Learning from your kids and their kids

Many years ago I took my kids to the university to “show them what daddy does for a living”. This turned out to be sit in front of screen pressing keys with the odd bit of shouting at people, which is pretty much all I did at home, so I’m not sure they learnt much. But I learnt a few things from them. Number one daughter picked up a mouse and pressed a button on it. The screen in front of her immediately sprang into action. Brian, who was watching, was very impressed. It seemed that nobody had ever thought to press that button before.

I was reminded of this when showing number one granddaughter my venerable Twilight Zone pinball machine. She leaned one of the buttons and promptly dropped the machine into “In the Zone” mode which triggers all the options and releases all six balls onto the playfield at once. This is something I’ve not been able to do in the many years I’ve owned the machine.

I’m not sure what to show her next time she visits.

The end of the polite cough

This nasty little virus has a lot to answer for. Including the death of a British tradition, the “polite cough”. In times gone by if a British person wanted to attract someone’s attention - perhaps it might be a waiter, or a a person who has cut in front of you in a queue, or someone who has parked their car on your foot - you would issue a polite cough to open up the sequence of apologies that would inevitably follow: “I’m so sorry that I left my foot lying around on the ground where you could drive over it” - etc etc.

Nowadays a polite cough has every chance of having you wrestled to the ground by a couple of burly folks in hazmat suits. Oh well. At least we’ve still got the “disapproving look” left.

Grappling with authority

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.

Renaissance Man

What a man I am. I spent the morning writing and the afternoon demolishing a summerhouse. Who knows what I’ll do this evening…

Rolling Thunder

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…..

Plumbing hilarity

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…..

Man in the ironed mask

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.

83 Errors and counting

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.

Organisation from the past

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…..

Sony TC-270 Lives

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… .

Murder Mystery Complete

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.

Magic Clay Skills

Made this little chap today out of Magic Clay. Very proud of myself.

Clever Person vs Clever Idiot

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.

Murder in the name of charity

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.

Tidy Mindfulness

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.

Expensive family trip

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.

Online banking in actually quite good shock

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.

Brave Rob

Not sure if I should feel brave about actually going out and posting a parcel. But I do.

New Technology Paper Review

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.

Distant Gazebo Building

Yesterday we drove to Leeds and built a gazebo. As you do.