martinlittle.com:thinkThin

Hazel's birthday in Tigerlily.

i've not used this X10 stuff in years, so it's on ebay now. Simon, your chance to own something very cool.

Last year I planned to leave TopUp TV, but then the Tour de France came around and British Eurosport carried it. £7.99 per month seemed OK, for the occasional use I made of it.

Then they came up with the genius plan of changing the number of channels a normal working person could watch to just four, with British Eurosport closing at 6pm, but adding some kind of wacky system which I remain unclear as to how it actually works. It does involve a PVR and TopUp TV deciding what I want to watch, from yesterday's programming only ... I think.

Nevertheless, their offering is now so useless to me I've packed it in. Even that had some of the weirdness I've come to love from TopUp TV:
me: "I'd like to cancel my account"
TopUp TV: "you need to call back between 9am-5pm, Monday to Friday"
me: "please can you have them call me instead?"
TopUp TV: "no, this is an incoming call center only"
me: "well, I don't want to call back, so please can you send them a message"
TopUp TV: "OK". Takes details. "your account will be closed from tomorrow"

Our survey came back with no major problems, so we move forward a step.

Hazel-o-rama and I have been looking for a new ranch for some time, so that we can stop shuttling between each other's flats, and the cat doesn't go in the huff. After two failed attempts, being second in the running both times and missing out by £35,000 first time and then £25,000 second time, we've had success. We won by 0.000453%, which is quite a narrow margin.

Keys will be collected mid-January, and then we need to overhaul the mains electrics, review the central heating, make a few small structural changes, install a kitchen and completely redecorate. I'm not posting the new details here, but drop me a mail if you'd like to see the schedule.

In the meantime, if you know of anyone looking for a lovely two bedroom flat in Morningside, in a quiet cul-de-sac, handy for Waitrose, Marks and Spencer foodstore and buses, let me know.

Champagne all round!

I'd never seen Braille on a medicine box before.

Finally, it's in my hands!

Check this out. I've got to 15, but am stuck after that. Any ideas? Thanks to Allan.

[Update at 15.55]: I completed it. That was brilliant fun!

Tasty oysters at Loch Fyne Oyster Bar. :-)