Merry Christmas

[excoriator]

Thought I'd get this over a bit early as I have taken over all Christmas shopping and cooking from Mrs E. She is getting a bit confused, and as she has done the bulk of it for years It's about time I took over. I hadn't realised how much work was involved. (I'd have received a richly deserved broadside from Jean at that remark!). Still with the aid of spreadsheet and GANTT charts it has gone OK so far, touch wood. 1:37 pm Ignite Christmas pud. 1:45 pm Christmas crackers pulled etc etc.

Not a lot of personal news. Failed to get a dose of covid so far, but for compensation proved allergic to the Moderna jab which caused my legs to swell up and develop eczema. It's now on the wane, but I'm not sure its over. "It wos 'is legs wot caried 'im 'orf in the end!" Bah!!!

Anyway best wishes for a very happy christmas and an equally happy year ahead to anyone who still looks in here from time to time.

Exco

P.S. to Aubrey. I took to the pub piano at the retiree's Christmas booze up - first time I've had the courage to do that. It all went very well. Stage 1. Drink enough dutch courage to play. Stage 2. Watch the company get tooo drunk to notice bum notes before trying anything ambitious. Stage 3. Get so drunk you don't notice them either. Stage 4. Fall off chair and get taxied home muttering "I'm too old for this!"

[aubrey]

Or get the one anthony burgess plays in a doc ive just seen - so out ot tune that no one will notice.

Im in hospital again, chest infection again. Past the worst now.Howare you?

[excoriator]

Surprisingly, the piano was unforgivingly well tuned. Me less so.

Sorry you are in dock again Aubrey, but glad to hear you are on the mend again. I am still suffering swollen bright red legs but otherwise well enough I suppose.

I have, constructed for our cat, a small wooden bed with a low power electric heater. (The central heating goes off at night. Mrs E, being kind hearted, commissioned the project).

Being a cat, however, she has decided it is the one thing she will not be seen dead in! However, although indeed we have not seen her in it, I am able to deduce from strategically placed threads and other measures that it IS being used at night. I think she simply doesn't want use of it to be taken as any sort of appreciation. When I get round to it I will check this with a camera linked to the computer.

Have you, by the way, come across ChatGPT yet. It's an AI chatbot (free) that is surprisingly good at understanding questions and formulating clear grammatical responses, pretty near human. You can find it from google. You can converse with it at lengths and its pretty easy to deduce it isn't human from its lack of emotion or opinion, although it tells you its a machine. Its pretty easy to lead it into apparent paradoxes that it can't handle too. If you are bored and have access to the internet I think you'd find it interesting.

Good to hear from you. Hope they get fed up with you at hospital and kick you off home soon. They are not fun places.

Exco.

[aubrey]

How. Long is a piece of string...

I might be out next week, they say.

Ill send you pictures of our cats’ pod. Hard typing on this...

[excoriator]

Cheers Aubrey. Take it easy.

I bought the heating pad for our cat before I made her bed, and tried it out on the kitchen table. In case the cat decided to make use of it, I laid an old jacket of mine over it, which she duly laid herself out on.

Unfortunately, she has concluded that it is the jacket that is the source of warmth and comfort. I found her attempting to sleep on it draped over a kitchen chair! So we now have to lay it on the bed before she will use it. And then only on the kitchen table!

What a bloody pain cats are to cater for.

[aubrey]

Out now. More later

[excoriator]

Good to hear they have thrown you out at last Aubrey. Take it easy.

Sorry I've not been online much as I've had covid. Nothing too bad however. Its given me the chance to learn how to solve a Rubik cube though. Still showing positive though. Bah!

Mrs E. Hasn't gone down with it yet, we are keeping our distance as far as is possible, a miserable business.

I have given up cucumber and Broccoli to help the nation's shortage of these fine vegetables, and been called a howling hypocrite be Mrs E. who knows I detest them both.

[aubrey]

Thumbnails of Amos in his pod.

I'm about recovered from the infection and the tiredness now. I still can't walk though, or stand without help, so I suppose it means starting again. Oh, well.

I hope your covid behaved itself.

[excoriator]

Lord of all he surveys!

Our moggie, Pippa, comes and visits me in the bathroom every morning when I get up, to ensure I am behaving myself, leaving at speed when I flush the toilet. She returns cautiously when the danger has passed, purring and behaving in an overfriendly fashion. I have no idea what prompts this routine.

I think she has hopes of improving my piano playing, hopping onto the keys and encouraging me to play the right notes with a friendly pawing at my fingers. Clearly I am not getting it quite right for her tastes which tend to the 12 tone astringent end of the spectrum. She thoughtfully adds the odd notes whilst I am playing too. I am happy to accept this free tuition however.

Glad you are clearly on the mend. Covid gave me nothing more than a couple of days of flu like symptoms. During which I learned to solve the Rubik Cube. Interestingly, we took a test one day and both of us had a massive line opposite the 'test' line on the strip. I went on to sink a bottle of wine that evening and when we repeated the test the following day I was clear. Mrs E. who had not indulged was still heavily infected!

My theory is that the ethyl alcohol in my system disrupted the virus molecule in the same way as isopropyl alcohol does in the hand gels. I suppose they avoid using ethyl alcohol in hand gels for fear people will drink it and to avoid having to pay duty on it or have problems with licencing its sale. I am wondering whether to write to the BMJ with this observation.

Have you tried playing with ChatGPT yet? I've been very impressed with it and have got it to write computer code! It is very clued up about algorithms, recognises them by name and includes them in the code as requested. they have all worked so far. My experience with human programmers has not overall been easy. I've found they have to be led by the nose to do what I want them to do, and its easier to do the job myself, even though I find writing code uninspiring. I wish I'd had ChatGPT when I was at work! Its grasp of English is excellent. Worth looking at if you haven't already done so.

Our youngest daughter gave birth to her first child this week. We are going to meet him today, so are quite looking forward to it. Whether he is as pleased remains to be seen.

Really good to hear you are on the mend.

Exco.