It is a truth universally acknowledged that there are two types of DIY household jobs. There are the fully designed, planned, costed, and workpackage-estimated and
Category: Stuff
Blogathon 05/23: Blogging
It’s early days, here in Young Masher’s Annual Blogathon Challenge, but the struggle is real. We strive to post one blogpost a day for the
Blogathon 04/23: Going underground
One way or another The Blorenge (rhymes with Orange, so there) mountain has been a monumental erm monument in my life for so many years.
Blogathon 03/23: Books!
I have become an avid reader of books. Both types, Kindle, and the old-fashioned sort. I’ve always enjoyed reading, and have never strayed much, despite
Blogathon 02/23: It’s Groundhog Day. Again
I could write a detailed academic essay on the film Groundhog Day, but I will make every effort to avoid that level of analysis here.
Blogathon 01/23: It’s out!
[gratuitous self-promotion klaxon] I’m incredibly pleased to announce that – finally! – my second novel ‘Tempest’ is finished and is widely available in paperback. Plus,
Blogathon 00/23: Buckle up
Every year Young Masher sets the Internet ablaze with a large box of matches, a packet of firelighters, and the crazy craze that is his
Ding dong!
Not ‘Merrily On High’. And also not to be said in a Leslie Philips cadish kind of way. It’s the bells, the bells (you can
The thing is…
I was on a Teams call with someone today. They kept saying ‘The thing is…’ It was OK for the first 20 minutes, but after
When old tech goes good
RSS readers were introduced in 1999 (that’s 23 years ago at today’s prices). My RSS reader burst into life the other day and told me
Tomorrow’s World
A couple of million years ago there used to be a programme on BBC (because there was only the one BBC channel back then) called
Time is an illusion
In a conversation on a sailing forum recently, someone told me that ‘DIY boat time’ is unrelated to ‘DIY time at home’. On Saturday I
The death of another part of social media!
Note the use of the exclamation mark? đŸ™‚ Because we are all young and trendy folk hereabouts, ma famille has branched out into another corner
Clean jacket
I had some work done on the Ninja on Saturday. A bunch of years ago on a less modern bike, I would have done it
The death of another part of social media?
These early days of the 21st Century are odd times. We last quarter of the previous century saw an explosion of social media. They’ve all
The ivy (not the restaurant)
Yesterday, and again this morning, I spent a bunch of hours rescuing the cherry tree from being strangled by ivy. What I thought would be
World tour of Cheshire
I spent the day on the boat. The list of priority jobs were largely outside tasks. Today was the third attempt to get up there
DIYing (again)
Logs. Long overdue, and by a significant number of years, I decided to provide the house with a log store. But instead of going to
Naked Ambition
You don’t get anywhere if you don’t have ambition. Competitive equestrians tend to focus on the next step up the ladder: Intro to PreNovice to
Dragon’s Den
Hello Dragons. Thank you for allowing me to share this concept with you. The problem statement:On 12th September 2022 at 15.15 I took a brief
Good Mood: the joblist
Way back in June 2021 I put together the original list of jobs that I felt (at the time) Good Mood needed. Over the following
It’s a sign!
I have recently undertaken a road trip! I drove from Nottingham to Torquay and then, a day later, drove from Torquay back to Nottingham. While
Good Mood #9/22
Friday 13th August. The purpose of today’s trip was a shakedown for the newly-fitted Raymarine ‘B’ class AIS transceiver, and the equally newly-fitted Raymarine Axiom
Good Mood #8/22 More firsts
On the evening of Thursday 6th July I attended the LaLa Rally Briefing, in the headquarters of the North Wales Cruising Club, Conwy. The LaLa
Technology
The Gutenberg printing press really took off as a mainstream device around 1480 (542 years ago!), by which time there were 110 presses active in
Not sailing again
The plan was a really early start from home this morning. Get onto the boat. Leave the marina about 10.00. Get out into the bay
The blame game (2)
I was recently on a course. It was a fairly detailed, low-level geekery course run by the Open Software Foundation/XOpen/The Open Group (you can take
Phew wot a scorcher
It is the hottest day of the year (so far). A balmy 30-degrees in these parts as I type these very words. We knew it
Prevaricating about the bush
My Samsung S9 is end of life. Four years old and end of life. There’s something sad about that. It still works nicely. Makes and
The blame game (1)
The main road (not actually a road but I’ll come to that) through this village connects with another lane that runs to another village. The
Good Mood #7/22 A night of firsts
The four-day Bank Holiday weekend and the sailing club combined to offer me a four-day singlehanded passage to/from the Isle of Man. This didn’t happen,
Luvly Jubbly
It’s an odd, odd week. The Good Lady Wife Her Indoors is at home all week* because it is half term. The step-offspring are also
It’s three hours away
One of, if not the biggest bugbear in my life these days is the amount of time it takes to travel to Deganwy. Although I’ve
Insert sound of pooping myself here
It’s that time of the year again, so I took the Ninja off to the nice people at Chris Walker Kawasaki for her annual check-up
Smart thing?
We are gradually becoming a smart(er) house. There’s the Google device upstairs, the Sonos One/Spotify thing downstairs, the light thing over there (points), the other
Tech braindump
I’ve been updating this blog, in a behind the scenes kind of way. I’ve also been carrying out some overdue database admin and upgrades to
Paper cuts
You know those niggling little paper cuts you get when you’re wrestling with half a dozen sheets in the printer? Or when you carelessly cut
That’s handy!
Warning: graphic image follows below Last Friday evening I spent an entertaining five hours in the local A&E department. Just before midnight I saw a
Good Mood #4/22 The Shakedown Cruise
After more delays than the 8.42 from Bristol Temple Meads to Swansea, the boat finally had its shakedown cruise yesterday. There’s been a lot of
Good Mood #3/22
Because I’m Covid-negative again, I spent Monday in Deganwy having another non-sailing day on Good Mood. I pulled up the list of outstanding jobs and
Good Mood #2/22
Today’s objective was to go sailing and have Arthur drill me on reefing; a method of reducing the area of sail to keep the boat
Getting there
(another epistle from Plague Towers) I tested negative today. Woo! The good lady wife her indoors will do her test tomorrow. She’s going in to
Family costs
(another missive from Plague Towers) Find My Past is my family tree weapon of choice. Recently FMP announced they have exclusive use of the 1921
Tax needn’t be taxing
(another brief note from plague central) I’ve just logged on to my Personal Tax Account over at HMRC and stone me what an enlightening, frightening,
