I don’t drink either - or any other hot drinks. I have never liked them.

There was a while when, every other year or so, in the depths of winter, I would get it into my head that my tastes might have changed and would accept someone’s offer of something: tea, coffee, hot chocolate or whatever. But I’d always end up taking one sip and realise my folly.

And, no, Iced tea or similar does nothing for me either.

a skiff that they had managed to build with canvas and ropes that they had brought with them, and wood that they had cut in the forest where they had hidden ; they had made this boat waterproof by means of a thick layer of tallow. These prisoners, from Arras to the wood in which they had hidden near the coast, had walked only at night, using the moon and the stars to guide them. The administration of the Navy tested the canoe made by these four prisoners; 6 men embarked, steered it with oars and held the sea without a drop of water entering.

What they are describing there is a Currach.

There is a window for “Where were you when…?” questions, I think.

• Kennedy? Nope.
• Moon landing? Just about.
• Challenger? Yep.
• Princess Di? Yep.
• 9/11? Yep.
• Lockdowns? Whatever…

I think that I am drifting past that window nowadays.

• Worked for their local team, and was quite happy to challenge/push back on unreasonable top-down asks.
• Quite happy to admit they didn’t know stuff and asked for advice and ideas - and, of course, credited the appropriate team members for things that worked, but took responsibility themselves if things didn’t go well.
• Displayed authentic emotions and enthusiasm for the work, rather that present a bland corporate mask.

A satsuma. The penultimate element of my lunch.

The ultimate will be a banana, in a few minutes.

I’m peripatetic - I move between 3 different offices in a typical week, plus occasionally WFH. So:

• Coastal heath, birch & oak woodland, the sea off to the side and a nuclear reactor in the background. In the autumn we’ll get a starling murmuration in the later afternoon.
• A small stretch of rough grass and a river wall, with the top of a couple of abandoned military buildings over the top of that. The occasional hare or barn owl will pass by.
• The lawn and occasional ornamental trees of a moderately-sized country house with a shallow valley and more woodland behind that.
• A tussocky lawn, a couple of larch and a spectacular old oak, then a mixed alder and ash covert with a small stream behind that. Hares, a great spotted woodpecker and the occasional stoat put in an appearance.

Beautifully shot and some fine performances all round. Very much a character-based one though. Don’t go into it looking for action or fast-moving plot.

• The Studio - First episode - seems fun, but too similar to The Franchise just at the moment, and without the subtle wit of that one.
• The Righteous Gemstones - part way through season 4. This season lacks the coherence of the previous ones and seems to be be relying on continuous gross-out humour to make up for that. There was a natural end point with season 3. I will give this another episode, but may abandon it there.
• Adolescence - I completely agree with those who say that it isn’t the kids who need to see Adolescence, but the parents. I found that there was some heavy-handed moralising in eps 2 & 4, but 1 and 3 were intense and excellent and all of them were technically impressive.
• The White Lotus - another compelling season of the wealthy and damned paraded for our judgement. Fine performances from Posey, Issacs and Goggins particularly.
• The Residence - I wasn’t sure about episode 1. It seemed to be trying too hard and not nearly as funny as the director seems to think, but episode 2 was much improved. I’ll continue.

Threads (1984). I was in shock for a week when I first saw that. No horror film has come close.

If these were lab conditions with known airflow and volumes and window sizes and air temperatures and solar gain and so on and so on maybe someone could give you a useful answer, but without any of that, I’ve no idea and I doubt that anyone else will be able to tell you either.

1177 B.C. The Year Civilisation Collapsed- Eric H Cline. I think that meets your criteria - although ‘narrator isn’t annoying’ is obviously wildly subjective. I listened a while back and found it very interesting. I will be listening to After 1177 B.C. sometime soon.

Cold air will enter the stairwell at the bottom. If it is cold outside, it will probably be at least a bit warmer in the stairwell, so the air will warm and rise to the top of the well. It’s probably still cooler than in anyone’s room, though so that will be what the 4th floor residents are noticing.

To air the well most effectively, I’d suggest opening a window at the bottom and at the top and maybe putting a heater at the bottom as well. That would cause the cold air entering at the bottom to rise more rapidly and then exit through the top window. This may not be particularly efficient from an energy use POV though.

With the top window open and the warmer air in the well the 4th floor may even get less of a draft doing this, as the air would be getting out that way instead - unless there was a wind blowing in through that top window.

Beach with other people? Nope. No interest at all.

Deserted beach, where you can roam, explore cliffs and rockpools and so on? Well, they have an atmosphere, so maybe sometime.

Forest? Yes, definitely. Hiking will take you away from anyone else, and there will be plenty of opportunities for wildlife spotting one way or another.

Adrian Tchaikovsky’s latest: Shroud. So far, it hasn’t grabbed me in the same way that Children of Time did, but I’m enjoying it and am interested to see how the worldbuilding goes.

Chumbawamba’s discography - or even just this one on repeat.

Cornwall. Same group of friends as the last 30 or so years, in about 6 weeks time.

I’m in the UK. I worked at a couple of places in the '90s - sysadmin and IT trainer - where this was considered perfectly acceptable at the time, but I definitely wouldn’t now. I’m no longer in IT at all, but I don’t think that it is seen as acceptable very widely anywhere now.

I work for a national charity in the UK. The organisation’s policies have been dragged into the culture wars, but have not succumbed so far.

My role isn’t directly involved with that side of things though. When planning, I am considering things like potential future supply chain issues, security of/access to services, potential threats, likely changes in resource use, likely changes to legislation and so on, all of which can be affected by national and international politics but, day-to-day, politics doesn’t have a great effect beyond those.

During WWII, my dad was posted to guard a munitions factory in Worcester. Mum worked in that factory. Evidently dad was initially interested in one of mum’s friends, but they hit it off shortly afterwards.

After they married, dad brought her back to a smallholding in rural East Anglia, where he lived with his parents and three siblings. They apparently thought that mum’s Worcester accent was Welsh.

Read using REadEra, play Forge of Empires - plus Lemmy via Voyager.