Reply to: test please delete

[NickFitz]

Lots of wildlife stuff as usual today, including a repeat of the first couple of episode of the otters in Singapore

But for some reason they once again stopped the wildlife at six in favour of a documentary about Steve McQueen followed by The Great Escape

So I watched the first of a two part thing about the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami on All4

And continuing the adventures of the new washer-dryer, a mattress topper and set of pillow protectors have been washed and dried

Goodnight all

[NickFitz]

Tea was brought to me from KFC

[xoggoth]

I've had it with loony lady 2, can't take any more listening to her repetitive yacking and doing her favours. I wouldn't mind helping out if it was something important but today she insisted on me driving her to the nearest town just to get a bottle of Roses lime juice and refused to get out of the car. From previous such trips I know I would have been hanging round at least half an hour outside the supermarket.

[NickFitz]

Lunch was a ham bap

The towels have been successfully washed and dried. I've now activated the "rinse out fluff" program, as there seemed to be a minor accumulation thereof

[NickFitz]

Morning denizens

Cloudy day, though some patches are thin enough to have a slight blue tint showing through. There's going to be a brief attempt at a heatwave this weekend; it's already 18°C and aiming for 21°, with 24° expected tomorrow, failing back to the teens on Monday. The barometers are about the same at 1007/1015mB

A towel wash is on as part of the process of dealing with the backlog of laundry that has accumulated

[ladymuck]

Afternoon all, local time 1206

Sunny. Currently 25 degrees with a high of 33 expected. Barometer down to 1017 mBar.

Sunrise 07:47; Sunset 20:38 CEST

HWMBO is better but yesterday I fell to the same sickness so no outings happened while I spent the afternoon and early evening throwing up. Slowly mending but we won't be doing much today either. Such a shame that the holiday days we had planned have been ruined by nasty gastric bugs. Not entirely convinced it was food poisoning, can't see where it would have happened.

Heading home tomorrow.

[WTFH]

Morning all
Blue skies out. Haven’t been for a walk yet, but that’s next on the agenda.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Morning.

Saturday.

Dry.

Grey.

Sunless.

Cool in here at 18.9 deg, 19.5 in the kitchen, 18 in the leanto, 15.5 in the salting house.

1011 mBar, 29.854 in Hg, 758.3 Torr, 14.66 psi, (down from 1014 last night), 71% RH (Lidl electric).

Meanwhile on the 14th of February 2020 Churchill, BR14 and Brillo popped in.

This morning's dream before waking involved someone with a gun holding people hostage in the house which I resolved by stabbing the mother****er in the eye with a nice pointy letter opener I had handy. Then I woke up to find it was all true. .

Washing frenzy in progress.

Freecell score: 93%, running average: 84%.

Shirts in off the line, duly iRoned, & airing upstairs. Entertainment: The Infinite Monkey Cage S33 "building an athlete" or some such. I'm running out of Monkey Cage. Maybe I'll start at the beginning again.

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

Lunch: brunch. Entertainment: latter half of The News Quiz since I didn't realise it was back.

Walk (towpath, abbreviated) walked in the sunshine.

Had a chat to a chap called Martin in PenYDre.

3 lawns mown. Couldn't be arsed with my front lawn or the stuff around the garage.

Tea: soup etc.

Entertainment: Maigret and the cactus (1961).

Bettany Hughes Lost Worlds: the Nabateans. Rose Red City half as old as time & all that. Too tedious for words.

Freecell score: 92%, running average: 84%.

Terminator 2: Judgement Day. Bits of.

Wind is rising & it's not the fault of the baked beans.

[NickFitz]

Tonight's major motion picture premiere was Highest 2 Lowest (2025) which was just released on Apple TV+ and would be a much better film if it was at least half an hour shorter. It's a kidnap drama involving Denzel Washington as a record company owner from whom ransom is sought, but the first hour is full of a bunch of stuff about Family and Black Culture and that kind of stuff, none of which contributes to the story in any relevant way. After that, when they get into the stuff that makes it a thriller or at least a drama, it's good. But it should be at least forty-five minutes shorter, actually, or have that much more action to it. Stuff about The Importance of Family should be restricted to Vin Diesel wittering on about it for two minutes while standing next to a barbecue holding a bottle of beer right at the end. That's one thing the Fast & Furious films get right, assuming there's a place for that stuff anyway, which there isn't

And then a rewatch of Resident Evil: Retribution (2012) which isn't as bad as that other one, but isn't that good really; another film that picks up towards the end, and thereby makes you wonder why they didn't put the same effort into the beginning

Finally, the last episode of S1 of the Dune thing. This gave the impression that the writers had been told at the last minute that there'd be a second series, so they had to quickly rewrite all the plot lines so they were available for that rather than wrapping them up neatly

Meanwhile in the kitchen, wonderful things were achieved in the new washer-dryer's first encounter with the mundane laundry

Goodnight all

[NickFitz]

Unexpected delivery from Amazon just now: the drain blanking cap that they failed to deliver last week and have already refunded me for

They said there was no need to return it on the refund confirmation, but I didn't expect them to turn up with it so I had something to not return!

[NickFitz]

The washer-dryer is coming to the end of its calibration run. I'm just hoping it doesn't wreck the place when it gets to the spinning bit

Far from it! I went through to the kitchen when the app said it had reached the spin bit, just in case, and you'd barely know it was doing it, it remained so stable!

Might put a wash on now, as it would be nice to have some clothes to wear tomorrow and it doesn't seem like it'll disturb the neighbours

[NickFitz]

I had been thinking of making some kind of rice pilaf to go with the lamb tagine, but I couldn't be bothered so I had it with chips instead

It turned out pretty well for a first attempt! I shall have to think about ways in which I could tweak the recipe to suit my tastes, but it was OK

This was accompanied by a bit of Trucking Hell just for a change

The washer-dryer is coming to the end of its calibration run. I'm just hoping it doesn't wreck the place when it gets to the spinning bit

[NickFitz]

After a bit of figuring out of how best to use the slider things that were delivered today, a lot of washing up liquid as lubricant, and a heck of a lot of pushing, the washer-dryer is in position!

It now needs to do a "calibration cycle" which takes about two hours, so I've kicked that off

I'm absolutely knackered

I only needed one slider in the end, just to get one of the back feet over the dodgy bit of floor

And I went through a whole palaver to link it with the app on my phone, so I don't have to go in there to see how it's doing

[NickFitz]

Royal Mail arrived!

As far as I can tell, Evri have decided not to bother today

[NickFitz]

My latest attempt at making something different for dinner is in the oven for a long, slow cook: lamb tagine

I was surprised at how much ras el hanout the recipe suggested using, so I looked up another recipe and it said the same! Mine not to reason why, but at least it'll be spicy