For this reason, I was quite pleased to trade Cowboys: The Way of a Gun – a game that looked interesting, but never made the table – for Imperial, a game I have played and enjoyed before, and expect to again.
Year: 2013
But this year, they announced that they were merging accounts, and I became a TalkTalk Plus customer last week. I promptly applied for my free box, and after some conflicting information (which I won’t go into here), it arrived along with a new ADSL router.
The software – DeVilbiss SmartLink – actually installed first time, without difficulties, and started correctly. It then told me I was on an old version (not surprising), and I did I want to upgrade? Of course I did – and that was my mistake.
My little walks are not any great exertion – I set a fairly good pace, but I also like to enjoy the time outdoors. As a result, I tend to walk for 40-60 minutes, then sit for a while (which can be 10-40 minutes, depending on the heat, the view, and whether I have my Kindle with me), then it’s up and at ’em for another spell.
It was a sweltering day; we largely managed to keep cool in the house, but when we broke for lunch in the garden, it left many of us wilting – to the point that my usual freezer drawer of icecreams and lollies ran out.
It’s been a while since I last played, so when I found someone had written an Android app for it, I was interested. In fact, the guy has written quite a neat and usable interface, backed also by a web interface that can be used on desktop computers and non-Android tablets.
Jim Kelly has been around for a while, his first novel being published in 2003, but he is a recent find for me. I have my Amazon account set to send me their Kindle Daily Deal offers by email. Most of the time, it is not of any interest to me, but I get enough hits that it is worth receiving the email. I’m not of a mind to buy something just because it is cheap; but I like to look at it, and see if it is something I might have bought anyway. This often has me discover new (for me) authors.
For a long time I was determinedly posting things I find interesting to my own personal blog. This was cross-posted to LiveJournal, as I had a lot of friends there; but any comment was/is imported back into my main blog. Hence a complete discussion could always be viewed on the blog itself.

Anyway, today’s call came through during my tea break, and this time there was a person on the other end, telling me that he was calling about the security of my Windows machine. “Oh, that one”, I thought; but didn’t hang up, as I was curious how these guys go about “proving” a machine is infected.
The plants are all doing well, and I have just weeded and sown the other two troughs with seed. More peas, more carrots, more salad leaves; some fancy small squashes, and some other odds and ends.
The Yamaha GL1 Guitalele is the size of a Tenor Ukulele, but has 6 strings. Commonly tuned to A, it is like playing a guitar on capo 5. It is not a sophisticated instrument, and nowhere near as finely made as my Tenor Uke. But it is cheap (57 quid, including case) and a bit of fun.
The case is now here, and having arranged everything and rearranged everything several times, I have to say it is awesome. To give you an idea why, here are some pictures.