Reply to: test please delete

[NickFitz]

Lunch was nothing, because I figured I could get something when I went shopping, if I went shopping. In the end, I did go shopping and have just got back, but a) I forgot to get anything specifically for today's lunch and b) it’s too late for lunch anyway, so I’ll just have a bag of crisps

I went via the old place, where I’m happy to report that the chestnut trees seem fine, as does the Polish café

Then on to M&S, but this time for clothes, not food; to wit, some new t-shirts and socks. I also got suckered into a pair of jeans that was on sale, and some more shirts that caught my fancy but which I’ll probably decide I don’t like after all once it’s too late to return them, after which I finally managed to escape

Over to Sainsbury’s, where the new Viz was secured. The new layout continues to confuse and generally disrupt my long-established habits; it’s like when they move the eggs, but for everything all at once

Also, they seem to have stopped making a few things around which I’d based some favourite recipes, so I need to work out how to deal with that

But I’m fairly sure I didn’t forget anything I actually needed this time, so I should be able to survive the next week despite going back to work

Coming back the other way, I was waiting at the lights at the junction where I turn off the outer ring road when I realised that the second car in front had a camera thing mounted on its roof, and thought I’d finally get to see a Google Street View car in the wild. The car between us was a taxi so when the lights changed and we turned, that took the bus lane which meant I was right behind the camera car, and lo! it was an Apple Maps Image Collection car instead

I ended up behind it for a mile or so until it turned off up Grace Road, so the Corolla will hopefully be appearing on your favourite Apple products soon

[NickFitz]

Morning denizens

It’s cloudy, but more masses of cumuli rather than overcast, so some sunshine breaks through from time to time. It’ll b milder today: already at 20°C, it won’t get past 23° (and that only briefly), which is rather more tolerable. The barometers are trivially up at 1003/1011mB

I may go shopping, as it’s Viz-hits-the-shops day. But I may not. I’ve got a check-up at the dentist on Saturday afternoon, which means I’ll be on that side of the city and could go then. But I’m not keen on going there on a Saturday afternoon because it’s too busy. I suppose I could go tomorrow. I think I’ll just dither over what to do for a while longer

[ladymuck]

Morning all

Sunny with some cirrocumulus clouds wafting about (no, I don't know why I decided to look up the proper name). Currently 23 degrees ('feels like' 25) with a high of 27 expected. Barometer at 1016 mBar.

Sunrise 05:22; Sunset 20:53 BST

Not sure what I'll achieve with that extra 5 minutes of daylight.

This morning, I am online with gig1 for long enough to justify charging for it. Sadly they won't pay for more than a day a week and there's not enough work to fill that.

The search for the next gig continues. And I might have a look-see at some training courses to keep my brain ticking over as I was getting sucked into watching Homes Under the Hammer when I was at Mum's.

If anyone knows (or lives close to Rowland Hill Avenue, London, N17 7LU, and fancies picking up a suitcase, let me know!

It's about a 45 min drive away from me ; 1h40 on public transport but a much less effective get-away.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Morning.

Thursday apparently.

Damply dry.

Grey.

Sunless.

22.6 deg in here, 23.8 in the kitchen, 22.5 in the leanto, 20 deg out the back.

1008.5 mBar, 29.78 in Hg, 756.44 Torr, 14.63 psi, (unchanged), 66% RH (Lidl electric: new Li cells due to the flatness of the previous).

Meanwhile at around 08:00 on April 2nd 2020 Brillo, Churchill, and MrMarkyMark popped in, with Brillo doing most of the popping.

Strange dreams involving a Rover P4. Most odd. Then I remembered that I'd dreamed about buying several P4s in the past. Even odder.

Walk (abbreviated, 3 miles) walked in the grey gloom. Legs complaining a little.

Lunch: brunch. Entertainment: Movies E4/4. 1960s part II. Easy Rider, The Wild Bunch etc.

Nazi Secret Bases: the Bruneval Raid.

Nazi Secret Bases: vengeance under the dome. V2 launch site. Tallboys sorted that fecker out.

Jack Hargreaves Old Country: a junk sale. I should hold one of those.

[xoggoth]

Flipping fire alarm went off last night after I'd got into bed, 2nd time it had done it within a few hours. No smoke that I could see and battery was ok so suppose I need a replacement alarm. Off to yet more mostly old lady stuff soon.

[WTFH]

Walk has been walked. It's overcast, and while it is not raining, we came home quite damp from the mist/low cloud.

[WTFH]

Morning all

[NickFitz]

More of Parable of the Talents read tonight, in which something good happened for a change - though it brought with it a foreshadowing of something bad…

I think today was the first day my system was completely clear of that cholesterol drug, as I felt much better and didn’t have any inexplicable bouts of tiredness!

Goodnight all

[WTFH]

My John Lewis credit card got hacked earlier. 17:35 an attempt to buy something from JL themselves. The card stopped it as suspicious. An hour later and 100+ transactions attempted to go through, one for a samsonite case, one for a graphics card, the rest were subscriptions to substacks along with multiple attempts to order from Aliexpress.
Card is now frozen and password reset for the email associated with it.

If anyone knows (or lives close to Rowland Hill Avenue, London, N17 7LU, and fancies picking up a suitcase, let me know!

[NickFitz]

Tea has been chicken madras with rice and naan

To go with this, another NYPD homicide case, this time about a cleaner in an office block in the Wall Street area who got into the lift with her trolley at the start of her shift, and disappeared

[ladymuck]

And I was most surprised to see a Crouch Recovery van (not a truck) whilst driving along the A280 that runs between Patching and Clapham. "That's a bit far from their usual patch", I thought.

[ladymuck]

After a lovely lunch with an old friend I haven't seen for nearly a year, I popped back to Mum's to bring the washing in and put it away, and then headed home. Currently in West London it's 32 degrees and the high was 34. I should have stayed on the coast where it's 10 degrees cooler!

Oddly, my basil plants survived the week quite well but my chilli plants are looking very sorry for themselves. I don't think they flowered enough for me to get a decent crop, sadly.

My own laundry has been done and is out on the airer in the garden.

[xoggoth]

Typical morning, spent with a couple of old lady neighbours, playing Scrabble.

[NickFitz]

Lunch has been a bit of leftover chicken chasseur, cold

[NickFitz]

This morning’s grand accomplishment has been securing the washing machine drain hose to the back of the cupboard under the sink

The hose connects to the sink drain, which isn’t ideal but that’s how it is. The problem was that the way the hose wanted to lie would gradually turn the thing it’s attached to until the hose itself was sagging, meaning waste water would collect in there, leading to an unpleasant smell of drains filling the kitchen when the washing machine expelled water, especially if it hadn’t been used for a few days in hot weather

The thing it’s connected to turns reasonably freely, without compromising its watertightness, and when the machine was installed last year it was left pointing up but had gradually moved round. This also meant the drooping hose was in the way. So I bought some hose brackets off Amazon (I only needed one for this but they came in a bag of loads of them) and have been meaning to get around to sorting it out.

However, the place where I needed to drill to attach the bracket is at the far back of the cupboard. It’s not too hard to reach if you’re reasonably limber, which is how I discovered that if I ever was limber, I’m not now

But with some awkward contortions I eventually managed to drill in the right place and get the back of the bracket screwed on. And once I’d carefully turned the hose upwards to get it into position across the bracket, I was able to get the front of the bracket in place and bolt it on, so now it’s sorted!

The dishwasher’s on at the moment and I don’t trust my third floor water supply to handle that and the washing machine if they both ask for water simultaneously. But once that’s done, I’ll run a fluff-clearing cycle just to make sure I haven’t inadvertently introduced any leaks