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
Category: Stuff
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,
New/Old tech
Without shifting from the comfort of one’s own comfy chair, how does one get on the receiver/scanner and listen to real-time radio traffic in more
Runner! Runner!
Yesterday morning we followed our little routine; a 2-mile lap around most of the village, a lap around the garden to collect any overnight dog
Blogathon xx/22: The after party party
Well, it’s that time of the year, sadly, when the curtain reluctantly runs down on the internet phenomenon that is the Young Masher’s Annual Blogathon.
Blogathon 28/22: Happy Unbirthday!
For a couple of reasons it is impossible to believe that three years ago today Robyn came to live with us, even though this is
Blogathon 27/22: Bangin’ away all day
We are incredibly fortunate to live in a very small rural village in the middle of the countryside. On a still Sunday you can stand
Blogathon 26/22: Glarses
I went into West Bridgford the other day for an eye test. The last one was about 2-1/2 years ago, so for no other reason
Blogathon 25/22: Security
As I am no longer sheltered by various know-all/see-everything IT security umbrellas afforded me by certain Central Government departments and their agencies, I have flashed
Blogathon 24/22: Dear Diary
Despite a number of attempts over the years, I’ve never been able to maintain a diary. And when I say ‘diary’ I really mean a
Blogathon 23/22: Old school info
It’s a charming C21st anachronism that BT are still sending out hardcopy telephone directories. The one that rattled through the letterbox this morning (and well
Blogathon 22/22: People are weird
The date today, in case you have had your head stuffed under a pillow all day, is 22/02/2022. Unless you’re American, in which case the
Blogathon 21/22: Two things
I set myself two jobs today. Two relatively little jobs. I estimated an hour for each one. The first job took two and a half
Blogathon 20/22: Bad bad bad tech
We have a new(ish) boiler. It’s now in its third year (because it’s just had its second annual service). It’s hanging on a wall in
Blogathon 19/22: Rooms for a view
The first lockdown was a gamechanger for a whole big pile of reasons. The first ‘don’t go out to work’, the first don’t attend office
Blogathon 18/22: Bit blowy out
Storm Eunice is currently giving it maximum effort and throwing everything it has at various parts of the country. I managed to avoid the worst
Blogathon 17/22: til
The Internet is forcing what (until the age of computing, at least) had been the slow and gradual evolution of the English language. ikr? New
Blogathon 16/22: Now where was I?
There’s an Internet meme that says: Well… This morning I drove to the caravan (it’s kept at a place just outside the next village over
Blogathon 15/22: Incredible journey (not)
Unlike the morning or afternoon excursions, our evening dog walk is just a quick turn around this part of the village. It’s about 2,600 steps,
Blogathon 14/22: Family Tree
Over the last six months I have been researching the family tree. There are various services to help with this sort of thing. I tried