Playtime!

Hot in the town
Cool in the leaves...

With my unexpected holiday today, I decided to stay in bed and finish my book (Pigeon English by Stephen Kelman). I then got up and threw a few swimming things in a bag and caught the country bus to Cirencester. In the end I did not have time to check out the lido at Cirencester because there is a massive diversion caused by the market square being dug up! I didn't have long as I had stupidly rearranged the TV aerial engineer's visit for later today .

So I tried on some jeans and a jacket that would have cost £ 120, then went round the charity shops and got a pair of jeans and a linen shirt for £13! Shortly afterwards, I caught the bus back. I snapped this cool green shot on the return journey.

After I d got back, the aerial repair guy phoned to say he wouldn't be able to get here until 5 or 6. Poo! My fault for changing the day.

So I am sitting here watching the satellite picture breaking up, and waiting.

Still scorccio.

Update: the satellite engineer came. He said that our neighbour's trees were growing in the range of our dish. They are about 10 m high. I thought about it and asked if he could relocate the dish to the highest point on the house. Trees are a problem on both sides here. They always will be with our current neighbours. When the dish was relocated, it was pronounced DOA. It is old. Steve and I had a teleconference and decided to have a new dish fitted, and a second cable installed so we can record programmes as well as watch them. The new dish is now installed: the second part of the job will be carried out next week.

This is turning out to be an expensive year for tech:

January: Ancient BT phone died. Replaced with modern set.
February: iPad became almost useless. Replaced by tinpot tablet that doesn't do a lot.
March: Satellite box became so unreliable that we replaced it with fancy new model and adapter to attach to ancient TV.
April: Took out 3 year extended warranty on washing machine because it is already two years old.
May:satellite signal went haywire. We tried hitting the equipment with various type of hammer.
June: kettle started leaking. Coffee grinder wires bare. Replaced both.
July: finally replaced satellite dish.

And my laptop screen is still cracked! Might try sellotape!

Can't help thinking that these are very 21st century first world problems. (We used to have a TV aerial but it blew off in a storm. Very windy here). And we could probably manage without everything else apart from the washing machine. Desert island, here I come....