Paul Clarke's Blog (Pauly's Soapbox)

No parkrun today

Thought I'd give it a miss as I'm still not 100%, though feeling basically fine. Spent the day walking around Folkestone though, after dropping the boys off at grandpa's house. I stopped in Mr Whippet's in Sandgate for coffee and a cake, then walked on to Folkestone Harbour Arm. There is some sort of German event going on, people were walking around with huge steins of beer. I did not get beer or food here. The Harbour Arm is nice, but it is odd, it does not feel like a thing for locals now. I went on up the Old High Street and stopped for another coffee in Folklore. Then on and on, looking around but not quite finding anything I wanted for lunch. I hoped to find something like a buddha bowl, I knew I'd had this in Kipps before so tried there. No food today so I settled for a pint of real ale. Well, was it real ale? It didn't come from a barrel but from a box. It was real ale that had then been decanted, "served bright" they say, does it still count? Time was creeping up on me here, I knew I had to be back home by six. We were all meeting in Dover at Nando's, and then off to the cinema.

We're just back now from seeing A Haunting In Venice, the new Agatha Christie adaptation. We were in two minds if it would be suitable for the boys, it's meant to be a bit dark and people had said it was a bit scary. But all good, they liked it. Not quite as much as we liked it but still, a success. And so was the Nandos.

Estimated 1282 cups of coffee from my espresso machine prob'ly comes to £1.20 per cup (including actual coffee and now servicing so not the 'leccy).

Sat Sep 23
Energy usage graph, electricity and gas - 🕖 is cost at getting up time... Graph line from 1.97 to 83.81p last week p last week Graph line from 2.07 to 84.42p p 🕖 £0.89 By 6:30 on Sat Sep 16 cost was £0.89 Sat £5.35 Total cost for Sat Sep 16 was £5.35 🕖 £0.89 By 6:30 on Sun Sep 17 cost was £0.89 Sun £6.75 Total cost for Sun Sep 17 was £6.75 🕖 £0.97 By 6:30 on Mon Sep 18 cost was £0.97 7:30 is peak energy use period 8:00 is peak energy use period 8:30 is super peak energy use period 9:00 is super peak energy use period 9:30 is peak energy use period 10:00 is peak energy use period 15:30 is peak energy use period 16:00 is peak energy use period 16:30 is super peak energy use period 17:00 is super peak energy use period 17:30 is peak energy use period 18:00 is peak energy use period Mon £4.56 Total cost for Mon Sep 18 was £4.56 🕖 £0.88 By 6:30 on Tue Sep 19 cost was £0.88 7:30 is peak energy use period 8:00 is peak energy use period 8:30 is super peak energy use period 9:00 is super peak energy use period 9:30 is peak energy use period 10:00 is peak energy use period 🐙 free! 2023-09-19 had free energy 2023-09-19 had free energy 2023-09-19 had free energy 2023-09-19 had free energy 2023-09-19 had free energy 15:30 is peak energy use period 16:00 is peak energy use period 16:30 is super peak energy use period 17:00 is super peak energy use period 17:30 is peak energy use period 18:00 is peak energy use period Tue £3.88-ish Total cost for Tue Sep 19 was £3.88 APPROXIMATELY, with 255.020248665 free 🕖 £0.85 By 6:30 on Wed Sep 20 cost was £0.85 7:30 is peak energy use period 8:00 is peak energy use period 8:30 is super peak energy use period 9:00 is super peak energy use period 9:30 is peak energy use period 10:00 is peak energy use period 🐙 free! 2023-09-20 had free energy 2023-09-20 had free energy 2023-09-20 had free energy 2023-09-20 had free energy 2023-09-20 had free energy 15:30 is peak energy use period 16:00 is peak energy use period 16:30 is super peak energy use period 17:00 is super peak energy use period 17:30 is peak energy use period 18:00 is peak energy use period Wed £5.37-ish Total cost for Wed Sep 20 was £5.37 APPROXIMATELY, with 192.76465130999998 free 🕖 £0.95 By 6:30 on Thu Sep 21 cost was £0.95 7:30 is peak energy use period 8:00 is peak energy use period 8:30 is super peak energy use period 9:00 is super peak energy use period 9:30 is peak energy use period 10:00 is peak energy use period 🐙 free! 2023-09-21 had free energy 2023-09-21 had free energy 2023-09-21 had free energy 2023-09-21 had free energy 2023-09-21 had free energy 15:30 is peak energy use period 16:00 is peak energy use period 16:30 is super peak energy use period 17:00 is super peak energy use period 17:30 is peak energy use period 18:00 is peak energy use period Thu £4.79-ish Total cost for Thu Sep 21 was £4.79 APPROXIMATELY, with 140.909967765 free 🕖 £0.88 By 6:30 on Fri Sep 22 cost was £0.88 7:30 is peak energy use period 8:00 is peak energy use period 8:30 is super peak energy use period 9:00 is super peak energy use period 9:30 is peak energy use period 10:00 is peak energy use period 🐙 free! 2023-09-22 had free energy 2023-09-22 had free energy 2023-09-22 had free energy 2023-09-22 had free energy 2023-09-22 had free energy 15:30 is peak energy use period 16:00 is peak energy use period 16:30 is super peak energy use period 17:00 is super peak energy use period 17:30 is peak energy use period 18:00 is peak energy use period Fri £4.58-ish Total cost for Fri Sep 22 was £4.58 APPROXIMATELY, with 171.39572268 free Y axis of graph 0 - 50 - X axis of graph Sep 17 18 19 20 21 22

This week 20 years ago

Exercise stats 23/9/23

🚶 22431 steps ❤️ 56 bpm 69.8㎏ 20.9% fat

your daily target Best ever daily steps: 38155 on Sat, Sep 14, 19 Sat was the best since Thu, Aug 31's 31625 10ᵏ - 20ᵏ - 30ᵏ - 56 bpm ❤︎ 41% stress 69.8㎏ 7660 my target 11043 Thu, Sep 14 9461 Fri, Sep 15 22953 Sat, Sep 16 12516 Sunday 5118 Monday 7517 Tuesday 4341 Wednesday 4980 Thursday 2240 days of data 3961 Friday 22431 (so far) Saturday

Health stats 22/9/23

🚶 3961 steps ❤️ 54 bpm 69.8㎏ 20.9% fat

I had a sick day

T2 passed his lurgy on to me, so I had a day off sick on Wednesday. Not improved much on Thursday but not any worse and I'm only sitting anyway so I went back to work. Now I have passed it on to Clare I think and she is not best pleased, she has got a big work thing on Monday.

Free energy today, and a friend just joined up too so he and I both get the fifty quid signing on money soon. Join us!

Fri Sep 22

Health stats 21/9/23

🚶 4980 steps ❤️ 50 bpm 69.2㎏ 20.7% fat

I love a multitool pen

However... This new one on newatlas.com has no torch! That's the first feature you need in a multitool pen. And isn't a graphite tipped pen that doesn't need refilling also known as a pencil? Just get a pencil I think, you could also use it for self defence at a push. Not so sure about breaking glass though.

...made from Grade 5 titanium but with a sandblasted finish, at 4.7 in (120 mm), the Bullet Ant 2.0 is smaller and sleeker and has the added bonus of an anti-slip grip. But, beauty aside, the pen mechanism has been upgraded so that it no longer needs to be refilled and is designed to write on any surface.

And, of course, because you always need a screwdriver, that feature has been retained, with built-in storage for two bits inside the pen. Perfect whether you need to do small repairs to reading glasses or watches or large repairs to engines and firearms.

OK my pencil solution would not be good for repairing firearms either. This looks quite good.

Stop me doing any more shopping though I am terrible at it. The new shorts I bought (against all advice) because they had a phone pocket in the back will not take my phone... and the home automation server I bought instead of just buying a £20 dongle and downloading the free software actually needs the £20 dongle as an extra anyway. I'm bad at shopping and I have more money than sense I admit it.

Wed Sep 20

T2 did walk home on his own today

I forgot even to worry about him. Clare did, but he made it home from school on his own in one piece.

Wed Sep 20

New home automation solution

Well new to me anyway, I'm going with Home Assistant as recommended for a long time by nephew George. Hoping it is a one stop solution for all the things, maybe I can get rid of some existing hardware, and maybe I can get some of my existing hardware working better and smarter. I have not been able to get the IKEA lights in the study coming on when I go in there and going off when I go out. Also I found this when I was looking for smart lightswitches. It is a touchscreen display that goes in the place of a lightswitch and is compatible with this same home automation setup. I can't see it working here, I expect it needs a neutral wire, most smart light switches do, but I really like the idea. There is a lightswitch by the front door that we don't use. It is for an outside light, so I wired the switch permanently on as the light has a sensor. Then right now the switch is covered by a lightwaverf five button switch, basically a remote control that fits in that space. It was just about good enough when I had lightwaverf round the house, it could be used to turn the hall lights on and off and then also turn all the lights off as I went out. But since the rest of the lightwaverf is gone it's just a useless decoration.

I want something like this for the hall, and then for the lounge and the study if I can make it work.

Thinking again of trying to make the study a bit cosier now that the summer is over. I feel I will be spending more time there working, instead of up at the table, when it's darker outside anyway. Not a lot of sense to this now I think about it.

I did manage to clear some space in there again at the weekend, took some of the huge jumble pile of clothes to the charity clothes bin. The study is the dumping ground for stuff, well one of the dumping grounds. I've still got a pile of cushions there that I'm not sure what to do with. Would a charity shop want them? What about one of those clothing bins? There's nothing wrong with them, they're just not our scheme any more, but I'm not confident anyone else would want them either. It's like a second hand mattress or pillow. It's hard to know how hard up people are, there are people with no money who would want to soften a brighten their place. It gets a bit gloomy thinking about it.

I could put them on freecycle, that would give some indication without me having to go in a charity shop and have one of the ladies there say "are you stupid?? who would want your old cushions??".

How did we get here from home automation?

Wed Sep 20

I have totally been programmed by Octopus Energy

There is another two hour period of free electricity today from 2pm to 4pm, the fourth one in seven days. I have got my washing lined up ready to go, I'm not doing any chores that involve electricity before this, and I'm not doing any after this. Octopus says jump and I say "not until 2pm remember".

Yesterday I cleaned the washing machine with the free energy. This means putting it on a SIXTY DEGREE cycle! Can you imagine I used to do this with my own money??

Actually yesterday I messed up slightly as I was twenty minutes late putting this on, as I was in a meeting, so it means the following wash went twenty minutes into me paying for it, and then because I was on another call at the end I was twenty minutes late turning the heated drying rack off. I think that only costs about 10p per hour so that's ok. The tumble dryer was on a timer, we're all good there. I do hope I remembered to register for this free energy correctly.

Just ninety minutes to go until the next wash.

Sign up here to be assimilated like me.

Wed Sep 20

Health stats 20/9/23

🚶 4341 steps ❤️ 54 bpm 69.2㎏ 20.7% fat

T2 did not walk home on his own

It was raining and windy and I lost my nerve this first time so I ran down to meet him and told him I'd forgotten.

We're going to Sandgate for a curry tonight as this is Clare's Saturday night. And then as it's Saturday night maybe crack into the wine delivery I got today! I got two alcohol free numbers (one Clare says we've had before and she didn't like it), six wildcard reds (but all pretty much guaranteed to be good, and then four definitely reliable clarets.

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Tue Sep 19

Paul Clarke's weblog - I live in Hythe near Folkestone. Wed to Clare + father to two, I'm a full stack web developr, and I do mostly javascript / nodejs, some ruby, other languages ect ect. I like pubbing, parkrun, restaurants, home-automation and other diy jiggery-pokery, history, genealogy, TV, squirrels, pirates, lego, + TIME TRAVEL.