Saturday, June 27, 2026
France
If next door are in France, as I assume, then they could be having a rough time with the heat.
And driving back may not be a good option either.
A long distance ferry might be an option.
It is funny that the red Volvo is specifically being kept in the road.
Maybe they are in Ireland, and enjoying cooler weather.
M
Friday, June 26, 2026
fives opposition in front, your shot
Now clearly one can ask for a let if you want, but somehow this should only be done if they are not persist offenders.
If they are persistent offenders, you have a problem.
One route, ( I will call it the peter mellor) is to hit as hard as you can at them. The alternative is to warn them that this is what you will do next time, so they better duck out of the way or move on a level or behind the player whose shot it is.
New players may need a lot of reminding initially. The emphasis must be on ducking below the potential shot. Running to the side wall is plain stupid and should not be considered as an option. Moving to the centre is better, but must include ducking down. The reason is that hitting the ball straight down the centre is very weak, and likely to be easy to return. There might be occasions when such a shot might manage to hit the opponent on the return flight, so should not be dismissed.
The is a group of players who are brasen enough to take advantage of this sort of obstruction tactic. So Peter's experience is not unknown. It is often done by people who should know better.
M
Thursday, June 25, 2026
breezy.
Have to get milk from tesco' plus maybe some reduced items. Difficult to know how hot it is going to be. Breezy, but cooking?
Cannot be worse than yesterday's walk from the bus drop at the library.
New catheter seems fine, but I will take some Ibuprofen before I go.
M
noise in the night.
Tricia was worried that with the window ajar she would be woken by the paper delivery car.
Can a deaf person be woken by hearing a noise?
Probably, but there is no casual link. They may dream about it and wake up convinced they heard the car. Occasionally by coincidence there may be a moving car in the road. Bingo.
I rest my case.
And she did not get wakened, or even think she had been.
M
Wednesday, June 24, 2026
front wall
Similarly one should not allow someone to block a shot into the front corners. Offenders should either move back or to the centre asap.
The issue is almost entirely a doubles issue, and is really part of the " one should be able to play one's most strategic shot", and if stopped, should be given a let. It is not that they cannot play any shot. If they can play a winning shot, although not the best winning shot, they should really play it.
This is not a simple issue, and the rules of the game should in general be more about intent, rather than detailed situations.
M
609
NHS have been told to cancel ...609 as a mobile number for me. And should only have the landline number now.
Hope they do it.
M
the wall in Fives
Some people, particularly beginners, think that they can hide against the side walls.
It is true that the written rules say nothing special about the walls as places to be, there are some unwritten rules that apply. Basically obstructing strategic shots is a no-no, and the wall is full of strategic shot potential, including in particular the wall hugging shots, that use aerodynamics to keep the ball very close but not touching the wall.
I think it perfectly fair to consider trying to hide against a side wall, to be worthy of a replay or let.
Now I am not suggesting that Neil is aware of the issues, but he does know now that I am watching out.
M
centre of the universe
People have difficulty realising that as far as we know, any point in the universe has the same chance of being the centre of the universe.
So you might as well say imagine the earth as that centre. It basically makes one's language simpler, and really does not alter anything.
Neil has difficulty me using the earth as the centre, or maybe myself as the centre. He is wrong of course.
He ended up having some very distorted times and angles for the sun, and seemed to say that if you took the sun as the centre, I would realise my mistake. Eh .. No.
M
Tuesday, June 23, 2026
...609
How to get rid of this reference.
It was used as a general safe reference machine, which you picked up and authorised the transaction. The problem came when it did not ring for one reason or another. This could be that the SIM had been canceled by the provider because you were no longer a customer.
To avoid this you have to intervene much earlier in the sequence of events.
The chaos is just after a supplier changing processes. It gets sorted out, but the period could be a couple of months.
M
Monday, June 22, 2026
watch 2. minutes late
I noted this. Clearly I need to control it a little bit more. I suspect all the co4ect ones are in the computer room, and not my bedroom.
M
poppies
and a couple of other plants in the passage way could easily spread through the top part of the fence, just with the wind howling through the gaps. They can then easily spread further on.
M
power supplies
I am now finding homes for all the power plugs, and keeping them with a potential host. Ideally they would have been part of a single purchase at some point.
It is surprisingly difficult, but rewarding when you can do it.
Nokia seem to be the easiest, as they tend to put their brand name on everything, and they have the weirdest of sized plugs.
M
tamulosin
Put in request for repeat prescription, for both tamulosin and senna. Will be interesting how quick they are. They cannot know my availability to put the request in.
M
Sunday, June 21, 2026
crosswords
Sometimes the mechanisms used by the program completely mess up the input. One is so concentrating on the keyboard that one misses that it is busily messing things up.
Now it is possible to avoid this, anđ use a simpler input method. You can still get messed up, but it is less annoying.
Basically you do it in a dumber environment. Avoid using all things google. Go into a simple browser and search for the independent crossword. Then view it in the simplest way.
I cannot remember all the details here, but it dies work. I seem to remember that you might have to turn rhe sound right down.
M
Saturday, June 20, 2026
sweet potato
no large car
And the Volvo has stayed on the street.
No idea what is happening.
M
forgot override
I messed up when I set the override buttons on two floors. It has continued to heat even in hot weather.
Basically it is a dangerous thing to set.
Will need to check things for a couple of days, and then reintroduce simple thermostat settings when needed.
Probably not much damage done.
M
Friday, June 19, 2026
S driving?
Big car out on a drive. I wonder if S is driving J to some get together.
A fiat is too small.
M
cycle has begun
The cycle of the bum injection has started with the normal fluffy crap. Normally a day or two of this. Don't want to be too far from a loo at this point. But managed shop at Tesco's.
The heat wave won't help much either.
M
Thursday, June 18, 2026
cheap glasses
I currently cannot locate any of the original three. I am back with J's original pair. A symptomatic search is necessary.
M
concise crossword
I seem to have managed to get the crossword back to the basics in terms of functionality. It is still quite clever, jumping over filled squares, but it is much simpler.
One needs to avoid ads by going in with ones independent user credentials. So you go into the full paper and then select the concise crossword.
M
was I right?
I may never know. I am bound to run into Sue one day, but whether she would actually admit my warning was correct, is another matter.
The fact that they must have removed something is rather ominous. Were they in time? Will the medics give him the all clear, and in particular for driving. Bob did, but his esipodes were very much sleep related. I imagine this was not the case with J.
M
licence taken away?
I am beginning to think that J's illness means all his road licences have been cancelled. This may include power bicycles.
This could be a slow process, say minimum 6 months.
He will be driven even more potty.
And the continental ban might extend a chunk more.
Frankly this is right.
M
heat wave forecast
blinds mended
At long last set about renovating the roller blinds in the playroom. All seemed to go well. The centre one can still have sticking points, though I am not sure why.
M
Wednesday, June 17, 2026
history
When I questioned his state of mind, I was politely dismissed. I wonder why I have not had an update or a thanks for an early warning.
Of course, she might not think I want to know about it with my recent history. Fair enough. At least I have a simpler cause and solution.
M
banned
I wonder if J is currently banned from driving. The car is almost never taken on the road. I see him manoeuvre the cars on the drive ways, but never more.
I guess there is a link between his op and having the uk licence removed. I guess he has to reapply. And that might be a long time off since they entered the skull.
I wonder if he thought he could still drive with whatever foreign licence he had. Dumb arse.
M
monthly mending
This Saturday is next session.
Continue with apple mac, and possibly ask about obsolete SIM cards.
M
blinds
2 bags
bum jabs back
Going to my first jab, after my illness. I will keep my fingers crossed. At least it is allowing me to have a free bus ride.
M
Tuesday, June 16, 2026
shaving
I think the Waitrose own brand of razors just shows the change in the market. The Gillettes of this world are struggling to have a significant difference on the own brands.
They are still too expensive, but competition should deal with that in near future.
I will chuck some of my reused blades.
M
Vitamin d
I reckon that the surgery have effectively ignored my request for vitamin d3. Their system cannot have any safety net. Basically If anyone fails to respond, it is ignored. There is no safety net or check. They would never spot themselves that it is failing, depending on the patient to act. I doubt if there is any unique identifier associated with it.
Now they may be casual with d3 because it is freely available at small cost. But that is not an excuse.
I feel that the traing day actually took preference in this case, which just shows the slackness of the people involved.
M
Beech
Rob's beech tree needs to be cut down. I reckon the council will accept responsibility, but not give it much priority. It will take them a climber, a rope loped high on a main branch, a big lorry, and some free falling of the main trunk.
A days hard work of say three men on this site.
Say 5 grand?
It may just have some value, to offset the costs.
But I doubt if anyone will be in a hurry.
M
where are my sunglasses?
I seem to have lost two now, leaving me with just one. This is very stupid. They must be somewhere.
M
Breadmaking
Provided you are careful, you never have to wash the tin in water. Just wiping with a dry cloth is all you need to do. The paddle can be a slight nuisance.
M
crossword
The independent crossword has a set of actions that are supposed to help you fill it in quickly. However they just get me in a tangle. To play it without this add-on, just start in a browser, preferably not chrome, and load up the page you want.
It has some automation, but it is much less intrusive. You may want to dampen the sound as well.
I doubt if you need be on-line once you've started.
Basically when you type a character you know where it is going to move to for the next, and you don't need to watch it.
M
Monday, June 15, 2026
plants
They have done a spurt, and some are getting really big. It is wonderful to have some jungle again.
Did quite a bit of pruning to the Budlia, outside the kitchen, keeping it above guttering, and not obscuring view of garage fencing.
Amazing quite how much dead old branches and twigs there is insie the plant.
M
washed my hair
In a bath.
This went pretty well, and I managed the getting in and out without incident. Secret it to have lots of water, and not to take the plug out, until you are out.
The catheter did not seem to have and problems.
I think a day time event.
M
Sunday, June 14, 2026
herring gulls
Starting to see these land on chimneys in the road. Not ours yet.
I think they are now a protected species, and might be tricky to get rid of. I think we may be lucky and should be able to deter them. So far their preference is for the sticklers and victoria house.
M
swifts
Regularly see these while having tea in the back garden. High up, and have not seen them prospecting for a long time. Used to breed in the roof, before it was reroofed.
M
turds
The diggings for roots that the badger did, are now being used for turds. Presumably the same individual. I assume badger. I guess the soil and myself will at some point benefit. Looks a bit sordid.
M
passageway
The flowers are rapidly filling the passage, making it difficult to walk smoothly along it. Wonderful. Such a contrast with what is over the fence.
Though the Ukrainians are leaving some of my invasive plants to spread, such as the yellow iris. This is wonderful. Some seeds appear able to spread, with the prevailing wind, and start the process with new species, which is very hopeful.
Why they cannot do something to the exposed concrete dam baffles me. Just covering with rough gravel would transform things.
M
double cream
Botched the cream buying. My make do efforts with the left over chicken were just about acceptable, though strangely green.
M
Audi drivers
The strange return from across the channel, before setting out again, lead me to believe that J is not yet allowed to drive after his brain op.
If it was just a surface skin problem, I am sure nothing would have happened. He was caught out, and probably is now temporarily banned from driving anywhere.
Hence the often strange parking. Sue does not like turning the car round in the drive. Also he seems to like doing unnecessary manoeuvres in the fiat.
Could all be just my imagination, but it is entertaining.
I still wonder if my warning to Sue, was actually correct though then unknown to her. Maybe she will tell me one day.
M
Saturday, June 13, 2026
perfect plants
It occurred to me, that the specimen plants from posh growers tend to have a short dense flowing period. And no mad isolated flowers away from that period. In other words, they are very boring most of the year. And expensive.
The plants in the front next door fit this down to the ground.
It would be ok if they are wheeled in and out of the bed. You need a much bigger 'out of season' area to cope with this.
When they get larger, it is going to be very boring with no soil showing, and wall to wall leaves with no flowers.
M
bum jabs
The g9d news is that my bum jabs are starting next Wednesday at 10.30. So free buses, and no delays in startup.
M
Friday, June 12, 2026
Timing
Put my requesr for vitamin d in to reception on paper at mid day.
Went to collect at paydens on friday mid day. Nothing.
Apparently thursday was a traing day for the whole surgery. I guess some were preparing on wednesday.
So may just be dealt with today, and available on monday.
I think they would be better to have training days Tuesday. That gives possibly quicker delivery for problems/needs that occurred over the previous weekend.
M
Adam
Adam's last regular fives evening.
Had a good discussion with Gareth about Jay's and Oaks.
M
Thursday, June 11, 2026
landslide
I was just thinking about how next door has a tendency for the land to slide down to the road, and apparently ours doesn't. It occurred to me that it might be just down to roots. We have plenty of roots in and under all areas of the front garden. Next door has for a long time had basically a waterproof surface, so no roots and relatively dry. There has been only small changes recently, and most of them have been right at the bottom.
I wonder how they could improve this. The passageway down the side above the gate is useless, but just below would be fine. I would just drill a number of holes though the tarmac. This would be beneficial for the bank between the properties and encourage root growth from our side all the way down to the road.
The other side of their property is more difficult, and their only hope is dependent on what the builders do the other side. Since there is a big underground carpark, I doubt if anything is possible.
I forecast the death of all the trees along the bank at least up to the side gate.
My solution would be to construct a flower bed joining the house to the bank, moving the car parking to our side. Turning round may become a problem, and backing up would be a problem. But on could have porous tracks for the wheels into the bed.
Alternatively buy space in the underground car park, and remove all the tarmac. Not sure what to do with the charger. But the flats have exactly that problem anyway so let them solve it for you.
When we have driverless cars, the problem disappears anyway, because you just tell to change itself.
And tell it to park elsewhere overnight. That is if you bother with owning your own car.
M
Wednesday, June 10, 2026
no record of me
The NHS at pembury are excelling, as they cannot even find me on the system at all.
There are apparently many dr sha's in the hospitals here and in Maidstone.
I am now outside the room where he is. He is with a patient. I am expecting a very short discussion about restarting the bum injection.
I am perfectly happy with the side effects that I have had before.
M
Tuesday, June 09, 2026
newspaper articles
Something was trying to get me to read news articles, and wanted to know what I would like to see. Not sure which app is doing this.
Never guessed quite how many sources there were, and that is basically UK, with a few internationals. Let's hope I don't get swamped.
M
my time
Amazingly my watch is telling the same time as my tablet. The obviously have been talking to each other. The watch has been saying that it is here, and tell me the time, and the tablet has been telling the time in response.
Not sure why they didn't do it before. I must have changed something. Why did it not work before.
M
toe nails
Monday, June 08, 2026
program icons
I knew that the met office was on the machine, but could not find the icon. I could start the program from other places, could not get an icon on the main screen which I could start.
What you do is to start it, then get to the screen which shows what is running, and then drag the icon of what is running onto which ever screen you like.
So simple, though hard to explain.
M
Out of date stock.
Everyone seems to be selling soon to be out of date stock.
I do wonder what the criteria are for these timings, and what are the limits for these. For instance does the real shelf life vary due to external weather conditions.Does it allow for poor handling in transit? What sort of margin of error do they add. Do they assume a cool downstairs storage room?
I am basically happy in normal weather to eat things a week after purchase. That is before the next routine purchase.
This has basically worked fine, and no major upset.
So if now someone goes ill, but not all the household, is one right to think that it must be something else? I think so, but it does make one a little nervous.
M
COVID jab
I had an upto date covid jab at Paydens. All very simple and low key. Left arm, no trouble.
M
Sunday, June 07, 2026
two sim cards
covid
Having new jab at paydens tomorrow at 9.30. Will be interesting to see how good they are.
Maybe T could make it here, walking. It is not much further than Mathews.
M
sims
Everything seems fine. Alllocated slightly different tasks, so spreading bandwidth between different routes ir allocations. So potentially more robust and faster than just one sim.
M
peony
M
fitting sims
The tray on poco is not symetrical in the way you might expect. It is rotationally so.
Hence I messed around a bit before getting it right. I have started machine up and things seem fine. Lets hope so.
M
poco sims
I knew that poco could theoetically take 2 sims, but the çard holder seemed only to take a sim and a memory card.
How dumb I was. You can fit a sim in the memory slot by rotating 90 degrees. Looks strange but works fine.
I am going to fit 2 sim cards into the machine, and use memory stick else where.
M
pruning
Dead twigs and branches annoying me out side sitting room window. Going to snip them.
M
crossword
Cor, wow.
Kept on thinking that my suggestions would be wrong, onl6 for them to be right.
M
Saturday, June 06, 2026
rubber bands
Shops in TW are much worse than they used to be. No rubber bands anywhere, as well.
I guess eBay is a much better bet as first port of call
Though I did find one at the bus stop in Tonbridge today.
M
now
Is name of the welsh mobile phone company. Is this north wales? And then what?
Martin
Peat
J has put lots of peat like material on the front bed. No allowance for the concrete dam. I wonder if it will be washed away, as weather forecast is not good. He really has no idea.
M
M
M
Friday, June 05, 2026
bad design
The sim page in settings for this phone show 2 slots for the sim cards. Now the chip can itself handle two channels, and one is tempted to get confused since there is only one sim card slot.
The software does not change its looks based on what the chip can do. You instintively look for a second slot.
The design looks as if people did not expect such rapid developments.
M
Thursday, June 04, 2026
609
Is the mysterious 609 mobile number now in the google mobile laptop?
Of all things, I found a backup message on poco bsckup system that implied this.
begs question how many portables have sim cards.
This could actually be a good thong to make use of, with the laptops being more permanent.
M
earpieces
May require a sim card working. I was playing with it, and took the sim out, and the got messed up. Still trying to repair.
Also had issues with some poco internet storage, 5 gig and not enough. Will tinker with that.
M
new phone
I think I might by a new phone with two SIM cards in it. Or more if possible.
M
long chat
About family.
Peggy preferring P & C upbringing of children is rather revealing.
She would have been disappointed.
M
bread failure
I dont have much idea what happened, but the bread did not rise. Unleven bread is a new experience, and could be better. Far too solid.
M
Wednesday, June 03, 2026
next door back
Sha next week
My guess that it would be a bum injection this week was wrong.
Next week I have an appointment with sha at 9.30 to start this off.
So slow
M
Tuesday, June 02, 2026
NHS system failure
Tried to get in, but failed when it tried to confirm who I was using a text to ....609.
I think I am now stuck again.
This is not a well designed system.
M
work at Robs
Something happening, but not sure what. It was late afternoon, so will find out tomorrow, after my bum jab session.
M
no key
Went to fives without my keys. Luckily T understood the telephone call, and doorbell ringing, and soon let me in. Gareth was my able assistant.
M
update problem
Seems as if there is some problem with a system update. No idea where the problem is. I will close and restart.
I also allowed it to use phone connection. This followed various failures. It now seems to have worked.
No idea what the issue was. I have cut off the phone update route again, because I dont want to pay extra.
M
Monday, June 01, 2026
Sue and co
No signs of imminent return, with Volvo in drive. They must have been away almost a fortnight.
M
Rob's beech
Talked to Rob, yesterday about problems with his tree and beeches in general. He was going to check with council what they would be doing. I think it will be removed pronto.
M
Tamulosin
New prescription is slightly different, with single colour shell. It might have a longer time in the blood stream.
M
Honda
Offering Owen the car, for him to do whatever he wants to do with it. He can sell it for scrap, or use at university. Entirely up to him as to what to do.
M
H
