A wee while ago we were in Perth (WA) visiting wife’s brother and his family; I suggested to him that we see who’s playing live and ‘The Angels’ were playing within walking distance – they’re an Australian rock band that’s been going in one form or another since the 70’s.

However, it was the New Zealand support band ‘Mi-Sex’ (they had a few hits in the UK some 45yrs ago!) that blew us both away… so much so that we wondered whether the headliners would ever match their engagement and stage presence.  We agreed that we’d give them five songs, and we left at the end of the fifth song…

If they were to ever visit the UK I’d love to see them again.

That looks more like one of my whippets squatting for a jobbie than the very first Santa Cruz Nomad however many years ago…

Thought I was onto a winner by taking advantage of using a ‘free’ six-month subscription to Discovery+ from Vodafone* but it doesn’t include Olympics coverage.

Took out my own subscription at £3.99/month and will see how much I use it; worth it for the Olympics though.

* And now they’ve given me yet another reason to leave them when my contract expires in three months.

They Live

I’ve bough two watches over the last couple of months, both so I can monitor my blood sugar level – started on an insulin pump three months ago.

On the left a Fitbit Versa2 from eBay for £72 (daily wearer to work where it does get beaten up a bit) and on the right a much newer Garmin Instinct 2 which I wear outside of work.

I sold an older Garmin Instinct Surf Solar on eBay a few days ago, losing only £14 since buying it direct from Garmin in December 2021!

Something like this from Montrose Bag Company?

https://www.montrosebag.com/product/jura-outdoor-kit-bag-24/

Pump update.  @chipster Yes, I think I have ‘dropped on lucky’!

Well… almost three weeks on the Omnipod 5 and, my, what a revelation.  Time in range has increased from 59% pre-pump to 82% over the last two weeks  and I had a 95% day last week.  The quality of my sleep has vastly improved and I’m finding my levels of stress and anxiety (diabetes and otherwise) vastly decreased.

And, as a middle-aged man this is a major win, I’ve had NIGHTS WHEN I’VE NEVER NEEDED TO GET UP FOR A PEE!

Yet another change to my choice of pump!

I’m all set up on the Dexcom 6; the Dexcom rep kindly did an online Teams session so I was able to tick all the boxes and proceed – turns out he lives in Glenrothes, in which I teach, but his kids go to a different school!

In a total about-turn I’m starting in the pump that @datsunman is on – the Omnipump 5.  Just before Christmas I got chatting to their UK team and they sent me a trial kit (empty pump) and I wore it for three days to see what it was like; by the end of the second day I started to forget it was there.  It should mean that I should be fully ‘closed loop’ sooner rather than later.

The Ypsopump was seeming more and more of an uncertainty as the clinic cancelled the January start for it due to supply issues (that put me off!) and they always seemed vague about the Tandem…

The running costs for the Omnipod 5 are also more of a subscription than upfront so I’ll have the option to switch to another system rather than being stuck with it for four years – that itself was another consideration.

Again, thanks to all of you that have commented here – much appreciated!

Thank you all for your replies… looks like I’m going for the Ypsopump.

It got to the point where I was splitting hairs in comparing the Tandem and the Ypsopump so the deciding factor was that Fife NHS are doing the mandatory courses for it in January so I can start much sooner; they wouldn’t be doing any for the Tandem until May as there were no other takers, and even that an uncertainty – they wouldn’t offer courses for only one person.

I was put off the Omnipod as it would need a separate device to talk to it.

I was due to have a Dexcom 6 setup session tomorrow morning in preparation but, most inconveniently, I have popped my COVID cherry and gone down with it for the first time and the diabetes clinic, quite understandably, didn’t want me onsite.  The rep/salesman for Dexcom has agreed to do the training online with me on Monday morning so I can proceed with the pump program.

Quite frankly I’m flabbergasted that it has taken this long to get COVID considering I’m a high school teacher.

@svensvenson I think I’d prefer the idea of having a system with the cannula line so I can move the pump around, put in a pocket or on my belt, rather than having it fixed it one place for three days or so.

@docgeoffyjones  Thanks – I may well do!  I take it that you are, actually, a medical Doctor?

@aphex_2k  Am I right in thinking that the Medtronic pumps need daily calibration with a finger prick..?  I seem to get that impression.  I’ve bookmarked https://www.type1tactical.com/ for getting a holster if I for the Tandem or the Medtronic.

@CountZero I took a punt on these yesterday after seeing this and I’m mighty, MIGHTY impressed with them so thanks for posting up about them.  My, until now now only, other headphones are Grado SR80’s (open backed) and I’ve always been disappointed with closed ‘phones… until now!

@DickBarton  @docgeoffyjones

Thank you both; pluses and minuses for both pumps… I’ve got a ‘tech clinic’ appointment lined up so I’ll be able to actually get a better feel for both pumps.

Aah, glad it isn’t a figment of my imagination – many comments bring back some memories from a certain era!

I also remember lusting after the very early Saracan hardtails in the early (?) nineties…

@gobuchul – Oh, and they also do a set that goes down to PH000…

Vessel Precision Screwdriver Set TD-56S / +0, 00, 000, 0000, -0.7, -0.9 : Amazon.co.uk: DIY & Tools

(I’ve just bought a set.)

Vessel do a rather nice set from Amazon UK for £15; I have them myself – the silicon rubber cushion is genius.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B000CED236

An Apache flow over our house yesterday and I tracked it, assuming it had taken off from Leuchars (several miles away) but it hadn’t… it appeared to have taken off from Balado Park Airstrip – just over the M90 from Kinross.  It did a few loops over Fife and then, sure enough, returned to land at the same airfield.

https://globe.adsbexchange.com/?icao=43c93e

Didn’t know that the Army Air Corps used civilian air fields, but makes sense for them to play at them!

The The’s ‘Mind Bomb’ and, to a slightly lesser extent, ‘Dusk’ were a recent listen after goodness know how many years.

I’d never get any Axminster ‘trade’ (indeed, the white is shite…) kit as they’ll easily be able to get out any warranty claim by saying you used it beyond its hobby hours.

I’ve never had bad service from Axminster and their support is, from my experience, second to none. Also spare parts availability.

@andrewh @ivnickkate She’s sorted somewhere out over the weekend; thanks for your time and offers of assistance!

@ivnickkate Thank you – I’ll get back to you on that as she’s looking at a few places over the weekend so may be sorted by Monday when I next see her at work.

@andrewh Thank you; I’ll let her know – she starts her new contract on March 20th.

Netflix supports 5.1 and Atmos;

https://help.netflix.com/en/node/109477

Can’t find anything definitive from Amazon on their own audio streaming quality.

Tried it on a trial basis several months ago and strongly disliked it; ended up re-subscribing to Tidal (I’ve flitted between it and Spotify for a few years) and have just stuck with it. Even such simple things as looking for albums by one band (Clutch, for example) would also list albums by a rapper of the same name; its as if there’s no proper sorting of artists; they’re just all thrown together.

Pingvinen in Bergen; we threw caution/cash to the wind and got pissed there.

I may have even had whale steak…

Luthen’s ship taking on the imperial patrol was good though.

Yup, that was brilliant! The Imperial ship’s captain’s face was a picture when he escaped; the actor is, I’m pretty sure, a British comedian – can’t find his name.

Unprofessional of the teacher to have let whatever nicknames they might have for kids leave the privacy of the staff room.

One of the reasons I could never be a primary school teacher; you’re stuck with the same kids all day, every day for a year at least. At least as a secondary teacher we get hundreds of kids a week through the doors and I can barely keep track of their real names and whatever gender they’d like to be this week, never mind nicknames; in fact I don’t recall ever having had a nickname for a pupil – nor amongst my immediate colleagues.

They played PJ Harvey’s ‘Sheela na gig’ as I was eating my muesli; really put a smile on my face!

Just WTF is this over Edinburgh?!

https://globe.adsbexchange.com/?icao=43bf7e

Titanium galls so use talcum powder on the file and use a file card, or wire brush, regularly.

I’m a big fan of Autan. It works well at repelling clegs/horseflies, they seem to be my airborne nemesis…

I’ve been a magazine subscriber since 2004; I still have (I’m pretty sure) pretty much each and every copy lined up in chronological order. On the forum since goodness knows when.

I actually cancelled my subscription over the weekend as, quite simply, I just don’t find its contents as interesting and relevant (to me) as I once did. I’m not the mountain biker, and in all practicality not even the cyclist, I once was.

However, it turns out I cancelled the subscription only a week or two after payment was taken so I may well revert to digital version. But then I don’t like reading stuff on a screen so I may well re-subscribe when the time comes – especially in light of the brutal honesty of the situation now highlighted.

It is an interesting question…

I recently made a wee storage unit for one of the classrooms from an old piece of laminated board that, going by the band names on it, was from the mid/late eighties. The pupil’s handwriting was very neat, as were the sketches and graffiti.

I suspect we’re all of an age here where we were initially taught to write by our parents, who themselves were taught be theirs, etc. Sadly, and certainly at the school at which I teach, that is predominantly not the case; when I started teaching some 15yrs ago the state of kids handwriting was a huge shock. They certainly don’t seem to focus on it at primary schools, in my experience… and anecdotally I would suggest pupils with better parenting do have better, neater handwriting.

Human physiology is evolving; where we once used hand tools and the pen and pencil we became more adept at typing, and then using a mouse, and now swiping and tapping. The Royal Society of Surgeons has notes a change in dexterity in its students:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-46019429

@alpin The straps I’ve ordered are bright orange too…

Thanks all. I’ve ordered a four-pack of the Fixplus nano straps from Amazon, looks like they could be mighty useful elsewhere too.

400 x 300 Is a standard ‘euro box’ size so might open up a few options – does it have to be a tool box/chest or could it be a lidded container?

https://www.plastor.co.uk/euro-stacking-containers-with-and-without-lids-folding-containers/prime-economy-range-euro-containers/ref-bk-es43-22-prime-economy-range-400-x-300-x-220mm-euro-container-with-hand-holes/

Look at the de walt auger from screwfix
Supposed to be optically correct with a smart modern frame

@singletrackmind Picked up a pair with the ‘fire mirror’ lenses earlier this morning; the optics are indeed nice and clear – an absolute bargain. And, as a bonus, with my beard and a trucker cap they make me look like an ‘operator’*…

* Wax crayon operator

Seems all legit; he’d asked for the frame number so he could get the frame geometry… I had stated year and model but hadn’t linked to the Trek specification for the bike as Gumtree wants payment for any links. I was happy to provide.

I’ve asked him why he’d like to know and said I have full receipts, etc.

We’ll see how this pans out!

No, it isn’t stolen – I bought it new from Wheelbase in the Lake District and have all the paperwork, etc.

The question has just thrown me!