Been dreaming about those for years. After the initial fiasco, a month and a half later, I find them quite comfortable.
Certainly need to get used to the weight, and also not to strain tendons too much. But feet feel warm and dry, which I certainly like.
High boots are certainly not as easy to slip in. And I wish there were mid waterproof option available.
A funny thing happened. I guess it came with one of the sneaky updates.
Now I have two keyboard layouts in my Windows 10, US and UK.
What’s so funny about it? That I cannot see UK layout installed anywhere.
But that means that I need to switch between two layouts, and UK layout has “@” in a weird place.
Managed to solve it only after proactively installing UK layout, and then uninstalling it.
Finally bought a Philips S9000 shaver I was thinking about for a few months now. And it’s is probably the last expensive shaver I’ll buy.
For some reason, they went with three angled petals instead of round ones. And angles means scratches.
The shave itself isn’t any better than S8000 I had for many years. The benefits are in the ergonomics, mostly: there’s a standing charge station, which is nice. And there’s a pressure indication light, similar to the electrical toothbrushes. Also, the shaving unit is now attached with a spring to the shaving head.
Funnily enough it also comes with a cleaning station, something I never really wanted, due to its bulk and limited use.
Found this to be fascinating, what difference the barrel makes. 
Same alcohol, same age, just a different barrel.
Went to Within Temptation and Evanescence Show at O2.
Getting there was easy. Just stick with middleaged people with purple hair.
Getting inside was also fast. Security scans are only if you have a bag.
There’s a strange fog inside. Not sure what it is. Probably some way to cool the air. It was rather cold inside. Maybe for those standing it wasn’t, though. Don’t envy them. I was sitting comfortably, with a seat to my left vacant.
Today I finally tried the British Wagyu they sell on the Borough market.
Turns out it’s a cross between Wagyu males and Angus females. Expensive, but good. Very smooth, and with a very distinct nutty taste.
Cost around 22GBP for 270g, so about 79 for 1kg.
A couple of weeks ago we replaced our rather simple Russel Hobbs filter machine with a more sophisticated Sage Precision Brewer.
And boy, does it make a difference.
It doesn’t just pour boiling water, as some other brewers do. It controls water temperature using PID, like the higher-end espresso machines. The quality of coffee I get is comparable to filter coffee from Black Sheep. And it’s also easier to clean.
Potentially, it doesn’t even require paper filters. There’s a plastic basket that comes with it as well. But I got a stock of those paper filters during COVID, so I’m not sure if it’s worth to test the basket.
The downsides are that it’s huge. The tank is 1.7L, and it’s 1.7L of coffee. While we drink around 0.5L in the morning. So the pitcher always feels almost empty. I wish they had a smaller model for such cases.
This Friday we went to see the Frozen Musical.
Interesting details: support cast as nature elements. At the very beginning, they act as ocean waves. And at the very end they represent blizzard.
Also was impressed by the elk. There seems to be just a single person operating it standing on all fours, but it also moves its head and eyelashes. That’s some coordination.
Technically, it’s less impressive than Beauty and the Beast Musical. Maybe because the stage is more “general purpose”. There are a few objects moving from the left and right, like Elsa’s icicles, but nothing as complex.
Kids loved the snowman puppet. I was again surprised for some adult jokes, like during Prince and Anna song. But I guess you have to keep everyone entertained, not just kids.
Another surprise: Samantha Barks that plays Elsa is just 31. I was sure she looks good for her forties. But maybe it’s just the makeup.
Wanted to try something new and interesting from BrewDog.
Layer Cake Marshmallow & Chocolate Stout wasn’t the right choice, though.
The stout part was fine. But the marshmallow is too overpowering to enjoy.
Post-COVID life has some funny consequences. At some point, some sites stopped working on my old Note 8. Namely: Twitter and YouTube. I was simply getting “connection reset” error, and that’s it. YouTube app would sometimes work, and Twitter app almost never worked.
I attributed this to phone not getting security updates, and hence – no certificate updates. But jailbreaking it was too cumbersome, and would also ruin Work Profile, so I decided simply to wait for a new phone.
Imagine my surprise when I got a new phone still with the same issue. Sites working fine most of the time, but “connection reset” sometimes.
Then I gave it some thought, went into “Parental Controls” of my mobile provider, and found out I was on “kids” setting, which probably is just the default setting they give you. With my previous provider, Vodafone, they gave you an HTML page that would explain the issue, but new provider, EE, just breaks the connection.
Once I turned that to “adult” mode, both Twitter and YouTube came back immediately.
How come I never figure this out until now? I go out so rarely nowadays, that I manage to stay on WiFi most of the time, and when I’m off WiFi, the old DNS’ are still kept for some time, I guess. So when I went to the gym, I could watch a video or two on YouTube, before getting disconnected.
This beer from Magic Rock Brewing hits way above its price.
Dark Arts
Similar in quality stout from Brew By Numbers would cost twice as much:
https://bbno.co/collections/all-beers/products/10-coffee-porter-mocha-cbd-6-5-440ml-can-1
Now I’m curious to try their IPA, which seems to be closer to DIPA:
Cannonball
May be an unpopular opinion, but Jack Daniel’s Single Barrel is a fantastic whiskey for its price, which is around 40GBP.
I prefer it over both Woodford Reserve and Four Roses Single Barrel bourbons.
For the past few months I stopped using any kind of thermometer when frothing the milk for my coffee, and started using “the hand method”. In my opinion, milk heathed to 60C is already hard to work with. So I keep it around 50C, or until the jug is hot to the hands touch.
I’ve been a fan of Ethiopian coffee for a long time now. But for the past few months, since April, we’ve been drinking a lot of Chinese coffee. It’s available only from one coffee roastery, Origin, as far as I know. But it’s absolutely fantastic.
Coffee that I won’t ever buy again, I think, is Union Coffee Roasters. Bought 1kg of Sumatra beans that turned out to be dark roast. Couldn’t finish them.
This Friday we went to see “Beauty and the Beast” Musical at London Palladium.
The tickets said that the show starts at 19:30, so I expected it to start around 19:45. But when we arrived at 19:25 they were already ushering everyone inside. And the show started just in time.
First thing I was impresed with is the actor that played Gascone. The guy had huge biceps, just like in the cartoon. Did they audition actors based on their bicep size? Did he had to go through specific kind of training for the role? Of course everyone remembers Christian Bale and Joaquin Phoenix for their transformations, but I didn’t expect something like that from a musical.
Belle’s role seemed very challenging to me as well. She has to act, she has to sing pretty difficult parts (I have zero understanding in music and singing, they just seemed difficult to me), and in addition, she also has to be able to dance can-can with others.
There were a lot of kids at the show. After all, it’s a Disney musical, right? But I’m not sure they much into can-can. And some other themes, like Lumiere’s infidelity or Madame de la Grande Bouche exposing herself playfully.
They invested a lot into different accents. Babette is clearly French, while Mrs. Potts and Cogsworth are very much British.
There’s a great tradition of selling icecream during the entr’acte in the UK. There’s usually a queue, and we end up picking between the flavours that are left. This time we decided to use the opportunity and order it ahead of time, so we get what we want. But how do we tell which order is ours? Turns out they just leave everything on the bar counter, with receipts telling which is which. Relying on the fact that nobody would steal someone else icecream.
Musical uses flashlights for some of its effects. You get a bright flash at the very beginning, when prince transforms. At the end of the musical there is another set of flashes when the prince transforms back. Some girl cried “Jeeesus”, in a very British tone. Don’t remember when I laughed so hard the last time.
Overall, it was absolutely spectacular. Maybe not as inventive as the Lion King musical, but somewhat more impressive in some aspects, like the pink curtain falling during “Be Our Guest” or the mug dance of “Gaston”.
Recently I decided to buy a new pair of sunglasses. And it turns out it’s not a simple task. You can easily buy “some” sunglasses. After all, that’s how I bought my previous pair. But if you have some particular functionality in mind, it becomes nearly impossible.
Even such a trivial task as finding polarized glasses is tricky. I guess the reason is that while I view sunglasses as something utilitarian, others treat them as fashion accessory. So, you can browse them by shape, you can check how they would fit you in your browser, but you won’t be able to figure out if the lenses are polycarbonate or cheap plastic.
I don’t care how those look on me. I don’t care if they flatter my face. I care that they won’t scratch after I bump my head once or twice.
But that’s what you’ll usually see:
https://www.framesdirect.com/rec-specs-liberty-sport-switch-h-wall-wrap-sunglasses
There’s “Frame Shape” and “Frame Type”, but you can figure out those are polarized only by looking at the pictures.
I ended up buying Tribord sunglasses at Decathlon. At least I know those are polarysed, and that they cover the eyes alright. Some sunglasses seem to forget that their goal is that sunshine doesn’t get into my eyes, you see.
And once I scratch them too much, I’ll just have to buy another pair 🤷♂️
Had a chance to degustate three different brands of Irish single pot whiskey.
Powers John’s Lane Release 12 Year Old Single Pot Still – tastes as if you’re drinking ethanol. Glad I didn’t buy a bottle. The only good thing is that it warms the throat nicely.
Green Spot Single Pot Still – milder, and nicer that Powers.
Midleton Barry Crockett Legacy – had a bit of a nice aftertaste, but for 200GBP a bottle, I honestly expected more.
If this video is to be believed, in 16th century Italy mathematicians dueled by sending each other problems to solve.
I wish someone had explained me algrebra that way some 20 years ago.
The war sure threw a wrench into my writing style. I was trying to publish post per day for at least five years in a row. Mostly about my hobbies: videogames, emulation, sometimes movies.
But then the war happened.
First, I lost respect for most of my Russian speaking readers. And second, it felt wrong writing post a day about something as trivial as a videogames or movies as the war in Ukraine rages.
Although the war still occupies most of my thoughts, I do manage to escape them from time to time. But I’ve found that writing once I complete something, be it a game or a series loses the context of time. Instead of reading about my progression, I now read just the final snapshot of it. And I don’t enjoy it as much.
So, I plan to start writing notes as I did in the past, as they come. But also publish them now right away, without caring about readers retention at all, since there were never many readers to begin with.
Pyrolytic oven from Miele does wonders. Had some drips of fat at the bottom of the oven. Turned on the pyrolytic function, and the oven is almost as clean as new. The only part that you need to clean yourself is the glass.
Funnily enough for a person of my age, I’ve been thinking about dinosaurs quite a lot. That started since assembling the dinosaur fossils Lego set. So this Friday we went on a morning tour to the Natural History Museum, before all those screaming children arrive at 10AM.
Looking at all those skeletons I feel that we still have absolutely no idea what those looked like. It’s like looking at a cow skeleton and imagining it being that brutal beast (looking at you, triceratops). Or looking and a bear or wolf skeleton, and completely missing the snout, the ears, all the fat and fur. Even furless cat or feathless parrot doesn’t look much like any animal we know. Not mentioning no one recognizing a stressed out racoon anymore.
There are a couple of exhibits (animated monstrocities, more like), that try to picture some dinosaurs with a combination of fur and feathers. And the guide also mentioned that some of the replicas, such as triceratops, were made back in 1905, so they depict it with its tail down, and not upright. Although that may be just to save some space, really.
Also, most of the exhibits until now are mostly coming from UK and US. Only recently Asia stopped grinding everything they find into Viagra, and started preserving some of these.