My weekend.... football, basketball, curry, low alcohol stout, the wonders of Woking, the spookiness of silver birches, and Seamus gets a new medal
A mixed weekend
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Saturday’s football and basketball were disappointing. To be fair we never do well at Everton
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vegetable dansak at the Jaipur in Woking was lovely, if not over-cheap
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I discovered that I quite like Guinness 0.0
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the Surrey half marathon was lovely. Half rural-suburban, half properly rural…it made a change from running around Bath and London (with cheaper hotels than either)
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there was an avenue/patchy forest of silver birches
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I love a silver birch, but en masse they felt a bit spooky
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got a reasonable time - 5th fastest of my 16 attempts. Still slow AF, though :)
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the Arsenal and Totteringham both mucking up made Sunday’s football both amazing and great
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listened to another Fags, Mags and Bags (hence ‘both amazing and great’). Love that show
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Seamus was pleased with his new medal
My Crucial Track for 18 March 2026 - “All Along the Wild Atlantic Way” by Aoife Scott
What’s your favorite song to listen to while cooking?
This is top of my ‘Kitchen Irish’ playlist. A couple of reasons. It’s a great song. It’s upbeat and cheerful, and it reminds me of a couple of trips to the west coast of Ireland…to Lahinch, and the Cliffs of Moher, and the Burren, and the sea.
Much as I like the place where I live, it’s nice to have these things in my minds eye while I’m sorting out my tea
“All Along the Wild Atlantic Way” by Aoife Scott on Apple Music
This is fromCrucial Tracks. My profile is here.
Today is Saint Cyril’s Day, among others. I feel a bit sorry for the saints whose day is the day after Saint Patrick’s Day.
Powershell to get current certificates in the servers store
invoke-command -ComputerName $ComputerName -command {
Get-ChildItem Cert:\LocalMachine\My |
where-object subject -like "*sh*" |
where-object notafter -gt $(get-date)
} |
select pscomputername,
@{l='path';e={$_.psparentpath.replace('Microsoft.PowerShell.Security\Certificate::','')}},
thumbprint,
subject,
notafter,
name
Lovely. It’s like what you’d expect a programme with Michael Palin and Mackenzie Crook to be like, albeit they aren’t the stars of the show.
Watched: Small Prophets Season 1 🍿
Happy Saint Patrick’s Day to all those celebrating it today
Pic By NateBergin - Own work, CC BY 4.0, Link
Powershell to get certificates that have been applied to IIS
invoke-command -ComputerName $ComputerName -command {import-module WebAdministration ; Get-ChildItem IIS:\SslBindings} |
Select-Object PSComputerName, IPAddress, Port, Hostname, Thumbprint, Store
Including the ref in the pre-match huddle was a bit weird….even weirder for the ref I suspect!
⚽ #ChelseaFC #cfc
This is fab. Alexis Petridis picks his twent best Nancy Sinatra songs…and there are a few I’ve never heard.
He’s missed The City Never Sleeps at Night (Boots' b-side), though
The Guardian - How do these grab you, darlin’? Nancy Sinatra’s 20 best songs – ranked!
I was listening to Paul McCartney this morning and he says that the wren is his favourite bird.
Everyone should have a favourite bird, I think.
second half of the Chelsea match clashes with the boy’s basketball.
I could do with Chelsea being two or three up by then to settle the nerves
⚽ #ChelseaFC #cfc
#TodayILearned that
Rococo takes its name from the French word ‘rocaille’, which means rock or broken shell – natural motifs that often formed part of the designs, along with fish and other marine decorations. The acanthus leaf (Acanthus mollis), or rather a heavily stylised version of it, was also a signature motif.
It’s not FDR that we’re dealing with, sadly.
I have only just twigged that all of Yes Minister is on the BBC iPlayer
This will make my lunchtimes more chucklesome
Jim Hacker is the only Prime Minister to have studied at the college I went to
One of the things I like about by-elections is discovering new places names. ‘Gorton’, ‘Denton’, and on the telly this morning, ‘Longsight’. All very good.
Shame my side lost though
I heard a good new-to-me made-up word this morning (although aren’t all words are made-up?)
fauxstalgia - nostalgia for something you never experienced in the first place
My Crucial Track for 23 February 2026 - “Red Right Hand (2011 Remaster)” by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
What’s a song that grew on you over time?
“Red Right Hand (2011 Remaster)” by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
This gives me the chance to share my Nick Cave joke.
“Take a little walk to the edge of town
Go across the tracks
Where the viaduct looms,
Like a bird of doom
As it shifts and cracks
Where secrets lie in the border fires, in the humming wires
Hey man, you know you’re never coming back
Past this square, past the bridge, past the mills, past the stacks
On a gathering storm comes a tall handsome man”
Nick Cave. Good at songs, rubbish at giving directions.
“Red Right Hand (2011 Remaster)” by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds on Apple Music
This is from Crucial Tracks. My profile is here.
My Crucial Track for 22 February 2026 - “If It Wasn’t for the Nights” by ABBA
What’s your favorite deep cut from an album?
“If It Wasn’t for the Nights” by ABBA
A jaunty tune with a bleak-as-a-northern-winter lyric
Childish from the Daily Star….but I can’t help smiling
Particularly at the description “wingnut manbaby”
My Crucial Track for 21 February 2026 - “Zobi la mouche” by Les Négresses Vertes
What song makes you feel like you’re in a different country?
“Zobi la mouche” by Les Négresses Vertes
I went to see this band at what used to be called the Town and Country Club, in Kentish Town
Both the band and the audience made me feel like I was in Paris, or somewhere further South.
They played this song twice. As far as I can make out it’s about a fly called Zobi …but don’t let that put you off.
“Zobi la mouche” by Les Négresses Vertes on Apple Music
This is from Crucial Tracks. My profile is here.
I always assumed ‘Wayland’, which is a Linux-y thing I probably don’t entirely understand, was named after Wayland’s Smithy, but according to HowToGeek it’s named after a place near Boston
I’m a bit disappointed tbh
Pic from Msemmett - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link
I’ve moved away from database-y stuff over the last couple of years, but I’ve been fiddling about with a point-in-time restore this morning, and I’ve been reminded how good dbatools is.
It seems to have grown a viking helmet since I last used it :)
dbatools | SQL Server automation with PowerShell
