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[NickFitz]

Morning denizens

Sunnier start today, though more rain is expected this afternoon; the helping we got around teatime yesterday was pretty heavy. It’s 11°C (“feels like” 6°) and only getting to 13°, with the barometers up a little at 997/1005mB

One of the crows has been trying to bully one of the squirrels down on the lawn; I assume it’s the same two that it always is. The squirrel didn’t seem to be in much of a mood for it, occasionally feinting a run at the crow to throw it off kilter, but then just moving further away and leaving the crow to it. This sensible policy wasn’t good enough for the crow, which insisted on following it over the drive to one of the small lawns at the front of the adjacent block. It was at this point that one of the magpies seemed to get involved: having been keeping an eye on proceedings from the tree in the central flowerbed, it flew over and casually landed on the lawn, up against the hedge that gives the ground floor flats a bit of privacy. This position was off to the side from where the crow was trying to have a staring contest with the squirrel, and distracted the crow, which then tried a rush at the magpie! The magpie just flew straight up and perched on top of the hedge, while the squirrel casually headed underneath it as if that had been its intention all along. This left the crow in possession of the lawn, but wasn’t really much of a victory; it pecked around for a couple of minutes in a disconsolate sort of way before flying off. And shortly after that, the squirrel was back in the middle of the big lawn

[DoctorStrangelove]

Morning.

Sunday.

Dry.

Sunny.

Blue sky in parts.

Cooler in here at 16 deg, 15 in the kitchen, 13 in the leanto.

1006 mBar, 29.7 in Hg, 754.6 Torr, 14.59 psi, (up from 1003 last night), 63% RH (Lidl electric).

Meanwhile on the 27th of March 2020 Brillo popped in a lot, with BR14, LM, eek, and I managing to get a post in edgeways.

[NickFitz]

As a change from Deighton, tonight’s reading was The Middle Kingdoms: A New History of Central Europe by Martyn Rady. I got this because of a few snippets posted on Bluesky by somebody recently; though it’s an academic work (the author is Professor of Central European History at UCL), it’s also replete with amusing anecdotes, and generally written in an engaging style

Goodnight all

[NickFitz]

Tea was brought to me from an Indian restaurant in town, near the theatre, that people speak highly of. It was very good

One minor issue is that they do deliveries using their own driver, meaning you don’t get to watch on the map to see when they’re getting close. So I ended up spending nearly ten minutes hanging around down by the front door, as it’s a hassle to rush down once they’ve arrived. But it was nice enough that I’ll probably tolerate the additional inconvenience and get stuff from them again

[NickFitz]

Afternoon denizens

It’s a grey sort of day here, though not in a rainy way right now. Some showers are expected around teatime though. It’s 12°C but “feels like” 8°, which is as good as we’re getting, and the barometers are pensively steady at 995/1003mB

[ladymuck]

Morning all, local time 10:10

Sunny, some wisps. Currently 18 degrees with a high of 19 expected. Barometer up to 1016 mBar.

Sunrise 07:18; Sunset 21:26 CEST

Had a lovely mooch around yesterday. Might go to a castle todday. Generally, a very relaxing time being had.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Morning.

Saturday apparently.

Dry.

Grey.

Sunless.

Still verging on chilly in here at 16.4 deg, 15 in the kitchen, 14 in the leanto.

1004 mBar, 29.65 in Hg, 753 Torr, 14.56 psi, (down from 1005 last night), 60% RH (Lidl electric).

Meanwhile on the 27th of March 2020 LondonManc and NF managed to get a post or two in amongst Brillo's drivel.

Walk (unabbreviated, towpath) walked in the grey gloom. Chilly out there today. The may may be out but I'm not casting a clout any time soon, in fact layers are going back on.

Lunch: brunch. Entertainment: Moneybox <click>.

Rained. Timed the walk correctly once again.

Sun's out.

Grey again.

Today listened to Hawkwind: "Do re mi", "In search of space", "Warrior on the edge of time". And dozed whilst doing so.

Book.

Still raining.

Still still raining.

Tea: soup etc. Nice enough. I like that one. Entertainment: Robinson interviewing someone.

Tina Turner in Concert in San Bernadino. 1993.

Scotland Yard "Wings of Death" with Steptoe the younger with a cod Scottish accent.

Tina Turner Live in San Bernadino 1993: "Legs" cover. I like that one.

Maigret S4 E8 "The log of the Cap Fagnet (1963)". The trawler with the lost cabin boy one.

Last 5 minutes of "The flight of the phoenix (2004)" wherein, rather than an actual cobbled together plane, there was an animated plane and radio controlled models. But at least the animation didn't kill anyone unlike the prior venture in 1965, though the model nearly killed a camera person.

First hour of "Darkest Hour (2017)" with that Gary Oldman.

More Blazian bollox: Holy Marvels with Dennis Quaid. Ark of the Covenant (the one that buried in the money pit, apparently). The Holy Grail, of course, being stored along side said ark in the money pit. The Holy Spear. Excalibur.

Battle Treasures:

Battle Treasures:

Cold War thing on Alba.

[NickFitz]

Tonight’s major motion picture premiere was The Spy Gone North (2018), a Korean film about espionage between the North and South parts of that peninsula in the 1990s. This was said to be an “edge of your seat thriller” but it isn’t anything of the kind, unless complex subtleties of political interaction drive you to a frenzy. It’s good though, albeit probably more interesting if you’re Korean, and based on a true story - though I think the filmmakers had to be careful not to upset governments on both sides by adding an extensive disclaimer at the start. Is it really true that the government in the South paid several million dollars for Kim Jong Il to fire mortars into the DMZ a few days before an election? Would he really have accepted such a deal because he wanted to ensure the conservatives won so he had somebody against whom to rattle his sabres? I don’t know, but it wouldn’t surprise me

This was followed by a rewatch of Jupiter Ascending (2015). Spoiler alert I suppose, but I like the notion that the planet Earth is, in fact, owned by a stateless illegal immigrant

And then the next episode of Pluribus in which certain recondite limitations of the invaders are suggested if you pay attention, and the chap from the cold open several episodes ago moves closer to becoming a player

Goodnight all

[NickFitz]

The bed has been made!

I’ve been waiting for Royal Mail to deliver the lead cutter I bought off eBay. It was supposed to arrive any time after half four this afternoon, and past experience of that timeslot for parcels suggested some time around half seven was likely. Finally, around quarter to nine, I refreshed the Royal Mail app to see if there was any update that would explain its non-appearance - and it turned out it had arrived an hour earlier! There was even a photo of it just outside, on the doormat. I can only assume they must have tiptoed up to the door to leave it there, despite it being pretty large, because I was watching S2E1 of the documentary about the ferry Estonia in Swedish with subtitles, so the TV wasn’t turned up particularly loud and I’m sure I would have heard if he’d knocked

Anyway, I decided this was no time of night to start unpacking vintage letterpress machinery, so I shoved the box out of the way in the study and got on with finishing making the bed

[NickFitz]

Tea has been a rack of ribs and chips. The ribs were from M&S this time, with a Korean chilli BBQ glaze. Very nice as it turned out, though not as fiery as one would expect from the Koreans, who probably weren’t really involved at all

I left the bed to air earlier today, but it’s been partly remade. I just need to re-cover the duvet and encase the pillows

[NickFitz]

Just logged on to the work machine for the farewell meeting for the other dev. Just me on this project now

I’m still not entirely clear what’s going to happen, and I don’t think anybody else is either. This service is supposed to be going into maintenance mode and will then become redundant when a new whiz-bang thing goes live next year. But we all know how those big this-one-does-everything projects tend to go

[NickFitz]

I took three bags of cut-up corrugated cardboard, the packaging of the new desk, over to the bins; I hadn’t been able to get rid of them till now due to Bank Holiday bin shenanigans. It turned out that other people must also have been hoarding as I filled the space that was left in the next-to-last recycling bin, leaving just one for fifty-odd flats until Wednesday

I vaguely remember this happening the other year when the bins hadn’t been put out one week; it took about three weeks for the situation to stabilise

With that done, I thought I ought to do something about the pallet situation in the car park out the back (actually the side as my block is perpendicular to the road). You may recall that the desk delivery chap had said he’d get rid of the pallets, but did so by dumping them out there, where they’ve been occupying the parking space furthest from the road; there’s only seven or eight spaces out there, and they usually fill up at weekends with visitors and so on, so this was a definite nuisance.

There are two pallets and one was mounted vertically in the centre of the other, supported by a diagonal brace at each end. The desktop box had been on one side and the box with the end panels and other bits on the other, the whole assemblage being wrapped in polythene or the like (which he did take away). I thought I’d break this down and take it all to the tip, so I grabbed my claw hammer and went down, taking the car round there to load it up.

First problem: the braces were screwed on with what turned out to be extremely long screws, and wouldn’t give way at a few bangs of the hammer. So I had to traipse back upstairs for a screwdriver. This allowed me to unscrew them, eventually, and the couple of screws that were keeping the two pallets together at the base gave way easily.

Second problem: they’re big and heavy. So big that they don’t fit in the back of my car; or at least they won't easily fit. And they're also too heavy for me to easily experiment with different angles trying to get them in

So in the end, I propped them up against next door’s garden wall in the parking space. Maybe somebody will nick them, maybe they’ll still be there months from now. But at least it’s now possible to use the space for parking, as nature intended

[NickFitz]

Shopping done!

I went over via the old flat to avoid the roadworks. The chestnut trees have their pink candles on

This fits in with their pattern of flowering a few weeks later than the one with white candles down at the end of next door’s garden here (or possibly a garden on the next street along, but next-door’s garden is very long).

I went to M&S as it’s convenient to pop in there when approaching from that direction. I tried to use the self-scan bit on the phone app which is usually fine, but the store wi-fi seemed to be having an off day, and I can never get a signal in there. So I ended up stuffing things straight into my M&S tote bag like a brazen shoplifter, then dumping it all out and repacking it at the self checkout

The ongoing “improvement” of Big Sainsbury’s is still going on, resulting in a convoluted route around the place. But Viz is still in its new place right by the door, so I was able to get that without getting lost. There’s an extra-wide aisle in the middle which used to be baked goods, but the lateral displacement of product ranges means they’ve moved along a bit and the wide one is now all the foreign stuff like imported Polish biscuits, spices by the kilo, and large sacks of rice. If I used Facebook, I’d start a rumour that it’s because Sainsbury’s have adopted a corporate strategy of mostly selling goods for immigrants in future, and need to give them the extra space previously used by native British customers

Returning home, I forgot about the roadworks and came that way, but they weren’t causing too many holdups at that time of day. A Mini with white stripes had nicked my preferred parking spot by the time I got back. I can’t remember if this one comes for the weekend or just visits for part of the day, so I need to keep an eye out for it clearing off so I can go all the way downstairs for the sake of moving one car’s length further up

Almost time for lunch!

And now the “502 Bad Gateway” errors have subsided and I’ve finally managed to post this, it is time for lunch

[ladymuck]

Morning all, greetings from Cádiz, local time 11:51

Sunny with occasional wisps. Currently 17 degrees with a high of 18 expected. Barometer at 1013 mBar.

Sunrise 07:18; Sunset 21:25 CEST

Currently sitting in Parque Genoves having a coffee in the sunshine.

After breakfast had a call from gig2 saying that the contract will end at the end of June (i.e. not be renewed). Not surprised as there's so little work to do, I struggle to justify what little time I do bill.

[WTFH]

Morning all

TFIF, etc.
CBS, etc.
Roof is on shed. Tonight (or maybe tomorrow), the felt will go on the roof, then the solar panel.