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And finally, just in time (10pm xmas eve) I got some cards out to the neighbours. I printed out some freely-downloadable cards and present tags and was surprised how good they look on plain paper from our colour laser printer. Wrapped up a bunch of things for family in pieces of cloth we use as reusable wrapping paper and stuck them under the tree. My dad's going to be surprised by his β€” it's ginormous!

I put the cards (actually just paper; unfortunately it looks like the remaining cardstock from when my dad did printing as a business hasn't made it from the old house to the new house yet) through our near neighbours' doors. There are 5 houses that, with ours, cluster round a bend in the road and feel like a little tiny community all of their own. It's quite nice. I don't really know the other residents yet, and only have some of their names, but I expect I'll find out!

We already had cards from some of the other residents and I was near enough the front door when one of them arrived to hear a parent talking her child through the process of putting it through the letterbox, so I'm guessing the child's quite young. I delivered them a colouring-in card as well as a normal one. :]

 
Today I finally got this Kelsey photo put into a frame. I found a spare 5Γ—7 frame in the garage a few days ago and have now cleaned it and picked a photo to go in it. I miss Kelsey. Stupid thing is, he's in a bag just a couple of metres from me right now, but I haven't worn him in absolutely ages. The suit is very old and not in a great condition, and I really need to get on with that rebuild I've been meaning to do for so many years now. I do miss Kelsey. I love him, I want to hug him, but I can't really β€” even if I got someone else to wear the suit, it wouldn't be *him* I was hugging. He's more real in my mind than in reality, somehow. I want him to be here with me.
 

Oof, been so busy still. I took pics nearly 2 weeks ago to post here and still haven't!

So anyway, nearly a couple of weeks ago, a chap from the council came round and added lots of Handles to my house. In the meantime we've discovered that at least some of them do in fact help my mother move around, hurrah.

 

And the the day after that I finally got on my motorbike and did that trip to the south coast I've been threatening to do for weeks now. Finally made it, stopping at Littlehampton and getting a few pics on the beach, albeit after dark. *sigh* Oh well, at least I made it. Went back to the old house afterwards, sorted a few network things out and brought some routers I needed back to the new house.

(6 pics below; if you can't see them all, look on the origin instance.)

 
About a week ago I managed to get up to the loft to try to see if I'd be able to drop a network cable down to the ground floor next to where the stack pipe goes, but it's so darn difficult to move around up there I didn't manage to get to where I was trying to go. At least I've learned for sure that that loft is *not* suitable for casual access and I'd be better to add boards to the ceiling in the garage when I need more storage rather than trying to use the loft space!
 
A few *more* days later I got into baking mode and did 3 batches of bread (6 loaves) in a single day. Gave one each to my sisters and my newly-widowed aunt - I think they all liked them. I did manage to drop a loaf on the floor just as I was putting it in the airing cupboard to prove, but I washed it off and it was (mostly) fine. It came out a bit different, probably because of getting all the air knocked out instead of just most of it. It also stuck in the tin and tore as I pulled it out, probably because the tin-grease stayed on the dough and got washed off. Tasted okay though (I kept it for myself, just in case any carpet fluff had failed to wash off properly).
 
Then, a few days later I actually got on my bicycle for the first time in months and didn't manage to go to where I planned to go, but I did realise on the way back from not getting there that it's nice having things like this quite close to home.
 

Content warning: CW: funeral

 
My sister was clearing out a bunch of old mugs and I've ended up giving @Thumper a new home. 😁
 
My sisters and their families came over yesterday evening and ate nearly all our pizza and we all (all 10 of us) watched Knuckles. I thought it was going to be a film (slotting in between Sonic 2 and 3 in the film series) but it's a TV series instead, and it's okay, but not exactly compelling. Eh, it did.
 
I got started. Many parts have been ordered and collected. And now, new light switch back box has been screwn to the wall! Not much, but it's better than nothing. :)
 
Spider-Man? More like tireder-man. (Onna bus.)
 
Seems above-ground non-rail public transport is royally screwed in London today. I waited probably over half an hour in the cold at Vauxhall bus station for a 10-minutely service. When it arrived the driver said the demonstration (pro-Palestine, I think) blocking the streets meant he was unlikely to make it far. So I walked the 20 minutes to Oval and got the tube. Reached the London furmeet just as the fursuit walk departed, oops. Maybe I should have gone with it, there's no one I know here, as far as I can tell. *sigh*
 
Out for a bit of Activism before the LF meet today.
 

My Halloween: my sisters acquired a cute inflatable monster and a reflective witch picture for me to stick on the front of my house, and I acquired a bowl of sweets to leave out. My parents and I then visited my sisters for the afternoon/evening and when we got back about β…” of the sweets had gone! By my calculations that means at least 20 people took one. (Or more likely fewer people took multiple ones. πŸ˜›) And it didn't look like any local wildlife had had a go at them either, so that was good.

I went for a little spidey-walk too. Saw a few decorated houses, said happy halloween to a few people. πŸ™‚

 
I got myself out of the house and went to the Berkshirefurs meet yesterday. Took a Spidey suit with me and got a bit of spider-time in. Not that I knew many people there, just couple of the organisers (and one person I know from the kink scene…) (There were a lot more people there than the photos suggest, but I tried to pick shots without anyone recognisable in the background as it's not practical to ask incidental background people for permission.)
 

I should probably post my bread. Maybe if I use hashtags something interesting will happen.

#breadPost #baking #bread #breadmaking #bakersOfMastodon #breadiverse #breadstodon

 
I found this in the small loft above the utility room in the new house. It was in a bit of a poor state, the top half didn't want to stay attached to the bottom half and the lights and tinsel were in disarray. My sister spent a few minutes (that's all it took) to sort it out a couple of days ago, and we are now ready for December! πŸ˜›
 

We are still using up these little packets of jam that my parents bought a catering pack of many years ago for their self-catering rental house (back when they started they used to leave a full cooked meal ready for guests when they arrived, later on it was just milk, bread, butter, and some cereals and jams).

They are now quite a few years out of date and thus getting a bit rubbery, but my dad won't throw them away. But every time I look at them I remember the old "Fly Fishing by J R Hartley" Yellow Pages TV advert (which I see they have since updated and remade).

 

Can anyone confirm what this is? It's attached inside the fitting for a 6-foot fluourescent light tube in my garage. I thought it was the starter at first, but all the starters I've been able to find are much much smaller and have a bayonet fitting at the end. The marking saying "8Β·4 Β΅F" leads me to think it may just be a *very* chunky capacitor, and the ballast (which is very identifiable because it says "S.R.S. ballast for 1x 6ft. 85 watt tube" on its label) might be a type that doesn't need a separate starter, perhaps.

Not that it really matters now; I've since decided, rather than trying to replace the starter (which doesn't seem to exist) I'm going to replace both whole light fittings and their delicate and malfunctioning fluourescent tubes with four LED light fixtures. Going to add another light switch next to the garage's side door too, because when it's dark it's annoying to have to stumble through the whole garage to/from the only switch which is next to the front doors.

 

Several days ago my sister sent me a text suggesting I look outside and north to see the aurora in action. She said she's barely been able to see it, but a photo made it quite visible. I wasn't able to get much at all, just a vaguely redish or greenish tinge to the sky. In the end I had more fun doing long exposure photos of the road to get those "streaky" car light trails! (Pics 4, 5 and 6 below.)

I did get a fairly decent picture of ursa major though (pics 2 and 3 below) without much camera shake, even.

 
Finally. I brought some of my dad's scaffolding (1950's DIYer's kit) back from the old house a few days ago, and, now that the rain's deigned to stop for a bit, I have proper access to the dish.
 

My lawn is apparently a fungus-producing *machine*!

(6 pictures attached. I rather like the last two, so view on original instance if you don't see those ones.)

 

Last Thursday night I got home (to the new house, having visited the old house) really late, actually so late it was Friday morning. 2:30am, to be precise. The motorcycle ride back was annoying because I had a lot of trouble keeping my visor clear enough to see where I was going. I had to stop and clean everything half way and it wasn't obvious whether it was my glasses steaming up, visor steaming up, pinlock coming away from the visor and steaming up between the two, or just damp on the outside of the visor! In the end it was probably a combo of all those.

Once I got back and took my helmet off I could see just how wet the air is - I even got this bit of video clearly showing droplets just hanging in the beam of my headlights and streaming around in the breeze!

 
Got the TV area advanced to the next step a few days ago - I managed to wrestle the TV cabinet into the car and bring it from old-home to new-home. My sisters helped me lift it out and bring it in, and hurrah, it fits! (Of course - tape measures are your friend… πŸ˜‰) No, those speakers aren't plumbed in yet - the surround sound A/V receiver box is the next item on the agenda.
 
I borrowed my dad's car, went and collected this ebay winning and bolted it together last night! It's "gamer" desk so it has LED lighting (of course) but it was pretty cheap at Β£20, decent sized desktop, in good condition and pretty sturdy - so I like it. I just need to get parts and put a new desktop machine together, because honestly the current one, back at the old house, is just too old and crumbly and unreliable and I need something new. And now I have a nice place to put it, just as soon as "it" exists!
 
This house's kitchen came with a "built-in" microwave (amongst other built-in things), but it's really not. It's just a normal tabletop microwave stuck in a cupboard with inadequate ventilation and plugged into a normal switched socket behind the (actually built-in) oven, and the plug/socket is positioned such that you can't unplug it without (I assume) unscrewing the oven and pulling it forward! Great design, whoever put this kitchen together! 😝
 
A few days ago I finally got the TV from the old house brought over to the new house, and mounted it on the wall bracket the previous owners had left in place. Hurrah.
 

First bread made at the new house! The oven here doesn't have a bread rising setting, but the airing cupboard seemed to work quite well.

Strawberry jam, or lemon curd? Or maybe both?

 
Out for a walk with my parents, we saw this little guy just strutting along as if they owned the place. Didn't seem very agitated by humans being around. I think it's a partridge.
 
One thing I managed to do today: replaced the cat-flap panel in the house's side door with the original glass panel the previous owners had left in the garage in case we wanted to do just that. (I don't have a taller "before" photo, just take my word it's the same door and the top panel wasn't changed!)
 

I love being a faceless biker/mook/robot/thing.

(Edit: I should point out there are 6 pics attached to this post; see post on original instance if you don't see them all!)

 
When I got home at 6am today, this is what things looked like. Nice sunrise. Oh no, it's not the sun, it's a street lamp. πŸ˜›
 
Done it again! 😁 I went out a bit late this time (7:30pm) and didn't get so many reactions, but still got a few good ones. It's not only kids who want pics with Spidey!
 

I went for my first Spidey-walk around my new neighbourhood.

Several pretty nice encounters with locals. A group outside the local club wanted photos (although only one of them actually stood next to me to be photographed!), a couple wanted pictures to show a young relative who, apparently, would be astounded that they'd met the real Spidey. A family with two young boys was just getting into their car after after presumably visiting relatives and the family seemed to like seeing me, although the boys themselves seemed not bold enough to interact. A guy told me he'd just "walked out" of work (not sure if he'd quit or just left for the day) after his manager had sworn at him and said just seeing me lifted his mood and made his day.

And all this just from my first 30 minute, 1Β½ mile walk. Gotta spend a bit more time out in suit in this area! πŸ™‚

(Below, eight selfies of me as classic Spider-Man with my web backpack, one indoors before I went out, the others taken on a path beside a green part way along my route.)

 

When I got home today, after a couple of days at the old house, I parked the bike on the driveway and a couple of small fluffy persons came to say hello. Or, more precisely, one of them came to say hello, while the other one nearly did but then hid under a bush for ages, coming out only very briefly to tell the other one off and then go and hide again. I do like how they don't care that I'm in a full set of leathers, gloves, boots, with a blank black visor and no face, they just care if they get pettings. I do hope someday someone happens to walk past while this is happening and gets a surreptitious photo of a scary biker being affectionate to cats.

Also, I was busy yesterday and made four whole loaves of bread. Then I eated some.

 

The deed was do'ed (last Thursday).

Now my mum seems to not recognise me more often than previously (although that might just be progression of her dementia), and my sister's dog, Comet, who was fine the first time he met me after the dehairification, growled at me this evening when he saw me in bike gear and bare-headed. Took him a while to grudgingly accept me again.

On the whole, I think I like it though. πŸ€·β€β™‚οΈ

 

@Ghost The new house has very non-smart meters, presumably unchanged since the place was built in 1989. They are "digital" only in the sense that they have digits displayed on the front…

I found images of, I think, the same models of meter. If not they are *very* close.

An English Electric type C31 B/M electricity meter.

An Actaris U6 gas meter.

Hmm, I think the risk from remote-off is probably negligible (unless someone was motivated enough to hack the things and turn it off maliciously, but that also seems very unlikely, unless they did so in bulk, indiscriminately). I'd guess the benefit of a slightly under-reading meter is probably offset by the benefit of being able to see your usage in real time, have time-of-day-variable tariffs, and things like that.

 
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