Home alone, relaxing

Another dull day of cloud with occasional appearances of the sun. I was surprised last night at how quiet it was during the Blackweir Fields concert a mile away to the east. Normally when there are concerts in Cooper's Field nearer the castle, the sound is audible in Pontcanna, although it's a mile and a half away. The gig was over by ten thirty necessarily, to enable people to leave and catch late trains and buses or get to their hotels. There's been no shortage of complaints about using Blackweir Fields as a concert venue, but it seems planned arrangements were mindful of the proximity of the Cathays residential area. That's the first of four Blackweir concerts this fortnight. We'll see what kind of community feedback there'll be at the end

I made pancakes for breakfast, a third of the recipe ingredients was just right for me on my own, with cooked mushrooms and tomatoes to go with them. Linda arrived mid-morning to collect the small ASUS Chromebook I no longer need. I gave her a spare USB-C to B adaptor as this Chromebook has USB-C ports only, in case she wanted to plug USB-B peripherals into it, flash drive, printer. I realised that I'd not actually tried to print directly from it using a cable, only with a wi-fi printer when I was in Fuengirola. so I tried to do this with a cable from my ACER. 

It immediately recognised my ancient lazer printer and gave me a long menu of printer driver options to sift through. When I found a close match, it worked perfectly. I remember that it was equally straightforward working indirectly with another printer attached to another computer on the same network when I was in Nerja last year, but never needed to try this out on my home kit. It's good to know that you have alternative options in case there are problems with habitual ways of getting stuff done. If anything is going to go wrong it's most likely to when you're in a hurry. I rang Linda and explained how to go about printing with the ASUS once she has it set up for use. So much easier to do than with a Windows or Linux device.

I went out for a walk in Llandaff Fields, and was pleased the wind had blown much of the cloud away letting the sun shine, as ever there were three serious cricket matches going on, a few more games played by a few friends and family, and an assortment of picnic parties. It's lovely to see the park so well used. I waited until I got back to have lunch as I didn't feel hungry. Having cooked some chicken pieces yesterday I made a simple salad with couscous, which felt just right for a summery sort of day.

By the time I'd eaten, the sky had clouded over again when I went out for another walk in Thompson's park. The moorhens have certainly started another brood on theur floating nest as one bird sit on them while the other forages for food to feed the partner. It became humid and stayed warm until after sunset.  

I spent the entire evening converting the HP mini to Linux Mint with the device attached to our telly, using the wireless keyboard bought last week. For most purposes it behaves fine, but it's not a standard UK keyboard. The @ sign was on the opposite side of the keyboard from where it was indicated. Mint is great for swopping keyboard layouts, but there are a couple of dozen slightly different setups to chose from. Getting the correct one takes time.