Reply to: test please delete

[NickFitz]

Morning denizens

There’s a layer of high, thin cloud out, a bit thicker towards the north but with gaps towards the horizon in other directions which let the sun get through to varying degrees as it traverses the celestial sphere. The wind seems to have dropped as the current 7°C doesn’t “feel like” anything other than itself; the predicted high for the day is 10°. The barometers are racing upwards at 1014/1022mB

[NickFitz]

Tonight's reading was more of This Is How You Lose the Time War. It’s growing on me

Goodnight all

[NickFitz]

Tea: southern not-fried chicken with fries and ketchup

Haven’t had that in a while, or not the Sainsbury’s version. Made a nice change

[NickFitz]

And now there’s an extremely bright full moon rising - well, risen - out there

Strictly speaking it isn’t quite full yet but the moment of fullness is just before lunchtime tomorrow, and 99.5% full seems good enough

[NickFitz]

Nice and sunny out, but a bit chilly I think

[NickFitz]

Another Monday done

I was singularly unproductive today; didn’t have any energy or focus. This was even before the stuff about the agency change came to my attention

I spent a bit of time this afternoon looking at the four umbrella companies on offer from the agency we’re being shifted to. As one would expect, each of them has an even split in search results between people saying they’re great, never had any problems, etc. and people saying they’re terrible, no end of problems, etc.

[ladymuck]

Gig1 has asked me to reduce my days to 2 a week (down from 3) as they're running out of budget on the programme I work on. Suits me just fine

[NickFitz]

Lunch: a sausage bap

Turned sunny out there now

At ClientGov, I found out earlier that they’re switching suppliers in a couple of months and my contract will be moved over to whoever the new lot is. Not sure what this means yet; I’ve saved myself the hassle of dealing with a brolly by being on payroll with the current lot, but I don’t know whether that will continue to be an option

One annoying thing is that contractors on the “bench contract” are deemed to be Outside IR35 - yet they all work for the same consultancy, in which they have performance reviews and improvement plans and all that malarkey, and can be moved around from one project to another or even to a different end client at the drop of a hat. I’ve never seen a clearer case of disguised employment, but because that’s with the consultancy and not with the department itself, they’re assessed as being outside.

Meanwhile, I accept things like not being paid for several months in the hiatus between one project and another, or while I was waiting for security clearance, yet I’m deemed to be Inside because they expect me to attend Teams meetings and so on - meetings which the bench contract people also attend!

[NickFitz]

Links are up

[ladymuck]

Morning all

Sunshine and wispy fluff. Currently 13 degrees with a high of 14 expected. Barometer at 1015 mbar.

Sunrise 06:44; Sunset 17:43 GMT

Busy morning with back to back meetings across gigs 1 and 3.

HWMBO goes home today.

Off to the theatre this evening.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Morning.

Monday.

Grey.

Wanly sunny.

NotSoChilly in here at 13.9 deg, 13 something in the kitchen, 12 in the leanto.

1005 mBar, 29.6776 in Hg, 753.8 Torr, 14.576 psi, (up from 1004 last night), 69% RH (Lidl electric).

Meanwhile on the 19th of March 2020 Anonimouse, LM, WTFH, NF, xogg, and I popped in, with xogg thinking of looking at the wall & contemplating big bums due to everything being shut down.

This morning's dream before waking seemed to involve Ye Olde Sloughe of Desponde. And a railway that doesn't exist. Odd. Slam door carriages too IIRC. .

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

Lunch: brunch. Entertainment: Y&Y waffling on about train refunds <click> 13 o'clock news <click>. The Orange Mother****er isn't dead. What a shame.

Did you know you can make a nuke go with 60% enrichment? Just takes about 1.5 times the amount that 90% takes. .

Just fell asleep whilst "watching" some Ancient Aliens bollox on Blaze. That'll learn me. . It's all about Irish Fairies and The Shining Ones, with the odd druid thrown in for good measure. The usual talking heads. Tir na nOg. Gosh. Amber here we come.

Tea: chilli con carne etc. Nice enough. Entertainment: More on the Orange Moron. <click>

Oak Island nutjobbery S11 E25. The End (only of the season FFS). The metal detecting moron found a chisel. They found another two 0.7 oz lead weights in the dig on lot 5 to add the one they'd found previously. The latest borehole near the garden shaft found sand. And that's it for Yet Another Year.

NCIS S22 E7 "Hardboiled". Better than some of the recent eps.

Secrets in the Ice: The Donner Party. Or Donner kebabed as they say. Yum. . Slow earthquakes. Yellowknife. 9 day "hum" generated by slide in Greenland. Cova de Els Trocs (Bisaurri, Huesca, Spain) on the southern slopes of the Central Pyrenees, 3 phases of burials, 5300BC. Shot with arrows, probably from ambush. Ross Ice Sheet: collossal squid caught by a trawler. Greenland shark.

[WTFH]

Morning all
Some light cloud, but mostly blues skies and sunny here. Was 10C at 6am, so a lighter jacket was the order of the day for our walk. Back in, one load of washing (dog towels) on the line already, next load in the machine.

[NickFitz]

Morning denizens

It’s back to grey out, though it may brighten up later. Breezy too, so the current 8°C “feels like” 2°; it’ll soar to 14° this afternoon though. The barometers are a touch down at 999/1007mB

Monday again. Let’s see if there’s anything good in the news to start the week on a positive note… ah, no, let’s not

[NickFitz]

There was a bit of wildlife stuff on the telly over teatime

Tonight, not being in the mood for serious and weighty works of history, I started reading This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone. I tried starting this a while ago (possibly a couple of years ago, even?) but wasn’t in the mood for it at the time. But I’m quite enjoying it this time

Monday again tomorrow. Five weeks till Easter

Goodnight all

[ladymuck]

Back in Blighty!

Waiting for the Lizzy Line to leave the station and then I'll soon be home again.