Category: Personal

Quarantine – Week Two.

Self Isolating To The MAX!

Monday 2020/3/23
Found out an acquaintance had died with symptoms of the virus. Rest well Simon. Clear night – imaged M81

Tuesday 2020/3/24
Didn’t go to donate platelets today. Trains were far too busy to be safe. Kitchen work started. Slow cooker chicken stew for dinner.

Wednesday 2020/03/25
Meetings on MS Teams, Walked the dog. Kitchen work continues. Finished off the stew for dinner. Clear Nights – Imaged two comets.

Thursday 2020/03/26
Didn’t go to the cinema. More meetings and admin on line. Walked dog, park rather busy – 6 to 10 dogs out. Kitchen work done for foreseeable future.

Friday 2020/03/27
Job spec written, interview presentation written. Another clear night. Imaged M82

Saturday 2020/03/28
Went to shop. Fixed a radio I’d bought over 5 years ago in Minneapolis.

Sunday 2020/03/29
Lazy day. Went to shop – saw three people the whole time I was out. Shop now has plastic guards for the staff, and a gallon container of sanitiser with a pump handle. Fixed another radio.

Quarantine – Week One.

Self Isolating before it was popular.
Monday 2020/3/16

Went to work for a meeting and to start shutting things down. No announcement had yesterday been made, but it was obvious something was coming.

Tuesday 2020/3/17

Stayed home, took part in some teaching chats. Did some admin. Took dog to park.

Wednesday 2020/3/18

Sister’s birthday – one for her to remember. Had to go to work to check on some parts, effectively pointless as co-worker had no interest. Saw both Alan and Tony, neither should have been on transport due to their ages. Shut down the lab. Announced I’d not be in for at least two weeks – working from home

Thursday 2020/3/19

Working from home, more teaching chats and worked on tomography code. Took dog to park. Got the email I’d expected, work is closed for the foreseeable future. Work from home where possible.

Friday 2020/3/20

WFH. Catching up on email backlog.

Saturday 2020/3/21

Took down tree behind the shed. Last meter or so was still standing. Cut back brush growth and took tree down to just above ground level. Set up telescope, clouded out.

Sunday 2020/3/22

Took dog for long walk, central park and chase. Telescope set up, 3 hours on M82, and 20 min on comet C/2017 T2 PANSTARRS.

Christmas 2019

Christmas is always a bitter-sweet time for me, I’m not one for big family get-togethers and my family seem to enjoy dying at the end of the year too. Over the years at least four have popped their clogs between Xmas Eve and New year. Let’s hear a hearty FUCK CANCER here too.

This year we house sat for a friend in West Norwood, meaning we got to look after a cute cat and have a quiet Christmas after a busy and stressful year.

Iceland served up a fine selection of nibbles and a marmalade glazed ham. Marmalade made another two appearances as we watched both the Paddington films, they were much better than I expected them to be.

Good Omens was excellent.

A small grey cat
Clover the Cat

Not to be outdone by the Cat, the Dog also appears.

The Dog at Christmas

Several journeys around Orkney

I’ve been in the Orkney Islands for several days, departing from Scrabster (Near Thurso) with stays in St Margaret’s Hope, Kirkwall and somewhere between Finstown and Tingwall.

Total journey length including ferries, busses, walking and the world’s shortest commercial flight : 516 km.

More to follow.

GPS trails around Orkney
GPS trails around Orkney