Reply to: test please delete

[NickFitz]

Having spent loads at Chatsworth Farm Shop, I decided I couldn’t be bothered to cook, so tea was brought to me from Popeyes instead

I didn’t sleep that well last night, largely because of the pillow situation in the hotel room not being as good as I’m used to. I’ve had a bit of an ache between my shoulders, at the base of the neck, all day as well

The other major problem resulting from going away was that I was in danger of losing my streaks on Globle and Globle Capitals, both of which were at 455 days. I did them on the iPad last night but unlike other games like Wordle and Scrambled Maps, there’s no associated account so those wouldn’t have counted. But once I was home, I had a dig with the browser’s developer tools, and found that they store all that info in the browser’s local storage. So I was able to update it directly with yesterday’s efforts and change the “lastWon” date and so on to match

[xoggoth]

Off to music event soon with new (yet to be determined) loony lady. Good thing my PC told me about the clocks going back else I'd have been hanging around for an hour.

[NickFitz]

Home again!

I found it hard to leave the hotel - not out of fondness for the place, but because the car park barrier wouldn’t let me out. The young lady who’d checked me out (who, BTW, did look more like a local teenager doing a weekend job) had told me the code, and also written it down on a card and given it to me, and I’d repeated it back to her to confirm I’d got it right, and she’d done so by saying yes, and repeating it again. And then I’d checked the card one more time to be sure I’d remembered it correctly once I’d got to the car. But, leaning out of the window into the rain, I punched it in about five times and nothing happened. So I had to reverse up into a space and go back inside

There, an older lady appeared from a “staff only” door as I was waiting and wondering whether to go through to the dining room to find someone, and asked if she could help me. I explained the situation and showed her the card as I did so, and she seemed quite taken aback and explained that the final digit of the code, which I’d been told was 7, was actually 2! The young lass had said seven every time, and she’d even written it as a continental seven with a stroke through it, for the avoidance of doubt. So either she misread it or misremembered it, but with the corrected version, I was finally able to leave

Last time I was at Chatsworth Farm Shop, they had some ribs marinated in a really nice BBQ sauce, but they didn’t have any this time; maybe it’s a summer thing. But I got a number of very fine pieces of meat, which I’ll have to divvy up and pop in the freezer in a bit

It’s extremely windy down here, despite being quite sunny and Simpsonesque out

I noticed a strange little clock-change bug on my Apple Watch whilst driving home. The early models used to go blank when you weren’t looking at them, but this newer one goes into a power-saving mode where it dims slightly and doesn’t show the second hand and so on. I realised that when it’s in that mode, it still shows the time in BST; then when I raise or turn my wrist to look at it, it suddenly switches the hour hand back an hour

[NickFitz]

Morning denizens

It’s a drizzly grey Sunday morning here in the Hope Valley. Apparently, the current 8°C “feels like” -3°!

The expected high for the day doesn’t really matter as I won’t be here - I’ll be on my way in about twenty minutes, which should get me to Chatsworth Farm Shop at opening time

The hotel breakfast was a little disappointing, TBH

Last time I stayed here was probably about fifteen years ago, and since then it’s fallen into the hands of some outfit run by people with MBAs. I first became suspicious when the captive portal for the wi-fi wanted everything but my inside leg measurement “to allow us to use your social profile to identify you” or some such nonsense; in other words, a blatant data grab. I’ve stuck with the phone’s mobile connection instead

Then I realised that virtually all of the staff I’ve encountered, both yesterday and this morning, have the aura of young people either recently qualified in, or are studying for, some kind of diploma in hospitality. Nothing wrong with that, and I wish them well in their chosen career. But Sunday morning breakfast at a centuries-old inn should be served by middle-aged women who live nearby and work there a few hours at the weekend to make some extra money, along with a couple of sixth formers who also live just up the road and are saving up for college

And the impact of the business studies mindset had extended to the quality of the breakfast. The bacon was the average of what a focus group thought bacon should be like. And the sausage (just one! despite me waiving the mushrooms and tomatoes!), supposedly from a farm somewhere but possibly just having a brand name that includes the word “farm”, gave the impression of being a quality sausage in appearance but tasted rather bland; as if the primary goal was to ensure nobody could find any reason to dislike it, meaning nobody would ever find any reason to be delighted by it

[DoctorStrangelove]

Morning.

Sunday.

Gosh wot a night. .

Dry.

Sunny.

Blue sky.

Windy, very.

15.2 deg in here, 14.9 in the kitchen, 13 in the leanto, out the back thermometer blew away, 10 in the saltinghouse.

997 mBar, 29.44 in Hg, 747.8 Torr, 14.46 psi, (up fro 989 last night), 65% RH (Lidl electric).

Meanwhile on the 7th of April 2020 between 11:10 and 12:26, in popped Brillo, BR14, covbob, LM, WTFH, and me.

Standing water at the bottom of next door's garden. .

Washing frenzy in progress. The shirts should dry quickly on the line. .

The bedroom tilt n turn window was upset by a particularly strong gust at about 03:00 or so, which disturbed sleep for quite a time.

That requiring the iRon proved to be dry enough to meet it & is now airing upstairs.

Entertainment: the thing about Woolsery (Woolfardisworthy) in Devon.

Lunch: brunch. Seems a bit later today for some reason. And I've just spotted a clock that needs changing. .

Entertainment: AJE: witness: the evangelical nutjobs waiting for Armageddon and the Rapture. Feck me these people are scary. Who knew that the Return of Christ would have Him holding an M16? (Fixed the lack of capitalisation).

Shopping trip to Morrisons and Tesco done dusted washed dried sanitised & put away.

Well there's a thing: you can't buy two packets of ibuprofen and a packet of ibuprofen gell at the same time. I wonder how many people have offed themselves overdosing on ibuprofen gell. .

Now outside a cup of consistent yet mediocre coffee, Tesco's finest.

Entertainment during the recovery phase: the last 25 minutes of "Once upon a time in the West (1968)". Feck me, it's loooooong time since I watched that in the Windsor cinema in Neath. At the time it didn't compare favourably with "The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly (1966)". These days I think I prefer it since I'm not word perfect on it. And dear old Frank as a baddy. .

"Back in the Day" on BBC1W (well I might as well get something out of my licence fee). Technology. STD (subscriber trunk dialling). Them were the days. Feck me they just mentioned party lines. . We had one of those. Mobile phones.

Tea: beans on toast etc.

Blazian bollox: Oak Island nutjobbery. Found in Smith's cove giant hole: Wood. Several modern nails. A cast iron door with a starburst pattern off an iron stove. A so far unidentified lump of iron, possibly a bolt. More wood found down a borehole.

Sky Arts: John Le Carre: a new life. Screwed a lot of women.

Blazian bollox: Duchovny's secrets thing: Army experiments with BZ chemical. Operation Eldest Son. Septic ghost army: 23rd HQ special troops: the usual rubber tanks & guns etc. deployed in European theatre after D Day. MKULTRA: Sid Gottlieb, Ewen Cameron. Philipines 1950s during Haq rebellion: draining blood from rebel soldiers to imply that it was due to vampires. And it worked. Operation Wandering Soul. Operation Stargate. Uri Geller. Fighting the Sovs by bending their cutlery and flatware*. Remote viewing. Mindgames: communicating with Nautilus whilst it was under the polar ice. Sovs try the same thing by killing rabbits having become upset about all the bent spoons & forks**.

*I made that bit up.

**And that bit, though the bit about the killing of rabbits is apparently factual: the baby rabbits were offed in the sub and the brain waves of the mother back in Sovland were affected. Apparently.

[ladymuck]

Morning all, local time 08:58

Dull start to the day. Currently 8 degrees with a high of 16 expected. Barometer at 1017 mBar.

Sunrise 06:43; Sunset 17:14 CET

It ain't summer time any more.

We didn't do the "mortadella day" festival in the end yesterday. It appears to have changed into a food festival where you have to load a special card up with money, etc.

We had a good mooch around various bits of the city and stumbled upon a lovely little craft market and a very good cafe/bar.

Dinner was at a fancy restaurant and we're both a bit sore headed today.

Heading home now and had an unofficial police escort to the airport! It seems no-one thinks anything of tailgating the carabinieri when they're effectively blocking anyone from passing them on the motorway.

[NickFitz]

Back at the hotel after a very enjoyable party, including an excellent steak pie - well, lots of them, very big so there was enough to go round. I had two helpings, and was tempted to go for a third. But it was a good job I didn’t, as there were excellent gateaux to follow

The party didn’t go on late as a lot of people were travelling back to wherever they’d come from so, having returned to the hotel, I popped down to the bar. One of my brother’s oldest friends and his wife were already in there sharing a bottle of wine, so I ended up chatting with them as I had a couple of pints

Time for bed now, as I intend to be down for breakfast early. I’m not keen on socialising first thing in the morning, and as well as my brother’s friends, there are some of my cousins staying here. So I’m hoping to get most or all of my breakfast guzzled down before any of them appear and decide to keep me company

Goodnight all

[NickFitz]

Time to venture out into the storm!

Made it!

Now sending from the iPad hooked up to the iPhone, because I haven’t found the hotel wi-fi password yet

No time for that though! The party is about to start, two doors up the road. I’ll be drenched by the time I get there, as it’s absolutely tipping down

[xoggoth]

Woody volunteer thing this morning digging up nettles. Darn things managed to sting me through jeans and my thick gloves, can still feel them. At least managed to get the not rainy bit of the day.

[NickFitz]

Time to venture out into the storm!

[NickFitz]

Morning denizens

It’s gloomy, grey, and rather breezy again. The rain seems to have stopped for now, but it’ll be back soon and should have got good and heavy by the time I’m due to head north. It’s currently 8°C but “feels like” 3°, and it’s one of those occasions when it’ll only rise to the day’s high of 15° after sunset. The barometers are up a bit at 996/1003mB

[DoctorStrangelove]

Morning.

Saturday.

Wet.

Grey.

Sunless.

Calm.

15.1 deg in here, 14.5 in the kitchen, 12 in the leanto, 10 out the back.

1003.5 mBar, 29.63 in Hg, 752.7 Torr, 14.55 psi, (down from 1008 last night), 64% RH (Lidl electric).

Meanwhile on the 7th of April 2020, between 11:37 and 12:10, in popped AndyGarbs, brillo, churchill, eek, northernladuk, WTFH, and vetran.

Lunch: brunch. Entertainment: FOOC.

Doesn't look like there'll be any sort of walk today, same as yesterday. .

Even fecking wetter now & windy with it. I do like looking out of the window thanking my lucky stars that I'm no longer working in Ye Newe Sloughe of Desponde down in Ye Docks with the wind blowing a minor gale in fine weather & force 15 when it's like this.

IIRC the Other Lot had an Open Day for the Bay Campus pencilled in for this weekend. Bet that's fun. Quite why anyone in their right mind would build a campus on sand about 15 feet from the beach escapes me. Apparently the windows on the sea facing side aren't overly good at keeping the spray out. .

Mind you, at Ye Newe Sloughe of Desponde I have watched the windows gently bowing during particularly strong gusts in a gale. .

It might be observed that the tilt n turn window in the back bedroom was letting in some water yesterday, just to piss me off even more than usual.

Innertestingly enough, I've just discovered that the old 3M factory in Penllegaer is in the process of demolition & "they" are proposing to build houses thereon, though I see someone has mentioned the use of forever chemicals in the firefighting foam that was used back in the day.

Looked at Blaze on the freesat box which immediately decided to lock up. Cycled the power & it then decided to do a rescan. There are fewer & fewer channels on Freesat.

Tea: soup etc. Entertainment: PM. Robinson talking to some Labourite or other <click>

Maigret S2 E5 "Inspector Lognon's Triumph (1961)"

Possibly some PF depending on whether or not it involves the obnoxious Waters.

[ladymuck]

Morning all, local time 1015

It was initially cloudy but now it's sunny with wisps. Damp from overnight rain. Currently 12 degrees with a high of 17 expected. Barometer down to 1017 mBar.

Sunrise 07:41; Sunset 18:16 CEST

Yesterday turned out to be lovely and sunny with just a few spits of rain in the evening.

Today and tomorrow there's a mortadella festival so we'll be having a look at that.

Clocks go back this evening.

[NickFitz]

I’m heading up to the Peak District tomorrow as my brother and his wife are having a joint birthday party for, I think, about fifty people. So tomorrow night I’m staying in a hotel up there - a nice stone-built country kind of place, rather than the usual Premier Inn. I think this may be the first time I’ve been away from home when the clocks go back! At least I can have a lie-in before my full English breakfast on Sunday

I’m going to stop off at Chatsworth Farm Shop on the way home on Sunday, which is why I haven’t bothered going shopping this week, and have also been running down stocks in the freezer

But this all means I have things to do tomorrow, so no films tonight

Goodnight all

[xoggoth]

Lights back on following about 6 hour power cut. Good job I brought that LED lighting and a car battery, have a few large torches and a camping gas stove.