Tony_S

When I got there the audiologist said I’m Nick, Jen doesn’t work Mondays. I said it was ok, it was my hearing that was faulty not my eyes. Then he announced the soundproof box was faulty but was able to use the apparatus they have for home visits.

I managed to get myself ready and set off early for my 3pm in Leigh on Sea for my hearing test. The sound proof box was faulty but they have portable units for home visits. Anyway the test went well and pretty well confirmed by own belief/observations of the state of my hearing over the last year. It was however not just a case of boosting the default amplification but tweaking certain frequency bands. I got a cup of tea and a biscuit too! Tony

I don’t think general or special relativity errors will need to be taken into account this afternoon as my appointment to have my hearing test is just along the A13 in Leigh and I knows where I am going. Hopefully sitting in a box being observed won’t make me into Schrödingers cat and I will be alive on exit as it doesn’t involve any random radioactive events. I hope the test results confirm my own feelings as I turn the default volume up by 1 notch when I insert the hearing aids. The test will look at more than just overall volume and loss,at higher frequencies can be adjusted.

Mine was an email on the 15th April. it said I was being offered the vaccine as NHS records show I may have a weakened immune system. I then just went to the NHS app on my iPad (could have used phone but iPad was nearer ) logged in and found the option to book a Covid jab. It suggested I took along either a letter explaining what my condition was or a box of the medication.

I don’t suffer from hay fever, unless one day of slightly itchy eyes counts. Except for the day we went to RHS Hyde Hall one lovely summer day. They have an area (Sky Meadow) planted out showing grassland plants from across the world. We walked near the American Prairie area and I had exactly the symptoms that people with hay fever suffer from. So,perhaps a holiday on the prairies is not for me.

I thought the clock frequency was reduced to make it tick at the same frequency as a stationary clock on earth but that software correction was applied for things like non circular orbits but as I mentioned I only recall what I have read in popular science stuff, I never studied orbital mechanics, just tiny stuff. All those scientists and engineers make something that corrects for special and general relativity and drivers still turn left into railway lines or onto beaches.

I wondered how they corrected for relativistic effects. It seems that they adjust the clock oscillator frequency in the satellite so it gives the “correct time” as one on earth. The orbiting atomic clock experiment was suggested in the 1950s in order to test for relativistic effects. So,when GPS satellites were launched they knew they would need a correction. My physics background didn’t include big stuff like planets and satellites. Chemical physics was more concerned with tiny physics.

Ours was fine for about 20 years and then it died branch by branch. We haven’t replaced it.

One thing that interested me was that GPS systems have to correct for relativistic effects as the clocks in orbit run faster than stationary ones on the surface.

Again ER is educational. Thanks to your post and Google I now know what Pickleball is. I think I may have seen some people playing it or something similar on a cruise ship. I just thought it was something that family had done to use their table tennis bats with a bigger ball. All the players were American.

People who work in care homes with elderly and immune suppressed,people,aren’t eligible this time either. Boots the Chemist will be offering private Covid jabs for £98.50. If the take up for the NHS ones is low again, there will be a lot wasted.

We have been making a lot more use of our TV while we were unwell with the respiratory lurgy of unknown provenance. Nearly all on streamed channels apart from the news and weather. Lots of exciting outings this week, annual hearing test and hopefully tweaking of hearing aids on Monday, Covid booster Tuesday and then Aditi takes over for,her round of appointments but not a Covid booster. Too young at 70 and none of her ailments count this time, it even caring for a decrepit husband!

So you won’t miss the Poundshop then?

Well quite a lot of the EH sites are ruins but there was plenty to study at Audley End. We took Aditi’s uncle who lives in California to,Audley End. He loved it.

You are going to be able to celebrate the return of Wetherspoons to Basildon soon.. Quote from Essex Live website.

I am at my MiL’s at the moment. She has a few pictures I know are correctly hung but they look wrong. It may perhaps be the picture frames are not quite rectangular.

I think Aditi hold world records in how long it takes to examine all the notices and information sheets in ancient buildings or museums. I am usually rooms ahead and try to look for a seat until she catches up.

Glad it isn’t just me! I wonder how I can possibly mislay a metre long bright yellow spirit level.

I can’t read it but there were similar examples of gps jamming in the Baltic recently.

I never really experienced the Balti restaurant boom in Birmingham as I left before it really got started. My brother worked near the Balti restaurant area and used to go for lunch. Being married to a Punjabi who doesn’t like the food in curry restaurants in this country has meant I am familiar with Punjabi home style food but not the local restaurants. I reckon between us we can cook anything we want, so eating out is for social reasons. Going on holiday is different, we wouldn’t look for English food when we are overseas.

I like noodles and rice ! Last ones eaten were rice noodles.

Aditi’s Dad’s garden had very light rapid drying soil. He actually grew all kinds of things that weren’t supposed to do well in the Midlands. Down here in Essex, yucca and agave grow fairly well. Historically really dry except for the last couple of winters which have been wet, and not particularly cold.

That is Interesting. My father in law had some quite tall yucca that he grew just outside Nottingham. They were damaged in a big storm and were just shrublike afterwards. So when I saw something that looked similar a few houses away from us, I just assumed they were big yuccas. Anyway more careful observation shows they are almost certainly Torbay Palm. The palm trees in Southend are Windmill palms. Our neighbour’s wisteria doesn’t like her bit of Essex, it only flowers on our side of the fence!

Aditi’s cousin opened a cafe in Delhi serving European snack food like pizza, pasta dishes, and quiche. She started it “for something to do” but it has proved popular.

We are east of the M25 so,I don’t know what that would get our culinary options rated as. I wouldn’t base what is served up on Southend seafront as typical of what is available elsewhere. Actually our nearest seaside caff down on the sea wall at Canvey is very good (and I do mean the cafe not the upstairs restaurant). Sitting in an Ove Arup building looking out at the ships going by, is probably the nearest I am going to get to Sydney Harbour. We went to Yorkshire in November and we had no difficulty finding good food. Tony