Return of the Beast… (Quick Links 115)

As you might have gathered from the title of this post and the photo above, the snow is back. It’s Sunday morning as I write this and when I went to bed last night there was very little snow and hardly any had settled. When I got up this morning, I’d guess we’ve had between one and two inches overnight, definitely more than a couple of weeks ago, however it is not as cold this time. Have to wait and see what happens I guess, there’s a little more forecast during the day and overnight tonight and then it looks like it’s set to get a bit warmer.

I’ve finished the decorating in the lounge this week, there’s still a little more sorting to do as we put things back in place. We’ve also ordered a new 3-piece suite, which should be here just after Easter. We tried to donate our old one to a charity, but sadly it’s too old and worn for them to be able to do anything with, so the Council will be coming to collect it a week Monday.

I’ve also been sorting through a lot of my old books and dvds and donating some to charity, and also selling a few via Amazon marketplace. I sold two within 12 hours of listing them.

It would have been my Dad’s 81st birthday this week, I took Mum out for breakfast on the day as a mark of remembrance.

I’ve been trying to get a decent picture of a heron that’s been eating the frogs in the damp patch of my local recreation ground for a while now. I finally managed to get something half-decent earlier this week. I suspect both the heron and the frogs have been snowed off for the time being!

 


Customer Loyalty – Had an interesting conversation this week when I tried to cancel a magazine subscription. I had the renewal notice and the price and gone up nearly 22%, whilst I like the magazine and I know that production costs do rise, I don’t like it that much and decided to cancel it. When I rang up, as I expected they tried to talk me out of cancelling, claiming that they could offer me a “customer loyalty discount”, meaning that the price would actually hardly rise. Tempting. However why wasn’t I offered this on the renewal? I didn’t feel like I was being treated like a loyal customer at all. End result, subscription cancelled. Charge customers whatever you like, but if you’re not offering your best price to your loyal customers first time, don’t expect their loyalty to last long.


Work – In between decorating and other things, I’ve been catching up on a few conversations that were postponed because of the last snow fall. Will be working on a couple of things this week ahead of meetings the following week.


Allotment – Sadly snowed off again. Had some broccoli plants, which I ordered last year arrive on Saturday. There’s no way they can go in the ground yet, so I’ve potted them up for now, and will plant them out when the weather is a little more cooperative. It looks as though things will be a bit later this year.


Currently Reading – Still not really settled into a new book yet, but I did have a belated birthday present arrive (see pic below). These puzzle books are a lot of fun so far, although I think they start out easy and get harder as you progress through the book. They both also contain a little bit of interesting background information to the history of Bletchley Park and GCHQ


Dr Stephen Hawking (1942 – 2018) – 

“Remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Try to make sense of what you see and wonder about what makes the universe exist. Be curious. And however difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at. It matters that you don’t just give up.”


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The Week In Wildlife In Pictures – [LINK]


Cambridge Analytica –  I expect that there’ll be a lot of coverage of this over the coming days [LINK], but it’s pretty scary just what can be done with all that data that we seem all to willing to give companies with no moral or ethical compass. I might well be deleting my Facebook account (again).


Falcon Heavy


Two Days In Chernobyl Exclusion Zone – [LINK]

If you don’t already subscribe to @documentally’s newsletter then you should [LINK]


I’ll be hunkering down for the rest of the day, trying to keep warm and hoping that this latest batch of snow if short lived. Wherever you are in the world I hope your weather is a little more clement, but if not stay safe. Catch you next week.

Birthday Boy (Quick Links 114)

Busy, busy, busy this week. I’ve been doing more decorating and moving bookcases in the lounge to allow me to hopefully finish the decorating in the lounge in the coming week. This has mostly been in between other things: work, appointments with my Mum and my birthday on Friday. Today is also Mothering Sunday in the UK, so we’re having a lunch with my Mum later on.


Work – Mostly this has been rearranging things that were postponed due to the snow, and catching up with a couple of meetings that were in the diary already for this week. I’ve got a few development things to do in the next week as well as preparing for a pitch meeting in a couple of weeks time.


Allotment – The plot seems to have borne the weather pretty well, and wasn’t as badly effected as I had feared, the broad beans certainly seem to have held up well. The weather this week though (mostly rain) has meant that the ground is very wet again, so not much happening. There are a couple of photos below taken last week in the snow, and a comparable image now that the snow has gone to see the contrast.

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Currently Reading – I haven’t had much reading time this week, but did get a couple of new ones for my birthday, so expect to get in to one of those in the week ahead.


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The Week In Wildlife In Pictures – [LINK]


When Twenty-Six Thousand Stinkbugs Invade Your Home – [LINK]


A Map of Radical Bewilderment – On the liberation cartography of Henry David Thoreau – [LINK]


The Wreckage of the USS Lexington Found in the Coral Sea – 


More decorating in the week ahead and a couple of other things, but for now that’s all folks! Stay safe out there and I’ll catch you next week.

The Bacon Will Get You In The End (Quick Links 113)

Luckily I’ve been able to completely avoid going anywhere other than to walk the dogs, and instead busied myself wall papering in the lounge and progressing the decorating there.

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Although I don’ think we got the worst of the “Beast From The East” by any means we did get some snow this week, although not until quite late in week. We had a light dusting overnight on Wednesday / Thursday and then a bit more overnight Thursday / Friday (see above). Overall I don’t think we’re had much more than a couple of centimetres. It’s the first snow that Ruby has seen in her nearly four years, and she was quite intrigued. Our other dog was not really bothered as he’s a bit of an old hand at the snow thing. By Saturday lunchtime it was pretty much all gone, and by the time of writing this on Sunday morning you wouldn’t know it had been there at all.

Elsewhere in the UK it’s been a bit more full  on and as is the norm for this country we’ve failed to cope very well. One lady from Canada who spent the night on a train when it broke down was quoted in the Evening Standard as saying:

“I’m kind of shocked that for a country as populus and built up as England that a tiny, tiny little bit of snow is able to bring an entire country to a standstill.

“I’m Canadian so I’m used to very intense winters but sitting on a broken down train and looking out the window and realising I could still see the grass through the snow… I don’t understand how in 2018 a major, major train company is not set up to deal with a tiny bit of snow. It’s utterly mind-blowing to me.

“There were moments where I was reduced to tears,” she added. “There were definitely some pretty scary moments.

“For the first few hours I was very annoyed and then about four hours in, I was really, really angry, and then after that I just didn’t have it in me to be angry anymore. I was just exhausted and upset and wanted to be at home.”

I think that pretty much sums up how we deal with snow in the Country and because in most places we get it so rarely nobody knows what to do.

Luckily I’ve been able to completely avoid going anywhere other than to walk the dogs, and instead busied myself wall papering in the lounge and progressing the decorating there. There’s still a bit of painting on the other walls to do, but a trip to the DIY store is needed for more paint.


Work – Fortunately no  meetings this week, and although I had a few phone calls booked, I managed to fit those in around my decorating. A quieter week than I was expecting but probably a reflection of the impact of the weather across the Country.


Allotment – Other than a visit to check how the plot dealt with the snow I’ve not been down there this week. Physically things look okay, and there doesn’t appear to be any lasting damage, however it does look as though my broad beans have had a nasty case of frost / snow damage. Normally they would survive pretty well, and had the snow been a bit deeper they probably would have been fine. However they’re looking like they might not recover. We’ll have to see.


Currently Reading – I read “The Galapagos” by Henry Nicholls [GoodReads] this week. It was a very readable book, and for me a bit like going back in time to when I studied biology, as this is one of the most quoted Charles Darwin studies for evolution.


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The Week In Wildlife In Pictures – [LINK]


If The Snow Didn’t Get You Then Bacon Will – [LINK]



I’m outta here for now. The coming week is looking fairly busy, mostly with family related stuff. If you’re still somewhere that’s snowed in, I hope you thaw out soon too. Take care.