Tag Archives: work

Weather, Wiki and Wanderings

I’ve just dropped Julia at work, returned home and turned the computer on to check the weather.

The current weather is cloudy, 1 degree Centigrade (which feels like -3 due to windchill), humidity of 93%, visibility of 12 miles and pressure of 1010 mb.

The first point that occurs to me is that I could tell most of this from sticking my head out of the door. The second is that I don’t know what 1010 mb represents and the third is that I can’t see 12 miles in most directions on account of houses and trees and other environmental clutter. and I don’t understand humidity.

Specifically, I don’t understand why the humidity is currently higher than it is forecast to be for the rest of the day, when it will be raining. To my simple mind 100% humidity is what you find in a swimming pool, so I don’t know how a damp but rain-free morning can be 93% humid when a rainy afternoon is forecast to be 72%.

It’s a mystery, as Toyah Wilcox used to sing.

I looked Toyah Wilcox up on Wikipedia after mentioning her. I then went on to Robert Fripp, Fripp’s uncle Alfie…

After that I ended up with Paul Brickhill, Roger Bushell and, eventually, Tim Birkin. There were a few more links in there, but I’ll leave you to make your own journey.

The Birkin article, though mentioning his younger brother Archie, fails to mention his older brother Thomas. I sometimes despair at the standard of some Wikipedia entries, though not so much that I’ve ever contributed anything to any of the articles. It seems fair to include Thomas as he seems to have been equally as intrepid as the others.

I’ve lost my Birkin notes, taken about 20 years ago, but I know there is a family link to Jane Birkin. They are a Nottingham family, in case you are wondering about my sudden interest in a random subject.

It’s time to leave you now, as I’ve frittered enough time making an accidentally symmetrical journey between two multi-talented women. A few musings on weather forecasts seem to have taken me quite a way. I am now equipped with new knowledge (which is good) but it is time for breakfast (which is better).

Ageing Bit by Bit

32 Replies

I was tempted to title the blog Stiff Little Fingers. This would be accurate as far as my arthritis goes, but might raise false hopes in the hearts of ageing punks. I added the link as it’s one of those words that can cause confusion when written by an Englishman and read by an American.

What happened to suggest the title was that I went to bed last night, slept reasonably well and woke up with a little finger that wouldn’t bend. It’s ached for years, and often seems rather cold compared to the other fingers on that hand, but so does the little finger on my other hand.

I now have a ring finger on the right hand that is arthritic and a little finger on the left hand that looks like it’s starting to go.

It freed up while I was at work (sorting junk postcards this morning) though it returned in the afternoon when I drove to Grantham (I only did a half day in the shop today).

So, it started with one finger (I would link to that post but can’t even hazard a guess where it is), moved on to a knee and is now colonising another finger. At this rate I have about twenty years before all my fingers are useless. (Though if my calculations are accurate I will spend my late 70s only able to type slowly and operate doorbells).

As I’ve said before, I’d have taken more care of my body if I’d realised how long I was going to need it.

Snow!

27 Replies

The Council doesn’t seem to have gritted last night, with the result that the roads are worse than they were during the last snow. Everyone knew it was coming, apart, it seems, from the man who arranges the gritting.

Before…

This was the picture at 5.30 this morning. After a Saturday of snow flurries it finally started to settle overnight and was completely white by morning. We have four inches, which hardly qualifies as snow in some countries, but is big news in the UK, particularly in March. The TV weather report has just claimed six inches for Nottingham, so it may be worse in places.

What I really want is some warm Spring weather and a few flower pictures. There are plenty of flowers coming out, but it always seems to be a grey day when I have a chance for photography.

The outlook isn’t too bad, though I’m not sure how good it will be by the end of the day when I go to pick Julia up. The TV weather reports keep telling us where the snow will appear during the day, but is a bit short on information about when ours will melt.

Snow in Sherwood, Notts

I’m beginning to see mental pictures of Vladimir Putin as Ming the Merciless in the film Flash Gordon. As I recall, it starts with an outbreak of bad weather caused by and evil, bald mega-villain.

Normally I use my own photos, but I’m short of galactic supervillains so I’ve sourced one on the internet. I’m hoping that by giving a link to the film they will forgive me for lifting the photo.

This is the “After” photo, taken in the light after I got home. Time to blog and eat breakfast now.

After…

30 Replies

The featured image is a picture of my lunch – quinoa, chia, pumpkin seeds, beans, chickpeas, sweetcorn, dill and spring onions, plus a mango and chilli dressing. Since I actually read the instructions on the quinoa and found out that you can use it straight from the packet lunches have become very simple – tear open a few packets, open a few cans, chop a smidgen of veg, mix. It’s very easy.

Lunch left me full and feeling virtuous. What it didn’t do was leave me feeling like I’d had a good meal.

I suppose that persistence will eventually pay off.

Before that I’d been to hospital for the regular blood-letting. It had been a bit thick last week and they decided another test was needed. If they had to rush about before work, deal with car parking then queue for a slot before being stabbed in the arm multiple times they might not be so keen on all these tests. As the needle slid in through the bruise left by last week’s test, all these things come to mind.

Then, to add insult to injury, the bleeding wouldn’t stop.

They put the signs up on the new shop today – my first day of proper work in the new shop. It’s looking good, though if you look hard enough you can see that fat bloke with the camera who gets in so many of my shots.

Collectors World, Wollaton Road, Nottingham

The final highlight of the day was sorting a thousand crowns for an export order, including brandishing an eraser in the vicinity of a few of them to make minor improvements. It’s a funny old world…

Charles and Diana Crowns – a marital mistake enshrined in numismatic form

Charles and Diana Crowns – a marital mistake enshrined in numismatic form. It’s like me having a coin struck to commemorate my diet.

No Moon Now

13 Replies

It’s not been the most industrious of days, though I don’t suppose that will surprise my regular readers. I have read a bit, shopped and cooked two casseroles and a pie filling. That still leaves a few hours and I can only suppose that they were spent napping.

Julia’s working day on Sunday is 6.00 to 4.30 and at this time of the year her shift is considerably longer than the length of daylight. I checked the day length before writing that, and found there are three types of twilight. There’s astronomical twilight, nautical twilight and civil twilight, which all follow on from each other and have various uses. I’ll let lawyers and sailors worry about the various definitions.

There is also, it seems, a popular series of books and films billed as “Twilight”, which makes a Google search a bit annoying if you want proper information on twilight. I imagine that anyone who has a man called Harry Potter in their family tree will suffer similar frustration in their searching.

The header picture shows the street at the time we got home – that glaring globe with starburst effect is a streetlamp, rather than a blazing desert sun, as it first appears.

The lack of smears is due to me spending time cleaning the inside of the car and windscreen. Assuming that cleanliness is still next to Godliness, as I was always taught, then, as well as having a better view of the road I am close to being a saint.

The closing photographs are two where I tried to take a faithful rendition of the sky colour. It was quite a deep orange, but the camera tends to remove much of the colour. I eventually managed to approximate the colour by using the Pop Art filter, which often gives quite a false rendition.

Sunset over Sherwood

Sky at dusk – Nottingham

Another Moon, Another Morning

9 Replies

It’s not quite as sharp as I would have liked, but there’s a limited selection of sujects at 6am on a Sunday morning.

I’m a little puzzled by the fact it seems to show the half that was in darkness last time. I didn’t know it did that and I’m clearly going to have to do some reading on the subject.

The other shot shows the street, though, being taken by a camera braced against the steering wheel, it also benefits from lighting effects produced by a streaky windscreen.

Street scene in the dark

There was a definite dawn chorus his morning, though it’s far from the full thing. It was nice to hear, even if Spring is still several months away.

The temperature (around a degree above freezing – even two degrees at one point on the trip, – is higher than I’d been expecting after a dire forecast. Just goes to show you shouldn’t believe all you see on TV.

The Year so Far

29 Replies

It hasn’t been a bad start to the year. It could certainly have been better in terms of energy and computer use, as I have already noted, but it could also have been worse. It might, for instance, have featured snow and freezing temperatures. Instead, it’s been almost shirt sleeve weather at around 9 degrees Centigrade. I say “almost”, as there’s been quite a brisk wind today, which necessitated a jacket.

Yesterday I had my first day in my new job, though “day” is pushing it. I actually did three hours cataloguing a collection of 50 pence pieces and sorting stamps. It’s not exactly the glamour end of the antiques trade. It’s a sort of gentle induction as I’m not really required until next month.

Today I had my first day off. I have Wednesdays off as it matches up with Julia. I’m going to be having Sundays and Wednesdays off. She has Mondays and Wednesdays off. Apart from next month – I’m having to work Wednesdays too. It can be quite complicated synchronising three part-time jobs.

Power Station, Spalding

Steeple behind trees, Spalding

We took a trip to Lincolnshire today. It wasn’t very exciting, just a trip to Springfields, but with the days being short and us not being in a hurry to start, it was far enough. The choice of shops seems to be going downhill, and the attitude of some of the staff isn’t helping things.

The Power Station in the picture is gas-fired and seems to be owned by Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and China Huaneng Group. Call me old-fashioned, but I liked it in the old days when we generated our own power.

I selected quite a few books in The Works, but I put half of them back. Experience suggests that if I buy more than two or three books I won’t read them before I buy more. I was quite proud of myself at the time, but I’m now thinking that I would have enjoyed reading them. Such is life.

I’ve actually set myself a target of giving at least 365 books away this year, so there’s no point buying another couple of hundred, even if they are only £1.50 each.

Talking of computer problems – the new settings (or lack of settings) is also interfering with photo downloads.

Humph!

quercuscommunity

Life after the Care Farm