Overnight temperature down to -2.9C, and there had been the merest suggestion of a sprinkling of snow when I woke up this morning.
Category: Other
New Year’s Eve
New Year’s Eve is a time for looking both backwards and forwards. This is from a 1989 show at the Shaftesbury Theatre, of which I was Production Manager and I’d been the venue technical manager for most of the West End production of “Follies” (from which the song was taken) that immediately preceeded this.
In my teens and early 20s, it seemed highly improbable that I’d survive to the age of 40 … indeed, at one point there was a rumour going round former schoolmates that I’d died in my 30s. I’m now 70 …
ugh …
Really vile weather here today with rain beating down and very dark clouds. I’ve spent most of it almost unable to stand or walk. I woke from a long (painkiller-induced) nap this afternoon to an angry sunset, which was a bit of an improvement.
First time using ChatGPT !
I decided that it was time I wrote to Councillor Ed Kimberly, who has done an outstanding job in speaking out against the self-styled “Worcester Patriots”, Reform, and the increase in overt racism seen locally. But this is the kind of communication that I find excessively difficult – my Asperger’s/autism kicks in full-time, and I second-guess, third-guess, and agonise over exactly how I will come across, and if there’s anything that the recipient might take the wrong way. After stewing over this for a while, I decided to try the ChatGPT AI to sort out my rough draft. It wasn’t perfect, and I had to make several minor revisions, but it was certainly helpful. I don’t think I’m a convert, though!
So:
Dear Councillor Kimberley
I am writing as a resident of Worcester and an activist in a different political party, but one who believes that on matters of principle we must stand together. I want to express my sincere appreciation for your clear and courageous stand against racism and the dangerous rhetoric promoted by the Reform Party and the self-styled “Worcester Patriots”.
At a time when public discourse is becoming increasingly hostile, your willingness to speak out despite facing threats of physical violence and even legal intimidation is admirable. It is heartening to see an elected representative put integrity and community values ahead of personal comfort or political advantage.
Although we may differ on many policy matters, on this issue your voice has been essential, and I want you to know that people across party lines recognise and value what you are doing. Your actions remind us what public service should be about.
Thank you for your courage and your commitment to protecting the dignity and safety of all residents.
and so, farewell
Another very difficult night for me. Stressful wakefulness interrupted by short periods of stressful dreaming about Green Mount – the sale of which is due to complete today. I suppose that for me the house has always represented “continuity” and “rootedness”, so it’s understandably traumatic. The first arial photo I have (March 1963) and the most recent (May 2025): it’s not unchanging, but I’ve been part of its evolution for the last six+ decades …
Goodbye to Green Mount
Yesterday, I went over to supervise the final clearance of what has been the family home for over 63 years. We went there in 1962, when I was a nervous 7-year-old, and there’s something obscurely satisfying in being 70 when we finally say goodbye to it. Much stuff had gone to family members, or to charity shops, but there was two very full van loads of stuff from house, garage, and garden.
The day itself went OK: I was up at 0415 to get there for about 8am, having had a very bad night hovering on the edge of panic attacks and periods of really struggling for breath. However, once we got stuck in to the “doing things” I was fine. My dear friend Clare nobly volunteered to drive over to collect me, and I am extremely grateful for her support! Getting home around 6pm, almost straight to sleep, though I did get up briefly around 8 to have supper and a hot bath (muscles for the unknotting of). Even once I’d knocked off the times I was on trains and in cars, the pedometer showed well over 15 thousand steps – way above my usual “aim for 5 thousand, limit is 10 thousand” steps. So today I am recovering from physical and emotional stresses: the most strenuous thing planned is filling in the Waitrose order.
youth …
I very nearly overlooked this picture when packing the last load of stuff to be taken from my late mother’s house over to Worcester! Thanks to my sister for pointing it out. Long hair is not a recent fad for me – this dates to the 1970s, drawn by my friend, the excellent Millary Hilne.
Namesco problems
Namesco, who have hosted my website since it started just over 20 years ago, decided to move everything from a UK server farm to one in The Netherlands. The changeover should have happened on 26th August … when my website went off line and webmail stopped working. Fortunately, normal email was unaffected.
I gave them a week to sort it out, without chasing, but on 3rd September I got cross: this is the Facebook post I made
I’m not happy with Namesco!
They’ve hosted my blog for just over 20 years, with very little problem. Last week, they decided to move everything from a UK server farm to one in The Netherlands. For me, it didn’t work. There was a phone call from someone last Friday, just before their phone lines closed for the weekend, saying that my WordPress was out of date, and I’d have to pay £180. I emphasised that my WordPress was definitely up to date. After they’d hung up, it occurred to me that the theme I use is elderly, and might be causing the problem, so I accessed the support site and added that to the support ticket. By this morning, nothing had happened, and there was no update to the support ticket.
So I rang them. Support lines busy, so I was on “music on hold” for five minutes, which is fair enough. The person I spoke to was polite (as was I !), and said he’d have to go away and speak to his team leader. He let me know that the the team leader was busy, and after ten minutes came back to say that the team leader was still busy, so he would escalate the support ticket and someone would definitely get back to me within 24 hours. All that was fine, and he was clearly doing his best – good support there even if no resolution was reached.
Nevertheless, I’m extremely cross that they didn’t keep the old server up until the new one was functioning. Webmail is also down, though I can access both it and support stuff through my normal control panel. I do pay them for website backups, so hopefully there won’t be massive problems getting things back once the problem is sorted.
However, no-one did ever contact me within 24 hours, and then it was the weekend (when they don’t answer phones). Yesterday I was busy, but my website was still off line when I tried in the morning. However, when I checked my website at lunchtime today, it was back on line. Hoo-bloody-ray!
I’m very glad that they’ve managed to restore it, but remain rather peeved that it’s taken a fortnight! I’ve made a couple of entries retrospectively, to keep the blog current.
catch-up
Sunday, Monday and Tuesday were all about IT. I’d finally given up on my Thinkpad T460s – neither touchpad nor trackpoint would work, though it did respond to an external mouse. It’s a known problem, and may be related to obscure driver issues. So, a Thinkpad L13 was bought (second-hand, of course). It was only available in a 128 memory size, sadly. A suitable M2 memory card was bought, and a clean install of Windows 11 was done. Then the current verion of laplink was bought, which transferred all data, but not actual programs. And then all relevant programs were dwnloaded and installed, which in general was fairly straightorward.
The exception was Musikcube, by far my favourite media player as it’s without bells and whistles (though sadly does not handle .flac files, so I have to covert them to .mp3 manually). Version 1 is massively obsolete (discontinued around 20 years ago), and version 2 is command line only. In the end, a trawl through the 2006 snapshots on the Wayback Machine at the Internet Archive located an installer for it.
Also a major Windows 11 problem with the (obsolete) “Mycloud” external drives. Due to changes in security, the only machine able to access them was the old T460s. A 6Tb hard drive has been bought, and all the data is being transferred. I’ll need to think about backup for this at some point.
Wednesday was over to Green Mount, to re-light the Aga after it had been out for the chimney to be swept. I also checked the number of boxes and other stuff, so I could book a van to transport to Worcest – now booked for 11th September, the day after Sim’s stuff is taken to Oak Cottage.
The journey was horrible! Rail replacement buses from Shrub Hill to Moreton in Marsh, and when the bus was just about to set off it was announced that the connecting train had been cancelled, due to an overnight incident. 90 minutes pacing up and down at Moreton was not enjoyable. I cancelled the cab I’d booked, as due to the delay Jane was able to collect me from Hanborough.
Thursday was an admin day, as my back was very not up to doing anything (Wednesday had been over 13,000 steps, even after I’d removed spurious steps clocked up by the motion of buses and trains). Van booked for 11th as above, old guest bed put on freecycle, attempts to book van to take stuff into storage in Worcester for next week (awaiting confirmation), “confidential document desruction” sacks ordered for Green Mount, and the usual end-of-month financial stuff.
Today (Friday) has seen the discovery that the guest bed won’t fit down the stairs without complete disassembly, which was done. It barely fit in the back room to re-assemble (coffee table and piano stool put in kitchen, armchair moved to give more space), and then the headboard had to be removed again to get it to by the front door. Collection hopefully about 6pm today.
thoughts and memories
The final stages of clearing out the loft revealed a batch of old T-shirts, kept for sentimental reasons – they were bought during my working life when I weighed 55kg (rather under 9 stone), rather than my current 67kg (ten and a half stone) so no longer really fit.
A couple of them caused me to think. In particular, the “Section 28” one, bought for the massive march in 1988, the occasion that prompted Ian McKellan to come out very publicly. In so many respects, there are parallels with the recent Supreme Court ruling on gender identity, not least that the press and popular media are whipping up hysteria which has the effect of making the ruling far broader and far-reaching than the words actually say. That means a climate of fear, with people massively scared to do even things which are legal, and whips up a (justified) fear verbal or physical violence against those who are being so publicly vilified.
I stand with my trans and NB friends and relatives, of course … how could I not?
