h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Yeah, true - never mind, at least it got there

That is an interesting question about the number of Beatles records - my guess is 14 U 13 = 15. What's a matrix number?

I hope you found some good things to do at the weekend. I went to the botanic garden to take some photos, as I might be able to enter a photographic competition there in summer It was very pleasant going around - a bit damp and windy at times, but not too bad, and plenty of spring flowers around. In particular there were trillions of trilliums - I saw a few last year, but this year there was a carpet of them in the woodland area, in all sorts of different colours, shapes and sizes

In honour of Little Freddie, I listened to The Miracle Sessions at the weekend, too. Quite good, hearing a bit about what goes on behind the scenes in the recording studio, and interesting that even more different miracles were sung about in the making of The Miracle than appeared in the final single. Not easy to listen to, though, as the volume levels are all over the place... Reminded me of when I went to the Queen Convention and the archivist Greg Brooks played us a snippet of something, then turned the volume up to 101 and said, 'if you listen carefully, you can hear John speaking while Freddie is singing' - I couldn't hear anything because the music was so loud and that in turn reminded me of the Queen song 'Some Day One Day' and the line 'You never heard my song before - the music was too loud' A transcript of The Miracle Sessions would be useful, as I really rely on the lyrics sheets in CDs etc, but I'll just have to listen to it again somewhen and see if I can get any more out of it

Did you get the alert? My mum and I got it in the middle of the botanic garden, so it was funny hearing the echo of several tones ringing out in the open air! Also funny was that a couple of minutes later, someone near us received an alert in Welsh, and then a couple of minutes after that we received the Welsh alert too

The answer to the Beatles quiz is 27 - my Mum only bought singles and EPs as that is what she could afford, while my father-in-law bought albums. People nowadays forget how expensive an LP was compared to the average wage back in the 60s.

A matrix number is an alphanumeric code stamped into a record's run-out (the gap between the groove and the label). These codes show not only what is recorded on each side - so each side has a different matrix number, which may be similar to the record's catalogue number. Different pressings of an album can have different matrix numbers.

So for example you could have a UK record of 'Rubber Soul' in Mono, but to identify which version you have (and so its value) as well as checking the label colour, sleeve condition etc you would check the matrix numbers, as the record was originally considered to not be mixed properly and so a second pressing was made shortly after the first, rarer pressing (nicknamed the 'Loud cut').
So there are fans who would collect albums for their matrix numbers, in 'Rubber Soul's case:
1st Pressing 'Loud' Cut): XEX 579-1 / XEX 580-1
2nd pressing Mono: XEX 579-4 / XEX 580-4
1982 reissue Mono: XEX 579-6 / XEX 580-5

But that's a hobby that requires far more money than I have...

Over the weekend I got the draft copy of the latest book I doodled, so I'll be checking that, and a quote to fit a sun tunnel skylight in the hallway, which is £1,100. The thing is, the hallway is pitchblack as it has no natural light and I'm not convinced the electrics are good, as three bulbs have blown to that light fitting since we moved in, which isn't a good sign.

Today I've spent much of the day looking out for a wide load diesel engine that's due to come out of the depot opposite. They said we had to clear the road from parked cars, move bins etc - but the neighbours didn't. I guess they're used to it. We were also told it would be moved at some point before 3pm, but it actually went by at 6pm. I think you've seen the pictures.

No, we didn't hear the alert - none of us in the house got it, so it was a real disappointing anticlimax. Good to know it actually existed, though disappointing to know we're doomed in the event of a zombie apocalypse.

Talking of Queen, have we discussed 'You Don't Fool Me'?

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That is disappointing that none of you received the alert I was pleased it was a tone rather than a siren, so I was less startled when it went off. Very odd that we should get two alerts and you got none at all, though. Hopefully the information from the test will enable the system to be fixed

Glad you did get to see the diesel engine emerge from the depot, though Great photos, and well done getting them, as it took you more by surprise appearing at 6pm instead of 3pm! Impressive that it was able to squeeze down the road between all the parked cars - the car owners were taking a chance, there...

The sun tunnel sounds like a good idea indeed, given that three bulbs have blown in the light fitting and there is no other light in the hallway... Good luck with all of that

That is interesting about matrix numbers I checked my 2022 Miracle LP and see it is 3D printed from the original master, so the 'handwritten' numbers have been reproduced! I'll try to remember to look at my 1970s LPs at the weekend and see what I can see

That is impressive that 14 U 13 = 27 Yes, fascinating how prices change relative to one another... In my music-buying heyday, a single had to contain something unusual for me to invest in it rather than just the album it came from, because singles were relatively expensive.

Speaking of which, I did buy 'You Don't Fool Me' in 1995 or so I do recall we mentioned it, but I don't recall whether we had a discussion, so we can discuss it now!

That's good news about the draft copy of your latest book - I hope all is good. I'm enjoying Fete of Eve Eel - in particular the pages about the horticultural show and the portaloos and the Bible were laugh-out-loud funny!

I believe that we're all on the same network, so if that network didn't work that would mean none of us got it .

I think the plan had been to move the diesel locomotive out at 3pm when the roads would be quiet, but there obviously was delays. So all the people who returned from work assuming that the engine had gone as planned parked where they normally would, so the road ended up being busy. I might send a picture or two into . When I took the photos I decided to share them and did a quick search to look up the engine and saw that they had a group. So I logged into that to upload the pictures, only to discover that someone else had already uploaded a photo that I was in!
Another disadvantage to uploading pictures there is that my photos attracted comments like, 'Any news on refitting the headcode boxes?' and asking if they have fitted a NCB J94 smoke stack (the spark arresting type). I just saw it pass the window.
As you said, you can tell I hadn't been expecting the engine at 6pm as I rushed out the house without shoes on but as the low loader lorry was going at a snail's pace down the road I managed to catch up and overtake it easily.
I gather that it had only just been given the name 'The Bluebell Railway' when at the depot so that means I'm one of the very first people to see it out and about in public wearing that name.

I know what you mean about value for money with singles – I always thought that if you were spending money, you may as well buy as much as you can and so an album is better value. In for a penny, in for a pound.

Glad you enjoyed the last book – I'm still reading through 'After That Pope!' but not spotted any glaring errors so far, so it may be available soon. I'm really glad you enjoyed 'Fete of Eve Eel' as I think that one worked out nice and charming with a particularly high standard of doodles.

Our new VC has started. He's given a speech in which he essentially said, 'I love Solent's ethos in which every member of staff is valued and look forward to our continued success. Please could you take redundancy now - that would be great, as we haven't got enough money left due to all our recent successes. But every one of you is irreplaceable, so please leave.'

I'll leave 'You Don't Fool Me' until tomorrow as I've already waffled on about the engine.

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Ah, yes that makes sense that it was the network rather than the individual phones that weren't receiving the message...

Ah, also makes sense that people didn't realise the locomotive still hadn't moved, so returned from work as usual... Glad it was still able to squeeze through and give you chance to catch it even without shoes on That is about the photo with you in! Fascinatingly, showed me your posting in the group, and all the technical comments attached to it

The new VC's speech sounds about right in this day and age "we haven't got enough money left due to all our recent successes"... Good luck with it all A few fun and games over here, as well http://wonkhe.com/blogs/hesa-spring-2023-financial-data/ but today's best 'funny but not funny' was one of those annoying circles where someone asked me a question I didn't know the answer to, so I asked someone else, who asked someone else, who asked me

Glad your readthrough of 'After That Pope!' is going well so far. I haven't finished Fete of Eve Eel yet, but I'm enjoying it indeed, with the variety of perspectives in the doodles, and crowd scenes, etc The 'Cowes you cannot milk' page made me chuckle - great facial expressions! Coincidental link to The Miracle, too

My newest news today is that, now that I have a newer record player, I thought I'd buy a couple of 1960s records that my Dad used to have that after my parents divorced, my mum got rid of. I found that one of them, a single called 'The Ferry To The Isle of Wight' was on sale cheaply online on Discogs, so I tried to order it. Unfortunately I wasn't able to - it was under the cost of p&p and I had to find another single from the same seller to bump it up over £5. So I found the seller had a copy of 'Doctorin' the ' which bumped it over £5 and ordered it, and it came yesterday. Only posted through the letterbox in a plain envelope without stamp! Turns out that the seller lives round the corner and so posted it through the door. And included two additional 'Gilbert & Sullivan' EPs too, which when I asked online, he said, 'I put any old random singles in there just to protect in transit / delivery'. So I wanted a single and ended up getting 2 EPs and two singles for £5 delivered within 24 hours, so that's not bad at all.

I thought the funny/not funny moment was funny!
It'd also be funny if you'd ended up being asked a completely different question after everyone had played a game of 'Chinese Whispers'. I wonder if the original asker was asked again?

There was a bit of amusement today in that someone high up asked us to ensure that staff always send 'seedy' responses to students - we all assume that they meant 'speedy'...

I hadn't thought about it, but yes the Golden Gate and the Taj Mahal are both mentioned in 'The Miracle'

Which brings us to Queen's 'You Don't Fool Me'.
Essentially there are fans who think that similar sort of songs can be compiled from Beatles jams, particularly the 'Nagra reels' which disappeared in 1970 and have been recently resurfaced and were restored by Peter Jackson for his 'Get Back' project (http://webgrafikk.com/blog/uncategorized/source-of-nagra-tapes)

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Wow, that was a fascinating coincidence that the seller was so close, and that is a bargain getting two bonus discs just to protect the ones you'd asked for

Highly possible that a question could get distorted after going round the houses like that! I'll have to watch out. I do tend to ask follow up questions, just to help make sure I understand what people are asking for, otherwise the answer would just be '42' all the time

That was a Freudian slip about 'seedy' responses The funny typos I've been laughing at today are in transcripts of meetings, which are always unusual - eg Chachi Cheese instead of Chat GPT

Also coincidental that the Golden Gate and the Taj Mahal were in the same doodling panel without you thinking about it!

Interesting about Beatles jams - offhand I don't know much about You Don't Fool Me except that it was released on purple and white vinyl, so I will investigate further

I discovered that Tufty is giving a talk online tonight, so I plan to attend - I see you met Tufty in London in 2014, but only after I had had to catch my train home, so I look forward to seeing (albeit not meeting) them later

My news for today is that I've finished proof-reading 'After That Pope!' so that is ready to be sold! It does, I think, suffer slightly from starting off as one story before doing a sudden U-turn to become a different one, but that's what happened when I was drawing it. Hopefully I got the tone in the reporter bits right. I wonder what will happen when I start drawing the next one. Still not sure whether to go back to the pedestrianisation or medical idea, but may well end up doing something completely different. I still have a couple of dozen pages of old stuff from the 90s to polish up into a before I get started.

Yes, I met Tufty – both in London and also in Manchester. So how was the talk? Hope it all went well.

And do you have plans for the weekend? I hope to go to California tomorrow morning and then on Sunday it is the Round the Island Isle of Wight Randonnee, which I hope to try out though my rear mudguard is falling off…

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Yay! Congratulations on a new book. I like the preview on - a neat segue from Fete of Eve Eel to a new story

Tufty's talk was very good The audience seemed to be just me and 6 medical students, so it was a bit sad that more people weren't there, but I learned a lot The first slide was a bit graphic, with photos of people with various medical problems, but then the talk was about diverse medical career options and work-life balance Good to know Tufty is doing well after not having visited h2g2 for several years (although we do see each other around on Twitter ). I accidentally got to speak to Tufty as well, as I did 'applause' on Zoom and the meeting host thought I was putting my hand up Not quite the same as an actual Meet, but very good indeed

Quite a bit going on this weekend, yes - there is a Coronation Cream Tea that I have been invited to, and a talk about the Botanic Garden Hopefully time for some birdwatching too Your weekend plans sound good Is California a parkrun? All the best with the Randonnee - I hope your bike holds up so you can enjoy the route

Morning - happy Tuesday! Hope you had a great weekend with Coronation Cream - (now I wish I had custard creams to dunk in my tea, but don't start me on scones ) and talking of the Botanic Garden.

Yes, California is a parkrun, which as the name implies is near Wokingham, Bracknell and Reading in Berkshire. It was quite a nice run - starting with a real trail run weaving between trees in the woods, followed by an out-and-back along a long, straight, rubber tyre path, which is probably good for speed but a bit dull to be honest, then back for another weaving round the woods before the finish. Probably my second-favourite course in Berkshire so far, with Dinton Pastures still in top spot.

On Sunday I successfully managed the Isle of Wight Randonnée - I'd been a bit worried about whether I'd be able to this year, as the ferries were only operating every 90 minutes and the one I'd've wanted to catch was booked up, and the trains weren't operating before 8:30am from Eastleigh, meaning I'd have to cycle to the ferry, but beginning 90 minutes after I'd ideally want to. Plus the mudguard was held on by cable ties and rubbing against the rear wheel (when I got to the ferry I managed to bend the mudguard so it stopped rubbing). But in the end I made it round, though I'm not as fit as the last time I did it, and also cycled from home to the ferry and back, making a total of 85¼ miles. I also diverted via the Isle of Wight Donkey Sanctuary, as my dad said he was going to be there as they were having a display day, and he had his 1951 K-Type Bedford lorry on display.

I didn't really do anything yesterday after the long bike ride. My wife wants to redo our bathroom completely, take everything out and start again, my daughter's ill with a temperature and Covid-like symptoms (but isn't Covid, we tested) and our new, 5-month-old washing machine has stopped working. Still under warranty, but the manufacturer isn't being at all helpful. We want them to send an engineer to fix it, they don't want to.

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Happy Tuesday to you too! Sorry your daughter isn't well today (seems to be something going round, as a couple of colleagues' children aren't well today either). I hope your daughter soon feels better and doesn't share the bug with you all

That's annoying about the washing machine after all the palaver 5 months ago Hope that is soon fixed

Glad you had a good parkrun in California I saw your GPS map and thought it looked unusual with the long straight section and a curly section - glad the route was enjoyable overall

Congratulations on completing the Randonnée - a double achievement to get there and back as well as getting round the route Glad the mudguard held up, and glad you got to see your dad as well

My weekend was good, too The talk was quite good, but got a bit technical. I met a few people I know, though, so enjoyed a cup of tea and a chat afterwards (as it was raining, so not worth going out into the botanic garden again after last week's expedition). The Coronation was better than expected, as I met lots of people, and the food was excellent. There were scones at the finish not the start Funny singing the National Anthem - it sounded like 'God save our gracious Quing, long live our noble KING!' Excellent birdwatching yesterday - the day started out wet, but was quite warm by mid afternoon, with a good variety of species out and about, so I enjoyed the birdsong and added a couple to my list

I looked up 'You Don't Fool Me' and discovered Brian May appears to have deleted his blog from 10 years ago and earlier That is sad, as I thought it was a valuable record of his work... Anyway, so 'You Don't Fool Me' is a fragment of a song that was mixed into a full song, or is it said that it is several fragments mixed together? Certainly a lot of potential to make new songs from old - Queen even did that themselves when making The Miracle album (I learned from the Miracle Sessions that the intro to Breakthru had been the intro to another song that didn't make it on to the album )

The washing machine palaver goes on, as I tried to get an engineer to come and look at it. As we have it insured with D&G, we phoned them, only for them to say that it is still under the maker's warranty so we would need to phone Beko, which we did. Only for Beko to say that they needed to know how D&G bought it, which we phoned D&G back, found out, told Beko, and then they said because it was a replacement washing machine for a previously broken one, it doesn't count as being under the maker's year's warranty and despite being 5 months old, counts as being as old as the previous machine we owned. Which I argued about statutory rights and after being on hold for ages, finally got Beko to agree to send out an engineer on Friday, 'between 9am and 6pm'.

Glad you had a good weekend and spotted people you knew so enjoyed the Botanic Garden in the rain. I guess we'll all have to get used to 'King' not 'Queen'. I have seen some fun post box toppers lately that are celebrating the coronation.

It really is fascinating how songs like 'You Don't Fool Me' can be made from fragments - but that's more or less what the B-side of 'Abbey Road' is, lots of bits from half-written songs all bunged together into a long medley.

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That is weird for the washing machine company to try to claim that a new machine is the same age as the one it replaced Statutory rights indeed

I liked the postbox topper you found They are fun!

I am pleased to see h2g2 still has record of the Queen Wasps that visited me at about this time of year in 2020 and 2021 - another one turned up on the boiler yesterday, and it was ceremonially escorted outside

I'm still enjoying Fete of Eve Eel - the King Kong scenes reminded me of the artwork for Queen's News of the World The University Degree stall is funny and the wedding ceremony is The bull in the china shop artwork is excellent - superb facial expression on the bull, and the storyline is very funny! More fascinating facts about toileting, too - I didn't realise that there is a hymn featuring bowels

Hopefully we'll have a working washing again tomorrow - but we'll see. They may need to order spare parts. Or not show up... Never trust a washing machine...

Glad you're enjoying 'Fete of Eve Eel' - as I've said before I was proud of that one. If when you've read the books you think 'this plot point hasn't been resolved', let me know - I easily get distracted but like to try to tie everything up. As far as I can think the big unresolved plot points from the series are 'what is happening with Dierdre Dreary's body?', 'the wizard going on about a ring' and the mysterious small medium at large.

I had an RR10 yesterday, which I managed to get round and do better than last time, so not quite the very back but near the back.

Funnily enough we had an Amazon parcel for next door yesterday, and when he came to collect he asked how I was settling in, and so I said that I enjoyed the road and that it was exciting to have trains driving along the road. He replied, and I kid you not, 'We had a really big one last year'. If that diesel doesn't count as a big locomotive, what does? It definitely wouldn't've fitted through the Ryde Tunnel so was bigger than anything on the Island.

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May the Fourth be With You

'Never trust a washing machine' indeed I hope all goes well tomorrow and the engineer arrives at a reasonable hour

Glad you had a good run yesterday I went out to vote this afternoon, and it was more challenging than anticipated, but not in ways I would have anticipated. For starters it has been sunny all day, and it is sunny now, but it was raining all the time I was going to and from the polling station Then the ID check was quicker than expected. I then discovered there were two polling stations in the same building and the accessible booth was in the other one An official tried to help me go through a barrier to get to the other polling station, but then decided it was easier for her to bring the accessible booth to me Then I discovered the pencil in the booth was missing, and it looked like someone had cut the string it had been attached to. Luckily the official had a bag full of spares, so it was straightforward for her to bring one over to me. She made sure the ballot box was within reach for me to post my slip, too, so that was easier than usual

Glad you got to meet a neighbour, but that is fascinating news about the bigger locomotive The street must have had to be cleared for that, as the one you saw only just squeezed through

I finished Fete of Eve Eel today and enjoyed it very much Very cleverly done with the fundraising down to the last £1 I liked the song 'There's a hole in the church roof' and the ookcuc clock, too Neat ending - ties up most loose ends while leaving a few open for the sequel (I spotted the small medium at large by the Lych Gate ), and I like how Dr Beeching has been given a book off for his honeymoon

The uckooc clock was intended as an attempt to justify why sometimes the church has one or more clock faces, and other times doesn't. It had been originally drawn to be page 64 (I'm about 14 pages out of sync with the notebooks, so I draw pages 1-13 at the end of the previous notebook, 14-63 in one book and 64-100 in a third, and like to start each with a scene without dialogue) but as I later decided I wanted to keep the scaffolding up until after the wedding, had to rearrange the order. And also add scaffolding to the picture of the church on page 76 using Photoshop (with the original illustration on the frontispiece).

Sorry to hear you had poor weather and complete kerfuffle for the trip to the polling station. I had a new polling station to find now, which is in a masonic hall.
Do you think we'll get a new PM. Local councils are elected every 4 years, so we're re-electing the people elected in 2019 when Theresa May's Conservative party did so badly that she resigned. So Sunak is entering these local elections simply aiming to do better than the results that were so bad they made May resign, and so far he's failed miserably.

Do you remember me telling you that they 'build' (restore) Spitfires next to my old school? One is in the news at the moment:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-65309593

Talking of restorations and my home town, there is a campaign to Save Prince William. Which is unlikely to happen (they had 9 days to raise £5,000 and in half that time they've not even raised £500), which is a shame as I remember Princess Diana popping by and the big stink.
http://gofund.me/8602be3a

Hope you have a great weekend and enjoy anything you get up to for the coronation. I'll settle for being able to wash clothes. There's one launderette in town (the one round the corner from my old maisonette) and it opens at 10am and closes at 4pm - how does that help working people get their clothes clean? They don't open on Sundays and I'm not sure if they'll be open tomorrow or Bank Holiday Monday.

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"The uckooc clock was intended as an attempt to justify why sometimes the church has one or more clock faces, and other times doesn't." - Excellent photoshopping - seamless scaffolding

Yeah, the only thing that the current PM has in his favour is that he's already the second choice, so it would take a lot for the other 'powers that be' to decide to try the third choice... 1058 is a big number, though... No change in my area, anyway.

Wow, that Spitfire project looks to be a challenge indeed - fascinating what was recovered, and the history around it, but hard to imagine it could be restored.

Also challenging about trying to buy the fire engine for the benefit of the public... I see some more donations have been made over the weekend, but they're still very far from the target...

I hope you were able to wash clothes over the weekend That is strange that the launderette has such narrow opening hours. It would be a challenging dash to fit a wash into a lunchbreak, but seems a bit much to have to take a day off work just to wash clothes...

I enjoyed the weekend It was fun watching the Coronation with my mum - she reminisced about watching Queen Elizabeth II's on a 9inch TV with her family and a group of neighbours Excellent birding on Sunday, too, as the weather was good I'm now up to 80 species

No change in my area either – we went from Lib Dem dominated to Lib Dem dominated.

Did I tell you about the naming day ceremony when Princess Diana came to Sandown's fire station in 1985? I was there and remember seeing her from a distance. My grandfather used to be a Sandown fireman, having been in the ARP in the war.

Which leads nicely to the Spitfire. They have all the equipment needed to build entirely new Spitfires there, but from what I understand they aren't allowed to. They are only permitted to restore existing Spitfires. I believe that if you took them a rivet from a specific Spitfire (and huge wallet) they would be permitted to essentially restore the entire Spitfire around that one rivet and have it airworthy - provided you knew which Spitfire the rivet came from and that the original Spitfire was not already restored. So if you had two parts of the same Spitfire you could not use them to create two restored Spitfires; as there was only one Spitfire originally, you can't have two. So if they did restore a whole Spitfire from a rivet and then discover that someone had unknowingly kept a virtually complete Spitfire in their garage that was that very Spitfire, I'm not sure what they'd do.
Funnily enough the trend is to restore most to become 2-seaters.

We did manage to do a wash over the weekend – they were open on Monday so we turned up at 10am and managed to use their washing machines before they were filled. Not sure what we would be able to do in future if the only day that they would normally be able to accessed outside working hours is Saturday. I suppose I might have to purchase some form of trolley or wheelbarrow and go in at lunchtime and take a long lunch? There still would be no guarantee that they would have empty washing machines at the time I arrived.

On Saturday it chucked it down with rain all day, which made a very drenched parkrun – I enjoyed my shower when I got home, despite our towel rationing. I had originally planned to go to WoKING for the coronation but some friends said they wanted to visit us, staying at the hotel across the road from the station, so I stayed home instead.
On the Sunday we all went to Eastleigh Lakeside Country Park where they had a miniature railway coronation event – I plan to write about it for .
This weekend my son and I, as well as my friend, her partner, daughter and daughter's best friend will be doing the second half of Walk the Wight, so hopefully it'll stop raining. Yesterday I bought new raincoats for my son and I. Also did a bit more doodling with old characters I've not interacted with for 20 years (a different set than before). So that was fun.
I definitely tend to write more dialogue and waffle than I did 20 years ago – not sure that's a good thing.

Apparently the average number of people viewing the Queen's coronation per television was 17, I read somewhere. The Queen's coronation also led to a diplomatic incident and strict rules for the separation of commercials and programmes on ITV.

Glad you had a good birding session on Sunday – are you ahead of this time in previous years already?

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I think I do recall you mentioning Princess Diana's visit, yes

That is interesting that the Spitfire workshop could in theory restore a Spitfire from a rivet - gives more hope that AA810 can be restored indeed Coincidentally I read an article yesterday about two-seater Spitfires being used for amateur photographers to go on aerial photography trips, so that would partly explain the trend...

That was fortunate that the launderette was open on the bank holiday Good point that even if you did a dash during your lunchbreak there might not be a machine for you to use... I hope you soon get a working one at home

Glad you got to have a refreshing shower after a soggy parkrun. The wet weather arrived here today - I went into the office for a meeting, and got utterly soaked. The waterfall in front of the door was even more impressive than it was in March, too I did enjoy trying Coronation Quiche at lunchtime, though, as some was being served in the canteen Quite an acquired taste, so I'm definitely not tempted to try making my own, but I enjoyed the texture of the vegetables and the tang of the cheese

17 people watching television with my mum in 1953 sounds about right indeed http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/objects-and-stories/television-reigns-broadcasting-queen-elizabeths-coronation Interesting that it had an impact on advertising regulations as well, not following the US too closely when ITV was launched

I enjoyed seeing your photos of the miniature railway coronation event, and look forward to seeing some in Glad you and your son have new raincoats, just in case Walk the Wight is wet - I hope you all enjoy it My raincoat worked well today, but my gloves got absolutely saturated so they were still soggy at home time.

I am doing well with my bird year, yes - this time last year I had 75 species on the list

Sandown's Fire Station is next to the waterworks. On the day that Princess Diana visited (to dedicate the fire station and name the engines after William and Harry) it was a very warm day and there was a gentle breeze blowing in the wrong direction, wafting a strong smell of effluence to the fire station. Apparently the Princess asked someone about the smell only for them to apologise for the waterworks, and she apparently replied, 'Thank goodness, I thought it was ' (name of the Island's senior fireman)

I think two seater Spitfires are generally considered more flexible – you could potentially use them for 'pay for a flight in a Spitfire' experiences and get a bit of money back, whether or not you'd ever make a profit that way is questionable. I don’t think you'd be able to make a living that way as the costs would probably be too high.

We had the washing machine engineer visit yesterday, and this time I was determined to watch what he was doing so that he wouldn't just leave saying there was nothing wrong with the machine like he did last time. He turned up and put the machine in a spin, and it spun, and then spent some time to ensure that the machine was level and wouldn't bump into the surroundings, but then after 15 minutes said that the machine was clearly spinning.
So I said that yes, I can see that the machine is spinning, but could he see what happens when it is put in a wash cycle, which he thought odd but did. And then the machine didn't work. Which he acknowledged. Apparently when I phoned to report the fault, they interrogated me over what the machine did and I said that when you try to put a wash on, the door locks, the machine sounds like water is filling, and then it doesn't spin or wash – and all that got passed on to the engineer was 'the washing machine doesn't spin' and so the only thing he'd been looking at was whether the spin function worked or not.
So now we know that the problem is that the machine has two water reservoirs – one to rinse and one to wash. The rinse is working fine, but the motor to open the gate from the wash reservoir isn't. So the machine can rinse but not wash, and it can spin. So he suggested that for lightly soiled and slightly dirty clothing we can 75% fill the machine and put a rinse cycle on, and when that finishes put a spin cycle on. It isn't as thorough as a wash cycle, but should mean we can clean clothes again as a workaround. Also a useful tip to remember in future.

We had our bins emptied for the first time in 3 weeks yesterday – though both of the recycle bins are still overflowing. I think people (well, I know they have) have been putting their rubbish in our bins, which seems odd when they can simply order additional bins of their own, but doesn't help us ensure we can put our recycling out. If it continues to happen should I order an additional recycling bin simply because other people are putting their recycling in our bins?

Quite a vivid description of a rainy day

Sorry to hear your gloves were soaked – I've also recently bought new cycling gloves as mine disintegrated when I did the round-the-Island bike ride. I think MuddyFox gloves aren't as durable as they used to be, but that's probably the Sports Direct effect of buying good brands and then lowering the quality….

That is good news on the bird list.

Oh – and yesterday in the post my copy of your arrived. I've not had a chance to do more than flick by, but simply doing just that brought back memories, I spotted a few photos that I took and the addition of related conversations and entries promises to keep things fresh.

<BB<