lnr | Recent Entries

I won't be allowed to take part in the physical exercise sessions of my group until I provide a blood pressure reading. Never mind that I'll have already cycled 10 miles during the day before it takes place... <eyeroll>

Just as well I have a machine at home, and the Diabetes annual check up papointment notification has asked for a week of readings too if possible, though they never actually seem to want them when I go in, they're still generally usefully lower than I get with the nurse.

Building company say they are waiting on approval of their new scope of works. Nationwide say they system says "approved". Building company say some specific new costs are still not showing as approved on their system. But they've promised to do the chasing. Argh! We haven't had a usable shower at home since July.

Weight loss talk

Last year I did a Tier 2 adult weight management course via the NHS, with a team called Healthy You. It's a programme you can self-refer for. Lost 10kg over 12 weeks, put it back on again over the course of the year. In the final 12 month follow-up call I asked if I could be referred to Tier 3 services, and heard nothing. That was June.

In late September I got back in touch via my GP practice's team, and asked again if I could be referred for Tier 2. The Healthy You team finally got back to me, and it turns out for referral to Tier 3 you have to talk to your GP. So I made an appointment, the GP agreed I met criteria for it (just) and made the referral. (I'm right on the 35 BMI with diabetes boundary, but having done Tier 2 and not succeeded is also relevant).

On Tuesday I got an initial screening call, to check some details, and was told that at the moment there could be up to six months wait. Today I got another call, to check some more details, and make an appointment to start a 12 week course. Next week. !

I've got a phone appointment on Monday morning to talk through what it entails, and then group sessions online start on Tuesday evening. Which is a bit sudden to say the least. I've said I'm not interested in weight loss surgery, but am interested in weight loss injections. (Given I'm a) type 2 diabetic and b) *always* hungry Semaglutide sounds like a no-brainer to me). I may or may not be eligible. Apparently I should expect a 5-10% weight loss in 12-weeks, even without, but we'll see.

I honestly wasn't expecting to hear for months, so I'm a little blindsided here!

I'm not clear exactly which if the Tier 3 Programmes I'm starting, but I'm sure they'll tell me on Monday! Tier 3 programmes summary

Thankfully this one is much shorter :)

I took my bike in for a service last Saturday. First one since I bought it about 15 months ago. Bike shop rang me up to say the rear wheel was cracked. They noted that they wouldn't expect this sort of damage for a bike of this age/wear, so was I OK with him taking it up with the manufacturer as a warranty issue.

Just got an email today: Ridgeback *will* replace the wheel under warranty, new wheel is arriving tomorrow, and is otherwise finished so I'll be able to collect. Brilliant.

So big non-complaints to Cambridge Cycle Company in Pampisford for being so pro-active about defective parts!

Bathroom woes continue

Nationwide RSA have now out and out admitted that the reason they don't respond to emails is because their customer service agents are simply completely overloaded, and don't have time. Perhaps this is why my claim for the *second* time was referred to an external service, but the "system" failed to actually pass it on until I rang up several days later and asked about the delay. Or perhaps their systems are just rubbish.

Anyway having spoken to Nationwide/RSA again today they have *actually* referred my claims to MA Assist, who have in turn referred me to Higgs Building Services, who in turn have run up and made an appointment, and then rung up again and asked if they could come sooner. It'll be another survey appointment of some sort, but will actually e.g. discuss replacement materials, and get the work booked in to take place.

Which could take two months. This is a bit longer than the 26-40 day estimate given to me by Nationwide/RSA on 28th September. I can see that complaint letter getting longer

Thanks to Rachel for finding the <details> tag for me to use here :)

In my last post there were a whole series of house woes. The good news is the satellite dish cables are repaired, and no longer leak. And the two double-glazed units whose seal had gone have been replaced, with shiny new ones. That leaves the leaky bathroom wall.

( Bathroom walls )

In other news I had a nice weekend:

We watched The Mask with Matthew - I'd never actually seen it before because Jim Carrey gets on my nerves a bit, but it was good
I blocked my lovely Sweet Dreams shawl, and now I just need to weave in the two ends and it's done
I started another shawl, called Trillian, in green, and it's going to be lovely too but *much* simpler
I took my bike to be serviced, and it turns out the back wheel is cracked, so it's waiting to see if it's covered under Warranty, since that's not normal for only 15 months wear, even over 2600 miles. Bike shop is closed Sun/Mon so I won't hear until tomorrow or Weds. Just as well I can WFH!
We played lots of Core Keeper and a bit of modded Minecraft (1.20.1 Forge, with the Create mod, in survival)
I made my own potato bread thing using left-over mash!
And today Matthew was meant to be doing a new club after school, but has just appeared at home, having come straight back because he couldn't find it! We will try again next week, but I've had to message Mike to let him know, since he'd already gone out for a roundabout route to meet him!

Back to work today, tidying up loose ends after student registration. I reckon it went quite well, considering we changed the process only a week before it happened, but there are always a few who simply didn't register, and a handful where there were technical issues with the registration process. We're getting there.

Sometimes owning a house is a series of annoyances.

( Satellite dish )

( windows )

( Shower wall leak )

Phew, if you read all that I'm impressed!

In 1993 Cambridge University introduced a new mail server for its users, called hermes. In December 2021 it officially closed, with end users moved to a new system on Exchange Online. And on Monday July 22nd 2024 it was switched off.

I didn't get a hermes account until 2002, and I've not been involved in running it, but I've worked closely with those who do. I helped hundreds of people migrate from using the Engineering department's mail server to using hermes instead, and then helped support the team migrating hundreds of people from hermes to ExOL nearly 20 years later.

Now it's gone I've been reflecting a little on its history, and found this excellent paper from 2004 about scaling up the system to cope with the many thousands of users it then had. It was one of the two authors who switched off the server last week.

https://fanf2.user.srcf.net/hermes/doc/talks/2004-02-ukuug/paper.html

Looking through the references of that paper I spotted a familar one, relating to a "thermal event" on one of servers making up hermes, and tried to follow it. The server hosting it in Cambridge also no longer exists, and while the page is still available via the Wayback Machine, the excellent photos of the poor DIMMs seem to have been lost. I wonder if Tony still has a copy?

http://web.archive.org/web/20181110142000/http://people.ds.cam.ac.uk/fanf2/hermes/doc/misc/orange-fire/

A reminder that the web too is impermanent!

I shall raise a glass to hermes tonight, with thanks to Tony and David, and to the other David who had a vision of where it could go next:

https://dwm37.user.srcf.net/2019/email-strategy-submission/dwm37.pdf

So long hermes, and thanks for all the phish!

We did the CamCycle Reach Ride today, for the first time in 10 years!

2014

( ride report )

2024

( ride report )

Quick refresher: tried to give blood 16th Feb Hb 112, told to talk to GP. Normal range is 120-150, blood donor cutoff is 125.

Notified GP on 20th Feb via their web triage form. Text back same day from Dr Clark: she said my results have generally been low 120s for some time, normal in menstruating women, but book a blood test and we'll review.

Blood test booked for 6th March (earliest available date). Text next day from Dr O'Leary - he's reviewed my results and asks me to book a routine telephone appointment. I checked them online and noted my Hb itself was back to borderline normal (120) but Ferritin and one other related number were still low.

Routine telephone appointment was today (18th March), with Dr Manek. We noted the results being borderline normal. She didn't seem to have a record of the 112 from the Blood service, but since I'm not menstruating seems worth investigating other reasons I might be a bit low. Could just be from giving blood regularly, but we're going to do a urine and stool sample to look for anything suspicious there, take a high dose iron supplement for 6 weeks, and then come back for more blood tests: to include coeliac test.

So tomorrow (as well as going to the dentist in town) I need to get to the GP in Shelford to pick up sample kits, and to the chemist to pick up meds.

Note to self: check blood donor records so I have a list of dates when I'm above/below 125.

Today is the last day to respond to the Government's proposed Guidance for Schools on Gender Questioning Children. I found it very flawed, and have said so. https://consult.education.gov.uk/equalities-political-impartiality-anti-bullying-team/gender-questioning-children-proposed-guidance/

Damn, I did some great work on a (work) project on Thursday and Monday, and a bit more on it yesterday, and I've got a working prototype. And now I'm kind of stuck because it's not good enough to show the person I'm prototyping it for yet, but I'm not quite sure of how to fix it, and I'm finding it hard to work on *anything* as a result. I'd best have some lunch and then see what I can do this afternoon.

I got around to uploading this for Carol. But the rest of you might enjoy it too. If you've known me a while (or knew me on Twitter) you've probably heard it before, but it's still my favourite.

I give you: The Rat Joke:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48N5dirOO9E

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

I'm still at work today and tomorrow, but it really does feel like we're winding down for the end of the year now.

I hope you all get a chance to have a relaxing break, whether you celebrate Christmas or not.

Much love,
Ellie/LNR

It's been a while since I did a "what I've been doing" post.

( Social media )

( Gaming )

( crafting )

( Friends and adventures )

( Schools )

( House stuff )

( Christmas prep )

( Work )

And that's what I've been up to.

I'm just arranging to download my Twitter data, and then I'm going to deactivate my account. I've been trying to wean myself off it for months, but unless I actually shut it down I'm never going to leave - there are still good things there, but they don't outweigh the bad.

I've told people there to come here to see my list of Where to find me.

Neither Mastodon nor Bluesky are really a full replacement, but both have good things. I have a few Bluesky invitation codes if anyone else wants to give it a try. If you're members of either I'd love to see you there!

In a delightful surprise at work I received my own copy of The Princess Bride on DVD through the internal post this week. Thank you to Rachel and Adam for the lovely moment.

However in the intervening time it has been on loan it seems I have since acquired it on Blu-Ray, and also in digital format from Amazon (for Matthew's tablet). So, erm, does anyone want a copy on DVD?

It's still one of the best films ever! So good I've owned it 5 times! (The two VHS copies both wore out mind).

A big thanks to all who contributed. I have had an excellent evening listening to all of these, some I already know and love, and some which were completely new to me. Anyway, for the rest of you to enjoy too, I present: the Social Media Collaboration 2023 playlist:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPRqPAHd1iTjA_rIs4cr-T7hN14uqMvER

I'm sitting here with my knitting, and my YouTube party playlist. It's a rather random mix of a bunch of tracks I love, some of them are more dancing type parties, others more sitting round drinking and talking, and some of them probably aren't really party songs at all if I'm objective about it, but they're staying cos I love them.

If you were to pick just one song for a party playlist, what would you go for?

I'll start you off, with Sultans of Ping, and Where's Me Jumper?

I'd love to hear some of yours!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxmZZBJQAKM

Edit: I've got 15 tracks now for my 2023 Social Media Collaboration party playlist. Anyone else want to add any more?

We've been married for 13 years today - lucky for some.

To celebrated we sneaked into Queens yesterday (OK sweet-talked the gate-guard to let us in for free even though I didn't have my university card with me) for a wander round. Matthew was busy at a friend's birthday party (Warhammer 40k party - painting and playing!) so we had a couple of free hours around town, and it was nice to visit again.

And today we went off for a bike ride together. First into town again where we had breakfast at Hot Numbers, just off Mill Road. Then by a somewhat roundabout route via Fulbourn, Teversham, a green road beside a quarry, and West Wratting to Balsham for lunch at the Black Bull. I took a frock and a change of shoes in my panniers - and Mike was very disappointed to be too slow to get a picture of me in bike shorts and heels :) Then back home along the quick and straight road to Fulbourn, where it absolutely *tipped* it down. The roads were running streams along the side and a few cm deep puddle in the middle and even when it slowed down a bit the rain was like being in the shower. The sort of rain that just makes you laugh at how ridiculous it is to be out in. We got very very wet indeed, so headed home for a quick change/dry before collecting Matthew from school. A grand day out, about 33 miles and two tasty meals :)

It's also nearly 15 years since we moved into our little house in Shelford, and we've been doing some more nesting. Looking at a new fridge-freezer, and new wardrobes for our room. If anyone has recommendations for fitted wardrobes do let me know. Otherwise we might go with a set from Ikea, but (as usual) there are a couple of elements not currently available for home delivery. (and the whole thing is 430kg!)

( Pics )

You can find the various rides on my Strava

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lnr

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June 2025

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2: Trans rights and the supreme court
3: Letter to my MP
4: Loudon Blair, 20th August 1933 - 24th March 2025
5: Medication update
6: Diabetes update
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A slight case of overblogging

Recent Entries

Oh that is hilarious

FFS

Gosh, that escalated quickly

Bike woes

I am mentally composing a very long complaint letter

Recap, and weekend

House stuff

Nothing lasts forever

Now and then

Iron

Consultation

Brains are annoying sometimes

The Rat Joke

Merry Christmas 2023!

Some stuff

I'm leaving Twitter

The Princess Bride

Social Media Collaboration playlist 2023

Party tunes

Happy Wedding Anniversary to us!