EXT week it is Rianne’s birthday and we plan to celebrate somewhere nearby. Technically we’re still on holiday for 15 days to come and we’re enjoying every moment of it. We spend more time offline and go to the park to feed many birds amid a worrying drought.

We predict that later this week some thugs in London will try to bully us again; it would be a giant own goal if they attempted to do so.

Yesterday I discussed with a friend how Web search is getting worse over time, maybe by intention (intent would be difficult to prove though).

Is there any in “Tech” that is actually still improving?

am happy to report that “Sleepy” (the bird) is “Sweepy” no more. She quit sweeping aside seeds after some training (reinforcing good habits, penalising bad behaviour).

Our bird-feeding habits changed a lot. Today “Bot” (Bottle) came as early as 6AM and last night some bird came after 8PM, which is highly unusual for mid-August.

This is more essential this year due to the drought.

ur first week of summer staycation has been very good. Vacations that involve staying in Greater Manchester still leave a very large radius for exploration and we did different things every day. Rianne has rated it 9 our of 10. After today “week 2″ starts, then we have one more week and it’s Bank Holiday. We can leave Town for a bit. Back to normal after that.

There are still some house chores to complete, some of them physical, but with 2+ week left there’s no pressure, no hurry.

In September we’ll take publication up a notch. Back to normal routines.

just want to state the obvious following this more formal statement from last month. The aggressors’ latest move indicates that:

1. They messed up their own Order and injunction
2. They recognise they cannot stop/prevent us from criticising them, so they try to ameliorate the injunction
3. They recognise we’ll enjoy both liberty (physical) and freedom of speech/press (platform) and don’t know how to recover over $130,000 in additional losses

XACTLY one week ago, on Wednesday morning, I sent the papers associated with the lawsuit I’m lodging against the Serial Strangler from Microsoft. Afterwards I went to Superdrug and spent 30 minutes examining the prices of non-edible goods, seeing that packaging got smaller, prices are much higher, and services barely exists anymore.

At the Post Office, there are still human workers, but they’re nowhere near as friendly or useful as decades ago. They act like they do you a favour by actually serving you (which they must). They’re basically a private business now (the tasks got offloaded to local shops) and postage costs have grown about 5-fold in 20 years. What justifies those price increases? The cost of fuel? The sour face of staff?

The world is getting ruder, more expensive, and there’s a moral obligation (I think) to do something about it.

T seems safe to say that very hot weather will impact us today, culminating in about 34 degrees tomorrow (we plan to go to the park again). Will new records be set and old ones broken? Probably. We saw that in May.

This is global warming and climate breakdown. In some parts of China they’ll have a third of the total seasonal (or annual) rain in just one day. It looks like rainfall has been misallocated somewhat.

here is work underway paving the scenic walkway leading up to the ManCity stadium. They’re laying down tiles or brick-like structures on what used to be bland blue paint on concrete. As a result, it’s unavailable for passage. Across the walkway, and over the bridge that crosses the Ashton Canal, there’s the venue that comes back to life on Sunday (Joji) after a very long hiatus on the same day ManCity is “back in action” (not a friendly match but Community Shield).

The expansion of the ManCity stadium and the works associated with improving the area seem almost complete. It probably will take several more months to clear things up and start opening shops. Less cranes, fewer heavy vehicles, almost no noise.

There are other plans for the “Sport City” of ManCity. Italian links aside, there’s “Mamma Mia!”