Archive: 2025-10
Week 251: Fixed
The washing machine repair was booked for Wednesday with the company to which LG contract out warranty jobs. They said they give a window the day before, and they did: 07:00–11:00. I’m not a morning person, there are very few occasions when I’m up before seven, and I did not relish having to get up at a stupid hour.
Week 250: We are the washing machine preservation society
I’ve been having some computer troubles that distracted me from writing this week’s notes. It’s not sorted yet, but of course I have other computers. You should always have at least two computers so that you have one to debug the other one when it won’t start.
Week 249: To done
I started my first week of no work in a flurry of activity working through items on my to do list. I got up, dressed, polished the frets on a ukulele, took electrical waste to the electrical waste bin at the library, took the old bulbs and batteries to the recycling bins at Tesco, posted a parcel for L—, did the shopping, and it still wasn’t even midday on Monday.
Week 248: Demobbed
You might think that being freed from the time pressures of work would give me plenty of free time to write my weeknotes, but no. I have a long list of things to do and I’ve been working my way through the list steadily, and so these are late as usual.
Pennies (update)
Back in 2019, I did some comparisons on the historical value of coinage to show that the penny was by far the most worthless UK coin ever. Since then, inflation has made the situation worse, and a pound is worth about ⅘ of what it was in 2019, so I thought it might be interesting (/horrifying) to update the table.
Here’s what each of the previous smallest coins was worth in 2024 pounds (the latest data available) at the time it was withdrawn from circulation:
Coin Year withdrawn Face value £1 in £2024 Value in £2024 Half farthing 1870 £1⁄1920 £129.1 6.7p Farthing 1960 £1⁄960 £31.06 3.2p Halfpenny 1969 £1⁄480 £22.2 4.6p Penny 1971 £1⁄240 £19.06 7.9p Halfpenny (decimal) 1984 £1⁄200 £4.34 2.2p The value of £1 in £2024 is the real price taken from the Measuring Worth calculator.
A penny today is worth less than a quarter of a penny was at the time that the decimal halfpenny was withdrawn in 1984. It must be time to get rid of 1p and 2p coins.
Week 247: Folk festival
This was my last full week of work before my contract ends at the end of the month (plus one day, but that’s for next time). I’ve been trying to tie up loose ends, write down things that were in my head, and make sure that I’m not the single point of failure on anything.