@scribblanitea@cupoftea.social cover
@scribblanitea@cupoftea.social avatar

scribblanitea

@[email protected]

This is where I am when I'm not anywhere else. Usually with a cup of tea.

I try to be nice to everyone, except for the sort of people I have on my 'Do Not Be Nice To These Sorts of People' list.

Not keen on labels/tags/categories, but sometimes relevant are #ADHD #Birdwatching #Cycling #GPEW #LFC #MultipleSclerosis #Photography #Eating #Sleeping #DrinkingTea #BeingGivenLotsOfMoneyForNoReason

#cornwall, nr. England
#nobot

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. View on remote instance

@TheBreadmonkey@beige.party avatar TheBreadmonkey , to random

Missed this. Lol. Yet another article framing Fedi as unsuccessful because businesses and advertising have failed to get a foothold. 😂

European social platform W is coming. Will users leave X for it?

https://cybernews.com/tech/social-platform-w-users/

Older lady fabulously dressed in a typical British suburban street being interviewed by a bearded man in a suit and check shirt. She has on a black coat, brooch and is wearing pearls.

scribblanitea ,
@scribblanitea@cupoftea.social avatar

@TheBreadmonkey

W, will require user identity verification to prevent bots,
👋

scribblanitea ,
@scribblanitea@cupoftea.social avatar

@aadeacon @TheBreadmonkey Printing out my profile picture to hold up in front of the webcam, just in case it's needed anywhere soon. ;)

@TheBreadmonkey@beige.party avatar TheBreadmonkey , to random

Trump is apparently mentioned a MILLION times in the Epstein files. A million. M I L L I O N. The files go back to 1996. 30 years. 33,333.33 times a year. Approximately 90 times every single day or 4 times every hour, without sleeping, for 30 years. It is a wonder anything else ever got done. It's no wonder he had him murdered (according to my mate Geoff down the pub who has nothing to do with me, I don't even have an opinion).

scribblanitea ,
@scribblanitea@cupoftea.social avatar

@TheBreadmonkey Bet you wish you had a pound for every time his name is in there, eh?

scribblanitea ,
@scribblanitea@cupoftea.social avatar

@TheBreadmonkey I wonder if it's possible to do a find-and-replace, where the word Trump replaces any redactions at all in the document.

If someone could do that and spread it about, that would make him a bit annoyed I expect.

@scribblanitea@cupoftea.social avatar scribblanitea , to random

Good morning!

pulls back curtains

OK then... Morning!

@scribblanitea@cupoftea.social avatar scribblanitea , to random

Doing a random 'follow people who boost a post' thing*. Gives the old timeline a refresh, and it's obviously already people with impeccable taste I'm following. ;)

*Terms and conditions apply. Not telling you what they are.

@scribblanitea@cupoftea.social avatar scribblanitea , to random

Good afternoon. I know what you're thinking. Did scribblans get wet on his dog walk today?
Well, it was a gorgeous day.
Some bits of it were anyway. The bit I went out in was...
not.

Yes, we did get wet again today. It started off so promising too.

@scribblanitea@cupoftea.social avatar scribblanitea , to random

Of course, we haven't got groundhogs in the UK, so we have to make do with Basingstoke Bert, the badger.

scribblanitea OP ,
@scribblanitea@cupoftea.social avatar

The competing 'Badger Day' film never took off.

@scribblanitea@cupoftea.social avatar scribblanitea , to random

Nice messenger chat with my 'boy'.
He had an ADHD assessment this week and reports a very positive outcome in feeling 'validated and seen' and now is getting medication to help him.
He says just a few days in, everything is 'clearer and easier, and productivity has shot up'.
Really happy for him.

Makes me feel like I should have a go at it myself now (as I'm probably responsible), but as I'm nearly sixty, mostly retired, and it doesn't really matter any more I'm not on the greasy pole, I think I might cope as I am and I have been.

scribblanitea OP ,
@scribblanitea@cupoftea.social avatar

In other 'little boy' news (6ft 4, brick outhouse, tats and Cuban rebel leader hair and moustache look), his band have been booked to do the Boardmasters festival at Newquay in the summer.

@scribblanitea@cupoftea.social avatar scribblanitea , to Unofficial Haiku Community

So nearly over
the month of January
and yet it persists

@scribblanitea@cupoftea.social avatar scribblanitea , to random

Good evening. Triple whammy of stuff to keep me lying low today. Had some heart palpitation and breathing issues surface suddenly last night, felt snotty, sniffly and achy from the start of today, and have been struggling with leg weakness, balance and exhaustion as well.

Perhaps there is a coldy type virus in there somewhere that is responsible for getting at my immune system and letting everything hit me at once.

J had to do the dog walks, and it's been pouring down all day. Wet twice. What a shame.

scribblanitea OP ,
@scribblanitea@cupoftea.social avatar

Sorry, that may look a bit cruel, a bit mean enjoying J getting rained on today, my beloved wife... BUT this is the woman who decided to accompany me on my walk yesterday, and when we got to the location of the walk said "There's no way I'm going out in that. You go and I'll wait here in the car,"
So the dog and I went and NEARLY DROWNED and came back and the car WASN'T THERE as she had decided to drive off to the town and 'pick up some bits' while we were NEARLY DROWNING.

So we waited, under a fir tree for twenty minutes trying to shelter after we'd finished our walk/swim for Mrs Dry, Warm and Smug to turn up and save us.

We were not amused.

@scribblanitea@cupoftea.social avatar scribblanitea , to random

Northern lights! In the south! What's next? Northern Soul at Lands End? Kilts on the Lizard? Vikings invading the Scilly Isles? Greenlanders invading Hawaii? It's all gone upside down. Keep your funny coloured skies up there where they belong.

@scribblanitea@cupoftea.social avatar scribblanitea , to random

No sign of the hop-along starling this morning yet. Has it succumbed? Has it recovered somehow? Well, I can't tell you the answers, but I can ask the questions. If I do get any answers, I'll tell you. Otherwise, it's all questions.

The feeder is full of a variety of tit action, the blue and great tits like the fat blocks, the coal tits dive in for the seed tray and feeder pickings.

Hang on, there's been a shift change as I'm typing... another look over my shoulder and the tits have gone, sparrows and starlings have arrived... and there's hop-along!

I'm revising my opinion. I haven't seen it fly, but I think it must be doing so if it's suddenly arrived with some other starlings. Unless one of them is carrying it as cargo. Or it's hiding out in the shrub and only coming out when its mates arrive. Still hopping along the ground into the shrub rather than flying off when there's an alarm signal moment though.

This has been a mysterious

scribblanitea OP ,
@scribblanitea@cupoftea.social avatar

I've done a scientific experiment.

Hop-along was here, feeding with mates, and I did what in the science community we call an 'Induced Emergency Evacuation Cue' (I tapped on the window)

Everyone flew off in a mad panic, as expected and hypothesised, but hop-along ermm.. hopped along the floor and up into its safety shrub.

THEN it hopped out of that one and proceeded to hop along the garden to the large evergreen holly in the diagonally-opposite corner of the 'lawn'.

That's about 12 metres.

Still haven't seen it arrive, but revising opinion about whether it CAN fly again... I don't think it would have risked that longer traverse on the ground, in the open, if it could fly there a lot quicker.

Possibly it IS coming out to feed when it hears the chattering of other starlings. The traverse across the lawn takes maybe four or five seconds, or it can travel via the relative safety of the plants in borders at the edges.

More as we get it!

@scribblanitea@cupoftea.social avatar scribblanitea , to random

J
is away.
Off on a girls night out, so I've got the place to myself.
Sooo... I slept all afternoon, and I'm probably going to bed early to hopefully sleep some more.
Rock'n'roll.

@scribblanitea@cupoftea.social avatar scribblanitea , to random

Turns on BBC 6Music...

"..and now it's time for the news..."

Turns off BBC 6Music.

@scribblanitea@cupoftea.social avatar scribblanitea , to random

Have had one of my turned-off days. Seemed fine this morning, normal exercise, did the bird feeders (it was bloody cold out, ice smashed on bird bath etc.), breakfast, then fell from the overnight 100% full to 10% charge* just like that. Amazing feeling it go, almost like it's a reservoir draining out of your toes.

Been on 10% since. Awake in 20-30 minute spurts so far (three of them all day).

Managed 45 minutes this time, so hopefully tonight's full charge will stick.

*For the hard of understanding, this is a metaphor for my personal energy and not that of my phone.

@scribblanitea@cupoftea.social avatar scribblanitea , to random

Walking the dog up the lane in the half-light of dusk, massive full moon rising, and I spy through a field gateway a large (40-50) flock of... somethings in a stubble field. Can't see colour at this stage, no binos, so am running possibles (size, dark v light plumage pattern, manner of movement etc..) through the mental database... aha... 'peewit' call, I know that then.

They take flight briefly, all of them, then settle down again further away from me (the unintended threat) down the field. Lapwing. Definite Bird of the Day, and good to see them (sort of) up here.

Sadly just far enough away to not be able to claim them as seen from home.

@scribblanitea@cupoftea.social avatar scribblanitea , to random

I am about to prepare a roasted butternut squash, chickpea and spinach curry for tonight's dinner.

As usual, it will be slightly different to the last time we had it because I never seem to get round to writing the recipe down. But I obviously know the three main ingredients, so that's a good start.

@scribblanitea@cupoftea.social avatar scribblanitea , to Unofficial Haiku Community

new year approaches
let's not have resolutions
just revolutions

@scribblanitea@cupoftea.social avatar scribblanitea , to random

Dear local council,

You can't just randomly change the bin collection day because of some festival or other, every time there is one.

What are you playing at? Nobody knows what day it is already, so we could do without you lot sticking your oar in and messing with us even more.

You do not know the extent of the powerful temporal forces you are messing with.

Leave it alone, otherwise a lot of people could get hurt.

Or at least confused.

Edit to add
(There's a hashtag!? Bloody hell.)

@scribblanitea@cupoftea.social avatar scribblanitea , to random

We had help during the unwrapping.

A small white terrier sits on a carpeted living room floor, surrounded by another carpet made of torn up fragments of wrapping paper. She looks like she enjoyed that.
ALT
@scribblanitea@cupoftea.social avatar scribblanitea , to random

From a walk on the coastpath cliffs yesterday, looking towards Boscastle and Tintagel castle beyond.

In the foreground, some rolling fields sloping downwards from the left to the right, with deep sloping valleys between them. A figure is walking away from the camera on a pathway worn into the grass of the fields, the low sun picking out textures of ridges in the fields. Beyond is a view of the headlands and cliffs stretching down the coast, each promontory having an rocky island of its own. A misty blurring of the sea and sky forms the horizon, with a blue sky above some low white cloud.
ALT
@scribblanitea@cupoftea.social avatar scribblanitea , to random

Internet providers have sent me some new kit (routers and extenders) to replace my existing kit with, so I'm about to do that.

This will be goodbye.

Followed shortly by a hello again.

Hopefully.

scribblanitea OP ,
@scribblanitea@cupoftea.social avatar

Update: I'm here, but my Freesat and my printer aren't yet... I don't know exactly why yet, but I'm working on it.

@scribblanitea@cupoftea.social avatar scribblanitea , to random

Good morning,

Everyone has been to the feeder as usual, but there is currently a monopoly on the whole station by a gathering of around a dozen greenfinches. So that's 8 feeding portholes on the seed feeders occupied, plus another 4 politely sharing the seed tray below.

A blue tit arrived looking expectant, but it got stared at threateningly by two dozen greenfinch eyes, so it hopped nonchalantly up on to the pine cone instead and fed on the fat in it while hanging upside down, knowing that the greenfinches can't do that.

"Nah na na naaah na," it probably said.

This has been today's

@scribblanitea@cupoftea.social avatar scribblanitea , to random

Eff me... J made a trip to the main dealership to enquire about getting a new battery for the spare key that wasn't working for her Mini.
Apparently it's not a simple battery change, they're a sealed unit, so she has to order a total new replacement key, coded to her vehicle... £170.

Is this what modern vehicle owning is like these days? I shall stick to my old mostly analogue banger for as long as possible.

@scribblanitea@cupoftea.social avatar scribblanitea , to random

I blogged about J buying a car.

https://skryblans.com/one-lady-owner/

@scribblanitea@cupoftea.social avatar scribblanitea , to random

RE: https://mastodon.social/@itsfoss/115684953680872223

I've been on the Fediverse so long I've looked at this and thought hmmm... I like the sound of that.

First batch sold already, they're on to the second

Anyone using it?
(Of course there'll be some here using it, you numpty)
How is it?

@TheBreadmonkey@beige.party avatar TheBreadmonkey , to random

Became overstimulated in Lidl

scribblanitea ,
@scribblanitea@cupoftea.social avatar

@TheBreadmonkey @kimlockhartga Haha Ben, with all the USians here, you're probably going to have to explain 'walking distance'.

scribblanitea ,
@scribblanitea@cupoftea.social avatar

@TheBreadmonkey @kimlockhartga So that's like from the front door to the car in the drive about 20 times then?

@TheBreadmonkey@beige.party avatar TheBreadmonkey , to random
scribblanitea ,
@scribblanitea@cupoftea.social avatar

@TheBreadmonkey I expect there will be much cynicism about this story, but it's all true, Beyonce was telling me about it on our Skype call last night.

@scribblanitea@cupoftea.social avatar scribblanitea , to random

It's lichens all the way up.

The picture is taken at the base of a tall and straight larch tree trunk, looking upwards towards a grey and overcast sky. The tree is leafless but the trunk is home to many varieties and shades of green lichens, some flat and clinging to the surface of the trunk, others sprouting out with straggly tendrils like a beard. The picture goes out of focus as the trunk climbs towards the top of the frame but the lichens can be seen as green splodges continuing all the way up it.
ALT
@TheBreadmonkey@beige.party avatar TheBreadmonkey , to random

I feel sure there's some absolutely terrific jokes to be made of this, but frankly I've got nothing. I've let you down. I'm sorry.

Australian murderer sues for "human right" to Vegemite behind bars

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1j86xydjpro

scribblanitea ,
@scribblanitea@cupoftea.social avatar
@scribblanitea@cupoftea.social avatar scribblanitea , to random

J bought me a new warm coat last week, precisely for the sort of conditions that we were in today (bloody cold). So I wore it for the dog walk up at the old airfield woods (with the view of Roughtor, posted separately)

It was cold and my nose was running, so I was sniffing a lot. I was going to get my phone out of my pocket for a pic, looked down so see what I was doing and noticed blood dripping ON MY NEW COAT! Then another... nose bleed. Bugger. Blood thinners, see. Just sniffing does it.

Anxiety attack and brain full of scenario playing out ensues about what am I going to say to J about all these blood stains on my new coat while trying to stop the bleed, had a now blood-stained handkerchief to my nose, holding the bridge of my nose, trying to be nice and cool, then a man and dog walked by.

"Alright." he said.

But not in a 'OMG, you're covered in blood, are you alright!' sort of way, just in a nodding British bare-minimum greeting sort of way.

"Alright" I nodded back.

@TheBreadmonkey@beige.party avatar TheBreadmonkey , (edited ) to random

Who are these people making risotto adding one ladle at a time? I assume they are immortal beings - time means nothing to them in the infinite universe

Edit - update! Definitely add one ladle at a time you heathens for it is the only path! X

scribblanitea ,
@scribblanitea@cupoftea.social avatar

@TheBreadmonkey Time isn't real. Risotto is.

scribblanitea ,
@scribblanitea@cupoftea.social avatar

@TheBreadmonkey Check his ladle lads, he may be using a non-approved one.

@tayfonay@beige.party avatar tayfonay , to random

I don’t know a lot about the Legend of Zelda but Link and Zelda aren’t related right? Because they sure as shit cast 2 actors that look like brother and sister for the new live action coming out.

scribblanitea ,
@scribblanitea@cupoftea.social avatar

@TheBreadmonkey @tayfonay

Oh, top Zelda from Terrahawks anecdote. My younger brother, at the time about 4, and the family were visiting my grandad and step-nan at their place for tea (the sort of thing families used to do for entertainment on a Sunday 45 years ago) They put the telly on to 'entertain' (keep them quiet) the kids. Terrahawks came on, so my little brother excitedly pipes up "Ah! Zelda... Mum says you look like her Nanna."

Awkward silence ensues.

@scribblanitea@cupoftea.social avatar scribblanitea , to random

Christmas film iPlayer ads on BBC 6Music in the middle of November can fuck off.

scribblanitea OP ,
@scribblanitea@cupoftea.social avatar

Apologies for the bad language but nothing else except fuck off fitted there.

Sorry for the bad language above too, but I had to write fuck off to explain what I meant.

Damn. This isn't as easy as I thought it would be.

scribblanitea OP ,
@scribblanitea@cupoftea.social avatar

@AnguaDelphine I like those who still whack an asterisk in. What are we meant to think?
"Oh, look, this person doesn't want to type fuck... or perhaps they really meant fack, feck, fick or fock?"

@TheBreadmonkey@beige.party avatar TheBreadmonkey , to random

All news now is just about stuff that people said or did or stuff that's going on

scribblanitea ,