Aargh, shower water started dripping through the lounge ceiling yesterday. It has obviously been dripping a bit for a long time as that's where the stain was that I painted over recently. This is the first time I've seen water actually dripping through. Good job it happen when the boys were in the lounge to spot it, or it might have cleared up again without me noticing how bad it has got. I've contacted the plumber we used last time and hopefully he can sort it. I think we need somewhere between "fix the drip" and "replace most of the top floor of the house", and it will partly be up to us. I have wanted to replace most of the en-suite anyway so might use some of Nan's money to do that.
Slightly disappointing curry last night from Cheriton Balti. Quite tasty in parts, but they were half an hour later than my agreed collection time, which made it late for the boys. They enjoyed theirs more this time, mine was OK but one dish went wrong, and I got okra instead of aubergine.
There is an update from work to watch now, apparently still no use of the r-word in it.
A high of 19° and a low of 11° today. We have to find time to go out for some exercise before picking up thing one from school. Then I have a list of jobs to work through, including digging out some paperwork for Clare. This lead me to panic the car was not insured, but it's all OK, just things in the wrong place. I've been able to throw away some old misleading paperwork, and tidy up a bit in the process. I have made the penne arrabiata for tonight, and prepared some veg for the following day's packed lunchs. Called the plumber, will remember the school runs, might do somore more cleaning, and will iron uniform for tomorrow. Thing one is back at school four days a week from this week. Thing two did some good work on his project today. An extra job I remembered to chase up EDF who I think owe us £100 credit that we had on our electricity bill when we switched. And then I think I'm in credit and can find some time to sit and read.
Speaking of exercise I'm sure I did a 5k run yesterday but it's not showing up on here yet, something not synced. I ran round Waitrose in twenty-four minutes, so not too fast but not too shabby either.
I have moved on from Julie Wassmer to Reginald Hill now. The Joe Sixsmith series are good but have some odd bits to them which I suspect prevented them being further developed. Lots of confronting racism in the books, though partly the black lead character showing his own prejudices. And as it's written by a white man it doesn't feel quite authentic. Also the pub in the book is a Gary Glitter themed pub. It was a different time.
| Author | Book | Thoughts |
|---|---|---|
| Ian Rankin | Westwind 1 | Dated thriller, shame. |
| Ian Rankin | Doors Open 1 | Really good crime caper in Edinburgh but with no Rebus. |
| Suzanne Collins | The Hunger Games 1 | Borrowed from the children, very good. |
| Suzanne Collins | Catching Fire 1 | Hunger Games part 2, read this even quicker, a bit darker. |
| Suzanne Collins | Mockingjay 1 | Hunger Games part 3, joyless and grim. Very 2020... |
| Karen McManus | One Of Us Is Lying 2 | Another one liberated from the children's bookshelf. A Breakfast Club whodunnit, dying to be a film, not at all suitable for a ten year old... |
| Robin Paige | Death at Glamis Castle 3 | Edwardian era mystery written by Americans. I read one of these before. Quite atmospheric, though a little twee. Sort of romance / crime. Written in accents, with plenty of "of the time" attitudes. |
| Jed Rubenfield | The Interpretation of Murder 4 | A charity shop find, one you always see, have had it kicking around a long time. Historical crime fiction again set in New York 1909, featuring Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. Great, but complicated and fairly unlikely! |
| Muriel Spark | Loitering With Intent 5 | Branching out a little this time, it's not even a crime. |
| Julie Wassmer | Murder on the Pilgrims Way 6 | Going back to the familiar now. Fairly gentle and local crime. Forgot I had this one from when we met the author in Waterstones. Mostly predictable and cosy but I did not get the actual end murderer correct. |
| Reginald Hill | Blood Sympathy 7 | Even more familiar, have read this before, but keen to revisit this series. |
If USA really start doing less testing, this little table of data is going to become even less useful / interesting / accurate.
| Country | cases | deaths |
|---|---|---|
| USA | 2330578 | 121980 |
| Brazil | 1070139 | 50058 |
| Russia | 576952 | 8002 |
| India | 411727 | 13277 |
| UK | 303110 | 42589 |
| Spain | 293018 | 28322 |
| Peru | 251338 | 7861 |
| Italy | 238275 | 34610 |
| Chile | 236748 | 4295 |
| Iran | 202584 | 9507 |
Coronavirus weekly death graph for USA + Brazil + UK + Italy + France + Spain
5k: Five kilometres, just over three miles to you.
⬅️ Great socially distanced walk and beer :: What do I do with Nintendo Labo now? ➡️
Paul Clarkeʼs weblog - I live in Hythe near Folkestone, Kent. Wed to Clare + dad to two, I'm a full-stack web developr, + I do mostly javascript / Node, some ruby, python, php ect ect. I like pubs, parkrun, restaurants, home-automation + other diy stuff, history, genealogy, TV, squirrels, pirates, lego, and time travel.