Reply to: test please delete

[ladymuck]

Morning all

Dull and cloudy. Currently 3 degrees with a high of 6 expected. Barometer up a touch to 1030 mBar.

Off to Funchal today. It's raining there, forecast to do so all week. Even a possible thunderstorm. Highs of 18-20 degrees so it will be nice should the sun come out.

[xoggoth]

Admit it. You two are vampires.

[WTFH]

Goodnight all

Goodnight Nick.

(I can't believe I'm still awake)

[NickFitz]

Tonight's major motion picture premiere was Nobody (2021) which I expected to be pretty good but which then exceeded my expectations by quite a way; big thumbs up from me

And then a rewatch of The Big Short (2015) because it isn't just The Truth, it's also Entertainment

Goodnight all

[WTFH]

Tidied up the gravel where I had removed a bamboo which was allegedly contained, then went shopping, me to Lidl, The Wife^TM to Waitrose, followed by an enjoyable walk for the three of us. After Friday Fizz and a bottle of Nero di Troia during Winterwatch and Death in Paradise, it’s now TFBSZ.

[ladymuck]

Finished work at 8pm due to having to compare two data extracts and identity the differences so that clever people can work out why those differences exist next week. Only 5500 rows by 55 columns or thereabouts per extract.

I ruined HWMBO's plans for date night as a result but he kindly kept me fortified with cocktails and snacks before ordering dinner .

Holiday has officially started.

[NickFitz]

Tea: pork cutlets with chips, peas and gravy

Accompanied by Trucking Hell

The car was a Jaguar XJ6 which I've seen before; it must have been on at the weekend recently. Taxed until October. And the gold hunters came to the end of S1, with one lot out of three meeting and beating their target. I assume we'll get S2 next week, though on past form I wouldn't be surprised if they just started repeating a series they've only just finished showing but from halfway through, or something equally random

The mattress toppers have been washed and dried but, given their nature, didn't get dried fully by the default cycle. So I've split them up; the one to go on the bed this evening is completing drying now, and the other can be put back in afterwards

[xoggoth]

Took ll1 to lunch today at local pub for her bday. Nothing I liked on the menu, meal took ages to come and it was crap. Won't go there again. Still, she liked hers.

[NickFitz]

On one of my staggers out to Tesco I observed a crow (not a Jackdaw a crow type crow) bullying some seagulls.

It swooped across the playing field to where this group of gulls were fighting over something, landed, stole the something and flew away with it.

The gulls were nonplussed.

That's one of the weird things about this crow/pigeon malarkey: on the two occasions I've seen it happen, the crow made no attempt to occupy the territory being explored by the pigeon, settling down to browse another area of the lawn instead, and the pigeon didn't fly more than a couple of feet away from where it had been buzzed by the crow. So it doesn't seem to be anything to do with competition for resources, which is what got me wondering if there was personal rancour involved

The drying wasn't completely successful, as the duvet cover still felt a little damp; it's a heavier cotton than the sheet, I think. So I spread it on the bed to see if it would air dry enough to be put away.

Then it was time to head across to the old flat, whence I bore various things away to the tip, including the bed; I managed to resist the temptation to bring the slats back here and stick them in the garage Just In Case. Also in the load were four 3L bottles of used cooking oil, because that's always a pain to dispose of down the tip (you have to pour it out into a large container, which requires great care to avoid glugging and splashing) so I'd end up with a year or more's worth in the place awaiting disposal

While I was at the wood bit, the bloke parked next to me asked me to help him with a large kitchen cabinet "to save the missus having to lift it", which I did. His Nissan 4x4 bore decals in the name of Mr. Shine, Caravan Cleaner, which seems like rather a niche occupation. I resisted the temptation to point out that Mrs. Shine looked as if she could easily take care of it herself and save us both the trouble

And the duvet cover still felt very slightly damp when I got back, so that's back in the dryer for a little longer

[DoctorStrangelove]

^^^ MOT ran out in 2015, it last passed an MOT in 2014. The programme was made sometime in 2020 at a guess.

I need to keep an eye out for the crow doing the thing of swooping low over a pigeon to freak them out, because I'm wondering if it's always the same pigeon; maybe it somehow offended that crow, which now persists in acting like a dick towards it out of spite

On one of my staggers out to Tesco I observed a crow (not a Jackdaw a crow type crow) bullying some seagulls.

It swooped across the playing field to where this group of gulls were fighting over something, landed, stole the something and flew away with it.

The gulls were nonplussed.

Meanwhile on the 19th of April 2019 counting down was still in progress.

[NickFitz]

The MOT history reveals that the MOT expired long before they made that programme. So WTF was going on there is a mystery but might explain the race track nonsense and the pottering up & down that private road at 5mph.

Curiouser and curiouser

[NickFitz]

Lunch: a roast pork and apple sauce bap (wholemeal) with a bag of plain crisps

The crows were down inspecting the lawn as I was preparing this, but they've cleared off and a couple of pigeons are doing the same now. I need to keep an eye out for the crow doing the thing of swooping low over a pigeon to freak them out, because I'm wondering if it's always the same pigeon; maybe it somehow offended that crow, which now persists in acting like a dick towards it out of spite

[NickFitz]

Morning denizens

Bit of a gloomy grey one again but comparatively mild: 5°C now, 6° coming, no rain anticipated (though they said that yesterday and there were occasional drizzly showers). The barometers are essentially unchanged at 1020/1028mB. I assume though that they're down very slightly, as yesterday was 1020/1029mB, so the extra 1mB on the adjusted figure must come from rounding or something

After a good night's sleep I awoke but went back to sleep again, waking up later with that slightly muzzy feeling you get from sleeping a bit too much

But up I finally got, and the bed has been stripped and bedding placed in the wash. It was only after doing this that I realised that now I have a washer-dryer, I can wash the mattress topper too and still have it ready the same day, so I ought to have put those in first; I can't remember if I put the alternate through the wash the last time I changed it at the old place but as it's been sitting in a bin bag for a while now, I reckon it's worth giving it a wash anyway. Still, I can fit both of them in one wash and have them both ready this evening. Might do the pillow covers too, maybe even wash the pillows themselves…

[DoctorStrangelove]

The car earlier was yet another Porsche 911; DVLA doesn't recognise the reg number, so maybe the youngish chap who bought it found it a bit hard to handle and came to a sticky end

The MOT history reveals that the MOT expired long before they made that programme. So WTF was going on there is a mystery but might explain the race track nonsense and the pottering up & down that private road at 5mph.

Morning.

Friday.

Dry.

Dampish.

Wanly sunny.

Cold in here at 10.7 deg, 9 deg in the kitchen, 7 deg in the leanto.

1031.5 mBar, 30.46 in Hg, 773.6886 Torr, 14.96 psi, (unchanged), 64% RH (GDR hair), 57% RH (Lidl electric).

Meanwhile on the 19th of April 2019 mudskipper was Counting Down.

The "Dry" mentioned above has proved to be intermittent with occasional half hearted showers not even strong enough to be termed "drizzle".

Walk (unabbreviated) walked in the intermittent showers and wan, very very wan, sunshine. Oh. Ok. Well I could see my shadow at least twice in an hour.

Lunch: baked potato with cheese and baked beans, bramble jelly and marmalade on slices of sunflower and pumpkin seed toast, yellow corner yog, 0.91*1.59 pints of good Glengettie tea.

Entertainment: something on R4 about autism that went <click> after about 20 minutes or so.

I shall be cooking this afternoon. .

The next batch of bol duly cooked.

The next batch of chilli con carne duly cooked.

A batch of lentil <pffffft> soup duly cooked and the grated veg for the next batch is freezing down in the freezer. Never tried that before so it'll be inneresting to see if it works.

Tea: lentil <pffffft> soup, some stewed apple with custard, a yog, 0.91*1.57 pints of good Glengettie tea.

Entertainment: PM.

Wheeler Dealers S17 E7 1976 Jaguar XJ6. Laid up for 30 years. Bought: £5k (the chap looked overjoyed), Total: £7,314, Sold: £8k. MOT ran out in June 22, presumably now exempt.

The rear brake refurb shows why working on old jags is such unutterable fun and why it's easier to drop the rear suspension than fiddle with the fecking things through those little holes in the floorpan under the rear seat/boot.

Fred Dibnah's Railway Collection: Narrow Gauge Railways: Ravenglass, followed by Ffestiniog. NCIS S2 E7 "Call of Silence": The Ernie Yost one. Very affecting every time I watch it. Not many of those poor old men with their nightmares left now. (Including the late Charles Durning who served in WWII).

...
Fleetwood Mac Boston Concert part one.

Mick Fleetwood & friends. He's got a lot of friends. Our Dave turned up to play slide.

[ladymuck]

Morning all

Same weather as yesterday.

I have a Vitality nurse visit today to check me over to make sure I'm still insurable (income replacement insurance). One last day at work before taking a week off