i change over to shell broadband today.

london 10.08am 6C cloudy wednesday 2021

yesterday was the changeover date for my new shell broadband provider to replace the talktalk provider that i had been with for ages. i suspect that it would happen at the end of the day near midnight, and so it proved. i was supposed to be notified via email , and when i went into my email at about 11.30pm last night, i saw the email telling me i can now change the router.

fortunately it went very smoothly the plugging in of the new router, and it came on when i switched it on. and i did not have to resort to sticking a pin at the back to bring it back to its factory setting which they mentioned i might have to do in their email.  i dont know where that hole is , and i only got needles and no pins. but it was not necessary, it came on and started to set all the lights to green which tells me it is working well, and even getting online on my chromebook was easy.

they have a user name for the router and i was confused by it, because there were two versions, one with 5G added to it, the other without. both works with my password, so i wonder if it is an extra for people who have a 5G smartphone to connect to.

at first, i logged onto another customers router, because they showed other routers .there were a lot of Shell numbers and i thought i was the only one, and foolishly clicked on the first without realising i should read them first to see if they are my number. 

at first i thought there were other customers , that there are  other flat owners in my block who were subscribed to them, but now i am logged in, i had a look at the list of router numbers that i see on display in my chromebook and there are no Shell broadcast , only mine.  so i am the only shell customer, which is good, because the signal slows down if a lot of people get it.

as for the speed of the download, i am supposed to get 40-70mbps, but if i am , it is not obvious when i use it. but maybe it is noticeable only if i zoom or video chat with others , and i dont do that so you could say it is not much use to me to get these higher speeds. that is why i must remind myself not to upgrade to higher speeds anymore.

maybe later when simon got a chance to use it , he downloads stuff, like movies , and maybe he might notice the speed then. i will ask him if he noticed. we shall see. the new router looks more modern, unlike the old talktalk router that it replaces.

 the password has a theta , i was not sure if it was zero, or the word O, but i figured out it must be a zero, because it recurred so often. not to mention all the words are lower case, and so if it was the word, it should look like o. not 0. anyway, i typed it as a number zero, and it was accepted. i noticed the signal on my wifi is strong , unlike the old talktalk which has a medium signal. the tv works ok too, so thank goodness it all went smoothly . 

 

the new shell broadband router

the old talktalk router. i shall return it to talktalk if they send me a postpaid envelope for it. i would have thought it a bit out of date really, cant imagine them reusing it for a new customer.

i am very pleased with their service, right from the start when they first called me till now. it gives me a good feeling about them, so that it allays my apprehension about moving to a new provider. 

london 3.14pm 8C sunday 2021 cloudy

8pm 5.5C

i had just woken up from a 2hr nap. or at least that is what i assume, as my naps are usually about that length. but i am rather time confused whenever i wake up from a nap. i get time all mixed up .i dont bother to note when i sleep, i just sleep whenever i feel like it, and wake up whenever i do. no point regulating it too much really. 

earlier i had noted the temp at about 3pm, it was 8C and it seems that was the highest it got to today. it sounds cold, but i just about got back from going out and about around that time, and it did not feel cold. no wind maybe , that might explain  why i dont feel cold even though 8C sounds cold.

anyway i had been to the paddington library, so called, even though it  is near queensway, rather than paddington station to read the sunday papers.  though i could only see the sunday telegraph on display. i wonder if they have stopped buying the sunday times, or mail on sunday… but it did not seem to matter to me anymore. i have completely got over the habit of reading the papers nowadays. i go there just for an excuse to get out of the flat, and have a bit of air outside, and to see what the world is going on, and to look at people.

in the past it used to be i go also for the chance of getting  food bargains, at the waitrose near there, but nowadays i never see any bargains anymore. not only at waitrose, but in sainsburys as well. as for tesco, i seem to have stopped going to them. this is because so many around me are express stores, so that the only tesco store that is not an express store is the one near vauxhall, and it is real difficult to get to on the bus. i mean it has to involve a change of buses. 

it seems to me there are fewer food bargains to be had. or it might be just me, i dont go at the late hour when they reduce; or it is just london stores.  perhaps that is what had changed since the corvid, and the supply chain mishaps. not much food left unsold near their expiry date.

so i have been shopping paying full price, but the things i buy, like pork, chicken, seasonal vegetables, like greens, cabbage, lettuce, carrots etc are cheap and still the same price as before, that it has not really been much of a increase in cost of living.

i buy the basic own house brands, or economy brands, and those have not increased in price. it might be others who like branded goods do notice an increase in cost, that might explain why i keep reading of the higher prices in the news. i dont know what the branded goods cost as i never buy them, and so do not know from my wandering around the supermarkets whether they have gone up or not. i am just glad that as far as the basic economy foodstuff is concerned  the only example of price rising i have noticed is in the lidl canned soups, from 33p to 35p a can. it is still cheaper than the heinz branded soups which are 95p each.

i noticed sainsburys nectar points that it sends to us every week, detailing the number of nectar points we can get if we buy them,  has drastically dropped. used to be u get 120 nectar points for ham,worth 60p, now it is only 20points. that is only 10p. so not only this reduced number of points, but fewer foodstuffs too. so are they now recognising they were too generous before? but wont people not buy any from them, and seek out cheaper prices in the other supermarkets. i dont buy them, but simon does. he likes to put them in sandwiches.

 

ecg monitor for 24hrs.

london 6pm friday 2021

i had this before, just after my mild heart attack in 7.4.2018. when they used it to diagnose. but i had one put on me for 24hrs to monitor my heart. i had an aappointment to fix the leads to my chest, and for 24hrs i had to carry it around with me, and sleeping with it, then give it back to them for them to read the findings. at that time i did not know that the monitor showed i had a 6minute episode of atrial fibrillation. fortunately the doctors did not think it warrant putting me on warfarin, to prevent strokes as they figured that the chances of a thrombosis from the fibrillation is slim. i am glad they did not think i need warfarin, a blood thinner, becasue it is for life and there is the danger of internal bleeding. but this time, the pharmacologist thinks i should have it, dont know why he thinks so, but it came after i got this tachycardiac episode, when my pulse rate went up to 168beats per minute. i read the info on it, and it has no connection with thrombosis and clots in the brain. so i was sceptical when he said he wants to put me on a blood anticoagulant, not warfarin, but a new drug. so i suggest we do a ecg monitor again, and see what the result is, whether it got worse or what and then decide. i am hoping that the monitor shows either the same result as last time, in which case if the last time it does not warrant an anticoagulant , this time it shall be the same. he was sceptical, saying it is more likely it is worst. anyway, i am now wearing it for 24 hrs and we shall see what it shows. and then i shall decide along with the consultant… all this desire to prevent something with drugs is something  i am rather sceptical about. there is a limit to how much we can take drugs to prevent illness or strokes. living is a risk anyway. you cannot engineer no risk at all. i tried to find the post in my blog about the ecg last time i had it for 24hrs but i cannot find it. i cannot remember when i had it, or even if i blogged about it.i cant remember if i blogged about it , maybe i did not , not realising the significance of it. that would account for it not appearing in my blog. but now i am putting up a post with the ecg in the title so that i can find it again in future.

i remember i wore it for 24hrs, and returned it, and then when i was told about the result, the doctor did not mention anything, except that it did show an episode , and asked me if i noticed it. and i remember i did notice a discomfort but i told him i forgot to note down the time, and forgot to write  it on  the log they gave me which i am supposed to write anything that i notice about my heart. the doctor did not say anything else to me about it . it was only now when i read the comment from the pharmacist that i was told that it was an atrial fibrillation of about 6minutes, and that the consultant did not think it risky enough to cause a stroke, so decided not to put me on warfarin or some other  anticoagulant medication . so coming now to the present. i am wearing this ecg monitor now. it is 3 leads attached to my chest to a little meter like gadget . 

added 20.11.21

the ecg monitor gadget recording my heart. the 8.19 refers to the time i took that photo, it is 8.19 am on 20.11.21

a new toaster murphy richard came today

london friday 2021 12C cloudy

the new toaster murphyrichard came today

i post it here just so if it goes kaput in future, i can get to know how long it lasts. i think we got the old one on 18.8.2018. if so, 4 yrs is a good long time. but i did not take a picture of it, so not sure if that is the one, or a more recent one has been bought. if so than 2 yrs seems to be the average length of service of toasters. i usually find toasters and never need to buy new. but simon had got it in his head to get angry at my old toasters and wants new. so he is buying them. 

the router from the new provider, shell broadband, also came today. it will replace talktalk on 23 nov 2021. it costs £22 a month. but i get a 75mbps fibre speed instead of a 40mbps speed with my present talktalk which cost £21 a month. when i switched provider talktalk came back and started to offer me incentives to stay withthem. first they said i had to pay about £8 to leave them before the contract expires on 17 dec 2021, then they gave me £40 amazon voucher, plus £20 a month to stay the same fibre speed as now, or £22 a month if i want to get that 75mbps fibre.

it is really strange that i did not stay with them. just one phone call, on a free landline , that would be all it takes to tell them and they would stop the transfer. but i didnot. and i am still wondering why i did not. it would have saved me £8 plus no disturbance in changeover.

as it is for now i would experience a break in service when they changeover on 23 nov, plus i have to install the new router, and who knows if that would be smoothly done or not. and i still have to pay that £8.

i think it is because i felt i had agreed to move with shell broadband and it felt like breaking my word to them. i dont know why i should feel that way, considering that there is no loyalty anymore, and they expect users will go for the best bargain price. also maybe i want to change to a new provider, just for a change. i also know that talktalk had been bought by a new owner. so that might make me realise i dont have any loyalty anymore to the new owners. the old owners have a talk facillity in their account page, where u can chat to a staff member, and it was useful as i can ask them for a new offer when my contract comes up to expiry and negotiate a low priced contract, but this new owner has removed the chat facillity and also just put up a renewal contract that is way above my present contract , so i was unable to contact them and bargain.

i am thinking maybe a new router will be more powerful, as my talktalk router is very old now and somehow we are used to old stuff not up to date with all the new developments with speed and all that. so i was kind of wanting a new router.

hmm, i am thinking if businesses know what makes a person who has been loyal move to another they would save a lot of time and trouble keeping that customer instead of always offering cheaper tariffs to entice new customers. 

i tried to go back all the way back to when i first joined talktalk and found the earliest mention of talktalk in my blog was 2.12.2013. so is that how long i have been with talktalk?, close to 9yrs ago. that is a long time to be with one provider. i found another post 8.12.16 saying we got a new router from talktalk. so that must be the one we got now. it is 6yrs old. maybe it is still good, because i got a email from talktalk saying if i still want to leave, than they hope i will send back the router to them, they will give me a paid self addressed envelope for it. it might be they just dont want it to clog up the refill dump, as they mentioned. 

added 4.29pm.

i went into a previous blog before i got this one, and there i searched for talktalk, and found two entries the oldest on 24.6.2012. even so i read a mention by me in that post that i have been with talktalk for ages. in another post, i read a passing mention by me in a post dated 2015 that i had been with them for 5 yrs . so it looks like i have been with talktalk at least since 2010. added. i found the oldest post about talktalk on 18.11.2008. it cost £17 a month for telephone and broadband. that blog started in 2008, the blog before that is not working anymore. so i wont be able to go there to find out if i am on talktalk even that early on, before 2008.

london 12.13pm 12C sunny wednesday 2021

the wall back of tate millbank gallery in its autumn mode

 

3.38pm 13C cloudy thursday

£2 coin given to me as change when i went to the sainsburys today

i thought i had to get a new chromebook

london 4.27pm 12C cloudy monday 2021

this morning all went well , with my chromebook working as normal, until i came back from reading the papers in the library and opened my chromebook when i got home and it wont start. it has happened before and usually i would press the start button and it would start but not this time, i tried it again and again and it wont start. sometimes it could be because the chromebook battery is drained, and plugging it into the electric socket will charge it again, and it would start up… but i know it has a full charge before i left for the library this morning. but even knowing that  i still charged it again, just to be sure , and it still wont come on.

so i decided to go to the john lewis store in oxford st to ask them for help… even though the guarantee has expired. i dug up my sales invoice and found i bought this hp chromebook 14inch on 28.3.19, so it is 7or 8 months past its expired date of that 2yrs guarantee that john lewis gives to all purchases. 

but there is no one else i can think of  to ask for help, so i went to the store anyway, whilst debating  with myself whether i would repair it and pay the cost or get a new one. and thinking how much is the limit when i would repair it, and how much beyond it i would buy a new one, and deciding on £100 , will be my dividing line.

but when i was sitting in the office waiting to be called , i opened up the chromebook and pressed the start button and kept pressing wondering if i do that maybe it might force the chromebook to start… and surprise!! it did , just when a man came and called out my name. so i followed him to his desk and had to tell him what i did and that the chromebook is ok now. he asked me to restart it again, and to shut it down and restart again. and it worked ok… so he said if it breaksdown again, just go to hp.com or hewlettpackard.com and follow their help line, and trouble shoot it. he asked if i got another laptop, and when i said i did not, he suggested going to the library and used their computer to get online and there ask the hp.com helpline.  so now i know what to do , first to press that button for longer , that seems to make it work.

i am glad i dont have to get it repaired, nor have to buy a new one. it is not that old, i have hoped to use it for at least 5yrs, and it is only 2yrs and 8months old. it did make me realise i really need to  be online ,  it has become a necessity now. fortunately the chromebook is still relatively cheap. and it does everything i want it to, without needing to buy a more expensive laptop. 

i had a look around john lewis computer dept and saw they are selling a hp 14inch chromebook for £239 now. i bought mine for £199. hope to be able to use it for another 2yrs which means i get to use it for about 5 yrs, and that is enough for me; and i will be happy if it goes off then.

though who knows what gadget they can invent in future. maybe something like a tablet screen but i can wear a bracelet on each hand, whcih can detect movement of my fingers and so i can touch type on air as it were without need of a keyboard. and people can chose the size of the tablet. i would chose a 14inch size, for sure. or maybe i can use any tv screen, so no need for a tablet even. a holographic screen that can appear just in front of users, so only need to buy that bracelet whcih will connect to any screen and i can control it using my finger and hand movements, as well as type on it. 

the trip to town did make me experience seeing  that side of london again. i havent taken a trip that goes that way for quite some time. and i saw they are putting up the christmas tree decorations now , making the place have a christmassy air about it. trafalgar square has got a row of sheds with lights up, for the christmas market . i have not gone there to see what they are selling, but its good that the christmas atmosphere is being revived again. 

when you are full, even free food do not appeal.

london 4.38pm 13C cloudy friday 2021

i saw this in my wordpress reader, telling me of sleazy pizza opening near brick lane tonight. from 6pm and giving away free pizza. i thought i shall go. but it is still a long time till 6pm. i read it in the morning.

during the course of the day around lunch time, i thought i want to cook some of the frozen chicken pieces in soya sauce, but when i went to get it from the freezer, i saw the oven on, and simon was cooking something in it. so i know i can eat what he cooks later; so i gave up the idea of cooking anything . then i felt very sleepy and decided to take a nap.

when i woke up at about 4.15pm i saw roast potatoes and a roast chicken sitting on top of the stove. it was a bit cold , so he must have taken it out of the oven some time ago… but i was hungry so i took a plate of roast potatoes and a chicken leg and poured some gravy he made over it and ate them, without bothering to heat it up in the microwave. it was quite nice, and eaten cold like that, even the gravy , you can really taste it. unlike if the whole thing was hot, the heat just burn the mouth and makes the mouth lose its sense of taste.

anyway now i am full, and not that interested in going to the free pizza. when u are full, you dont want to eat anything nor go out to eat another meal , even if it is free. so now i am not interested in going but i think i might change my mind when 6pm arrives. it is now 4.46pm, so maybe by the time it comes i might feel like eating somemore. or at least i might like to go out and socialise with my friends who will be there … and it will still be nice to eat pizza especially since it is free.

usually i am not keen to go out after dark, but perhaps that is being too lazy, because now that the dark comes so early, we will have more hours in the dark than in the daylight. and by rights we should do more things in the dark than not. 

anyway, now i am just lying in the couch, watching a car tv program that simon has on, and drinking my hot coffee. it is lovely to have coffee after a meal.

these two guys are driving a car with a running horse on its radiator grill. it is a ford, so what type of ford is it with a running horse emblem? they are in a racing track timing the car and trying to find how fast it can get to max speed. these must be petrol cars.

and just now i read online about rivian getting lots of money when it became a public company. the shares jumped to $106 , valueing it at $100billion. it sells electric pickup trucks and suv’s. it is a startup that at least is selling its vehicles, that might explain why it got so much money , when other startups similar to it did not do as well.

electric cars are now the potential big earners, and their evaluation is  putting all the old petrol car companies in the shade. so will that mean oil will go extinct? i find it hard to believe, because not all countries are rich enough to give up their petrol cars and go electric.

can they jump from wood fired heating to electric heating, by- passing gas and oil heating? somehow i doubt it. that is why bmw, the car manufacturer says it is not going to shift to all electric production , because i think it can see there will still be a huge market for petrol cars in the third world countries. and judgeing from all that gas politics that russian is threatening europe with , it would appear europe may well rue the day they got rid of their nuclear power stations, and rely on putin to supply their heating.

life is a series of temptations it seems

london 6.13pm 13C cloudy dark wednesday 2021

the drinks aisle in the sainsburys near me. i am glad i dont drink, so i am not tempted by this display; otherwise the drinks bill will be horrendous. not to mention the health potential trouble stored for the future as well.

the trouble is even if u resist them and live a abstemious life, like me, you still get heart trouble, like me. and inspite of it all, i got gout too… so you might well say why bother to live in moderation, if u get all this illness anyway. right? though i cannot say it is a big sacrifice on my part to live the way i do. i like the choices i make and eating the way i do. i dont deprive myself of anything , it is just that my nature is too be moderate, so i dont go overboard with anything, either eating or drinking too much, or whatever.

and who knows what other trouble will crop up with old age. so no guarantee there, which makes me think maybe u might as well give in to the temptations and enjoy them. though if they are addictions, there wont be much enjoyment in it. maybe better to enjoy good health for as long as possible until old age brings on ill health, rather than get premature ill health from overeating and overdrinking or smoking. ah well, i guess let people chose really rather than lecture them or nag them. or let people do what they like haha. none of us can predict the future so we dont know what the outcome or consequences are like for each person. 

 

talktalk wants me back

london 10.21am 8C cloudy monday 2021

i got a confirmation email from the new provider, shell broadband, saying the switch will be on 23.11.21. and then just now i got an email from talktalk saying how sorry they are to hear i am leaving and to call them and they can do a deal , and reminding me that i will have to pay a early exit fee of about £8 , because i am leaving after the 20day cooling off period. ( i miss that dateline by just a week)

do i want to bother? even though i can save that £8 if i stay with them? on the other hand, do i want to encourage that kind of behaviour, where they wont try to retain me by giving me a cheap deal, only when i have made a contract with another supplier… i have allready made up my mind to leave them, and go with this new provider.

it is just too much bother to negotiate a similar deal with talktalk and it is not likely that i can get them to give me an even cheaper deal… which if i am vicious i should do to them. call them back and then tell them i want a better deal than i got with this new provider, or i move. haha. so either faster speed , or cheaper tariff and longer contract with this cheaper tariff. haha. but i dont think i will do it. no point being too greedy.

 it is the same reason why i dont agree with these two lesbians saying they will sue the nhs for not providing them with free IVF. they say they want to give all gay people this perk, but really only lesbians will benefit, as  gay men wont be able to get pregnant on the nhs. people who want the nhs to give them babies, artificially, are being greedy.

i personally feel the nhs should not even provide IVF for straight couples, because having a baby is not a health issue. the nhs should only provide basic health services really. and so is not in the business of providing infertile couples the means to get pregnant for free. in the case of the lesbians, it is not even that they are infertile, they just dont want to pay a man for his sperm. 

  it is the same reason why i dont believe the nhs should get involved in providing gender reassignment surgery to people who want to change their sex. if they want it, they should do it on their own efforts, like any other human ambition. pay for it themselves, but dont expect the state to pay for it.

in fact it is allready good that the state will pay the cost , if u are on the nhs,  for your self inflicted illness, like overeating, overdrinking alcohol, or smoking; so that some might say it is a self infliction, for eating or drinking so much that u get related illness from it… but that i can understand is difficult to judge, how much is too much… though there might be a strong case for not treating those who smoke for smoke related illnesses… though i suppose it is being too harsh and judgemental, otherwise u will have to forbid or not treat people who get hurt while doing risky sports for eg. so better not to go there then. 

 

 

bought a fresh duck today to roast

london 1.51pm 13C cloudy saturday 2021

 

the fresh duck seasoned with chinese 5 spice powder and salt ready for the oven

i went to the library first to read the papers. only the telegraph was available, other people were reading the other papers. i know the others take a long time to read their paper. so i did not bother to wait for them to finish. 

instead  i thought i shall go to the lidl in stockwell, and see if i can get the fresh duck. if i had gone yesterday, i would not be sure there are any, as delivery times may be eratic, but this morning when i went there i saw them on sale and i bought one. if i had gone yesterday i would have bought two, but after a day to think about it, i decided it might be too much. it means i have to cook two ducks in the oven , and then cut up one and freeze it to eat over a period of time. but i am not sure the oven is big enough for two whole ducks.nor my freezer is big enough to store that spare duck. 

the duck is very nice looking, very plumb and comes with the entrails but no neck. if they put in the neck it would add a lot to the weight as duck necks are very long. i think if i got a big freezer, i would buy another just to freeze it for christmas. it would be a very nice dish for christmas.

anyway , the duck is cooking in the oven now, with a tray of carrots. i do like roasted carrots. i did not buy any potatoes to roast, which is normally done but i dont fancy roast potatoes today.  i would like to roast the ducks in the chinese style… but i dont know how to do it. 

added 3.13pm

this is it after , just the moment when it was taken out of the oven

added tuesday 9.11.21

it is a few days ago that i cooked the entrails. and found that there was a neck in there, along with the liver, and gizzard. it was a short neck, so either they just cut out a portion of hte neck and did something else with the rest, or this species of duck (it was a gressingham duck) have short necks.  the gizzards are the prized entrails that i like. they are delicious fried. the liver is nice too, but i could not eat the neck. i fried them, but i think they were too thick to be completely fried properly, so some of it was a bit raw, so i just threw it into the bin. i think they are meant to be boiled and a soup made out of it. i think that would be what the british cook would do.  i have eaten all the duck now, whcih is good, as i dont like to be eating duck for a long time. somehow roasted duck like this just dont taste as nice as the chinese style roast duck. i think chicken roasts well, roast chicken is delicious. and it has made me crave a roast chicken, so i will keep an eye out to buy a whole chicken to roast it one of these days. i realised why i crave roast chicken, it is because our kitchen had been out of commission since august, when they started drying it out; and even before that i had not roasted a chicken for quite some time. so no wonder i crave roast chicken now.