Reply to: test please delete

[NickFitz]

The case in 24 Hours in Police Custody is pretty grim. I get the feeling it'll get grimmer in part two

Later, I started reading Fifth Planet. The Hoyles acknowledge in their introduction that it's hard to predict what a society will be like in the future (the book is set in 2087) so they extrapolated from apparent social trends at the time of writing (1962). They would have been better off glossing over wider society and sticking to the spaceship stuff, as their vision of the future would have been looking pretty ridiculous within twenty years or so, and certainly does now. Husbands having to live off sandwiches when their wives are away because they're incapable of cooking anything for themselves is just one example

Mind you, they don't fare much better with the spaceships. There are two, Russian and American, and the Russians score a great PR coup by sending up a female cosmonaut, the first woman in space. While the book was written in 1962, the introduction is dated 6 April 1963, so just ten weeks before Valentina Tereshkova went up in Vostok 6. Only about 125 years out, then. There's also a bunch of stuff about the Russians having to develop special techniques because women are physically incapable of withstanding the acceleration of a normal launch!

So yes, showing its age a bit. Maybe the stuff that happens off-Earth, which is just getting started, will make up for it

Loads of fireworks over the weekend and an absolutely crazy amount tonight, which are still going on. I was wondering why there were so many on Saturday night, and of course it's Diwali, the most important day of the celebrations being today!

Goodnight all

[NickFitz]

Yeh, been there. Pain in the ***, sisters.

Ah, she's OK - she hasn't been nagging me about it, but I'd like to get it done

Tea has been curried mince and chips

And to go with it, the start of a NEW! two-part 24 Hours in Police Custody

I think this is the second time those tower blocks in Luton have featured in it as the scene of the crime

[xoggoth]

stuff for my sister's website

Yeh, been there. Pain in the ***, sisters.

Cinema this afternoon with not so loony lady 3.

[NickFitz]

Much of the afternoon has been devoted to working out this stuff for my sister's website

It's proved to be quite an interesting problem, which is a polite way of saying it's been driving me up the wall

All good now though, in the sense that I'm finally in a position where I can get started on the really tricky part

[NickFitz]

Lunch has been a few bits of leftover chicken 65

I wasn't too hungry as I also had a leftover sausage mid-morning

[NickFitz]

Links are up

[NickFitz]

I'm beginning to wonder if the throat trauma from yesterday is, in fact, a version of the Chinese Plague. Oddly enough the vaccination site was a bit tender a few days earlier which generally indicates I've been exposed to sommat or other.

People have been saying that the current variants tend to be quite bad for the razor-blades-in-the-throat thing

[NickFitz]

Morning denizens

Grey day out, though the cloud is thin enough here and there to let it get about 1% brighter than "overcast". It's been raining, and it looks like we'll be getting spells of rain or, as now, drizzle throughout the day. It's 13°C now and will get to 15° briefly this afternoon; the barometers are down to 977/984mB

I slept reasonably well until the first alarm went off - I'd forgotten to turn them off for this week. I rapidly amended this oversight and went back to sleep for another couple of hours

[ladymuck]

Morning all

Wet. Overcast. Currently 13 degrees with a high of 14 expected. Rain forecast in varying levels of enthusiasm for most of the day. Barometer down to 991 mBar.

Sunrise 07:34; Sunset 17:57 BST

Woke pre-6 am to the sound of rain. Woke a couple of other times prior to that too. Needless to say, I'm a bit tired this morning.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Morning.

Monday apparently.

Grey.

Damp.

Dreary.

Sunless.

Chilly in here at 17.8 deg, 17 in the kitchen, 16 in the leanto.

982 mBar, 28.998 in Hg, 736.56 Torr, 14.242 psi, (down from 989 last night), 65% RH (Lidl electric)..

Meanwhile on the 25th of February 2020 Churchil, BR14, and Brillo popped in, it was dry around here until the rain returned, and NF popped his nose out of the kitchen window, then brought it back in again.

Had a reasonably decent night's sleep, which made a change, with dream before waking featuring dear old Robert The Books and a bookshop in some obscure place that might have been in that Swasea but wasn't where his bookshop used to be.

I'm beginning to wonder if the throat trauma from yesterday is, in fact, a version of the Chinese Plague. Oddly enough the vaccination site was a bit tender a few days earlier which generally indicates I've been exposed to sommat or other.

Lunch: brunch. Entertainment: bit of Y&Y <click> Some sort of travel club scam.

Book. Yet more book. Endless book. Nearly done book apart from the Integral Trees bit.

Walk (unabbreviated, towpath) walked in the wan sunshine (quite warm when it put its mind to it) and grey gloom (towards the end).

In other other news the barometer reached a min of 980.5 earlier. Going back up again now.

983 mBar now.

House roughly vacced.

Found some 1.25 diopter specs: I can now read this without squinting a bit. . Old age doesn't come alone. .

Tea: chilli con carne etc.

Entertainment: PM. Randy Andy starring again. .

Oak Island nutjobbery. Oh look: there's water pissing into the "Garden Shaft" at gallons per hour. And next week it's draining the swamp. Again.

Some thing about a septic judge in NY who disappeared in 1930 never to be seen again.

[WTFH]

Morning all
Overcast and a heavy shower on our walk earlier, looks like it's going to remain gloomy all day, but then again, it is Monday.

[NickFitz]

Tonight's viewing was the final episode of Critical: Between Life and Death

And then I finished reading October the First is Too Late. Strange stuff

Next up is Fifth Planet, co-written with Geoffrey Hoyle, his son. And that will be enough Fred Hoyle for now - well, unless I find my copy of The Black Cloud

Monday tomorrow, but at least I don't have to work

Goodnight all

[ladymuck]

Evening all


It's rained off and on all day, both here in London and down in Sussex by the sea. The high has been 15 degrees and it's 14 now. Barometer down to 994 mBar.

Sunrise 07:32; Sunset 17:59 BST

As alluded to above, I have been to visit Mum today. I need to encourage my brother to pop into the local monthly dementia cafe for a bit of extra support. Mum's eating habits are a getting very peculiar and I wonder if some of the people attending will be able to offer some ways to help him manage it.

On returning home, HWMBO had prepped dinner of venison steak, chanterelles, salsify, roast potatoes, and romanesco in a cheese sauce. Very delicious.

[NickFitz]

Tea: ribs and chips, being the mango BBQ ones of my own devising out of the freezer

Must make some more of them

Lunch earlier was leftover pork cutlet in a bap (wholemeal) with apple sauce

And while I've been working on some PHP/WordPress stuff for my sister's website, the washer-dryer has been at work on a mattress topper and pillow protectors. With those washed and dried, I've just put it on a "rinse out fluff" cycle and then it can have the rest of the day off

[WTFH]

Second walk of the day completed, with only heavy rain for about 20 minutes of it.