Reply to: test please delete

[NickFitz]

Christmas has been OK. Dinner was excellent, as always

Haven’t had much this evening - mainly Roses and Quality Street, crisps, and peanuts. And a few sausage rolls - Waitrose ones I think they were, and pretty nice

I head home tomorrow, the plan being to go via Sainsbury’s to see if there are heavily-reduced pigs in blankets and the like. There’s one here on the route home and I’m gambling on it not being mad busy if I get there reasonably early. But I’ve just remembered that the trollies have to be unchained with a pound coin, so I’ll have to try to remember to swap two 50ps for one before I leave as that’s all I have in change. Or I suppose I could just get what’ll fit in a basket - I don’t really need much, just a few bits to tide me over the weekend and any meaty stuff that's going cheap

They don’t do that with the trolleys at home. Not sure why they feel it’s necessary here in the commuter belt yet not in the East Midlands. Maybe we’re more trustworthy up there

Goodnight all

[ladymuck]

Slipped on our stone stairs yesterday and now have a massive bruise on the left side of my back. Thankfully, ribs not cracked. Worse, I've had to give up booze due to liver options.

Ouch! I tend to find it's the muscles pulled out of kilter that hurt the most after I've had an unscheduled lie down.

[ladymuck]

The drive to Sussex and back was uneventful; quieter roads than usual but a higher proportion of idiots.

Dinner was uninspiring but edible, which is generally how my cooking turns out.

BP had many garages open so petrol was easily procured even though I had more in the tank than I thought so could have managed if not.

[NotAllThere]

Slipped on our stone stairs yesterday and now have a massive bruise on the left side of my back. Thankfully, ribs not cracked. Worse, I've had to give up booze due to liver options.

On the other hand, it's been a nice relaxing day. Our usual run up to France for KFC. Tomorrow I cook full Christmas dinner as whole family (7 adults, 3 kids) coming over.

[xoggoth]

Xmouse lunch at son's earlier. No walky today but I'm planning on wandering round this and next door villages to look at the Xmouse lights later. Have a nice whatsit thing TPDers.

[ladymuck]

Morning all, festive greetings and all that

Sunny, not a wisp to be seen. Currently 3 degrees ('feels like' -2) with a high of 5 expected. Barometer down to 1029 mBar.

Sunrise 08:06; Sunset 15:57 GMT

Heading down south to Mum's once I've finished my coffee. No presents to sort. Cards were issued last week. Just a bunch of flowers for Mum. Bags packed with the makings of a turkey dinner.

I forgot to get petrol yesterday so I'm hoping there'll be somewhere open on the way. Worst case will be the nosebleed prices at Cobham services. I may have just enough to get there and back, potentially making it a next year problem.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Morning.

Thursday. Oddly quiet.

Dry.

Sunny (across the valley, it hasn't reached here yet).

Windy.

Chilly in here at 12.4 deg, 12 in the kitchen, 7.5 in the leanto.

1027 mBar, 30.27 in Hg, 768.8 Torr, 14.866 psi, (down from 1027 last night), 61% RH (Lidl electric).

Meanwhile on the 7th of March 2020 Brillo & BR14 popped in, whilst NF and LM had a discussion about free Chinese prawn crackers which he immediately discards since he doesn't like them. Janet wasn't in the Chinese on this visit.

Walk (unabbreviated, towpath) walked in the 3/4 gale. Strewth it was a bit chilly on the way up through Tonna with the wind in my face.

Lunch: brunch. Entertainment: someone waffling on about apples & pears.

Curiously, when close to home, some lune in shorts asked me the way to Pontardawe. He intended to walk. Good luck with that. Hope he won't be found dead from hypothermia coz if it's windy down here it's a lot more windy across that ridge and there's no shelter.

Yay! No one wished me a Merry Bah! Humbug! Success!

Tea: beans on toast sans scrambled egg, the last being made up for with a mince pie and a jam tart. Nice enough & Bah! Humbuggery free!.

Entertainment: Bill Bailey doing Xmas stuff. <click>

Blaze: What on Earth? The usual bollox, though the Thing for Reviving Heather (not the Highlander Heather, rather the heather type heather). Spike Island: prison.

If there's owt else I ain't found it.

Speaking as I was of Highlander Heather, Queen were busy playing "It's a kind of magic" slightly later on. .

Book. New book.

Last 15 minutes of "Joe Kidd (1972)" including the bit I like which is where Our Hero assembles a takedown Ross sporting rifle, in .280 Ross, with a telescopic sight & makes a cold bore shot at several hundred yards to kill a nasty man.

[NickFitz]

Morning denizens, and season’s greetings!

It’s a sunny day after a clear night so it’s quite chilly, and there’s also a bit of a breeze. Therefore the present 4°C “feels like” -4°, and it’ll only be getting to 6° this afternoon. The barometers are down a touch at 1021/1029mB

I need to travel south later, where the festive board will be groaning under the weight of the usual good stuff (plus some vegetables, but they don’t count)

[NickFitz]

Happy Christmas denizens!

I’ve finished reading Into the Raging Sea, in which the capitalists managed to avoid taking any responsibility as usual

And I remembered to wash my new duvet cover

Better get to sleep now as I have to head south in the morning!

Goodnight all

[NickFitz]

Presents and cards have been sorted out, so I think I’m finally ready! What a palaver though

I mean, all I had to do was stuff the appropriate things (mostly a tin of Quality Street, a box of Thorntons, and an Amazon gift card) into the appropriate gift bags (because then I don’t have to wrap them all individually), sometimes with a Christmas card (couples only get one of those between them). But still, I had to write on the gift cards, and on the Christmas cards, and then on the envelopes. And then I had to write on tags and tie them to the handles of the bags (making sure I got the right bag for each tag, of course), because my sister needs them to make sure each bag is positioned in the right spot under the tree for the two hours or so between me arriving and us unwrapping the presents after dinner

Anyway, all done now, so that’s one less thing to worry about in the morning

[NickFitz]

I couldn’t be bothered to drive to Sainsbury’s so just went round the corner to the Local to pick up a few beers. They didn’t have a particularly wide range but I’ll manage

And then I popped up to the kebab shop; so tea has been kebab and chips

To go with that, the final episode of The Black Swan in which it turns out that criminal lawyers can’t be trusted

[xoggoth]

You haven't been monkying around again then.

[NickFitz]

Police car parked outside!

it’s outside the adjacent block, to be precise, so I don’t suppose it’s anything to do with us as there’s a space free in front of our block

[NickFitz]

Due to the living room light nearest the window having taken to glowing in an ominous deep red hue when turned off, I bought a couple of Hue bulbs with a “bridge” and just started setting them up. The bridge thing, it turns out, needs to be plugged into an Ethernet port on the router. But due to lack of enough power points in the hall cupboard where that lives, this would mean leaving the 4G backup router disconnected. Anyway, as soon as I connected it, it insisted on installing an update and has been doing so for about thirty minutes now with no signs of progress. In that time, I’ve already got them set up in Apple Home

Ah, I restarted the Hue app and, once I’d gone through all the consent palaver again, it found the bridge. Might as well let it get set up, even though it’ll be unplugged and never used again

I didn’t even want the bridge TBH but the pack with two bulbs plus the bridge was on special offer, which made it cheaper than just getting two bulbs

Ah, it’s not been able to set up the bulbs, even though it realised they were there. Time to end the failed Hue experiment and stick with Apple Home, I think

[ladymuck]

~2.5 mins??

Not far off!! It'll take longer than that to get there, let alone get it sorted.