staff or customers?
Padded walls and floors.
Next.
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Happy sticks.
Experiencing (up to) force 10 SSW wind and of course there was the inevitable power cut.
Message from Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks. weāre aiming to have your power restored by 19:00
Back on at 18:15
Made dinner for the girls using camping stoves by the light of an oil lamp and several candles.
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You old romantic, you 
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Today has sucked, hard.
First the garage gets back to me - āYour clutch was actually slipping due to oil leaking from the gearboxā¦ā. 
So, a Ā£3-figure job is now a Ā£4-figure jobā¦
Then I receive an email from our local listed-buildings officerā¦ Last time I looked, there wasnāt one, and last time I tried contacting the planning office concerning the work we need to do here, they simply didnāt respond. In the subsequent 4 years, weāve had to undertake some repair work to both buildings to stop them falling down. Where possible weāve used like-for-like (Georgian bricks, lime mortar, locally-sourced sand and gravel, &c. &c.), but due to the impossibility of getting chippies and the like to do anything to pattern, we gambled on UPVC doors for the garage and kitchen - keep the weather and occasional thieves out at least, with the intention of coming back in a few years and replacing them with something more traditional. Theyāre decent-looking, not cheap shiny white crap, and donāt actually look out-of-place, but one of our dear neighbours has complainedā¦ So this already cripplingly-expensive mess just got expensively messierā¦ With hindsight, Iāll take the rap for this, we were stuck unable to get builders &c, and I decided to gamble. Stupid. Of course. Thatās the ājoyā of hindsightā¦ The sensible thing to do will probably be to cut our losses and sell-up. It was nice while it lasted.
To perfectly top-and-tail the day, news reached me that the very lovely chap who took a gamble on employing me at the Natural History Museum 30 years ago has just passed-away. Hugh started there in 1949 when they were still rebuilding galleries damaged by V1s and incendiary bombs, and worked himself up from junior technical assistant to Deputy Keeper of Palaeontology at a time when intense snobbery by the Oxbridge-educated āchapsā usually prevented promotion of āthe menā, and he did it entirely on personal merit - being one of the most upright, honest, open-minded and generous-spirited of all the people I have ever had the very good fortune to meet. He took me on, not for the role I applied for, but for one he saw coming as another old-timer was about to resign in a huff - and despite my lack of qualifications, fortunately I had exactly the right knowledge and interests to fill the role, and he spotted that, giving me the biggest break Iāve ever had in my life.
Hugh was as much an advocate for unloved and controversial science as he was for people, and though he sometimes backed the wrong horse, he did so with thoroughness and diligence - and godnose science needs people to investigate all of the possibilities that seem to exist, not merely assume things. If the occasional pet notion didnāt pan-out, Hugh was the first to admit it, and even turn a little banter in on himself - so very different from the young scientists of today, pressurised to deliver endless grant funding, statistically high-ranking papers, and āoutreachāā¦
Vale, Hugh, and rest well, we shall never see your like again.
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I spent an excellent evening listening to some excellent tunes on an excellent system.
You donāt get to hear Blumenhofer speakers every day.
Followed by a trip to the local curry house.
Thanks for the hospitality @chelseadave
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Sorry to hear about the death of your mentor and your catacclysmically shit day Paul.
Sometimes life just sucks 
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Your more than welcomed Kev enjoyed both your company and the meal.
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Making my online ferry bookings for a trip to Lerwick on Monday.
Itās just a general shopping trip but highlights will include the added delight of filling the tank with (as-expensive-as-rocket-fuel) diesel 
And a pint of rocket fuel in the pub.
Iām posting this in the hope it might (momentarily at least) make you feel better;
(It was a stop after a very short time as part of a longer trip- it must have made it up to, ooh, 22-23mpg by the end of it).
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I was surprised how much difference in fuel it made driving at 55-60mph
Sadly I lost the will to live,and went back to expensive speed mode at Bristol
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Only slightly 
Iāve no idea what mpg my 16 year old 2L diesel achieves but Iāll be pleasantly surprised if it manages 30.
Iāll have to zero the trip and try to remember to work it out next time I fill up.
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Why donāt you volunteer them, to take in some Ukrainian refugees!
If I knew who, that would be the least of it mate!
Would they be happy with period type looking double glazing?
We put in some upvc wood grain effect sash windows a decade ago, I know that sounds a bit shit,but they looked pretty good.
Bloke I work with put in wooden sash ones around the same time in his own house,they are rotten already
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Took the morning off as I needed a break and spent it walking the dogs and playing games with them in the garden while the sun was shining. I really needed that and the dogs came back in the house after several hours looking really happy too.
This afternoon Iāve taken on a graphic design agency weāve been talking to and agreed to collaborate on a few pharma projects that would benefit from their skills - weāre developing guides for cancer patients and their families to help them understand whatās involved in their treatment using specific therapies. Iām really excited about this and can see lots of future potential to wrap these things up in an app that centres and Macmillan could use.
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Good move. I am desparate for a break. Clients are causing me severe stress.