Today is in the 20s °C in the sun and bright sunshine. It is horrible. I had my eye screening appointment, where the pupils get dilated so they can take a photo of the inside of the eye. And then you get to walk home without being able to block out any light. And there is a lot of light.

I sometimes think, "do I really need tablets to be able to sleep?" But it is while I lay in bed, my mind so active and completely lucid that I can work out exactly when and how I forgot to take my tablets, that I get my answer.

I also have to remember I am trapped in a country where openly saying such things is tolerated.

When a journalist organization sends a notification quoting the Monaco-domiciled Manchester soccer man openly using Nazi language I have to wonder whether he is being misquoted, but I also have to remember who he is.

It is here! Now you must watch all eight of them multiple times to force the BBC to buy more, and the original New Zealand version, and then import Guy to host a British version. (And it must be Guy, no one can ever host it.) www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...

Ironically when walking under the pier I lost my glasses. I have to take them off to use my camera and hooked them over my coat. I then had to look through the camera to find them as I cannot see beyond a foot / 30cm without them.

It had been a while, but I saw the sea.

BBC Three is showing the Australian version of Guy Montgomery's Guy Mont Spelling Bee from February 6th. It (and the original New Zealand version) is the funniest programme I have watched in decades. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

A while ago I put together a cheap electronics kit and it did not work properly, I assumed my awful soldering killed the tiny chip, so I bought another. I finally got around to it and think my soldering of the chip was so perfect to be my greatest achievement in life. Yet it has the same fault.

Last night I dreamed that the problem with AI is it is unconscious so only recreates dreaming. Taking real influences (sources) to combine into something with an internal sense but with no access to reality with surreal results. But I think that sounds plausible? Which makes for quite the paradox.

Grevinnan och betjänten är en sketch som skrevs under början av förra seklet och 1963 spelades in för en tysk publik. På svensk teve visades sketchen första gången 8 februari 1969 i ett kvällsprogram som Beppe Wolgers ledde.

How dare you be a muse, I'm the algorithm's muse.

"Trivia"

"Unfortunately, I have fallen and met my fate - I’m sorry about my abrupt Christmas closure..." See more below

Oh no, storm Johannes has pushed @gavlebocken.bsky.social face down into the ground! www.svt.se/nyheter/inri...

Been putting things together. Metal detector thinks everything is metal or only radiators. Pulse generator kit simple but fun. So-called "music box" was hell, tiny solder hating pads and makes awful noises. Tofu quiche, not made in a long while and forgot how, but is okay. Yet no one wants me!

Bought a bag of six frozen croissants, decided to have one for breakfast, open the bag to discover only eight inside. Happy Boxing Day!

Three stacks deep and untouched for twenty years since! Like the back room of a museum archive, but for me a waste of useful cupboard space. I will put them in cardboard boxes for now, until I can work out how best to get rid of them.

The YouTube algorithm knows too much. The cab view of a train from Edinburgh to London was a test and it has worked me out. It is now offering a tram ride that is a sort-of a letter C shape around Stockholm through its suburbs on Tvärbanan. www.youtube.com/watch?v=njje...

The middle one, please?

I had not had a hypo in very long time but last week bought two packets of sweets to update my medicinal supply. I now have no medicinal supply. Both came after trusting the carbs listed on a packaged sandwich, so the only conclusion must be that bread is good for diabetic control. Eat more bread.

It is so long since I last made a bread pudding I forgot I was supposed to include egg replacement powder, but it still turned out fine. (And better than the poor kitchen lighting looks). For scale it was a 2lb loaf pan, and as always when I make one at this time of year it includes cranberries.

As it was a sunny day I decided to go for a ride to Portsmouth, and almost all the sea was closed. I knew sea defence works were happening but not that they had closed off the beach all the way from Clarance Pier to beyond South Parade Pier (which does extend into the water).

We will never hear the end of it if Australians find out they are girt by sea.

My bike is taxed, insured, new brake, new tyre, that can only have meant one thing this morning. Hello, a sea. (Not a sea, a strait)

I can only think the person who put this multibuy offer together was accidentally looking at the French listings but did not speak the language very well.

"Solen sa hej idag och jag svarade med att inta min bästa bockpose - ståtligt va? 🐐🌞 The sun said hello today, and I responded by striking my best goat pose - quite majestic, right? 🐐🌞"

I do not even watch dashcam videos so I have no idea why YouTube recommended it, but LNER has posted one of a Flying Scotsman service from Edinburgh to Kings Cross starting at sunrise, with pop up facts. www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLcZ...

The sun is now trying to come up, but too late. I got wet enough I got my excuse to say "screw you diabetes" and make baguette frites as comfort food.

I am waiting at the tyre place and the rain has become super heavy. There is a story about my journey here but I still wait until I get home as there might be pictures.

Check the forecast, decide to book my tyre change for midday Thursday when the weather will turn nice. Wake up, check the forecast, rain to the middle of the afternoon. An at least 20 mile round trip within London in rain will not be fun.

Die Hard är visst en julfilm!

Been sent my bike insurance renewal quote, after the at fault accident in the summer I had been fearing this . It has gone up £70.50 and my NCB has been reduced by 2 years. I do not understand insurance, I assumed a claim would be expensive and a loss of NCB.

I made a mistake. I thought I would stock up now on crisps for Christmas with my supermarket order, so I unloaded them into a kitchen bin bag which is now overflowing. And that is just Tesco crisp flavours. It reminded me of last year when Christmas my snack box of crisps lasted until gone Easter.

My bike is back and road legal again. I was thinking I should go for a ride at the weekend to break in the new brake before replacing the tyre, as that will then need to be broken in too. But it is at the 1mm limit in the centre and it feels the wrong time of year to take risks with that.

While writing that last post (and reading the sources) Evri delivered a parcel. At 24-to-midnight (11:36pm). That is either really good service or really bad service. I am just glad I was up so it did not spend all night sat outside a front door that opens directly onto the street.

Harmlessly geo guessing in Sweden when I am affronted by this! It turns out to be a 19th century method for forging iron by metallurgist Gustaf Ekman who had visited forges in England. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lancash... www.jernkontoret.se/en/the-steel... sok.riksarkivet.se/sbl/Presenta...

It has been several months since I last rode the bike, and I have just been on a literally 100 yard journey to the nearest mechanic to get the brake fixed and an MOT. Then I will need to get a new front tyre, then tax and insurance is due. Then I will be ready for the winter riding season!

'All I Want for Christmas Is You' är på plats 31 på Billboard Hot 100-listan den här veckan, vilket är den tidigaste medverkan på listan hittills sedan låten släpptes. Så nu vet ni.

The chemists used to place prescriptions in bins alphabetized by name, and all was good. But a few years ago it switched to numbered bins assigned at random, and twice in the past couple months I had prescriptions go missing so they had to search all the bins. What a strange thing to have done.

This is unwantedly (and unwontedly) exciting, a power cut! I am supposed to be on a priority register for information as I need to keep insulin in the fridge, time to see how well that works.

I sometimes play the Geoguessr Sweden map for free, taking as long as it takes to keep a perfect score because exploring is fun, but today I messed up by one unnamed way on the Mittuniversitet campus and lost a point. Also I broke a tooth eating falafel so that is gone too. Not the best of days.

There is a kind of "Name That Tune" element to logging on to Bluesky for the first time all day and deducing, in like two or three posts, the thing everybody is mad about

"You're ready now, you gotta show the world, with all the courage of a conqueror" is a strong lyric choice for the theme to the Netball World Youth Cup. A competition being held in Gibraltar and largely featuring Caribbean and Pacific Island and African nations. www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3Hb...

Of course those projects will now both be interrupted by making tea and watching netball. Which collectively is somewhat overloading.

Wales vs Tonga time. The diversity of the continent of Europe is well represented at this World Youth Cup with host Gibraltar being joined by the regional qualifying nations of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales.

U21 netball is not going to be high budget, but there are no commentators on the second games with Samoa vs Scotland looking like it is being shot on a 1990s web cam. Australia vs Northern Ireland visually looks good, but is more difficult to watch being 42–7 at half time so fuzzy picture it is.

Always good when the commentary (on netball) begins with one saying to the other"so this is your first time watching netball".