Reply to: test please delete

[NickFitz]

Tonight’s reading was yet more Lissa Evans: Old Baggage, which is related to Crooked Heart and V for Victory in that the central character was an important figure in the earlier life of one of the main characters in those two and is mentioned quite a lot, though she’s dead by the time they take place

Thursday tomorrow!

Goodnight all

[NickFitz]

Tea has been chicken madras with rice and naan

Accompanying this, the first episode of the new(ish) series of A House Through Time, which is about a place in Edinburgh. The iPlayer recommendation algorithm had failed to notify me when this came out - a couple of months ago, I think - despite the series being on my watchlist, and my having watched every other series. But despite its negligence, I found out about it anyway

[NickFitz]

Lunch was a ham roll

I say “roll” because it was one the the not-quite-successful white ones I made the other week, and they’re not soft enough to be a bap while also not crusty enough to be a cob

This afternoon, a text message came from the GP’s surgery reminding me that I’ve got my flu jab tomorrow at 12:15. All well and good, except that I had it down as 12:40 and, looking back to when I booked it, I can see they sent me a text message then also saying 12:40. So I had to phone them up and listen to hold music for fifteen or twenty minutes to check which it was. They confirmed 12:15, but offered no explanation of why it had changed. Maybe I’ll be able to find out when I get there

[ladymuck]

Morning all

Overcast, damp from intermittent rain. Currently 21 degrees ('feels like' 24) with a high of 22 expected. Looks like it's going to brighten up this afternoon. Barometer down to 1011 mBar.

Sunrise 07:00; Sunset 18:41 BST

Man to Man was superb yesterday. Bonkers but superb.

The friend I met sent me loads of job leads with companies where she has strong contacts, will be looking into those this morning.

[xoggoth]

Off to play Scrabble with an old lady neighbour soon. Had a decent day yesterday and went to Karaoke, not tired and flat like most days these days.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Morning.

Wednesday apparently.

Damp.

Was grey, now sunny.

20.6 deg in here, 19.8 in the kitchen, 18 in the leanto, 15 out the back.

1001 mBar, 29.56 in Hg, 750.8 Torr, 14.52 psi, (up from 999 last night), 69% RH (Lidl electric).

Meanwhile on the 5th of April 2020, between 17:37 and 18:26, in popped barrydidit, LM, MrMarkyMark, and me.

Jack Hargreaves Old Country: mink hunt: after the otter hunts were banned, now something rather more useful: mink hunts. Geese & the raising of geese.

I won't ask WTAF anyone ever hunted otters, or stags, with dogs.

Dear old Bob Ross painting a nice picture of a mountain. Yesterday's was painted on a black canvas, this one was painted on white "with a very thin coating of liquid clear". Glad we've cleared that up. .

Walk (unabbreviated, towpath) walked in the sunshine. More water in the canal this morning, it was approaching empty above the lock yesterday. One conversation.

Turns out next door but one is also suffering from this lurgie, so it's not just me. And he can't have caught it off me since we've never been closer than 16 feet for weeks.

Lunch: brunch. Entertainment: dashcam bollox S4 E3. Scottish Islands Grand Tour thing: The Shiants, Isle of Ewe, Gruinard (though he did not land ), the Summer Isles, Tanera Mor, Frank Fraser Darling, Handa.

The Alaska Homestead thing: Vermont. Another bunch of incompetents: this lot haven't got a roof or a bridge for vehicular access. A prime example of paralysis by analysis. So the Raneys installed a bridge to get the JCB across the creek, dug out a road up to the property, built a sunken greenhouse (yes: there is such a thing), built a bear proof compost area with built in airhorn, found a spring & installed 100m or so of waterpipe, made a strawbale garden, and put in actual walls between the bedrooms, fixed the roof by removing tarps & replacing with metal sheeting, and drug his piano up from the shed at the bottom of the hill. Strewth that greenhouse & garden worked well in a mere couple of months.

Tea: soup again. Entertainment: PM. It went <click> several times, particularly when the current no hoper in #10 came on waffling about some association football company who've been a bit naughty in the sight of The Lord some other footballing numpties.

The Tredegar House thing Yng Nghymraeg again.

Jack Hargreaves Out of Town (1986): sheep shearing. Sea bream. Why do I feel sorry for the fish?

Bab5 S4 E15 "the exercise of vital powers". Mr Garibaldi is off to Mars.

The latest Alaska Homestead thing: (well it's more inneresting than the Blazian bollox "What on Earth?" alternative, though that's not saying a lot). Back to Florida for more flooding and alligators. Yup. A homestead that's mostly not swamp, rather it's ponds. And what's in the ponds? Alligators. Well they managed to make something out of it which was a lot more than they started with. At least there's no grizzly bears. . Impressive snakes too. Ended up with fish/aquaculture, chickens, goats, ducks, bath tubs as raised beds for the garden. Planted orange trees. Put in a French drain, built a bund. All good clean fun as long as it doesn't all disappear down a sink hole now he's pulled all that sand out of the ponds.

[NickFitz]

Morning denizens

It’s a cloudier start today with a slight chance of rain shortly, though only briefly; it’ll brighten up by mid-morning. Still breezy but mild, so the current 19°C “feels like” 15°, with an expected high of 22°. The barometers are scuttling downwards: 995/1002mB

[NickFitz]

Teatime viewing was the rest of the ’orrible murder from yesterday

And later, I finished reading Small Bomb at Dimperley. Another really good story by Lissa Evans

It’s quite windy, but also very mild here

Goodnight all

[NickFitz]

You want something like Tado in each room so you can trigger heating in individual rooms at the times you're likely to be in them. Tado used to be quite innovative, it's likely other solutions have overtaken them now.

I’ve thought of something like that, but then again, I haven’t got around to setting the temperature adjustment on the current thermostat in nearly four years here

It also defaults to a sequence of temperatures throughout the day that assume you’re going to be out from roughly nine to five, but can be switched to one with fewer changes that’s designed for people who work from home - you can even specify which sequence which to use on particular days of the week! But again, I’ve never got around to changing it despite working from home

[NickFitz]

Lunch was leftover beef cheeks braised in Chianti from the other night. This came with a sachet of crispy onion bits which I forgot to garnish it with when it was a main meal, so they all went on today’s leftovers instead

After work, it was time for the four-weekly trip round to the pharmacy for the usual bits. The electronic prescription had been sent to them by the surgery last Wednesday at 09:15, so they hadn’t had time to get it ready yet and I had to wait

There are two pharmacists, one an older Sikh gentleman, and the other a Sikh lady, not quite as old; I don’t know if they’re a married couple or what. Nor do I know how they arrange their turns in being the one on duty. But I have noticed that it’s usually her working when the stuff isn’t ready and I have to wait. Could just be coincidence, of course

Anyway, once that was resolved, I ambled down to the kebab shop and got a kebab and chips; so tea has been earlier than usual

[ladymuck]

I've taken to reading a book I really need to get a job

[xoggoth]

Arty farty thing this morning after 3 days just spent with boring old fart, ie me. Karaoke this evening, if I can be bothered.

[ladymuck]

The thermostat is located in the hall, at pretty much the deepest point within the flat and surrounding building that it could be, so always reckons it’s comfortably warm when the rooms I actually live in aren’t. There’s a setting to tell it to offset its perceived temperature relative to the ones in its programs, to allow for this kind of situation, but neither the previous owner nor I have ever got around to configuring it. If I had done, it would have kicked in automatically this morning anyway

You want something like Tado in each room so you can trigger heating in individual rooms at the times you're likely to be in them. Tado used to be quite innovative, it's likely other solutions have overtaken them now.

[ladymuck]

That's a new one: "429 Too Many Requests" error



Morning all

Wispy fluff. Dry and bright. Weather app says it's drizzling. Currently 21 degrees ('feels like' 24) with a high of 25 expected. Barometer down to 1015 mBar.

Sunrise 06:59; Sunset 18:44 BST

Nothing planned for the day. This evening I'm off to the theatre in Sloane Square to see the very marvellous Tilda Swinton in a one-person performance.

Upstairs must have bought some piece of gym equipment as they're making a right racket, right above my head, every morning for a good hour.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Morning. .

Tuesday apparently .

Dry. .

Grey. .

19.6 deg in here, 18.3 in the kitchen, 17.5 in the leanto, 16 out the back.

1006 mBar, 29.71 in Hg, 754.6 Torr, 14.59 psi, (down from 1011 last night), 67% RH (Lidl electric).

Meanwhile on the 5th of April 2020, between 15:57 and 16:47, in popped Brillo a lot, with NF & I getting a post in edgeways.

Must have slept better last night as I arose in a hurry at 07:45 to watch

Entertainment: Jack Hargreaves Old Country: River management, what a water meadow used to be before they stopped doing it in WWII, restocking a river with trout (proper trout not those immigrant trout). Waterlevel control with boards in some sort of dam thing that was used, back in the day, to flood said water meadow and is now used to keep the water level in the river up a bit in a drought. Identifying some variety of cranesbill he'd not seen before & failing to identify a daisylike flower that covered a rock bank with blossoms. I'm innerested because we have some of that around here in brick walls & I like daisies.

Sun's shining across the valley, boyo, there's tidy then. Sounds a bit breezy out there today.

Walk (unabbreviated, towpath) walked in the sunshine & semigale. 1 conversation.

Lunch: brunch. Entertainment: dashcam bollox S4 E2.

Alaska Homestead Rescue: a swamp in Georgia. Well, unlike the swamp in Alaska, at least it was warm.

I was wondering if there was a 7up dvd boxset: well there is. Then I saw the price. .

Tea: beans on toast with scrambled egg. Nice enough. Still difficult eating anything: I have to cut the crusts off the bread before toasting. .

Entertainment: PM. It went <click> a lot. Sick of politicians, harrasment and laws.

Bab5 S4 E15 "No surrender, no retreat". "I've seen things... you people wouldn't believe... attack ships on fire off Proxima III".

French made Thing on Sky Arts about Clint Eastwood. I still haven't watched many of his later filmic epics. Despite having many of the dvds. Preferred this to "Who do you think you are?" about that Irish twat who plays Mrs Brown (apparently: I've never watched it & probably never will).

Who do you think you are? Indian chap whose parents were expelled from Kenya. Interesting history.

Last bit of "Discovering Western films": the last 3 being "Once upon a time in the West", "Rio Bravo", and "Unforgiven (1992)".

Movies: 1990s Part I.