Colour me stupid

I finally figured out what was wrong with the hard disk recorder from my bedroom. There's a power switch on the back as well as the button on the front, which was partially concealed by the carpet tape I used to stop the SCART plug coming out. I must have accidentally switched it off while I was disconnecting it to bring it downstairs. And of course the loose end of the tape (once the plug was removed) ended up covering it completely....

This means I only need one Freeview receiver, which is good, and makes me reasonably confident that there isn't a curse upon my appliances. It's just a shame that it also shows me to be horribly unobservant!

RIP Richard Adams, Carrie Fisher

I just heard almost simultaneously that Carrie Fisher died today and Richard Adams (Watership Down etc.) on the 20th.

Oddly, despite the slave Leia bikini I was never incredibly attracted to Carrie Fisher - I could see she was a reasonably good actress once she got going, but for some reason she just wasn't my type. Give me Jacqueline Pierce's Servalan any day...

Adams could have been a much more influential figure than he was; Watership Down was outstanding, but none of his later books quite lived up to its promise.


Both of them mean rather more to me than most of this year's crop of celebrity deaths, but that's simply a personal preference. They'll be missed - so will all the rest.