Voice Post:

In my head I sound nothing like this; it sounds to me as though I am channeling Ringo, but without the Scouse accent.

What little there is nearly didn't happen as the polite American-Robot-Lady kept insisting that I press the "pound", which I do not have on my phone. I eventually worked out that she meant "hash" (#).

Then the system wouldn't recognise my mobile number, so I had to enter that one digit at a time. So that's the story of how I came to make my first bemused voice post. The story is honestly more interesting than the post.



Of course, now you've heard my wonderful (and post smoking) voice, you'll know why you're avoiding it next time I do a voice post. Assuming I ever do another.

Edited to add: Of course, the auto transcription is far more fun than what I actually said. Maybe I should try it with a ludicrous Peter Sellars' stylee accent next time to see what wondrous manglings it transcribes. Or maybe practice my best mid-Atlantic voice? Happily there is an edit facility, so such goodies as "gossip" tones have been edited to read correctly!

Voice Post:

In my head I sound nothing like this; it sounds to me as though I am channeling Ringo, but without the Scouse accent.

What little there is nearly didn't happen as the polite American-Robot-Lady kept insisting that I press the "pound", which I do not have on my phone. I eventually worked out that she meant "hash" (#).

Then the system wouldn't recognise my mobile number, so I had to enter that one digit at a time. So that's the story of how I came to make my first bemused voice post. The story is honestly more interesting than the post.



Of course, now you've heard my wonderful (and post smoking) voice, you'll know why you're avoiding it next time I do a voice post. Assuming I ever do another.

Edited to add: Of course, the auto transcription is far more fun than what I actually said. Maybe I should try it with a ludicrous Peter Sellars' stylee accent next time to see what wondrous manglings it transcribes. Or maybe practice my best mid-Atlantic voice? Happily there is an edit facility, so such goodies as "gossip" tones have been edited to read correctly!

Cooking tobacco

I am supposed to be doing some artwork, but I am prevaricating.

Furtle, the only person on the planet to enjoy this sort of thing, has gone through one of the walk-in bedroom cupboards and sorted it out, throwing some stuff out and organising the rest. She is about to go through another cupboard in the computer room. We have moved things in readiness.

In the meantime, again as an excuse not to do any art work, I decided to faff around with the computer with a view to both sorting out this voice posting malarky and getting Skype to work for speaking to (at first) UK telephones and later overseas telephones. To that end I have put a tenner on the account and it was only after two abortive attempts to call my sister, whereby I could hear her but she couldn't hear me, that I discovered that I am supposed to wait about an hour before trying. Oddly it seemed however, that the microphone on my headset is muted rather than anything else being a problem on the connection. It is my curse that technology refuses to work for me first time, ever - or at least when it is computer related technology (which means anything these days from a packet of M&Ms upwards).

I shall awa' and look into the microphone thing shortly.

In the kitchen we have an odd smell, which I have to admit is of my making. I hope it doesn't hang around too long; it doesn't bother me and Furtle has yet to experience it, but colonel_maxim is not taken with it.

Part of Furtle's sorting produced two elderly packs of Swedish snus. I have some on order, but don't expect to see it for a number of days, so I decided that this old dry stuff could be resurrected. My plan was to rehydrate it in a sieve over a pan of boiling water, then give it a minute in the microwave to ensure that there were no bacteria lounging therein.

Well, I forgot that metal transmits heat, didn't I. So I dropped the very hot sieve into the pan and briefly cooked an entire can's worth of portion snus. I rescued it, dab-dried it on kitchen towel and gave it some microwave time. It is now cooled, returned to its pack and in the fridge. It seems to be OK and the second pack, which failed to hit the water is fine. In the meantime, the smell of par-boiled snus is slowly dissipating downstairs.

Such fun. Right; one more go with the microphone and then on to the deferred art work, I guess.

Cooking tobacco

I am supposed to be doing some artwork, but I am prevaricating.

Furtle, the only person on the planet to enjoy this sort of thing, has gone through one of the walk-in bedroom cupboards and sorted it out, throwing some stuff out and organising the rest. She is about to go through another cupboard in the computer room. We have moved things in readiness.

In the meantime, again as an excuse not to do any art work, I decided to faff around with the computer with a view to both sorting out this voice posting malarky and getting Skype to work for speaking to (at first) UK telephones and later overseas telephones. To that end I have put a tenner on the account and it was only after two abortive attempts to call my sister, whereby I could hear her but she couldn't hear me, that I discovered that I am supposed to wait about an hour before trying. Oddly it seemed however, that the microphone on my headset is muted rather than anything else being a problem on the connection. It is my curse that technology refuses to work for me first time, ever - or at least when it is computer related technology (which means anything these days from a packet of M&Ms upwards).

I shall awa' and look into the microphone thing shortly.

In the kitchen we have an odd smell, which I have to admit is of my making. I hope it doesn't hang around too long; it doesn't bother me and Furtle has yet to experience it, but colonel_maxim is not taken with it.

Part of Furtle's sorting produced two elderly packs of Swedish snus. I have some on order, but don't expect to see it for a number of days, so I decided that this old dry stuff could be resurrected. My plan was to rehydrate it in a sieve over a pan of boiling water, then give it a minute in the microwave to ensure that there were no bacteria lounging therein.

Well, I forgot that metal transmits heat, didn't I. So I dropped the very hot sieve into the pan and briefly cooked an entire can's worth of portion snus. I rescued it, dab-dried it on kitchen towel and gave it some microwave time. It is now cooled, returned to its pack and in the fridge. It seems to be OK and the second pack, which failed to hit the water is fine. In the meantime, the smell of par-boiled snus is slowly dissipating downstairs.

Such fun. Right; one more go with the microphone and then on to the deferred art work, I guess.