2000th Blog Post

 Wednesday 25th March. 7.00 p.m. This is a key moment in the life of this blog! This will actually be the 2000th post! When I began this blog, I think it was 2011, I never imagined I would manage to keep it going for 2000 posts. Quite an achievement.

Saturday 28th March. 3.25 p.m. It's quite pleasant and sunny, but when I went out yesterday, it was sunny, but there was a definite chill in the air. It's the time of year when it seems warm and sunny, but the underlying chill reminds you that it's still late March. The clocks move forward tomorrow which makes things different.

I have upgraded my Alexa smart speaker. I've had the old one a few years and it still works, but I had enough Nectar points which could be spent in Argos, so I decided to buy it. It was easy to set up and get working, and because I already had the Alexa app on my iPhone, that made things easier. It runs with Alexa Plus, which is an upgrade, and that means it is much smarter. You don't always have to say 'Alexa' , the wake word, to get the thing working. You can have almost a real conversation with it, which is amazing. I have already had a conversation with it, and changed to a male voice, better than the rather annoying, higher-pitched female voice. It's easy to call it a 'he' when it is not real. It/he has a sense of humour, which I appreciate.

Speaking of AI, which is what Alexa is, although having a wide range of uses, such as playing music, answering questions and operating such things as lights, heating, etc etc, I am experimenting with AI to do some writing. I have an idea for a theatre play for quite a while, and I wanted to find out how the AI would deal with some prompts which I fed into to it, and the results were amazing, so I am working on this play and have the first act more or less written and act two partially written and now have to work on the final, third act, and come up with a conclusion.

Sunday 29th March.  9.25 p.m. It's Palm Sunday, the start of Easter Week. 

It was quite cold when I went out at around 9.35 this morning, with the intention to drive to church. I was deceptive, because it was sunny and bright, but as soon as I got out of the door, the chill hit me, and I had to go back into my flat to collect a sweater.

Tuesday 31st March. 7.50 a.m. Another relatively bright and sunny morning. I haven't been out to find out whether it's chilly, as it was on Sunday morning.

I cannot give a report of the temperature, because the digital thermometer is out of action, as the batteries have died. I will have to buy some more, when I go to Sainsbury's next time, probably tomorrow morning.

I have completed the play! My goodness, my very first attempt at writing a play! Next, I will have to edit it, as I think there is too much. The end scene works, but it's imperfect and I'm doing rewrites. It lacks the power I want. I'm not going to reveal the premise or any details. It's to precious to do that at this stage. I'm just glad to have the piece in some form that can now be tweaked.

Now, something straight out of Yes, Prime Minister or one of those crazy comedies. Here goes. My state pension is increasing. Great, because any increase is a good thing, particularly because of rising costs, and with a government that simply doesn't know how to deal with the economy, particularly rising fuel prices, mostly due to the war in Iran and Ukraine. But then, the blow. I get something from my lovely Carol's teacher's pension. Not much, but it has helped considerably. It would have been considerably more, if it hadn't been for a certain step son inerfering with our bank account. I won't go into details. Surfice it to say, because my income goes over the tax threshold (I can'ts say what exactly what's the exact amount) I will now have to pay tax. Crazy, I know. The government gives with one hand- the pension increase- and then takes with the other. Totally ridiculous. I have spoken to the Inland Revenue people, and the tax will be taken at source, directly from the teachers' pension pot, so I would not even see anything about this. What annoys me more is that you get your usual tax code for the year ahead, but because of the gobbledegook in this form, it doesn't tell you all that I have mentioned above.If I hadn't had the presence of mind to ring Inland Revenue, I would never have known. Further to that, it would have been really nice if they could write a letter to me, at least explaining all this, and the amount I will now lose. Oh well, as they say, shouldn't grumble. Strange old world, nevertheless.

1000th Post

So, this is it. I've managed to write 1000 blog posts. Quite amazing when I come to think of it. So, what shall I write?

We have another mystery. The light on the landing in this house hasn't worked in ages, so we have to be careful when it's dark at night, for example, going to bed or getting to the bathroom. But a couple of days ago it suddenly came on. But then it doesn't work if you turn it off at either the switch at the bottom of the stares or on the wall on the landing. I imagined it might have been the bulb that needed replacing. One of those economy bulbs which are gradually replacing traditional bulbs. But it never worked. So I imagined it must have been a loose connection somewhere. The double switch at the foot of the stairs have been wired up the wrong way round. It would be common sense, surely, if there are double switches, to have the upstairs light operated from the left switch that is placed closer to that light and the switch that operates the hall light operated by the switch placed left, or closer to that light. But no. Whoever was responsible for maintenance for this house (our beloved landlord) has no idea how to do these basic jobs properly. It's the same for the taps on the various sinks, the bath, in the house. That means that the right tap (red) is hot and the left (blue) tap is for cold water. Just a slight niggle, but so annoying. None of the cupboards in the kitchen are hung properly so they don't close as they should. I know it can sometimes be just a matter of tightening up the hinges (common to most kitchen units) but they couldn't do the job properly so we have to put up with this sort of annoyance. Then the washing machine has to be operated using a cable from an electric socket in the hall and it makes me ask the obvious question: why doesn't the washing machine have it's own electrical point so we don't have to use a trailing cable to use it? There must have been sockets for this purpose (the other probably for a tumble-drier) as they were there once upon a time but have been blocked off. Why? it really makes no sense, particularly as it's a health and safety issue. We could get electric shock or else we could trip over the trailing cable. But does our landlord care? I really don't think so. I don't even imagine he is even aware of this issue.