Anomnomnomaly

I still sneak my own food and drink into the cinema when I go... it costs 1/4 of the price that way and the two of us can actually go and see a movie for less than £50 that way. When I was a teenager, you could actually buy 2 tickets & popcorn for less than £10 (90's)... and we'd sneak a bottle of vodka in.

OMG... I used to run a childrens after school project and we were full time during the school hols... So many times we'd organise outings to the lasertag place near us... Had no idea they still existed, it's probably been almost 20yrs or so... lasertag, roller skating, those activity centres with slides, ropes, tunnels and ball pits... afternoon trips to the cinema to watch a Pixar movie in the summer hols and at least 3 times during the summer break... a big day out to a theme park, museums and other interesting places like cabury world where you can get the kids sick on chocolate samples after scoffing as many as they can and then putting them on a coach for the 2hr drive back.... Didn't do that trip again. :)

A bit meh... weather has been absolute dogshit all week... The wind and rain have started causing my early onset arthritis to play up and I've been struggling as a result to crack on with some DIY jobs I needed to finish. Then errands, running my elderly mum about for appointments because she decided to schedule appts in the same fucking place on 2 different fucking days... AAARRRGGGHHH!!! Then wanted me to take her to meet my sister on Friday 30 miles away.

However... here's the upsides.

My step-niece had her 2nd child and 2nd boy. Finally finished the prep on the bedroom on Thurs evening, plasterer starts Monday... so painting should commence end of next week. I went out for brunch on Tues & Weds whilst waiting for her to finish her appointments... woohoo, 2 cooked brekkies in a row. I was able to sort out lifts for her for Thurs, so I didn't have to interrupt my work yet again because she expects me to drop everything at her command (I don't). Dropped her off to go to the cinema with my sister to see some Downton Abbey movie, and I went and got a nice coffee and some cake.

Came back home and played Cyberpunk 2077 for a few hrs this afternoon until my partner got home.

We're now about to have an early night ;) and watch a little netflix... probably chill.

Yeah, they think they can avoid the fine by blocking the UK... but that won;t have any effect on their past failings to follow the UK laws.

All I can say is... good, imgur can fuck off and hopefully die.

A few weeks back they went on a mass banning spree too after a mass protest from users. I 'could' still access it as I use a VPN and have for the last 12-13yrs... the OSA affected me for 2 seconds, as I switched from a server in one country to another.... But imgur went to shit a long time ago, bowing to chinese investors and censoring shit, then being bought by a toxic company known for degrading services and running them into the ground whilst pocketing as much cash as they get their hands on.

So imgur has been dying for many years, and this is just finishing it off.

Don't fret, there are alternatives and they're not corpo controlled by wankers.

They need to be connected to their servers to be set up... worthless junk. At least you've learned a valuable... albeit it, expensive lesson. There is no reason at all to allow these devices to be at the whim of some company. It's a hill I would gladly die upon, and the only things in my home that connect to the internet are my solar/battery system and my thermostat... both can be integrated into home assistant and only the solar/battery system sends any data about generation and battery health, I've even isolated onto guest wifi network to keep it free from the house.

If it's not compatible with home assistant it's worthless junk. If it requires their app to function, it's worthless junk... you are buying a product that can be rendered a brick at any point, and there are literally hundreds of examples of companies doing exactly this.

Stop buying them, unless you own them and control them.

I know that's supposed to be a joke, but depending on the construction, you might have to build a new stud wall on your side, leaving a small 25-50mm air gap and then the stud wall with the acoustic insulation in it.

I buy Aldi spreadable butter, as well as their blocks of Welsh butter and pay about £3.50 for one of each... and can't fault either one of them. If I bought the same stuff "branded" in any of the larger supermarkets, I'd be paying almost double that.

Likewise, I'm rather fond of the HP Fruity sauce... £2.50 a bottle or more... Supermarket branded variety... tastes the same, £1.10 a bottle.

I've switched from branded stuff to Aldi own brands a lot since the COL crisis a few years ago, that is still ongoing.... Not noticed a single drop in quality. But even Aldi have hiked their prices a lot. Frozen beer battered haddock used to be £3.19, is now £4.79, fresh quality sausages used to be £1.79 (6 pack, not the paste filled 8 packs) for caramelised onion/pork/apple/lincolnshire/cumberland and are now £2.49.

My avg food bill for 2, each month used to be £200-220, including food, drink and cleaning supplies... it's now £300-320, whilst cutting back on a lot of the luxury items, opting for cheaper things in some places or reducing the number of times we buy them... so steak one every 8 weeks instead of once a month. No fish and chips at home, only as a treat if we go out for a meal (not to a chippy as they're all bad here).

Getting more pissed of as it goes on.

Started fine, Went for a nice 15 mile bike ride on Sunday

Went out for a walk along the sea front on Monday and then did some DIY in the afternoon, gutting a bedroom, pulling plasterboard of 2 walls to put acoustic insulation in, and reboard a textured artex ceiling.

Tuesday, spent the morning unable to see or breathe due to the effects of the dust on Monday, struggled with some work in the morning... So went back to the sea for a walk at lunchtime to clear my head, nose and eyes, had a nice lunch and picked up some cakes for us both for supper that night.

Weds... sat around all day doing some work and waiting for a delivery... Delivery never arrived.

Thurs have spent half the morning dealing with company I ordered insulation from, that wasn't delivered for the 2nd time... they promised the 19th, then the 24th... Now say they can deliver next week... in OCTOBER!!! Told them I needed it by Friday because they're costing me time and money... the fuckers decided to cancel the order entirely and said they'd refund. Meanwhile, I needed that to finish the prep for the room as the plasterer was due to start on Monday... So now I've had to order the insulation elsewhere, who say 48hrs DPD delivery (should have go to them first) and am actually saving some money as there was a 20% off voucher available. Ordered some expanding foam, gun & cleaner to do all of the gaps around the door frame and studwork, as well as some gaps around the edges of floorboards on external walls (can feel a slight draught where joists sit in the walls and have breached the cavity a little).

So I've been getting more and more annoyed as the week went on.

So this afternoon, I went for another 15 mile bike ride to the coast and sat on a bench overlooking the estuary, listening to the birds squawking and flying around, the occasional light aircraft or helicopter from the small airfield about 15 miles away and the countless doggo's who came to say hello as their owners took them for walks down to the forest a mile down the path.

I finally started to feel a little calmer and relaxed... Which is the entire reason I moved from a city to be near the sea and mountains to begin with.... serenity now!!!

Plasterer called back, and can reschedule for next Friday to board and do the ceiling, and pop back the following Monday to skim the walls... insulation scheduled for a 29-30th delivery, which gives me two days to install it... and I can do it in a few hrs.

If it's anything like when I had to wait for security clearances, so I could actually do the job I was hired for... I got so fed up that I quit after 6 months and they still hadn't been done.

I was supposed to be doing 2nd line support for local authority, govt, CPS and police systems... I wasn't even allowed to reset some ones password until clearance was sorted.

I don;t care how good the money was... sitting around on my arse all day doing menial shit way below my pay grade and self worth just wasn't worth it... But at least I saved up enough money to see me through the next 6 months without taking too much of a hit to living expenses... I was unemployed, I could get my rent and council tax paid... all I needed was day to day expenses for car, food and utilities. :)

I got mine on sale for £2000, when it was normally £2799... the lower spec Lapierre (identical bike/frame with smaller motor and battery) was selling for £2300 at the time back in summer 2023. I've done nearly 1000 miles on it now, as I'm more of a fair weather rider and sometimes I'll go for a walk instead of a ride.

I really need a decent car I can fit a towbar bike rack on, there's decent rides nearby, but they're too far to ride too and around... I'd like to get my bike up into the mountains as they're only about 30 miles away.