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HWMBO braved the outdoors to walk over to Sainsbury's and pick up some comestibles for dinner. I chose not to join him.
I have been checking out a letter my brother found, which Mum received in 2022. It's from one of these outfits that write to homeowners to say they have a claim of some sort and they can sort it out for a 20% (plus VAT) fee. This particular one says that's there's high voltage electrical cables under the property and there is no covenant or easement in place. Allegedly putting such a provision in place should lead to financial compensation. Feels a bit like a scam and I'd expect something to be in the deeds from when the house was first built. My parents bought the property in 1985, and it was probably 20 years old then, so finding a paper trail will be fun.
Put off me walky until it gets cooler. Been doing lots of boring DIY jobs, mainly sealing garden paths, only in the shadowy bits to avoid that nasty shiny thing up there.
Another sunny day with minimal fluff. Currently 32 degrees with a high of 34 yet to come. Overnight may get down to 17. Barometer steady at 1031 mBar.
Sunrise 04:57; Sunset 21:01 BST
Hiding indoors; have no intention of spending any significant time outside today. I did notice the kids next door had knocked a ball over the fence so I returned that. That's enough outdoors.
It’s the hot one today: already at 29°C, it’s expected to reach 32° by late afternoon before becoming more sensible overnight. The barometers are steady at 1019/1027mB
It won’t be quite as hot for the rest of the week but the air conditioner is still going to be needed
Gawd. Spent ages this morning getting a quote for home insurance, having to check through docs and online to find out what my lock types were, exact month house was purchased, current house value etc.
19.9 deg in here, 21 in the kitchen, 20 in the leanto.
1023 mBar, 30.2 in Hg, 767.3131 Torr, 14.8373 psi, (up a tad overnight), 68% RH (Lidl electric).
Meanwhile on the 28th of March 2020 LM & eek competed for something, whilst vetran popped in.
Shopping trip to Morrisons done dusted washed dried sanitised & put away. Knackered now. .
Phew wot a scorcher. Even the wind is hot.
Lunch: brunch. Entertainment: some R4 thing about the Arctic.
29 orchids in next door's garden today. They're still coming up. .
No walk today: it's too darn hot.
Washing frenzy in progress. 30 deg in the saltinghouse.
My sister is visiting Maiden Castle today: apparently this was inspired by a book I owned many many years ago of which I have no recollection whatsoever: "The cruise of the Maiden Castle" by David Severn, being a children's book about sailing a narrowboat on the canals of Engerland in the late 1940s. (I suppose they could have sailed on the Llangollen canal as well but who knows?).
Listened to some Hawkwind Live in 1972 & dozed.
Brought in most of the washing & iRoned the gardening shirt.
Tea: chilli con carne etc. Nice enough. Entertainment: PM <click> UFO bollox on Blaze.
Book. Interminable book. 110 pages to go. .
Digging for Britain: sycamore gap. Hadrian's wall. It's wet. Very wet. As wet as an otter's pocket wet. Coppery coloured hair. Roman cavalry. Those Roman saddles are odd.
Another movie premiere tonight: The Mastermind (2025) in which a failed art student organises a heist of four valuable paintings from his local museum. Unfortunately, his organisational skills prove to be somewhat lacking. This has a plot that could make this a light-hearted heist movie or even a farce; but despite farcical elements intruding, it’s an unremitting personal tragedy. A very good film, but don’t expect to chuckle much because even when it’s funny, it’s sad that it’s funny
With my soul burdened by that misery (in a good way) I decided to rewatch Ghosted (2023) because it’s got a lot of entertaining action and is generally good fun
Finally, S1E1 of a thing that’s been on my Apple TV watchlist since it first started but which I hadn’t got around to yet: Silo (TV Series 2023– ) in which people live in a silo. But should they? This, I gather, is the question that is to be addressed. Lots of world building in this first episode, as one would expect, but it seems to have potential
Tedious drive down to Mum's but a much better flow on the way home. Mostly, I think, because we left a good hour or more earlier than I thought we would.
Met my brother's new beau, who is very lovely and my Mum seems very happy chatting to (and she is very patient about).
Lunch was a roast beef bap (white), and tea has been sausage casserole with chips and peas
The air conditioner has been in action for most of the day and it’s doing a very good job of keeping the room down to a pleasant temperature
I’ve been doing more work on the new forum software, and it turned out a few things I thought I’d have to tweak in code are actually in there already, just needing various settings and bits of configuration to be set up the right way
Walk with not loony lady 3 this afternoon, I chose a nice dark woody area. Coffee and cake at nice cafe overlooking the local reservoir afterwards.
Erected some scaffolding with intention of sealing leak in conservatory roof this morning but on close inspection sealant ain't gonna do it, glass panel has dropped about a cm on one edge. Have to pay an expert, darn it.
Another sunny start, with just some high wispy strands. Some of these are contrails dispersing, while others seem to be natural in origin. It’s just hit 20° and is expected to top out at 27°, with the barometers heading up again at 1019/1027mB
Last night’s duvet choice seems to have been reasonable; I wondered if I might find even the one-third option to be too warm but ended up sleeping soundly, and it felt just about right when I awoke
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