Week of 2nd July, 2018

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Monday, 2nd July

Jenny returns from Germany today, via Dusseldorf. BA flight BAW937 DUS-LHR, if you please.

And barring a fat-finger moment over flight numbers, I could follow the flight across East Anglia and into Heathrow, via Flightradar24. I got momentary sight of it via my own ADS-B receiver, on ads-pi, but since the active landing runway started as 09L, switched in mid-approach to 09R, I lost visibility locally. I did hear LHR Director talking to it, but nothing from the aircraft.

In due course came Jenny's text, so I drove off to LHR T5, to find that Jenny hadn't rushed. I had to circulate a few times - Heathrow does not allow free waiting while picking up. You are supposed to spring for short-term parking, at UKP2.70 or so per half hour, and there is a UKP40 fixed penalty if caught loitering. I wasn't. I'll probably get caught one of these days.

Anyway, Jenny's trip was to attend a Pokémon Safari, and visit a University friend who now lives in Germany. The trip was a success, modulo shambolic internet access at the Safari, whether via own phone or local wifi. And the Pokémon Go app is a heavy data and battery user, absolutely requiring good connectivity. This one worked, unlike the event in Chicago last year, when connectivity went TITSUP, to the extent that disappointed visitors (and that one was for-pay, to make it worse) flung sueballs.

Jenny was happy with her trip - lots of Pokémon (Niantic increase the spawn rate for these events) including lots of rare ones. She had to buy another battery pack at the airport this morning - 12% battery is ungood. Remember her iPhone has a weak battery, so she carries a battery pack routinely.

After I dropped her at the flat, I decided that I needed petrol - Ulysses has been screaming at me on startup for several days. Unfortunately, I neglected to check that I had the wherewithal to pay before filling up - UKP52, and I only had UKP30. But they let me drive off to get my cards, having left photo ID and what cash I had.

So straight home, pick up plastic money, and return to pay, where there is anecdotal evidence that people have left phones as security, and not returned for them. Seems difficult to believe - swap a phone (unless it's a cheap featurephone) for UKP50 or so of fuel? But I have no evidence to the contrary.

And then discover that Jane had only just returned from the school Sports Day, and had no plans to feed me - which is why I'm sitting in the Costa associated with the big Tesco (where the petrol station is) as I type this.

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Tuesday, 3rd July

This morning I had fun - for small values of fun - attempting to renew my driving licence. UK driving licences are valid for 10 years, or until you are 70, whichever is sooner. Mine expires in September.

There are 2 options for renewal - online, via the gov.uk website, which requires a Government Gateway ID, or by post. If you renew by post, you send your expiring licence with the form, and can expect a replacement within 3 weeks. Online, you get a new licence through the post, within a week, and only then send back your expiring licence, in pieces.

Well, I have a Government Gateway ID (see the saga about income tax in April) but the Driver and Vehicle Licencing site won't accept it. Something about it not being a Personal ID. Well, it was created, without my knowledge, by my then-accountant. But no-one told me about this.Telephone tag with DVLA confirmed this, so since I have no desire to be without photo ID for up to 3 weeks, I had to bite the bullet.

But it appeared to work - eventually. Piggybacked on this was a request to register for organ donation, which I thought I'd already done. But no harm to do it again. And after that came blood donation. Now, I used to be a blood donor, lo these many years ago. But there appears to be an age limit - new donors accepted up to age 65. So more telephone tag. And the phone slave couldn't find me, which suggests longer ago than I thought. And there's a cut-off at age 70, anyway. So there's no point re-registering.

The Government Gateway goes away in March next year. What will replace it I have no idea. But on evidence to date, it'll be a bureaucratic monstrosity.

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Wednesday, 4th July

This morning comes an evelope in the post, with the admission ticket for Yeovilton on Saturday. So no need for the order number. I need to get my shopping trolley from store, to carry all the things - last time I tried this without the trolley, I ended up unable to carry pretty much everything, due to strained back muscles. Never again.

Then an excursion to the local big shops, to meet Liz and check on some details about her broadband. She has landline phone from BT, with broadband from EE, and a mobile contract with EE. We were contemplating swapping to BT fibre broadband - Infinity 1 Unlimited at 38Mbit/sec - if the EE contract was out of its term.

On mature consideration, for her use (basically e-mail) even Infinity 1 is wretched excess, even though the BT bundle is on offer at UKP28.99, with unlimited UK landline calls, compared with her existing BT bill of UKP46.99, plus EE at UKP16 - legacy service, both.

EE have an ADSL offer at UKP19, including line rental, plus another UKP4 for unlimited calls, so UKP23. Same service, or better, at one-third the current price? We'll have some of that! So that was arranged. EE will take over her line (she will keep her number) and the reduced charges should hit within a month or so. For 18 months - then it goes up to UKP35. But even that's still better than before. And maybe there'll be another cheap renewal offer at about that time. And she gets an extra 5GB of mobile data - for a featurephone?

But I still have to ask, "Why not tell me about this years ago"?

So we had an early lunch, and returned home. Where Jane kvetched at me (not in Liz's hearing) for returning too early, because chatting to Liz stopped her from doing a few chores, while Filip was asleep.

I'm still having fun (small values of) trying to regulate all the clocks to something reasonably close to the actual passage of time. The Ansonia is the worst - it's either 5 minutes slow in a week, or 5 minutes fast over the same period. There seems to be no happy medium. This morning, I adjusted out 3 minutes gained since Sunday, and altered the rate, about a quarter-turn on the rating nut, in the slow direction.

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Thursday, 5th July

Today, it's time for my yearly meeting with my IFA, at her office in the City. Note for non-Britons: that's the financial district in the middle of London, and it's a distinct entity within Greater London, with its own Mayor. I say "her office". Strictly, it's her employer's office, since she works for a large investment house. Be that as it may, I'm spending too much. They like to ensure that pension pots under their management will last until the client is in his mid-90s. At the present rate, I'll run out when I'm 85 or so.

So I need to prune outgoings, so that I can reduce my drawdown from the pot. That's in hand.

Then I moved 3 stops down the Underground line, to visit Silvermans', to see if I can obtain a lightweight waistcoat with the MOLLE/PALS webbing grid on it, specifically an unpadded one. I have such a thing, but it's heavily padded/stiffened, and it's far too hot to wear in these warm times. It also needs to be in non-camouflage colours, preferably beige/sand - black traps too much heat.

No luck with that, so I travelled home, via the Central Line, instead of the District Line, and wandered round the local big shops, in hopes of finding a movement alarm that I can affix to the trolley bag I'll be using on Saturday.

No success there, either, and subsequent online research suggests that what I want doesn't exist. There are alarms that will allow you to attach your goods to something, and have the alarm sound on cable breakage/cutting, but mere movement, no.

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Friday, 6th July

My new driving licence is here. Issued on the 4th (Wednesday) and not sent under any form of monitored post. No signature required, for example. The layout of the information is slightly different, and the photo is (obviously) the same. The only significant change is the expiry date, which is 2021 - 3 years away.

So I've destroyed the old licence, with the aid of a pair of kitchen scissors, and the new one is in the card folder in my jacket pocket, ready for instant use.

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Saturday, 7th July

RNAS Yeovilton Air Day

The day did not start well. I left home late, and made bad connections, including a forced Underground train change at White City, due to there being no available driver when our starting driver reached the end of his rostered shift - the Central Line is part of the Night Tube service. After that, things improved, to the extent that I managed to catch the 07:10 from Waterloo - just... 2 minutes to spare.

This is good - next train is 08:20, leading to missing the first hour of displays. Two-and-a-half hours to Yeovil Junction - there to catch the shuttle bus to RNAS Yeovilton, aka HMS Heron, and also YEO to IATA, or EGDY to ICAO. The  bus takes 45 minutes or so, door-to-door.

Of course, the frantic rush to catch the train meant I had no time to visit a cash till, or get coffee.

And there was a shuttle bus waiting when we arrived. UKP8 return, via contactless payment. And wait to arrive.

In due course, we're there. And it's baking hot, with the sun blazing down. So buy a programme, and head for the catering area, where I purchased the first of a series of pints of Greene King IPA. Then find the single on-site cash till - a for-pay one, of course. Needs must...

Then I walked the vendor lines, finding Planes TV, the People's Mosquito, and, later, a food truck. Sausage and egg baguette, with onions. Yum.

Meanwhile, the displays were proceeding - lots of modern jets, all very noisy, several classic jets, quieter, and more of a whistle or hiss, than the modern brute roar. Plus some classic warbirds, most notably the Royal Navy Historic Flight's Hawker Sea Fury, in company with a Polish-built MIG-15UTI two-seat trainer, painted as Red 28, Yuri Gagarin's aircraft before he became a cosmonaut. This was to commemorate the only instance of a propeller-driven fighter shooting down a jet during the Korean War. The anniversary of that event is this coming Monday, the 9th.

There was also a Bristol Sycamore, the first rotary wing aircraft type in the British military. This example is the only airworthy survivor. And, of course, a Supermarine Swordfish torpedo-bomber, an example of the type that damaged the Bismarck's rudder during World War II, which action allowed the Royal Navy to catch and sink her before she could decimate the Atlantic convoys.

After the closing Commando Role Demonstration, which wasn't as noisy as previous years, I packed up, and headed for the shuttle bus, which left very soon after I got aboard. It delivered me to Yeovil Junction 15 minutes or so before the train was due to leave. So all well there.

Of course, this train is one that divides at Salisbury. London passengers in the first 3 coaches, if you please. So I embarked, having carefully counted coach 2. But the train left the way it had come, for reasons that are unclear to me, so I ended in coach 5. Never mind, plenty of time to walk 4 coaches. And I managed to find a seat, too. This is beyond rubies, for a two-and-a-half hour trip.

Part of which was made hideous by the happy, possibly inebriated, and very loud chanting of a group of football fans. Of course, England beat Sweden 2-0. And that's the last World Cup reference you'll hear from me.

I'm still on the train, somewhere on the London side of Basingstoke, as I type. Should be back in Waterloo at about 20:30 or so. After which, it'll be Tube and bus home.

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Sunday, 8th July

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