#100DaysToOffload – Day 40
Yesterday was Father's Day. As we all know it is a modern construct supposedly supported by the greetings card industry to drum up business. It's not a particularly big deal in our household but I do like winding up the rest of the family for a few weeks prior to it by talking about all the presents and surprises I'll get for Father's Day. The reality is usually quite low key and this year was no exception. Usually for Father's/Mother's Day the other parent cooks a nice meal with the aid of the children. This was was a bit different as Mrs Luke has strained something in her neck from a week of sitting badly during what seemed to be back to back Teams or Zoom meetings. This meant she couldn't actually do much! I had to go go do the shopping for the meal and do the prep but that's fine.
The day started not the way I expected as we had an Ikea delivery first thing (so the coffee in bed I was hoping for didn't have a chance of arriving) and I was lugging boxes in the house in my pyjamas first thing. I did get a present:
Which was very welcome. Proper coffee is always appreciated. (Think the last time I drank instant coffee was June 2019 and that was because it was the only option while I had a thumping hangover.)
Pleasant stroll along Hove seafront walking the dog and the children after that and a video call with my dad.
Then down to lunch. My favourite food it food that you need to eat with your hands and that gets you messy so it lunch consisted of a lot of that:
Massaman beef short ribs
Katsu flavoured chicken wings
Buffalo hot wings
Baby back pork ribs
along with salads, coleslaw and fresh focaccia from the top notch Italian deli near us. It was a feast!
Then a visit to my folks to sit in their garden and drink fizz and get attacked by my children:
All in all a great Father's Day.
This is one of my 100 Days to Offload posts. It is a blogging challenge started by Kev Quirk. Check https://100daystooffload.com for more info.
#100DaysToOffload – Day 39
Whilst the Premier League may have restarted yesterday with much discussion on crowds, or lack of them, and talk of faulty goal line tech (my fav take on that was that the HawkEye system needed to take a drive to Barnard Castle!) I am still missing cricket more than football. Presumably this is because it is cricket season rather than football season at the moment. I've mentioned cricket before and did manage to get my tickets refunded thankfully.
Anyway as I've been missing it I have watched the BBC's offering as highlights of classic Tests of yore. There are 2 available at the moment. Thankfully only an hour long each (rather than the full 5 days!) and whilst I certainly didn't grow up in a sporty household it is odd how much of these I recall, at least the names and the headlines from them. Presumably back then it was a lot more visible as we only had 3 TV channels so it was a lot harder to avoid!
Anyway the 1984 Test brought to mind a great documentary that deserves more accolades: Fire In Babylon.
Like all good documentaries it is about a subject but also has a broader focus. In this case it is a lot about the changing attitudes to race in the 80's as well as the sport itself. (I can imagine disgruntled statue defenders closing the tab now.) It's interesting stuff.
This is one of my 100 Days to Offload posts. It is a blogging challenge started by Kev Quirk. Check https://100daystooffload.com for more info.
#100DaysToOffload – Day 38
No not the small economical Ford car. The Spanish word meaning “an event marked by festivities or celebration”. It is a word for something that doesn't really occur that often in the UK. If you're wondering what I'm on about it all started with me posting on Mastodon with a picture of my Sussex flag
as it is Sussex Day today. As I've lived in Sussex for more of my adult life than I've lived anywhere else I am marking Sussex Day like that. The ensuing conversation on Mastodon had me lamenting that if I were in Spain (or other countries, just using Spain as an example as I've been there a lot) there would be public celebrations, bands and some drinking going on. As I'm in the UK sadly the most that ever happens is some flags get flown and maybe some speeches get made.
Really we need to up our game but I am guessing a lot of these holidays are based on saint's days and the UK is quite a secular country it would be hard to get official sanction for them. Which is a pity. We really could do with some more public events to help bring communities together.
I am taking in the 100 Days to Offload blogging challenge set by Kev Quirk. Whilst lockdown is on do 100 blog posts to help you offload and to read what everyone else is up to.
#100DaysToOffload – Day 37
Due to my laptop keyboard seemingly broken I'm restricted to just my desktop for any proper interaction online. (Much questioning of the children has been one but they deny all responsibility!) Yes I've got phone/tablet but really don't like the onscreen keyboard seeing as I have big fat sausage fingers. The desktop is set up in our bedroom and is all configured for work. Really don't want to go and sit there whilst not working so blog posts are likely to be a bit more sporadic. Previously I'd often rattle off a post in an evening when inspiration hit me whilst sitting on the sofa. That's not to be for a while now.
Had a lovely weekend. The Saturday was almost like a “normal” Saturday. Son did some football training in the morning (groups of 5 kids, no close contact etc). Getting a chance to catch up with the parents was much appreciated. Very heartening to hear a lot of people are having similar experiences to ourselves with regard to working and schooling from home. Think we're doing alright actually. Then a trip over to friends whose house backs onto the beach. Lovely afternoon sat out by the sea catching up while the kids entertained themselves. Then a dash over to see my mum and step-dad to sit in their garden and eat food. Then Sunday was a bike ride with friends in the morning for me and a trip up to my folks' allotment int he afternoon to pick ripe berries and water all the plants.
Sadly it is now Monday and back to the saltmines for me. :(
I am taking in the 100 Days to Offload blogging challenge set by Kev Quirk. Whilst lockdown is on do 100 blog posts to help you offload and to read what everyone else is up to.
#100DaysToOffload – Day 36
Another book from my “to-read” shelf enjoyed.
A pleasant and quick read, at only 128 pages long, hopefully quite like this post! Enjoyed this book a lot. Here's the wiki page for it if you're curious.
#Books
I am taking in the 100 Days to Offload blogging challenge set by Kev Quirk. Whilst lockdown is on do 100 blog posts to help you offload and to read what everyone else is up to.
#100DaysToOffload – Day 35
For the last few weeks we've had all sorts of problems with our internet connection. At first we just put it down to 2 of us working from home plus 2 kids home schooling whilst various combinations of us are listening to music streams or watching video streams. Then it just kept getting worse and more sporadic. In an effort to help my daughter out a new wifi extender was purchased (the old one was rather basic and rather slow so could do with being replaced anyway). Still it was problematic. Then occasionally there will be a shout of “please stop steaming, I'm on a Zoom” but it will turn out no one is streaming so we were unsure what would be causing it. Mrs Luke called Virgin, as the account is in her name, and they claimed it was due to the number devices connected at once. Thing is we've had this number of devices connected for at least 6 months and it was fine up until last month.
Then whilst I was trying to work but failing due to DNS not resolving for my desktop machine I hotspotted on my phone for a while. When I turned the hotspot off it autojoined the wifi extender network and was working fine. Then when I changed it back to the main network it stopped resolving DNS again. Hang on that's not right as the extender just gets access through the main network! Some more poking about and trying different devices and I found several tablets and computers had exactly the same problem. If they joined the main network no DNS would resolve but if they joined the extender network it worked fine. What's that all about??
So I spent some time looking at Virgin forums and looking in router logs to try and work out how to fix it. Checking various configs to check all was OK etc etc. Seems various people had had similar problems to us starting about a similar time and it could only be fixed by Virgin. Poor old Mrs Luke called them again and explained fully what was going on. In the end she was on the phone to them for about an hour but they did a remote wipe & reinstall on the router and presto! All the devices that couldn't resolve DNS before now can. Having it working properly is such a relief. It is one of those background stresses you don't realise is there until it has gone.
As an aside one thing that struck me while searching for the solution to this problem is the number of people that can't differentiate between their wifi connection and their internet connection. I do feel sorry for those Virgin call centre folks.
I am taking in the 100 Days to Offload blogging challenge set by Kev Quirk. Whilst lockdown is on do 100 blog posts to help you offload and to read what everyone else is up to.
#100DaysToOffload – Day 34
Not much to say today. My home broadband connection has been up and down like a yo-yo and a group chat, made up of usually a close-knit group of friends, has descended into all-out war. Lots of frayed tempers and lack of patience due to lockdown and crap working work I think. Not even over anything worth mentioning.
Oh well. Early tomorrow morning I'm off out for a medium to long bike ride with a couple of buddies so let's hope the endorphins do the trick. When I say early this will be the earliest I've set my alarm for since the end of March!
#100DaysToOffload – Day 33
Since lockdown started and I've been working from home I've probably watched less TV than I would normally. Mrs Luke and I did binge watch Giri/Haji at way back at the start of April (which feels like a lifetime ago) as it was getting pulled from iPlayer so needed to watch it all before it got taken down. That had us gripped. Also I watched The Beauty of Maps but that was only 4 episodes. There's no real reason why that I can think of but I've just not sat down and watched Tiger King like everyone else so far. The one thing I have been enjoying watching though, and this is watching on the tv when it gets screened instead of binge watching, is The Joy of Painting with Bob Ross. It's just so calm and soothing and he has his funny little sayings. 100% recommend settling down with a cuppa and relaxing while he waffles away.
#100DaysToOffload – Day 32
Finished this book a few days ago. It's the first David Sedaris book I've read though I knew his name from NPR's This American Life which I used to listen to while walking the dog. Sadly the dog is much older now so the walks are far too short for an episode of This American Life these days.
Wasn't sure what to expect of this book as I didn't even know if it was fiction or non-fiction or whatever. Ended up being a series of anecdotes of his childhood and family life and moved on to stories from when he was a young man. It's entertaining and funny but side-splittingly funny. More amusing than anything else. It was a pleasant read and not disappointed I read it but definitely won't be getting a place on my shelf for favourite books. Apropos of nothing I saw David Sedaris now lives in the English county of West Sussex so can't be that far from me (as I'm right by the East/West Sussex border).
#books
viewHaircut
#100DaysToOffload – Day 31
The long suffering Mrs Luke is very brave. This is evident in that she is happy to undertake giving me haircuts (and beard trims) during lockdown.
As a little boy my hair was white blond and it's gotten darker as I've gotten older. It's some sort of dirty brown now but my mental picture of my hair is still of it being blond. So whenever I have a haircut and see the hair on the floor it gives me a surprise. And that's without even starting to mention the white hairs that my beard is full of and are creeping over my head.
Still a fresh trim feels good, especially when it's hot.