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[DoctorStrangelove]

Morning Afternoon.

Wednesday.

"Dry", yeah, right: wet wet wet, the drizzly wet that's wetter than a monsoon.

Grey.

Dark.

Sunless.

Dreary.

Chilly in here at 13.2 deg, 12.5 deg in the kitchen, 12 deg in the leanto.

1029 mBar, in Hg, Torr, psi, (up from 1026 last night), 68% RH (Lidl electric).

[NickFitz]

The perennial Christmas conundrum: do I take my laptop, or will the iPad do? I'll only be gone for twenty-four hours, most of which will involve driving, eating, drinking, or sleeping, so I'm not even going to bother taking a charger

Anyway, best be off. Have a good one everybody!

[NickFitz]

Morning denizens, and Happy Christmas!

It's a cloudy day but with a hint of a gap here and there that might lead to it brightening up later, and a bit breezy though not drastically so. Currently 9°C (feeling like 6°) with an expected high of 11°; the barometers are up yet more at 1020/1028mB

[NickFitz]

Tonight's festive motion picture premiere was Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale (2010), a Finnish film in which a mining company discovers the original Santa, frozen into a block of ice deep under a mountain. But it turns out he'd been put there because he's a cannibalistic force of evil, and children start disappearing from neighbouring villages… Rather amusing twist on the whole notion, I thought

And then another episode of Chernobyl

Happy Christmas everybody!

Goodnight all

[NickFitz]

Those who have enjoyed the #DuvetKnowItsChristmas posts on Twitter over the last fourteen years might like to know that it's happening on Bluesky this year

[NickFitz]

Oh, and before tea I sorted out the remaining Christmas presents - just writing names on gift cards and putting stuff in gift bags, but it means that's all done and dusted and won't have to be attended to in a frantic rush tomorrow morning

I'd put the various gift cards "somewhere safe", so it took about five minutes to work out where that was

[NickFitz]

Tea has been Cumberland sausages with chips and beans

This was accompanied by the motorway cops thing that avoids motorways

Not sure what, if anything, to watch this evening. I may get stuck into the Quality Street though

[NickFitz]

^^^ Mine has the Mazda 1952 Coronation lights set on it, with a Fairy Liquid(tm) bottle stuck on the pointy star thing at the apex with a red light bulb illuminating it from the inside.

It stays there all year since I can't be arsed to take it down again.

I wouldn't be surprised if mine is still there at Easter

[DoctorStrangelove]

^^^ Zenchury Om.


^^^ Mine has the Mazda 1952 Coronation lights set on it, with a Fairy Liquid(tm) bottle stuck on the pointy star thing at the apex with a red light bulb illuminating it from the inside.

It stays there all year since I can't be arsed to take it down again.

[NickFitz]

As part of the business of sorting things out so the new chair could get in here, the Christmas tree that had been on the floor behind stuff since I hung the baubles on it finally found a position on top of a Kallax 2x2 near the sofa. So I just dug out the fairy lights (which my parents got from Wilko of blessed memory) and draped them around it and thus, for the first time ever, I have an illuminated tree in my place for Christmas!

[NickFitz]

So then I spent ages looking for the lead, finding all kinds of other leads but not the special one.

Just glanced downwards while getting out of my chair and saw the lead, exactly where I'd put it so it'd be safe on the bottom level of the small coffee table

Oh well, I can charge the things now, even though it apparently wasn't the battery anyway

[NickFitz]

Mundane laundry is on

[NickFitz]

Popped down to check the Corolla over ready for tomorrow. Oil level was OK, and such other bits beneath the bonnet as I know the purpose of seemed to be in their appointed places and at their appointed levels, so I set out to do the tyre pressures. As I do this using an electric pump powered from the car, I decided to start the engine to prevent too much drain on the battery, just in case - but it wouldn't start! Turned the key, there was a click and all the lights on the dashboard came on the way they do, but nothing past that, six times in a row

I thought it possible the battery was partially drained as, unlike some cars, that doesn't seem to crank the starter motor slowly but just doesn't crank it at all. So I came up for the little booster pack batteries. I knew where they were, but I haven't used them in years so I thought they might need a charge - except they have the USB socket that's almost never used anywhere, and I haven't seen my lead that fits them since I don't know when but probably back at the old place

So then I spent ages looking for the lead, finding all kinds of other leads but not the special one. Finally, I decided to take them both down on the off chance one of them held enough charge.

Naturally, before faffing around, I tried starting the car again - and it fired into life first turn of the key, no sign of struggling, ran absolutely fine

So I have no idea what was going on. Anyway, I got all the tyres back to nominal pressure, and just in case I took it for a quick drive around the neighbourhood so it was full warmed up and, hopefully, well-charged for tomorrow

It occasionally does that click-but-no-starting thing but always fires up on the second or third go. This is the first time it's just done nothing for six tries. Maybe it's because it's quite damp out, and letting damp air into the engine bay when I was checking the oil affected it somehow, then it dried out during the twenty minutes or so I was up here with the bonnet shut again? I don't have a clue TBH

[NickFitz]

Lunch: sardine toasties (olive oil variant)

It's a bit on the sunny side out now, though still with streaks and patches of cloud here and there

[NickFitz]

Morning denizens

Grey day out with traces of overnight rain, but none of that is expected today. It's mild at 12°C, which is what it will stay at until it dips down to a still-quite-mild 7° overnight. The barometers are up a touch more at 1013/1021mB

I've still got a nagging feeling there's something I'm supposed to do, but I think this may just be down to not working on what is, I am told, a Tuesday. Or maybe it's because I haven't yet "wrapped" (i.e. put into a gift bag) the remaining presents. And it could just be that I realised last night that I don't have any dry roasted peanuts in the house, and thought about popping round to Sainsbury's Local for some

The last deliveries expected before Christmas have arrived, including the cheap arm tray from Amazon. This seems adequate for its purposes, at least in the short term, and is now in position on the arm of the recliner I'm not leaning on, bearing the TV remote control and a plate with some all-butter Scottish shortbread fingers, these last with coffee being my seasonally-appropriate breakfast