It's time again for my occasional political rant. As usual, these are the things I'd try to do if anyone were daft enough to put me in charge; they're also promises that would encourage me to vote for people who made them.
Vaccine booster achieved! At great expense, because my government wants me dead. (Yeah, yeah, Americans, I know. They're trying to bring your system here.)
A friend likes to sum up his year in a set number of words, and I copy this fine idea. "Think of it as a short and un-boastful summary of the year, which nobody is expected to understand all of."
We wish you a merry Newtonmas, and a happy new year.
In the Thames Water area, we are to have a "hosepipe ban" from 24 August. This strikes me as the wrong way to reduce water consumption.
Vaccine booster achieved!
Since I was in Leeds, I went to the Royal Armouries Museum.
So there was an old man who was known for his faith in God. Always ready to help out a neighbour, and just generally a nice guy.
Second vaccine dose achieved!
People over 50 are getting priority for second doses of COVID-19 vaccines, so we're told.
This time the plan to sell all your medical records to the highest bidder isn't even being announced, presumably so that you don't find out about it in time to prevent it the way people did last time.
I didn't do much in the garden last year. I'm not sure why; normally I spend the summers out here, but (perhaps for the obvious reasons) everything felt even more pointless than usual. So I've been committing mayhem recently.
Is a catch phrase of the sort of evangelical who tries to go out actively recruiting. Which is fine if you're already in that mindset. But if you aren't, it can have unfortunate implications.
(Guest post from Gus.)
Put down your chow mein now. I only say that because the friend to whom I chose first to vent inhaled some of hers: apparently that's rather painful.
As many of you know, the landlady of our excellent local died at the start of December, so they didn't open in the short window before Christmas. Now it's possible again.
I've been thinking about what it'll take to start running barbecues again.
Only without the mathematical literacy.
I vaguely wish I'd known that the most recent shopping trip I'd made would be the last one for the moment.
Officially last week it was still only possible to book a vaccination if you were over 55. When I'd tried it the week before (giving NHS number and birth date) I was quite properly told to come back later. But…
As of this week, I fall into a cohort eligible for the Covid-19 vaccine, one of the few things that makes me feel batter about being fifty-mumble. I like vaccines.
(Guest post from Chris.)
The Covid19 vaccine: it's a big deal, right? Right. But the actual vaccination, it turns out, isn't. Perhaps my experience will give anyone anxious about it a reason to worry rather less. If you have had a flu jab, it's very similar.
Shopping continues to be a bit strange.
There is obvious a certain Schadenfreude to be had in observing the flailings of the people who got caught during and after the failed coup in the USA. But I think one should go beyond that.
Buying drugs is more difficult than it used to be. I don't do it very often…
Shortly before I moved into this house, I decided that my pint Pyrex measuring jug was so constantly in use that I might as well have another for when the first was in the Sisyphean washing-up pile, and went out to the nearest kitchens shop (it was called Kitchens) and bought myself a second pint jug. I assumed, in my folly, that since it had the same function and was made by the same company it would be the same.
On the last day of the most recent isolation period, I went shopping. It turns out there were two separate panics on at the same time.
I think people just don't have the attention span to cope with something that goes on for months.
So it's to be a "lockdown" again. Only not.
The local council has issued a press release. Excuse me while I run round and round in small circles.
There is at long last an "official NHS contact-tracing app". Should one use it?
Mostly people continue to wear masks.
People have finally started wearing masks in the shops round here.
Haven't you heard? Masks are last month's thing.
One huge advantage of living outside London is that my local pub does not need to be hugely crowded at all times to stay in business. So when it reopened on Saturday I went along.
I do not get on well with hot weather.
Some personal behaviour seems to have improved since last time. (But I'm only taking one sample every two weeks…)
Things are mostly as they were last time in the shops; a bit better, a bit worse.
I noticed recently that I've got a lot of incomplete series on my reading list, and decided to do something about that.
Out with the pressure washer.
The "lockdown" has affected me relatively little: things I mail-order take longer to arrive, role-playing games have moved online, and I haven't seen my boardgame groups at all. But now it starts to feel as though people have gone into a kind of stasis.
I've been running a small Discourse forum for role-playing and boardgaming for a while now, ever since UKRolePlayers shut down. It's suddenly got much bigger.
Not that I shop in person very often anyway. But it's gone a bit strange.
So we finally got something like precautions being applied, though piecemeal and rather later than would have been sensible.
“Wash your hands like you persuaded your husband to murder the rightful king.” Author unknown, but it inspired me.
I went to what's left of Brooklands, near Weybridge.
Well, we're fucked then.
It's election season again in the UK. These are the things I'd try to do if anyone were daft enough to put me in charge; they're also promises that would encourage me to vote for people who made them.
It is a truism that retail shopping is dying – and another that journalism is also dying. In both cases, the Internet is blamed. But I think it's worth looking a little deeper than that.
Adam Ant (born Stuart Leslie Goddard) was born on 3 November, 1954.
I went along to the march on Saturday, again not because I think it will help, but because I'd have felt bad if I hadn't.
Today is my birthday. And I now feel that I can be regarded as officially Old.
The Hound has left us to go back to her family.
I have spent much of my life hanging about with people a little older than me; I'm used to it. But there is occasionally some need for translation. Here are some things I have never experienced, by virtue of not having been born until just before the Unix epoch, which for many people I know were simply part of life when they were young.
It's finally got warm enough to work outside without having to be bold and manly about it.
We are looking after a Dog for a couple of months.
I went along to the march on Saturday, not because I think it will help, but because I'd have felt bad if I hadn't.
I recently attended a meeting of the governing board of my employer, and we went out for a meal afterwards.
On a slightly crisp December day, I went to the National Army Museum in Chelsea.
I spent a quiet day yesterday.
The Victoria and Albert Museum was having two computer-related exhibitions. Images follow: cc-by-sa on everything.
Which companies are going to go under soon?
People continue to give directions to their houses, places of business, etc., but not to give the coordinates. Please fix this.
I bought some Crocs last year, because I like padded shoes when I'm spending several days at a trade show with hard floors. They're very comfortable, but they don't seem to last.
I have decided not to renew my membership of the RAC.
I had never seen a cockchafer before, and then met two on the same day. One was dead on its back just outside the front door; the second one crashed into me several times while I was in the garden after dark.
On the 200th anniversary of the birth of Marx, there was fire and meat and beer.
The West Wycombe Caves are quite local to me, just on the other side of High Wycombe, and a guest felt like seeing them. They have some historical interest.
In principle I'd really like to have an electric car. I think burning fossil fuels is criminally irresponsible, but public transport isn't up to the sort of travel I want to do. So why don't I get one?
A few times a year I have a need or desire to look reasonably smart. Usually this involves a fair bit of walking on pavement too. So I want a good-looking shoe with reasonable internal padding and a solid, ideally not leather, sole. Last time my solution to this was Hush Puppies.
We got our share of the recent snowy weather. (Images.)
Just before the latest Snowpocalypse, I noticed this slightly odd set of roadworks and thought there was probably a sign missing.
Yes, once more I've seen a bird I don't recognise.
I went to the Museum of London to see a particular exhibition, and stayed to see the rest of it.
The Geffrye Museum in Hoxton is about to close down for an extended refurbishment, so I went along to it. As usual, the rooms were decorated for a period Christmas.
A recent news story, the matter of Laura Plummer arrested and imprisoned for transporting a banned opioid into Egypt, has given me to think.
It snowed for most of the day on Sunday. (Images.)
Even I (not the person most exposed to news media) heard Dire Warnings recently about original pound coins ceasing to be legal tender on 15 October.
The Midland Air Museum is round the back of Coventry airport, next door to the now-deceased Electric Railway Museum, and I visited it on the same day. It has a strong focus on Armstrong Whitworth and related companies, which had a factory here. All photos are cc-by-sa as usual.
A few days ago a red kite perched on a tree conveniently aligned with my window. All images are cc-by-sa as usual.
The Electric Railway Museum is losing its site, and its last open day was last Sunday (8 October 2017). All photos are cc-by-sa as usual.
In Marty Jopson's new book The Science of Food, he demolishes the idea of food pills by looking at the energy density of fat and working out the mass of fat-pills one would need to eat. But why would one restrict oneself to the energy that an unmodified human body can get from food?
There is a practice common to the road systems of many countries which we don't use in the UK. Why not?
On Suomenlinna, a complex of islands in the bay of Helsinki, lies the submarine Vesikko. With photographs (all taken on the Lumix GF1): cc-by-sa on everything.
The pyracantha at the front of the house has a fine crop of berries, and they're on the turn.
Some recent experience using hotel- and guest-house Internet services while travelling through Germany, Sweden and Finland.
On Suomenlinna, a complex of islands in the bay of Helsinki, lies the Military Museum of Finland. With photographs (all taken on the Lumix GF1): cc-by-sa on everything.
In the UK, drivers are told to stay in the lane closest to the edge of the road (lane 1), pull out to overtake, and pull back in afterwards. In mainland Europe they actually do this.
Near the Jyväskylä airport at Tikkakoski is the Suomen Ilmavoimamuseo, the museum of the Finnish Air Force. With photographs (all taken on the Lumix GF1): cc-by-sa on everything.
Can you identify this bird?
'Twas on a Wednesday evening that the laptop did break down... failing to come out of suspend after having been moved, with the 1-3-3-1 beep code that, on Lenovo machines at least, indicates a memory or system board problem. I cleaned up the DIMM contacts and it worked happily for a day, then died again on Thursday night, and more cleaning and re-seating didn't help. Time for a warranty repair.
Every few months I go to the Wellington for beer and food (bringing the food with me; they don't have a food licence, but do provide plates and cutlery).
For a few weeks, we had weevils.
In 2013 we planted a pyracantha at the front of the house. Last year it didn't do much. Images follow: cc-by-sa on everything.
I can't help noticing an obvious historical parallel which I haven't heard people talking about.
Those of you who came to the early summer barbecue will have noticed that the gazebo had taken on a bit of a slant.
Some towns just have pigeons and gulls and things. Some towns don't even weigh their mayor each year to see if he's getting fat on the public purse. This is High Wycombe; we do things differently here.
Last Friday I was travelling on the London Underground when someone offered me his seat.
I was out late one evening posting a 3D-printed part, and saw some ducks out on the Wye.
On a slightly warm February day, to Farnborough to visit the museum on the former site of the Royal Aeronautical Establishment at Farnborough. Images follow: cc-by-sa on everything.
Just off Southwark Street in London is an unexpected piece of industrial history. Images follow: cc-by-sa on everything.
With 3D printing sales and occasional bulk imports of board games I send 4-5 packages a month, and sometimes larger batches. There seem to be two main ways of achieving this easily.
I'd driven past it many times when living in Lee Green, but had never been inside; over Christmas I remedied this. Images follow: cc-by-sa on everything.
Well, everyone has a terrible customer service story.
I'm not fond of ClearChannel; I'm already inclined to regard it as a fairly vile mob because (a) it's an advertising firm and (b) it systematically destroyed non-top-40 music radio in the USA so as to maximise advertising revenue. But it's reached a new low.
On a very bright and warm day, there was a select gathering of fans of pig and goat.
My passport was a few months away from expiry, so when I got back from the latest foreign trip I renewed it. It only took two weeks, which isn't bad, though I think the Passport Office might take a tip or two from an enthusiastic amateur; their professional advisors don't seem to be doing a terribly good job.
On a day of sun and showers, a surprising lot of us got together for beer and belly-pork.
I've been on holiday again. With photographs: cc-by-sa on everything.
My wife went to a wedding recently, and came back with a Thing.
It was a slightly chilly day, but that just meant that people huddled round the fire when the wind blew. (Fire good. Fire is my friend.)
Also over Easter, I went to the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester. Images follow: cc-by-sa on everything.
As I was in Manchester over Easter, I visited the IWM North, the only one of the five IWM sites I hadn't been to. It was a bit of a disappointment. Images follow: cc-by-sa on everything.
With a peak outside temperature of 7°C, we stayed inside for this "barbecue".
Shortly after Christmas I went to the Wallace Collection for the first time. I could spend days there. Images follow: cc-by-sa on everything.
I tend to use the weather forecasts from the Met. Office as I find them more accurate than the BBC ones (even when the BBC is using Met. Office data). However, I find the Severe Weather Warnings rather less useful.
When we had the gazebo roof reconstructed, I cut down the old LED light strings as they were starting to fail and there wasn't really room for them in the new configuration. Now I have a new lighting arrangement.
More from the Science Museum last Boxing Day Bank Holiday. Images follow: cc-by-sa on everything.
It used to be traditional on a personal blog to rant about the horrible service one had received from a big company. (These days it does no good unless it's on Twitter or Facebook.) But there doesn't seem to be enough of the other side.
A friend likes to sum up his year in a hundred words, and I copy this fine idea. "Think of it as a short and un-boastful summary of the year, which nobody is expected to understand all of."
Since yesterday was the Boxing Day Bank Holiday, I went to the Science Museum for their Cosmonauts exhibition. Images follow: cc-by-sa on everything. (I'd been told photography was prohibited, but there were no signs and nobody tried to stop me. I didn't use flash, which may have helped.)
A remarkably mild day for mid-December, with temperatures about 12-13°C, no rain and not much wind. All images are cc-by-sa.
Yesterday, within a minute after local sunset, the sky went pink.
I have an idea for a relatively simple change which would remove some of my objections to the use of electric cars. This is less blatantly utopian than the last one.
On Sunday I visited the Clapham South deep-level shelter. Images follow: cc-by-sa on everything.
A couple of years ago we planted a pyracantha at the front of the house. Until this year it hadn't put on much of a show, though it had become pleasingly spiky. Images follow: cc-by-sa on everything.
Surprisingly good weather after a week of mostly rain, so I left the tent down again for the relatively small party (if it rained we could all shelter in the gazebo, though it didn't anyway).
Driverless cars, quite apart from privacy concerns, are solving the wrong problem. Here's what I want to build to replace the majority of transport infrastructure. It is unabashedly utopian.
I recently bought a tennis-ball catapult, for the benefit of a visiting dog. It's not as good as I'd hoped.
I got this from History Monk. This is the earliest place I've found it.
I have just had two different sorts of laser shot into my eyes. The eye-squeamish may not wish to keep reading.
A select group turned up for the extra barbecue that I called to take advantage of plausibly good weather (and it turned out pretty well, the first time since I got the tent that the weather forecast has been good enough for me not to put it up).
As those of you who came to the midsummer barbecue will have noticed, the gazebo roof had rotted in the sun. So we had it re-built. Images follow: cc-by-sa on everything.
A miscellany of interesting things seen while driving across Europe in late June. Images follow: cc-by-sa on everything.
While we were in Mariehamn, Mia Åkerfelt, a PhD who specialises in the history of architecture, conducted a walking tour showing off the history of the town. Images follow: cc-by-sa on everything.
Strictly speaking, the Ålands Sjöfartsmuseum. Images follow: cc-by-sa on everything.
Various wildlife spotted on the Finnish holiday. Images follow: cc-by-sa on everything.
Interest rates everywhere are quite low at the moment. But there's a (legal) method that can get a 5% (pre-tax) return on up to £9,000, and 3% on a further £21,000.
Summer barbecue, on the day before the solstice. Images follow: cc-by-sa on everything; some photos are by Owen Smith.
The meadow last year was a riot of various wildflowers. This year it's been mostly oxeye daisies. Images follow: cc-by-sa on everything.
The obvious story of woe of the recent General Election in the UK is that of the Liberal Democrats, who lost 66% of their vote share and 85% of their parliamentary seats compared with five years ago, leaving them about as much of a political force as the DUP. What went wrong?
Gresham's Law famously states that "bad money drives out good": if there are two currencies available, people will tend to hoard the one they trust and spend the one they don't. I think there's a different but allied process going on with items that are "good enough" driving out of the market ones that are good.
The Wycombe parliamentary constituency has been Conservative since 1951. It has often had candidates from obscure parties, but since 2001 there's been an Independent: one David Fitton.
I didn't feel like organising a Mild Day this year, so there was an ASR (Scary Devil Monastery) meeting at the Bootlegger in High Wycombe instead. With images; cc-by-sa on everything.
I've seen these around from time to time, but finally managed to get a decent picture. With images; cc-by-sa on everything.
We have a new visitor to our bird-stand. With images; cc-by-sa on everything.
Our pond has, apparently spontaneously, generated two goldfish. With images; cc-by-sa on everything.
A barbecue on a chilly spring day. Images follow: cc-by-sa on everything.
It has become fashionable to claim that a remake or reinvention of a favourite book, film or whatever from when one was young "ruined my childhood". And inevitably it has also become fashionable to dismiss such overblown nonsense. I think there is potential for a useful middle way.
I've recently switched back to using contact lenses.
A typical mallard drake has a yellow bill and white or grey flanks. Not so on the Loudwater.
I have a number of bank accounts with cards that need PINs to use, but I use them very rarely. I think I've come up with a way of marking them on the cards with some degree of security. Does this make sense to other people?
A small change to our numbering system would make daily use of numbers remarkably easier.
Today I go back to work for the first time this year.
It's election season here in the UK – for the first time, since we've moved to fixed-term Parliaments, a protracted American-style election season rather than a few short weeks. These are the things I'd try to do if anyone were daft enough to put me in charge; they're also promises that would encourage me to vote for people who made them.
I do very little shopping in person these days, and it's mostly in supermarkets. But yesterday I went to get a periodic eye test, so I thought I'd wander around our local shopping centre, "one of the top fifty shopping destinations in England". All images are cc-by-sa.
To a mate's place in London on New Year's Eve for beer, games and chat.
A friend likes to sum up his year in a hundred words. I'm going to copy this fine idea. "Think of it as a short and un-boastful summary of the year, which nobody is expected to understand all of."
With the wind-chill-adjusted temperature below freezing, we stayed indoors.
Having recently had a truly appalling meal at a hotel that rhymes with Hark Hinn Hottingham, and heard more horror stories from people who were actually staying there, I thought about hotels' incentives to make things pleasant for their customers… and couldn't come up with any.
Accounting rules have perverse effects on real life. Here's an example dear to my heart.
Why does every large convention now seem to have an associated disease, the "con crud", generally a respiratory tract infection?
Another barbecue gone by. No photos this time as I wasn't taking them.
We went back to Goring on Sunday, and things had changed quite a bit since our walk in May. Images follow: cc-by-sa on everything.
After I did the scythe course in August, I ordered one from The Scythe Shop, and now I've put it to use in the garden. Images follow: cc-by-sa on everything.
Bristol has a commuter ferry again. With images; cc-by-sa on everything.
I was watching some magpies squabbling, in a tree half-way down the road, when something amazing happened. Large image follows: cc-by-sa on everything.
I've started playing with my drone. It's a Micro Drone 2.0 from Extreme Fliers, also available from Micro Drone and Amazon, with the camera module. With images; cc-by-sa on everything.
Over the weekend I went to the Worldcon, at ExCel in Docklands. With images; cc-by-sa on everything.
Yesterday I did a quick course in the basic use of the Austrian scythe. These are my notes and recollections. Do not mistake them for an actual scything course! Images follow: cc-by-sa on everything.
Too early this morning, I went to Wittenham to watch the demolition of the southern cooling towers at Didcot. Images follow: cc-by-sa on everything.
Since I bought one in 2012, the Kuru Toga Roulette has become my absolute favourite writing tool ever.
Homœopathy has some very strange ideas. But where did it actually come from?
In case anyone is curious as to what's left once the barbecue is over. Images follow: cc-by-sa on everything.
At last we were back in the garden, after a nine month break over winter for the meadow to grow. Images follow: cc-by-sa on everything. (For North Americans: this is outdoor cooking on a grill, not smoking/curing.)
Last Sunday, we went for a walk on the Thames Path near Goring. Images follow: cc-by-sa on everything.
A flock of young bluetits has found our bird-feeder. I have my suspicions about where they nest, but I'm not going to risk disturbing them by finding out. Large images follow: cc-by-sa on everything.
A reader expressed surprise that I don't use a smartphone.
Yesterday was sunny, and we went for a walk in one of the local woods. (Images follow.)
Things heard, and links, from the Mild Day on Saturday. In no particular order.
Things heard, and links, from the Not-Barbecue on Saturday. In no particular order.
More panic and despondency in Marlow. The waters today were higher than on either of our previous visits.
(Readers not in England, if any, please ignore.)
Have you even heard of care.data?
Since we happened to be in Marlow again today, we thought we'd see how things were getting on. The water seemed generally to be between nine inches and a foot lower than last week.
Had a five-minute hailstorm just before noon today.
My wife heard about the flooding at Marlow, and we thought we'd go to see what we could see. Several of the houses along the waterfront were inaccessible by foot, though I didn't see any water actually above door-sills. While I wasn't feeling in a particularly journalistic mood, I took a few pictures with my phone.