I’ve already had the first domestic disaster of the year. On New Year’s Day, my tumble dryer stopped working, with a soggy load of towels inside and another load in the washing machine. It looked to be electrically dead – no lights on the front panel at all. I tried changing the fuse in the […]
I took yet another half day off work, and the plumber finally came back to put silicone sealant around the edge of the shower. Of course, I wasn’t able to use it immediately – the sealant takes about 24 hours to cure fully, so I had to wait before I could test out the new […]
I was on the phone to the National Trust this afternoon, and the conversation incensed me so much that I hung up on them and fired off an email of complaint: I phoned up this afternoon to attempt to buy a gift membership for my elderly parents. First, you wanted my date of birth. That […]
I had a meeting in Oxford on Tuesday, at a joint industry/academia forum that I’m a member of. As a city, it’s actively hostile to cars, and the university has very limited parking to offer visitors, so the most sensible option was to go by rail. The train was spot on time on the way […]
It’s coming up to the end of the Financial Year, which means I’m working flat out undertaking equipment trials and writing up final reports on my various projects. For the past two weeks, I’ve largely been based at a customer site near Cambridge, staying in a Premier Inn at a rather grotty service station, and […]
I’ve been having real trouble with my kitchen appliances lately. In fact, it strongly feels like they’re conspiring together to cause maximum irritation! My washing machine has decided to leak intermittently all over the kitchen floor. I’ve spent hours watching it, trying to catch it in action, but it always waits until my back is […]
That’s the topic of this week’s “assignment” on the on-line course I’m doing. I really don’t know where to start with my objections to it! The evidence of how he died is very inconclusive for a start, and if medical experts can’t agree as to whether King Tut died from a traumatic head injury, a […]
I’m doing another online course on the FutureLearn platform, this one on the Ancient Near East (Egyptians, Hittites and so on) in the Late Bronze Age. It’s run by the University of Liverpool, and I chose it because it’s a subject I’m interested in and already know a bit about. I’ve found bits of it […]
I’ve been so busy lately at work, that I’ve simply not had time to sort out the usual list of domestic chores, which have therefore been piling up. Now that the equipment trial is finally over, bar writing up the final report, I’ve got some breathing space at last. So I took today off as […]
My Gran died at Christmas, having surprised everyone (including herself) by living well into her nineties. She had very little to leave, and made a very simple Will, but there was one clause in it that has been causing me no end of trouble. She wanted to leave a sum of money to her great-great-nephew, […]
