What have you done today

[2112]

Thanks for asking Doc. It was a great send off on a lovely bright, crisp January morning. In typical Alec fashion he was slightly late arriving (a lad not noted for his punctuallity in life, continued this trend in his death) at the house, which we all thought was hillarious and very 'Alec'. The service went well with a beautiful speech by the Celebrant and we left the venue to the sound of 'Limelight' by RUSH. Andrea was thrilled to bits with the turnout and we had a few drinks to celebrate his life at the White House in Ashington. It was a fantastic goodbye to a great friend.

[2112]

Today, I ordered a new passport online. It was fairly painless to be honest and a lot less fuss & bother than I thought it would be. I had a picture taken yesterday in Morpeth, so I simply added the code provided and there was my picture on screen. Very impressed with the whole process, so far. Lets reserve judgement until it turns up...

AND, just to be clear, it was about to expire, it wasn't worn out as one of my friends suggested 

[Joe Rocket]

I did the same for my UK passport but had lots of problems with the photo taken myself (codes from machines over here don't transfer to the UK, or didn't a couple of years back).

So no fingerprints then? Have you done that at airports in your travels already? EES and ETIAS will need them. My French passpport was full biometrics and the same for Identity Card.

[2112]

When we were recently at Madeira, they had switched the fingerprint machines off as they were causing too much hassle and creating massive queues. The 'normal' digital passport scanners were working, but most passports were getting 'rejected' by the machine so you ended up with a manual check. It was quite noticeable how fast the line of manual checking was compared to the digital machines... No doubt next time will be fingerprints & fuss and bother.

[Rusty Nuts]

Looking forward to fingerprint fun & games in May. Lanzarote airport had the machines shrink-wrapped in a corner in October. Arrecife is a small but busy airport,  it'll be a bottleneck.

[Barbel Mick]

Our weekend & pretty much every weekend during the winter sports season.
Left home Saturday morning at 08.15 to drive from Derby to the other side on Mansfield to watch one of the grandsons play football. Got back home a little after 12.30 for a bite to eat. 
Normally the granddaughter would have indoor cricket on a Saturday, but her team didn't have a game, so Deb & myself went to watch the local 'none league' football team.
Sunday, out early again to go & watch yesterdays grandson referee the first of three junior matches.  (he does under 12's .... he is 14)
We have to leave early to drive to the other side of Derby to watch the other grandson play football.
We get home & manage a quick bite to eat before we're out again & driving to Leicester to watch the 'refereeing' grandson play basketball.
Well over 200 mile weekend, but unfortunately all in the car.

We love being grandparents of sporting kids.   

[Upt North]

Today I'm mainly exhausted reading what Mick's been up to. And....sealing a ceiling ready for emulsion. It's that time of year.....pffffffftttttt.
Upt.

[Rixington43]

Did the EES registration at The Eurotunnel (Passenger from St.Pancras) last week for work. Took fractionally longer on the outbound since it was my first use but it was no slower than normal on the way back, once they ditch the passport stamp it's about the same time in total. Off to France again on Thursday via the car Shuttle and I expect to see a bit of a backlog there because the machines are self service and a lot of people are morons  Or they have kids in tow which is kind of the same thing  (I really don't envy parents, mine included)

* The slowest part of the whole process was waiting for the cheapo Logitech webcam to ratchet up a little motorised pole (operated via remote by the border agent I might add) so it could take photos of people at different heights. The job would have been twice as fast if the camera was just adjusted manually....

[2112]

I gave my TCX boots a bit of love today. The leather was quite dry, despite treating them this sort of time last year, so a hefty coat of black dubbin will see them in grand fettle for whatever this year can throw at them. Probably.

[Joe Rocket]

Back to passports. The final exchange is so French!

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Jyc83FK5Fjc

[2112]

Thanks to a nearly three week late birthday present from the monster-in-law, I've lashed out and bought a pair of Merlin Calton gloves from Sportsbike Shop. These are the quite rare CE level 2 certified and should offer some serious protection in the event of a tumble. Full report when I've had a chance to use them.

[2112]

In the 'you couldn't make it up' category, my late mate's widow rang last night to say one of the cats was poorly, could I take her to the vets tomorrow? So, we picked her & Kipper (the cat) up, over to the vets and the little buggers only got Congestive Heart Failure. Bugger, probably only a week or so to live (he was 17) so she had to make the agonising decision to put him to sleep. Another kick in the emotional plums for the girl and much tears. She's having a particularly crappy time at the moment and she returned home to find Paddy (the remaining cat) had chundered all over the front room. Life can be pretty shitty at times...

[The Doctor 46]

2112. Maybe life has just hit rock bottom for your friend but when that happens there is only one way it can go, back up again, hopefully but it may take a while. 

[2112]

True Doc, true. She's been through so much lately and to lose one of the cat's (I know some of you may think it's just a cat, what's the fuss?) but they are part of the family and this is just about the last straw. Add in the fact it would have been Alec's 63 birthday tomorrow too, another milestone she has to negotiate. Oh, and she loses the Motobility car tomorrow too, another thing that has been playing on her mind. We've offered lifts for various appointments & visits but it's not the same as having your own transaport. No money in the pot for anything either...

[The Doctor 46]

As you know, she needs, really needs friends and family looking in on her and giving her an ear to talk to for quite a while. Lots of things will be going around in her head and she'll need to get it out, sound advise will be needed too.

 You already know what I've just said is true and your ear will be there for her I'm sure but, be careful not to wear yourself out doing it. I gave an, ear to listen, to a friend when he was going through divorce. He wore me out and I had to have a month away from him because I was becoming depressed. 

[Brockett]

Yesterday-in the Jazz - I took my dented fuel tank to Henry's Auto Body shop near Toppesfield to be repaired. 

[2112]

Busy day today, dropped the Kia EV9 off for it's first service (every 2 years) at Allingtons in Ashington. On the way out I noticed they had an EV5 demonstrator, hmmm. 10 minuets later and I'm driving around in a new EV5, a very impressive bit of kit I might add. Most people would describe it as quite large, but after the EV9 I thought it was a nice size and very manageable. I took it back and talked numbers, basically we can swap ours for a brand new GT Line which we could have next week! Decisions, decisions...

Oh, and it would have been my mate Alec's 63 birthday today.

[MisterDavey]

Sounds like you've already made your mind up 2112, maybe Alec's steering you towards the new car.
You should buy it to celebrate his birthday

[2112]

We appear to have bought a new Kia EV5 today ! Same colour as the 'burgundy beast' just a bit smaller & more agile. Still as comfy and probably more use to be honest. Picture of EV 5 below & EV9 below that, not a lot of difference.

[Brockett]

Nice.