When the days roll into one Since the pandemic hit, and especially since the UK went into lockdown (such as that lockdown is), I’ve been looking on Facebook a lot more than I used to – and earlier this week when I did so I saw this photograph, posted by my sister, when my niece was about to start her online English lesson:
Read MoreTales from the pandumbic – part 4
Communication confusion For some time now, the standard slogan we’ve been hearing and seeing from the government of the UK has been “Stay at home. Protect the NHS. Save Lives.”
Read MoreTales from the pandumbic – part 3
The fomite trap Before delving into this tale, it is important to understand that a ‘fomite’ is an object or surface, onto which a virus can be deposited by one person, and from which it can therefore be picked up by another, who may then go on to become infected if they – perhaps inadvertently – touch their face before washing their hands. And so we come to the fomite trap:
Read MoreTales from the pandumbic – part 2
Price negotiable; infection possible This second tale should arguably have been the first – it predates by a couple of weeks my trip to the shop in which I spotted the one handed shopper, but I’d completely forgotten all about it until, looking back through my comments on Twitter to find something else, I found this tweet, and it all came flooding back.
Read MoreTales from the pandumbic – part 1
The tale of the one handed shopper I shouldn’t need to explain the background to this post in any great detail other than to use the word “pandemic” – unless you’ve spent the last few months trapped at the bottom of a well with no access to news, you’ll know what I’m talking about.
Read MoreFun things to do on a short break in the Lake District
I recently took a trip up to the Lake District – something I don’t get to do anywhere near as often as I’d like – and based on my own activities on the trip, what follows is a list of fun things other people can enjoy doing while up there.
Read MoreSilly, repetitive addresses FTW!
I said ‘@’ there, not ‘at’. Not there, no, that’s definitely ‘at’ – and so’s that bit. If you ask me for my email address, what I’ll give you in response depends on the context. If that context is that we’re chatting in a pub (so there has been some drinking) and perhaps you want to forward a link to some really funny video clip to me, there is a specific address I’ll give you. I will say: “at dot co dot uk at dot co dot uk at dot…
Read MoreShould HSBC rebrand itself as HSSC?
The Hongkong and Shanghai Spamming Corporation. Based on my various inboxes, it would appear that HSBC have recently become spammers – or it may be that they’ve been spammers for a while, and I’ve only just noticed it. Before delving into the spam emails I’ve received from HSBC, I should explain why it’s possible they’ve been doing it for a while, and why I may not have noticed before. This is down to the way I have my mailboxes configured – and some recent changes I have made to them.
Read MoreEurovision 2017 – as seen through cider-specs!
Until 2014, the Eurovision Song Contest wasn’t something I was inclined to watch, other than checking in towards the very end to see how the UK was doing. However, in 2014 I happened to be at a loose end on the evening the contest took place, so I decided to watch it, and comment on Twitter as I did so – with plenty of cider handy. I enjoyed doing that so much that I’ve repeated the exercise each year since – and this year, I’ve decided to pull my comments…
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