Printers know just when to not work...

Met my MEng project students today. The plan was to impress them with a nicely printed overview of the course content. But the printer had other ideas. For the last few weeks it has been waking up at odd times and emptying its ink tanks so that it won’t work when I need to use it. Cunning stuff.

There was plenty of black ink. But no yellow. The thing I was printing had no yellow in it. But the printer refused to play. The online help referred to a monochrome printing mode you could use in this situation, but of course that didn’t work. My plans to impress were in tatters.

The good news is that I managed to figure it out. If you want to use the monochrome mode properly you need to install the “proper” drivers that you get from Brother, rather than the ones that are installed automatically by Windows 11.

And I’ve ordered some more ink. Should be here tomorrow.

Back home and gardening

It turns out that the grass grows even when you are away. So today it was time to mow it.

... and we are back home

Bach home today. Sad face. But then again, we did have a lovely time.

Sloth Closure

The zoo where we are staying has a sloth. When we went looking for him on Tuesday he was busy (if a sloth can be busy) somewhere else. Today we went back and he was out for a stroll, which was lovely. The picture above is not great, but I was taking pictures in near darkness.

Posh Tea at Lytham Hall

Went here for a posh afternoon tea. In the afternoon. It was posh. And there was tea.

Zoo and Blackpool

The place we are staying has a little zoo attached. Lots of lovely animals, including these two.

I had to go up in the big wheel on the pier to get this picture. Not a thing I do lightly…

Bridlington Comicon 2024

We went to Bridlington Comicon 2024 today and it was great. I took a big old camera to try and take some pictures. They might well appear here at some time in the future when I get around to developing them.

Speedy Typing

I seem to be able to type faster on the new computer. I think the old one was so slow that letters took a tiny bit longer to appear on the screen and this put me off my typing rhythm…

Bye Bye Mr. Cube

he actually looks shinier now than when we bought him.

Sad day today. Said goodbye to “Mr. Cube”. I got him in 2010 and he’s been in the family for the last fourteen years. I’ve very fond memories of my Cube motoring days; one of the nicest cars I’ve ever owned. And he has worn extremely well. But, rather sadly, it is time for a change. If you see him out and about be sure to give him a wave and totally confuse the person driving him.

Adventures with T shirts

While we were in London we had a look in the Uniqlo store to find out what they are wearing in Japan at the moment. Turns out that they had a range of T shirts for the Kaiju No. 8 manga series at very tempting prices. So I bought a bunch. And also the first book of the series (it’s rather good).

If you like this kind of thing it’s worth keeping an eye on their site. Neat designs pop up every now and then at very tempting prices.

The National Video Game Museum is awesome

Today finds us in Sheffield visiting the National Video Game Museum. It was wonderful. So good that I completely forgot to take any pictures. Never mind, I’m sure that we’ll be going back there again before long. Strongly recommended.

Just a small statue will do

This morning all the power sockets in the kitchen stopped working. Turned out the earth trip had tripped. I suspect a bit of dust in the tumble drier. Anyhoo, I had it fixed in around a minute or so. I told the rest of the family that there was no need to make fuss about my incredible efficiency. Perhaps just a small statue with “He brought back the light and power.” written on it.

Dry Car Wash

Last time I had a seven year hold car wash “helper” it ended with both of us laughing like crazy. And soaking wet. This time, but the use of heavy incentive management we managed to get the car lovely and clean and not have to change all our clothes afterwards. Which counts as a win.

End of a Cube Era

Still Got it

The Cube has been part of our lives for the last fourteen years. It has never let us down and is one of the coolest cars I’ve ever driven. We’ll be parting with it soon, succumbing to the lure of an all-electric vehicle. We gave it a wash, took it for a drive and grabbed some pictures.

Even the back looks cool

I hope that when the time comes the Cube will find an owner who appreciates it as much as we did.

IKP Little Mermaid

Had a splendid time at Burnby Hall Gardens tonight watching The Little Mermaid from IK Productions. All the kids there (along with the one we took with us) really enjoyed the tale and the way it was told. Great fun.

Farewell Rodney

It was my father in-law Rodney’s funeral today. The best funerals are a celebration of a life lived well and to the full. I like to think that we did Rodney proud. Many thanks to everyone who came along and special thanks to celebrant Scott and Kelly from the Co-op who played their parts perfectly. It means a lot.

Time Travel Bridge

There’s a motorway bridge near us which is presently undergoing expensive repairs because bits of it are worn out. When I was going through my old pictures from the 1970’s I found this picture of the bridge before it was made.

They are pile driving foundations for the pillars that will hold the bridge up.

Meter Readings

I lost my lovely little Polaroid Meter. I managed to convince myself that I’d left it in my room when on holiday. So I bought another one. Fortunately it was not terribly expensive. Unfortunately it didn’t work. They must have been using a much more liberal definition of “tested and working” than I do. Anyhoo, the good news is that I then (of course) found the original one in a place I hadn’t thought of looking. Truly, the best way to find a missing item is to buy a replacement (whether the replacement works or not).

Short Shorts

Number one son took a look at my newly arrived shorts. “You’re going to want to send these back” he said. He’s right. Instead of ordering XL I’d gone and bought XS. At least I didn’t get as far as trying them on. That would probably have killed me.

Home Steam

In anticipation for our trip to Whitby tomorrow we got a steam engine running at home. I bought the little engine a while back and it still works, which is nice. It even had enough steam to actually power the little led lights (although they are a bit hard to see in this picture).