lockdown

Miracles

Will never cease, apparently. I have documented my recent travails with an attempted upgrade to full-fat (phat?) fibre internet.

Today:

This equates to approximately 6 months of internet connection monies.

In other news:

I managed to stab myself in the finger with some bamboo the other day, and I am not totally convinced I have got all of the wood out of my finger, despite repeatedly flushing with antiseptic spray and judicious use of scalpels.

Work continues to be insane, but I feel I might have been rumbled when it comes to tactical days off to avoid the office; I may also have lost one of my flock.

My elder brother turns 50 in twelve days; I have no idea what to get him as a gift, but I still haven't got him a 21st gift (the same year I turned 18).

My car is starting to behave peculiarly, which I suspect is largely due to it a) being a diesel and b) my limited mileage.

Yesterday evening, I indulged in a spot of hair-on-fire driving from Ainsdale to Skelmersdale, over old and well worn stomping paths; from WN8 to PR2 via M6 and assorted A roads; while a longer and much more mixed drive, the car actually seemed to appreciate having its neck wrung, and used the same amount of fuel as during a 25 mile mince, despite the longer and more varied route (and with not a little amount of leaden right foot):

Not that my car has, or ever would, inspire the joie de vivre when it comes to piloting it, but I rather enjoyed driving like a complete bellend over familiar turf. Simple things like remembering where the best lines through bends were, clattering grids where the apex is, that kind of jive.

My car  is 11 (?12) years old now, and whilst never quick, seems to be getting more feeble. This is good for tyres, keeping Peter out of prison / hospital, but not a great deal of fun. Its days with me are numbered, along with its habit of burning out the glowplug in cylinder 2. Something more modern is appropriate.

I am, therefore, seriously considering a Toyota Corolla. Estate.

I know.

I will (totally not) be drowning in women's underwear as they see me cutting about the place in a hybrid, and their inability to contain themselves in re throwing said underwear my direction, such will their lust be for a fat bloke driving the automotive equivalent of a Which? recommended fridge/freezer. 

However, the 2L version should be substantially quicker than my insignia, better for biffing around town (?Preston claims to be a city), gets more MPG, and is cheaper to fuel.

But, if there is one experience in life I can do without, it is the pantomime of buying a car, and the dickery that comes with negotiating over the finance, "bonus" extras, etc.

Truth be told, I would much rather stab myself in the finger with a bamboo toothpick.

Again.

Or punch myself in the face.

However, in modern life, car salespeople and estate agents are a bit like essential cockroaches: even if you wanted them to completely disappear, they wouldn't, and for some societal reason, shouldn't.


lockdown

Garden things

So. Me again. This week has seen the work completed on rebuilding the garden wall, and the chaps doing the work have done a splendid job. Now that they are done, I can finally get around to doing a little work in the garden. There is much to do. Including giving a couple of trees a haircut, and getting mediaeval on some brambles and bindweed.

Other work should have been taking place in the garden today, namely laying some optic fibre cable. For reasons unknown, this has not happened.

Spaceshot

Thursday, March 12

Today was a day of two halves.

The first half was made of stressing myself beyond all reason about attending a medical thing in the afternoon. And then deciding to bail on work for the day.

The second half of which was made of feeling foolish about the first half.

The main event? An eye screening appointment where the NHS wanted to see if I was going blind as a result of being diabetic. On doing the eye chart test, it seems I still retain the 20/13 visual acuity I got as a result of have my eyes lasered sixteen and a bit years ago. Then the nice man was all about putting some drops in my eyes to relax the muscles of the iris, which resulted in my looking like I had been whacking the class A's, and led to a drop in vision that really only made itself apparent after it had gone dark. Huge starburst / halo effects from lights.

However, given my relatively recent inability to walk any distance comfortably, trotting the mile or so to the clinic and the mile or so back was much easier than expected. Shows how far I have fallen from not thinking twice about a 30 mile bike ride in the evening, to seriously considering my options as to how I get to and from a place a mile away without being able to use my car :/

Still, onwards and upwards!
  • Current Music
    Matchbox Twenty - If You're Gone
Roger That

I may

have been somewhat over enthusiastic at a working Semagic client. Got a bunch of 403 errors when trying to update the previous entry. Ho hum.
  • Current Music
    A Perfect Circle - Passive
lockdown

Iran

I'm not going to weep over the passing of the Supreme Leader /Ayatollah _if_ he has been rendered very much unalive by the combination of The Orange One and Bibi Netanyahooo.

I can't claim to be a scholar of current events or history; I do enterprise technology, often at the granular level. Bombing the ever loving gently caress out of that part of the middle east strikes me as not the way to de-escalate things.

Is it just me, or does the tanned ding-a-ling look more and more like Frank Cross' dead boss as time progresses? The dude doesn't look healthy.