rock_dinosaur, posts by tag: miscellaneous - LiveJournal

Bah! It's only 10.15pm, but I've run out of steam and I'm about to head for bed. I've filled my hot-water bottles and they're warming it up as I type this.

I've been busy for the past couple of days and have been meaning to report on my progress, but I have a dilemma. If I post in the morning when I have my caffeine-fix and I'm relatively alert and focused, I don't have much to report as I haven't accomplished anything useful yet, but if I leave it until the evening, I'm tired, my brain's seized up and I can't organise my thoughts. I've made a note that my first task for tomorrow should be to compose a LiveJournal post, but whether I'll actually manage to do it remains to be seen.

Edinburgh has had a full day of brilliant sunshine and cloudless skies today, but I've been busy ploughing my way through my task-list and haven't been out. However, the BBC Weather web-site says the Indian summer is to continue for the next three days, so I think I may have to abandon all plans tomorrow and head out to top up my suntan. I need to stop wasting time puzzling over where I should go, and just head down to the station and get on a random train to wherever. Sunshine is too much of a precious thing to miss, especially at this time of year when it's getting chilly and the nights are rapidly drawing in. I find it so depressing when darkness falls as early as 7pm, as it's doing now. Turn back the clock! Bring back the summer!

This geranium in my living-room is still producing brilliant-red flowers in the dark and freezing mid-winter. I took this photo in the mid-afternoon of 8th January, 2025.

I was looking around the British Heart Foundation furniture shop in Leith on 17th December, 2024, to see if they had any computer desks or bedside tables for sale (they did), when I noticed this old cardboard box from the Binns department store in Edinburgh. I think it's dated 15th June, 1962, though the handwriting on it is scruffy and unclear. And there was me thinking everybody had beautiful handwriting back in the day: evidently not so! The box seems to have lasted very well considering it's older than me: as my grandmother always used to say, 'You can't get the quality nowadays'! The Binns logo looks so old-fashioned too, though it's familiar to me as buses frequently carried 'Shop at Binns' adverts on their side and rear panels when I was wee. The Edinburgh store closed some years ago and the building is now occupied by the Johnny Walker Scotch Whisky Experience, about as pointless a waste of space as it would be possible to imagine.

Seen at Chalmers' Close, High Street, Edinburgh, on 1st July, 2024. Why, and furthermore, how? That's what I want to know!
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GRRR!!! My electricity suddenly went off at at 11.10pm while I was in the middle of sorting out some photos on the computer. The Travelodge opposite and the whole of my street was in darkness, although the street lights remained on. Luckily I'd bought some candles and tea-lights just a few days ago and I had some laid out on the hearth, along with a box of matches, so I wasn't left in total darkness. It's also lucky that I hadn't got into the bath as my bathroom is in the middle of the house and it would have been pitch black in there. The electricity came back on about twenty minutes ago and I've filled my bath, but I'm a bit scared to get into it now in case the power goes off again! I'd better go and do it though as I've an appointment with the cardiology nurse tomorrow morning, and I deem it expedient to be as uncrusty as possible!

On 25th March, 2024, Tesco at Hermiston Gait had Ben & Jerry's vegan ice cream in various flavours reduced to £2.96-a-tub. The usual price is a frankly ludicrous £5.20. I've had this stuff before and I really liked it. I thought it had a slight coconut flavour, but I see it's actually made with almonds. So much for my sense of taste! Anyway, I'm going to treat myself to a little just as soon as it's defrosted enough for me to stick a spoon into.

The cherry tree behind my flat with more oriental tourists photographing it on 24th March, 2024.
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Since the cherry tree behind my flat came into full blossom, there have been oriental tourists (or students?) taking photos of it or having their photos taken in front of it every time I've looked out of my kitchen window. Don't they have cherry trees at home? Admittedly, it's pretty spectacular. This was the scene on 22nd March, 2024.
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Last night, the cherry tree behind my flat had only bare branches and a sparse few blossoms on it; this morning, it was in full, spectacular blossom. All it took was a little sunshine! 18th March, 2024.

On 8th February, 2024, I left the washing machine to complete its cycle while I nipped out for some shopping, and this is what I came back to. Bloody useless thing! Actually, it's not the machine's fault: it vibrates the entire building when it's spinning because the guy who fitted the new gas boiler last year left a hole in the floor, so there's nothing to support the machine at one corner. Anyway, the neighbours can't complain as there's a washing machine in an adjacent flat to mine that shakes the entire building when it's spinning too, and for some reason they insist on doing their clothes-washing after midnight!