Reply to: test please delete

[NickFitz]

I have gotten into watching Murder Trial on BBC iPlayer which follows a trial in the Scottish courts (who allow filming in court) and is an interesting look at how the evidence is presented, what the defence is trying to achieve, interviews with people involved in the case, etc. Seems to be just one or two episodes a year on just one case at a time. Not dramatically presented, and includes selected highlights from the court sessions to get the key points across.

They’re very interesting. Regrettably, it means that I now keep hoping for there to be an interesting murder in Scotland, as I’ve watched all the previous episodes

Tonight’s major motion picture premiere was Daehongsu (2025) or The Great Flood in English, a Korean movie on Netflix. They decided I’d want to watch the English dub of this, but I wasn’t having any of that nonsense and immediately switched it to the original Korean soundtrack; I shall find out at some other date if this choice is reflected in future viewings of films in a language other than my own. Anyway, this started out as a sci-fi disaster movie, as huge floods swept the Earth after an asteroid hit Antarctica, and a Korean mother and her son tried to get to the roof of their apartment block with a bloke from the company whose research department she worked for who’d been sent to help them. It seemed to me that something was a little off about all this from time to time, and it turned out that there was indeed more to the matter than met the eye, and shadowy forces were at work; but no spoilers. It wasn’t the best film of its kind that I’ve seen, but it was OK and had a fair few unexpected twists and turns. Worth a watch if you have access, maybe, though not worth subscribing to Netflix for the sake of it

And then a rewatch of M3GAN (2022) which I recommend without any qualification

Finally, the final episode of Alien: Earth which has been pretty disappointing all in all. But they managed to make this last episode pretty good; it’s just a shame you have to get through the rest of them first

Goodnight all

[ladymuck]

The roast potatoes are good enough. Not quite the level of crispiness I was after but they're not too shabby.

I had a load of milk that would have gone to waste so I made a litre of eggnog to preserve it. I like dark rum in mine, even though cognac seems to be the traditional boozy ingredient.

I have gotten into watching Murder Trial on BBC iPlayer which follows a trial in the Scottish courts (who allow filming in court) and is an interesting look at how the evidence is presented, what the defence is trying to achieve, interviews with people involved in the case, etc. Seems to be just one or two episodes a year on just one case at a time. Not dramatically presented, and includes selected highlights from the court sessions to get the key points across.

[NickFitz]

Tea: spag bol

This was accompanied by E3 of The Black Swan, in which things get quite hairy for a while; one thing you don’t want in your office is an outlaw biker who thinks you’re trying to rip him off

[xoggoth]

Sounds like you’re sorted but if you enjoy playing with maps, Open Free Map is worth a look: https://openfreemap.org/

Cheers NF, looks interesting although footpaths are not really clear as in OS maps.

Got into a right panic last night, couldn't find my wallet after visit to local shop, looked for it everywhere, even searched up the road with a torch. Then I opened my cash box to get some cash out and found wallet was in there. Must have dropped it in there after putting couple of notes in it. So relieved! I would not have slept.

[ladymuck]

I went to the storage unit. I found two suitable tins to house the baked goods HWMBO is making as a gift. I looked at the washing line pole thingy and deduced that it does not come apart into two shorter lengths. I will need to measure up my car to see if I can find a way to get a nearly 2 m long pole into it. Preferably without it smashing any windows or causing any interior damage.

That'll be a job for the New Year.

I am currently cooking a huge tray of duck fat roasted potatoes to take down to Mum's on Thursday for dinner. Hopefully they will come out crispy. If they fail, I still have time to buy some from Sainsbury's.

[NickFitz]

This morning, I got around to washing the new sheet and pillowcases. Need to do the duvet cover too, but I decided to do that separately - maybe tomorrow. The goal is to have nice clean, new, 1600 thread count bedding to come back to after Christmas

And once they were almost dry and draped on the clothes horse, to finish drying naturally, I popped out. First stop: the bins, as I’d cut up some boxes and had a rather bulky load of recycling, so I thought I’d save the young ladies who collect stuff from our flat doors the trouble. However, there were no bins! It’s bin day, so they’d been trundled down to the road end of the small drive at the back of the opposite block, and all the recycling ones must have been full enough to go out. So I trogged off down there to drop it off, and tomorrow it'll be trundled back up that drive to where the bins normally live

Then I took the car out to get petrol. Just seeing the amount of traffic in the vicinity of places where shopping is done made me glad I wasn’t doing any of that

Coming back, I took a minor detour via the local shopping road, on the off chance there was a spot to park outside the chemist’s. Not only was there not any such spot, there was also a van delivering to the bakery and holding up the traffic, so that took longer than expected. And then I came home, parked up, and walked back round to the chemist’s

Anyway, that’s today’s various minor things all sorted out. I still haven’t had any lunch because I don’t really fancy any of the stuff I have in; I might just grab a bag of crisps or some peanuts or something, to get in practice for all the between-meal snacking on Thursday

[Pondlife]

Morning all,

Wind 16 kt from the East/Northeast
Temperature 7°C
Humidity 93%
Pressure 1017 hPa
Visibility: 7000 m
Overcast at a height of 600 ft


Feels a bit weird being off when so many are still in work. Supposed to be flying this afternoon but clouds and wind gusts making that pretty unlikely to go ahead so sporcle it is.

[ladymuck]

Morning all

Dull. Overcast. Dull. Currently 7 degrees ('feels like' 4) with a high of 8 expected. Barometer up to 1017 mBar.

Sunrise 08:06; Sunset 15:55 GMT

Tired this morning. I was going to go to the storage unit bright and early (well, around 9 am when they open) but then realised it was bin day and it's best to wait until they've moved out of the immediate area. Coffee is being had instead.

Can't seem to find out if the pole for the Brabantia rotary washing line I have in storage comes apart into two pieces, or is just one long tube. I will just have to look at it when I get to the storage place. I'll be giving it to my Mum/Brother as the ancient washing line in Mum's garden has given up after 30 years. If it will come apart then I'll be able to get it easily into my car. If it doesn't then a more creative approach will be needed.

[NickFitz]

Morning denizens

Another very grey and gloomy day out there. Not raining and not expected to, though that’s no guarantee of anything nowadays. It’s 6°C but “feels like” 1°, and it appears the expected high of 7° has either passed already or falls between the cracks of the hourly temperature predictions, for they say 6° all the way through until it gets down to 5° at teatime - though this coincides with increasing wind, which will apparently make it warmer as it goes back up to 6° for the rest of the evening. The barometers, meanwhile, are ebullient: up to 1007/1015mB

I awoke this morning feeling better than I have been, which was nice and had me making plans for stuff I could get done. These have been scaled back somewhat after the simple business of preparing for the day - making coffee, showering, and so on - left me feeling rather knackered again! So while I don’t feel as rough, it seems I should still take it easy for now

The only thing that absolutely needs to be done today is to go round to the chemist’s for the monthly bag of medicines. I also need to fill the car up for the journey south for Christmas, though that could always be done tomorrow if necessary. I think it would probably make it there on what’s in the tank, but it would need a refill for the journey back, and fuel's a tad cheaper up here than it is down there

[DoctorStrangelove]

Morning.

Tuesday apparently.

Damp.

Grey.

Hints of sun.

Chilly in here at 13.8 deg, 12.5 in the kitchen, 11.5 in the leanto.

1010.5 mBar, 29.84 in Hg, 757.94 Torr, 14.656 psi, (up from 1005 last night), 69% RH (Lidl electric).

Meanwhile on the 7th of March 2020 AndyGarbs popped in, Brillo popped in a lot, and NF explained why my Blueray player resumed the dire "1941" film from the beginning everytime it was stopped. Got through it in the end and never bothered with the 2nd "specially even more fecking tedious" disc. I wonder if I burned them.

Walk (unabbreviated, towpath) walked in the grey gloom.

Lunch: brunch. Entertainment: the dehumidifier rattling away to itself.

Tea: soup etc. Might be getting a bit bored with that one, might be time to try sommat different.

Entertainment: Time to Remember. At a guess 1914. .

"Wrath of Man" again. Mildly amusing in its way.

[WTFH]

Morning all
Last billable day of the week.

[NickFitz]

Tonight’s TV was the rest of E1 and all of E2 of The Black Swan on iPlayer, the Danish documentary about a bent lawyer working with journalists to expose organised crime, and the supposedly respectable professionals that assist it, in Denmark. Only halfway through, and the country's leading law firm has already accepted the resignation of a senior partner and sacked his entire department when presented with hidden camera footage of him explaining to people he knows to be money launderers how he’ll get them out of paying millions of krone in tax! Fascinating stuff, and apparently there’s an astonishing twist to come in the final episode

And then I continued reading Into the Raging Sea, in which the El Faro has been lost with all hands and the investigation into why has begun. Spoiler alert: it was capitalism, as usual

Goodnight all

[NickFitz]

Little street party was ok but nowhere near as many as usually turned up.

Got my canvas based alternative to the, soon to be discontinued, Bing Maps API mostly working now. Not the same fluidity with scrolling as just 4 tiles on the screen, and only covers local area as my PC can't accomodate maps for the entire world, but can do most things I want.

Sounds like you’re sorted but if you enjoy playing with maps, Open Free Map is worth a look: https://openfreemap.org/

[xoggoth]

Little street party was ok but nowhere near as many as usually turned up.

Got my canvas based alternative to the, soon to be discontinued, Bing Maps API mostly working now. Not the same fluidity with scrolling as just 4 tiles on the screen, and only covers local area as my PC can't accomodate maps for the entire world, but can do most things I want.

[NickFitz]

Tea: KFC leftovers

Not that I have much of an appetite at the moment TBH

The towels are done and dried. I split them into two batches for drying, and each batch was done in 45 minutes or so, which is considerably better than the old one managed