Reply to: test please delete

[NickFitz]

Time for a change from sci-fi, so tonight I started reading The Collected Stories of Rumpole by John Mortimer. The title is something of a misnomer though; according to the introduction there are four novels and eighty short stories, and this contains twenty short stories. So they only collected a few

Anyway, it's quite entertaining. I'd never read any before, and nor have I seen the TV programmes. I always assumed the TV stuff was adaptations, but it turns out the Play for Today in the mid-1970s was actually the first appearance of the character, with the written versions following from that

Monday again tomorrow, and my first Monday working since the end of July. But as I mentioned the other day, I think the stuff I'm working on now will be more enjoyable; we shall see

Goodnight all

[ladymuck]

HWMBO and I arrived in Madrid within 5 mins of each other despite us both experiencing weather related delays.

On our stroll.back from dinner, I noticed the bar next door to our hotel had a good selection of gins. One of which being HWMBO's favourite. So we stopped in for one. The free pour was exceptionally generous and with a whole bottle of tonic was still "strong". At only €12 a drink, it's now our official gin joint for the next couple of days, until we move hotels and it becomes less practical.

[NickFitz]

Tea has been Chinese leftovers

Accompanied by a bit of Police Interceptors though I'm not too sure if I've seen this one before - let's face it, there's not a huge variety of things that happen in them

[ladymuck]

Forgot to say: it's 22 degrees ('feels like" 25) and cloudy here at Schipol.

[ladymuck]

Just about to leave Amsterdam to meet HWMBO in Madrid. All uneventful so far.

[sadkingbilly]

afternoon

paid ontime, new invoice raised, 21 days to go

oh, i appear to have upset the Blessed Bishop of Basel's snowflake sensitivities again.
oh, dear. I do so hate upsetting people accidentally.

[NickFitz]

Breakfast, or possibly brunch, was a couple of croissants with my morning coffee

No strawberry jam on them today as it had gone mouldy

[NickFitz]

This morning's Amazon delivery is an HD video camera on a long semi-flexible cable, designed for poking into dark corners and hidden spaces. In my case, it's mainly to make it easier to get the washing machine hoses through the hidden and unreachable space behind the corners of the cabinets to where they need to go, and also so I can check it isn't leaking or anything once it's pushed into the recess where it'll live

In the longer term, it'll make it easier to read the gas meter. That's in the farthest recess of the cabinets right in that corner, and every month I have to get on my knees, turn on the camera app on my phone, and reach as far as I can trying to get it lined up with the dial while it takes a picture. This then usually needs to be enhanced in various ways as it's too dark back there, but not quite dark enough to trigger the flash

I have seriously considered manufacturing a small periscope, as I can remember the instructions on how to do so in The Eagle Book of Things a Boy Can Do (or some similar title; it was definitely an Eagle tie-in) which my brother received one Christmas in, probably, the late 1960s and later handed down to me. I suspect I attempted more of the projects in there than he ever did, as he's never really been much of a tinkerer

But this thing solves that problem now

[NickFitz]

Luke 12: 20 always springs to mind:

Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?

Dunno what the RC version is, but that's hard to beat. .

Yes, you can't beat the King James Version! Apparently the current RC preferred rendering in the UK is the English Standard Bible, which has it as "Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?" which doesn't have quite the same ring to it

[NickFitz]

Waiting at West Ealing station for my train to Heathrow Terminal 4. Then off to meet HWMBO in Madrid where I will reside for the next week.

Bon voyage!

[NickFitz]

Morning denizens

It's a sunny day out there, with just a few little fluffy white clouds drifting by like a child's picture. They're drifting quite quickly though as it's windy, though not quite as windy as it got for a while last night. It's 17°C at the moment (but "feels like" 14° because of the wind) and expected to soon rise to the day's high of 19° and then stay there until an hour or so before sunset. The barometers are steady at 990/998mB

I forgot to mention last night that I'd finally got around to having a proper look at the new hoses Miele sent me. The water hose fitted on the machine is 1.5m and needs to be 2m, so they sent me one that's 3m, that apparently being the next size up. I assumed - and the lady on the phone who arranged it also seemed to think - that the installation chaps would have to remove the factory-installed hose from the machine, and fit the longer one.

However, closer examination reveals that the longer one is an extension, not a replacement. This makes sense, as the way the hose is attached at the machine looks both sturdy and not easy to meddle with, but it means that for the sake of needing an extra 50cm, I'll end up with a 4.5m hose!

The 2.5m drain hose (requirement: 1.7m) isn't so bad as that actually is a replacement, involving removing the factory-installed 1.5m hose from the machine and plugging this one in instead. It's quite simple to do as well, though I'll still leave it for the installation folk as they're supposed to be the experts

[WTFH]

Morning all
Just got drenched on a walk, but now it’s blue skies out there, although the next shower looks like it will be here in a few minutes.

[ladymuck]

Morning all

Sunny with high level wispy bits. Currently 16 degrees with a high of 19 expected. There may be rain later. Barometer up a smidge to 1004 mBar.

Sunrise 06:13; Sunset 19:49 BST

Waiting at West Ealing station for my train to Heathrow Terminal 4. Then off to meet HWMBO in Madrid where I will reside for the next week.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Morning.

Sunday?

Damp: no current precipitation.

Sunny.

Blue sky in parts.

Cool in here at 19.7 deg, 19.5 in the kitchen, 18 in the leanto.

995 mBar, 29.38 in Hg, 746.3 Torr, 14.43 psi, (unchanged), 69% RH (Lidl electric).

Meanwhile on the 13th of February 2020 the weather was uniformly damp, AndyGarbs, Scruff, and LondonManc popped in, LM wasn't in the mood for boring work, NF was going shopping, and I got wet putting flowers on the parents' grave whilst wondering which bulbs were about to flower (not something that's wondered these days since everything has been sprayed to death).

Walk (towpath, unabbreviated) walked in the sunshine though it did attempt to rain on me for the last 150 yards or so.

Freecell score: 92%, running average: 83%.

Lunch: brunch. Entertainment: bit of Just a minute <click>, then the last 15 minutes of Columbo: the one where Mrs Columbo is supposedly murdered by a vengeful widow (1990).

This is followed by the 1976 Columbo with the WWWC as a murderous tv exec. <click>.

Then Blaze showing some UFO bollox about UFOs and POTUS. Apparently Fatman & Littleboy were developed using technology.

Well I knew that Teller and the other Hungarians were known as "The Martians", however I didn't realise it was actually a fact. Beam me up Mr Scott I've had enough of this bollox. <click>

Cleaned the windows. That doesn't happen often. The water went a very funny colour.


Partial washing frenzy in progress since the blue sky & sunshine & strong breeze seemed promising.

Now getting outside a mug of mediocre but consistent coffee after my endeavours.

Shirts duly iRoned & airing upstairs.

Tea: beans on toast with baked spud & scrambled egg.

Entertainment: some bollox on R4. <click>

Last 10 minutes of yet another Columbo: this one had Marin Landau playing two roles as twin brothers. Obviously the septics didn't have GCI installed in bathroom sockets back then. .

Last couple of minutes of S17 E20 "The Arizona".

Bits of "Douglas Adams: the man who imagined our future".

Then it started raining so I had to run & get the smalls in off the line.

Hammering down now. .

Last 10 minutes of Columbo: the one with George Hamilton.

Look at Life: Cats. Cats. And more cats. Mostly pedigree with little hybrid vigour.

Memories of making Sgt Cork.

Sergeant Cork. The case of the Reluctant Window. (1963).

Forbidden Histories bollox on Blaze: Christ & the crucifixion.

The Oak Island nutjobbery returns tomorrow. How will I contain my excitement..

Bit of Dr Pimplepopper: some chap with a gigantic lipoma whose religion forbade doctoring finally had it removed. It didn't mention if he was either shunned or struck by lightning thereafter. .

[NickFitz]

The usual wildlife stuff was on today. The baboon thing came to an end, but they're repeating the thing with the otters from next week

Tonight, I finished The Rewind Files. Good story, though now I have to dig out and read All The President's Men

And then I returned to Jeffrey Bernard's Low Life for more tales of alcoholism in 1980s Soho

Goodnight all