Snuggling Down
Today, I’d intended to do a lot more, but the cold weather was against it.
So I met my new cleaner and got her instructions on to what I needed to buy to do the cleaning! I then went to Maplins to get a long HDMI cable, so that I could watch the football on a large screen. I’ve actually mounted the television on a swivel, so that I can watch it either from the living room or the kitchen off it.
I’ll watch the football, whilst having supper of a microwaved cod Mornay from Marks and then get over the electric blanket and under the duvet. I’d like to wake a bit later, but hopefully still early enough to see the eclipse of the moon.
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A Previous White Christmas
All of this bad weather reminds me of a tale of getting home for Christmas in probably 1978. I say probably as the BBC have said that that was a very bad winter. Ian, one of our consultants, was working in Amsterdam and joined the exodus with many fellow Brits back to the UK on Christmas Eve at Schipol. But Heathrow was closed as many aircraft were frozen to the stands. More by luck than judgement BA were able to get a Tri-Star to Schipol after finding out that East Midlands airport was free of snow. The jet then did several shuttles between the two airports to bring everybody home, albeit not to where they wanted to go. BA also hired every coach they could find to complete the passengers’ journeys.
One version of the story says that the last flight came in at three in the morning of Christmas Day.
One gets the impression, that that sort of spirit no longer exists in our transport industry. Although as I said at the time, I’ll give credit to National Express East Anglia for getting me home on Saturday from Ipswich.
Not Many Takers for Boris’s Bikes
I took this picture in Bunhill Row in the City.
Boris's Bikes in the Snow
Only five of the bikes had been taken.
But then it isn’t good weather for cycling. I did see a few runners though!
Computer Networking
I have had some very bad experiences trying to network computers. Today though I used a pair of Netgear Powerline AV200 adapters to connect my laptop computer upstairs to one of my printers downstairs. They seem to allow me to print without any changes to the settings on my laptop at all.
This is very much a first for me, as normally linking a printer to a computer remotely takes me a couple of days. Either networking is getting better or I’m learning how to do it better. I’d put it down to the networking.
All I need to do now is get my main computer attached to the Internet. Here’s hoping!
Cooking is Easy
I finally cooked something properly last night. It was one of my version of a Jamie Oliver fish pie.
It was actually easier than in my previous house, but mainly because the work surfaces were laid out better with respect to the sink and the cooker.
The only problem I had was getting the oven to work, as I have no instruction manual and I couldn’t find the type of Baumatic cooker, I have on their web site. There is no indication on the front of the cooker what model it is either. Incidentally, I have the same problem with an old television. It should be law that the model number is easily found and that manuals are on the Internet. It perhaps in one thing with a television, but cookers can be dangerous things, so perhaps they are a totally different matter.
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The Anonymous Widower 