Reply to: test please delete

[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

[NickFitz]

Morning denizens

It’s a sunny start with some bits of fluff hither and yon, and already building up to be a hot one. Currently 23°C, it’s expected to reach 29° for much of the afternoon, though after today it’ll slip back to the low-to-mid twenties for the foreseeable future (which is nine days, according to the weather app). The barometers are down a bit to 1002/1010mB

[ladymuck]

Morning all

No cloud but a gentle breeze. Currently 23 degrees ('feels like' 25) with a high of 24 expected. Barometer down to 1015 mBar.

Sunrise 05:24; Sunset 20:52 BST

On chatting with my brother yesterday afternoon in case our paths don't cross between me leaving and him getting back, I discovered that Mum's bedsheets needed changing so yet more laundry was done. This morning, I have stripped my brother's bed and put fresh linen on it and the stuff I've been sleeping in is in the WM. Glad it's good drying weather.

That bed is ancient, actually it's as old as my car. I bought it when I moved into a house I bought in Goring-by-Sea in 2004. Then I took it with me to London in 2014. In 2016 HWMBO and I started dating and I realised that a 6'4" bloke is never going to be comfy in a standard double so, when I moved to my second flat in Kensington, I bought a king size bed and my Dad claimed the bed as his one was knackered. And so it has remained in my parent's house ever since. I spent £1500 on it in 2004, I'd say we've had our money's worth.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Morning.

Wednesday.

Damp.

Wanly sunny.

Was whitely cloudy now tending to blackly cloudy with small patches of bluely cloudy.

22.4 deg in here, 23.75 in the kitchen, 22 in the leanto, 20 deg out the back, 19.6 in the saltinghouse.

1008.5 mBar, 29.78 in Hg, 756.44 Torr, 14.63 psi, (down from 1010 last night), 65% RH (Lidl electric).

Meanwhile on the 2nd of April 2020 AndyGarbs, Brillo, Churchill, and WTFH popped in.

That's the good news: unfortunately there are even more pages of April 2nd than there were of April 1st.

Washing frenzy in progress.

Walk (abbreviated: 3 miles) walked in the greyish gloom and intermittent sunshine. Pleasant enough.

Lunch: brunch. Entertainment: This Week in History: 1921 dear old Adolph joined the Nazi party. Well whatever could go wrong there then?

Sky Arts: Movies E3.

[WTFH]

Morning all
Very misty when we went out, with a lot of damp on the grass and trees.
That burned off on our walk, and it's going to be another warm one.

[NickFitz]

Midweek (well, nearly) movie night’s premiere was Relay (2024) in which Riz Ahmed acts as an intermediary between corrupt big businesses and people who have information that could harm them. This is an excellent thriller, taut and suspenseful, eschewing fights and car chases in favour of an ever-building sense of paranoia and menace. Well worth putting on your watchlist

And then a further episode of Silo. I had thought I was only behind by one season but realised the other day that there are three seasons now and I’m still on S1, so I suppose I ought to get a move on

Goodnight all

[NickFitz]

Tea has been M&S pre-digested chicken chasseur, with chips and peas. Nice enough

And lunch was an M&S steak slice, which was OK but not as good as a Greggs steak bake - maybe not even quite as good as the Pukka variant, though close

[NickFitz]

Morning denizens

It’s sunny yet also cloudy out, and going to be a hot one: already at 24°C, it’ll reach 28° for much of the afternoon. There’s a bit of a breeze, but not as much as yesterday. The barometers are up a bit at 1007/1015mB

I slept soundly until just before 10am this morning, and awoke feeling refreshed - I think the new drug that was making me so tired must be largely out of my system now

But speaking of getting things out of my system, I still hadn’t got around to dropping off a new piss sample at the GP, though at least I got around to getting the jar for it last Friday; I don’t think they’re open for such things at the weekend, and I forgot about it yesterday morning. So I duly gathered that, and have dropped it off at the surgery - somewhere I feel I’ve visited a lot lately

There was an adult magpie hanging around next to the gate from the park to the surgery which had a vaguely hangdog air about it. Upon closer inspection, its feathers looked rather scruffy. This is the time of year when adults moult, so I think it was just a little embarrassed to be seen out and about in such a state

[ladymuck]

Morning all

Cloudy and humid (81% apparently). Currently 22 degrees ('feels like' 24) and that's the high for the day. Cloud set to clear as the day progresses. Barometer up to 1021 mBar.

Sunrise 05:23; Sunset 20:54 BST

I have found many musty / dirty towels stashed in Mum's bedroom which are now all getting the hot wash treatment before I put them away in the airing cupboard.

I can't figure out what she's doing with worn clothes, as they don't go into the laundry basket. Short of going through all the drawers and doing a pants inspection, I'm not sure how to deal with that. I'll ask my brother when he's back tomorrow.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Morning.

Tuesday.

Grey.

Damp.

Wanly sunny.

22.2 deg in here, 23.2 in the kitchen, 22 in the leanto, 20 out the back.

1013 mBar, 29.9 in Hg, 759.8 Torr, 14.69 psi, (down from 1014 last night), 64% RH (Lidl electric).

Meanwhile on the 1st of April 2020 barrydidit, BR14, LM, MrMarkyMark, NF, WTFH, and I popped in, whilst on the 2nd of April 2020 (oh, the relief: another day) Brillo popped in along with NF.

Entertainment: Dimbleby waffling on about Harry Dexter White & how he managed to help destroy the British Empire.

On the eve of the 49th renewal the AA subscription was cancelled: only took 20 minutes on the phone.

Walk (abbreviated, 3 miles) walked in the grey gloom & eventual light drizzle. Two conversations.

Irritating parking on the road: one side the pavement covered in parked cars, on the other a delivery truck parked on the pavement & a chap with a perambulator was unable to pass so I marched into the middle of the road & stopped the traffic so he could follow me through. Good deed of the day.

Lunch: brunch. Entertainment: the man thing on R4 <click> Sky Arts Movies E2/4. Noir followed by the sort of movies I don't watch such as "Singing in the Rain" etc.

TPTV: "William Tell" S1 E20 "The shrew (1958)". Not as good as Robin Hood with Richard Green but there you go.

Some minor "gardening": hacking back the brambles: some in next door were 15 feet long, grown since the spring, and thick stemmed with it. Dead headed the roses & hacked back the self planted one that, despite the warnings, failed to give me any flowers whatsoever. I think it's on borrowed time. .

Drains are blocked up the road again. Time for Dynorod aka Welsh Water contractors. Sounds like it'll be that wagon with the long hose pipe again.


Jack Hargreaves Old Country. Gathering wild horses in the New Forest. Goats.

UFO bollox on Blaze. The Zimbabwe skool UFO thing.

Sunken Ships. HMS Barham. The medium was mentioned towards the end: the last prosecution for witchcraft.

Bab5 S2 E14 "There all the honour lies". Dirty deeds amongst the Membari in an attempt to fit Sheridan up with murder. More Kosh.

Book.

Mega Disasters: more Blazian bollox: Hypercane: 500 mph hurricane produced as a result of the 65M year ago impact.

History's most shocking. All that sticks from that was "The largest non nuclear explosion" as in the Beirut fertiliser explosion which came in at about 1.1 kt, as oppose to the 2.9 kt Halifax Nova Scotia explosion which actually was the largest non nuclear detonation in 1917.

[WTFH]

Morning all
Cloudy! this morning and very humid. No sign of rain.
Walk has been walked.

[NickFitz]

Tonight’s reading was more of Parable of the Talents in which their remote community is gradually expanding, though usually because of some hideous tragedy befalling other people

Goodnight all

[NickFitz]

Sweet and sour pork with fried rice for tea

Accompanying this, a series called Homicide on Netflix which is basically NYPD detectives talking about old cases, the first being the murder of Jennifer Stahl and two of her friends in 2001

[NickFitz]

The Corolla has been resurrected!

The new jump-start battery pack thing I’d bought looks a lot chunkier and generally competent than the cheaper old ones, and sure enough, it got it started without batting an eyelid and still showed a full charge afterwards when I plugged it into the fag lighter to top it up

With that done, I wanted to drive by a suitably long and circuitous route to ensure the car battery could get properly charged, so I decided to go anticlockwise round the outer ring road, such as it is. This was mainly because that gave me an excuse to take a detour up the residential road in the northwest of the city that’s lined with Giant Redwoods, which I’ve been meaning to go and have a look at for years. The road follows what was once the course of the main drive to the local big house when that area was still a village, and the trees date from then. They’re nowhere near fully mature yet, but they looked nice as it was very sunny, which really brought out their colouring

So onwards round the city, including finally seeing a bit of road lined with those flags of St. George that fascists seem to have been hanging everywhere except here. These were in the estate where you’ll find the types who rant about immigrants causing crime. For as long as I’ve been here, though, there’s been a roughly 60 to 80% probability that any story in the local paper about either petty crime or drunken murder will involve somebody who lives around there, or maybe just grew up there

I finally made it to M&S, where the phone app still resolutely refuses to self-scan things; I don’t know if it’s the rubbish in-store wi-fi, though that’s the most likely culprit. Anyway, I’m resigned now to just stuffing things in my bag like a blatant shoplifter, then having to tip it out and start again at the self-checkouts

And onwards to Sainsbury’s. I realised this morning, when somebody on Bluesky tweeted about Viz arriving in the post, that I’d got my dates mixed up and it won’t be in the shops until this Thursday. Anyway, I got various bits, though the refurbishment is still going on, which means I’m forgetting stuff because my entire shopping process has been refined over more than twenty-five years to depend on specific parts of my route around the store triggering the memory that I need something from that bit

It’s very sunny and Simpsonesque out now but there’s also a decent breeze, making it just about bearable

[xoggoth]

Footpath clearance part done, just two of us. Nice coffe and biccies at other bloke's place.