2015 — 31 August: Monday
Much as I hate to admit defeat1 I've spent over an hour looking around the newly re-arranged kitchen, and much emptier dining room, sideboard, etc. this evening (where the current value of "evening" is actually 02:30 and counting) without finding the slightest trace of the pack of three new scouring pads I had been keeping safely (and memorably) on my kitchen windowsill. A higher state than "boy cleanliness" is all very well, but not at the expense of being unable to find things that I've been keeping in the same place for the last seven-going-on-eight years, dagnabbit.
The set of saucers that match one set of cups has also apparently fallen through the same wormhole (though, in fairness, I only suspected their previous whereabouts; I had no visual proof).I have finished...
... unloading stuff from NAS #1 prior to its re-work, but I'll not tackle that tonight. Not after the brain-spin induced by watching the Oscar-for-best-picture "Birdman"...
Highly entertaining, and occasionally laugh out loud funny, but not your everyday mainstream Hollywood fare by several country miles. Recommended.
I'm not sure...
... whether our marvellous chancellor chappie's latest reported "foot in mouth" is accurate. I hope to goodness it doesn't represent the new policy of our magnificent leaders; it does nothing to increase my already extremely low opinion of him:
I suppose all guvmints dream of being able to declare would-be leaders of Brenda's loyal opposition as threats to "National Security" (whatever that means) before locking them up somewhere lacking in keys...
I was so utterly delighted...
... to be able to sit down with my little "family" yesterday evening for a late lite bite of supper at the dining room table (with working plasma globe in the corner!) just like a "real" family...
... that, after waving goodbye to their two-car convoy earlier this morning, I promptly treated the room to a new LED bulb and washed the glass lightshade without breaking it. How cool is that? It certainly represents progress. When I last waved off Peter alone in the earlier Toyota (October 2007) it was a melancholy affair.
I'm now toasting the new kitchen and dining room facilities with a small glass from the final bottle of Meisenheim wine. The vintner, Alois Barth, was a family friend of the Becker Brothers who (although it was long before I first met them) did a lot of entertaining in the 1950s and early 1960s in between running the furniture factory that was the major employer thereabouts at the time. (Yes, I married the factory owner's daughter. Bite me.)
After a 44-month career...
... ended only by the abrupt failure of its Win 8.1 Pro SSD six months ago, BlackBeast Mk II has just left Technology Towers to start life anew. It served me well between December 2011 and February 2015 — a perfectly reasonable time for a desktop PC in sometimes heavy daily use, I think. When the reincarnation process is complete (probably tomorrow) it will initially be a 'pure' Linux Mint 17.2 workhorse in a ham radio shack on the other side of the village.
I sometimes wonder if...
... I'm sufficiently paranoid. Perhaps not. Who can say? (Link.)
Having tried — and rejected in quick succession — the post-evening meal films "Henry's Crime" and "The two faces of January", then assessed "Castle, season #5" episodes 7 and 8 and found all of them, erm, wanting, it's time for a change of evening entertainment option. Back to the Proms, for starters, at least. It's very difficult to go wrong with a Beethoven symphony, after all. How can Michael Tilson Thomas possibly be 70?
Fiat Lux non-aeterna
It's been quite a while since I last had to wrestle with my old friend (another domestic nemesis) upstairs — the bathroom's "pull cord" light-switch. Now, I fear, it's a case of déjà vu all over again. I may not have any light in the bathroom right now, but I can still clearly see a trip to B&Q in my very near future. Again.