A Cold Car

Car's going in for it's M.O.T. tomorrow morning. Wish us luck!

It was a bit nippy this morning (and has been all day, actually), so the sunless sides of Car were covered in frost

In fact, most of Car stayed frosty all day as the sun just isn't getting high enough to clear the trees and houses surrounding us. Roll on the winter solstice

Frost atop Car

EDIT 19:57 30th November - Waaaaaaaaah! The what-I-thought-were minor holes in the floorplan turned out to be major structural problems which will warrant taking half of Car apart to fix. And it won't be cheap or be able to be done anytime soon, so I'll be getting the train to work for the next week or two... :(

4²

 As seen at such illustrious blogs as 63 Mago, and Savannah Marsh Mama, we bring you our take on the “Game of Fours”. Four questions, with four answers each.

1. Favourite food?
• Cake (not CAKE!), preferably of the moist and rich chocolate variety. Especially Black Forest Gateaux - Yes, gateaux plural!
• Pudding/dessert/afters etc. also goes down a treat (as long as it's not a slimy, wobbly creme caramel or blancmange-type affair). Basically, something dark and rich with a good dollop or two of extra thick cream.
• A nice big crispy-skinned baked potato filled with butter, tuna, and lashings of mayonnaise. Oh, and maybe a sprinkle of herbs!
• A toss-up between homemade cheese & onion tart and fish pie (as long as it doesn't have squid or octopus in it).

300 Screaming Kids...

... or On This Day...

 I was just trawling through my dusty old archives, and wondered what we were up to on this day in the years gone by.
 It turns out that in 2007 we celebrated the 300th post of Inexplicable DeVice.
 In 2008 we screamed:

 And in 2010 we became an unwilling babysitter.

 That's it. Oh, some stuff happened in 2005, but it really needs an overhaul before I link to it, and I really can't be bothered right now - mainly because I'm tired and want to go to bed!

 See you all at the weekend! 

 

Seaside Stroll

 Except it wasn't really a stroll, more like a fast walk to keep warm!

 I thought I'd better make the most of the clear skies on Saturday, as the weather forecast for Sunday (today) was miserable. Although, as I sit here and type this, the sun's out (there are dark clouds looming in the distance, however)...

Cromer town from the strip of woods between Kings Chalet Park and Cromer Country Club

The offshore supply ship Putford Ajax, and the offshore construction jack up Neptune

Here they are in a bit more detail (although still fuzzy - they were a long way off).
I used MarineTraffic.com to identify them

A Git By Any Other Name...

 Yes. He's returned from fathering another monstrous brood: Beaky!

 No sooner does the temperature drop, than Beaky appears.

 Can't be arsed to forage for food in the woods? Well, why not terrorise the neighbourhood with shrill, piercing screams, and eye-removing aerial stunts until someone (i.e. me) relents and chops up a load of sugary sultanas to fill your fat little belly. Or leaves apple halves laying around in handy-to-get-to places. Or flings handfulls of meal worms about the place for whenever you'd like a snack.

 Bah!

  

Procrastinating with Evil Edna

Evil Edna (from Willo the Wisp)

 Evil Edna, a witch from the depths of my childhood, has cast her wicked influence on me!  She consistently thwarts me with her flickering images when I have something important or time-sensitive to do.
 A result of Evil Edna's meddling is this list of TV shows I've watched or I'm still watching, which has been languishing in my blog drafts for months.  I keep adding to it every time I ought to be doing something more constructive or useful but find something new to watch instead.
 I'm not really sure what the point of this post is supposed to be, though?  Originally, I think I'd intended it to play some part in the end-of-year Coven Awards (which -Yikes! - I'd better make a start on. I haven't even thought of a theme, yet), but it now seems to be a grim reminder of how I'm wasting my life...
 Oh, well!

Not The 2016 Infomaniac Book Challenge IV

 This latest batch of books from over The Cusp is brought to you in the vaguest of associations with The 2016 Infomaniac Book Challenge. There're only three books rather than the usual five this time due to busyness interfering with reading time.
 

Solicitation cover - may not be final

λ : Beautiful Robots Dancing Alone, by Marian Keyes

 I was lucky enough to be one of the beta-readers for this new novel by Strictly Come Dancing superfan Marian Keyes. 
 Actually, luck didn't come into it - I made a few small contributions for which Marian showed her extreme gratitude by letting me have a read before the official publishing next year!
 Here's the blurb:   

 It is late Spring 2016, and in a broom cupboard deep in the bowels of the BBC's Elstree Studios a Charles CVC370, sick of being relegated to vacuuming up sequins from Strictly Come Dancing, show after show after show, clatters and clanks into life! 
 Now Autumn, and during the live Strictly Halloween show the unthinkable happens: The BBC's troop of professional dancers are revealed to be robots when, provoked by Head Judge Len Goodman after he witnessed her questionable rumba with Greg Rutherford, Nataliebot deviates from her programming and carves a swathe of destruction throughout the Elstree Studios.  The computer virus quickly spreads to the other dancers and - under the direction of Antron du Borg - Aljažbot, Gorkatron, Otibot, and the Cliftoncons hold their celebrity partners and Strictly host Claudia Winkleman hostage.  Meanwhile, Pashpotbot seduces BBC Deputy Director General Anne Bulford, convincing her to overthrow Director General Tony Hall and take over the BBC for reasons not immediately apparent...