What's made your day today?

[Fishy]

Exec complaints.. so are complaints into some sort of tier system.. lol.. fucking openreach jaysus..

[pdw1]

The examinations Officer at my daughter's school is Ms Smart 

[Slim]

I bought a new pair of glasses last week. Same prescription as the last pair I bought. The assistant (at Vision Express) got me to read the test sheet. All good, I could read even the tiniest print without a problem.

But on Wednesday I thought I'd test each lens individually in front of my computer. Closed my left eye - all good. Closed my right eye - uh oh. There was nothing I could do to bring the text in front of me into focus. Tried moving my head further from the screen, then closer - no good.

Examining the situation carefully, I realised that the text in front of my eyes wasn't merely unfocussed. It was wobbly. Furthermore the lines that should have been straight on the screen, like the edge of the browser window, were very slightly wavy.

Checked again the next day after a good sleep, same thing. I did some tentative Googling and my symptoms were a pretty good match for a condition called "macular degeneration", an incurable eye disease which steadily degrades your vision over time. Worse than that, in most cases the other eye gets it eventually as well.

So I've been to see an optometrist today. Had my eyes tested again. Had my left eye scanned twice. I had stuff applied to it that keeps your pupil wide open while they shine a painfully bright instrument right into it for a better look (it takes a few hours to wear off so I currently have overexposure in my left eye which is very odd).

So: the good news, which is why I'm posting in this thread and not the other one, is that I don't have macular degeneration. What I do have is called "cellophane maculopathy". It's never going to get any better but it's quite likely that it won't get any worse. More importantly, the other eye only gets it in about 10% of cases.

So when I use a computer, my right eye has been doing all the work and my brain has been ignoring my left eye. Interestingly my distance vision isn't quite so much affected, for example when I was out on a bike yesterday I tried reading road signs at a distance with my good eye closed and that was OK. The text looks wobbly, but I can read it.

What's happened is that a thin layer of tissue on the surface of my retina has shrunk, which has made it wrinkly. So the effect is not unlike what might happen if you had wrinkly clingfilm stuck to the surface of a camera sensor.

The cause is not known, in most cases it is "idiopathic" as she described it, but it's normally related to age. Getting old folks .. it's not for the faint-hearted.

[captainkurtz]

David Gilmour at the Albert hall.  Wow.

[Nick]

Went to see a recording of "I,m sorry I haven't a clue" in Exeter. First time I've been to that sort of thing, very enjoyable to see it live in the flesh and to see how the show is created. Happily I now have witnessed a game of Mornington Crescent with local rules.

[Slim]

Went to see a recording of "I,m sorry I haven't a clue" in Exeter. First time I've been to that sort of thing, very enjoyable to see it live in the flesh and to see how the show is created. Happily I now have witnessed a game of Mornington Crescent with local rules.

I liked the old Livingstone Integrated Transport rules. Usually made for an enjoyable game (as long as the Euston Clause wasn't allowed).

[Matt2112]

The recently introduced 24/7 bus service from Leeds to Bradford meaning I can go out on the lash in Leeds city centre and spend way less than 40 pounds on a Joe getting back home.

[Slim]

I spent the day in Huddersfield. I hadn't intended to, but I woke up at about 0730 this morning and the idea came into my head. I checked the weather, it was going to be sunny in West Yorkshire, so I got up and went there.

I did the first year of a degree course there in 1979/80 and it's a time that's stayed with me ever since. I've been back a few times, but not for years. I drove up the M1, parked outside my old student house and walked into the town centre. If you'd asked me, yesterday, how long a walk that is, I'd have said about three miles. But I checked Google Maps and it's only a little more than a mile. I was amazed how soon I was in the town centre after setting off. When I was 19 I'd sometimes spend 20 minutes in the freezing cold waiting for a bus to the centre. Once or twice I walked back to the house from the town when I lived there, and I remember it as a long hike. Somehow it was more of a challenge when I was 19 than it is now, but then again I used to live on coleslaw sandwiches, pot noodles, pale ale, coffee and Gauloises.

One disappointment - the little shopping precinct I remember over the dual carriageway from the Poly (now Huddersfield University of course) is being bulldozed. The University is barely recognisable as well, but I knew that already. But the town centre itself is largely unchanged.

The first thing I did when I got there was to recreate the walk I did every Thursday lunchtime from the Poly to the railway station. I was worried I wouldn't be able to remember the route, but it was trivially simple. And I went onto the station and stood on the platform where I'd wait for a train in the direction of Hartlepool. I had to buy a ticket to Dewsbury (£4.50) with no intention of travelling, just to get past the ticket barrier. The view from the platform, across the tracks to a huge old warehouse is exactly the same. So familiar, and really a very strange feeling when I think about how long ago it was. Incidentally a return ticket to Hartlepool with a student railcard used to cost £4.75, forty-five years ago.




Very few of the shops I remember in the town remain. I was pleased to see that Boots is still there. I went in and remembered it well, though it doesn't have a record department now. I believe that Boots is the sole survivor from the 1970s in Hartlepool town centre, as well.



Just before I returned to the car I went in a pub called The Junction, not far from the old house in Kaffir Road. I last went in there just before Christmas 1979 with my roommate Chris, who dropped out after the first term. I mentioned to the barman that I hadn't been in for 45 years, and he asked me if the place had changed much. I told him - not really. Apart from the paint on the walls and the cigarette machine having been removed, the place was pretty much the same.

[Matt2112]

Huddersfield town centre's Boots is overlooked by my work place  - I was in there for an optician's appointment a couple of weeks ago or so.

Next time you're up, James, we should do lunch or something.

[pxr5]

My big 60th birthday yesterday and my son got me this. Bonnie and Bella are dogs btw lol:

https://www.cameo.com/recipient/66f5511e5b41f13bcd0a16fe?from_share_sheet=1&utm_campaign=video_share_to_copy

[Matt2112]

My big 60th birthday yesterday and my son got me this. Bonnie and Bella are dogs btw lol:

https://www.cameo.com/recipient/66f5511e5b41f13bcd0a16fe?from_share_sheet=1&utm_campaign=video_share_to_copy

Superb!

Belated happy birthday to you!

[Thenop]

My big 60th birthday yesterday and my son got me this. Bonnie and Bella are dogs btw lol:

https://www.cameo.com/recipient/66f5511e5b41f13bcd0a16fe?from_share_sheet=1&utm_campaign=video_share_to_copy

Now watched it in full, splendid! And of course many happy returns.

[Fishy]

I cut my grass today..

[Thenop]

After an exchange of e-mails with Music on Vinyl about a replacement of 1 LP from an 8LP Miles Davis boxset I am getting one. It did not start out that way, I was told I was no eligible for one due to not complaiing earlier. I had to file a complaint within 14 days of discovery. Which I did, I opened the box yesterday, I received it in August though but the general terms do not state XX days after purchase or receipt, just 'after discovery'.
Also: a defect is a defect, regardless what time has passed. And that is another article in the terms.
So in the end I am getting what I want, reason to be happy. Although my jaw prevents me form smiling, it hurts like hell!

[Thenop]

Spend a while ripping the Rory Gallagher BBC full set to FLAC. Tagged each disc separately through Mp3Tag, added the art etc. Uploaded it to my audio app of choice (Swinsian) and I couldn't get them to fit into 1 folder, disc 3 stuck out and for the life if it I couldn't figure out what the problem was.
Retagged the entire batch and only then noticed there was 1 (!) "album artist" tag off: it had 3 spaces after the name, of course impossible to see. Fixed it and now it looks like I want it to.
I know, 1st world problems, but it makes me happy if it works.