Reply to: test please delete

[NickFitz]

Tea has been a chilli lambburger and fries; the burger proving very zingy from the green and red chilis therein

This involved the first use of my latest kitchen gadget, which was something of an impulse purchase at the weekend. I planned to get a stick blender for making soup, but ended up getting a quite expensive Braun thing that’s a stick blender, chopper, and food processor, all in one - well, all in a large box full of the various parts, but able to be used as all those things

So the chilis, onions, and garlic were first finely chopped with spices and stuff, then that was chucked in the food processor with the lamb mince and the whole lot whizzed together. And I’d found the paper discs for the burger press, which I couldn’t find for the life of me last time I made burgers. So there are three more in the freezer

[NickFitz]

Tuesday done, so just six more working days until my holiday starts!

Today, the thing I’ve been working on for the past year officially entered maintenance mode. It was also the kick-off for the third quarter, and I finally got some idea of what I’ll be working on next: some aspects of the departmental Intranet, including the “AI” chatbot

Clearly they hadn’t asked me if I fancied that, as I would have told them that I reckon chatbots are usually more trouble than they’re worth and a bit of work on beefing up normal search indexing would be preferable. But Number 10 is keen on “AI” so “AI” it is

There’s still a final and potentially quite big bit of work to do on the old thing. But that’s dependent on another team doing stuff, and they in turn are dependent on an external organisation doing stuff, and nobody can work out how to plan for it, including me. So it’s been shoved into the lumber room labelled “Tech Debt” and will probably end up being done in dribs and drabs, as and when there seems to be an opportunity to make some progress on it

[NickFitz]

Lunch has been a Pukka sausage roll, again - I bought two but they both expired today, hence the repetition of yesterday

Turned Simpsonesque out now, but still very windy

[ladymuck]

Morning all

A dull and cloudy start has given way to blue sky and sunshine. Damp from overnight rain. Currently 19 degrees ('feels like' 25) and that's the high for the day. Barometer up to 1017 mBar.

Sunrise 07:22; Sunset 18:12 BST

No plans for the day yet.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Morning.

Tuesday apparently.

Damp.

Grey.

Wanly sunny if you use some imagination.

18.8 deg in here, 18.3 deg in the kitchen, 17.5 in the leanto, 16 out the back.

1009 mBar, 29.8 in Hg, 756.8 Torr, 14.63 psi, (up from 1006 last night), 74% RH (Lidl electric).

Meanwhile on the 6th of April 2020, between 12:42 and 15:06, in popped AndyGarbs, Brillo, Churchill, LM, NF, and me, with NF wandering off to Halfords for car fixing.

Had a decent night's sleep for a change, moderately predictable considering the way I was beaming out through some of Maigret yesterday evening.

Walk (unabbreviated, towpath) walked in the sunshine. 1 conversation. Followed by a visit to B&M for cleaning stuff in my current ongoing endeavours to make the bog sparkle coz bleach ain't doing the needful. If I mix enough of these chemicals it should kill me and then I won't have to worry about the state of the pan. Why don't they make Vim any more? That used to work a treat.

Lunch: brunch. Entertainment: dashcam bollox S5 E2.

Scottish Islands thing: Heisgeir, Clisham mountain on Harris, Sula Sgeir (didn't land), North Rona (landed with another chap to look at what remained of the buildings, which wasn't much).

Alaska Homestead Rescue: Washington State. An "A" frame house that had collapsed shortly before they arrived, finding a pile of rotted wood. Rebuild an A frame with a concrete foundation. The concrete lorry very nearly required the attentions of Crouch Recovery (or equivalent) but Marty used the JCB digger to good effect: just as well it was a big fecker. Rebuilt house. Created a terraced garden (it's all built on a fecking mountain as ever). Built an animal pen for, wait for it, wait for it: ostriches. I've never seen ostrich chicks before, so that was a first. Put traps out in the surrounding forest & caught a packrat rather than the bunny they were hoping for. Let the packrat go & return to digging holes & saving stuff. 13 acres & about 3 square feet of flat land. . Nothing else in sight other than trees, trees, more trees, and yet more trees. Didn't have the 3 months later on this one.

Bab5 S5 E3 "The paragon of animals".

Who do you think you are? Mary Berry.

Who do you think you are? Marianne Faithful. Don't mention Mars Bars. .

[WTFH]

Morning all
Blue skies here with signs that there was some overnight rain.
Not at home until the weekend, so no dog to walk, but I discovered this morning that I should have bought some razor blades the last time I was over visiting dad. Good job my webcam is low res so the missed bits won’t be that noticeable. Will have to head out this evening to find an open supermarket that sells them.

[NickFitz]

Morning denizens

Patchy cloud (but mostly cloud) out, and it’s a very blustery day. It’s also likely (95%) to rain shortly, and looks like it. Still mild though: currently 17°C (“feels like” 12°) and expected to creep up to 18° by lunchtime. The barometers are cautiously down a touch, at 999/1006mB

[NickFitz]

Tonight’s reading was All You Need is Ears, the autobiography of record producer George Martin. I’m nearly a third of the way through and he’s still a few years away from signing the Beatles, though he has just taken over as manager of Parlophone for EMI when his old boss retired, becoming (at the time) the youngest person to run a record label

Goodnight all

[NickFitz]

Tea: pork cutlet with chips and beans

And a bit of the fare dodger thing to go with it

[ladymuck]

Today, I have...

Booked a hotel in Birmingham and a train to get there.

Looked for jobs.

Used up an assortment of tomatoes and a load of basil to make a sauce.

Just remembered the bins need to be put out.

Watched a couple of episodes of S13 of The Curse of Oak Island (they still haven't found anything noteworthy).

[NickFitz]

That’s Monday done. Only one more till I’m on holiday!

Lunch, by the way, was a Pukka sausage roll

[xoggoth]

Afternoon with couple of old ladies making arrangments for group walk now one of 'em not up to it. Walky after.

[NickFitz]

Links are up

[ladymuck]

Morning all

Cloudy and dull. Currently 14 degrees with a high of 17 expected. Might have some rain. Barometer at 1014 mBar.

Sunrise 07:20; Sunset 18:15 BST

Agent called about the job I interviewed for. No news yet but the hiring manager wants to 'regroup' with them which they think means a second round of interviews and a competency test. My goodness inside IR35 roles are tedious.

[NickFitz]

Morning denizens

Rosy-fingered dawn earlier, but that crept in beneath the cloud that extended almost but not quite to the horizon, and it’s expected to be cloudy all day with a chance (25%) of rain at lunchtime. It’s currently 12°C but “feels like” 8°, with a predicted high of 17° by late afternoon which will linger into the evening. The barometers are trivially down at 1000/1008mB