Tony_S

Some of the franticness today was because some local authorities had QR codes in the polling cards to save the effort of using a ruler on the printed one. The polling card isn’t actually needed but people do like a good conspiracy!

I voted by post but I have seen various people getting upset on social media that they have just noticed that the serial number of a ballot paper is recorded against your name. All kinds of conspiracy theory/ fear being suggested . I can’t believe people don’t know this happens. Voting is only secret when you make your mark. Every ballot can be tracked. This only happens in cases of suspected electoral fraud. The papers are kept for a year and a day in a big warehouse.

Did you need a new lead too?

Decided to go for a walk via the RHS Hyde Hall caff. My second favourite cafe lunch.

Pretty much what I remember from O level History (British economic and social history, 1700 to1948 ).

Same here, but quite breezy too. Aditi felt generally unwell yesterday following her Covid vaccine on Monday but seems back to her normal self today. Tony

Either my glasses need replacing or my brain is failing as I initially read kittens instead of knitters.

I have had tea and toast for breakfast and emptied the dishwasher. Just about to see when DPD are delivering Aditi’s new raincoat. The one that wasn’t in stock at the shop yesterday but was available online. Not planning anything exciting like going out! Tony

I may have been unclear. The electricity supply people pay for the electricity I supply to them with a cheque. This is a cheque that does not have a signature. My bank phone apps do not recognise it as a cheque. There are no bank branches in Benfleet. The Post Office does allow cheque paying in and will transfer it to my bank account.

Using the cheap rate to charge batteries is specifically excluded on my tariff. Our batteries used to discharge slowly to the grid overnight too if we were not using it. We added an extra battery recently and that means at this time of year there is still enough stored for our morning electrical use until the sun shines on the panels. Tony

I tried to get an Octopus account when we got our solar panels but at the time they were not accepting new customers. By the time they were our supplier had considerably increased the amount they were paying for our exported kWh. The photo and cheque seems inefficient but gives me something to do. I don’t multitask, so it was photograph the meter today, leaving tomorrow to fill up the salt hopper for the water softener. Then lots of time busy doing nothing.

To complicate matters , the cheque they issue can’t be read by any of the cheque paying in bank apps. No banks in Benfleet, but the Post Office have special envelopes you can include your cheque and a paying in slip, assuming you can find such a thing.

I mentioned earlier that Aditi had found a nice raincoat but it wasn’t stocked in her size. Never fear, she won’t get wet in Iceland as she went online and ordered it. Got 15% discount with a code from a National Trust magazine too. I have just re-proofed my coat and it is outside dripping dry now.

Where the cable enters the plug is a common fail point. Cables with extra support just fail slightly further down.

I was quite pleased that something that hadn’t worked for me before worked perfectly today. We sell our surplus electricity to our energy supplier. They contact us and ask for,an export meter reading from the smart meter and to upload a photo of the meter and the reading. It used to crash at that stage and I had to email the photo. The company can read our export values, as a nice lady read them back to me once when I was asking about another meter matter. So I wonder if the people who actually handle the export payments can’t access the smart meter data. Wouldn’t surprise me, as they only seem able to pay me with a cheque! Tony

Yes we did. I had mine done at the chemist at Tarpots last week. I qualified for a vaccine due to an impaired immune system rather than the age criterion. Aditi’s heath conditions and living with a vulnerable person did not qualify her for an NHS jab, her next one will be in the Autumn booster phase. She didn’t particularly want lowering levels of protection between now and the autumn so decided to book a private vaccination at Boots. The choice was Romford or Bluewater. The trip to the big shops was quite nice, it wasn’t crowded. We went into a shop called “Snow and Rock” and looked at rainwear. Aditi was of course drawn to the most expensive range they had (without even seeing a price tag). They didn’t have her size in stock though. Bluewater doesn’t look like a place in decline, our nearest shopping centre/mall looked shabby when we last went but it was a late evening just before closing so perhaps not a totally fair comparison. Tony

I was just checking the traffic for our route to to the big shops. I looked at the last mile as I think we may head for a different car park. Anyway a couple of stores popped up as places of interest on Google maps. Out of all the stores at Bluewater on my map “Mappin & Webb”, and “Build a Bear Workshop, Take home a new furry friend today” were specifically marked. I wonder if they pay for this or it is based on my cookies or similar.

Morning all. Hours of continuous sunshine are forecast, but we are going out to another county. After breakfast , and hopefully after commuter and school traffic we are off to Bluewater in Kent so Aditi can have a Covid vaccine. We could have gone to Romford but it wasn’t a difficult choice. I am sure there will be time for lunch and I expect visits to various shops. We used to go to Bluewater frequently but all that stopped in 2019. My Dartford Crossing account is still valid. Some people didn’t respond to the log on and update payment messages last year and have been crossing assuming their accounts were in place. Tony

Aditi went off to watch ballet in Basildon this afternoon and I thought I would go out and do some modelling. I didn’t. I won’t be tomorrow either, we are crossing the big bridge (not the one to Canvey Island). We are off to Bluewater. Aditi has booked a private Covid vaccine from Boots. We haven’t been to Bluewater since 2019 so we can see what has changed. Hopefully then John Lewis sandwiches will still be ok! Tony

My last three cars were built in Halewood. I don’t think they were pining for the Fords though.

And to think she had been worried about Romainers…

Some episodes in the first series of “Bluey” got through the Australian tv standards but were removed before showing on he Disney + channel. Some were edited by the BBC too. All,are broadcast now, no censoring. Not sure if the term “dingleberries “ survived though. The only episode I believe that wasn’t approved in Australia showed dangerous play in a bathroom.

I didn’t know about those, I thought they all came from Halewood in Liverpool.

I can pass any of the standard colour vision tests but Aditi sees more subtle shades than I do, when I think things are the same colour and of course they are not. If left to my own resources I would probably have chosen rather plain curtains. We do work well as a team because Aditi will choose three patterns and if I don’t like one that gets eliminated. Then of course there is the excitement of finding out if enough metres of the material are in stock somewhere in the UK. She is definitely a good person to take when buying a car. She has no embarrassment about pushing for discounts, and asking what does this mean in the bill? Years ago when salesman tried to talk to her about the lovely colour she would ask about fuel economy and how fast it could accelerate. She told one chap she had taught motor mechanics for years. She didn’t say it was General Studies she had taught though! I don’t ever really wear bright colours, I am definately drawn to the drab spectrum.

I was sitting waiting to see Aditi get her degree conferred. This was at the Barbican in London. The woman sitting next to me said how lovely it was to see one’s child graduate. I replied that I wasn’t seeing my child I was married to one of those graduating. The sheer look of horror that someone my age might possibly be wed to one of the bright young people marching across the stage was amazing. I did point out that my spouse was the short woman with a floppy doctoral hat sitting in the middle of a row of ecclesiastical gentlemen and military officers .