

Shopping done!

I went to Big Sainsbury's in the end, as I got 3x Nectar points if I spent over a certain amount, and they have a wider range of stuff from which one can grab something to make up an extra five or ten quid if necessary. But by dint of treating myself to a few bits plus inflation, I was comfortably over anyway

[ladymuck]

The flight home is upstairs in a 380 in the ying-yang seats. The Wife still knows very little about where she is going, so it will be fun.

Top tip: don't pick seats close to the front as they are right by the toilets and you'll have oiks queuing up next to you. I've sat in 50B before and it was a nightmare. Row 53 minimises the need to climb over a random to get out.

If you're flying from Heathrow I can keep an eye on your departure and give you an early heads up of gate assignment (and whether it's a bus!) and any delays. Just PM me the deets if such a service would be useful.

[NickFitz]

Pukka steak slice for lunch

There's an LED light bar mounted under the cupboards in the kitchen, illuminating the long worktop, held in place by two springy metal clips. These have somehow become bent out of shape and for two years or more now, the bar has occasionally fallen off - sometimes because I've accidentally nudged it when reaching for something, but usually of its own volition. The other morning I found it had fallen off while I was asleep!

It usually took several goes to get it to stay back up, often involving bending one or both of the clips a bit more, but eventually it would stay in place - maybe for an hour, a day, a few weeks, even a few months. But eventually it would fall off again

Last night it got me three times while I was trying to make dinner, so I finally got around to working out what the clips actually are (T5 light clips, it seems) and ordering some off Amazon. They just arrived, so I unscrewed the old ones and installed the new ones, and gave the light a clean while I had it down then slotted it back in place, and that problem has now gone away!

Why I didn't think of doing this sooner is beyond me

[WTFH]

Top tip: don't pick seats close to the front as they are right by the toilets and you'll have oiks queuing up next to you. I've sat in 50B before and it was a nightmare. Row 53 minimises the need to climb over a random to get out.

If you're flying from Heathrow I can keep an eye on your departure and give you an early heads up of gate assignment (and whether it's a bus!) and any delays. Just PM me the deets if such a service would be useful.

PM on its way.
Further buggeration now in that I can check The Wife in online, but it's saying there is an issue I need to check in at the desk.

[NickFitz]

Tea has been a thick-cut Aberdeen Angus ribeye steak and chips

The steak is a new thing at Sainsbury's, coming complete with a lump of beef dripping to fry it in and a lump of seasoned beef marrow to then melt in the pan and pour over it. Very nice it was, though a bit of a palaver

I didn't bother with the beans and fried onion this time, as I wanted to give it a chance on its own. I'll probably get it again, but I've just got back in the habit of getting the normal-sized ones so it'll just be an occasional thing

This was accompanied by the second half of the last episode of Trucking Hell… until the next series, of course

In addition to the light-fixing efforts, this afternoon has seen some additional t-shirts washed - these are the ones with stuff printed on them, so need a somewhat gentler wash and dry than the plain ones. I seem to have found a combination of settings that suits them, as my brand new one bearing Gail Myerscough's drawing of Forton Services on the M6 came out unscathed

And I also had the dishwasher on, and did some experimentation in combining RealityKit with GameplayKit

[NickFitz]

Tonight's major motion picture premiere was supposed to be Avatar: The Way of Water. I tried watching this once before, quite a while ago, and gave up on it; but I figured that might have been because I just wasn't in the mood and it deserved another chance. Turns out I was wrong and it didn't deserve any such thing. Last time I made it about forty minutes in; this time I stuck it out to about an hour and fifteen minutes, which left two hours still to go. And I just didn't care any more

I'll probably endure the last couple of hours at some point, but I hope that'll be before I forget how tedious the start of it is as I did this time. I really liked the first one, but this one is pretty much: sententious stuff about family being the root of happiness in life; special FX showreel; a bit of the story; sententious stuff about, I dunno, nature or something; a bit more story; sententious stuff about the duties of a father; another special FX showreel; another little bit of the story; a special FX showreel with the flavour of a holiday company commercial… you get the idea

So having abandoned that crap I turned to Red Sonja (2025) which I gather is based on a comic book. It turned out this also involved stuff about The Balance of Nature and such, but you know what? It started, it told its story, and it ended. It wasn't the best film I've ever seen, but it was pretty good and I enjoyed it! The story involved a lot of violence, which always helps, but it did the job it was supposed to do much better than the Avatar thing

I do think there may be a good film buried in that Avatar thing, but given that the first hour could easily be cut down to twenty minutes without losing anything, I'm not sure James Cameron knows how to get it out of there. I couldn't even be bothered to get the IMDb link for it given that he can't be bothered to make it watchable, and I say this as someone who bought and enjoyed the extended edition of the first one

Anyway, after that I rewatched BlackBerry (2023) for the sake of something rooted in reality. This is one of those hidden gems, a wonderfully entertaining film about a bunch of technical and business stuff that one wouldn't expect to be entertaining. The aspect of the nerdy guys having no concept of how to deal with business people rings particularly true. Have I ever told the story of when my boss and I went to meet the MD (we didn't call them CEOs then) of Loriciels, I think it was, back in 1988 or thereabouts? I wasn't sure what to do when I realised that whatever you say when meeting serious business executives from whom you're hoping to get lucrative opportunities, it wasn't the kind of stuff my boss was saying; it was as if he hadn't realised that the games industry wasn't a bunch of people sending out cassettes through the post from their back bedrooms any more

Goodnight all

[WTFH]

Morning all
Wide awake, might head to the airport early.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Morning.

Saturday apparently.

Happily I wasn't awake at 05:55, but slept through until 08:30 or so.

Dry.

Grey.

Sunless (and not because it's before dawn).

Chilly in here at 17.3 deg, 16 in the kitchen, 15 in the leanto.

1012 mBar, 29.88 in Hg, 759.1 Torr, 14.6778 psi, (down from 1014 last night), 58% RH (Lidl electric).

Meanwhile on the 19th of February 2020 AndyGarbs, LM, WTFH, and BR14 popped in, the weather was uniformly wet so no walk for me, and NF regaled us with tales of stents and coronary bypasses after watching some prog about same.

Shopping trip to Tesco done dusted washed dried sanitised & put away. 38 out. Took so long to pay that I missed the 38 back. Memo to self: don't fecking do that again.

Lunch: brunch. Entertainment: Moneybox. <click>


Walk (unabbreviated) walked in the sunshine. Getting dark over Crynant, but that's only to be expected.

Now getting outside a mug of mediocre but consistent coffee.

The cry of "Neaf Neaf Neaf" was heard from the rugby ground for the first time in years, such is the state of Welsh rugby, not, of course, that it's of any innerest to me but there you go.

Freecell score: 100%, running average: 84%.

Seems to have clouded over.

Tea: soup etc. Entertainment: PM. Robinson thing <click> since it's the Tory bastard turncoat.

Maigret: The Simple Case (1961). Gosh, hadn't watched that one before: it's the body parts in the canal one. Quite fun.

Various bits & pieces, then I decided to add yet another book to the pile of books in progress, this time a Niven from 1966. (Larry rather than David).

[ladymuck]

Morning all

Cloudy, a breeze is interfering with the tree tops. Currently 14 degrees and that's the high for the day. Rain expected. Barometer down to 1041 mBar.

Sunrise 07:13; Sunset 19:03 BST

Heading home this evening. HWMBO's eldest has kindly offered me a lift to the airport.

My cold is making itself more present. Not a happy bunny. I don't think I'll be visiting Mum tomorrow.

I decided to strip the bed before I left home last week. A decision that was fine while feeling well but now feels like I have created an unnecessary chore for myself on getting home.

[NickFitz]

Afternoon denizens

Grey day out with a light breeze. It's 15°C going on 16°, with the barometers down some more at 1007/1015mB