Reply to: test please delete

[NickFitz]

There is a very good station pub to waste away 30 minutes (Sheffield Tap) and there is a model railway shop by the entrance of the station as well - little need to stand around doing nothing in Sheffield station. The town itself though is very meh

I should have explored more! But I was only standing around because I was there for a lot longer than originally planned, due to the incoming train being held up

[NickFitz]

Lunch: a pancetta omelette

Very grey out now, as was foretold

[DoctorStrangelove]

Morning.

Thursday apparently.

Dry.

Grey.

Wanly sunny.

NotSoChilly in here at 16.4 deg, allegedly 17 deg in the kitchen (it's a bit close to the kettle), 15.5 in the leanto.

1014 mBar, 29.94 in Hg, 760.6 Torr, 14.7 psi, (down from 1016 last night), 70% RH (Lidl electric).

Meanwhile on the 24th of March 2020 Brillo popped in A Lot, whilst AndyGarbs, BR14, and WTFH managed to pop in a little. .

Woke at 05:55 again: read book. Finished book. Discovered I'd turned over two pages at the same time & reread last chapter which then made more sense. Dozed a bit listening to Today which went <click> a lot.

Just discovered that the washing line requires replacement due to failure of one of the cords. Glad I noticed that. Must have been the strain imposed by the semigale and 3 bedsheets the day before yesterday. . More expense. . I think this one has lasted a couple of years.

'Tis now so misty the other side of the valley has disappeared and it's drizzling like a good 'un. .

Just as I was preparing to go for a walk.

Lunch: brunch. Entertainment: something or other about an opera singer on R4.

Book: read the end of "Black Mischief" again in case this morning's reading had missed even more than I'd thought.

It hadn't though some deft googling did reveal some more about Azania and the Azanian Railway. Apparently there's a map in Waugh's book (but not in the Penguin) of said isle and railway, which, it appears, is the Addis to Djibouti narrow gauge line shown back to front.

There's another short story about Basil Seal: "Basil Seal rides again" which wasn't in the Waugh collection "Work Suspended (1948, Boots Lending Library copy)" due entirely to it not being written in 1948.

Might pop out this afternoon to buy another clothes line seeing as the current one has exceeded its useful life from the appearance of things.

[eek]

Rasputin continues to scandalise polite society, though he isn’t much better when he’s away from them: while travelling to his family home in Siberia, he got so drunk on a river ferry that the secret police who were there to surreptitiously observe his movements had to carry him to his cabin, where he fell asleep on the table

I’m quite knackered after today’s adventures! Takes it out of you, standing around on Sheffield railway station

But… Thursday tomorrow!

Goodnight all

There is a very good station pub to waste away 30 minutes (Sheffield Tap) and there is a model railway shop by the entrance of the station as well - little need to stand around doing nothing in Sheffield station. The town itself though is very meh

[NickFitz]

Morning denizens

It’s a mix of blue sky and mares’ tails out there this morning, and getting cloudier. Still mild at 11°C climbing to 15°, but it’ll cool down towards the weekend. The barometers are down to 1005/1013mB

Today is Tech Debt Day, when we work on the boring details that otherwise keep getting left for somebody else to do, there being nobody else to do them. This is, as usual, rather annoying. The thing I’ve been working on has been in the hands of the users for UAT and there are some bits of feedback I’d like to dig in to, some being minor cosmetic things, but at least one being fundamental to the entire structure of the app

This last demonstrates a disconnect between how the senior users who gave us the specs think the data should ideally be represented, and what the ordinary users would find convenient for the way they actually work day-to-day. I figured out a good part of how to make it work in my head while I was travelling yesterday, and reckon I could have it sorted in a couple of hours, and even give users a toggle to switch between the two ways of viewing it. But instead, I’ll be mucking about with something to do with how cookies are sent

[WTFH]

Morning all
What was CBS, etc at 6:00 became misty by 6:30. The sun is now attempting to burn it off. Cooler on the walk, but not unpleasant.
Last night's bonfire to clear the shed base area has been successful.

[NickFitz]

Rasputin continues to scandalise polite society, though he isn’t much better when he’s away from them: while travelling to his family home in Siberia, he got so drunk on a river ferry that the secret police who were there to surreptitiously observe his movements had to carry him to his cabin, where he fell asleep on the table

I’m quite knackered after today’s adventures! Takes it out of you, standing around on Sheffield railway station

But… Thursday tomorrow!

Goodnight all

[ladymuck]

HWMBO made three curries for dinner to accompany a fourth that he made before the weekend.

A migraine wiped out my afternoon and I spent most of it in bed. Still fuzzy headed but at least I can now see straight and remember words again.

[NickFitz]

Tea has been sausages, chips, and beans, because it was quick and easy to make and the sausages Needed to be Eaten™ anyway

This was accompanied by part of an episode of the motorway cops thing

[NickFitz]

The last time I went to Manchester was for a CUK Christmas do!

Same! Though this time, I never even got as far as the City Centre

[NickFitz]

Home again!

It was a bit hot for travelling

The journey up was mostly uneventful, except that the train from Sheffield to Stockport ended up missing my connection by one minute. This was only to Levenshulme though, two stops up the line, and the next train was in twenty minutes. So the only adverse effect was me and my sister (who was coming via a different route but also connecting there, and whose train was also a few minutes late) got to the place about five minutes late, though they’d been able to get started as our brother was there on time

Anyway, once we were there, all the paperwork was got through very efficiently, so it’s all stamped and witnessed and so on. Nothing further will happen for about eleven months unless there’s a problem with one of the documents, in which case we’ll hear from the relevant department of the Irish government in about nine months

My sister had to leave while some loose ends were still being sorted out as she’d booked specific trains, whereas I’d got an open return so I stayed on with my brother. Then I noticed she’d left one of her bags down the side of the desk! She walks fast, like me, and by the time I’d got my head out of the door and shouted after her, she was too far away to hear. So I had to go running after her, finally catching her up a couple of hundred yards up the road. Running being something I very seldom do, I was absolutely knackered by the time I’d walked back to the place

Coming back, things went smoothly until Sheffield, where the incoming train was delayed by twenty minutes - nearer twenty-five in the end, as they had to switch it to a lesser-used platform and send it past the station to reverse back in. The platform was very full by the time it arrived and I was thinking it would be a struggle to find a seat. But these turned out to be people who couldn’t or didn’t read the overhead display saying “1st Class at the rear” and as they all shambled off up the platform to the cattle trucks, I was able to get a double table seat in First. I would have had it to myself, except a bloke turned up just before we left who’d been intending to get the next train. But he was harmless enough

Then they decided to put the people going to the three stops between Derby and here off at Derby, as the next train was just behind so they’d only be delayed a bit longer, so we managed to make up over ten minutes on that leg and arrived only ten minutes or so late

It was still very warm for the walk home though, being uphill most of the way

Right! Time to sort out my tea. I didn’t get around to having any lunch, so I’m ready for it

[xoggoth]

Been fixing loose panes on me wooden greenhouse. Took over an hour to do two because distorted wood meant the slots were out of line, had to align them with clamps and bungee cords. Off to wander with loony lady 1 soon.

PS Got me Viz. Not as good as used to be, Drunken Bakers and that Foody summit or other scarcely worth reading.

[ladymuck]

The last time I went to Manchester was for a CUK Christmas do!



Afternoon all

Sunny with occasional wisps. Currently 21 degrees ('feels like' 24) with a high of 24 expected. Barometer still at 1023 mBar.

Sunrise 06:21; Sunset 19:46 BST

Meetings this morning then I pottered about in the back garden planting out plant plugs that should have been planted out weeks ago. I think some / many will not survive but I have a good feeling about the survival of the Aji Mango and Padron Pepper plants.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Gosh. It's 29 30 years since I last visited Manchester. EMI testing of data terminals. It was ever so much fun. Not.

Morning.

Wednesday.

Dry.

Sunny.

Blue sky.

NotChilly in here at 15.4 deg, 15 in the kitchen, 14 in the leanto.

1017.5 mBar, 30.05 in Hg, 763.2 Torr, 14.7575 psi, (up from 1015 last night), 68% RH (Lidl electric).

Meanwhile on the 24th of March 2020 Brillo popped in a lot, along with AndyGarbs, and NF.

Shopping trip to Aldi & Tesco in the morning's unbearable heat: had to strip down when I returned home & have a quick wash. Phew wot a scorcher.

Lunch: brunch. Entertainment: Y&Y waffling on about Aldi, Lidl, Farm Foods, B&M, & Waitrose.

And, as I remarked, when was the last time you bought an arc welder & welding rods from Tesco or Waitrose? Just askin' for a friend. .

Book. Other book.

Some minor gardening. Goddamn brambles are sprouting already. Turn my back for 6 weeks & they'll be 15 feet long.

Tea: Tesco "white fish". Thankfully the last of that, and exercise that won't be repeated any time soon.

Entertainment: PM. More dire news of those lovely Israeli chaps bombing the crap out of Lebanon.

Seems to me that "Never Again" only applies if they aren't the ones doing it to others.

The term "Zion**i" seems ever more appropriate. Who'd have thunk?

Those British Faces: Stanley Holloway. I hadn't realised that Melvyn Hayes had started acting in the early 1950s and had appeared with Stanley in a film in 1959. It wasn't half hot mum. Herbert Lom was in it as a naughty man too, with Sylvia Sims as the love innerest.

Out of Town: Jack Hargreaves waffling on about some lunes casting fishing line on a playing field. I've actually seen someone doing this and was wondering quietly to myself whether or not he was a dangerous lunatic of some sort. Also beagles. Stone me it looks grey & grim that day.

Scotland Yard: "Crime of Honour (1958)".

Blaze: the unbelievable with Dan Aykroyd. More bollox. But at least it was amusing bollox. Nothing quite like the chap who jumped out of a plane but forgot to put his chute on before he did it, or the poodle that fell from the 13th floor of a block of flats* & killed a woman walking by on the street, then another woman was offed by a bus as she tried to cross the street to help, and a chap who witnessed it all died of a heart attack.

*Remember that quick sharp Harp advert back in the day?

.

[NickFitz]

Morning denizens

It’s a sunny start again, with just a few wisps and strands of high, thin cloud here and there. It’s 8°C but expected to soar to a summery 22°, with the barometers steady at 1011/1019mB

Not that it’ll last - the rest of the week will be cloudier and cooler, with a chance of some rain at the weekend

I’m off to Manchester today!