Week of 19th March, 20128

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Monday, 19th March

This morning, I'm at Sarah and Jenny's flat, while a builder/decorator sorts out the defects. It's mostly cosmetic work - filling cracks and similar. But in the process I mislaid (le mot juste) one of their two cats. Sweep and Poppet are indoor cats - they are not allowed out - for reasons that are unclear to me. And Poppet had hidden herself away. Eventually, I managed to locate her (with Sarah and Jenny's remote help) - behind the TV stand. How she got in there is unobvious, but apparently routine.

<pause>

All fixed. And arrangements made to get a coat rack fitted behind the flat door. That'll be tomorrow.

Meanwhile, it's nearly lunch time, so I'll stop off for a snack lunch out.

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Tuesday, 20th March

The mini-Beast from the East appears to have ended - at least what little snow we got this time has disappeared. It's probably still cold.

Over the weekend I got fed up with the way M$ Excel has slowed down when updating my to-be-recorded (actually, downloaded from the cloud-based PVR that is the BBC's iPlayer) list. The file had ballooned to in excess of 8MB, for a mere 60-odd lines by 6 fields of text. The slowdown was apparent on inspiration2, on latitude it was obtrusive. So I decided to Do Something.

My first attempt involved copy-pasting all the data into a new instance of Excel. This did not work, the new saved file was just as big. OK, let's save the data as a tab-delimited text file - one per sheet in the workbook (there are 2 sheets) - resulting in 2 small text files, containing all the significant data.

Then I discovered that you cannot import 2 separate tab-delimited files into different sheets in a workbook, the second one overwrites the first. But you can copy-paste the data from the files into the two sheets, separately. Then adjust the column widths as required, and save.

The two text files were 3kB and 1kB, resulting in a .xlsx file that's 14kB, which is a considerable difference. The old file was saved in .xls format, because I occasionally updated the file on a work computer, using a more recent version of Office (2016) rather than the 2007 version I use at home, and there was a risk that 2016 might update the file to a more recent version that Excel 2007 wouldn't understand. That risk is now moot, since with recent changes at former $EMPLOYER, I've given up the freelance work.

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Wednesday, 21st March

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Thursday, 22nd March

We've had a water seepage from under the road outside the house for some weeks. It's not big enough to be classed as major, but seepage there is.

Today comes a work crew, with digger. They put in a hole that's probably a metre square, by over a metre deep. And what they're digging out is wet clay. We've just had notification that the water will be turned off "soon", for an unspecified period, and I've been tasked to fill buckets - 5 of them.

According to the safety barrier signage, work will continue until 26/3, which is next Monday. What am I bet that the "Great British Workman" will leave the hole, without working on it, over the weekend? And if they leave their digger outside the house, blocking the drive, I will be seriously dischuffed - possible complaining phone call dischuffed.

<pause>

I was right - the workmen have departed. Leaving the hole, natch. But they took their digger, so it's not all bad.

Rehearsals for the annual May Day celebration have started. These will be kept every Thursday until the actual date, which is always the second Saturday in May. Why this late in May is unknown to me, but that's when it happens. So I'll wander down to the rehearsal hall and meet up with the Committee, just to make sure that there are no lurking surprises.

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Friday, 23rd March

There are no unsuspected problems with the May Day celebrations, so my @ss is safe - for the moment, at least. The attendance of the Demon Murphy is to be expected, but currently he has not been seen lurking.

Traffic in the local area has been disrupted by a water leak beside one of the roundabouts near us. The temporary traffic lights (poorly sequenced, of course) are causing massive tailbacks. Luckily, I don't need to drive (much) now, but buses are delayed by the queues.

Talking of water leaks, here's our own tame hole:

This is the work area, as abandoned yesterday by the workmen. I'm standing on the depressed kerb access to our drive. The house is to the left, out of shot.

Hole in the ground. No man with a bowler hat, though.

Here's the hole itself. Note the puddle in the bottom. I think all that is due to rain, but I don't know.

And last, here's the pile of spoil dug from the hole. Presumably, all that will go back where it came from, but you never know.

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Saturday, 24th March

Jane and Katy are out viewing K.'s prospective new flat - I think. So all is quiet here at Semi-Detatched Bedlam. Except that I can hear Splodge the cat snoring nearby.

Dariusz the clock repairer is due to bring the Ansonia clock back this afternoon, after he closes the shop. He tried to do this last week, but work was not completed to his satisfaction, so another try today. And I will have the joy of setting clocks forward an hour tonight, for Summer Time (Merkin: DST)

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Sunday, 25th March

Dariusz decided that the Ansonia clock requires further testing before he will be happy to return it, so Wednesday evening.

This morning came the joy of setting all the mechanical clocks forward, for Summer Time. At least it's easier than in Autumn, when I'll have to stop them for an hour for the return to GMT. Clock winding at the same time, all same usual.

And again, all is quiet in the house. Katy has a school trip to somewhere near St. Pauls Cathedral on, I think, Tuesday. The exact location and date have not been vouchsafed to me. This means that she has to do a "risk assessment" for the trip, effectively a reconnaissance to try to spot prospective dangers, and she's dragooned Jane into going with her. I didn't detect much reluctance.

My wristwatch - a Casio Waveceptor - doesn't routinely set itself for Summer/Winter time, although it is set to do so. I suspect poor signal strength or interference in the house. This means that I need to leave it near a window for a while, having invoked the radio receive function. I have done so.

<pause>

And it has set itself. I had to force the Panasonic DVD recorder as well, despite the automatic adjustment being enabled. Computers, phones and Gemini have auto-updated as well.

Finally, just for the lulz, I checked the Psion 5MX. Batteries dead, including backup, so no joy there. I need a CR2032 for that. The Psion 3A has no batteries in it, at all, so there's no point in checking it.

I have a mains brick for the 5MX, and there should be one for the 3A, but I can't put my hand on it. USB-to-X volt converters will serve for this - the 5MX takes 6 volts positive tip, the 3A 10 volts negative tip. The existing 9 volt converter, with a polarity reverser, will serve for the 3A, but I'll have to make a purchase for the 5MX.

And while I'm at it, OpenWRT supports the E8372, providing your device has a USB port. GL-iNet AR150, here I come. I haven't managed to set up a VPN on one of those, even though the OpenVPN client is installed in the custom build of OpenWRT, but they work fine as mini-routers.

Not that I need another VPN - I have an IPVanish lifetime subscription on the Invizbox Go, and I've just renewed the yearly subscription for the Shellfire Box. Not to mention the upcoming Invizbox 2... which will have a year on IPVanish.

<pause>

The AR-150 router is ordered. Delivery tomorrow. Amazon Prime ftw!

I've just realised that the Psion 5MX may work from a plain USB-to-coaxial barrel lead. Which I have. It'll need a size converter - which I also have.

<another pause>

It might, if I had a suitable connector adaptor. Which I don't. I do have a suitable plug tip, but it's not compatible with my other size adaptors - it's coaxial-to-2pin, and the mating lead has a coaxial plug on the other end, not a socket. No biggie - on evidence to date, the 5MX eats a set of batteries (Mallory Gold-Top AAs) about every 4 months on standby. I still need to get the CR2032 backup battery.

Later: A quick trip to the big shops got the batteries - 1 pack of 2 CR2032, and 1 pack of 12 Duracell Gold-Top AAs. Multipacks of AAs I have no problem with, but why a 2 pack of CR2032 - with a 2027 expiry date? I only need one of them a year, and I'll probably not be able to find this pack in a year's time.

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