A "senior moment" with my refrigerator and temperature monitoring

I feel a bit silly writing this, but perhaps knowing about my forgetfulness might prompt others not to be so careless as I've obviously been.

I have always had a thermometer inside my refrigerator to monitor the internal temperature for chilled food, but I haven't been checking it as often as I obviously should have been - or "putting two and two together" over the past several weeks when certain foods (specially cream, for example) have been "spoiling" far more rapidly than they normally do, so I have been disposing of half-full tubs after only a very few days and buying fresh tubs. The problem is that, because it is summer (or at least what passes for summer in the north of Scotland), I have not been taking account of the fact that ambient temperatures indoors, specially at night, have been considerably higher than in much of the rest of the year.

Although my refrigerator is pretty modern (and large) and works very well, and because it is frost-free requires little maintenance whilst in use, apart from making sure the interior shelving remains clean and hygienic, specially after any inadvertent spillage or leakage, I had forgotten to adjust the rotary thermostat inside the door to regulate the temperature inside the refrigerator part to take account of the warmer weather we've been having recently; the freezer part is completely automatic and has never not done the job it is supposed to.

Yesterday I did check the inrerior thermometer properly, however, and was a little shocked to realise the refrigerator interior temperature was hovering around 12-13 degreesC, instead of the 3-5 degreesC it should be. So I have now turned up the rotary control by several steps. Overnight the refrigerator cooled down considerably, to about 0-1 degrees, so throughout today I've been making small adjustments to achieve the desired 3-5 range. I won't be making the elementary mistake of not checking the internal temperature regularly in future!

I'm now reasonably confident I won't have to throw away so much prematurely spoiled food in coming weeks as I have been finding it necessary to do recently.

NB/ It so happens the refrigerator at my home in Spain is almost exactly the same as the unit in my kitchen here in Scotland (same make and model, slightly different trim and a different body colour), but I've always been much more aware of the need to monitor/regulate the temperature there, because I expect it to be warmer, whereas for most of the year in Scotland it's less necessary, even though the central heating is on from early Autumn until late-Spring, but except in really severe winter weather I prefer not to have the central heating on all night, because I sleep better in slightly cooler air.

Verbiage blocks road

It is reported that almost 15 tonnes of journalist Andrew Marr's book, 'The Making of Modern Britain', have been spilled when a truck 'came off the A4 Bath Road in Theale, Berkshire, late on Tuesday night spilling boxes of the books'. As the linked BBC article comments: The book is said to "paint a fascinating portrait of life in Britain during the first half of the twentieth century as the country recovered from the grand wreckage of the British Empire". Now folks, do you think this is a publicity stunt by agents for Mr Marr in an effort to improve sales of the book? Fortunately the driver was unhurt.

Piers Morgan takes a fall ...

... whilst riding a Segway along the promenade at Santa Monica; the former Mirror editor once mocked President Bush for having fallen of this innovative 'personal transport'. Karma indeed!

Piers Fall
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(thru Barcepundit, who got it from Say Anything)
- naturally the Daily Mail is there to record this [latest] fiasco by Morgan; in journalistic terms he has always struck me as a sort of 'posh thug', pretty similar to the tactics often adopted by the Mirror's arch-rival tabloid 'rag', The Mail.

PS/ I'm still on my short 'hiatus' whilst compiling my tax filing for this year; it's going well, I'm glad to say, and I should be back to slightly more frequent blogging by the end of the week.

Diana - ten years on

Don't panic. This blog remains as much of a Diana-mania-free zone as its writer was ten years ago at the time of her death. It was sad, of course, but apart from that I don't have more to say.

My immediate task for the next hour is to take some obsolete household things (too bulky for my wheelie-bin) to the council disposal point, a task I have been putting off for some weeks, but as I shall be changing my car tomorrow I thought I'd use the old car for this mundane final task. It's intermittently sunny here today, and quite warm when it is, so I want to take advantage of that, too.

Minor excitement - I just got my new vehicle registration number

I just had a 'phone call from the car dearlership where I'm buying my new car, for delivery on 1st September, with details of the registration number - I don't go in for personalised numbers (I'm not quite that vain!) but was able to choose the final letter to make the three-letter sequence at the end a little more memorable, in fact almost lexicographic (for anyone who knows me in 'real life' and happens to see me 'tootling' around next month).

I alluded to the fact that I was taking test drives for new cars last month. In fact I've gone with Toyota, a brand I've never owned before, and its 'Auris' range - this is the replacement for the ubiquitous 'Corolla' range. Of the other vehicles I tried I liked the Mazaa6 a lot, but the latest version of the Honda Civic doesn't 'float my boat' at all. This is a big disappointment to me, because my present car, and the two before, were all Hondas (in the 'Accord' range) and I really liked the old version of the 'Civic', but in the new one the rear-view is appallingly bad, however smart and 'space-age' the vehicle looks externally; it was otherwise excellent to drive and would no doubt have given me several years of almost trouble-free motoring. As well as the three recent Hondas, I also owned two 'Civics' (much, much earlier versions) when I lived in Jeddah and in Muscat in the late 70's and the early 80's, so it's a brand I know well and like and may well return to it in future.

I haven't owned a Mazda for over 20 years (I had two, first in Jeddah then in Hong Kong, in the mid-70's and the mid-80's), but the 'Mazda6' was good to drive and comfortable and the model I was looking at was pretty well equipped. However, I had made the decision, some time ago, to get a physically slightly smaller car as now that I no longer have a dog (and don't plan to 'replace' her) I decided that I shouldn't back-track and go for a vehicle similar in size to my present one. This won't be inconvenient in any way, except possibly when I'm driving down to Spain again next winter (when I plan to take a number things to leave there in the new house), but I think with careful planning it won't be too much of a hindrance. Either next year of the year after I'll be buying and leaving a car out there anyway, so won't want to drive the whole way after that in any case.

The Toyota 'Auris' was good to drive and pretty comfortable (and has a decent rear view) and the model I'm getting has the all-important cruise-control, plus a few other little gizmos I have come to favour and the brand has a reputation for extreme reliability - so I'm pretty happy overall with the choice I've made. Now, all I have to do is 'phone the insurance company to arrange the change of insurance.

Oh, and another little snippet' of Bill's life - late last night I suddenly decided to re-commence a couple of tapestry projects I began some years ago, but had left half-done; the one I've gone back to will eventually become a cushion-cover and depicts a bunch of black grapes with leaves - I want it to be ready as a little house-warming gift from myself to the new place in Spain. The other project is considerably more detailed (smaller and more complex stitching) and depicts a Chinese blue-ware plate; it will eventually be framed and used as a wall-hanging, probably here in Scotland. I started doing tapestry about 10 years ago as I had always wanted to do it, but never had the time when I worked - now that I no longer have a dog, I'm planning a return to tapestry as one of my 'displacement' activities, alongwith some more exercise - speaking of which I've got my morning sit-ups to do...

Gull bandit

A gull in Aberdeen not only lives in the centre of a large city, as do many thousands (millions?) of fellow gulls in most sea ports, this gull has worked out how to get itself a free snack and is apparently becoming something of a celebrity locally - click on the 'watch' link to see a video of the culprit at work.

Theatre trip to Pitlochry

I'm away for most of today (until mid-evening) on a visit to Pitlochry (about 70 miles south of here) to visit the theatre there to see The Magistrate; it should be at least mildly amusing and as it is grey here again today (lovely yesterday, though) that will make a suitable diversion.

My test drive of a potential new car yesterday went well (Mazda6); I'll be having another test drive tomorrow (Honda Civic).