Wednesday, December 14, 2022
Comments:
nick: Is it (Battersea power station) worth visiting? Someone I was talking to said that lots of the shops hadn't yet opened when he went
Steve: Yes Battersea. Worth a wander but not a dedicated visit. We made a small detour. The switch gear I saw was at the back of a restaurant so not easy(free) to get to. Inside it just looks like a shopping centre selling expensive stuff nobody needs.
Nearby American embassy was worth a quick look.
nick: I thought I'd read that there were two switch rooms, one was open to the public and one wasn't. But I may have misunderstood. Wouldn't mind visiting it, so if I can find a day when the trains are running I may try a trip on my senior railcard
nick: Been listening to Music in Twelve Parts lately -it lasts roughly an afternoon or a morning. Quite like it! I had imagined it was a bit boring until parts 7/8 but in fact it's all good. Although I think I'm probably not paying loads of attention to it while I'm debugging
Steve: I bought that in the last year or two and really like the way it is 20 minute bits you can take individually. It's that early Einstein period so you definitely have to be in the mood and I could not do it all in one go.
Tim: We missed the TD tour but as usual each gig included an improvised "session". Now they've put out a box set of 8 cds, each with 2 sessions on. I've already got 7.5 cds of such stuff so I'm not overly enthusiastic, but if it was cheap enough... nope IT'S 150 QUID.
nick: I have listened to some of the session stuff occasionally and it's alright but I don't think it's £150 good.
Finished "Berlin Game" last night. I was left with the impression that it might have been quite good (there were certainly flashes where it felt quite gripping and tense) if only I'd been able to concentrate more and remember who everyone was. There was an afterward by Deighton talking about the writing of the book (and the following books in the series) which made me want to read more, so maybe I'll try "Mexico Set" which the library also has. But before that, "Winter" is ready to go: as Tim mentioned, this supposedly gives background to the characters in the Game/Set/Match.. novels
Tim: Novels should have diagrams in for the thick. I thought I knew what this Sheri Tepper book was roughly about, but she's still flinging new stuff and people in hand over fist (what the heck does that mean). No doubt soon somebody will reappear that I'd forgotten about or who feels like they might be from a different book I read recently.
Steve: I sometimes draw family trees as I'm hopeless, and sometimes I get two names mixed up for no good reason.
But then a family tree printed at the front is a real off-putter!
nick: I listened to The Cazelet Chronicles and really enjoyed it but thought it would have been helpful to have a family tree. In fact there is one in the printed books, but they don't "read" that bit.
nick: Was at the (NHS) dentist yesterday being prepped for having a crown fitted (the tooth was mostly filling and I thought better to do this than risk the whole thing collapsing). There was a lot of drilling (I think he just leaves a little stump on to which the crown will be glued later) and a temporary cap. I couldn't help wonder what happens if he accidentally drills too much but didn't like to ask: I just feel pathetically grateful that I can actually get dental care. Injection worked at the time but it's been sore ever since that wore off.
Tim: After Surface 10 on DiN comes another blast from the past - a Node album of unheard tracks from 1995.
Tim: So it's Bandcamp Friday and the Surface 10 is out, "a stunningly original new album, “A Stray Ending” ".
Tim: Still struggling to make sense of that Node writeup. It does say:
Surely they must have more material hidden away in their vaults and indeed this is exactly what the album “Singularity” is, the legendary “lost” Node album.
Tim: This at least seems more consistent:
Singularity (DiN78) is, the legendary lost Node album. Recorded at the same time as their original sessions in 1994. Dave Bessell joins Buller & Flood alongside original member Gary Stout. Presented here for the first time, in it's original form and recorded to two track with no overdubs. As a bonus the track "Terminus" is included in the release. The music is a snapshot in time 29 years ago when Node were first powering up their huge banks of vintage modulars and sequencers to create a tapestry of electronic sound. Another great release from DiN released in a beautiful Digipak CD edition with a special 8 track booklet with photos taken at the time of the original recording sessions.
nick: halfway through audiobook of "The IPCRESS file" and I'm giving up on it. I don't know what's going on. Every so often there are bits that seem interesting but I can't get to grips with it.
nick: "Singularity is the legendary 'lost' Node album. Recorded at the same time as their original sessions in 1994 this has DiN stalwart Dave Bessell join Ed Buller & Flood alongside original member Gary Stout. Presented here for the first time, mastered to modern standards but otherwise untouched and in its original form, recorded to two track with no overdubs. As a bonus the track 'Terminus' is included with this release."
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nick: Is it (Battersea power station) worth visiting? Someone I was talking to said that lots of the shops hadn't yet opened when he went Steve: Yes Battersea. Worth a wander but not a dedicated visit. We made a small detour. The switch gear I saw was at the back of a restaurant so not easy(free) to get to. Inside it just looks like a shopping centre selling expensive stuff nobody needs.Nearby American embassy was worth a quick look.
nick: I thought I'd read that there were two switch rooms, one was open to the public and one wasn't. But I may have misunderstood. Wouldn't mind visiting it, so if I can find a day when the trains are running I may try a trip on my senior railcard nick: Been listening to Music in Twelve Parts lately -it lasts roughly an afternoon or a morning. Quite like it! I had imagined it was a bit boring until parts 7/8 but in fact it's all good. Although I think I'm probably not paying loads of attention to it while I'm debugging Steve: I bought that in the last year or two and really like the way it is 20 minute bits you can take individually. It's that early Einstein period so you definitely have to be in the mood and I could not do it all in one go. Tim: We missed the TD tour but as usual each gig included an improvised "session". Now they've put out a box set of 8 cds, each with 2 sessions on. I've already got 7.5 cds of such stuff so I'm not overly enthusiastic, but if it was cheap enough... nope IT'S 150 QUID. nick: I have listened to some of the session stuff occasionally and it's alright but I don't think it's £150 good.Finished "Berlin Game" last night. I was left with the impression that it might have been quite good (there were certainly flashes where it felt quite gripping and tense) if only I'd been able to concentrate more and remember who everyone was. There was an afterward by Deighton talking about the writing of the book (and the following books in the series) which made me want to read more, so maybe I'll try "Mexico Set" which the library also has. But before that, "Winter" is ready to go: as Tim mentioned, this supposedly gives background to the characters in the Game/Set/Match.. novels
Tim: Novels should have diagrams in for the thick. I thought I knew what this Sheri Tepper book was roughly about, but she's still flinging new stuff and people in hand over fist (what the heck does that mean). No doubt soon somebody will reappear that I'd forgotten about or who feels like they might be from a different book I read recently. Steve: I sometimes draw family trees as I'm hopeless, and sometimes I get two names mixed up for no good reason.But then a family tree printed at the front is a real off-putter!
nick: I listened to The Cazelet Chronicles and really enjoyed it but thought it would have been helpful to have a family tree. In fact there is one in the printed books, but they don't "read" that bit. nick: Was at the (NHS) dentist yesterday being prepped for having a crown fitted (the tooth was mostly filling and I thought better to do this than risk the whole thing collapsing). There was a lot of drilling (I think he just leaves a little stump on to which the crown will be glued later) and a temporary cap. I couldn't help wonder what happens if he accidentally drills too much but didn't like to ask: I just feel pathetically grateful that I can actually get dental care. Injection worked at the time but it's been sore ever since that wore off. Tim: After Surface 10 on DiN comes another blast from the past - a Node album of unheard tracks from 1995. Tim: So it's Bandcamp Friday and the Surface 10 is out, "a stunningly original new album, “A Stray Ending” ". Tim: Still struggling to make sense of that Node writeup. It does say:Surely they must have more material hidden away in their vaults and indeed this is exactly what the album “Singularity” is, the legendary “lost” Node album.
Tim: This at least seems more consistent:Singularity (DiN78) is, the legendary lost Node album. Recorded at the same time as their original sessions in 1994. Dave Bessell joins Buller & Flood alongside original member Gary Stout. Presented here for the first time, in it's original form and recorded to two track with no overdubs. As a bonus the track "Terminus" is included in the release. The music is a snapshot in time 29 years ago when Node were first powering up their huge banks of vintage modulars and sequencers to create a tapestry of electronic sound. Another great release from DiN released in a beautiful Digipak CD edition with a special 8 track booklet with photos taken at the time of the original recording sessions.
nick: halfway through audiobook of "The IPCRESS file" and I'm giving up on it. I don't know what's going on. Every so often there are bits that seem interesting but I can't get to grips with it. nick: "Singularity is the legendary 'lost' Node album. Recorded at the same time as their original sessions in 1994 this has DiN stalwart Dave Bessell join Ed Buller & Flood alongside original member Gary Stout. Presented here for the first time, mastered to modern standards but otherwise untouched and in its original form, recorded to two track with no overdubs. As a bonus the track 'Terminus' is included with this release."Monday, January 03, 2022
Comments:
Steve: I was thinking of joining Twitter so I can pass on some of the gems in the Classic FM "Big book of Classical Music" - 1000 years of music in 366 days. (I got this free with the CDs)
A completely crap series of dates and facts thrown together that would not even get 1 star if I reviewed it.
Each day you get a quote, some anniversaries, a composer profile and a "Hall of Fame" hit to try.
An example anniversary would be Mozart completed this piece of music - big deal.
Yesterday had a corker: 1912 Composer Englebert Humperdinck suffers a stroke, resulting in the permanent paralysis of his left hand. It doesn't prevent him from continuing to compose for a further decade though.
The composer profile is just some stuff about the person, does not list birth or date.
I have learnt that Brahms was untidy though.
I'm assuming they gave the job of compiling this to a student with Internet access.
Unbelievable, but I'll soldier on, only 349 days to go...
nick: Didn't manage last night, Lesley's mum's here for a couple of days. Can probably do an evening this week if people are around?
How was your football match Tim?
nick: Lifesigns are playing at 1865 Southampton on 13-April. I've said I'll go with Tony, dunno if either of you might be interested
Tim: QPR game wasn't bad. In the first half, QPR were all over Rotherham, but somehow still 0-0 at half time. Second half, it was much more even and a better game, but still 0-0 at full time. The good news is that because there's a backlog of postponed football matches, it went to extra time instead of a replay. The game continued to get better and both sides scored. So then it went to penalties, QPR won.
We had a bit of train trouble on the way there (so I've submitted my delay repay), got there plenty before kick-off though, and then it finished nearly an hour later than expected so we came straight back after. So that was a bit unleisurely, we might have gone somewhere for something to eat/drink otherwise. still, nice to get out and about a bit.
Steve: Pass on the concert ta.
They are a prog band I have heard of and half thought would try at some point.
We are busy apart from Thursday or Sat/Sun.
nick: They are a prog band I have heard of and half thought would try at some point. yes - this was Tony's sugggestion: he looks out for prog stuff. I'd never heard of them, but some of them have been involved in bands I do know about.
I'll send a Zoom for Thursday
Steve: We could do a x-word Thursday, then maybe Sunday FYI.
On the music front, I do have 3(!) albums by prog outfit Sanguine Hum and play them loads. I could be tempted to get a fourth - they are on Bandcamp, but no Wikipedia page!
The guy has possibly a Marmite voice but the music and recording quality is right up there.
nick: I did get a couple of Mogwai albums since then and I quite like them but they are fairly similar. Wonder how loud they could be at an outdoor gig!
Tim: Mogwai did a remix of part of Max Richter's Sleep, which is a bit hard to imagine - except it probably sounds like Mogwai.
Steve: Just bung it through some effects pedals?
Bandcamp Friday back this week.
Just got D a new laptop so hours of fun setting it up...
nick: Blimey - they're touring again! Camel at O2 Guildhall in 2023. From the pic, they have Peter Jones (blind, multi-instrumentalist) in the lineup.
Good news: seated. Less good news: tickets range from £40-£74
Tim: Been there, done that, couldn't afford the t-shirt.
More seriously, it seems too far off to commit.
Steve: So what Hawkwind albums should I try?
I just bought Live Seventy Nine on CD and it sounds great, the Tim Blake section the best. I did try an LP but it was crackly, only had the cassette all those years ago.
I already have Astounding, Quark (love) and PXR5 (not massively impressed).
Bought and got rid of Space Ritual ages ago.
Tim's LPs are waiting to be spun up...
BTW did you know you can get 10% off at Hive being over 55 - easy to set up.
nick: I've got Live79 and Astounding. I used to have Levitation on vinyl (blue!) but never had the CD. Also have Crystal Machine and New Jerusalem by Tim Blake which I like. Let us know which are good!
Didn't know about the Hive thing thanks
nick: Dropped my bike off for a service today. He said he's never seen a chain ring so worn out and can't believe it's not skipping. Guess I'll have a new one then
Tim: I just had a look at the Hawkwind discog and as often happens I've only heard the first 1/8th of the albums there. Of those, the one you don't have that I seem to remember liking most is Astounding Sounds. Have you spun it yet?
nick: Bike update - the rear derailleur was solidly seized and he's broken the hanger for it trying to get it off (the hanger is a "sacrificial" part that's supposed to bend/break if you fall off, to save the frame) and he hasn't got a spare. So the bike won't be rideable today. He's going to lend me a bike - which may be an electric one - to get home. Hope I can fit my panniers on it!
Steve:
AFAIK there are a heck of a lot of hanger variations - don't think my Mercian has one.
I do have and like Astounding Sounds so am trying Warrior on the Edge of Time which seems pretty good and has the Moorcock input.
BTW TD tour with the guitarist from Marillion on some dates.
The soloing was one of the things I didn't like about their stuff.
Tim: Speaking of TD, I enjoyed listening to Recurring Dreams the other day.
Think of it as a live album, but recorded in the studio. Similar, then, to a lot of TD live albums.
nick: Just set up a new monitor at work and browsing my pictures to select a background got one that looked familiar of a field with a tree in it. Thought "I can't remember taking that one". Found it was in the stock "backgrounds" folder.
nick: Could do a zoom tomorrow (Friday) or Sunday night? Let me know if either is OK
I have made a "smart" music playlist which is generated from tracks that have a play count of at least 25, ordered so that the least recently played ones come first. It's a cracker: just about every track makes me think both "I've not heard this for a while" and "I like this!"
Steve: Ok like pumped water storage systems without the need for a lake.
Looks a bit hard to scale this up?
Tim: Meanwhile on the Fripp front it turns out I was still thinking of the last set, which was a mere 8cds of Sounsdscapes, whereas the new thing Steve mentioned (Exposures) turns out to be 25cds plus some dvds and blu-rays, of earlier stuff, lots of it Frippertronics. £160, groan.
Steve: Hmm gold vinyl... but the 3 long tracks have to be split across sides which must be painful to listen to.
And yeah the Fripp thing is massive and only covers a few years!
Played your KC Islands LP last night - interesting, might have to get it.
Not very KC-like at all.
Also played your USA and might need to get that at some point. Maybe you can't have too much live 73/74 stuff. Obvs the CD has a lot more on it.
Since getting the 40th anniversary of In the Court of... I play it loads. They did wonders with the mastering. But remember getting Poseidon and selling it as I hated it so much.
Tim: Islands is strange and a bit lovely. USA - the whole idea of a 40min live album seems a bit weird these days.
Hang on, what KC albums have you actually got??
Steve: The latest USA is about 70 mins which is more like it.
I only have their first, the 3 70s classics, 3 80s and some live albums.
Steve: Tim, have you ever managed to rip from Blu-ray?
I seem to remember you got a drive for some music you bought.
Reading online people say you need to decrypt the contents first, so it looks to be a faff.
Tim: So, went to see Lifespan yesterday, the others mostly seemed to like it but although it sounded very accomplished it just didn't grab me. The first half of the set was tracks off the first two albums - which I'd heard (once) on Bandcamp. The second half was off the new album which I hadn't heard - but it sounded just as familiar. As I said to Nick, I felt like I could almost sing along.
Similarly, I just played Pink Floyd's The Endless River, £3 from Magpie ebay so why not? On first listening it sounds fairly like Pink Floyd instrumentals. See if it improves at all.
nick: Randonnee next Sunday. I will be doing IoW but since I don't think I know anyone else doing it, I made a (shorter) route that takes in all 6 British Cycling Quest points on the island. Will do that in a clockwise direction so that I don't have to worry about chain ferry queues on the way back. This will nearly double the number of BCQ's I've already done
Tim: I heard on the radio that the floating bridge is back in service today so you might actually be in luck.
Tim: What's your plan for Sunday, do you want to park here and get breakfast and/or dinner, or are you training it?
nick: What's your plan for Sunday, do you want to park here and get breakfast and/or dinner, or are you training it?
Hadn't considered that - I'll do a bit of looking at railway times/tickets etc. Maybe I could train MIC->HDE then cycle to get ferry around 9am, come back and drop in for a chat on the way home before getting HDE->MIC in the evening
nick: Oh guess what, engineering works on Sunday. So there are. I wondered why my first search was returning stupid times.
I suppose I could drive down. Not sure I fancy cycling to Sotn and back as well as IoW
nick: Another option, since you're not actually doing the rando, would be to pick another day.
Yes that is a possibility. Ferry prices seem to have gone up again - its £20 for a day return as a foot passenger!
nick: Going to do IoW tomorrow, booked 9am ferry. If it's OK I'll park at Tim's and cycle from there? Maybe have a cuppa on the way back? Let me know if it's OK to park there
Tim: I've booked a couple of day trips, arriving 11am departing 7pm on Tue 10 and Fri 27 May. No plans yet, open to suggestions if anyone fancies joining in.
Tim: Luckily I'll be on the train home by then. (And anyway the last train back is still at 10pm midweek which is a bit tricky for evening stuff.)
nick: Luckily I'll be on the train home by then ah yes. Anything else going on in London on that day that might be of interest?
Tim: Thats your lot for d'Voxx afaik.
While I'm on, who can work out what this means?:
We won't know the results here in Scotland for a few hours, but there have been some interesting developments in England overnight.
And, unsurprisingly, there has been a lot of mentions by Conservative candidates about the impact of Partygate on their campaigns.
Independent pollster Mark Diffley tells the Good Morning Scotland programme it's difficult to underestimate the impact.
nick: Dreamachine sounds interesting - they also had a review of it on Radio4 "All in the Mind" but looks like it's sold out so I don't think we can do that on 27-May
Tim: OK so we can't do that, but if there's anything else you fancy doing and it happens not to be on the 27th I don't mind doing a different (additional for me) day - including evening concerts if the 10pm train looks doable.
Tim: I'll probably go to the British Museum Stonehenge exhibition soon (amazing how they fitted it in), anybody else fancy it? £20.
nick: is the stonehenge thing a potential visit on 27-may, or are you thinking a different date? I'm interested ifs it's 27, potentially another date depending when
Steve: We are planning to finally do some flipping camping at least some of that week and following weekend so carry on without me.
Bothe negative here for a few days, but I still have a cough and am not 100%.
Not been cycling for 3 weeks.
nick: Bothe negative here for a few days, but I still have a cough and am not 100%.
Not been cycling for 3 weeks.
Sorry to hear that Steve. How's Deborah? Lesley is still not right either - has sporadic cold symptoms (cough/sore throat) and still getting very tired. I don't know how much that is down to covid, if at all - she always has been prone to catching colds very easily.
We looked after Spencer and Sia yesterday to give Ella some time to do prep for Spanish holiday (they're going for a week starting this Saturday). I took Spencer on the bike to Overton, then trained to BSK, then played in Eastrop park before catching bus back to Overton and cycling back to NW. Then took him to NW park. On the plus side, he managed yesterday to get the hang of pedalling forwards on his little bike (up until now he's always just pedalled backwards and doesn't understand the instructions "no, pedal forwards!". On the other hand I was more tired at the end of the day than I am when I cycle all the way to work and back. I have no idea how Lesley is going to manage when Ella goes back to work in June at which point Lesley will be looking after both of them three days a week. BTW it later emerged that 5 hours of Ella's "holiday prep" was getting her hair done, which feels excessive to me!
Steve: D has a slight dry cough is all so not too bad.
I'll try a ride this weekend but expect to do a lot of coughing.
No other news.
Tim: Nick, tickets are timed (although it's not busy so we could probably just turn up). Are you aiming for the same train, BSK 10:17?
Tim: Let's give ourselves 45 minutes for some tube stuffing-around and book a ticket each for 12 noon, OK? Waterloo and City line to Bank, Central to Liverpool St, Liz to Paddington and back to Tott Ct Rd.
Tim: Same here. Anything else you fancy doing we can. Otherwise we might end up looking at the free stuff in Tate Britain (can do that any time).
nick: Can see a couple of things I wouldn't mind going to but they all seem to be non-free stuff. Will keep looking
nick: Steve recommended "A Dangerous Fortune - Ken Follett". They don't have that in my online library app, but they do have a couple of other Follett books I've not read, so just now downloaded "Code to Zero" (12 hrs 40mins audiobook). Was tempted to get "Eye of the Needle" but thought it would be better to do something I've not read before. Nearly finished "Diana" by RF Delderfield which I did like, but was too long I think - there keep being extra bits of story. Wanted "To Serve Them All My Days" but library didn't have that either.
nick: Doesn't have to be free. yeah, I just assumed there would be a ton of free stuff, but when I checked the things that I've heard of lately they're all paid. Maybe worth trying one. Since Elizabeth Line goes roughly to Greenwich I asked my brothers what might be on. This was the first suggestion
Yes it's BorrowBox. They do have a fair amount of stuff although quite often if you're looking for something specific they don't have it. Bit like going in a bookshop!
Tim: Hmmm, they describe it as one of London's true icons so that's out of the question then.
While I'm moaning, SW Trains just sent me a link to their survey, first question is
How likely are you to recommend South Western Railway to a friend?
It seems obvious that the only possible answer is never! I mean, I might suggest going by train (and coincidentally they might have the monopoly on the route) but for some reason they're not asking that.
nick: How likely are you to recommend South Western Railway to a friend?
Was it multiple choice? I remember someone set up a survey when I was working at DEC in Basingstoke and there was a suggestion that the office get relocated to Reading. One question as "How bad would the effect of this move be for you?" and the options ranged from "somewhat" to "very significant". People who lived in Reading, and had up until that time had to commute to Basingstoke every day, struggled to find an appropriate box to tick.
Tim: To be fair, yes, there was a Not At All Likely option.
I found a way (by ticking that I'd used both) to indicate that their website is utter shite for buying tickets while Another Train Company was excellent. And there was a chance to complain about train frequency. But when it came to whining about the last train from London being 10pm I had to resort to a free-form text moan; can't imagine that getting any attention.
nick: Didn't know about the live album. Will give it a go
Phil suggests museum at Greenwich maritime museum, which was one of the things I noticed: they have a £10 exhibition on astronomy photographs which might be interesting (as well as anything else that's on there)
nick: The live album is the gig I went to
Ah yes, I forgot you saw them again. The two of us went in March 2015 to see Claudia.
Tim: I knew somebody went to see something like that at some point.
Astronomy looks OK and v handy for...the DLR. Bring your roller skates and we can recreate the PSB video near the Dome.
nick: Well I think I give up on Hebrides. The logistics of finding B&Bs has defeated me:the ones that do have online booking (which are not many) don't have availability for a series of consecutive dates that I can find; others need you to mail the place and wait for them to reply - I did get some dates off one of them but can't easily make them work with other island B&Bs after about 4 hours of mucking about. Probably should have sorted it earlier. Will have a go on the Isle of Man...
Tim: Well I'm enjoying the no-confidence situation. The Tories have condemned themselves to a period of purgatory, it's going to be great. The by-elections in two weeks time will be hilarious, the rubbish that some of them will have to spout afterwards. In a way it will be a shame if they fail to drag it out for a whole year.
nick: I have mixed feelings: on the one hand it's good to see the Tories in trouble, with the rebels now in a position to obstruct anything BJ tries by abstaining etc. but I worry that (a) if he stays in power he'll just try and push stupid policies like imperial measures and tax reductions on petrol, or (b) they'll get rid of him and install someone who's less ineffectual and may offer enough of a clean sheet to get them elected (at which point they can call an election)
Riding home last night one of the bolts that holds on my pannier/mudguard popped out. I did find it, but it wouldn't stay in because the thread inside the frame has gone (the bolt basically just slides in and out). At this stage I had ~30miles to go, so walking wouldn't have been an option: I only had one pannier but the rack wasn't stable enough to carry it. As luck would have it there was a discarded hefty bit of zip tie in the verge just where I stopped and I managed (eventually) to get that through the frame and fasten the mudgard/pannier back. This worked surprisingly well so I got home OK (albeit not until 10pm). This morning I fixed it "properly" by sticking a bolt through and screwing a nut on the other side. Had a bit of trouble finding a suitable bolt, because anything with too big a head would get in the way of the chain (it was on the derailleur side).
Someone at work suggests retapping the hole so it would fit a slightly larger bolt, but I think it's fairly secure at the moment. Have you ever done retapping Steve? I'd be worried about weakening the frame
Steve: Pretty certain the frame tube has a steel threaded insert banged into it, there is nothing to be re-threaded. Maybe a shop can put another one in, or get a 3rd frame from Whyte?
Frame is aluminium so too soft to take a thread.
I did of course tap threads at college but it needs to be into something solid.
What happened with your wheel that broke?
nick: yes, after Steve mentioned the threaded insert I did a bit of googling for ideas on threads being stripped on a bike frame and "rivnuts" and "helicoils" came up. As did the suggestion to just put a nut on the other end of the bolt (which is what I have done). I think I need to get to screw fix and get some more spare bolts so I can put them in my toolbag (I've already stuck some zip ties in there)
What happened with your wheel that broke?
I replaced it with a new one. Didn't hear anything back from Evans, and on checking the Mavic "2 year warranty" document saw that it is only for manufacturing defects, and specifically excludes wear-and-tear so I think I'd be out of luck with that - it was about 15 months old with 13,000 miles on it. Replacing the freewheel looked quite expensive (I couldn't quite work out which new one I needed but it was quite pricey and so I didn't think it would be worth it)
nick: twitter thread about and link to, a consultation document for businesses regarding re-introduction of imperial measures. Some of the questions are a bit "leading"
Tim: Re-records rather than re-composes.
Cheers for the consultation survey link, I'd seen the main consultation where they expect written responses mainly e.g. from companies, but not that one. I'll have a look, but mostly I'm thinking it's just meant as a distraction.
On the by-election front I'd had a look at the previous results for Tiverton and assumed the Tory would be safe but with a reduced majority - but I just found out that the bookies have LibDems as favourite, blimey. You can actually get 5-1 for the Cons, I'm tempted to hedge.
nick: On the cycle ride in this morning I listened to a podcast from the series "Fall of Civilisations" about Easter Island. Also available on youtube.
It was pretty interesting and (so far as I could tell) refuted the commonly-held (and espoused by Jared Diamond) story that the reason they came to a bad end was that they mucked up the island ecology by chopping all the trees down to move the statues around. Worth a listen if you have a couple of spare hours. Quite a lot about the moai statues which made me think of Tobago, although I think in the game you're not obliged to have the statues facing inland, which is what they did on Easter Island
Tim: Well no, they don't have to face inland exactly because they rotate, obviously. I bet they don't even mention that. But they cannot be on the shoreline, to ensure that they always face some land.
nick: I don't remember him saying that they chopped the trees down solely to move statues maybe not... although according to the podcast, Diamond seems to favour the explanation that it was down to the way the Easter Islanders exploited their environment (including using trees for statue rolling) which caused their downfall. And makes the case that this was an "attractive" idea because it chimes in with the idea that in the present day, we neglect the environment at our peril. But the reasons given in the podcast for the collapse are different, and in a way, more sad.
nick: Someone who was in the office on Monday was off sick yesterday and today reported positive COVID. I was sitting pretty near him so am particularly conscious now of a tickle in my throat. Hope I don't start feeling ill today because I have a 3 hour cycle ride home and not sure what state the trains might be in
nick: So... are you on your bike? I've ridden all the way to the office every day this week so far. Partly because my car's broken down (needs new engine oil seal, clutch bits, and flywheel thing) and partly because it's midsummer week with good weather. Enjoying not using the car (it's been out of action for over a week now) but feeling a bit tired.
Negative COVID test last night so back in the office again today
Tim: I signed up to Hampshire Library in order to try the Ogawa ebook. I automatically got issued a temporary login ID, and put a reservation on. A few days later I got an email with a permanent ID.
Today I got an email saying my reservation is available to download. Logged on - no sign of anything on my permanent ID. Tried the temporary ID: Your library account has expired or has been blocked.
So that worked well. Now I've made a reservation on the new ID. Just have to wait a couple of weeks for the current loan to expire.
Tim: A bit of fun on BBC news this morning. The 7:30 post-by-election Tory interview was due to be with Oliver Dowden, but he's quit. They were told Dominic B'Stard would fill in, but no show and they're waiting for some replacement. So meanwhile they fitted in a Boris-sceptic (Roger Gale) who duly slagged Boris off.
nick: I got my first e-book loan (all the others have been audiobooks) from the library to see what it was like. It is not in any way convertible to Kindle: the book is readable inside the Borrowbox app, with no way (I could see) of exporting it.
Now I've made a reservation on the new ID. Just have to wait a couple of weeks for the current loan to expire. Sometimes when it has said "available on " I've put a reservation in only to have it appear much sooner "Good news! your book became available early" and your loan starts then, which isn't always convenient in terms of planning your reading itinerary. OTOH I've renewed loans a couple of times and never been told "sorry you can't renew because someone else has reserved this book" which I did used to have happen with physical books. I don't know if that's because I was lucky or because they have some other mechanism to decide how many e-copies can be out at once
nick: On the kindle front... maybe I won't bother with borrowbox after all then. yeah... it's not as convenient as having it on kindle. Also, it Borrowbox doesn't sync up your reading progress: I have the app on my iphone and iPad, and so I downloaded my book on both devices. But it doesn't sync your reading progress between different devices.
With Kindle (which I also have an app for on iphone and iPad and laptop, as well as the kindle itself), I can open the book on any of my devices, then when I open it on a different device it says "you're on page X but you most recently were reading page Y on your , do you want to go there?" I realised I use that a fair bit e.g. when I'm out and about without the kindle, but have a couple of minutes spare, I can open the book on the phone and continue reading from where I left off.
Tim: Another tech nightmare you steered me into Nick, was that I thought I could listen to that podcast on the Pi (volumio). There's a soundcloud plugin, ace. To get the plugin, SSH onto the Pi and 'git clone' the plugin from github. Credentials?!? It's a public repository, what are you on about? Much fruitless googling later I resorted to downloading the stuff to my PC (trivial), copying it to the pi SD (in the area where FLACs go) and then using my ninja bash skillz to copy it to the right place eventually (not sure where the other copies went). Success after a mere couple of days.
I've heard about half the podcast so far, and it's highly interesting, but it's a familiar problem that it's presented as an argument. Half the stuff I've heard is what he doesn't think, and I'm don't entirely remember which is which.
nick: I'm surprised that podcasts aren't more straightforward on the Volumio but I can imagine there may be tons of different plugins you can use. I listened to another in the series today about The Songhai Empire which was OK but not as good I thought.
My car is (still) not back - as well as the oil seal/clutch bits, it needed a "dual mass flywheel". He's had it for two weeks now (said it should be done yesterday but when I got home from cycling all the way to work and back it still wasn't there, so I cycled in again today). Ella broke down on Sunday - turns out her clutch has gone - and Lesley had a flat yesterday which hasn't yet been addressed. So the only working car in our household is Ryan's. I'm saving a lot of money in diesel, but may not be quite enough to pay for the flywheel
nick: Got car back yesterday and drove/cycled to work today. When driving it was quite hard to change gear which I put down to the new clutch thing and assumed it would get better. Got home this evening and tried to put it in the drive and couldn't get it into reverse at all. So another call to mechanic. I hope he doesn't say it needs a new gearbox
nick: Mechanic came to take the car again today. Says the problem is the self-adjusting clutch(?) hasn't adjusted itself properly so he needs to take something apart to fix it. Hopefully back Saturday. Working from home today, will cycle in tomorrow. I should probably enrol on Going Car Free for July
Tim: Also on the car front we finally got rid of the Astra, the 208 doesn't have a cd player so I need to sort out some ents for my 5-minute drives to Asda. Plan A: it has a usb socket I can shove a stick in with music files on and it'll read them. Stuck one in and the Sources menu now has a USB item, hurrah. Select that and... nothing happens (stays on DAB. Of course the hopeless manual doesn't actually tell you what should happen or anything). A bit of googling suggests it needs to be FAT32, max 32GB, great I can fix that. No, it turns out that's exactly what it is already. Due to no further info being available I might be approaching Plan B already.
Tim: Progress! I found an ancient USB stick and gave it a try on the offchance and it worked. Tip: never throw anything away. The downside is that it's so old it's only 128 MB, smaller than most flac albums. So it's got mp3 on there instead, maybe that's the difference (manual says flac ok too...)
nick: Has the car stereo got a "bluetooth" mode? in which case you could pair your phone into it (although that means you have to have the music on the phone). I don't have bluetooth in my car but plug one of these dongles into it, which pairs with my phone - that works really well.
But.. hang on... 5 minute drives to Asda? why do you need to drive??!?
Tim: Er, to transport loads of heavy shopping 2 miles.
Bluetooth is Plan B.
But I made a schoolboy error. The manual doesn't mention flac after all! That was in an otherwise identical paragraph I read online from the manual for a different Peugeot. So the only problem I've got is that 98% of my music is in an unsuitable format. Should have bought a 2008 (208 on stilts).
nick: aha - I know what to get you for your birthday
Is it just FLAC that's the issue then? rather than the size of the memory stick?
So maybe you need some utility that would be able to create MP3 versions of all the FLAC files on your USB stick, i.e. create a "mp3" directory sibling to your "flac" directory
Tim: Can I tow it with the car then?
Yes, the mp3 copied to the first stick is fine after all.
Sox can probably do it, but it seems a bit overkill. All I used to do is grab a recent CD (which is a dwindling fraction of my music purchases) and go. Perhaps I'll just maintain a stick with a few recent albums, converted to mp3 or wav.
Tim: Aaargh, looking again my manual (pdf) does list flac in one place, but not in another. Seems to be a badly glued together bunch of docs, towards the end there are chunks about "Connect Nav" and "Connect Radio" which have a lot of copy pasta and tend to look the same. If we had satnav I'd be able to play flac music???
Tim: Right. I can dump flac files onto my phone, and once connected with Bluetooth the car can play them. Obv.
nick: Does the car have wifi? If you're only going to the local Asda you can probably maintain a connection to your home network and listen to stuff direct from the Pi
Tim: I must have bought the wrong kind of wifi, or you think I'm a really slow driver.
I have vaguely thought of battery-powering the pi to make a walkman out of it (which I don't actually need), maybe that would help... somehow.
nick: I thought this was a good thing to say, and to bear in mind if I'm having a disagreement/discussion with someone "I did say to Jolene, let’s not fall out about anything. It’s just my opinions, I’m not saying it’s true."
nick: Youtube recommends Scarlatti stuff to me and quite often it's ones I've not heard before (it's lovely to think I've still got loads to discover). This one came up a few days ago and I keep going back to it. The instructions on it say "play as fast as possible" but she said when she did that it was just too much. Still quite fast though.
I can't help feeling that he was really in the zone when he was writing, and just churned out loads of amazing stuff, and that he was laughing out loud when doing this one (the pianist seems not to be able to stop smiling too)
Tim: And I can recommend the recent DiN album by Polypores for anyone fancying some quality genre-free electronic music.
Tim: And (2) thanks to your link I finally got to hear the legendary Worship The Glitch, which I somehow never got around to buying. Saved a tenner there then. To be fair it's probably better than a lot of stuff I did buy, but it's not really my cuppa - too fragmentary.
nick: Tim did you watch any of the women' (women's?) football tournament? Last time I watched female football they were comically poor but maybe they're better now?
Steve: "Comically poor" - the sort of thing I would say!
Lots of people seemed to watch it which I can't get my head around.
If you compare with women's tennis - they are really good at that and it's watchable, if not as "gripping" as men's.
I saw a small amount for curiosity and apart from being far worse than men, they seem to be doing the same rolling around on the floor and spitting that men do which is er disappointing?
And I find that the commentators don't make any negative comments when clearly there has been a catastrophic error perpetrated. PC gone mad ha ha!
Pretty sure the BBC hypes it as they have so little sport left to show these days.
Thanks for the cards.
I now have the xPropaganda studio album which sounds lovely but is not making much impression.
I think I just need Susanne Freytag to do a talking book.
CD prices seem to be shooting up. For example KC CD/DVD-A is £20 at Burningshed when it was £13 last time I looked.
Tim: I saw a few games, and it seems there are a few half-decent teams such that if two of them are playing each other then it's fairly entertaining, otherwise it still seems terrible. Especially, players are allowed far too much time unchallenged. But on Saturday I went to my first home game of the season, and Lincoln's plan was to defend from the front, challenge everything instantly. The high press. It worked, there were no goals, hardly any chances, it was a really dull game. So that was no fun either.
Steve, don't forget a lot of people watched it only if/because it was England and they were doing well. Many wouldn't have watched the final otherwise, I reckon.
nick: Cycled part way this morning (from Chobham) because I can't get panniers on the bike and was using a rucksack. The bike felt a bit lighter but I felt a lot heavier (rucksack had my laptop in it as well as clothes, and I had my heavy waistbelt lock thing on).
Went to the bike shop in Hampton on the way in; they said they thought they could drill out the bolt but not until Wednesday next week, so it's booked in for then.
Might try cycling all the way tomorrow, leaving the laptop and lock here this evening so I shouldn't be so heavy
nick: Cycled all the way yesterday and today. The rucksack feels a bit uncomfortable when you first put it on, but doesn't get any worse through the ride (maybe I just wriggle about to the right position). The back of the bike feels very nimble without rack/panniers. I've been leaving the laptop in the office (it's straining rucksack capacity to include it as well as towel/shampoo/clothes/lunch).
So rucksack does seem fairly good, except for relatively limited capacity.
Got a few days off now (Thu/Fri/Tue) but planning on cycling to Exeter (with rucksack) on Friday. Probably coming back Monday but if I do come back in time for Sunday zoom I'll give you a shout.
nick: After 8 miles this morning, my shoe felt loose on the pedal and I couldn't twist it out. Managed to stop and get my foot out of the shoe, leaving it clipped in: one of the bolts holding the cleat had got lost, and so when you twisted the shoe it just was just spinning round. So I span it round by hand until the bolt was completely unscrewed, leaving the cleat and bolt in the pedal and the cleat less shoe in my hand.
I couldn't get the cleat out of the pedal at all, so had to ride the rest of the way in with no cleat. Felt a bit dodgy - I could only use the side of the pedal with the cleat in it because the bolt was sticking out and gave my shoe something to grip on: the other side of the pedal was much too slippy
Went to the bike shop near work and he said he could get the cleat out. He had a special cleat-removal tool, aka mole grips, which he used to twist it until it came out. And then he gave me some spare bolts, result! So I should be fine for the way home
nick: Having re-arranged my PC delivery for today, I had a message from DPD "Your driver Norman will be delivering your package between 10.13 and 11.13 today". Great.
At 10.40, another message "Sorry, we missed you! We'll try again tomorrow". There are 10 of us in the office today and none of us heard the doorbell ring.
So I updated delivery details with a photo of our front door, buzzer circled with red. Let's hope Norman is on better form tomorrow
nick: pc delivery update: after failed delivery monday, and message from them saying they'd do it again on Tuesday, I had a message on Tuesday saying the package had been delayed "due to an unexpected issue" and would be delivered on Wednesday. On Wednesday they said "parcel has been delayed in transit" and would be delivered on Thursday.
On Thursday at 7.05am I had a message saying it would be delivered between 7.57am and 8.57am. I wasn't sure whether anyone would be in the office at 7.57am, so asked for the delivery to be delayed. It's now DEFINITELY due to be delivered tomorrow.
nick: Success! PC got delivered this morning. Will have a go at installing today. I hope it works with Ubuntu
nick: Not success! PC won't power on. When you plug it in, the LED on the USB mouse comes on, so some power is getting through, but clicking the on/off button has no effect. Opened it up and can't see any obvious loose connections, so now waiting to see what PC specialist say
Steve: So the new induction hob...
I investigate how to install it - circuit size etc.
I bought what I thought was a 16A hob and the Currys description talks about a 16A dedicated circuit. But hang on, it has a 13A plug on it!
The serial number label says 3700W and 3700/240 = 15.4A so over 13A.
Zilch in the installation manual apart from wire colours.
So I spend as long as Nick did trying to find someone who knows what's going on.
I'm passed between Installation and Support a few times.
After a few attempts I get through to a nice British lady at Bosch.
She puts me on hold and comes back and she can't hear me.
BUT I hear her say that this can happen after users have been on hold so she tells me the answer assuming I can hear her.
The load is configured on the settings menu and I can cut off the plug and hardwire if I want to up it to full wattage.
Sure enough this setting is buried in the User Manual but there is no explanation on circuits to accompany it.
This saves me a huge messy job of installing a new cable, I just hope 16A is powerful enough for Deborah.
nick: She puts me on hold and comes back and she can't hear me.
BUT I hear her say that this can happen after users have been on hold so she tells me the answer assuming I can hear her.
That is infuriating! What on earth kind of phone system does that so often that the call handling staff need to do this? Must be the same one that e.on use.
I had a call from Scottish and Southern Electric yesterday saying they've booked us in for the "shrouding" on 1-Nov. He left a voicemail which was really clear and detailed, and also sent me a text message. I've been really impressed with them (although this is the regional office; the main call centre told me it was nothing to do with them and to go to e.on, who said no, it wasn't them, but they found me the number of the regional SSEN place). So there are good support centre staff out there.
My PC still won't turn on, even after following the advice of really turning it off and on and unplugging/plugging etc., and I had a mail from PC Specialist today asking me to return it via DPD
nick: tramline are offering 3 year senior railcard for £47 although it's new customers only. I think I may not count as a new customer but I'll give it a go next time I'm about to buy a train ticket
nick: I'd not heard of this one before. One for Tim to solve?
Two envelopes problem
Two people, equally rich, meet to compare the contents of their wallets. Each is ignorant of the contents of the two wallets. The game is as follows: whoever has the least money receives the contents of the wallet of the other (in the case where the amounts are equal, nothing happens). One of the two men can reason: "I have the amount A in my wallet. That's the maximum that I could lose. If I win (probability 0.5), the amount that I'll have in my possession at the end of the game will be more than 2A. Therefore the game is favourable to me." The other man can reason in exactly the same way. In fact, by symmetry, the game is fair. Where is the mistake in the reasoning of each man?
Tim: Aha, just remembered to look in here, first time for a week. Glad to hear you're both delighted customers.
I've read the question about 4 times and now I understand it. So could take a while to think about it.
Tim: Nick, I found the asterisk on the Trainline page:
*To use the discount code, you must be a new customer, which means you have not transacted with Trainline in the past and you must have, or create a Trainline account.
nick: *To use the discount code, you must be a new customer, which means you have not transacted with Trainline in the past and you must have, or create a Trainline account.
yes... I don't think I have a trainline account, unless it got created automatically and tied to my apple ID when I used the app on my phone. If it's just a matter of registering with an email address it is fairly easy to create a new one, but if it uses the apple id associated with my phone it's more difficult. I guess I'll find out when I come to buy a ticket, which might be soon: planning on doing part of the way to East Prawle (holiday at the end of the month) on the train
nick: hmm.. although when I use the app there is a "Sign in" button which asks me to sign in, or create an account, so I'm obviously not signed in by default simply as a result of running the app. So maybe it'll be ok
Tim: Having made slight progress maybe with the two wallets problem, I read the first part of the two envelopes wiki. Realised that I still hadn't understood the question after all (forgot the bit about not knowing the contents of either wallet). Back to square one.
nick: Apparently my new PC which was DOA had a faulty motherboard, so they've replaced that, ran stress tests overnight which passed, and are going to send it back to me now.
nick: A reader comment to a Guardian article about one-hit wonders:
Surely the definitive comment on Mouldy Old Dough came from the Guardian itself
"....sounds like pop music made by people who have never actually heard pop music, but have had it described to them by someone who didn’t really know what they were talking about"
Tim: Anyone thought about ditching their landline yet?
Plusnet now do full fibre (the only kind of fibre we can get) so I'm thinking of switching. That would make our landline almost redundant, and a waste of money.
The main thing that's lacking, I think, is we're so used to DECT phones that it would be weird having to keep our mobiles handy as we move around the house. Seems there are a few DECT phones that can bluetooth pair to a mobile (or two mobiles) so that you can receive/make mobile calls from the DECT phone. Just need to be in the habit of leaving the mobiles on/charging in a spot within bluetooth range of the phone base.
So that probably covers it. But...is there some other strategy I'm missing or some product I haven't thought of?
nick: I'm not sure if we can get full fibre but probably would get rid of landline if I could. We hardly ever get calls on the landline and most of the ones we do get are spam. We only have one wired handset (no cordless).
The only reason I might keep a landline is that it still works if there's a power cut, but I believe that the exchanges are going to change shortly so that landlines will no longer work when the mains goes off.
I think pretty much all mobile contracts are unlimited minutes/texts now? So no reason to have a landline to make/receive calls any more.
nick: Went to Totton last Friday to see a magic show with Tony. Cycled to BSK, then trained to Totton and cycled to arts centre. Because of some kind of fault on the electric rail, trains were all mucked up and the outward one was 45 mins late, and rammed. Pretty uncomfortable (for others) with my bike jammed into the corridor. Return train was 30 mins late, so I've submitted two "delay repay" claims. I am not hopeful of getting anything but worth a try. Presumably you've had experience of this type of claim Steve? I sort of supposed it's only valid for peak time trains and that my cheapy evening return on a railcard wouldn't be eligible.
nick: woohoo, both my claims for delay-repay were approved. Not sure yet how to update my "railcard savings so far this year" spreadsheet to reflect this
Steve: I have done claims before but remember one getting rejected - it had 2 trains and I couldn't exactly remember both time.
Kev had recent ticket trouble - bought a ticket from a person with a portable machine in a station. The guy's machine could not print so he was told to get to the back of the other queue but he had definitely cancelled the transaction.
Of course he gets 2 credit card deductions.
Station can't handle the claim - go online... online only valid for tickets bought online.
So he's having to do a chargeback. This country is crap.
nick: Just received 2 payments for £2.30 each from delay+repay, which works out at 50% of the cost of the return ticket.
Tim: I went in HMV yesterday. And bought a CD. Yes! It's JMJarre's latest, Oxymore (=oxymoron). On first listening sounds a bit rackety.
Steve: Hmm 70 doesn't sound very old as you approach it.
I kept meaning to get E2-E4 but it was always over the amount I wanted to pay for it!
Not going to get any cheaper now is it?
nick: As it happens I was listening to Assassin by Mark Shreeve RIP when I saw this. Yes, 70 seems pretty close: I'd assumed that the members of Ash Ra temple were decades older than me
Tim: As it happens (2) I currently have the first ART album on loan from Neil. Worth a listen, but pretty unsurprising, and not something I'd be keen to buy. Made me think I could try lending him an early KS album, Moondawn perhaps, mainly for the retroness. Trouble is, I only have them on vinyl in Steve's garage, up until Body Love. Wouldn't mind just a one-off listen myself too, darn. Hang on though - I've got copies of Steve's rips! Perfect, cheers.
Tim: I just listened to Moondawn. Even more of a racket than I expected. Maybe the racketiest KS album?
Tim: Next up was Picture Music, I couldn't actually remember what to expect for that one. Also quite rackety, as it turns out, esp. side 1. Side 2 a bit more Timewindy perhaps.
Steve: I'm surprised you didn't get those CDs.
Moondawn is one of my favourites with the pebbly beach sound.
Picture Music's Totem seems to be well regarded.
I'll bung a picture up.
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Steve: I was thinking of joining Twitter so I can pass on some of the gems in the Classic FM "Big book of Classical Music" - 1000 years of music in 366 days. (I got this free with the CDs)A completely crap series of dates and facts thrown together that would not even get 1 star if I reviewed it.
Each day you get a quote, some anniversaries, a composer profile and a "Hall of Fame" hit to try.
An example anniversary would be Mozart completed this piece of music - big deal.
Yesterday had a corker: 1912 Composer Englebert Humperdinck suffers a stroke, resulting in the permanent paralysis of his left hand. It doesn't prevent him from continuing to compose for a further decade though.
The composer profile is just some stuff about the person, does not list birth or date.
I have learnt that Brahms was untidy though.
I'm assuming they gave the job of compiling this to a student with Internet access.
Unbelievable, but I'll soldier on, only 349 days to go...
nick: Didn't manage last night, Lesley's mum's here for a couple of days. Can probably do an evening this week if people are around?How was your football match Tim?
nick: Lifesigns are playing at 1865 Southampton on 13-April. I've said I'll go with Tony, dunno if either of you might be interested Tim: QPR game wasn't bad. In the first half, QPR were all over Rotherham, but somehow still 0-0 at half time. Second half, it was much more even and a better game, but still 0-0 at full time. The good news is that because there's a backlog of postponed football matches, it went to extra time instead of a replay. The game continued to get better and both sides scored. So then it went to penalties, QPR won.We had a bit of train trouble on the way there (so I've submitted my delay repay), got there plenty before kick-off though, and then it finished nearly an hour later than expected so we came straight back after. So that was a bit unleisurely, we might have gone somewhere for something to eat/drink otherwise. still, nice to get out and about a bit.
Steve: Pass on the concert ta.They are a prog band I have heard of and half thought would try at some point.
We are busy apart from Thursday or Sat/Sun.
nick: They are a prog band I have heard of and half thought would try at some point. yes - this was Tony's sugggestion: he looks out for prog stuff. I'd never heard of them, but some of them have been involved in bands I do know about.I'll send a Zoom for Thursday
Steve: We could do a x-word Thursday, then maybe Sunday FYI.On the music front, I do have 3(!) albums by prog outfit Sanguine Hum and play them loads. I could be tempted to get a fourth - they are on Bandcamp, but no Wikipedia page!
The guy has possibly a Marmite voice but the music and recording quality is right up there.
nick: I did get a couple of Mogwai albums since then and I quite like them but they are fairly similar. Wonder how loud they could be at an outdoor gig! Tim: Mogwai did a remix of part of Max Richter's Sleep, which is a bit hard to imagine - except it probably sounds like Mogwai. Steve: Just bung it through some effects pedals?Bandcamp Friday back this week.
Just got D a new laptop so hours of fun setting it up...
nick: Blimey - they're touring again! Camel at O2 Guildhall in 2023. From the pic, they have Peter Jones (blind, multi-instrumentalist) in the lineup.Good news: seated. Less good news: tickets range from £40-£74
Tim: Been there, done that, couldn't afford the t-shirt.More seriously, it seems too far off to commit.
Steve: So what Hawkwind albums should I try?I just bought Live Seventy Nine on CD and it sounds great, the Tim Blake section the best. I did try an LP but it was crackly, only had the cassette all those years ago.
I already have Astounding, Quark (love) and PXR5 (not massively impressed).
Bought and got rid of Space Ritual ages ago.
Tim's LPs are waiting to be spun up...
BTW did you know you can get 10% off at Hive being over 55 - easy to set up.
nick: I've got Live79 and Astounding. I used to have Levitation on vinyl (blue!) but never had the CD. Also have Crystal Machine and New Jerusalem by Tim Blake which I like. Let us know which are good!Didn't know about the Hive thing thanks
nick: Dropped my bike off for a service today. He said he's never seen a chain ring so worn out and can't believe it's not skipping. Guess I'll have a new one then Tim: I just had a look at the Hawkwind discog and as often happens I've only heard the first 1/8th of the albums there. Of those, the one you don't have that I seem to remember liking most is Astounding Sounds. Have you spun it yet? nick: Bike update - the rear derailleur was solidly seized and he's broken the hanger for it trying to get it off (the hanger is a "sacrificial" part that's supposed to bend/break if you fall off, to save the frame) and he hasn't got a spare. So the bike won't be rideable today. He's going to lend me a bike - which may be an electric one - to get home. Hope I can fit my panniers on it! Steve: AFAIK there are a heck of a lot of hanger variations - don't think my Mercian has one.
I do have and like Astounding Sounds so am trying Warrior on the Edge of Time which seems pretty good and has the Moorcock input.
BTW TD tour with the guitarist from Marillion on some dates.
The soloing was one of the things I didn't like about their stuff.
Tim: Speaking of TD, I enjoyed listening to Recurring Dreams the other day.Think of it as a live album, but recorded in the studio. Similar, then, to a lot of TD live albums.
nick: Just set up a new monitor at work and browsing my pictures to select a background got one that looked familiar of a field with a tree in it. Thought "I can't remember taking that one". Found it was in the stock "backgrounds" folder. nick: Could do a zoom tomorrow (Friday) or Sunday night? Let me know if either is OKI have made a "smart" music playlist which is generated from tracks that have a play count of at least 25, ordered so that the least recently played ones come first. It's a cracker: just about every track makes me think both "I've not heard this for a while" and "I like this!"
Steve: Ok like pumped water storage systems without the need for a lake.Looks a bit hard to scale this up?
Tim: Meanwhile on the Fripp front it turns out I was still thinking of the last set, which was a mere 8cds of Sounsdscapes, whereas the new thing Steve mentioned (Exposures) turns out to be 25cds plus some dvds and blu-rays, of earlier stuff, lots of it Frippertronics. £160, groan. Steve: Hmm gold vinyl... but the 3 long tracks have to be split across sides which must be painful to listen to.And yeah the Fripp thing is massive and only covers a few years!
Played your KC Islands LP last night - interesting, might have to get it.
Not very KC-like at all.
Also played your USA and might need to get that at some point. Maybe you can't have too much live 73/74 stuff. Obvs the CD has a lot more on it.
Since getting the 40th anniversary of In the Court of... I play it loads. They did wonders with the mastering. But remember getting Poseidon and selling it as I hated it so much.
Tim: Islands is strange and a bit lovely. USA - the whole idea of a 40min live album seems a bit weird these days.Hang on, what KC albums have you actually got??
Steve: The latest USA is about 70 mins which is more like it.I only have their first, the 3 70s classics, 3 80s and some live albums.
Steve: Tim, have you ever managed to rip from Blu-ray?I seem to remember you got a drive for some music you bought.
Reading online people say you need to decrypt the contents first, so it looks to be a faff.
Tim: So, went to see Lifespan yesterday, the others mostly seemed to like it but although it sounded very accomplished it just didn't grab me. The first half of the set was tracks off the first two albums - which I'd heard (once) on Bandcamp. The second half was off the new album which I hadn't heard - but it sounded just as familiar. As I said to Nick, I felt like I could almost sing along.Similarly, I just played Pink Floyd's The Endless River, £3 from Magpie ebay so why not? On first listening it sounds fairly like Pink Floyd instrumentals. See if it improves at all.
nick: Randonnee next Sunday. I will be doing IoW but since I don't think I know anyone else doing it, I made a (shorter) route that takes in all 6 British Cycling Quest points on the island. Will do that in a clockwise direction so that I don't have to worry about chain ferry queues on the way back. This will nearly double the number of BCQ's I've already done Tim: I heard on the radio that the floating bridge is back in service today so you might actually be in luck. Tim: What's your plan for Sunday, do you want to park here and get breakfast and/or dinner, or are you training it? nick: What's your plan for Sunday, do you want to park here and get breakfast and/or dinner, or are you training it?Hadn't considered that - I'll do a bit of looking at railway times/tickets etc. Maybe I could train MIC->HDE then cycle to get ferry around 9am, come back and drop in for a chat on the way home before getting HDE->MIC in the evening
nick: Oh guess what, engineering works on Sunday. So there are. I wondered why my first search was returning stupid times.I suppose I could drive down. Not sure I fancy cycling to Sotn and back as well as IoW
nick: Another option, since you're not actually doing the rando, would be to pick another day.Yes that is a possibility. Ferry prices seem to have gone up again - its £20 for a day return as a foot passenger!
nick: Going to do IoW tomorrow, booked 9am ferry. If it's OK I'll park at Tim's and cycle from there? Maybe have a cuppa on the way back? Let me know if it's OK to park there Tim: I've booked a couple of day trips, arriving 11am departing 7pm on Tue 10 and Fri 27 May. No plans yet, open to suggestions if anyone fancies joining in. Tim: Luckily I'll be on the train home by then. (And anyway the last train back is still at 10pm midweek which is a bit tricky for evening stuff.) nick: Luckily I'll be on the train home by then ah yes. Anything else going on in London on that day that might be of interest? Tim: Thats your lot for d'Voxx afaik.While I'm on, who can work out what this means?:
We won't know the results here in Scotland for a few hours, but there have been some interesting developments in England overnight.
And, unsurprisingly, there has been a lot of mentions by Conservative candidates about the impact of Partygate on their campaigns.
Independent pollster Mark Diffley tells the Good Morning Scotland programme it's difficult to underestimate the impact.
nick: Dreamachine sounds interesting - they also had a review of it on Radio4 "All in the Mind" but looks like it's sold out so I don't think we can do that on 27-May Tim: OK so we can't do that, but if there's anything else you fancy doing and it happens not to be on the 27th I don't mind doing a different (additional for me) day - including evening concerts if the 10pm train looks doable.
Tim: I'll probably go to the British Museum Stonehenge exhibition soon (amazing how they fitted it in), anybody else fancy it? £20. nick: is the stonehenge thing a potential visit on 27-may, or are you thinking a different date? I'm interested ifs it's 27, potentially another date depending when Steve: We are planning to finally do some flipping camping at least some of that week and following weekend so carry on without me.Bothe negative here for a few days, but I still have a cough and am not 100%.
Not been cycling for 3 weeks.
nick: Bothe negative here for a few days, but I still have a cough and am not 100%.Not been cycling for 3 weeks.
Sorry to hear that Steve. How's Deborah? Lesley is still not right either - has sporadic cold symptoms (cough/sore throat) and still getting very tired. I don't know how much that is down to covid, if at all - she always has been prone to catching colds very easily.
We looked after Spencer and Sia yesterday to give Ella some time to do prep for Spanish holiday (they're going for a week starting this Saturday). I took Spencer on the bike to Overton, then trained to BSK, then played in Eastrop park before catching bus back to Overton and cycling back to NW. Then took him to NW park. On the plus side, he managed yesterday to get the hang of pedalling forwards on his little bike (up until now he's always just pedalled backwards and doesn't understand the instructions "no, pedal forwards!". On the other hand I was more tired at the end of the day than I am when I cycle all the way to work and back. I have no idea how Lesley is going to manage when Ella goes back to work in June at which point Lesley will be looking after both of them three days a week. BTW it later emerged that 5 hours of Ella's "holiday prep" was getting her hair done, which feels excessive to me!
Steve: D has a slight dry cough is all so not too bad.I'll try a ride this weekend but expect to do a lot of coughing.
No other news.
Tim: Nick, tickets are timed (although it's not busy so we could probably just turn up). Are you aiming for the same train, BSK 10:17? Tim: Let's give ourselves 45 minutes for some tube stuffing-around and book a ticket each for 12 noon, OK? Waterloo and City line to Bank, Central to Liverpool St, Liz to Paddington and back to Tott Ct Rd. Tim: Same here. Anything else you fancy doing we can. Otherwise we might end up looking at the free stuff in Tate Britain (can do that any time). nick: Can see a couple of things I wouldn't mind going to but they all seem to be non-free stuff. Will keep looking nick: Steve recommended "A Dangerous Fortune - Ken Follett". They don't have that in my online library app, but they do have a couple of other Follett books I've not read, so just now downloaded "Code to Zero" (12 hrs 40mins audiobook). Was tempted to get "Eye of the Needle" but thought it would be better to do something I've not read before. Nearly finished "Diana" by RF Delderfield which I did like, but was too long I think - there keep being extra bits of story. Wanted "To Serve Them All My Days" but library didn't have that either. nick: Doesn't have to be free. yeah, I just assumed there would be a ton of free stuff, but when I checked the things that I've heard of lately they're all paid. Maybe worth trying one. Since Elizabeth Line goes roughly to Greenwich I asked my brothers what might be on. This was the first suggestionYes it's BorrowBox. They do have a fair amount of stuff although quite often if you're looking for something specific they don't have it. Bit like going in a bookshop!
Tim: Hmmm, they describe it as one of London's true icons so that's out of the question then.While I'm moaning, SW Trains just sent me a link to their survey, first question is
How likely are you to recommend South Western Railway to a friend?
It seems obvious that the only possible answer is never! I mean, I might suggest going by train (and coincidentally they might have the monopoly on the route) but for some reason they're not asking that.
nick: How likely are you to recommend South Western Railway to a friend?Was it multiple choice? I remember someone set up a survey when I was working at DEC in Basingstoke and there was a suggestion that the office get relocated to Reading. One question as "How bad would the effect of this move be for you?" and the options ranged from "somewhat" to "very significant". People who lived in Reading, and had up until that time had to commute to Basingstoke every day, struggled to find an appropriate box to tick.
Tim: To be fair, yes, there was a Not At All Likely option.I found a way (by ticking that I'd used both) to indicate that their website is utter shite for buying tickets while Another Train Company was excellent. And there was a chance to complain about train frequency. But when it came to whining about the last train from London being 10pm I had to resort to a free-form text moan; can't imagine that getting any attention.
nick: Didn't know about the live album. Will give it a goPhil suggests museum at Greenwich maritime museum, which was one of the things I noticed: they have a £10 exhibition on astronomy photographs which might be interesting (as well as anything else that's on there)
nick: The live album is the gig I went toAh yes, I forgot you saw them again. The two of us went in March 2015 to see Claudia.
Tim: I knew somebody went to see something like that at some point.Astronomy looks OK and v handy for...the DLR. Bring your roller skates and we can recreate the PSB video near the Dome.
nick: Well I think I give up on Hebrides. The logistics of finding B&Bs has defeated me:the ones that do have online booking (which are not many) don't have availability for a series of consecutive dates that I can find; others need you to mail the place and wait for them to reply - I did get some dates off one of them but can't easily make them work with other island B&Bs after about 4 hours of mucking about. Probably should have sorted it earlier. Will have a go on the Isle of Man... Tim: Well I'm enjoying the no-confidence situation. The Tories have condemned themselves to a period of purgatory, it's going to be great. The by-elections in two weeks time will be hilarious, the rubbish that some of them will have to spout afterwards. In a way it will be a shame if they fail to drag it out for a whole year. nick: I have mixed feelings: on the one hand it's good to see the Tories in trouble, with the rebels now in a position to obstruct anything BJ tries by abstaining etc. but I worry that (a) if he stays in power he'll just try and push stupid policies like imperial measures and tax reductions on petrol, or (b) they'll get rid of him and install someone who's less ineffectual and may offer enough of a clean sheet to get them elected (at which point they can call an election)Riding home last night one of the bolts that holds on my pannier/mudguard popped out. I did find it, but it wouldn't stay in because the thread inside the frame has gone (the bolt basically just slides in and out). At this stage I had ~30miles to go, so walking wouldn't have been an option: I only had one pannier but the rack wasn't stable enough to carry it. As luck would have it there was a discarded hefty bit of zip tie in the verge just where I stopped and I managed (eventually) to get that through the frame and fasten the mudgard/pannier back. This worked surprisingly well so I got home OK (albeit not until 10pm). This morning I fixed it "properly" by sticking a bolt through and screwing a nut on the other side. Had a bit of trouble finding a suitable bolt, because anything with too big a head would get in the way of the chain (it was on the derailleur side).
Someone at work suggests retapping the hole so it would fit a slightly larger bolt, but I think it's fairly secure at the moment. Have you ever done retapping Steve? I'd be worried about weakening the frame
Steve: Pretty certain the frame tube has a steel threaded insert banged into it, there is nothing to be re-threaded. Maybe a shop can put another one in, or get a 3rd frame from Whyte?Frame is aluminium so too soft to take a thread.
I did of course tap threads at college but it needs to be into something solid.
What happened with your wheel that broke?
nick: yes, after Steve mentioned the threaded insert I did a bit of googling for ideas on threads being stripped on a bike frame and "rivnuts" and "helicoils" came up. As did the suggestion to just put a nut on the other end of the bolt (which is what I have done). I think I need to get to screw fix and get some more spare bolts so I can put them in my toolbag (I've already stuck some zip ties in there)What happened with your wheel that broke?
I replaced it with a new one. Didn't hear anything back from Evans, and on checking the Mavic "2 year warranty" document saw that it is only for manufacturing defects, and specifically excludes wear-and-tear so I think I'd be out of luck with that - it was about 15 months old with 13,000 miles on it. Replacing the freewheel looked quite expensive (I couldn't quite work out which new one I needed but it was quite pricey and so I didn't think it would be worth it)
nick: twitter thread about and link to, a consultation document for businesses regarding re-introduction of imperial measures. Some of the questions are a bit "leading" Tim: Re-records rather than re-composes.Cheers for the consultation survey link, I'd seen the main consultation where they expect written responses mainly e.g. from companies, but not that one. I'll have a look, but mostly I'm thinking it's just meant as a distraction.
On the by-election front I'd had a look at the previous results for Tiverton and assumed the Tory would be safe but with a reduced majority - but I just found out that the bookies have LibDems as favourite, blimey. You can actually get 5-1 for the Cons, I'm tempted to hedge.
nick: On the cycle ride in this morning I listened to a podcast from the series "Fall of Civilisations" about Easter Island. Also available on youtube.It was pretty interesting and (so far as I could tell) refuted the commonly-held (and espoused by Jared Diamond) story that the reason they came to a bad end was that they mucked up the island ecology by chopping all the trees down to move the statues around. Worth a listen if you have a couple of spare hours. Quite a lot about the moai statues which made me think of Tobago, although I think in the game you're not obliged to have the statues facing inland, which is what they did on Easter Island
Tim: Well no, they don't have to face inland exactly because they rotate, obviously. I bet they don't even mention that. But they cannot be on the shoreline, to ensure that they always face some land. nick: I don't remember him saying that they chopped the trees down solely to move statues maybe not... although according to the podcast, Diamond seems to favour the explanation that it was down to the way the Easter Islanders exploited their environment (including using trees for statue rolling) which caused their downfall. And makes the case that this was an "attractive" idea because it chimes in with the idea that in the present day, we neglect the environment at our peril. But the reasons given in the podcast for the collapse are different, and in a way, more sad. nick: Someone who was in the office on Monday was off sick yesterday and today reported positive COVID. I was sitting pretty near him so am particularly conscious now of a tickle in my throat. Hope I don't start feeling ill today because I have a 3 hour cycle ride home and not sure what state the trains might be in nick: So... are you on your bike? I've ridden all the way to the office every day this week so far. Partly because my car's broken down (needs new engine oil seal, clutch bits, and flywheel thing) and partly because it's midsummer week with good weather. Enjoying not using the car (it's been out of action for over a week now) but feeling a bit tired.Negative COVID test last night so back in the office again today
Tim: I signed up to Hampshire Library in order to try the Ogawa ebook. I automatically got issued a temporary login ID, and put a reservation on. A few days later I got an email with a permanent ID.Today I got an email saying my reservation is available to download. Logged on - no sign of anything on my permanent ID. Tried the temporary ID: Your library account has expired or has been blocked.
So that worked well. Now I've made a reservation on the new ID. Just have to wait a couple of weeks for the current loan to expire.
Tim: A bit of fun on BBC news this morning. The 7:30 post-by-election Tory interview was due to be with Oliver Dowden, but he's quit. They were told Dominic B'Stard would fill in, but no show and they're waiting for some replacement. So meanwhile they fitted in a Boris-sceptic (Roger Gale) who duly slagged Boris off. nick: I got my first e-book loan (all the others have been audiobooks) from the library to see what it was like. It is not in any way convertible to Kindle: the book is readable inside the Borrowbox app, with no way (I could see) of exporting it.Now I've made a reservation on the new ID. Just have to wait a couple of weeks for the current loan to expire. Sometimes when it has said "available on " I've put a reservation in only to have it appear much sooner "Good news! your book became available early" and your loan starts then, which isn't always convenient in terms of planning your reading itinerary. OTOH I've renewed loans a couple of times and never been told "sorry you can't renew because someone else has reserved this book" which I did used to have happen with physical books. I don't know if that's because I was lucky or because they have some other mechanism to decide how many e-copies can be out at once
nick: On the kindle front... maybe I won't bother with borrowbox after all then. yeah... it's not as convenient as having it on kindle. Also, it Borrowbox doesn't sync up your reading progress: I have the app on my iphone and iPad, and so I downloaded my book on both devices. But it doesn't sync your reading progress between different devices.With Kindle (which I also have an app for on iphone and iPad and laptop, as well as the kindle itself), I can open the book on any of my devices, then when I open it on a different device it says "you're on page X but you most recently were reading page Y on your , do you want to go there?" I realised I use that a fair bit e.g. when I'm out and about without the kindle, but have a couple of minutes spare, I can open the book on the phone and continue reading from where I left off.
Tim: Another tech nightmare you steered me into Nick, was that I thought I could listen to that podcast on the Pi (volumio). There's a soundcloud plugin, ace. To get the plugin, SSH onto the Pi and 'git clone' the plugin from github. Credentials?!? It's a public repository, what are you on about? Much fruitless googling later I resorted to downloading the stuff to my PC (trivial), copying it to the pi SD (in the area where FLACs go) and then using my ninja bash skillz to copy it to the right place eventually (not sure where the other copies went). Success after a mere couple of days.I've heard about half the podcast so far, and it's highly interesting, but it's a familiar problem that it's presented as an argument. Half the stuff I've heard is what he doesn't think, and I'm don't entirely remember which is which.
nick: I'm surprised that podcasts aren't more straightforward on the Volumio but I can imagine there may be tons of different plugins you can use. I listened to another in the series today about The Songhai Empire which was OK but not as good I thought.My car is (still) not back - as well as the oil seal/clutch bits, it needed a "dual mass flywheel". He's had it for two weeks now (said it should be done yesterday but when I got home from cycling all the way to work and back it still wasn't there, so I cycled in again today). Ella broke down on Sunday - turns out her clutch has gone - and Lesley had a flat yesterday which hasn't yet been addressed. So the only working car in our household is Ryan's. I'm saving a lot of money in diesel, but may not be quite enough to pay for the flywheel
nick: Got car back yesterday and drove/cycled to work today. When driving it was quite hard to change gear which I put down to the new clutch thing and assumed it would get better. Got home this evening and tried to put it in the drive and couldn't get it into reverse at all. So another call to mechanic. I hope he doesn't say it needs a new gearbox nick: Mechanic came to take the car again today. Says the problem is the self-adjusting clutch(?) hasn't adjusted itself properly so he needs to take something apart to fix it. Hopefully back Saturday. Working from home today, will cycle in tomorrow. I should probably enrol on Going Car Free for July Tim: Also on the car front we finally got rid of the Astra, the 208 doesn't have a cd player so I need to sort out some ents for my 5-minute drives to Asda. Plan A: it has a usb socket I can shove a stick in with music files on and it'll read them. Stuck one in and the Sources menu now has a USB item, hurrah. Select that and... nothing happens (stays on DAB. Of course the hopeless manual doesn't actually tell you what should happen or anything). A bit of googling suggests it needs to be FAT32, max 32GB, great I can fix that. No, it turns out that's exactly what it is already. Due to no further info being available I might be approaching Plan B already. Tim: Progress! I found an ancient USB stick and gave it a try on the offchance and it worked. Tip: never throw anything away. The downside is that it's so old it's only 128 MB, smaller than most flac albums. So it's got mp3 on there instead, maybe that's the difference (manual says flac ok too...) nick: Has the car stereo got a "bluetooth" mode? in which case you could pair your phone into it (although that means you have to have the music on the phone). I don't have bluetooth in my car but plug one of these dongles into it, which pairs with my phone - that works really well.But.. hang on... 5 minute drives to Asda? why do you need to drive??!?
Tim: Er, to transport loads of heavy shopping 2 miles.Bluetooth is Plan B.
But I made a schoolboy error. The manual doesn't mention flac after all! That was in an otherwise identical paragraph I read online from the manual for a different Peugeot. So the only problem I've got is that 98% of my music is in an unsuitable format. Should have bought a 2008 (208 on stilts).
nick: aha - I know what to get you for your birthdayIs it just FLAC that's the issue then? rather than the size of the memory stick?
So maybe you need some utility that would be able to create MP3 versions of all the FLAC files on your USB stick, i.e. create a "mp3" directory sibling to your "flac" directory
Tim: Can I tow it with the car then?Yes, the mp3 copied to the first stick is fine after all.
Sox can probably do it, but it seems a bit overkill. All I used to do is grab a recent CD (which is a dwindling fraction of my music purchases) and go. Perhaps I'll just maintain a stick with a few recent albums, converted to mp3 or wav.
Tim: Aaargh, looking again my manual (pdf) does list flac in one place, but not in another. Seems to be a badly glued together bunch of docs, towards the end there are chunks about "Connect Nav" and "Connect Radio" which have a lot of copy pasta and tend to look the same. If we had satnav I'd be able to play flac music??? Tim: Right. I can dump flac files onto my phone, and once connected with Bluetooth the car can play them. Obv. nick: Does the car have wifi? If you're only going to the local Asda you can probably maintain a connection to your home network and listen to stuff direct from the Pi Tim: I must have bought the wrong kind of wifi, or you think I'm a really slow driver.I have vaguely thought of battery-powering the pi to make a walkman out of it (which I don't actually need), maybe that would help... somehow.
nick: I thought this was a good thing to say, and to bear in mind if I'm having a disagreement/discussion with someone "I did say to Jolene, let’s not fall out about anything. It’s just my opinions, I’m not saying it’s true." nick: Youtube recommends Scarlatti stuff to me and quite often it's ones I've not heard before (it's lovely to think I've still got loads to discover). This one came up a few days ago and I keep going back to it. The instructions on it say "play as fast as possible" but she said when she did that it was just too much. Still quite fast though.I can't help feeling that he was really in the zone when he was writing, and just churned out loads of amazing stuff, and that he was laughing out loud when doing this one (the pianist seems not to be able to stop smiling too)
Tim: And I can recommend the recent DiN album by Polypores for anyone fancying some quality genre-free electronic music. Tim: And (2) thanks to your link I finally got to hear the legendary Worship The Glitch, which I somehow never got around to buying. Saved a tenner there then. To be fair it's probably better than a lot of stuff I did buy, but it's not really my cuppa - too fragmentary. nick: Tim did you watch any of the women' (women's?) football tournament? Last time I watched female football they were comically poor but maybe they're better now? Steve: "Comically poor" - the sort of thing I would say!Lots of people seemed to watch it which I can't get my head around.
If you compare with women's tennis - they are really good at that and it's watchable, if not as "gripping" as men's.
I saw a small amount for curiosity and apart from being far worse than men, they seem to be doing the same rolling around on the floor and spitting that men do which is er disappointing?
And I find that the commentators don't make any negative comments when clearly there has been a catastrophic error perpetrated. PC gone mad ha ha!
Pretty sure the BBC hypes it as they have so little sport left to show these days.
Thanks for the cards.
I now have the xPropaganda studio album which sounds lovely but is not making much impression.
I think I just need Susanne Freytag to do a talking book.
CD prices seem to be shooting up. For example KC CD/DVD-A is £20 at Burningshed when it was £13 last time I looked.
Tim: I saw a few games, and it seems there are a few half-decent teams such that if two of them are playing each other then it's fairly entertaining, otherwise it still seems terrible. Especially, players are allowed far too much time unchallenged. But on Saturday I went to my first home game of the season, and Lincoln's plan was to defend from the front, challenge everything instantly. The high press. It worked, there were no goals, hardly any chances, it was a really dull game. So that was no fun either.Steve, don't forget a lot of people watched it only if/because it was England and they were doing well. Many wouldn't have watched the final otherwise, I reckon.
nick: Cycled part way this morning (from Chobham) because I can't get panniers on the bike and was using a rucksack. The bike felt a bit lighter but I felt a lot heavier (rucksack had my laptop in it as well as clothes, and I had my heavy waistbelt lock thing on). Went to the bike shop in Hampton on the way in; they said they thought they could drill out the bolt but not until Wednesday next week, so it's booked in for then.
Might try cycling all the way tomorrow, leaving the laptop and lock here this evening so I shouldn't be so heavy
nick: Cycled all the way yesterday and today. The rucksack feels a bit uncomfortable when you first put it on, but doesn't get any worse through the ride (maybe I just wriggle about to the right position). The back of the bike feels very nimble without rack/panniers. I've been leaving the laptop in the office (it's straining rucksack capacity to include it as well as towel/shampoo/clothes/lunch). So rucksack does seem fairly good, except for relatively limited capacity.
Got a few days off now (Thu/Fri/Tue) but planning on cycling to Exeter (with rucksack) on Friday. Probably coming back Monday but if I do come back in time for Sunday zoom I'll give you a shout.
nick: After 8 miles this morning, my shoe felt loose on the pedal and I couldn't twist it out. Managed to stop and get my foot out of the shoe, leaving it clipped in: one of the bolts holding the cleat had got lost, and so when you twisted the shoe it just was just spinning round. So I span it round by hand until the bolt was completely unscrewed, leaving the cleat and bolt in the pedal and the cleat less shoe in my hand.I couldn't get the cleat out of the pedal at all, so had to ride the rest of the way in with no cleat. Felt a bit dodgy - I could only use the side of the pedal with the cleat in it because the bolt was sticking out and gave my shoe something to grip on: the other side of the pedal was much too slippy
Went to the bike shop near work and he said he could get the cleat out. He had a special cleat-removal tool, aka mole grips, which he used to twist it until it came out. And then he gave me some spare bolts, result! So I should be fine for the way home
nick: Having re-arranged my PC delivery for today, I had a message from DPD "Your driver Norman will be delivering your package between 10.13 and 11.13 today". Great.At 10.40, another message "Sorry, we missed you! We'll try again tomorrow". There are 10 of us in the office today and none of us heard the doorbell ring.
So I updated delivery details with a photo of our front door, buzzer circled with red. Let's hope Norman is on better form tomorrow
nick: pc delivery update: after failed delivery monday, and message from them saying they'd do it again on Tuesday, I had a message on Tuesday saying the package had been delayed "due to an unexpected issue" and would be delivered on Wednesday. On Wednesday they said "parcel has been delayed in transit" and would be delivered on Thursday.On Thursday at 7.05am I had a message saying it would be delivered between 7.57am and 8.57am. I wasn't sure whether anyone would be in the office at 7.57am, so asked for the delivery to be delayed. It's now DEFINITELY due to be delivered tomorrow.
nick: Success! PC got delivered this morning. Will have a go at installing today. I hope it works with Ubuntu nick: Not success! PC won't power on. When you plug it in, the LED on the USB mouse comes on, so some power is getting through, but clicking the on/off button has no effect. Opened it up and can't see any obvious loose connections, so now waiting to see what PC specialist say Steve: So the new induction hob...I investigate how to install it - circuit size etc.
I bought what I thought was a 16A hob and the Currys description talks about a 16A dedicated circuit. But hang on, it has a 13A plug on it!
The serial number label says 3700W and 3700/240 = 15.4A so over 13A.
Zilch in the installation manual apart from wire colours.
So I spend as long as Nick did trying to find someone who knows what's going on.
I'm passed between Installation and Support a few times.
After a few attempts I get through to a nice British lady at Bosch.
She puts me on hold and comes back and she can't hear me.
BUT I hear her say that this can happen after users have been on hold so she tells me the answer assuming I can hear her.
The load is configured on the settings menu and I can cut off the plug and hardwire if I want to up it to full wattage.
Sure enough this setting is buried in the User Manual but there is no explanation on circuits to accompany it.
This saves me a huge messy job of installing a new cable, I just hope 16A is powerful enough for Deborah.
nick: She puts me on hold and comes back and she can't hear me.BUT I hear her say that this can happen after users have been on hold so she tells me the answer assuming I can hear her.
That is infuriating! What on earth kind of phone system does that so often that the call handling staff need to do this? Must be the same one that e.on use.
I had a call from Scottish and Southern Electric yesterday saying they've booked us in for the "shrouding" on 1-Nov. He left a voicemail which was really clear and detailed, and also sent me a text message. I've been really impressed with them (although this is the regional office; the main call centre told me it was nothing to do with them and to go to e.on, who said no, it wasn't them, but they found me the number of the regional SSEN place). So there are good support centre staff out there.
My PC still won't turn on, even after following the advice of really turning it off and on and unplugging/plugging etc., and I had a mail from PC Specialist today asking me to return it via DPD
nick: tramline are offering 3 year senior railcard for £47 although it's new customers only. I think I may not count as a new customer but I'll give it a go next time I'm about to buy a train ticket nick: I'd not heard of this one before. One for Tim to solve?Two envelopes problem
Two people, equally rich, meet to compare the contents of their wallets. Each is ignorant of the contents of the two wallets. The game is as follows: whoever has the least money receives the contents of the wallet of the other (in the case where the amounts are equal, nothing happens). One of the two men can reason: "I have the amount A in my wallet. That's the maximum that I could lose. If I win (probability 0.5), the amount that I'll have in my possession at the end of the game will be more than 2A. Therefore the game is favourable to me." The other man can reason in exactly the same way. In fact, by symmetry, the game is fair. Where is the mistake in the reasoning of each man?
Tim: Aha, just remembered to look in here, first time for a week. Glad to hear you're both delighted customers.I've read the question about 4 times and now I understand it. So could take a while to think about it.
Tim: Nick, I found the asterisk on the Trainline page:*To use the discount code, you must be a new customer, which means you have not transacted with Trainline in the past and you must have, or create a Trainline account.
nick: *To use the discount code, you must be a new customer, which means you have not transacted with Trainline in the past and you must have, or create a Trainline account.yes... I don't think I have a trainline account, unless it got created automatically and tied to my apple ID when I used the app on my phone. If it's just a matter of registering with an email address it is fairly easy to create a new one, but if it uses the apple id associated with my phone it's more difficult. I guess I'll find out when I come to buy a ticket, which might be soon: planning on doing part of the way to East Prawle (holiday at the end of the month) on the train
nick: hmm.. although when I use the app there is a "Sign in" button which asks me to sign in, or create an account, so I'm obviously not signed in by default simply as a result of running the app. So maybe it'll be ok Tim: Having made slight progress maybe with the two wallets problem, I read the first part of the two envelopes wiki. Realised that I still hadn't understood the question after all (forgot the bit about not knowing the contents of either wallet). Back to square one. nick: Apparently my new PC which was DOA had a faulty motherboard, so they've replaced that, ran stress tests overnight which passed, and are going to send it back to me now. nick: A reader comment to a Guardian article about one-hit wonders:Surely the definitive comment on Mouldy Old Dough came from the Guardian itself
"....sounds like pop music made by people who have never actually heard pop music, but have had it described to them by someone who didn’t really know what they were talking about"
Tim: Anyone thought about ditching their landline yet?Plusnet now do full fibre (the only kind of fibre we can get) so I'm thinking of switching. That would make our landline almost redundant, and a waste of money.
The main thing that's lacking, I think, is we're so used to DECT phones that it would be weird having to keep our mobiles handy as we move around the house. Seems there are a few DECT phones that can bluetooth pair to a mobile (or two mobiles) so that you can receive/make mobile calls from the DECT phone. Just need to be in the habit of leaving the mobiles on/charging in a spot within bluetooth range of the phone base.
So that probably covers it. But...is there some other strategy I'm missing or some product I haven't thought of?
nick: I'm not sure if we can get full fibre but probably would get rid of landline if I could. We hardly ever get calls on the landline and most of the ones we do get are spam. We only have one wired handset (no cordless). The only reason I might keep a landline is that it still works if there's a power cut, but I believe that the exchanges are going to change shortly so that landlines will no longer work when the mains goes off.
I think pretty much all mobile contracts are unlimited minutes/texts now? So no reason to have a landline to make/receive calls any more.
nick: Went to Totton last Friday to see a magic show with Tony. Cycled to BSK, then trained to Totton and cycled to arts centre. Because of some kind of fault on the electric rail, trains were all mucked up and the outward one was 45 mins late, and rammed. Pretty uncomfortable (for others) with my bike jammed into the corridor. Return train was 30 mins late, so I've submitted two "delay repay" claims. I am not hopeful of getting anything but worth a try. Presumably you've had experience of this type of claim Steve? I sort of supposed it's only valid for peak time trains and that my cheapy evening return on a railcard wouldn't be eligible. nick: woohoo, both my claims for delay-repay were approved. Not sure yet how to update my "railcard savings so far this year" spreadsheet to reflect this Steve: I have done claims before but remember one getting rejected - it had 2 trains and I couldn't exactly remember both time.Kev had recent ticket trouble - bought a ticket from a person with a portable machine in a station. The guy's machine could not print so he was told to get to the back of the other queue but he had definitely cancelled the transaction.
Of course he gets 2 credit card deductions.
Station can't handle the claim - go online... online only valid for tickets bought online.
So he's having to do a chargeback. This country is crap.
nick: Just received 2 payments for £2.30 each from delay+repay, which works out at 50% of the cost of the return ticket. Tim: I went in HMV yesterday. And bought a CD. Yes! It's JMJarre's latest, Oxymore (=oxymoron). On first listening sounds a bit rackety. Steve: Hmm 70 doesn't sound very old as you approach it.I kept meaning to get E2-E4 but it was always over the amount I wanted to pay for it!
Not going to get any cheaper now is it?
nick: As it happens I was listening to Assassin by Mark Shreeve RIP when I saw this. Yes, 70 seems pretty close: I'd assumed that the members of Ash Ra temple were decades older than me Tim: As it happens (2) I currently have the first ART album on loan from Neil. Worth a listen, but pretty unsurprising, and not something I'd be keen to buy. Made me think I could try lending him an early KS album, Moondawn perhaps, mainly for the retroness. Trouble is, I only have them on vinyl in Steve's garage, up until Body Love. Wouldn't mind just a one-off listen myself too, darn. Hang on though - I've got copies of Steve's rips! Perfect, cheers. Tim: I just listened to Moondawn. Even more of a racket than I expected. Maybe the racketiest KS album? Tim: Next up was Picture Music, I couldn't actually remember what to expect for that one. Also quite rackety, as it turns out, esp. side 1. Side 2 a bit more Timewindy perhaps. Steve: I'm surprised you didn't get those CDs.Moondawn is one of my favourites with the pebbly beach sound.
Picture Music's Totem seems to be well regarded.
I'll bung a picture up.
Thursday, August 12, 2021
nick: August is wet
Yes it's a field, but there are people in it (if you look closely). This was my attempt at a "Moonmadness" picture but with the sun.
- 9:13 am... 179 comments
Comments:
nick: These DVDs are going to charity shop at the weekend, unless anyone wants any of them? Slight possibility Tim might want "Cloud Atlas" I suppose (I love that film but it's a bit marmite)
Tim: Portsmouth are at home on Saturday so I'll be down the pub after as usual (where as usual means first time for 16 months).
And cheers, but I wouldn't know what to do with a DVD.
Steve: Hmm I could go for The Wall, Spiral (in case they take it off iPlayer), The Artist and Early Doors as I love the woman in it.
Please don't feel the need to post them.
I have the Cloud Atlas book but feel daunted to try it.
Saturday good for a get-together, we are out tomorrow so ideal thanks.
And the picture is truly excellent, taking into the sun often gets results.
Tim: So to recap, Nick it looks like your availability is mainly 4-12 Sep (I'm free as it stands), and ... I assume the Canterbury thing is some time after that?
nick: Yes - 4-12 Sep, plus a bit of time in the lead up to the bank holiday. I can book more time off: after that I still have about 2 weeks left for the rest of the year.
I'll do a zoom invite for Saturday evening. Maybe Tim can join us from the pub on his phone if he's really keen.
I'll put the DVDs aside for you Steve so can let you have them next time I see you.
Off to a wedding reception this evening unless I get pinged which doesn't seem very likely. And an early bike ride in the morning so hope we're not too late back tonight.
Ella and Ryan have gone away for the weekend to Brighton: will be their last holiday as a threesome. Ryan carried on testing positive for COVID after his isolation which apparently is not unusual, but he's recently tested negative. He came out with me on my 20mile ride this morning - he said it was his longest bike ride so far! Luckily I can keep up with him but I suspect he will get faster than me if he keeps going out regularly.
nick: We managed to complete the Guardian prize crossword from Saturday despite lack of Tim. Although the solutions won't appear on fifteensquared until next week, so we won't be able to confirm our answers.
Steve says they're in Canterbury from 10th-18th Sep. Which is after the end of the time I originally booked off; maybe I should change it. What would be a good time in that week for you to do a potential bike ride Steve?
Was the Portsmouth match good?
I finished "Sweet Caress" by William Boyd today (the female protagonist had some kind of progressive brain disease which overlapped thematically with a God in Ruins) which means I can finally listen to the podcast I've been saving since October 2015 where he's interviewed about it. Steve you said you'd read Brazaville Beach which was one of my favourites, and the only one of his I think Tim might like (can't believe Steve forgot about the chimpanzees). But my favourite of his is another "cradle to grave" one called "Any Human Heart" which I loved (has a good WW2 section in it too).
I re-read the Ted Chiang short story on Caliagnosia which blew me away the first time: I couldn't stop thinking about it. This time it was a bit meh.
Tim: I see that it was a Philistine, figures.
The Portsmouth game also seemed quite easy (it was only Crewe) but under new management they are playing a different style - less of patiently waiting for a golden scoring opportunity, and more of pressing the opposition and chucking everything at them. Much more watchable. Mind you I'm still not going tonight, but let's hope they make it three wins out of three.
nick: I can't remember what's in a Waldorf Salad. You need to watch the Fawlty Towers episode. Although our recollection of that wasn't entirely helpful
Steve: I suppose bike ride day is going to be weather-dependent so can be any day, we have no agenda.
Well not the first or last day obviously.
Still on the ebike hunt but it's not easy unless you buy from an online shop who already have stock, you cannot order into a bike shop - I rang two for different brands.
I painted your shed Tim, it's getting a new rubber roof next; need to space these jobs out a bit more...
nick: I suppose bike ride day is going to be weather-dependent so can be any day, we have no agenda.
Well not the first or last day obviously. Maybe I'll book a couple of days off that week and see what the weather's like nearer the time.
Anyone up for doing something else before then? Weather still not looking great but feels like we should try doing something
The guy I go out with on Saturday has got an Orbea e-bike which I think he got as a "last season" discount, from a shop in Southampton I think - that was around the turn of the year though so I suppose there wasn't so much demand then. I just checked the bike shop near me who are listing loads of e-bikes but they are nearly all out of stock. And they're quite pricey! Tony said he was going to get rid of his, but that was a monster as I recall, and several years old now.
Did you get your new gate installed Tim?
Steve: So I have ordered a Raleigh Motus GT which we are picking up in MK on Saturday hopefully.
Expensive, but I set myself some rules which meant not getting a cheap solution, and hopefully one you can get spares for in the future. Such as:
Drive in the axle
Good range
At least 8 gears
Mudguards, rack and stand
Step-through frame
Bosch (not a proprietary make)
Played the LP of Hergest Ridge the other night which was fab.
I had only ever had the Boxed version, which was then used for CD versions until the remastered deluxe versions of a few years ago. So I was surprised at the different original mix.
It came across as being very home-made sounding but was very crisp.
I've never been impressed with the Boxed LPs, maybe because they had the quad encoding which messed with the stereo experience.
Finally remembered to take some secateurs on my ride yesterday but it was pretty disruptive, go a few more yards, oh there's another one etc etc.
And trying to chuck the brambles away from the path for punctures without getting injured!
nick: Exciting! I think you were right to have the rules - when I was buying (what ended up being) my Whyte I had a spreadsheet with rows for each bike I looked at, and columns that needed ticks in before I would consider buying it (mudguards, rack mounts, etc.) and that was helpful. Why did you want drive in the axle? (I don't know what the pros and cons of that are). is it straightforward to replace the battery? I think the Orbea one needed to go back to the dealer for that. Although from what I've read, batteries on e-bikes seem to last pretty well (I think, like electric cars, there was a concern when they started that batteries would wear out quickly but in fact they seem to be fine for years).
So will Deborah be up for a 50+mile ride around Canterbury? I don't know how much a 500w battery does. Maybe she could cycle from Luton to Basingstoke? If we can just work out logistics... What does Paul think?
It looks like Deborah's bike has decent tyres (they sound like Marathon equivalents). Went out with Ryan on Monday and just as we got to the outskirts of the village he got punctures in both front and back tyres at the same time. On inspection it looks like he must have ridden over a staple or something: both tubes had a pair of holes in, in the same pattern. I've since put a Marathon on his front wheel (from my broken-framed Felt) but can't put one on the back because the clearance between tyre and frame is too small. Went out again last night and was fine. He seems quite keen - he said that at lunchtime he'd seen a cyclist and thought to himself "I can't wait to get out on my bike"
Steve: I thought this would interest you Nick!
Centre drive motor apparently feels more natural, also means wheels can be cheaply replaced if necessary.
500W battery is large in the scheme of things. Range tricky as it depends on hills and assistance dialled in. I think I would have been happy with 400 to do say 40-60 miles.
So around the Kent coast should be fine assuming the saddle is comfy.
Of course a larger battery should mean it's still usable as its capacity diminishes through age. Looks like this one would clip off - I didn't want one under the rack as it looks terrible, but this one does look a bit clunky still. Easy to remove I would think.
Looks like you get "walk-assist" - it drives at 3MPH to help you push up a hill or around generally!
It is odd that all e-bikes are identical in design at the back. Notice how the rack is not fixed to the rear seat frame area, they seem to hover and anchor to the rear mudguard.
Didn't want front suspension but could not find many options in any make, and certainly not that was in stock.
Slight snag that this will not go on my towbar bike rack as it has no cross-bar to hang from.
You can get racks that project out from the towbar where the bikes sit on a platform. Can't tow a trailer as well. So in the car for now, could get a trailer-tent mount but pricey of course.
On the puncture side, a staple could well have gone through a Marathon. Paul had an industrial one go through his once.
I had a long thorn through my MTB front tyre once, nothing in road riding though.
nick: Now you mention it, that rack does look like it's hovering in mid air! Thinking about it, on mine nearly all the weight goes downwards - even though it's attached to the seat tube, I don't think there's much load-bearing going on through that.
Good point about motor in the wheels meaning they'd be more expensive to replace them.
I see that it's got derailleur - are there any that do internal hub gears?
It would be interesting to try riding it although I am worried about doing that myself: I have a mental picture of my muscles almost visibly disappearing if I were to use power-assisted cycling.
Yes I reckon it could have been one of those big staple things: the holes were about that distance apart. He was unlucky that he hit the staple (or whatever it was) on BOTH wheels. But he said they both went down at once so I imagine that's what happened.
Steve: There seem to be some incorrect pictures for D's one that show a hub gear so yes it is possible - even more money I suppose.
I think there is a lock around the rear wheel adding slightly more weight, but it's not going to stop someone carrying it away so seems a bit pointless.
nick: Your next bicycle accessory Steve actually I was starting to get interested until I saw the price. And they do have a video showing bikes towing the caravan but it's notable that all the shots in there are people going on the flat or downhill.
Can do a zoom tonight or tomorrow if anyone's around?
Tim: ? Judging by the video, all that happens is you tow it, it appears to have no other function.
I'm around, especially tonight.
nick: So the new e-bike was not entirely problem-free: what are you doing with it Steve? Other than the faults, did Deborah seem to get on ok with it?
I am on a resolution this week not to look at the Guardian at all in an attempt to avoid seeing upsetting news. Let's see how well that goes.
Steve: I'm waiting for them to fix it or replace it - it went back the day after I bought it.
The front mudguard came adrift because one of the struts had been cut too short to fix it properly. Pretty annoyed as you can imagine, 50 mile round trip each time.
Just heard I can collect tomorrow.
So after getting Nick's availability next week I have a visit plan.
Can I come to you Tim later Sunday 5th?
We group up Monday onwards.
I go home Thursday, before that Nick and I maybe do the Randonee one day and Tim activities the rest of the time. Possibly a shorter ride on the IoW, or look at a train from HE and cycle back.
Train to Bournemouth and cycle back to Brockenhurst looks a nice option - 20 miles or more depending.
Any museums we should be doing down your way Tim?
Revisit the D-Day one to see the new landing craft?
Tim: Tina's booked that week off now, so I'll have to juggle, but maybe it'll work out. How about putting me down for Sun (here)/Mon, and Weds (or Thu if preferable), any good?
Bike sounds annoying but at least it's something that once fixed should stay fixed.
nick: All sounds good to me. If Tim's busy Tue then maybe Steve&I could do an ambitious Randonnee that day?
Tim: OK. So I'm guessing the constraints so far are:
- Steve's on a train with bike
- Nick's tied up Sunday, but thereafter OK to host?
On Monday could you drive us to Portsmouth (or wherever) Nick? Breakfast here if you're early enough, let me know. End of the day we could head to our local pub for some tucker (Vegan options), then load up Steve's bike and stuff.
Wednesday or Thursday I could meet you both at Bournemouth or somewhere else for cycling. (Thursday might be better for me if it's suitable, not crucial though).
Keep working on it...
Steve: I can do Thursday but do not want to be coming home too late as we are away the following day.
Early evening at home is doable.
Tim: Aaargh, confusion on my part: it's the following week that Tina's booked off, after all. That gives me more flexibility, but I'm still keen to
- avoid the Randonee
- plan ahead a bit more
Oops.
Steve: Great, so:
Sunday early evening I get to Tim's - I will have had dinner at midday.
Monday day out with Nick - Southsea? Pub evening. Don't mind where I end up.
Tues Randonnee, back to Tim's for the evening?
Weds my madcap idea to cycle from Poole (bit more coast than Bournemouth) to Brockenhurst, train back to Tim's.
Thurs faff/ride in the AM (at Nick's?) and I leave early afternoon.
Good news is the schools will be back by then.
Tim: Poole's an extra six miles! No that sounds fine. I expect your satnav can dynamically route us to any suitable station home if it notices our pace dropping dramatically.
If you're here by 5pm Sunday you'll be in time for England v Andorra, (and then it's Poland on Wednesday).
Does any of this fit in with Nick? e.g. will you catch a train to Poole from MIC or HDE?
Tim: Something else we could try in Southsea, although their opening hours are an awkward 11-4: Pie & Vinyl
Steve: Hmm LPs a bit tricky with a pannier! Pie good obviously.
Interesting The Orb development, an ambient album under another name - contractual?
Paul put me onto it (Spotify of course), although it is at the limit of his ambient threshold.
Have you got an audio Chromecast Tim? - listen to Bandcamp on the hi-fi without adverts.
Steve: I've stayed on an older version of Volumio as I upgraded once and kept getting an issue where it stopped randomly at track ends.
Maybe time to have a newer one, I shall check your out Tim when down.
Thanks for the concert news Nick. Tom Middleton is the day we get back from holiday Saturday 18th (which is fine even though I forgot!). Nick, you had dropped out maybe and Tim bringing an extra?
nick: Sorry for lack of updates - have been pretty busy with family stuff here. Got back from Brighton last night, off out for a day with Spencer today (his birthday).
Thanks for sorting out the itinerary - I'm available from Monday on. Let me know what time breakfast is on Mon and I'll be there (either train or bike I expect - unless you want me to bring a car?). Free for anything on Tue/Wed/Thu. Cycling coast to Poole sounds nice, I have no idea how far that is. Steve you're welcome to stay here any time - I don't know what fits best but don't worry if you end up here any evening.
18th Sep is Steve Hackett at the Anvil so I won't be able to do the Tom Middleton. Pity about the Kraftwerk thing but seems like it wasn't meant to be.
Another PSB track released - this has quite a different feel to it than the previous two. Maybe even Tim would like it.
Tim: The plan with Tom M was to mention it to Neil nearer the time, once there was a decent likelihood of it going ahead. Needless to say I forgot all about it but he's on holiday then anyway. Presumably you can still cancel it?
I like that PSB track - and it works great with the film.
And that's all the questions sorted out for next week then, great - see you there! ;-)
Steve: Further to the arrangements and before Monday...
It makes sense if we start the Randonnee Tuesday from Tim's like before and cycle all the way.
So I could stay on at Tim's for most of it?
Could be a bit of to-ing and fro-ing for you Nick, did you say Tim that we needed Nick's transport Monday?
Tim: No, I can drive. (I initially had you down as going back with Nick, so in his car seemed the likely method at the time.)
What sort of timings work for the Randonee? Just to see how that's going to pan out.
And after Poole I'll be knackered, so count me out at that point as far as poss.
We can shuffle the events around between the days (including Thursday for Poole possibly) if the logistics work out better.
Steve: If we did Poole Thurs I would be very late home and off on holiday Friday morning that will require some preparation faff.
I could stay at Nick's from Monday and we train to ferry etc from there.
Or I head to Nick's Wed night and go from there to leave you in peace :)
Chat with Nick Sunday night? I'm busy rest of today/eve.
Tim: OK. (I was hoping to get suitable catering in beforehand though.)
Nick, can you remember how a Randonee works out?
nick: When I've done official Randonnee my times have been between 4.5 and 5 hours riding time. In 2015 Steve and I did it pre-JoGLE, started at 8.04am and finished at 1.30pm with 40 mins stop time which sounds a bit fast. I think usually I aim for 7 or 8am ferry and would expect to get the 3.30 ferry back. But I suppose we don't have to follow the official route and could instead aim for something that hugs the coast a bit more
Headliner for next year's bluedot is Björk Orchestral
Steve: Just checked D Day museum and you don't need to book ahead of time (unlike most places) but can save a bit of money by doing so.
Tim: I missed a Tobago rule. Special Case: Raising a treasure ends your movement (no matter how many legs you have used). Makes things a little simpler. Also may have been too lenient on picking up amulets, which you can only do at the beginning of your turn or the end of a leg.
Also the rules in the box are a newer version than the ones I had downloaded and read, so I'll check them for differences/clarifications.
Btw Nick I owe you for a D-day ticket.
Steve: Great work on the catering Tim, love the use of garnishes, makes all the difference.
Had a good slow day packing etc, got the OS map from the library. In a park lunching on the way. Ds bike fits in Ok upright with the wheel off.
nick: Btw Nick I owe you for a D-day ticket. oh dear, I must owe steve for ferry and lunch too. And I just got a refund for the Kraftwerk thing (took me a while to work out why Basingstoke County Council had credited me £75)
I wasn't very well yesterday, spent Thursday night being sick and Friday in bed. My appetite disappeared completely so I was thinking "hmm, good time to kick start a diet: I must have lost a bit of weight, and I can't imagine ever wanting to eat anything again". Feeling a bit better today and disappointingly the appetite seems to have come back.
nick: Cycling to Canterbury is quite a long way, so going to aim to train to Waterloo and then ride the rest Quite a direct route, shorter than IoW and about half the climbing
nick: Managed to book train from MIC->WAT for £13, and travelodge central Canterbury for £32, result
nick: Back to work today, 792 emails to get through. I was logged in last night and saw one come in about "office shower" which says that we're allowed to use it again! So I'm going to go in (car/cycle) to the office tomorrow. I feel quite nostalgic for the ride along the Thames into Hampton, which I used to do daily but haven't done now for over 18 months
Steve: Did another 30 yesterday, almost all on trafficfree routes 1 and 15. Whitstable and along to Herne Bay. Battery just down to 2/5 from 60 miles but it is very flat. So range excellent. Neighbours here have ebikes as well and seemed to have done the same route yesterday.
Walk around Canterbury today.
Tim: Lyonel Bauchet's DiN download album "The Secret Society" is name-your-price for a while, an excellent chance to try his stuff, don't miss it.
Steve: A seat would have been good ha ha and sound quality was poor. Some moments of genius though.
Thought I did well to resist buying a signed CD or LP.
Bauchet downloaded ta, better be good, and Tobago ordered.
nick: Hackett was definitely worth seeing, although I have to admit maybe I've heard Supper's Ready rather too many times now. First half of concert was his stuff (only about 40 mins) which included part of "Shadow of the Hierophant" from his first album - that was pretty good: I didn't know it but it was an instrumental co-written by Rutherford and had a lot of welling chords with increasingly loud bass pedals). Second half was Seconds Out. Two disappointments: (a) only one drummer, and (b) Cinema Show had the Aisle of Plenty ending, rather than the "going out with a bang" Seconds Out version. He also did the whole of Musical Box, not just closing section; not sure if that was a good move or not. But at any rate, pretty good to hear that stuff played so loud, with plenty of bass. Seeing it again tonight at the London Palladium, where they've said they want you to show your COVID passport. Don't know how strictly they'll enforce that - my brother says he hasn't got one.
How was your train journey Tim? Can't say I'm fantastically looking forward to catching the last train back tonight and not getting to bed until 1am. Might even skip my 6.30am ride tomorrow morning
Tim: The trains were fine in the end, false alarm on the engineering works front. I got home by 1 but after briefly being awake at the usual 6:30, then went back to sleep until 9, blimey.
Steve: So, failed privatisations:
-Rail track and services
-Health care homes and some health provision
-Council outsourcing
-Parole
-Energy
Of course there are others such as Water that continue but appear to rip off users and pollute the environment.
nick: Along similar lines, per wikipedia "By 2008, every building society that floated on the stock market in the wave of demutualisations of the 1980s and 1990s had either been sold to a conventional bank, or been nationalised."
Steve: So the TD is a winner thanks Tim, can't see us on the cover...
So is my recent Pat Metheny "From This Place" - orchestral fill-ins for a pretty laid-back overall experience.
Reminder that Paul has a load of holiday to use up this year and fancies the Portsmouth dockyard sometime in a mid-week. Start thinking about the week of the 15th or 22nd?
We come down for a couple of days without bikes?
nick: w/b 15 and 22 Nov are so far free in my calendar.
Hackett last night was good but not so exciting as Saturday because I knew what was coming. I don't think there was as much bass pedal going on either. But the "curtain" of lights a la Seconds Out was reliably spine-tingling. Brothers were suitably impressed. He came on at 7.45 and didn't finish until 11 so it was quite a long evening!
Steve: OK let's go for 22/23/24th Nov, maybe arrive end of Sun 21st?
BTW we have been taken on by EDF.
nick: Think those dates on Nov sound good. Not sure if I'll be able to take all 3 off but potentially I can
BTW we have been taken on by EDF I think you can still switch to Bulb and get £50 for you and £50 for your referrer, although maybe they'll be more reluctant to do that at the moment, and I heard that Bulb themselves are trying to negotiate for financial help. But I'm sure Tim (if he's still with Bulb) could send you a referral link.
Oh - or maybe not: https://bulb.co.uk/referral/ doesn't look that promising
"“If you ride about 430 miles you would have otherwise driven, you’ve saved the carbon equivalent of what it took to make your bike.” I guess there may be some caveats about that, but quite an impressive statistic if it's anywhere near true
Steve: I'm not expecting people to meet up for 3 days but Paul has booked those.
There is no way I will be able to speak to anyone at my power company for several weeks I would think.
Bulb is not safe either, and general advice is not to try switching. No-one wants new customers who have a price cap below what they buy the fuel for.
I thought we weren't talking about climate :)
Countryfile analysed a farm's emissions and I can't quite believe this, but it sounded like 500 tons of CO2, equivalent to just ONE Jumbo jet flight.
Steve: Is it about time we did a crossword?
Any night this weekend is fine if so.
We just managed to flatten D's bike battery at she says 100 miles although I thought it was more like 80. Now to read that article on how to prolong battery life, I think pretty much do not store empty or full.
nick: I'm out this evening, and tomorrow I think we'll be doing strictly+pizza. I could manage Sunday evening?
I think you're right about not storing the battery completely full or empty. Tony's bike battery had problems when he left it unused for several months, so maybe doing reasonably regular charging might not be a bad idea.
nick: Wouldn't mind giving the online Tobago a go.
New PSB album on Bandcamp for £7
Had an update from Bulb which says they're pausing their £50 for you/£50 for me referral programme for the moment. They say this means if someone uses your referral link, "you won't receive credit for new signups after 23-Sep". Which seems to suggest they are still taking on new signups. I hope they can stick around, they seem pretty decent to me.
Tim: Or back down the pie shop for the £21 psb vinyl.
New car has arrived at the dealer; off to collect it in a mo.
Tim: Oh look it's Bandcamp Friday and there are a bunch of new releases. Just bought the new Ian Boddy on DiN.
Tim: Not tonight, sorry. Maybe tomorrow (if the rainpocalypse comes and prevents anything else). Should be avail Sunday.
nick: ooh, it's the right size and it's not too far away but I'd struggle to justify buying this Whyte Suffolk for £675
Tim: I just heard that Fawley power station chimney is set to be demolished on the 31st at 7am (=sunrise, clocks change). I expect you're usually in the Cheesefoot Head area that time of day Nick?
nick: I might consider cycling to Cheesefoot Head to watch it, although the local paper says "This date is, however, subject to change dependent on the suitability of the weather conditions." Maybe that means they wouldn't do it if it's a lovely sunny day with a clear view? I've let Tony know though.
Steve: The last of the Stewartby brick chimneys came down recently - shame.
Local radio went along and got a pitifully boring recording, much fun was then to be had adding sound-effects.
nick: Tony says he can't quite see it from his house but can do from the end of his road. He's sad about the chimney coming down: says he enjoys the times when he drives back late at night and sees the red lights at the top of it, guiding him home
nick: Nice people live here (actually there are quite a few good maps on that twitter feed)
Anyone want a zoom tonight or Sunday? Could do a crossword or maybe even online Tobago?
nick: Steve says they're busy tonight - could do a crossword with just the two of us this evening if you fancy it Tim?
Tim: That sounds a bit hard and I've sort of lined some other stuff up now so I'll dodge it if that's OK, you might have more joy Sunday perhaps.
nick: No crossword last night. I think I'm around most evenings this week if people can fit it in. I am planning on going to see John one night: he's had a recurrence of a knee problem from some years ago which means he's not able to do much so I'm expecting to see him this week.
nick: I just sent a zoom invite for this evening.
A 56cm Whyte Suffolk on ebay! over £1K buy-it-now price though. Maybe I ought to sell mine
nick: How was Salty Dean?
Quality as usual. Although I think that we made a mistake by grabbing some of the only few seats in the hall: meant we were on the edge of the floor and I don't think we had the same atmosphere as if we'd been standing in the middle. But great show. Because of ULEZ Tony and I caught the train from BSK to Putney via Clapham Junction, which meant having to leave a bit before the end of the show to catch the train home, which didn't get me back until 1am. So I'd rather see them somewhere a bit more local!
One of the songs I wanted them to do - and they did - was "Pearl of the Quarter" which features steel pedal guitar. In the concert the guitarist had a single instrument which he used throughout but he still made it sound like the original. They've put up a video of them playing in the studio, listen to what he does on the guitar!
Pearl of the Quarter
Tim: I've just requested a plusnet upgrade to fibre, so starting next month you should be coining it in even more.
nick: I recently had an mail from plusnet saying one of my deals was coming to an end and I was being switched to some other tariff. But for the life of me I couldn't work out exactly what it meant from the mail, or from my settings on their web page thing. So I was just going to wait until the monthly payment changed. Maybe the extra from your commission will cancel it all out.
what on earth do you need fibre for?
Tim: Mainly because Tina's still wfh and VPN over our ADSL isn't great. But also, unifying our broadband+phone (currently BT) shouldn't end up costing any extra. Until 18 months are up when it's probably time to switch.
nick: oh yes - I had seen the video a few times so knew what was going on. I thought it was good that they didn't just play the video, but went to the effort of making tetris blocky thing instead
Steve: I'm guessing Tim means part-fibre as in 35/70MBs.
I have the 35 for about £24 a month.
Was in a charity shop in Exeter, bought some CDs for £1 each, all are £1, £2 for doubles. She says "oh do you like classical?... these two boxes (crates) just came in, want a look?" Argh!
Didn't get anything exciting - currently trying the Tony Banks Seven: A Suite for Orchestra.
Not doing anything for me.
Tim: Yes, fibre-to-the-cabinet (which is at the end of the road near the pylon), should be over 30Mb/s instead of 3.
Tim: Have you booked your boosters? We're down for mid-Dec, a couple of weeks late but super-convenient on a Sunday morning.
nick: I've not been invited for my COVID booster and it's not yet 6 months since my second, so I don't think I can book one yet
I did have an invite for a 'flu vaccine, and then on the day of my appointment they texted me to say "don't come" because they'd run out. I since had another text telling me to book my own at a local chemist
nick: Had a mail shot from Turner Sims including info on a concert by Unthanks who I remembered because they've covered "Starless". I thought "oh, maybe the date will coincide with Steve and Paul's visit" but actually it's not until next June
Anyone want a crossword tonight or Sunday?
nick: A potential retirement project for you Steve: British Cycle Quest requires you to visit 402 points in mainland Britain. There are a few near me, and six on the IoW. I expect you've been to nearly all of them already though
Steve: He's just vege thanks, not good with sugary stuff or alcohol.
We will arrive BSK about 10:30 to 11, assume Portsmouth Tuesday.
Go home after breakfast Weds.
No bikes for us.
Tim: Wow, the cassette version used 32702 bytes of RAM and there's a list of where the 66 scattered unused bytes were.
Steve: Finally got around to trying Equinox Infinity - sounds a very good album. BUT. It is a wall of sound, and sure enough they put all the faders up to 11 as it has very little dynamic range.
Jarre is usually associated with very high quality so I can't imagine what happened here.
Although it's the same with Oxygene 3. Maybe he's gone deaf :)
The Internet Dynamic Range DB site confirms.
nick: Yes, saw that HFF is available on mac now. I'll try it again although presumably all our progress will be saved on the PC I've been using? Or perhaps it would transfer across.
Went to Kew Gardens Christmas Lights last night with Ella/Ryan/Spencer/Sia. Some of the stuff was quite impressive, including a Son et lumière on the lake with lights and lasers showing through the water spray of fountains. Quite cold though and didn't get back until late. Spencer has learned some colours, although hasn't quite got them 100%. He correctly identified the areas where trees were floodlit with green lights "all green" but later said he'd liked the "black lights"
nick: Sustrans "black Friday" sale has their cycling jersey 25% off but still seems pretty expensive. I don't have the figure for it though. Or the tattoos
Tim: I think we'd only have to start the Castle level again, shouldn't be a big deal and anyway you could give the trebuchet flight a try.
nick: I had a mail from Cycling UK acknowledging my fantastic total of two quest points, but I don't seem to be on the leaderboard yet.
Also had a mail from J Willgoose Esq. saying belated thanks for the message I sent them after we saw them in Southampton.
Think I'll be around Friday evening for zoom/game if anyone fancies it
Tim: Count me in.
Meanwhile, I've been having some broadband upgrade fun. I was after a cheap package, so that involved switching my landline from BT and then upgrading to fttc. The phone switch worked fine, and then... nothing. It transpired that I can only get fttp here, which they don't do at all, so my upgrade order got cancelled... and that was supposed to be that, brilliant. So for a while I was being charged the same as before for my existing broadband, plus a full standard rate for phone, and was (by default, according to their system) under contract for 18 months. Obviously I've had a moan and now am on a normal sensible package rate for what I'm getting (less than fibre would have been) and not contracted.
I'd been assuming that any fttp service I got would be 100Gps or something and £1000 per month, but I've just found out that you can get a cheapo rubbish service instead if you want, so I might do that. When I get the courage.
nick: Does that mean you're still on the same speed as before then? I think I'm on FTTC and get around 70/18 Mbps. But I think I must be relatively close TTC because Ella's on the same package as me and only gets about half that
Tim: Yes, still about 3 / 1 Mbps. I was optimistic about fttc but turns out to be the wrong sort of c. Looks like yours is at the top of Maidenthorn/A30 on the left.
nick: We didn't stop at Harrogate on JoGLE but we were meant to have ridden through it, on our way from Hartlepool to Huddersfield.
That was the day I got my brakes fixed so in fact we got a train from Northallerton to Huddersfield, which is where the curry house was I think
Steve: I thought we weren't going to mention the 500 mile train shortcut!
That Omicron album is pretty good and ooh, £45 on eBay, but ah, only £10 on Discogs.
And I went to use the railcard discount code to find it had expired despite the blurb saying the 17th of December. Oh well we don't need a Two-together for a while yet anyway.
I searched for the expiry error message and see lots of others annoyed at this. They withdrew it on the 26th of November due to demand.
Assume they are subsidising it with the hope they recoup it from you using Trainline to book.
nick: they recoup it from you using Trainline to book
I've not used it (yet) myself but am planning to go with Trainhugger instead of Trainline: same prices and they (claim to) plant trees for you
Steve: BTW there was a good Philip Glass thing on Sky Arts recently - Descent Into the Maelstrom.
Part doc, then a film set to his music.
Was a theatre ensemble piece from the 80s and has been arranged for a larger orchestral ensemble.
And a decent BBC4 doc on Ludwig II's amazing palaces I watched yesterday.
Tim: I gave Omicron The Generation and Motion of a Pulse a listen. Not bad. Turns out I also have its predecessor Acrocosm, will give that a go later. Probably will also give some of these other Instinct albums a bit of a spin while I'm at it.
Tim: ...and I remember often seeing the next Omicron album Globetrotter but being scared off by the cover. But I've got a couple of his later albums under his own name (Savvas Ysatis) and they were OK.
Tim: Nick, to catch up with the ones you've missed you should cycle to all the UK towns that start with H.
nick: Had an eye test today (free for over 60s!). Always worried when they ask "is it better with 1..... or 2?" in case I get it wrong. He said my eyesight is very good, only slight change in prescription: I felt irrationally proud of myself. COVID booster tomorrow, and no more going in to the office until next year.
Probably busy tonight but could do Sunday evening if anyone wants - either crossword or online Tobago?
Tim: Shelve it for tonight then - other evenings probably better for a bit of HFF if you fancy it Nick?
nick: Could have a go at H:FF on Tuesday or Thursday? Supposedly have staff Christmas thing on Friday at a restaurant in Teddington but I am not sure if that will actually go ahead or not.
Had my Moderna booster yesterday and got a bit of a sore arm today (didn't have this with previous COVID or flu jabs) but no other side-effects.
Spencer can correctly name colours now (he used invariably to say "blue" whenever you asked him what colour something was). I can't believe how much children can learn in such a short time.
Finished library audiobook of "The Tiger in the Smoke" - detective story set in post ww2 london, which I didn't really rate. Now listening to "The Go-Between" which was available: I must have read it before but Steve's mention of it made me feel like reading/hearing it again
nick: Just collected new microwave oven from Argos in Sainsbury's (old one was showing error code that translated as "internal fault: contact technical support"). Got it home and it looks a bit like it's been opened before and re-packed. And although the box says on it "read enclosed instruction book before use" there is no instruction box in there.
Used the on-line support chat thing. Why are they so useless? It starts with a generic AI thing that asks you what the problem is, and I type in a detailed description, and then it says "passing you on to a team member" who comes on and says "how can I help you?" - doesn't seem to have seen what I typed earlier. After a lot of to-and-fro and "thank-you for being patient" conclusion is I have to take it back, and tell the store what happened, and get them to sort out a replacement. The online support can't contact store for me to let them know I'm coming, or get a replacement ordered. So that wasn't any use at all.
Steve: D is talking about a new cooker again, I can't face it.
Need to have another tinker with this one.
I love it when you type in your details when calling a helpdesk, and they still ask for them.
Finally spoke to HMRC about my refund, she spent ages thinking about it and will call me back. As I am PAYE and do a voluntary self-assessment it seems to have gone AWOL.
New TD album due early next year and a tour - not that we are bothered. Including the Southampton Engine Rooms which looks tiny?
Tim: When Owen Paterson resigned I had a quick look at the election results for North Shropshire to see if the Tories could lose it. Absolutely no chance.
nick: Just went to collect the replacement microwave from Argos. Asked to check inside it first and that one has no instruction book either. Also the box was a bit torn in the same way as the previous one, so I was a bit suspicious they've just given me the same one again, but they assured me it's a replacement. Opened it up and looked inside the oven just in case the instructions were in there but they weren't. Perhaps they're assuming you'll read them online, and not printing them any more, but the outside of the box definitely says "Read enclosed instruction book before use". So I got my money back. First world problems I suppose but it does seem a lot of hassle just to buy a new one
Steve: So the moral is, mark the box when you return something! And get a photo.
I think a duff microwave would be beyond me and possibly not economically viable anyway.
Listening to Boris with Sky this morning, the guy didn't let him off the hook but there seemed little in the way of apology or taking responsibility. He does not get it does he that people want plain talking. Not to be told we're focussing on the wrong things.
If only he could complete one sentence without the umming or erring or some supposed stutter which surely is him stalling while he thinks what to say.
A US colleague asked me if Chamberlain was our worst prime minister (having watched a film about Churchill), no I said, it's this one. And that was before his CBI speech.
This week I am trying Liszt Piano Concerto No.1 - kind of prompted by reading Love is Blind by William Boyd where a main character is an "Irish Liszt".
nick: So the moral is, mark the box when you return something! And get a photo.
I think a duff microwave would be beyond me and possibly not economically viable anyway.
Yes I realised I ought to have made some kind of mark on the box. TBH I'd be happy with a mechanical clockwork microwave that you just twist and press go: these ones with loads of programs and digital controls seem to add little value, are more fiddly to set if you just want to warm something up for 30 seconds, and annoying when they refuse to work and display an error code that you have to look up somewhere.
I hope you're enjoying the William Boyd. I am a bit nervous of your possible reaction because I like him so much.
Steve: D got one for church with just 2 buttons, one which increments in 30 seconds.
I finished the book and really liked it but his books seem to be similar in level to Ken Follett when I was maybe expecting a higher plane like The Go-Between.
Tim: I just looked and sure enough you can get a microwave that's got an app. "With a GE Microwave powered by SmartHQ Wifi technology, you can monitor your timers from anywhere, scan-to-cook your favorite microwave meals and use your voice with Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant.
The new Scan-to-Cook takes the guesswork out of preparing microwave foods. Simply download the GE Appliances Kitchen app, register then scan the barcode on your package for a precisely programmed experience.
Wifi technology is built into the microwave, allowing it to communicate with the SmartHQ app for alerts, controls and notifications. Requires Wifi in your home and the SmartHQ app on your phone or tablet."
That's much easier.
nick: I finished the book and really liked it but his books seem to be similar in level to Ken Follett when I was maybe expecting a higher plane like The Go-Between. Yes that's a good way of putting it. I am impressed by his vocabulary: he uses quite a few words I didn't know, and I often think "how did he know that word even existed?" e.g., in that book I noted "outwith", "victoria" and "fiacre" (types of transport) "vieux jeu", "martingale" (technique for gambling), "octaroon", "chafing dish", "littoral", "aleatory" and "panopticon"
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nick: These DVDs are going to charity shop at the weekend, unless anyone wants any of them? Slight possibility Tim might want "Cloud Atlas" I suppose (I love that film but it's a bit marmite) Tim: Portsmouth are at home on Saturday so I'll be down the pub after as usual (where as usual means first time for 16 months).And cheers, but I wouldn't know what to do with a DVD.
Steve: Hmm I could go for The Wall, Spiral (in case they take it off iPlayer), The Artist and Early Doors as I love the woman in it.Please don't feel the need to post them.
I have the Cloud Atlas book but feel daunted to try it.
Saturday good for a get-together, we are out tomorrow so ideal thanks.
And the picture is truly excellent, taking into the sun often gets results.
Tim: So to recap, Nick it looks like your availability is mainly 4-12 Sep (I'm free as it stands), and ... I assume the Canterbury thing is some time after that? nick: Yes - 4-12 Sep, plus a bit of time in the lead up to the bank holiday. I can book more time off: after that I still have about 2 weeks left for the rest of the year.I'll do a zoom invite for Saturday evening. Maybe Tim can join us from the pub on his phone if he's really keen.
I'll put the DVDs aside for you Steve so can let you have them next time I see you.
Off to a wedding reception this evening unless I get pinged which doesn't seem very likely. And an early bike ride in the morning so hope we're not too late back tonight.
Ella and Ryan have gone away for the weekend to Brighton: will be their last holiday as a threesome. Ryan carried on testing positive for COVID after his isolation which apparently is not unusual, but he's recently tested negative. He came out with me on my 20mile ride this morning - he said it was his longest bike ride so far! Luckily I can keep up with him but I suspect he will get faster than me if he keeps going out regularly.
nick: We managed to complete the Guardian prize crossword from Saturday despite lack of Tim. Although the solutions won't appear on fifteensquared until next week, so we won't be able to confirm our answers.Steve says they're in Canterbury from 10th-18th Sep. Which is after the end of the time I originally booked off; maybe I should change it. What would be a good time in that week for you to do a potential bike ride Steve?
Was the Portsmouth match good?
I finished "Sweet Caress" by William Boyd today (the female protagonist had some kind of progressive brain disease which overlapped thematically with a God in Ruins) which means I can finally listen to the podcast I've been saving since October 2015 where he's interviewed about it. Steve you said you'd read Brazaville Beach which was one of my favourites, and the only one of his I think Tim might like (can't believe Steve forgot about the chimpanzees). But my favourite of his is another "cradle to grave" one called "Any Human Heart" which I loved (has a good WW2 section in it too).
I re-read the Ted Chiang short story on Caliagnosia which blew me away the first time: I couldn't stop thinking about it. This time it was a bit meh.
Tim: I see that it was a Philistine, figures.The Portsmouth game also seemed quite easy (it was only Crewe) but under new management they are playing a different style - less of patiently waiting for a golden scoring opportunity, and more of pressing the opposition and chucking everything at them. Much more watchable. Mind you I'm still not going tonight, but let's hope they make it three wins out of three.
nick: I can't remember what's in a Waldorf Salad. You need to watch the Fawlty Towers episode. Although our recollection of that wasn't entirely helpful Steve: I suppose bike ride day is going to be weather-dependent so can be any day, we have no agenda.Well not the first or last day obviously.
Still on the ebike hunt but it's not easy unless you buy from an online shop who already have stock, you cannot order into a bike shop - I rang two for different brands.
I painted your shed Tim, it's getting a new rubber roof next; need to space these jobs out a bit more...
nick: I suppose bike ride day is going to be weather-dependent so can be any day, we have no agenda.Well not the first or last day obviously. Maybe I'll book a couple of days off that week and see what the weather's like nearer the time.
Anyone up for doing something else before then? Weather still not looking great but feels like we should try doing something
The guy I go out with on Saturday has got an Orbea e-bike which I think he got as a "last season" discount, from a shop in Southampton I think - that was around the turn of the year though so I suppose there wasn't so much demand then. I just checked the bike shop near me who are listing loads of e-bikes but they are nearly all out of stock. And they're quite pricey! Tony said he was going to get rid of his, but that was a monster as I recall, and several years old now.
Did you get your new gate installed Tim?
Steve: So I have ordered a Raleigh Motus GT which we are picking up in MK on Saturday hopefully.Expensive, but I set myself some rules which meant not getting a cheap solution, and hopefully one you can get spares for in the future. Such as:
Drive in the axle
Good range
At least 8 gears
Mudguards, rack and stand
Step-through frame
Bosch (not a proprietary make)
Played the LP of Hergest Ridge the other night which was fab.
I had only ever had the Boxed version, which was then used for CD versions until the remastered deluxe versions of a few years ago. So I was surprised at the different original mix.
It came across as being very home-made sounding but was very crisp.
I've never been impressed with the Boxed LPs, maybe because they had the quad encoding which messed with the stereo experience.
Finally remembered to take some secateurs on my ride yesterday but it was pretty disruptive, go a few more yards, oh there's another one etc etc.
And trying to chuck the brambles away from the path for punctures without getting injured!
nick: Exciting! I think you were right to have the rules - when I was buying (what ended up being) my Whyte I had a spreadsheet with rows for each bike I looked at, and columns that needed ticks in before I would consider buying it (mudguards, rack mounts, etc.) and that was helpful. Why did you want drive in the axle? (I don't know what the pros and cons of that are). is it straightforward to replace the battery? I think the Orbea one needed to go back to the dealer for that. Although from what I've read, batteries on e-bikes seem to last pretty well (I think, like electric cars, there was a concern when they started that batteries would wear out quickly but in fact they seem to be fine for years).So will Deborah be up for a 50+mile ride around Canterbury? I don't know how much a 500w battery does. Maybe she could cycle from Luton to Basingstoke? If we can just work out logistics... What does Paul think?
It looks like Deborah's bike has decent tyres (they sound like Marathon equivalents). Went out with Ryan on Monday and just as we got to the outskirts of the village he got punctures in both front and back tyres at the same time. On inspection it looks like he must have ridden over a staple or something: both tubes had a pair of holes in, in the same pattern. I've since put a Marathon on his front wheel (from my broken-framed Felt) but can't put one on the back because the clearance between tyre and frame is too small. Went out again last night and was fine. He seems quite keen - he said that at lunchtime he'd seen a cyclist and thought to himself "I can't wait to get out on my bike"
Steve: I thought this would interest you Nick!Centre drive motor apparently feels more natural, also means wheels can be cheaply replaced if necessary.
500W battery is large in the scheme of things. Range tricky as it depends on hills and assistance dialled in. I think I would have been happy with 400 to do say 40-60 miles.
So around the Kent coast should be fine assuming the saddle is comfy.
Of course a larger battery should mean it's still usable as its capacity diminishes through age. Looks like this one would clip off - I didn't want one under the rack as it looks terrible, but this one does look a bit clunky still. Easy to remove I would think.
Looks like you get "walk-assist" - it drives at 3MPH to help you push up a hill or around generally!
It is odd that all e-bikes are identical in design at the back. Notice how the rack is not fixed to the rear seat frame area, they seem to hover and anchor to the rear mudguard.
Didn't want front suspension but could not find many options in any make, and certainly not that was in stock.
Slight snag that this will not go on my towbar bike rack as it has no cross-bar to hang from.
You can get racks that project out from the towbar where the bikes sit on a platform. Can't tow a trailer as well. So in the car for now, could get a trailer-tent mount but pricey of course.
On the puncture side, a staple could well have gone through a Marathon. Paul had an industrial one go through his once.
I had a long thorn through my MTB front tyre once, nothing in road riding though.
nick: Now you mention it, that rack does look like it's hovering in mid air! Thinking about it, on mine nearly all the weight goes downwards - even though it's attached to the seat tube, I don't think there's much load-bearing going on through that.Good point about motor in the wheels meaning they'd be more expensive to replace them.
I see that it's got derailleur - are there any that do internal hub gears?
It would be interesting to try riding it although I am worried about doing that myself: I have a mental picture of my muscles almost visibly disappearing if I were to use power-assisted cycling.
Yes I reckon it could have been one of those big staple things: the holes were about that distance apart. He was unlucky that he hit the staple (or whatever it was) on BOTH wheels. But he said they both went down at once so I imagine that's what happened.
Steve: There seem to be some incorrect pictures for D's one that show a hub gear so yes it is possible - even more money I suppose.I think there is a lock around the rear wheel adding slightly more weight, but it's not going to stop someone carrying it away so seems a bit pointless.
nick: Your next bicycle accessory Steve actually I was starting to get interested until I saw the price. And they do have a video showing bikes towing the caravan but it's notable that all the shots in there are people going on the flat or downhill.Can do a zoom tonight or tomorrow if anyone's around?
Tim: ? Judging by the video, all that happens is you tow it, it appears to have no other function.I'm around, especially tonight.
nick: So the new e-bike was not entirely problem-free: what are you doing with it Steve? Other than the faults, did Deborah seem to get on ok with it?I am on a resolution this week not to look at the Guardian at all in an attempt to avoid seeing upsetting news. Let's see how well that goes.
Steve: I'm waiting for them to fix it or replace it - it went back the day after I bought it.The front mudguard came adrift because one of the struts had been cut too short to fix it properly. Pretty annoyed as you can imagine, 50 mile round trip each time.
Just heard I can collect tomorrow.
So after getting Nick's availability next week I have a visit plan.
Can I come to you Tim later Sunday 5th?
We group up Monday onwards.
I go home Thursday, before that Nick and I maybe do the Randonee one day and Tim activities the rest of the time. Possibly a shorter ride on the IoW, or look at a train from HE and cycle back.
Train to Bournemouth and cycle back to Brockenhurst looks a nice option - 20 miles or more depending.
Any museums we should be doing down your way Tim?
Revisit the D-Day one to see the new landing craft?
Tim: Tina's booked that week off now, so I'll have to juggle, but maybe it'll work out. How about putting me down for Sun (here)/Mon, and Weds (or Thu if preferable), any good?Bike sounds annoying but at least it's something that once fixed should stay fixed.
nick: All sounds good to me. If Tim's busy Tue then maybe Steve&I could do an ambitious Randonnee that day? Tim: OK. So I'm guessing the constraints so far are:- Steve's on a train with bike
- Nick's tied up Sunday, but thereafter OK to host?
On Monday could you drive us to Portsmouth (or wherever) Nick? Breakfast here if you're early enough, let me know. End of the day we could head to our local pub for some tucker (Vegan options), then load up Steve's bike and stuff.
Wednesday or Thursday I could meet you both at Bournemouth or somewhere else for cycling. (Thursday might be better for me if it's suitable, not crucial though).
Keep working on it...
Steve: I can do Thursday but do not want to be coming home too late as we are away the following day.Early evening at home is doable.
Tim: Aaargh, confusion on my part: it's the following week that Tina's booked off, after all. That gives me more flexibility, but I'm still keen to- avoid the Randonee
- plan ahead a bit more
Oops.
Steve: Great, so:Sunday early evening I get to Tim's - I will have had dinner at midday.
Monday day out with Nick - Southsea? Pub evening. Don't mind where I end up.
Tues Randonnee, back to Tim's for the evening?
Weds my madcap idea to cycle from Poole (bit more coast than Bournemouth) to Brockenhurst, train back to Tim's.
Thurs faff/ride in the AM (at Nick's?) and I leave early afternoon.
Good news is the schools will be back by then.
Tim: Poole's an extra six miles! No that sounds fine. I expect your satnav can dynamically route us to any suitable station home if it notices our pace dropping dramatically.If you're here by 5pm Sunday you'll be in time for England v Andorra, (and then it's Poland on Wednesday).
Does any of this fit in with Nick? e.g. will you catch a train to Poole from MIC or HDE?
Tim: Something else we could try in Southsea, although their opening hours are an awkward 11-4: Pie & Vinyl Steve: Hmm LPs a bit tricky with a pannier! Pie good obviously.Interesting The Orb development, an ambient album under another name - contractual?
Paul put me onto it (Spotify of course), although it is at the limit of his ambient threshold.
Have you got an audio Chromecast Tim? - listen to Bandcamp on the hi-fi without adverts.
Steve: I've stayed on an older version of Volumio as I upgraded once and kept getting an issue where it stopped randomly at track ends.Maybe time to have a newer one, I shall check your out Tim when down.
Thanks for the concert news Nick. Tom Middleton is the day we get back from holiday Saturday 18th (which is fine even though I forgot!). Nick, you had dropped out maybe and Tim bringing an extra?
nick: Sorry for lack of updates - have been pretty busy with family stuff here. Got back from Brighton last night, off out for a day with Spencer today (his birthday).Thanks for sorting out the itinerary - I'm available from Monday on. Let me know what time breakfast is on Mon and I'll be there (either train or bike I expect - unless you want me to bring a car?). Free for anything on Tue/Wed/Thu. Cycling coast to Poole sounds nice, I have no idea how far that is. Steve you're welcome to stay here any time - I don't know what fits best but don't worry if you end up here any evening.
18th Sep is Steve Hackett at the Anvil so I won't be able to do the Tom Middleton. Pity about the Kraftwerk thing but seems like it wasn't meant to be.
Another PSB track released - this has quite a different feel to it than the previous two. Maybe even Tim would like it.
Tim: The plan with Tom M was to mention it to Neil nearer the time, once there was a decent likelihood of it going ahead. Needless to say I forgot all about it but he's on holiday then anyway. Presumably you can still cancel it?I like that PSB track - and it works great with the film.
And that's all the questions sorted out for next week then, great - see you there! ;-)
Steve: Further to the arrangements and before Monday...It makes sense if we start the Randonnee Tuesday from Tim's like before and cycle all the way.
So I could stay on at Tim's for most of it?
Could be a bit of to-ing and fro-ing for you Nick, did you say Tim that we needed Nick's transport Monday?
Tim: No, I can drive. (I initially had you down as going back with Nick, so in his car seemed the likely method at the time.)What sort of timings work for the Randonee? Just to see how that's going to pan out.
And after Poole I'll be knackered, so count me out at that point as far as poss.
We can shuffle the events around between the days (including Thursday for Poole possibly) if the logistics work out better.
Steve: If we did Poole Thurs I would be very late home and off on holiday Friday morning that will require some preparation faff.I could stay at Nick's from Monday and we train to ferry etc from there.
Or I head to Nick's Wed night and go from there to leave you in peace :)
Chat with Nick Sunday night? I'm busy rest of today/eve.
Tim: OK. (I was hoping to get suitable catering in beforehand though.)Nick, can you remember how a Randonee works out?
nick: When I've done official Randonnee my times have been between 4.5 and 5 hours riding time. In 2015 Steve and I did it pre-JoGLE, started at 8.04am and finished at 1.30pm with 40 mins stop time which sounds a bit fast. I think usually I aim for 7 or 8am ferry and would expect to get the 3.30 ferry back. But I suppose we don't have to follow the official route and could instead aim for something that hugs the coast a bit moreHeadliner for next year's bluedot is Björk Orchestral
Steve: Just checked D Day museum and you don't need to book ahead of time (unlike most places) but can save a bit of money by doing so. Tim: I missed a Tobago rule. Special Case: Raising a treasure ends your movement (no matter how many legs you have used). Makes things a little simpler. Also may have been too lenient on picking up amulets, which you can only do at the beginning of your turn or the end of a leg.Also the rules in the box are a newer version than the ones I had downloaded and read, so I'll check them for differences/clarifications.
Btw Nick I owe you for a D-day ticket.
Steve: Great work on the catering Tim, love the use of garnishes, makes all the difference.Had a good slow day packing etc, got the OS map from the library. In a park lunching on the way. Ds bike fits in Ok upright with the wheel off.
nick: Btw Nick I owe you for a D-day ticket. oh dear, I must owe steve for ferry and lunch too. And I just got a refund for the Kraftwerk thing (took me a while to work out why Basingstoke County Council had credited me £75)I wasn't very well yesterday, spent Thursday night being sick and Friday in bed. My appetite disappeared completely so I was thinking "hmm, good time to kick start a diet: I must have lost a bit of weight, and I can't imagine ever wanting to eat anything again". Feeling a bit better today and disappointingly the appetite seems to have come back.
nick: Cycling to Canterbury is quite a long way, so going to aim to train to Waterloo and then ride the rest Quite a direct route, shorter than IoW and about half the climbing nick: Managed to book train from MIC->WAT for £13, and travelodge central Canterbury for £32, result nick: Back to work today, 792 emails to get through. I was logged in last night and saw one come in about "office shower" which says that we're allowed to use it again! So I'm going to go in (car/cycle) to the office tomorrow. I feel quite nostalgic for the ride along the Thames into Hampton, which I used to do daily but haven't done now for over 18 months Steve: Did another 30 yesterday, almost all on trafficfree routes 1 and 15. Whitstable and along to Herne Bay. Battery just down to 2/5 from 60 miles but it is very flat. So range excellent. Neighbours here have ebikes as well and seemed to have done the same route yesterday.Walk around Canterbury today.
Tim: Lyonel Bauchet's DiN download album "The Secret Society" is name-your-price for a while, an excellent chance to try his stuff, don't miss it. Steve: A seat would have been good ha ha and sound quality was poor. Some moments of genius though.Thought I did well to resist buying a signed CD or LP.
Bauchet downloaded ta, better be good, and Tobago ordered.
nick: Hackett was definitely worth seeing, although I have to admit maybe I've heard Supper's Ready rather too many times now. First half of concert was his stuff (only about 40 mins) which included part of "Shadow of the Hierophant" from his first album - that was pretty good: I didn't know it but it was an instrumental co-written by Rutherford and had a lot of welling chords with increasingly loud bass pedals). Second half was Seconds Out. Two disappointments: (a) only one drummer, and (b) Cinema Show had the Aisle of Plenty ending, rather than the "going out with a bang" Seconds Out version. He also did the whole of Musical Box, not just closing section; not sure if that was a good move or not. But at any rate, pretty good to hear that stuff played so loud, with plenty of bass. Seeing it again tonight at the London Palladium, where they've said they want you to show your COVID passport. Don't know how strictly they'll enforce that - my brother says he hasn't got one.How was your train journey Tim? Can't say I'm fantastically looking forward to catching the last train back tonight and not getting to bed until 1am. Might even skip my 6.30am ride tomorrow morning
Tim: The trains were fine in the end, false alarm on the engineering works front. I got home by 1 but after briefly being awake at the usual 6:30, then went back to sleep until 9, blimey. Steve: So, failed privatisations:-Rail track and services
-Health care homes and some health provision
-Council outsourcing
-Parole
-Energy
Of course there are others such as Water that continue but appear to rip off users and pollute the environment.
nick: Along similar lines, per wikipedia "By 2008, every building society that floated on the stock market in the wave of demutualisations of the 1980s and 1990s had either been sold to a conventional bank, or been nationalised." Steve: So the TD is a winner thanks Tim, can't see us on the cover...So is my recent Pat Metheny "From This Place" - orchestral fill-ins for a pretty laid-back overall experience.
Reminder that Paul has a load of holiday to use up this year and fancies the Portsmouth dockyard sometime in a mid-week. Start thinking about the week of the 15th or 22nd?
We come down for a couple of days without bikes?
nick: w/b 15 and 22 Nov are so far free in my calendar.Hackett last night was good but not so exciting as Saturday because I knew what was coming. I don't think there was as much bass pedal going on either. But the "curtain" of lights a la Seconds Out was reliably spine-tingling. Brothers were suitably impressed. He came on at 7.45 and didn't finish until 11 so it was quite a long evening!
Steve: OK let's go for 22/23/24th Nov, maybe arrive end of Sun 21st?BTW we have been taken on by EDF.
nick: Think those dates on Nov sound good. Not sure if I'll be able to take all 3 off but potentially I canBTW we have been taken on by EDF I think you can still switch to Bulb and get £50 for you and £50 for your referrer, although maybe they'll be more reluctant to do that at the moment, and I heard that Bulb themselves are trying to negotiate for financial help. But I'm sure Tim (if he's still with Bulb) could send you a referral link.
Oh - or maybe not: https://bulb.co.uk/referral/ doesn't look that promising
"“If you ride about 430 miles you would have otherwise driven, you’ve saved the carbon equivalent of what it took to make your bike.” I guess there may be some caveats about that, but quite an impressive statistic if it's anywhere near true
Steve: I'm not expecting people to meet up for 3 days but Paul has booked those.There is no way I will be able to speak to anyone at my power company for several weeks I would think.
Bulb is not safe either, and general advice is not to try switching. No-one wants new customers who have a price cap below what they buy the fuel for.
I thought we weren't talking about climate :)
Countryfile analysed a farm's emissions and I can't quite believe this, but it sounded like 500 tons of CO2, equivalent to just ONE Jumbo jet flight.
Steve: Is it about time we did a crossword?Any night this weekend is fine if so.
We just managed to flatten D's bike battery at she says 100 miles although I thought it was more like 80. Now to read that article on how to prolong battery life, I think pretty much do not store empty or full.
nick: I'm out this evening, and tomorrow I think we'll be doing strictly+pizza. I could manage Sunday evening?I think you're right about not storing the battery completely full or empty. Tony's bike battery had problems when he left it unused for several months, so maybe doing reasonably regular charging might not be a bad idea.
nick: Wouldn't mind giving the online Tobago a go.New PSB album on Bandcamp for £7
Had an update from Bulb which says they're pausing their £50 for you/£50 for me referral programme for the moment. They say this means if someone uses your referral link, "you won't receive credit for new signups after 23-Sep". Which seems to suggest they are still taking on new signups. I hope they can stick around, they seem pretty decent to me.
Tim: Or back down the pie shop for the £21 psb vinyl.New car has arrived at the dealer; off to collect it in a mo.
Tim: Oh look it's Bandcamp Friday and there are a bunch of new releases. Just bought the new Ian Boddy on DiN. Tim: Not tonight, sorry. Maybe tomorrow (if the rainpocalypse comes and prevents anything else). Should be avail Sunday. nick: ooh, it's the right size and it's not too far away but I'd struggle to justify buying this Whyte Suffolk for £675 Tim: I just heard that Fawley power station chimney is set to be demolished on the 31st at 7am (=sunrise, clocks change). I expect you're usually in the Cheesefoot Head area that time of day Nick? nick: I might consider cycling to Cheesefoot Head to watch it, although the local paper says "This date is, however, subject to change dependent on the suitability of the weather conditions." Maybe that means they wouldn't do it if it's a lovely sunny day with a clear view? I've let Tony know though. Steve: The last of the Stewartby brick chimneys came down recently - shame.Local radio went along and got a pitifully boring recording, much fun was then to be had adding sound-effects.
nick: Tony says he can't quite see it from his house but can do from the end of his road. He's sad about the chimney coming down: says he enjoys the times when he drives back late at night and sees the red lights at the top of it, guiding him home nick: Nice people live here (actually there are quite a few good maps on that twitter feed)Anyone want a zoom tonight or Sunday? Could do a crossword or maybe even online Tobago?
nick: Steve says they're busy tonight - could do a crossword with just the two of us this evening if you fancy it Tim? Tim: That sounds a bit hard and I've sort of lined some other stuff up now so I'll dodge it if that's OK, you might have more joy Sunday perhaps. nick: No crossword last night. I think I'm around most evenings this week if people can fit it in. I am planning on going to see John one night: he's had a recurrence of a knee problem from some years ago which means he's not able to do much so I'm expecting to see him this week. nick: I just sent a zoom invite for this evening.A 56cm Whyte Suffolk on ebay! over £1K buy-it-now price though. Maybe I ought to sell mine
nick: How was Salty Dean?Quality as usual. Although I think that we made a mistake by grabbing some of the only few seats in the hall: meant we were on the edge of the floor and I don't think we had the same atmosphere as if we'd been standing in the middle. But great show. Because of ULEZ Tony and I caught the train from BSK to Putney via Clapham Junction, which meant having to leave a bit before the end of the show to catch the train home, which didn't get me back until 1am. So I'd rather see them somewhere a bit more local!
One of the songs I wanted them to do - and they did - was "Pearl of the Quarter" which features steel pedal guitar. In the concert the guitarist had a single instrument which he used throughout but he still made it sound like the original. They've put up a video of them playing in the studio, listen to what he does on the guitar!
Pearl of the Quarter
Tim: I've just requested a plusnet upgrade to fibre, so starting next month you should be coining it in even more. nick: I recently had an mail from plusnet saying one of my deals was coming to an end and I was being switched to some other tariff. But for the life of me I couldn't work out exactly what it meant from the mail, or from my settings on their web page thing. So I was just going to wait until the monthly payment changed. Maybe the extra from your commission will cancel it all out.what on earth do you need fibre for?
Tim: Mainly because Tina's still wfh and VPN over our ADSL isn't great. But also, unifying our broadband+phone (currently BT) shouldn't end up costing any extra. Until 18 months are up when it's probably time to switch. nick: oh yes - I had seen the video a few times so knew what was going on. I thought it was good that they didn't just play the video, but went to the effort of making tetris blocky thing instead Steve: I'm guessing Tim means part-fibre as in 35/70MBs.I have the 35 for about £24 a month.
Was in a charity shop in Exeter, bought some CDs for £1 each, all are £1, £2 for doubles. She says "oh do you like classical?... these two boxes (crates) just came in, want a look?" Argh!
Didn't get anything exciting - currently trying the Tony Banks Seven: A Suite for Orchestra.
Not doing anything for me.
Tim: Yes, fibre-to-the-cabinet (which is at the end of the road near the pylon), should be over 30Mb/s instead of 3. Tim: Have you booked your boosters? We're down for mid-Dec, a couple of weeks late but super-convenient on a Sunday morning. nick: I've not been invited for my COVID booster and it's not yet 6 months since my second, so I don't think I can book one yetI did have an invite for a 'flu vaccine, and then on the day of my appointment they texted me to say "don't come" because they'd run out. I since had another text telling me to book my own at a local chemist
nick: Had a mail shot from Turner Sims including info on a concert by Unthanks who I remembered because they've covered "Starless". I thought "oh, maybe the date will coincide with Steve and Paul's visit" but actually it's not until next JuneAnyone want a crossword tonight or Sunday?
nick: A potential retirement project for you Steve: British Cycle Quest requires you to visit 402 points in mainland Britain. There are a few near me, and six on the IoW. I expect you've been to nearly all of them already though Steve: He's just vege thanks, not good with sugary stuff or alcohol.We will arrive BSK about 10:30 to 11, assume Portsmouth Tuesday.
Go home after breakfast Weds.
No bikes for us.
Tim: Wow, the cassette version used 32702 bytes of RAM and there's a list of where the 66 scattered unused bytes were. Steve: Finally got around to trying Equinox Infinity - sounds a very good album. BUT. It is a wall of sound, and sure enough they put all the faders up to 11 as it has very little dynamic range.Jarre is usually associated with very high quality so I can't imagine what happened here.
Although it's the same with Oxygene 3. Maybe he's gone deaf :)
The Internet Dynamic Range DB site confirms.
nick: Yes, saw that HFF is available on mac now. I'll try it again although presumably all our progress will be saved on the PC I've been using? Or perhaps it would transfer across.Went to Kew Gardens Christmas Lights last night with Ella/Ryan/Spencer/Sia. Some of the stuff was quite impressive, including a Son et lumière on the lake with lights and lasers showing through the water spray of fountains. Quite cold though and didn't get back until late. Spencer has learned some colours, although hasn't quite got them 100%. He correctly identified the areas where trees were floodlit with green lights "all green" but later said he'd liked the "black lights"
nick: Sustrans "black Friday" sale has their cycling jersey 25% off but still seems pretty expensive. I don't have the figure for it though. Or the tattoos Tim: I think we'd only have to start the Castle level again, shouldn't be a big deal and anyway you could give the trebuchet flight a try. nick: I had a mail from Cycling UK acknowledging my fantastic total of two quest points, but I don't seem to be on the leaderboard yet.Also had a mail from J Willgoose Esq. saying belated thanks for the message I sent them after we saw them in Southampton.
Think I'll be around Friday evening for zoom/game if anyone fancies it
Tim: Count me in.Meanwhile, I've been having some broadband upgrade fun. I was after a cheap package, so that involved switching my landline from BT and then upgrading to fttc. The phone switch worked fine, and then... nothing. It transpired that I can only get fttp here, which they don't do at all, so my upgrade order got cancelled... and that was supposed to be that, brilliant. So for a while I was being charged the same as before for my existing broadband, plus a full standard rate for phone, and was (by default, according to their system) under contract for 18 months. Obviously I've had a moan and now am on a normal sensible package rate for what I'm getting (less than fibre would have been) and not contracted.
I'd been assuming that any fttp service I got would be 100Gps or something and £1000 per month, but I've just found out that you can get a cheapo rubbish service instead if you want, so I might do that. When I get the courage.
nick: Does that mean you're still on the same speed as before then? I think I'm on FTTC and get around 70/18 Mbps. But I think I must be relatively close TTC because Ella's on the same package as me and only gets about half that Tim: Yes, still about 3 / 1 Mbps. I was optimistic about fttc but turns out to be the wrong sort of c. Looks like yours is at the top of Maidenthorn/A30 on the left. nick: We didn't stop at Harrogate on JoGLE but we were meant to have ridden through it, on our way from Hartlepool to Huddersfield. That was the day I got my brakes fixed so in fact we got a train from Northallerton to Huddersfield, which is where the curry house was I think
Steve: I thought we weren't going to mention the 500 mile train shortcut!That Omicron album is pretty good and ooh, £45 on eBay, but ah, only £10 on Discogs.
And I went to use the railcard discount code to find it had expired despite the blurb saying the 17th of December. Oh well we don't need a Two-together for a while yet anyway.
I searched for the expiry error message and see lots of others annoyed at this. They withdrew it on the 26th of November due to demand.
Assume they are subsidising it with the hope they recoup it from you using Trainline to book.
nick: they recoup it from you using Trainline to bookI've not used it (yet) myself but am planning to go with Trainhugger instead of Trainline: same prices and they (claim to) plant trees for you
Steve: BTW there was a good Philip Glass thing on Sky Arts recently - Descent Into the Maelstrom.Part doc, then a film set to his music.
Was a theatre ensemble piece from the 80s and has been arranged for a larger orchestral ensemble.
And a decent BBC4 doc on Ludwig II's amazing palaces I watched yesterday.
Tim: I gave Omicron The Generation and Motion of a Pulse a listen. Not bad. Turns out I also have its predecessor Acrocosm, will give that a go later. Probably will also give some of these other Instinct albums a bit of a spin while I'm at it. Tim: ...and I remember often seeing the next Omicron album Globetrotter but being scared off by the cover. But I've got a couple of his later albums under his own name (Savvas Ysatis) and they were OK. Tim: Nick, to catch up with the ones you've missed you should cycle to all the UK towns that start with H. nick: Had an eye test today (free for over 60s!). Always worried when they ask "is it better with 1..... or 2?" in case I get it wrong. He said my eyesight is very good, only slight change in prescription: I felt irrationally proud of myself. COVID booster tomorrow, and no more going in to the office until next year.Probably busy tonight but could do Sunday evening if anyone wants - either crossword or online Tobago?
Tim: Shelve it for tonight then - other evenings probably better for a bit of HFF if you fancy it Nick? nick: Could have a go at H:FF on Tuesday or Thursday? Supposedly have staff Christmas thing on Friday at a restaurant in Teddington but I am not sure if that will actually go ahead or not.Had my Moderna booster yesterday and got a bit of a sore arm today (didn't have this with previous COVID or flu jabs) but no other side-effects.
Spencer can correctly name colours now (he used invariably to say "blue" whenever you asked him what colour something was). I can't believe how much children can learn in such a short time.
Finished library audiobook of "The Tiger in the Smoke" - detective story set in post ww2 london, which I didn't really rate. Now listening to "The Go-Between" which was available: I must have read it before but Steve's mention of it made me feel like reading/hearing it again
nick: Just collected new microwave oven from Argos in Sainsbury's (old one was showing error code that translated as "internal fault: contact technical support"). Got it home and it looks a bit like it's been opened before and re-packed. And although the box says on it "read enclosed instruction book before use" there is no instruction box in there.Used the on-line support chat thing. Why are they so useless? It starts with a generic AI thing that asks you what the problem is, and I type in a detailed description, and then it says "passing you on to a team member" who comes on and says "how can I help you?" - doesn't seem to have seen what I typed earlier. After a lot of to-and-fro and "thank-you for being patient" conclusion is I have to take it back, and tell the store what happened, and get them to sort out a replacement. The online support can't contact store for me to let them know I'm coming, or get a replacement ordered. So that wasn't any use at all.
Steve: D is talking about a new cooker again, I can't face it.Need to have another tinker with this one.
I love it when you type in your details when calling a helpdesk, and they still ask for them.
Finally spoke to HMRC about my refund, she spent ages thinking about it and will call me back. As I am PAYE and do a voluntary self-assessment it seems to have gone AWOL.
New TD album due early next year and a tour - not that we are bothered. Including the Southampton Engine Rooms which looks tiny?
Tim: When Owen Paterson resigned I had a quick look at the election results for North Shropshire to see if the Tories could lose it. Absolutely no chance. nick: Just went to collect the replacement microwave from Argos. Asked to check inside it first and that one has no instruction book either. Also the box was a bit torn in the same way as the previous one, so I was a bit suspicious they've just given me the same one again, but they assured me it's a replacement. Opened it up and looked inside the oven just in case the instructions were in there but they weren't. Perhaps they're assuming you'll read them online, and not printing them any more, but the outside of the box definitely says "Read enclosed instruction book before use". So I got my money back. First world problems I suppose but it does seem a lot of hassle just to buy a new one Steve: So the moral is, mark the box when you return something! And get a photo.I think a duff microwave would be beyond me and possibly not economically viable anyway.
Listening to Boris with Sky this morning, the guy didn't let him off the hook but there seemed little in the way of apology or taking responsibility. He does not get it does he that people want plain talking. Not to be told we're focussing on the wrong things.
If only he could complete one sentence without the umming or erring or some supposed stutter which surely is him stalling while he thinks what to say.
A US colleague asked me if Chamberlain was our worst prime minister (having watched a film about Churchill), no I said, it's this one. And that was before his CBI speech.
This week I am trying Liszt Piano Concerto No.1 - kind of prompted by reading Love is Blind by William Boyd where a main character is an "Irish Liszt".
nick: So the moral is, mark the box when you return something! And get a photo.I think a duff microwave would be beyond me and possibly not economically viable anyway.
Yes I realised I ought to have made some kind of mark on the box. TBH I'd be happy with a mechanical clockwork microwave that you just twist and press go: these ones with loads of programs and digital controls seem to add little value, are more fiddly to set if you just want to warm something up for 30 seconds, and annoying when they refuse to work and display an error code that you have to look up somewhere.
I hope you're enjoying the William Boyd. I am a bit nervous of your possible reaction because I like him so much.
Steve: D got one for church with just 2 buttons, one which increments in 30 seconds.I finished the book and really liked it but his books seem to be similar in level to Ken Follett when I was maybe expecting a higher plane like The Go-Between.
Tim: I just looked and sure enough you can get a microwave that's got an app. "With a GE Microwave powered by SmartHQ Wifi technology, you can monitor your timers from anywhere, scan-to-cook your favorite microwave meals and use your voice with Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant. The new Scan-to-Cook takes the guesswork out of preparing microwave foods. Simply download the GE Appliances Kitchen app, register then scan the barcode on your package for a precisely programmed experience.
Wifi technology is built into the microwave, allowing it to communicate with the SmartHQ app for alerts, controls and notifications. Requires Wifi in your home and the SmartHQ app on your phone or tablet."
That's much easier.
nick: I finished the book and really liked it but his books seem to be similar in level to Ken Follett when I was maybe expecting a higher plane like The Go-Between. Yes that's a good way of putting it. I am impressed by his vocabulary: he uses quite a few words I didn't know, and I often think "how did he know that word even existed?" e.g., in that book I noted "outwith", "victoria" and "fiacre" (types of transport) "vieux jeu", "martingale" (technique for gambling), "octaroon", "chafing dish", "littoral", "aleatory" and "panopticon"
