Be Excellent To Each Other

I pre-ordered a bass (colour: black sparkly) from BAX. Yay!

But the company just went bankrupt and so I'm now out £333 quid and part of the bankruptcy case thing. HMPH!

Oh, that's shit.

Did you pay for it with a credit card, Blucey? If so, contact your bank and dispute the transaction.

Same thing happened with me last year (but with a ticket to a live performance show) and my bank refunded me the money within a week.

Hell, try it even if you paid with a debit card.

Ah balls, Blucey. Read about that on Elektronauts. Hopefully covered by card like Gaz says. Fingers crossed mate.

Alas, no. It was a debit card transaction. I guess I could still try just to see if Halifax are cool about it but it's a real annoyance.

The bass is by a company called Sire and they do that annoying thing that all companies do now where they only release in limited numbers. So even though the main retailers let you buy it, there's an undefined wait period. I really wanted it (again, black sparkly) and so I was happy to wait (also, I'm currently borrowing a bass from my brother in law). But I probably should have gone with something simpler to get.

This page suggests that you can still do Chargebacks with VISA debit cards, so yeah, definitely get in touch with them.

This is just so beautiful, Mark. I am just amazed. It’s so stunning.

Stupid puny human eyes! I can’t believe we haven’t evolved to see this stuff.

Another shiny watch

Ooh! Christopher Ward. So shiny. Such texture. I LOVE IT.

I'm a big fan of their logo. It's quite clever.

Get a room you two.

(It’s a nice watch, though).

To compare watches?

If that’s what the kids are calling it these days, sure.

Aw yeah!

That is awesome

What did those even cost?

£all

Thinking of your next ride, Kov? It’d be quite the statement painted acid green.

Man those rims are dope AF

I gave the battery powered garden tools a run out yesterday and it was a lot nicer than using the petrol ones. The batteries last pretty well but even so I needed to use more than one. I'm glad I have a good selection of batteries(in terms of number, and size) so I can easily pop in a new one instead of waiting around.

I tried uploading a photo of my new garden chair, but it just times out

New shoes!

Nice for any occasion those.

What are they? I need some new runners and was just going to get the latest Vomeros since that's what I always do if I can't be arsed thinking about it.

Infinity react Flyknit 4

https://www.sportsshoes.com/product/nik ... oes---aw24

Yes I can annoy more people, by going slow on a bike and on a steam thing

those are cool

Is that Kovacs' brand of choice?

The soles on your shoes look really chunky, MaliA. Are they actually as thick as they look or are they just styled that way and the foot sits lower than the line of the heel?

I’ve gone the other way. From a life in heels I now wear barefoot shoes all of the time. I’ve always enjoyed a wide toe box in shoes when I can get them, but having the no drop soles as well makes standing up and walking around all day a lot more pleasant. The only downside is that they don’t make me feel as tall.

It's a more cushioned sole as these are for running. They'll do about 500 miles then get chucked.

Looks like that.

A cheapo dehumidifier from K Mart



I'm fascinated (if I was younger and making a video for The Tik Tok I might even have said I'm obsessed) with how much liquid it pulls out of the air.

It's not noisy but certainly has an audible hum and whirr and occasionally the water dripping and sloshing can be heard. I wish it had a programmable on-off timer.

It really felt like it helped the washing that we'd hung inside on an airer to dry more quickly and more thoroughly. Overall, good purchase and pretty happy with it.

It’s interesting how they flare to the ground. They look comfy, though I bet I’d trip over the soles

I’m always surprised at how effective dehumidifiers are. They are fab for helping dry washing indoors.

Chelsea boots are my smart-ish-without being formal footwear of choice, and were half price, so I bought two pairs. These were from a 'proper' shoe company instead of a budget shop, which feels a bit fancy; however I wore the absolute hell out of the previous pair of boots I had (from a budget place). Honestly though, I wish I'd just bought 7 or 8 pairs of the budget ones when I realised how much I loved them, and then I'd be set for life, but woe, that shop is no more


After these and the colourful Adidas from a few weeks ago (also a discount driven impulse buy) I have told myself that I won't have to buy any new footwear for the next four or five years, but now I think I have a bit of a taste for it and finally feel like I have a bit of disposable income.... so I'll probably buy some.

The grey-ish ones look a lot nicer in the real, and when not on the grey-ish carpet tho

Not a fan of Chelsea boot (and not just because of the name ) but I feel I should be buying some non-trainer casual shoes soon. I am ("over 35" - Ed) after all

New watch time!

I've wanted this for some time but put it off because you never know how mother of pearl dials will look in real life. Didn't even take this out of the packaging for a week as I wanted to film some unboxing stuff but a) that's a FAFF and b) I don't really know what I'm doing. But finally opened it up last night and it looks better in real life than in the photo. I love it.



Note: I do have two watches on sale on eBay right now as I'm definitely sticking to my limit.

The dial inlay is really lovely.

This brand always do lovely looking watches. I could quite happily have a collection that was all just theirs. But I like having a bit of variety. That dial is definitely striking though.

Hmm, they do some very nice watches. I like it.

Only today did I buy Microsoft Office for my MacBook, despite having had my laptop for a few years now.

I’ve used Apple Pages and Numbers since I got the laptop, and they’ve been fine for what I need them for, but sending documents to people is more challenging. Exporting to docx is messy and the formatting is random. PDF is fine for printing, but to make something easily editable by someone who is not tech savvy is far more difficult.

Anyway, after an annoying day reformatting documents only to find out they still look wrong, I bought Office 2024. I forgot how damned cluttered the menu bars are.But it does work, so there’s that.

How much did Office cost? Is it a local application that's installed on your computer or did you get a license to use the broswery based online version?

It was £30 from a registered Microsoft reseller (accredited in the Microsoft site)

I got a lifetime install to use locally because I didn’t want a subscription.

There was actually an offer on Wowcher to get it for £17.99, but I used Wowcher once before and quite honestly I had to fight to get the thing I’d paid for and it took me a couple of days to access it, and I wanted it immediately for something I was doing (and though I bought it my boss is actually paying for it, so I wanted it to be as smooth as possible).

I got it from here: https://softmall.co.uk/product/microsof ... -delivery/

They have the Windows MS Office Pro for the same price if you’re on Windows.

That’s a great price for a lifetime license.

The name is a great reason to dislike them though.

I'm in your boat too. I'm also "[considerably] over 35" and I've made a point of smartening up over the years. But I can't really get on with real shoes. I've got some for work of course but during Covid I had some post-Muay Thai/running knee clicking weirdness and the physio told me to get gel soled trainers. And since then that's all I wear. I bought some all-black ones so that from a distance they don't look like trainers. But I just can't get on with anything else.

That might be because I've quite bony ankles and so anything mid/high topped feels uncomfortable. And I can't decide on a style that I like. And when I do try anything on they always feel stiff and cardboardy a bit. I've tried Chukka, Chelsea and Desert boots and they all seem a bit keen. You know how like every bloke at football has tan coloured boots on.

Also, my all-black trainers are completely water resistant which just seems like a good thing to have.

Checkout my Solvair boots next winter.

I find work shoes/ trainers to be a tough nut. I like slip ons so I can put them on easily at the office after cycling, but there aren't many that do the job. Chelsea boots I also find a bit icky unfortunately.

Currently doing these, which are nice but I'd get a size smaller, they're like boats

https://www.massimodutti.com/gb/split-s ... t=45599194

FeEx… it was *right there*

Happily, Chase finally got back to me and re-credited me with the £333. It's not super-finalised as BAX could claim that back or whatever. But I feel better that it's done. I should probably get a credit card for these sort of purchases.

Makes me nervous though. My mum only ever really gave me three useable bits of advice in my life.

1 - don't use credit cards.
2 - don't date Ukrainian girls (she herself being Ukrainian said that they just want to lock down marriage and don't care about you - eesh!)
3 - don't ever phone the police because of an argument/domestic as "only common people do that" (said the single mum raising three of us in a council house).

She also thinks that lightning can kill you through the landline, that running or any exercise is bad for you and that you can't trust dentists. So, a bit of a mixed bag.

She was right that lightning can travel down the landline, though. If it hits the telegraph pole it has a straight route to the receiver. Same with pipework, television aerials, etc. Google it, because it sounds made up, but it is possible.

My grandmother hated me going near windows in a thunderstorm. I am sure she used to cover up mirrors when I was young, too, but I don’t remember her doing it from my teens onwards, so maybe I am misremembering.