Saturday 5th

I am very much liking this new TV set of mine, although it does have its quirks. It runs Android TV, which comes from Google, which means you have to have a Google account if you want to do some obvious things, such as reorder the inputs or apps into something sensible.

I don’t have a Google account, and I’d disconnected the set from the Interweb anyway.

I do have a spare domain name though, so I created a new address on it, created a new Google account (and have promptly forgotten the passwords) and reconnected the TV to the Interweb via the Guest account on my router.

Most people wouldn’t bother; but it’s utterly annoying that you have to have a Google account when you don’t want Google tracking you any more than is absolutely necessary.

Tuesday 8th

The BBC iPlayer app suggests I might like to watch Hey Duggee.

Yes, actually, I would. And I do. And as each episode is only seven minutes long it more or less matches my current attention span.

A-woof!

Monday 14th

Roses are red, violets are blue… but the only ‘comfort’ I got today was a phone call from the hospital, to tell me that I will finally be coming in for my cancer procedure on 1 March. That will be day 68, when I should have been seen within 31 days.

Obviously, Covid and Christmas have got in the way but that’s way too long. And I still don’t know the outcome of the CT scan from 23 December.

Sunday 20th

Storms Dudley, Eunice and Franklin are wreaking havoc across the country, and Leeds is no exception. Being seven floors up the safest place is to be indoors with the patio door firmly closed – step out onto the balcony and you might find yourself being blown sideways.

The thing about the river though is that anything falling in upstream usually ends up floating past the flat. Bits of wood, mostly, dead timber and branches.

Then I heard the Police sirens, and looked out of the window. Three large palettes drifted along… followed a few minutes later by a pontoon, which smashed into the bank on my side, side-swiping the river depth recorder and gauge on the way, before settling in with the rest of the larger jetsam just beyond the weir.

It came from a flood alleviation site miles away, took out a bridge near Armley Mills (video in Twitter somewhere) and is now lodged under the Princes Square car park. Going to take some shifting, by the look of it.

Monday 28th

Tomorrow I go in for my first cancer procedure; yesterday I was being weighed and measured. And given a PCR test, and a lot of blood drawn (eventually – took a bit longer than usual), and a heart test which I’ve never had before. And I had by blood pressure taken… which was 150/95, if I read it correctly. A bit high. Given last week at work I am not at all surprised.

On the river, meanwhile, two boats and lots of men have spent three days dragging all of the stuff the floated downstream in last weekend’s storm, which ended up clogging the area around the top of the weir. It’s now all tied up outside the flats and includes a large pontoon. I’m sure no-one will be jumping over the railings and playing on it. The ducks and swans don’t seem to be too happy with it either…