"Nothing but the rain"
Where vague stuff is placed for filing
It was a hot day today. The car said 32C at one point! I decided to spend some time in the direct sunlight in the garden fitting a water butt. That was a bit stupid. Had to spend the next hour drying out the sweat from all my clothes. Mind you, the water butt looks good and we should have its first rain tomorrow.
This shop makes a false assumption. I can confirm to you that I’m not that fussed about cake and neither are my kids! Not everyone loves cake!
I’m probably being a bit picky here!
Such a wonderfully classic view that makes me feel proud to be British! [that takes quite a bit]
Brilliant Victorians and their wonder at everything new!
My current iPhone background is this stunning picture of the Earth and Moon system taken by the Cassini spacecraft from orbit around Saturn. We are so small and insignificant! God must have been having a serious joke when he placed us on this land, there’s so much out there, and we’ll never get to it (do the physics/maths).
It was a lovely evening here in Kent tonight. Clear blue skies and little wind.
Talk about worldwide conspiracy theories! This one’s real!
A group of us arrived in Rome and needed somewhere to dance a bit, because one of our party hadn’t been out for four years. We were completely unaware of what sort of establishments were available (it was midnight). Fortunately Mr G knew someone who knew someone etc.
With a phone call to someone in Bologna, that person then recommended Muccassassina and phoned the club to get us onto the guest list. We took a taxi to Rome’s (more likely Europe’s) premier LGBT spot. When we arrived it took three further circular phone calls to Bologna and discussions with the management to get us into the club for free, but we did it, thanks to the IGN. Really impressed.
I was even more impressed with the helicopter sitting in the beer garden. Most excellent.
I had a complaint or rather more of a suggestion.
Could I somehow differentiate my standard communications from my album reviews?
So, standard communications are now tagged and categorised under the code word:
Penguin
If you want to avoid my album reviews the search Penguin or look for that category.
Thanks Marc.
Reviewing my iPhone music has certainly shown up some weaknesses with my brain. I was aware of the limitations of my memory but this has brought it into sharp perspective.
All the songs and albums I have been listening to for many years have been absorbed completely by my brain. I know what the songs are called, the good bits, the lyrics, the bad bits, the drumming, everything.
All the music I have listened to more recently, even though I have listened to it a lot just hasn’t really sunk in. I know the songs when I hear them but they aren’t “recorded” in my brain.
One of the reasons could be that my memory forming neurons worked better when I was “growing up”.
It could be that I’ve just been listening to the stuff for so long that it just had to sink in to my grey cells.
Another could be that I tend to listen to songs now when I am driving or running and I can’t see my iPhone to see the album cover, song title or lyrics.
Whatever the reason I don’t seem to remember new songs and lyrics although when I listen to them I remember [There’s a PhD in there somewhere].
When I was in America I did some running. On my last day in the USA I ran past some bridges. While running up to the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Bridge I noticed a curious linkage design in the side of the bridge.
In the UK the majority of bridges are built on rollers so that when they expand in the summer, warmer months they don’t crack and break apart. These rollers can be observed from under the bridge and the expansion joints can be seen on top of the bridge.
This particular bridge in Washington DC is hanging from the cantilever end parts of the bridge to allow expansion in the structure. A close up below:
A close up with my annotations:
This is quite a clever solution to bridge expansion. I also think it is quite clear that I would make an excellent dinner guest, not boring at all! One of the things I love about civil engineering is that it is Meccano but just bigger. Big bolts, big nuts and big cables!
It was a touch cold the other morning. I know it gets colder elsewhere in the world but I live in the south-east of the UK where it’s not often this cold. The worst I knew was -10 Celsius, both the dog and I felt a bit cold that morning!
Car in the cold (spot the engine insulation lines):
