Craig Sawyers

New cat Oberon. Chosen by our daughter as a birthday present. Super affectionate neutered tom, a solid 5.2kg (11.5lb) of muscle. 4 years old.

Less of this WW3 shit guys - this is all happening in our back yard. Kyiv is only 1,500 miles from London by road and according to Google maps, if you were insane enough to drive, would take 27 hours. About the same distance as Houston to LA.

Happy birthday!

Thanks everyone - had a spectacular day! My daughter, Lizzie, home for three weeks from Australia not only brought me a spectacular bottle of single malt (Balvenie triple cask, 16 year), she'd also organized a cat for me! From a rehoming center that we've had several cats from before. Picked him up yesterday - a super affectionate four year old, initially called Wolfie, but now renamed Oberon. 5.2kg (11.5lb) of muscle. Our previous cat, also rehomed, we had to say farewell to a few months ago aged 19. My son bought the food, climbing tower etc for Oberon. And Carole bought us tickets to see Wagner's Lohengrin at the Royal Opera House in May. The usual 4 hour Wagner epic, And finally my son Rob, Lizzie, Carole and I went out for a meal together last night https://www.brunningandprice.co.uk/greyhound/ So one hell of a good day!!

And where was that? Oh - I'll ask her 🤡

Hope it is a great one Naaman! Happy birthday!

Have a spectacular day Dan!! Happy birthday!

What you said. And what I saw https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gloucester Then I thought, well that is 50 miles from the sea. Then the penny dropped - the one not far from Boston. Duh.

Looks like it was photographed yesterday. But this was around 80 years go, film and theatre star Gene Tierney. Kodachrome.

I'm just reading Mark Cavendish's book Tour de Force about his record winning Tour de France last year, when he matched Eddy Merckx's sprint record of 34 stage wins. Cav was 35. It is a must read for anyone interested in pro cycling, and really communicates the sheer brutality of the sport. He said that splits happen coming over the top of a climb. Lead riders go over the top pushing 400W, but get a bit of slipstreaming from the camera motorbike. The next group don't have that and have to push 440W. An individual doesn't get a group effect and has to push 480W - and, he says, that is why splits happen. In a sprint, riders - including Cav - can push up to 2,000W for a number of seconds. After 4 or 5 hours in the saddle. It is also perfectly clear he doesn't like Sagan one tiny bit. Looking at the web, he's still competing age 36, will be doing the Tour of Britain, and probably another Tour de France to try and beat Merckx's sprint record.

Happy birthday!

It is clearly playing

Have a truly spectacular on Steve - happy birthday!!

Ridley Scott is of course still alive and kicking.

Ridley Scott is from my neck of the woods in the North East of England. The beginning of Blade Runner, with the gouts of flame harks back to his walk to school and back in the Winter in the dark. That passed close to the major chemical plants at that time, and they periodically burnt of waste gases in a gout of flame.

These daft things have been around since pre-pandemic, and have had a mixed reaction https://metro.co.uk/2019/10/05/liked-tide-pod-challenge-going-love-whisky-cocktail-capsules-10865974/

Oh dear - so sorry about Dunhill. It is tough having to be kind by saying goodbye to cat when it's their time. But it was the right decision Jacob. He had a great life with you and was absolutely well loved.

Well that was very interesting - thanks for posting that! Thinking of Shetland, we are going for a week of guided walking there in April. It The island group is bloody remote. Flight from Heathrow to Glasgow, and then another flight to Shetland. Reason for April is that it is before midges get going. Summer is the time these blood sucking bastards are a real Deet soaking, mesh mask wearing nightmare.

Happy birthday Jeff!

I had no idea your mum had dementia, Jacob. It is much rougher on family than it is for those with the condition. Carole's dad went that way. He was a Fire Commander. But dementia is no respecter of what you did in working life. And Dunhill - although that is fixable with antibiotics or some such. So sorry for your troubles.

You heard the latest? In the Commons, BJ accused Kier Starmer of failing to take action to bring child and vulnerable adult abuser Jimmy Saville to justice. As a direct consequence of this, the head of Downing Street Policy Munira Mirza , and having worked alongside BJ for 14 years, resigned today with a blistering attack on him https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/exclusive-boris-s-policy-chief-quits-over-jimmy-savile-slur

I had no idea that Koss was still alive, but RIP John Koss. My first pair of headphones were a new pair of PRO4AA that I bought new in 1974. Long gone. To remind myself what an uncomfortable thing they were I bought a pair maybe three years ago. Removed the tar like decomposed foam in the cups and replaced it. Took off the rock hard and empty fluid cups, and replaced them. Still bloody uncomfortable! Like a head clamp. And oddly, not that good in terms of sound quality in hindsight. Second headphones I bought were not very old second hand ESP6's. And that got me into electrostatic phones. Amazing things as compared with anything I'd heard before. Long gone. But I (again recently) bought a pair of ESP9 - again a bit of nostalgia. Needed the fluid seals replacing. Again sounds superb. The energizer is a horror story though - a spaghetti of wiring and completely unserviceable. And those electrostatic phones were what ultimately got me into Stax. So again, RIP. What a company he founded!

Here is another wonderful thing at Cheltenham - dining table with pitchfork frame. Made in 1915. Because the records exist, it is know that it too 688 hours (17x40 hour weeks!) to build and sold for $61:18s (£6700 in today's money) https://agmlib.cheltenham.gov.uk/Details/collect/6841