Bargain acquisition

Another cloudy day, though not completely overcast. I had a dentist's appointment to go to mid morning, and drove to in Llandaff North surgery. The roads were quieter than I expected, given that schools are due to re-start this week. Inexplicably got the time wrong and arrived an hour early. Better than an hour late I guess. Fortunately Mr Benfield was free and able to see me, as it was just for a checkup. He spotted some decay around a back tooth filling so I booked in for a repair in two weeks time. £60 in advance nowadays. 

With time in hand, I popped into the Lidl's store nearby for nuts, rye break and crispbread, the returned home, did my share of this week's housework and cooked a courgette and butter bean dish with rice for lunch. I decided last night to take advantage of the discounted Chromebook offer I saw in John Lewis' and went catch a 61 bus into town. I saw two buses heading to Pentrebane, but two buses in the other direction didn't show up, so I walked to Canton Cross and caught a 17 instead. Afternoon buses on this route don't seem to run to the state timetable, apart from the school buses along this route between three and four.

The Chromebook salesperson checked the stock inventory and found there was one available, although it took a while to hunt down. It was too big to fit into the rucksack I'd brought with me, so I had to carry it in a plastic bag with an uncomfortably thin handle. I went to the bus stop, and only had to wait five minutes for a 61 to arrive. It wasn't very full until we reached Canton, and then a lot more people got on and the bus was quite crowded, mostly with older people. Many seem to find it easier to shop in Canton High Street as it's often called, with its variety of small shops of every kind. The city centre with all its big and prestigious retail outlets demands too much energy for older shoppers to navigate routinely.

I walked for an hour in the park when I got back, and left unboxing and setting up the new Chromebook until later. It was 60% charged, and I topped it up to confirm the charger works. The initial setup process is quite ingenious in conjunction with a smartphone. On boot up, it downloaded the most up to date version of the Chrome operating system which took fifteen minutes. Installing the several Google accounts I use meant repeating the initial set-up procedure each time, and each requires you to jump through all the usual security hoops. It's a pain if you can't remember all the passwords and have to go and look them up, but the end result is worth having. Full customisation of the set-up took longer than expected so a break for supper intervened.

A 14.5" touch screen, a couple of useful USB-B ports plus one USB-C and a SD card slot. Display options offer the possibility of changing the colour of menu and tab background to match your chosen wallpaper. My colour at the moment is a pale lime green, but there are several ways in which I can change this on top of options for mouse pointer display and speed, plus touchscreen gestures. A tad more sophisticated than the Asus, which'll retain for use on my travels, as it's smaller to pack. I can't believe that I paid £20 less for this than the last one I bought five and half years ago. 

I watched the fourth episode of 'Sherwood' this evening. A plot about rival gangs I'm finding difficult to follow, not least because some of the characters' regional accent is at its broadest and sometimes dialogue is delivered almost sotto voce. It may be in an effort to sound natural, but it may be the director is unaware that the dialogue isn't easy to follow. But this isn't the first time that mumbled dialogue in films and TV dramas has been hard to follow, and it's something critics and viewers complain about.