Very pleased with myself. I’ve taken on City Hall and won in a tumultuous 50 minute battle. Admittedly it was East Riding Council, and I was just trying to order something via their web site. But it felt like a battle.
And I did have to give them 10 pounds to sign up to get the service (and I’m not really sure why). So perhaps we’ll call it a draw.
What a man I am. I spent the morning writing and the afternoon demolishing a summerhouse. Who knows what I’ll do this evening…
Blimey. That was something of a storm last night. I was watching the progress on the amazing LightningMaps.org and wondering how close to our house the dots would get…..
What do you do when faced with a dripping tap? Answer, in my case, is try to fix it. No matter that it wasn’t my tap, the urge to show off my plumbing skills was too hard to resist. So, after a rummage around under the sink I found the isolator for the tap in question and, after a bit of swinging on a spanner managed to pull out the leaky bit.
At this point I was feeling somewhat smug. All we had to do was find a replacement and drop it into the tap. And then someone pointed out that all the water in the house was off.
Oops. Perhaps the isolation valve that I’d turned off did a bit more than I thought. So I put everything back together and turned the isolator back on again. And the water was still off.
Now I was more than a bit worried. My attempt to demonstrate my skills was showing something else entirely Then we discovered that, owing to a supply fault, the water was off in the entire area.
We drove off to the DIY superstore marvelling at the way circumstances collide. How a dripping tap had coincided with a water outage, both events calculated by fate to make me look like an idiot. Then the DIY superstore showed that it was a lot less than super by not having any of the replacement parts in stock. So we took our masks off and headed back.
To find that the water pressure was back to normal and the tap had stopped dripping. At least I’ve learned something, which is that some designs of tap fitting need high water pressure to force them shut. We’ve ordered some spare parts in case the problem comes back again. And I’ve discovered (but not learned just yet) that sometimes fools really do rush in where angels fear to tread…..
Some people are making a very silly fuss about being forced to wear face masks in order to reduce the chances of them dying. Perhaps it is because they don’t have access to masks as cool as the one above, made for me by number one wife.
Apparently loading web pages, finding errors in them and then emailing their owners is now a business model. I got an email from Tracy this week telling me that she had found 83 errors on my blog pages. Oh well.
While I was playing with the tape recorder yesterday I found an inlay I made for one of my tapes. Hand typed on a Silver Reed portable typewriter with no undo whatsoever. The numbers on the left and the readings on the tape counter for the start of each track.
You’re right. I needed to get out more…..
As part of my ongoing program of trying to distract myself from writing today I got my old reel to reel tape deck out to see if it still works. It does. I had to take the drive to pieces to lubricate some of the parts that move the idler wheels in and out of connection with the capstan flywheel, and there was a rather distracting moment when I undid something and a little spring pinged past my ear into the air. But I managed to get it going and re-live some of my musical tastes from the early 1980’s.
Fully dressed
I love the way that the fact it uses “silicon transistors” is a thing worth sticking on the front. Although it does indeed use them. There are around fifteen or so inside I think… .
Is he the guilty one? Have fun finding out.
We did our Murder Mystery thing tonight. It was great fun. The script was suitably silly, there was plenty of scope for wild over the top acting (the only kind I can do) and there was tons of intrigue.
We also raised a few quid for a really good cause. If you want to have a ton of socially isolated fun I can strongly recommend it. You can sign up here.
Made this little chap today out of Magic Clay. Very proud of myself.
Clever Person:
Switches to bulbs that should last for ever.
Clever Idiot:
Switches to bulbs that should last for ever. And buys a spare set.
Ages ago I used to enjoy murder mystery parties. Of course you can’t do this kind of thing any more because someone might end up properly dead. But MacMillan Cancer Support have had a neat idea. They’ve packaged up a murder mystery and invited people to hold a sponsored virtual event. We’re holding ours next week. Looks like fun.
I was getting complaints about the huge pile of disorganised magazines that seems to have appeared beside the bed. Apparently they are a mess. So I’ve taken action. Behold. The magazines are now organised by title and in chronological order. Win.
We actually managed to go out today and visit family members. Very strange. Everything is still there, but most of it is shut. It was rather like driving round the latest version of Forza Horizons which includes some places I’ve actually been to. In the game you can see shops, offices and buildings that you can’t go into. Just like today.
Anyhoo, we had a socially distanced gathering which was so much fun that I forgot to sell my turnips in Animal Crossing. They go rotten tomorrow. Oh well. Totally worth it.
Today I had some banking duties to perform. I had to change the contact details for an account. I was a bit worried about doing it. These kinds of escapades usually involve a trip to the bank, standing in a queue and then waving around lots of bits of paper. This was an especially unattractive proposition in the current situation, particularly as the local branch is presently shut.
Anyhoo, after a bit of fun and games with a little keypad thingy that I’d been sent a while back I managed to get it all sorted via my phone. I love it when things just work.
Not sure if I should feel brave about actually going out and posting a parcel. But I do.
In the olden days I used to get up specially early, drive up town and review the papers with Radio Humberside. Nowadays I get up at the usual time, stagger over to my computer, put on my headphones and connect to them. I’ve just done that. The station has upgraded their on-line act so that we can now converse over Skype rather than the phone and it sounds rather like I’m in the studio.
Anyhoo, it was great fun and thanks for inviting me.
Yesterday we drove to Leeds and built a gazebo. As you do.
Got an actual guest coming to see us today.
So I’ve mowed the lawns.
Is it right to celebrate the completion of an article by mowing the lawns? Asking for a friend.
Rob Miles is technology author and educator who spent many years as a lecturer in Computer Science at the University of Hull. He is also a Microsoft Developer Technologies MVP. He is into technology, teaching and photography. He is the author of the World Famous C# Yellow Book and almost as handsome as he thinks he is.
Make your own programming language. Find out more here.
