test please delete

[ladymuck]

Morning all

Microsoft rebooted my laptop overnight and so that means (a) my laptop thinks it has no network card until I've restarted it a sufficient number of times and (b) my laptop fails to properly boot until I've restarted it a sufficient number of times. Eventually I will hit a sweet spot of restarts where it loads to windows and remembers it has a network card.

Overcast but warm. 80% chance of rain from noon.

[NickFitz]

Morning denizens

Grey and damp and not very warm out there, but not actually raining at the moment

Rain due this afternoon or evening though

[BR14]

morning.

bloody king billy again in shivery sarf herts.

[WTFH]

morning.

bloody king billy again in shivery sarf herts.

Still some signs of blue skies here in bonnie Weegieland.

[DoctorStrangelove]

In with the hoi polloi.

Saw what I think was a red kite as I perambulated down the the library.

It was certainly big enough & the tail looked right, but where were the jackdaws?

They were missing out on mobbing it, maybe jackdaws don't know what a red kite is any more.

[NickFitz]

In with the hoi polloi.

Saw what I think was a red kite as I perambulated down the the library.

It was certainly big enough & the tail looked right, but where were the jackdaws?

They were missing out on mobbing it, maybe jackdaws don't know what a red kite is any more.

I remember when red kites were so scarce that Colin Dexter used somebody travelling to Wales to see them as a plot point in one of his Inspector Morse novels. Now, I got in the habit of mentally ticking them off as I travelled along the A14 - past this junction, round the bend, look up and there it is; a mile further on, over the other side of the road, another one. I'd notice if one of them wasn't in its usual spec, they were such a regular sight

Apparently they like hanging around near major roads because the tarmac getting hot creates local thermals on warm days, which they use to soar. That's why they're everywhere along the M40 through the Chilterns.

[DoctorStrangelove]

I remember when red kites were so scarce that Colin Dexter used somebody travelling to Wales to see them as a plot point in one of his Inspector Morse novels.

The ex-brother in law was on an exam board with Colin Dexter.

Strangelove Sis was gutted that he didn't get an autograph or some such.

[NickFitz]

The ex-brother in law was on an exam board with Colin Dexter.

Strangelove Sis was gutted that he didn't get an autograph or some such.

Dexter set The Silent World of Nicholas Quinn, which was also one of the first Morse novels adapted for telly, in an exam board. EBIL is lucky he didn't get bumped off, if the depiction in there of exam board life is anything to go by

[NickFitz]

For lunch, I reheated some of the slow-cooked shoulder of beef from the other night, shredded, with a bit of the wine-based stock derived during cooking (which has formed a jelly on cooling) mixed in to keep it moist, and piled it up in a wholemeal bap. Lovely stuff

[WTFH]

Another morning stroll around Glasgow, including going past the Scotia bar, which has a sign outside it saying BR14 has a lifetime ban.

Near the Admiral bar was a piece of Scottish graffiti which took me a minute to work out: “Alastair is a pee-do”