Reply to: test please delete

[NickFitz]

The usual Monkey Life and other wildlife stuff provided today's visual entertainment. The otters of Singapore have finished, but they're showing a thing about the macaques that live there. And there's a repeat of the series about baboons

Tonight's reading has been more of Kate Summerscale's The Peepshow about 10 Rillington Place. Christie has admitted to killing Beryl Evans but is still claiming not to have killed her child Geraldine, for whose murder Tim Evans was hanged

And I ordered a new recliner, as the cheap one I bought about three years ago isn't that comfortable and is wearing rather badly. I've gone for a more expensive La-Z-Boy, as recommended by Frasier's father Martin Crane

Early night now, ready for more Monkey Life in the morning

Goodnight all

[NickFitz]

Today's scrambled maps looked daunting with all that sea but I actually completed it a lot quicker than others with lots of detail to squint at.

I also found it easier than expected - it took me 18 moves on a 5x5 grid, which is a decent score as it often takes more than 20. The different shade of blue for the shallow water around the coast helps

[NickFitz]

I weighed myself earlier for the first time in getting on two years. The result was not good

So as I clearly need more exercise, I went for a walk to the kebab shop to get my tea

[ladymuck]

Today's scrambled maps looked daunting with all that sea but I actually completed it a lot quicker than others with lots of detail to squint at.

[ladymuck]

The bed has been made. A task for which future me will be grateful later this evening.

The awning thing above the back door is fitted. Looks awful. Two grey plastic brackets with a sheet of perspex between them. Ah well, it's what the landlady wants.

Realised that I don't have enough drying devices for all the bed linen to be washed today. So the duvet and mattress covers will be done tomorrow. I can't be bothered to get more airers out and make room for them when I can just spread the job out over a couple of days

[xoggoth]

Free day, off for me lone wonky. Prob. go to a new volunteery thing tomorrow. It's at same NR that I did some work at before, removing fallen branches from a rather stagnant pond. They gave me some waders that leaked, feet got all wet and smelly.

PS Not that me feet ain't always smelly anyway.

[NickFitz]

Bacon bap (white) for lunch

And a few minutes have been given over to some cursory cleaning of the bathroom

[ladymuck]

Afternoon all

Grey. Dull. Currently 9 degrees and that's it for the day. My weather app has stopped lying about the chances of sunshine in the afternoon. Barometer continues its downward trend and is now at 1022 mBar.

Went to the farmers' market this morning and bought a load of stuff that will end up in the freezer as there's no way I'll eat it all before I go away on Monday.

A chap is coming round this afternoon to fit something above the kitchen door that my landlady thinks will stop torrents of rain coming in (apparently easier than fixing the guttering? A somewhat short sighted solution but I guess that's what happens when a house is converted into two flats and the freehold is shared).

Bed has been stripped and the various items are in the process of being washed.

Packing has commenced for next week's jolly. I don't like packing for a chilly trip as warm clothes take up far too much room. Apparently sales tax is high in Seattle so that, plus the mandatory tip one has to give everyone you breathe near or else you'll be branded a communist and thrown out of the country, means eating out will cost about 25-30% more than you'd think.

[NickFitz]

Morning denizens

Grey day, just for a change. Getting colder though: it's 9°C and that's as much as we're getting. The barometers are down some more at 1012/1020mB

[DoctorStrangelove]

Morning.

Saturday apparently, though I had the impression it was Wednesday when I woke.

Grey.

Dark.

Sunless.

Dry.

Chilly in here at 15.3 deg, 15 deg in the kitchen, 14 deg in the leanto.

1019.7 mBar, 30.111 in Hg, 764.84 Torr, 14.789 psi, (up from 1019 last night), 66% RH (Lidl electric).

Meanwhile on the 29th of November 2019 there were burglaries near xogg, next door's idle git had used that lawn mower 3 times over the summer, and I was watching BTVS & Angel, with a thing about the V1 and the V2 and Little Boy thrown in for good measure.

Walk (unabbreviated) walked in the grey gloom.

Lunch: brunch.

Entertainment: the rest of Dead Ringers from yesterday.

Freecell score: 80%, running average: 80%.

Seeded my brother's and parents' grave with lots of Wilko grass seed. I await the results with innerest since it's been blessed with a lot of riddled earth & compost.

For the first time ever (that I can recall, though I might have been in there 60 years ago) I visited St Illtyd's church.

Tea: spag with more of that bol, the bol being really cooked to death this week, it tasted better, whether because of that or the extra week in the freezer.

Entertainment: Nick Robinson talking to some politico <click>. Can't stand the man. That's Robinson. Can't remember who the nonentity was.

Some documentary about Richard III and the princes in the tower: seemed to come to the conclusion that Perkin Warbeck was probably one of them, though they've never done DNA on the bones (so far).

The Lone Ranger and the Lost City of Gold: hiyo Silver away! for the very last time with Clayton Moore and Jay Silverheels. In glorious color(tm). The 2nd of the cinema films they made after the tv series. Amusing enough for the 20 minutes I watched. No shooting guns out of bad guy's hands, this was full on bang bang you're really dead so fall over & bleed.

Massive Engineering Disasters: how to bring down the Californian version of Spaghetti Junction with a fuel tanker fire. How not to build a wooden roof on a stadium. How not to lay concrete for a freeway subject to ice. Something else I can't remember.

Sky Arts: David Baddiel's standup about his parents. E1 of 3.

Led Zepp on Sky Arts.

[NickFitz]

Tonight's major motion picture premiere was The Witch: Part 2 - The Other One (2022), being the sequel to the one I watched last week, which I assume was about the other one

As before, it was very good in its way. And as before, it seemed from the ending that the intention is to continue the story, so with luck it'll turn into a trilogy, giving me an excuse to rewatch both of them first and maybe work out what the hell was going on

Speaking of working out what the hell was going on, I then rewatched Inception (2010) and I think I finally understood what was going on this time! At this rate, I may even be ready to give Tenet another go

Goodnight all

[NickFitz]

Thought I got hardly any sleep last night but my snoring/swearing recorder tells me its wasn't bad at all and I had quite a decent not tired day. Volunteer litter pick this morning chatting to another old fart and loony lady 1 walk this afternoon.

She's a bit stressed out due to the absurd increases in her leasehold service charge fees, seems to be a national problem:

How London's soaring service charges are hitting homeowners - BBC News

Our service charges have gone up quite a bit, but we also got a thing explaining why which made a lot of sense. The lift, which I like because I reckon it's the original 1960s one, will need to be replaced in fifteen years or so; the roof of the block will need doing some time in the next twenty years; and a whole load of other stuff like that, looking thirty or so years into the future. The idea is we build up the reserves now, and then we don't get hit with massive one-off charges every couple of years. Makes sense to me, but of course we're in the fortunate situation that nobody profits from the increase. I'd be unhappy about it if it was just lining somebody's pockets

[xoggoth]

Thought I got hardly any sleep last night but my snoring/swearing recorder tells me its wasn't bad at all and I had quite a decent not tired day. Volunteer litter pick this morning chatting to another old fart and loony lady 1 walk this afternoon.

She's a bit stressed out due to the absurd increases in her leasehold service charge fees, seems to be a national problem:

How London's soaring service charges are hitting homeowners - BBC News

[NickFitz]

You heartless bastard. . .

I know! So much for solidarity with the working class

But it just pissed me off that I'd cancelled my plans for the morning and waited around on tenterhooks (because UPS don't have a map you can check like the others) only for the git to lie about me not being here

Tea has been a rack of ribs and chips - well, about half of a rack as this variety from Sainsbury's is actually big enough for two people, as confirmed by the assertion "Serves 4" on the packet

[DoctorStrangelove]

You heartless bastard. . .