Space, the universe and everything at Hull Minster

Tonight we went to see “Space, the universe and everything” at Hull Minster. It was great. A set of huge sound and light installations placed around the minster space. I didn’t take a camera, but it turns out that the iPhone is actually pretty good at capturing low light pictures. The pictures and the sounds were glorious and the venue just can’t be beat. If you can get to see this in Hull you should go. I think they are doing shows in other places too, if you get the chance you should definitely try to get there. Wonderful stuff.

Dentist fun

Well, the boiler man couldn’t make it today, but the dentist yesterday was broadly OK, except for the filling I now have in my future. I’ve gone from “You’ve got good teeth” to “You’ve got good teeth for your age” to “You’ve got teeth?” in what seems to be a few short years. I was even complemented on my brushing technique. I was hoping for a lollipop or at least a sticker but I don’t think they do them for my age.

Wonderful week

This is going to be a wonderful week. Starting today with a trip to the dentist, followed by a boiler service tomorrow and then an MOT test and service for the Cube on Wednesday. After which I’m probably going to do my taxes. So, an unappealing mix of pain and expense. My two least favourite things. Wish me luck.

My Cable Release

This is the cable release I thought I had lost. I found it a few hours after the replacement arrived. What makes this even more annoying is that it was in exactly the place I thought it was. I found it when I tried to put the replacement cable release away. Oh well, I really needed two anyway…

To the tip

Went to the tip today. This is probably not an activity worthy of a blog post (although it is my blog) but the tip I go to is rather nice and getting there involves driving over a lovely “rickety bridge” which I’m sure has a troll living underneath it.

Each time I go I’m impressed by the increasing focus on recycling. They now help you go through the stuff you are bringing and direct you to the correct place to put it. Rather than pointing at a skip and saying “In there”.

Anhoo, it was as good a tip trip as I’ve had in a while. And it is now possible to walk to the bottom of the garage. Which is nice.

Cable Release

This is called a cable release. You use it to trigger a camera. The right hand end screws into the shutter button and you press the plunger on the left hand end to fire the shutter without shaking the camera.

I’ve had to buy this one because my cable release has disappeared. I know that as soon as it arrives I will instantly find the original. I think it is one of the laws of the universe that this is how it works.

Boiler adventures

Arranged for a boiler service next week. Now I just need to go into the garage and clear a path to the boiler for the plumber.

Problem solving

Solved two things in the kitchen today. The cutlery draw wouldn’t open properly and we couldn’t find the spatula anywhere. Turns out that the problems were related…

Who let the dogs out...

We let the dogs have a wander round over Christmas. I think they quite enjoyed it. Although I worry what the cat might be up to….

Merry Christmas

We even managed to light the Christmas Pudding

We had a lovely Christmas. I hope you all did too.

Christmas Eve with Hull Pies

It’s becoming a family tradition (we’ve done it twice) to celebrate Christmas Eve with Hull Pies. Strongly recommended.

Entering the Christmas Zone

The tree is now up in the living room and the posh biscuits are now out. I think we are entering the Christmas Zone.

Jolly cold

It seems to have got rather cold here. I’m having to give the computer hard sums so that it warms the room up.

Direction tip

If you are thinking about doing something, ask yourself whether it will move you forwards, backwards or sideways. If the answer isn’t forwards, don’t do it.

Eat an apple while standing on one leg

Apparently standing on one leg is healthy. And so is eating an apple. So I’m trying to do both at the same time as part of my lunchtime fitness regime.

Survival Technique

The World Cup is coming. We’ve just signed up for Paramount+ at half price in the Black Friday sale. They’ll be winning ball games. We’ll be on a star ship saving the universe.

Stickers

Is putting stickers on their laptop something that a person of nearly pensionable age should be doing?

Oh yes.

The curse of the greedy iPhone

Once upon a time there was a greedy iphone. One day it decided to eat all its memory. “Yum yum” it said as gobbled up the last gigabyte for no discernible reason. The master of the iphone was very upset by this behaviour. Particularly as nothing now worked and he couldn’t run any programs or save any pictures. So he went on a journey on the internet to find out what kind of magic could cure his phone. He was even more upset when he discovered that even the greatest seers in the kingdom came back with “Thou must wipeth the whole thing and starteth again”. The master wondered why such a fundamental problem didn’t have a much simpler solution. Then he remembered that the wizards who had made the phone were probably busy adding tiny incremental features to the next version of the phone so that everyone in the kingdom could be persuaded to go out and buy it. This was much more lucrative work that fixing issues with phones that had already been sold.

So it came to pass that the master did indeed wipe his phone, removing everything and requiring a whole heap of re-configuration and re-registering of services. And eventually the master got a phone that was a lot less needy than before and all was well. Until the next time.

Maths City Rocks

What do you do if you find yourself in Leeds with a small person to entertain? You take them to Maths City. It’s full of puzzles games and great things to do if you are interested in maths and if you like strangely shaped (and enormous) bubbles. We spent a happy hour and a bit there working our way around the different exercises. Great fun.

Putting the clocks back..

I carefully set all the clocks back last night. Except for the two most important ones, the alarm and the heating controller. The heating controller appears to be able to look after itself. So, when I wound it back it this morning this did not end particularly well. All fixed now, although grinding through complicated menus on the clock radio at six thirty to stop the alarm from going off at the wrong time kind of took the shine off the extra hour in bed…