2014 — 30 March: Sunday
The virulently fluorescent orange of Mr Dyno-Rod's van parked opposite my house earlier probably boded ill for one of my neighbours.1 Meanwhile, I have reset five of the eight or so time-keeping devices. I pay little or no heed to them these days. This is one of the under-emphasised benefits of retirement, though tomorrow (for example) Dr Fang expects me to be sitting in his chair with my mouth open at 09:00 for phase #3 (of 3) of his tooth-crowning manoeuvres. Doubtless I will get the bill, too.
On another whim...
... I've finally changed the setting of my Win8.1 Pro system so it boots directly into the desktop. This doesn't actually save me any time overall as the system spends perhaps 30 seconds in a rather sluggishly-responsive state while it does various bits of adolescent-style "hate to get up in the morning" type housekeeping and processing before it's really ready for (you should excuse the word) "productive" use. I've been steadily whittling2 down the number of "tiles" left on my Start screen to the point where it frankly was looking even sillier than it was already designed to. I wonder what new wonders and merriment will be arriving in the wake of Service Pack 1 next month?
I can wait. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. If they had only sensibly forked the code to keep all the touch screen bits well away from a non-touch screen system in the first place they wouldn't now be gloomily contemplating such ghastly sales figures for what is, underneath it all, a perfectly respectable, modern, stab at a halfway decent operating system.
I've been doing...
... a lot of reading recently. Last night, quite late, I decided to switch off the Kindle before it turned into a piece of kindling and try "Mortal Instruments: City of Bones" having specifically asked to borrow the Blu-ray from Mike. However, I didn't get on at all well with it, so then I fired up "Saving Mr Banks". That was much more to my taste, though I had to stop it about 50 minutes in because it was late and I was too sleepy to enjoy it fully. No way to treat Emma Thompson!
The clock change isn't helping, either. It's 11:12 in "new" time but I've yet to bother with breakfast. [Pause] Yum! The fancy bread I tried as an experiment for the first time in February really does make a tasty slice of uncheap toast, nicely combining with the reduced-sugar (a mere 50%) orange marmalade that I'm addicted to. No trace of the caramel notes mentioned on the label, however.
The guest...
... on "Private Passions" (the jeweller Theo Fennell) has just told a marvellous story about a con-trick he once suffered. Funnier in the telling, no doubt, than the experiencing.
"Next thing you know"...
... it's already time for an evening meal. Past time, according to the clocks. Not quite yet time according to the bodyclock in my tum.