Reply to: test please delete

[NickFitz]

Weird scenes inside the goldmine tonight, as the living room “smart bulb” glows an ominous red whenever I turn it “off” and I have to turn it off properly at the wall to stop the place looking like a brothel

Anyway, tonight’s major motion picture premiere was Play Dirty (2025) on Amazon Prime. I was a bit hesitant about this as Prime heist movies can be a bit crap, but then I saw in the opening credits that it was based on stories by Richard Stark. So that’s alright then! Richard Stark was one of the several pen names used by the American writer Donald E. Westlake for stuff that didn’t fit into his usual brand, and the stuff he wrote under that name was mainly about a character called Parker who was a somewhat psychopathic criminal, and that’s the main character in the film. And it’s better than the average heist movie, I reckon

Westlake’s usual style under his own name was humorous stuff about New York petty criminals trying to enact heists which proved to be beyond their capabilities and landed them in ridiculous situations. I first came across his work when my Dad came back from one of his visits to his publishers, Hodder & Stoughton, in 1977 with a copy of Nobody's Perfect which was to be published a couple of months later and is a kind of pastiche of Joyce’s Ulysses in the context I just described. Very clever, and very funny. I enjoyed it so much (which I can’t say for Ulysses because I’ve never got more than about forty pages into that before giving up) that I then read every Westlake novel Bedford Library had, which was a lot, but we didn’t have Wikipedia back then so I didn’t know he also wrote stories under other names. The Richard Stark thing is quite weird, as Stark’s style was very different to his own, and in the 1970s he suddenly found himself unable to “channel” that author any more. So no new novels “by” Stark appeared for about twenty years, until the 1990s when he found himself able to write that way again after working on a film script in a similar vein

After that, I rewatched A Complete Unknown (2024) because I was in the mood for some Dylan and it’s a good film if you’re into Dylan

And then the penultimate episode of Alien: Earth, which continues to be not as good as it could have been, which is a shame

Goodnight all

[NickFitz]

Tea has been steak with fried onions and chips

This was accompanied by more of Apollo 13: Survival on Netflix, which I started watching a few days ago - maybe even last week. It’s a documentary that proclaims that it’s made using only original recordings, photos, and footage, which is true enough. But they still do things like stretching out the time between Odyssey saying “We’ve had a problem” and Houston replying “Say again” by an extra couple of seconds to increase dramatic tension, so not wholly factual

[NickFitz]

Late lunch, now the bread has cooled down: a roast beef sandwich. The bread has turned out very nicely, light but not too bubbly, with a lovely crisp crust

[NickFitz]

The bread has been baked. For some reason, it’s risen significantly more in the middle than at the ends, resulting in a profile somewhat reminiscent of the Paramount logo. I’m sure it’ll be fine though; it’s now cooling down

[ladymuck]

I am trying to decide whether to return some espresso cups I bought for HWMBO. They were advertised as being 90ml in capacity - perfect for him as his coffee machine is configured to pour 40ml espresso shots, and he likes a double espresso. However, the label on the cups said 'capacity 8cl'. I tested this and confirmed that the cup volume is indeed 10ml less than advertised.

They are very lovely but I don't know if his morning coffee will overflow and be a nuisance. I suppose I could let him decide.

[NickFitz]

Morning denizens

Clear blue sky today, barring the merest wisps low on the horizon to the east. The wind has settled down a bit too, though it’ll get up again later. It’s 6°C which “feels like” 0° and expected to soar to a balmy 9° by lunchtime; the barometers seem optimistic, being up to 1000/1008mB

First order of business when I awoke this morning (after setting the coffee to brew, of course) was to get a white loaf started in the breadmaker. I’ve been meaning to make one all week but kept on forgetting

[ladymuck]

Morning all

Blue sky with some fluff here and there. Damp from overnight rain. Currently 8 degrees ('feels like' 5) with a high of 11 expected. Barometer up to 1015 mBar.

Sunrise 08:04; Sunset 15:53 GMT

Knackered today. Woke around 4.30 am and, whilst I dozed, I never properly got back to sleep.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Morning.

Friday apparently.

Damp.

Grey.

Hints of sun.

Chilly in here at 14.1 deg, 12.5 in the kitchen, 10.5 in the leanto.

1009 mBar, 29.79 in Hg, 756.8 Torr, 14.634 psi, (up from 1001 last night), 65% RH (Lidl electric).

Puddle's gone again for the moment. .

Meanwhile on the 6th of March 2020 Brillo, BR14, and LM popped in, whilst NF had gone shopping.

It hammered down just now.

Sun's out again.

Rained again.

Sun's out.

Lunch: brunch. Entertainment: Freecell: 83%, running average: 84%.

Book read. And having read it can see where the author found the ideas for his next 3 books, and the book written by Terry Jones.

Tea: chicken in white sauce etc. Nice enough.

Entertainment: PM.

Taggart. S4 E4,5,6 "Root of evil": The one about the loan shark's head. . And the vine leaved abutilon. Don't lose yer heid. And all that.

[WTFH]

Morning all
CBS, etc, but 8C, so I'm not complaining. A very pleasant walk was had, even though the ground is sodden in places.

TFIF.

[NickFitz]

Tonight’s tea was shepherd’s pie

To go with it, a new episode of Police Interceptors

Later, I finished reading Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead. Excellent novel

It’s windy out, and there was some rain not long ago

Goodnight all

[xoggoth]

Little street party ok, rain had stopped. Managed to avoid eating cake etc. only 2 small glasses mulled wine.

[NickFitz]

A bedding wash is on

It turns out to be a bit of a day for bedding, as DPD turned up just now with a delivery from John Lewis: 1600 thread count Egyptian cotton fitted sheet, duvet cover, and pillowcases. Oh, and a cashmere throw for a bedspread. This little lot cost me just over a grand, and is a Christmas present to myself

[ladymuck]

You missed out the word "billable".
She didn't say she'd be working 7 days a week.

But SKB is right, I am being greedy

[DoctorStrangelove]

OM

[NickFitz]

Thanks!

Two gigs now agreed. Both part time but adds up to 7 days a week of billable time.

Boomed!