Zone Doubt, a.k.a. 'Surreal Я Us'...

Joules, trusted by... dozens... to make a drama out of your crisis...

Other sites:

:: JAT :: WaveWrights :: Publications ::

I live to write. It's not wise to get in my way.

... I'd write my autobiography, but no-one would believe it....


If you come across any words you don't recognise in this blog, take a look at the Taylorspeke Glossary in the left-hand infopane, you'll usually find a definition there.


The Poppy Tales

(Transformers fanfiction!)

Transformers mini-comics here.




Adventures in Orchids

Apparently I am now collecting them...

There's room for one - or maybe two, at a pinch - more on that bedroom windowsill (the only one in the house that's ideal for them). Let's see what I find. Well, that didn't last long...


EO - Everlasting orchid. Phalaenopsis. I've had this orchid since 2007 and it just keeps flowering...







AO - Alien face orchid. Phalaenopsis . Bought 2018 - lovely little flowers, all different patterns!





RO - Rescued orchid photo to come when it flowers. Phalaenopsis. Rescued from a bin up the road in 2019. Classic!






TO - Tiny orchid. Phalaenopsis. Bought at Tesco 21.8.20. It just begged to come home with me. How could I say no?





CO - Crimson orchid. Cambria. Another Tesco find. This one may be going to live in Ken's room once we've redecorated and put up the new shelving; it prefers a cooler, less sunny windowsill. If so, I'll need to find another cambrian to keep it company.






GO - Golden orchid. Phalaenopsis. Saw this one when I bought CO and left it behind - then immediately regretted it as soon as I got home. Never seen one like it before. Ken, bless him, went back over to Tesco in the rain and bought it for me...





DO - Dendrobium Orchid. Smells of wisteria, so beautiful...











RO2 - Rescued orchid no 2. Phalaenopsis. This is the one I rescued from the wall along the road middle of 2021.








PO. Pink orchid. Phalaenopsis. This is the one I bought at Cabury Garden Centre on special, late 2021. It's much happier here!










TWO. Teeny weeny orchid, Phalaenopsis. Rescued from Tesco end 2021 (I think).




















My IMDb ep summaries

(completed)
Arthur of the Britons
Sky
Star Maidens
The Starlost
Space Rangers
The Sentinel (part: seasons 2 and 3)
Swamp Thing (part: season 3)
Gravedale High
Transformers: Armada
Transformers: Energon
Transformers: Cybertron (part)
Misfits of Science (four eps)
Zoo Gang
Zodiac
Jupiter Moon
Transformers: Beast Wars (part: seasons 2 and 3)
Transformers: Beast Machines (part)
Vampire Princess Miyu
Starhyke
Nathan Barley
No Heroics
Undermind (3 eps)
Will Shakespeare (Tim Curry version)
Nightwalker
12 Kingdoms
Trigun (ep 8)
Rayearth
Hyperdrive (season 2 ep 3)
The Café

For later:

Missing Earthian ep
Missing Haibane Renme eps


Silver birch at Eastwood 

Farm

"Autumnal - nothing to do with leaves. It is to do with a certain brownness at the edges of the day... Brown is creeping up on us, take my word for it... Russets and tangerine shades of old gold flushing the very outside edge of the senses... deep shining ochres, burnt umber and parchments of baked earth - reflecting on itself and through itself, filtering the light. At such times, perhaps, coincidentally, the leaves might fall, somewhere..."

(Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead Act 2: Tom Stoppard)

Autumn...

I love this time of year. I love the colours, the sharp slant of sunlight on the trees, mosaics of acid-yellow and harts- blood, velvet and darkness and a haze of mist-grey over the hills. I love its immanence, its mellowness, the tang of frost just around the corner of the year...

Watching the little birds in the goat-willow in my garden, I realised something more.

I love this land with a fierce, possessive love, deep-rooted in two thousand years of history. From the frosted beaches and cloud-brushing peaks of the north to the wind-haunted meanderings of the rivers of the east, from the sensuous rolling patchworked hills of the south to the demanding dark moors of the west, this land seeps into bone and blood and synapse, mother of motley nobility, culture, individual freedoms. It can be known. It can be understood. It can be felt deep inside.

I love its effortless eccentricities, its vigour and vibrancy, its flawed perfections, its silent strength and tenacious resilience, its hard-won tolerances and intense and variable beauty, the profound energy in its sacred mythical landscape.

Home and more-than-home, the forces that shape and protect and bind, in me, as I am in the land. Love returning love in the stillness for those who'll only take the time to listen...

(Joules, Autumn 2004)


All photographs taken by Joules unless otherwise specified. All photographs © Joules A Taylor or other specified individual.


In Memoriam

17.03.09 - Argent

25.07.08 - Raptor

18.12.07 - Quyn

02.12.06 - Ryme


Currently enjoying:
Muse
Transformers - IDW, Prime, Animated, Rescue Bots.

Currently reading:
Various Transformers books and graphic novels.



Currently working on:
Haadri

Currently chuffed with:
My garden

Currently miffed at:
Nestlé, Nonpres Tinyhands Fart, Toadface Farage

Currently maintaining:
BCHS
BCW


Blog Pics
I've gathered some of my pages of photos together: the page of links is here. I'll be adding more as time goes by!




Evil Squid
A Little Glossary of Taylorspeke
(in no particular order)

plit popints - n. Typo for 'plot points' typed on a keyboard with more than half the characters worn off...

[PING] (alt [ping]) - n. A brainwave. The text equivalent of a lightbulb going on blindingly over someone's head. Usually mine. And usually at the most inconvenient of times. [sigh]

TPTB - The Powers That Be.

wulmet - n. A person of little or no talent who somehow inveigles himself into a position where he is in power over other, far more talented people and uses his position to downplay them in order to try to make himself feel superior.

biteable - referring to an anatomical part vb, tasty.

Flatterfed - vb. 27.02.08: my typo for flattered, but since it's so cutely apt I thought it would fit nicely here. Lutra defined it as "the lovely warm feeling of satisfaction resulting from enthusiastic reviews..." (which I've been getting for my MB fics).

Composted - vb, 'compos mentis', mentally capable of working. Contrast with uncomposted or non- composted, not 'compos mentis', not capable of working, hungover...

Cumbles - n, cucumbers.

Kewp - how Ken says 'thank you'. We rather like Lutra's 'nanx', too...

Musekick - noun, music, without which I cannot work.

'feinne - noun, caffeine, essential for correct mental functioning, especially first thing in the morning. I prefer mine in the form of SodaStream Diet Coke. And on that subject...

Skoosh - verb, noun. To skoosh - to add CO2 to a sodastream bottle filled with water to make it fizzy, prior to adding Diet Coke syrup (or just drinking as sparkling water). A skoosh - a bottle of water that has been skooshed. Skooshy - something that has been skooshed, water, or that whipped cream that comes in tins you have to shake then upend and press the nozzle...

Shoogle - verb. To shake gently, for example, of roast potatoes in a roasting tin to ensure they're covered with oil. I have vague memories of this being a real Scottish colloquialism...

Stegasaurus - n, spider of the genus tegenaria. Why? No idea. I just find it easier, that's all...
Edit 08.09.07: Lutra thinks that Brian is a good name for a mini-stegasaurus. From now on, any 'Brian's in the posts may be assumed to be a tegenaria. Except where otherwise specified.

Viterals - noun, vitamins + minerals. Also a pun on victuals.

Splish - verb. A combination of slosh and splash.

Parrots - noun, paracetemol (from the old joke "Why are there no aspirin tablets in the jungle? Because the parrots eat 'em all...")

Maggles - noun, magpies. As opposed to non-magical people.

Flamewings - noun. Swifts. So called because the first time we became aware of them was an early summer evening when they were flying high, the light from the setting sun seemingly turning their wings to flames. Lovely little birds. We always know summer's arrived when we hear their high-pitched squeeing.

Murfs - noun, moths.

Peasant cut - noun, roughly cut up into big chunks, e.g. vegetables chopped in a hurry for a hearty stew or soup. By extension, anything prepared in a hurry - haircut, material, even a first draft of a story...

Giraffe - noun, a carafe (of wine, coffee or water, for example).

Shrumps - noun, mushrooms.

Splings - noun, Kai's spelling homework: by extension, any spelling.

Tyops - noun, typos. var toyps, typso, psyto, psoyt, etc. Usual result of a dose of the fingerials (see next entry).

Fingerials - (pr. fin GEEE ree yalls) noun, fingers that will not type what you want them to.

Haddock - noun, time, of which I never have enough. (Origin of this term here.)

Sleep - noun? vb? a.k.a. sheeeeeeeeep.... I used to know what this word meant...


The Updates Blog

The place to stay notified of WaveWrights' Fiction updates: Zone, Darkside, DarkRealm, Matrix, Vault, Safehouse 13...




my computer gremlin Butch. click the pic to see the larger image

Butch, my computer gremlin. Click the pic for larger version, and read his adventures here...

Butch by the talented 

Sylverthorne

A gift for me! Butch by the very talented Sylverthorne. Click pic for larger image.

Joules' 

Haddock

This is MY haddock. It was caught exclusively for me by Talon. No, you can't have any. I need all the haddock I can get!!



A'lestrel by Valkyrie.

A'lestrel - a gift for me from Valkyrie...



Albino Alsatian Benten (c) MEBird 

2004

Another gorgeous Valkyrie gift for me - Benten the Albino Alsatian! Click thumbnail for larger image.

Radittsu, an oekaki for my birthday 04 

by 

Onna

Oekai by Bakayaro Onna - Radittsu at his sexiest...



The Zone Plant from
The Zone 

blog 

plant

OrganicHTML (which alas no longer seems to exist...)
[::..My Regular Reads..::]
:: Astronomical Pic of the Day [>]
:: What is Space... [>]
:: Dark Roasted Blend [>]
:: BLDG [>]
:: Watchismo Times [>]
[::..Fun Places..::]
::HubbleSite
Stunning...
::PALEOMAP Project
Absolutely fascinating.
:: Skymap
Check out the night sky where you are!
[::..Useful Sites..::]
:: GreenNet
First stop for environmental matters
:: The Forest of Avon
Our local community forest and places to visit
:: The Guardian
Online Guardian Newspaper.
:: Symbols
Exactly what it says
:: World Timeserver
For checking the current time around this world
:: Universal Currency Converter
Actually it's just a terran-global currency converter, not universal, but it's still useful...

So what is it with the haddock? Am I some kind of fish freak?

I'll leave that to others to decide.

The tale (or tail if you prefer) harks back to October 2000, when my GoodTwin and I, ably assisted by Sue, ran the first UK Professionals convention...
It's common knowledge that I never have enough time, and I was determined not to bewail the fact that weekend: hence I promised not to use the 'T' word...
Of course, that didn't really work (if nothing else I had to let the trainees know what times things were supposed to be happening!) so we decided a substitute word would be employed instead. There were several suggestions. Banana came very close to being chosen. However, I eventually decided that 'haddock' fitted the bill nicely. Ever since, haddock=time. Hence the title of my forthcoming autobiography,
My Half-Life in the Haddock Space Continuum....


Normally I wouldn't, but these were just irresistible...

How could I resist?

Just too adorable...

and to complete the rainbow...

These Too-Kawaii Kitties
were adopted from
Ghost's Anime Page (which appears to have disappeared, alas...)

[::..Anime/Manga..::]
Useful sites:

BBTS -
Fabulous anime figures

Anime Lyrics
A huge selection... evil popups

Anime still needed to complete series' I'm collecting... Many thanks to everyone who has helped me acquire the collection!
Ai no Kusabi

Owned:
   DVD
   Dj: June Special
   CD: Ambivalence

Cyber City Oedo 808

Owned:
   DVD
   All 3 eps on Video, dubbed
   Dj: Cyberage 1-3
   Illustrated Book 2 (Benten's) in Japanese

From Eroica with Love

Owned:
   Manga Vols 1, 9, 11

Mirage of Blaze

Owned:
   DVD Vol 1 (eps 1-4)

R.G. Veda

Owned:
   English Manga: Vol 1
   Japanese Manga: Vol 1-7 complete
   Tarot Pack
   R.G.Veda video

Twelve Kingdoms

Owned:
   Anime Vol 1-12: complete

Under the Glass Moon

Owned:
   Manga Vol 1, 2
Vol 3 needed

Vampire Hunter D - Bloodlust

Owned:
   DVD

   Vampire Hunter D Book 1



New Vampire Miyu

Owned:
   (Studio Ironcat) Manga Vols 1 -5 (complete)


Yami no Matsuei

Owned:
   Viz Manga: English translation, Vols 1 - 11 (complete: I believe vol 12 is only available online)
   Japanese 3-DVD set
   Central Park Media: Descendants of Darkness Vol. 1, English/Japanese subbed.
   Sketchbook


[::..Joules SP fied..::]


... this is Terra? How the hell'd I end up here...?

(Thanks, Lutra, for the quote!)

[::..archive..::]
07/01/2002 - 07/31/2002
08/01/2002 - 08/31/2002
09/01/2002 - 09/30/2002
10/01/2002 - 10/31/2002
11/01/2002 - 11/30/2002
12/01/2002 - 12/31/2002
01/01/2003 - 01/31/2003
02/01/2003 - 02/28/2003
03/01/2003 - 03/31/2003
04/01/2003 - 04/30/2003
05/01/2003 - 05/31/2003
06/01/2003 - 06/30/2003
07/01/2003 - 07/31/2003
08/01/2003 - 08/31/2003
09/01/2003 - 09/30/2003
10/01/2003 - 10/31/2003
11/01/2003 - 11/30/2003
12/01/2003 - 12/31/2003
01/01/2004 - 01/31/2004
02/01/2004 - 02/29/2004
03/01/2004 - 03/31/2004
04/01/2004 - 04/30/2004
05/01/2004 - 05/31/2004
06/01/2004 - 06/30/2004
07/01/2004 - 07/31/2004
08/01/2004 - 08/31/2004
09/01/2004 - 09/30/2004
10/01/2004 - 10/31/2004
11/01/2004 - 11/30/2004
12/01/2004 - 12/31/2004
01/01/2005 - 01/31/2005
02/01/2005 - 02/28/2005
03/01/2005 - 03/31/2005
04/01/2005 - 04/30/2005
05/01/2005 - 05/31/2005
06/01/2005 - 06/30/2005
07/01/2005 - 07/31/2005
08/01/2005 - 08/31/2005
09/01/2005 - 09/30/2005
10/01/2005 - 10/31/2005
11/01/2005 - 11/30/2005
12/01/2005 - 12/31/2005
01/01/2006 - 01/31/2006
02/01/2006 - 02/28/2006
03/01/2006 - 03/31/2006
04/01/2006 - 04/30/2006
05/01/2006 - 05/31/2006
06/01/2006 - 06/30/2006
07/01/2006 - 07/31/2006
08/01/2006 - 08/31/2006
09/01/2006 - 09/30/2006
10/01/2006 - 10/31/2006
11/01/2006 - 11/30/2006
12/01/2006 - 12/31/2006
01/01/2007 - 01/31/2007
02/01/2007 - 02/28/2007
03/01/2007 - 03/31/2007
04/01/2007 - 04/30/2007
05/01/2007 - 05/31/2007
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07/01/2007 - 07/31/2007
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01/01/2008 - 31/01/2008
01/02/2008 - 29/02/2008
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01/12/2015 - 31/12/2015
01/01/2016 - 31/01/2016
01/022016 - 28/02/2016
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01/01/2017 - 31/01/2017
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01/01/2018 - 31/01/2018
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01/11/2018 - 30/11/2018
01/12/2018 - 31/12/2018
01/01/2019 - 31/01/2019
01/02/2019 - 28/02/2019
01/03/2019 - 31/03/2019
01/04/2019 - 30/04/2019
01/05/2019 - 31/05/2019
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01/11/2019 - 30/11/2019
01/12/2019 - 31/12/2019
01/01/2020 - 31/01/2020
01/02/2020 - 29/02/2020
01/03/2020 - 31/03/2020
01/04/2020 - 31/04/2020
01/05/2020 - 31/05/2020
01/06/2020 - 31/06/2020
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01/09/2020 - 30/09/2020
01/10/2020 - 31/10/2020
01/11/2020 - 30/11/2020
01/12/2020 - 31/12/2020
01/01/2021 - 31/01/2021
01/02/2021 - 28/02/2021
01/03/2021 - 31/03/2021
01/04/2021 - 30/04/2021
01/05/2021 - 31/05/2021
01/06/2021 - 30/06/2021
01/07/2021 - 31/07/2021
01/08/2021 - 31/08/2021
01/09/2021 - 30/09/2021
01/10/2021 - 31/10/2021
01/11/2021 - 30/11/2021
01/12/2021 - 31/12/2021
01/01/2022 - 31/01/2022
01/02/2022 - 28/02/2022
01/03/2022 - 31/03/2022
01/04/2022 - 30/04/2022
01/05/2022 - 30/05/2022
01/06/2022 - 31/06/2022
01/07/2022 - 31/07/2022
01/08/2022 - 31/08/2022
01/09/2022 - 30/09/2022
01/10/2022 - 31/10/2022
01/11/2021 - 31/11/2021
01/12/2022 - 31/12/2022
01/01/2023 - 31/01/2023
01/02/2023 - 28/02/2023
01/03/2023 - 31/03/2023
01/04/2023 - 30/04/2023
01/08/2023 - 31/08/2023
01/11/2023 - 31/11/2023

Saturday, August 27, 2016

Another quickie while I have time. K&K are out today, off to Wotton-under-Edge again to explore the escarpment. Should be good views, if a little hazy.

I've sorted the kitchen cupboards (few more bits to go to charity: I think I'm now down to only the stuff I actually use), put a wash through, organised dinner, written up some notes for the Dystopia project and edited three more chapters. Oh, and next!Poppy is started too. Not too bad.

It's not easy at the moment though. Don't know if it's the new meds, or I'm doing too much, or whatever is wrong with my back is getting worse (won't know about that until I see the dr on the 12th Sept, earliest appt I could get, so I assume it's nothing too serious...) My Skype convo with Lutra last night pretty much expresses it nicely though.

Joules: Y'know, it's a bit bloody much when just raising a glass to your mouth sends shooting pains through your hand and elbow! I want to send this body back and demand a replacement that works, please.
Lutra: Gah! It is! Is it still under warranty though? Even so you'd expect a minimum level of service.
Quite! And it's supposed to have a lifetime guarantee, or so I understood.
There's probably some tricky 'reasonable use' clause, which no one can 'reasonably' do.
[GRUMP] I'd try and find it but the warranty is 50 million pages long... in VERY TINY SCRIPT. On organic material.
I'm sure there's enough dissatisfaction a class action against the manufacturer isn't unreasonable! I mean, the time and money expended on these, and it's not like they're a luxury you can do without!

Can one sue evolution for incompetence?

It's not quite so bad today, but the pain is still constant, and painkillers don't seem to do much...

Eh well. Have a pretty to end on!


Definitely a flower spike! More photos as it flowers.


My little lithops has flowered this year too, twice!

Labels: , , ,





7 Comments:

Blogger thatwritingchick48 said...

Joules,

My emails to you are getting sent back to me with a "permanently failed" message. Things okay between us?

1:23 am  
Blogger Joules *Dances with Haddock* Taylor said...

I have absolutely NO idea why that's happening. I did wonder why I hadn't heard anything from you but assumed you were still languishing in the summer heat over there, or hadn't found any funnies, or were simply busy. Could you try forwarding one of the returned emails to my JAT addy, and see if that works? If not, we'll try the yahoo or googlemail route, I have accounts with both.
Did you get my e-card? If not, it may be a problem at your end.

11:04 am  
Blogger thatwritingchick48 said...

I'll try the JAT addy, and forward one of the returned emails to that. Frantic weekend, so Monday or Tuesday.

3:49 pm  
Blogger Joules *Dances with Haddock* Taylor said...

OK, thanks, we'll see what happens. In the meantime, I've lowered the strength of my spam detection and deletion at source, in case that might be causing it. I checked Spamhaus and we're not listed there (you could check it out yourself - go here https://www.spamhaus.org/ and put in your IP address, it'll tell you if they have you listed). I have your email address whitelisted: there's absolutely no reason for the system to be playing up!
We'll get to the bottom of it, I promise. In the meantime, hope all's well, despite summer heat and being busy.

10:23 pm  
Blogger Joules *Dances with Haddock* Taylor said...

Update: The e-card I sent has bounced back to me, which argues it may possibly be a problem at your end. I've tried sending it direct, as the notification advised: let me know if you get it? Do you know if anyone else has been receiving your emails, or getting them bounced back?

3:13 pm  
Blogger thatwritingchick48 said...

That truly puzzles me, as I got the ecard, and enjoyed the wols. In fact I still have the notification that it was sent me, and it still allowed me to open the card as I was writing this. Hmmmm.

However, I totally forgot to tell you how much I enjoyed it, so that's on me completely. Thank you. It made a mad day just a little bit better.

7:58 pm  
Blogger Joules *Dances with Haddock* Taylor said...

[flings hands up in the air] OK, no idea what's going on! Your last email to my usual account arrived just fine, and I replied, but just in case it doesn't arrive with you I thought I'd comment here so you'd know. Looks like reducing my spam settings has sorted it out? Fingers crossed anyway.
Glad you enjoyed the card - sorry your day was mad.

9:46 pm  



Wednesday, August 24, 2016

Wut? That's over a week zooomed past again! My haddock are escaping!!

Better do the quickest of all catchups before I completely forget what's happened...

The meeting with Marie went fine, she settled on a domain name and is going to play around with WordPress to see how she gets on with it. I have to reluctantly admit it's improved since I last checked it out.

31 photo albums to go (that's including the 6 Ken brought down from his study which weren't included in the original count). The first 4.7 gig DVD has been burned and archived.

It's been too hot (or too wet) for Kai to go out much during the day this last week, so he's had several evening walks with both myself and Ken. I've got quite a lot done in the garden, and the plans are coming into focus. This is good!

And that's basically it. We finished watching The Omega Factor (and I'm honestly not sure quite how I feel about it. Several of the eps were brilliant - Child's Play in particular - but some were disappointing. It generated a fair bit of discussion here though, which is always a good thing). We're now rewatching Trigun, probably my favourite anime of all time. It just gets better and better with each watching!

Off to chop veg for stir fry...

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2 Comments:

Blogger GoodTwin said...

There are lots of loose haddock over here as well. Better nets needed... :)

9:39 pm  
Blogger Joules *Dances with Haddock* Taylor said...

Nets... Forcefields... Larger pools? No,that's a bit cruel... Could just go back to appeals for TARDIS, clones, or 60 hour days. Though I'm not at all sure even that would be enough, these days...

11:05 am  



Monday, August 15, 2016

Lots of photos below... 

On Saturday Kai and I went back to Radstock to explore the Colliers Way walk...


This would have been less alarming if we'd been able to see the bridge before stepping onto it...

... this is the bridge...


The (cycle)path runs along the old railway track.


Yes, you can ride tandems along here too!


It's number 24 of the national cycle network. Number 3 goes past our house, which is mostly very nice, except when inconsiderate groups cycle past at 6 a.m.on a Sunday morning shouting to each other ...


These were most puzzling...


... until we found out what they are!


Heh. An instructional cycle path! Whatever next!


There are quite a few bridges, both above and beneath,


And inside each of the ones above were strange signs with hands...


This is a bench, for children and adults, we think. There are seats and benches all along the route.


More hands...


Sign.


This is the sidings, as far as we got. Kai worked out later that we walked 6.8 miles in total. Legs were burning by the time we collapsed onto the bus back in Radstock, but to my surprise I was fine on Sunday. Very happy about that!


More hands!


It's an absolutely beautiful walk. Going to go back in the autumn and enjoy the colours!


On Sunday Kai had another venesection session. His ferritin was up a little last time, which does happen, we're told, but the overall trend is still downwards. It was all terribly dramatic though: the centre of Bristol was closed off by the police - on what is probably the busiest weekend of the year, the Balloon Fiesta. Getting a bus back was a nightmare, as the traffic was in complete chaos: ended up getting a no 2 to Broadwalk and walking down the hill.

Later on we found out it was a bomb scare outside Bridewell police station (which is where Ken works). Somewhat alarming...

Ending on a prettier note, there were haloes on both sides of the sun on Saturday evening.


I've stitched these together in photoshop as my little camera couldn't manage to capture both with the sun that bright. Pretty sun dogs. We quite often see one, but I've never seen two!

Today is a rest day. Ken has a couple of days off so has gone exploring something historical the other side of Bath, while Kai recovers from blood-letting. I have to go instruct a workmate of his in how to set up her own website tomorrow afternoon, so have Prowl recharging in preparation. It's too hot and sunny to do much today in any event.

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Friday, August 12, 2016

Well, six albums done - 40 to go...

Have some pics!


Twin Towers from the top of the Empire State Building.


Central Park lake.


Shy smiley plant...


Remember when I said I didn't think my original orchid would flower any time soon after flowering continuously for a year? I may have been wrong...

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0 Comments:



Wednesday, August 10, 2016

Fly-by update...

Contents of both dog-chewed albums scanned by lunchtime on Monday (450 photographs) and today I've scanned all the 1984 America trip. There are 80 pics in each of the other albums (haven't counted how many we have: will do that tomorrow) and I'm hoping to finish the last double handful of the first one tonight.

12 Kingdoms now finished. Before we move on to the next project, we're watching The Omega Factor, which I borrowed from Sue. (I think it was Sue? If it was GoodTwin, my apologies. Brain not firing on all cylinders atm.) Saw the first ep tonight and it's terrific! Low-key, understated, excellent acting and a most intriguing premise. Just hope the rest lives up to this fine start!

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2 Comments:

Blogger Sue said...

Yes, The Omega Factor was me. Delighted you are enjoying it, we'll compare notes when you've finished it :-)

9:10 pm  
Blogger Joules *Dances with Haddock* Taylor said...

Will do! Though I will say at this stage it has something of a feel of Sapphire and Steel about it, probably a product of the time.

9:20 pm  



Tuesday, August 09, 2016

Levothyroxine was ready for me at Tesco pharmacy on Saturday, so started taking right away. K&K went out for the day, to Radstock, and took the other path and found all manner of interesting things, including a quarry full of fossils... Kai and I are planning to go back for a repeat performance soon.

Meanwhile I got a lot done at home, including starting clearing the middle bed ready for the greenhouse.

And on that subject... Almondsbury strongly recommend their own freelance greenhouse construction "professional", so I emailed him with the details of what we'd like done (a concrete base larger than the greenhouse so I have a solid platform for the waterbutt, pots and a small potting table). Two and a half weeks later, despite receiving his confirmation that he'd got my email, I'd heard nothing (not the most professional of business practises, in my opinion) so emailed again. He came back saying he only builds concrete bases "locally" (what the hell does that mean? Almondsbury is only just outside the Bristol city limits!) but will happily come and check the base is OK for him to erect the greenhouse once we'd had it built. He charges £50 for the privilege, mind you, which I believe is non-refundable.

He also charges nearly double the going rate for the construction, as I discovered when I did a little research.

I am not impressed. Luckily, being webmaster of the BCP site (and webmaster and sec. of APAG, even though it's now on hiatus) I have made a lot of contacts in various trades, so organising someone else to do the work for us shouldn't be too much of a problem. I shall, however, be taking this up with the garden centre, as they really should not be recommending someone who isn't prepared to do the work.

BRI Neurophys appt this morning. Most uncomfortable having repeated electric shocks in both hands and arms. It appears I have carpal tunnel syndrome in my left right hand - and it's more than likely a side effect of the hypothyroidism. So for now, I'm to keep taking the levothyroxine, get blood tests to check the dosage is correct, and when it is, if I still have the problem, we can investigate further. Keeping fingers crossed!

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1 Comments:

Blogger GoodTwin said...

That's a nuisance about the concrete base. No doubt he could do the work but is either too busy or simply doesn't want to do it - over-charging is a sure way of putting people off.
Hope you can find someone to do it all, but I'll be surprised if you can't.

Glad to hear there seems to be some progress with the medical bits.

6:50 pm  



Friday, August 05, 2016

Later later edit: Dr rang, and apparently I have hypothyroidism (underactive thyroid). This explains a lot, and strange as it sounds is a real relief. It's common (15 in every 1K people have it), easily treatable with hormone tablets, and it's one of those conditions that allows me to get free prescriptions from now until... whenever. Might have to take it the rest of my life. Main thing is it's copable, and now I know what it is I can deal with it.

Heh. Hopefully pick up the first lot of tabs (low dosage to start with, then another blood test in two months to check that they're doing what they're supposed to and the dosage doesn't need to be changed) tomorrow and start making a difference.

Later edit: letter has arrived from BRI: Tues appt is for the nerve induction tests to my right arm and hand, not about my back, so that's reassuring. Shall stop worrying now. A bit.

On Wednesday Kai and I got the bus to Snuff Mills for a stroll along the Frome Valley Walkway...

It's absolutely beautiful there, a flat path along the gorge with the river flowing beside us. Ducks, fish, and Kai saw a kingfisher...


We think this is a Calopteryx virgo damsel fly. There were two of them dancing: Kai was lucky to catch this one at rest!

Weir at the mill.

It's positively Middle-Earthish in places!

Weir on the Oldbury Court Estate

We ended up with 175 photos (most of which Kai took. He has got to get his own camera!!) We plan to go back at some point: there are paths everywhere just begging to be explored.

Yesterday was quieter: the forecast rain never arrived, so I did washing and Kai came to Tesco with me - via Victory Park,to keep the exercise theme going. Altogether very pleasant.

The phone engineer arrived at 8.15 this morning. Said the problem was with the cabling outside: he thought water had got into it, and replaced the damaged bit. Well, it's been in place for nearly 25 years, so I'm not surprised. It sounds OK now, but I won't know for certain until the dr rings this afternoon.

My appointment with the Neurophys team is 9 a.m. next Tues. Little worried as to why it's so soon. Hopefully they just aren't too busy right now.

In the meantime I'm continuing scanning photos. Got to the start of my second year at uni now (1978. I feel old...)

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1 Comments:

Blogger Sue said...

Well that is various good news of a sort. The underactive thyroid could be so much worse as you said.
Lovely pictures again!

5:16 pm  



Tuesday, August 02, 2016

Another quick catchup...

It's been busy. Continuing the overall 2016 downsizing and clearing out, I bought a new scanner (Canon neglected to make a driver that worked with the old scanner and Windows 7...) so I can scan and archive all our old photos. And I do mean old. I have some black and white ones going back to the late 1960's, when my grandmother gave me my first camera (I was 8, I believe), and a whole load of Uni ones taken with inferior film which are degrading horribly. Only it's a huge job. Ken estimated he has about 2,000 upstairs in storage, we have roughly 1,200 in albums in the lounge, and there's more in the old albums that Quyn chewed. The scanner is only a little cheapie and while it works really well - top resolution 4800 dpi!! - it overheats if I try to do too much. So it's going to be, scan 10 photos, let it rest for half an hour, rinse and repeat. Endlessly.

Going to take a while...

We also have new phones - finally! Our old ones were Freecycled waaaay back. These are great (and come with 15 different ringtones. I have a very popular snippet of classical music which I cannot for the life of me remember the title of as mine). And being able to walk around with it is terrific!

I treated myself to the new IDW Thundercracker figure with an unexpected refund -


He's splendid! But I now need to find a tiny Buster for him. Shall check out toyshops next time I'm in town...

Had a call from the surgery (coincidentally just as a knock came at the door: Royal Mail delivering TC - nice to be able to take the phone with me!) and my doctor wants to discuss my blood test results. Which is a little worrying, although there's no rush, she's going to ring me on Friday for a phone consultation. Also had a letter from the BRI asking me to ring to book an appointment with the Tech Neurophysiology team, Not sure if that's about the MRI results or my hand... I continue to fall to bits.

In other news: Kai's latest cold is slowly going, Ken's is still in full swing. So far I've been able to escape it, rather to my surprise. Hayfever is bad this year though!

No doubt there's lots more (K&K went to Wotton-under-Edge last Sat while I did some major shopping/wheeling stuff to charity shops; Kai and I took an evening walk to the nature reserve last Thursday; I still haven't managed to go for a swim, absolutely must try to make time for it asap; next!Poppy has been started...) but that's the essentials. In a moment I shall update my template to add all the IMDb ep summaries I've done to the sidebar, as I've yet to find a way on the IMDb to look up specific contributors' work!

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5 Comments:

Blogger GoodTwin said...

Our BT cordless was playing up last year and we replaced it with a very similar Panasonic cordless (just one handset) and have found it far and away better than the BT model, which had a nasty habit of falling out of the charging cradle and either not being charged when needed, or indeed falling out when the phone rang so the ansaphone would cut off before anyone could leave a message...

11:01 pm  
Blogger Joules *Dances with Haddock* Taylor said...

Oooops.

I hate to say it, but I would trust Panasonic (or Sony) over BT any day. (Sorry Sue.) I'm really VERY happy with them. Nice to hold and easy to use once you start thinking of them as similar to mobiles.

Not so happy with the truly awful noise on the line that's been steadily getting worse over the last month. Have an engineer coming Fri am to try to sort it out, as I can barely hear anyone on the other end. Fingers crossed...

11:09 pm  
Blogger GoodTwin said...

It's not all BT models though - some designs sit very securely in the baseunit. The BT one was chosen from Argos on price/features. Our path to choosing the new one was to try every model available in Currys to see which sat properly in the base - then we looked at price/features etc. :)

My Mum had a bad noise on her line a while back - all the wires needed replacing...

10:31 am  
Blogger Joules *Dances with Haddock* Taylor said...

Oh joy. I hope it's not that...

9:45 pm  
Blogger Sue said...

Hee - what make are our phones? Panasonic! That said, if they pack up I shall definitely look at the new BT ones with the call blocker facility. I've only heard good things about them.

7:57 pm  





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