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• Post #4385563

  New video! I take a walk along the Tyne Pedestrian Tunnel and use the new inclined lifts. https://youtu.be/gi0jtx6Rhkk

• Post #4327321

  I am at one of the most significant places ever.

• Post #4253516

  Back to Perfectly Normal Island :-(

• Post #4253515

  Loo with a view

• Post #4253514

  Awaiting an unpleasant but important routine health screening. I hates it, but less than I would hate the thing it looks for.

• Post #4253513

  Everywhere I go out for coffee, it seems like @cstross gets handed the espresso I ordered, and I get handed his silly coffee.

• Post #4253512

  I recently did a talk about the history of putting propellers on trains, especially monorails. Even more recently, I bought a book at the DB Museum in Nuremberg about visions of future railways. Upon reaching the chapter on propeller trains, I read: “Bis 1927 entwickeln [Franz Kruckenberg] und sein Mitsrtreiter Curt Stedefeld das Konzept für eine Monorail-Hängebahn mit propellergetriebenen Fahrzeugen”. Excuse me while I explore this rabbit hole of one I missed.

• Post #4253511

  I am uploading a new video right now.

• Post #4145307

  And here we are! New video! (I’m still looking for a home on PeerTube, btw) https://youtu.be/Vd8ivYs3_ck

• Post #4117084

  Today’s purchase:

• Post #3935535

  Potentially useful information for vegans travelling through Brussels Midi/Zuid: Exki has gone shit. Vegan options more limited and mostly involving quinoa. Prêt has improved. Still not great but there’s a delicious sounding aubergine satay wrap. Pokawa has a vegan filter on its ordering machine. Probably the best option if you forgot to tell Eurostar about your special meal. Like me.

• Post #3907113

  Today’s German problem: plural nouns describing singular things. For example, how do I order a Schweinsohren?

• Post #3907089

  Our train is being diverted between Cologne and Aachen, serendipitously drawing my attention to a place name of juvenile hilarity that I didn’t know about.

• Post #3879353

  Put up or shut up time. My Mullvad subscription expires tomorrow. What is my non-Nazi alternative? Important points: I’m travelling for the next couple of days. My technical ability with this sort of thing is zero.

• Post #3745032

  A perfectly practical vehicle for a vertical mediaeval city.

• Post #3718777

  A few years ago, I was flying to Brussels from Bristol Airport. I was walking with a stick, and it was a way to the gate. When I got there, I paused at the top of a flight of stairs wondering whether there was a lift. A woman, about my mum’s age, approached me, and sharply asked where the lift was. I said I was wondering the same thing myself, noticed who I was talking to, and struggled down the stairs rather than risk being stuck in a lift with Ann Widdicombe.

• Post #3643373

  Random thought the other day, for no particular reason. If the @vagina_museum@masto.ai held a big festival of all things fanny, would it be an extra-vag-anza?

• Post #3391829

  Today has mostly been spent making seat reservations on Deutsche Bahn. With decent length transfers to allow for the inevitable delays.

• Post #3162990

  Much to my disappointment, Jupiler aren’t doing cans featuring stars of the Belgium men’s national team this time round. I was hoping to add a Jeremy Doku to Kevin de Bruyne in my collection of beers I won’t drink.

• Post #3162989

  It seems like everyone in this bar is checking their beers into Untappd (me included)

• Post #3162988

  Scotland Men’s National Team busy raising our hopes so high that they can be dashed from a world-record altitude. #fitba

• Post #3122761

  So, the score so far: Trains taken in Germany: 3 Trains on time: 1 Trains cancelled: 1 Honourable mention for the German steam locomotive in the Netherlands who tried to keep up with current fashions for trains back home.

• Post #3122760

  I have just noticed DB gave me an 8 minute change at Köln Hbf. Same platform, but should we open a book on my chances today?

• Post #3122759

  German train nerds: I’ve head an announcement a few times on ICE trains. It’s a pre-recorded one, and it’s just chimes followed by what sounds like “PRM Hof”. What is it? Edit: I have my answer!

• Post #3122758

  My connection is now delayed, but not (yet) by enough that I could have made it if I stuck to my plans.

• Post #3122757

  Final score: Trains in Germany: 5 Trains on time: 1 Trains not taken due to cancellation or excessive lateness: 2 Honourable mentions to German steam trains operating in the Netherlands who forgot to be old-fashioned: 1

• Post #3122756

  I have just over a week in Belgium. Whatever shall I do?

• Post #1925719

  The pub I’m in is showing the Grand Prix. Safety Car driver must be one of the funnest jobs there is.

• Post #1148522

  Anyway, tonight I m going to walk to Easter Road stadium to watch the Scotland Women’s National Team play Belgium. And then walk back again, probably not via a pub. I had hoped to have started the decoration of part of my Beltane costume by now, but see earlier moan about Affinity being crap.

• Post #1148116

  My efforts to give up Adobe stuff are not helped by the crapness of the alternatives. All I wanted to do was print a large document tiled over several sheets of paper without wasting loads of paper. I should not have to copy and paste from Affinity to Illustrator to achieve this. Also, Canva - I won’t pay for your AI thievery. I would pay for actual, proper documentation, written by human technical authors.