Rick's b.log - entry 2026/01/08

Well...

The bad news is that it's all due to Storm Goretti. Goretti, a feminine name of Italian origin (in case it wasn't obvious) was given to this storm by the French weather agency because it is expected that this storm will hit northern France the hardest (gee, and I am where?!).
Depending on where you look, it's a derivative of Gregory what means "watchful" and "vigilant" or "to pierce" or "to wound". I can't help but think much of this "meanings of names" nonsense is plucked out of people's arses - "to pierce", as it "gore", as in the first four letters of the word.

The shipping forecast was not pleasant today. The Plymouth area's forecast is:

Southwesterly gale force 8 increasing violent storm force 11 imminent, veering westerly and increasing hurricane force 12 soon. Rough or very rough, becoming high or very high for a time. Visibility moderate or poor.

Pretty much the same story for Sole, Lundy, and Fastnet. If you don't know the UK shipping areas, click here for a map.

I have fastened the shutters, turned the picnic table, wedged a stone to stop the shed door from moving. And, now, just cross fingers and hope it doesn't blow stuff down, off, or away.

Internally, as the wind is picking up outside, I have refuelled the Tilley lamp and tested the gas camping stove and dug out a spare canister just in case. I actually have a bunch of those long canisters because that was my stove until I got the induction thingy. I also tested the two gas lamps. The Lidl one looks like it is burning outside of the mantle. Hmm, I'm not going outside to install a replacement mantle, I'll just keep that as a backup in case I run out of paraffin, candles, and the other lantern.
I also have a backup camping cooker (the type that sits on top of the gas cartridge) and a backup backup one that bayonet-fits into a slightly larger cartridge.

So, my balls might freeze off but I'll be alright for tea. Priorities.

I went back to work

Going to, and through, the village wasn't so bad. I stuck to the tracks of other cars. My wheels spun as I was turning from one road to another, but I didn't come to a complete stop at the stop sign as I anticipated this, so I just let momentum carry me over to where I could get grip.

The forest. Holy shitballs, the forest was a skating rink. I did it at 25, and even that slow I could feel an odd swaying that reminded me of riding the Thames Turbo (and their peculiar air-suspension) which told me that my car was "going forwards but not necessarily in a straight line". A car came up behind me and pulled out to overtake and swung dangerously close to the ditch. That driver took a moment to rethink their life decisions, and decided to stay behind me. Like, yeah, I wasn't crawling to admire the scenery. I just wanted to get to work alive, and without having suffered seepage. But, primarily, alive, as that's the important part.

As for the Tuesday I missed... I sort of recall "65" being mentioned. I don't know if that's 65 people did turn up, or didn't. Either way, I think that would roughly be "about half".
In addition to this, we are working shorter days for the first week, so the afternoon girls go home at 7pm instead of, what is it, 8.30pm or something? Well, management looked out the window at the snow chucking it down and told everybody to finish up what they were doing, everybody goes home at six.
This would be important for the employees to get home safely, and it would also be important for the company as any accidents going directly to/from work will count as a work-related accident (using the logic that you wouldn't be there, then, if you weren't going to or coming from work).
I think I saw somewhere that there were three injuries. I guess that implies some bent metal as well. I hope nothing bad.

Anyway, I wondered if I would, then I didn't, then I did. So this saga has reached its conclusion until such time as I win EuroMillions (tomorrow?) and can retire to sit peacefully reading good books and drinking lots of tea.

Free money

Speaking of investments, I just looked at my savings plan. I had to enter two codes sent by SMS because they are trying hard to push their app. The one that the company set up for the employees one year, and the money has to stay in there for five years. I think it started around €260. It is now €372 (brut, or about €350 net). It is "generally growing" but you can see dips every time Trump does something idiotic and the markets jitter. It took a pretty big hit (down to €288 from €355) when the orange arsehat started all of that tariff nonsense last spring, but it has recovered. I'd probably be over four hundred if it wasn't for that. Still, the current estimate is that the performance is +47.72%.
This is, of course, a game. I picked the riskiest option available (an 4 out of 7 on their arbitrary risk scale) to see how it plays out. I could make some money, or Trump could invade Greenland and destroy NATO for his Russian bestie and tank the markets. Other cow-orkers left their money in the default option, absolutely safe, which paid out 1,66% over the past five years. Most of the investments are American tech - Nvidia and Apple around 5%, Microsoft and Alphabet around 4%, Amazon and Broadcom around 2%, and Meta and Tesla around 1% for around 28% of the investments. Smaller investments are in finance (16%), industry (12%), healthcare (10%), and so on. 78% is in north America, 9% in the Eurozone, 5½% in the Europe-not-in-the-monetary-union (is this banker-speak for the UK? or do they mean Switzerland?), 5% in Japan, 2¼% in Asia-not-Japan, and 2% in emerging countries.

I don't see anything untoward here. Like it or loathe it, American tech is where the money is made. Apple and Nvidia are good shares to hold. I don't, thankfully, see any OpenAI (except perhaps indirectly via Microsoft). What I do feel, however, is that it's strange only holding two and a bit percent in non-Japan Asia. China is a fast growing economy and is going to be a force to be reckoned with in the future. As Tesla stops being favourable due to the Nazi in charge, they're going to lose out, possibly hard to better imports from China. Now, I don't want to sing China's praises here - politically it is a disaster (not that the US isn't currently trying hard to be a bigger one) and there may be social reasons preventing outward investment. But, hey, looking at it purely from a "making money" perspective, it seems to me that China has plenty of its own action going on. Maybe I'm missing something...?

Izivia Pass

My Izivia card, with gunky glue still stuck to it.

Looking through the card to see what's inside.

Dumping the card data - important information obscured.

Now, I've been wondering what to make for dinner. I think I'm going to cop out and just make a bowl of chips with... I'm not sure if beef gravy or BBQ ketchup. Maybe the gravy as the chips will stay hot for longer with gravy. On the other hand, gravy makes them gooey, so...
I've also turned on the heated blanket, so it'll be nice and warm and snug. Me and a big bowl of chips. ☺

Right, four hundred grams of chips. That'll do nicely. Just time, then, to read through this, upload it, and make an instamatic hot chocolate.

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