Sorry Jord but it is down to the NHS.
The NHS work hand in hand with Pharmacy2U, the UK's largest online pharmacy.
P2U has teamed up with Royal Mail Health to do this.
I won't discuss it more clearly as politics rears it's ugly head.

Local pharmacies have complained for years by saying - use it or lose it.
Posties have complained for years about having to deliver junk mail.
Ripping off the NHS is big business, why do think Trump wanted to get his hands on it.

why do think Trump wanted to get his hands on it.

always figured that was so he could do what the antivax are claiming.

Local pharmacies have complained for years by saying - use it or lose it.

We are lucky we have a local one five minutes walk from us. in the same building as the doctors' surgery. If only they had enough doctors to get an appointment without in a reasonable length of time. #morepolitics. NHS111 not much better. Filled in their questions online but had been in A&E for over 4 hours by the time they called back. Staff at the hospital were good though and got me sorted fairly quickly once I was seen.

Grumble: The font size on the forums and this site in general got bigger. I was perfectly happy with the old one.

I've turned it down to 80% so I can see the whole thread list and scan for changes. But - grumble - the font size is even smaller while composing a new message. There'll be more typos...

First livestream from the Red Planet

On Friday, to celebrate the 20th birthday of ESA’s Mars Express, you’ll have the chance to get as close as it’s currently possible get to a live view from Mars. Tune in to be amongst the first to see new pictures roughly every 50 seconds as they’re beamed down directly from the Visual Monitoring Camera on board ESA’s long-lived and still highly productive martian orbiter.

“This is an old camera, originally planned for engineering purposes, at a distance of almost three million kilometres from Earth – this hasn’t been tried before and to be honest, we’re not 100% certain it’ll work,” explains James Godfrey, Spacecraft Operations Manager at ESA’s mission control centre in Darmstadt, Germany.

“But I’m pretty optimistic. Normally, we see images from Mars and know that they were taken days before. I’m excited to see Mars as it is now – as close to a martian ‘now’ as we can possibly get!’

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qyVNqeJ6wQ

Grumble: Finally gone down with covid after escaping for three years.

sorry to hear that, have you been vaxed?

sorry to hear that, have you been vaxed?

Thanks.

Yep been vaxed every time so had four altogether now. Thought that after three and a half years I was going to get away with it but tested positive yesterday when feeling grotty.

Get well soon, Dave.

Get well soon, Dave.

Thank you.

Get well soon Dave.
Grumbles.
Been a very interesting 3 days.
Had some very good teachers back in the day.
Got given 2 important pieces of advice.
Stop, Think, Act.
If you have a job to do, give it 100% or not at all.
For the past decade, I'm left wondering if that was good advice.

Had an annual gas & smoke detector check Wed 08:00-13:00.
Oops, no one called, so thought they're running a bit behind, has happened in the past but not often.
No one called in the 2nd half of the work day (13:-18:00) & too late to call it in.
Called landlords yesterday & got told they have no direct access to contractor, but did give me a direct number for them.
Weird, but whatever.
Called contractors & got put through to their scheduler.

Got told that they got no answer on the intercom, did aplogise & then mentioned the trade button.
Got told that all employees of the main contractor had key fobs but the sub-contractors do not. Nice to know.
Told her about the previous incident regarding the loft & we had a good laugh. She then rescheduled the appointment.
10:37 this morning received call on mobile from contractors. They'll be fitting a new front door 29/9/23 (unusual as nothing received in writing).
Shortly after call, postie delivered mail. Got a "lovely" sarcastic letter from the operations manager of the contractors regarding the £75 fee for missed appointments..
He's going to receive a "lovely polite & courteous" reply in the mail. :-)

Glory!

Second day of 31C here. The news is in panic. Weatherman shows us all these charts in dark red. Funniest one was this tweet by one of our meteorologists, that totally backfired on her. "The thermal heartbeat of Europe". Where green is 6C, and the normal 22C starts the red zones of death and destru... oh, hold on.

the red zones of death and destru...

I thought that was a comment about the mess one of our politicians is leaving in his wake?

Big grumble that eventually became a glory. :-)
I hate M$, Amazon & technology. :-(
Been experiencing a lot of issues recently with Windows, IE & Edge. Brave nary a problem. Wonder why?
Anyway, decided to call it a day with 32bit & as I have many paid for progams locked to this computer, will continue to use it but standalone no Net access.

Decided to build a completely new system.
Now the fun started.
Odered an Nvidia GT 730 4gb & Noctua D15 cooler (Thanks Mike for the original recommendation).
Okay order received so ordered the rest of the necessary components from eBuyer (regularly purchased from them over the last 15 years or so).
Went to checkout & payment.
Okay. Entered card details, okay.
Bank sent passcode. Okay.
Entered code & continued.
Payment failed with notice to contact card issuer.
Contacted bank earlier today.
The Amazon order is still showing up as a pending tranaction. WTF?
The 2 orders combined came to £42 less tha £1,000.
The banks fraud protection kicked in & failed the payment.
Apparently I then had to do a chip & pin transaction to reactivate the card. Did so then reordered from eBuyer. Job done.
Nice to know though that their fraud protection works. :-)
As an added bonus getting free next day delivery so hurry up Wednesday. :-)

With all the nice summer weather the past days, we have been inundated with useless advice again.
"Don't go out into the sun, the UV radiation is high, you'll get sunburnt within 15 minutes."
"Wait until after sundown before opening doors and windows, to let fresh air in."
"Do NOT open doors and windows after sundown, because of peak pollen in the air, or you'll get allergic reactions."
(Yes, those two advisors didn't check among each other what to advise...)

"Drink at least 2 liters of water when it's hot." - No, do not do that, as you'll burn your mouth. Wait until it's cooled down some. 😂

"Be sparse with your water usage, it hasn't rained for 34 days (a dry spell record... really? 🙄) and it's not going to rain for the next days either."
It's been the wettest spring in forever, we're two days into summer, and we're in panic mode already? Damn.

Nice to know though that their fraud protection works. :-)

I have also had that happen with my bank though with a transfer for some major plumbing work.

Yes, there is that.
Sadly, I found out why it is still in pending (from Amazon chat assistant).
Amazon only take payment once order is completed.
There is one item remaining from original order which is expected any time from 19th - 22nd.
10-13 days from 2 counties over?
Can understand if from Jersey or Europe but Banbury,?
Did complain about their deliveries at the same time.
Was in bathroom. No intercom activated, no knock on the door, but did hear a thump on the front door.
Finished ablutions & checked.
Parcel left on door outside.
Checked with Amazon, stated left in outbuilding. WTF?
We don;t have an outbuilding.

The way this week has gone so far, not looking forward to the rest of the week.
Checking e-mail, find that the eBuyer order has been dispatched.
Big problem, only 7 of the 8 items.
HD not on order. :-(
I wouldn't have been able to build it anyway.
Forgot to order some 120mm case fans. :-(

Grumble: Not ordering from B&Q again. Only half of the wood I ordered arrived. Contact form filled out to make complaint. 5, "working" days later no response. Over half an hour waiting to speak to someone. £30 delivery charge refunded but going elsewhere to get the rest of what I need.

https://twitter.com/TPointUK/status/1670145753669410816
I feel sorry for the youth these days, if that's the kind of lessons you need to get - and indoctrinated with - these days.
You go girl!