Training in Quarantine – Day 123

20degC so cooler than it’s been for a while. Nice comfortable walk, but as I was walking past Sainsbury’s there seemed to be some kind of argument going on, and escalating. Didn’t hang around, but possible that this could get to a punch-up level. And it wouldn’t surprise me, Covid has certainly brought out the stupidity in people.

Training in Quarantine – Day 122

Cooler day, still warm, but not overly hot and no rain.

But my walk was a bit distracted by this little guy:

He was abnormally tame, and didn’t run off when I approached and seemed happy to look at me and even lay down. One of the residents told me they sometimes fed him. Probably wasn’t a good idea since he now sees humans as a food source.

Training in Quarantine – Day 120

Boy, oh boy, yesterday was a crazy hot day. I went back into the office as they are going to do a deep clean so we needed to make sure all our desks are clear of any personal belongings.

They blocked out every other desk:

And the air conditioning was reduced since there weren’t that many people in the office.

The temperature in the office was a toasty 26.8degC

But the temperature outside soared to 36degC, and nearly tipped the 38degC/100degF mark.

As expected, the heat destroyed Network Rail’s ability to run a reliable service and services out of King’s Cross were delayed or cancelled.

I ended up using the Piccadilly Line to get back home.

On the way, spotted Blackfriars station had a vending machine for alcohold wipes, hand sanitisers and face masks:

The heat in the trains was horrendous. Eventually made it home and decided not to walk, I was sweating enough as it was just taking the train.

Back to today. Temperatures are back to mid-20s so walking is still hot weather, but not as uncomfortable as yesterday.

Tofu

As you probably are aware, I now own a Yaris. And today, I got surprised when Toyota UK on Twitter linked in a tribute to their Corolla AE86 on their Twitter feed, namely the Corolla GT86, although disappointingly, there was no Eurobeat on the trailer.

For those of you who don’t know, the AE86 is the car used by Fujiwara Takumi in the Initial D anime series, a young man doing early morning tofu deliveries down a winding mountain pass, learning how to drift as he went, and minimising the jerky movements of the car, since tofu is an extremely fragile food.

Toyota made reference to this also in my Yaris by adding an app to the car called “A Glass of Water” which simulates having a glass of water in the car, and when you finish your journey, it tells you how much water you would have spilt had you had a real glass of water in your car.

Takumi’s father used this same technique while training him. Putting a glass of water in his cup holder and Takumi would try to minimise the amount of spillage during his delivery run.

I am impressed how Toyota have been embracing the references to their cars in the anime, and when I mentioned this on my office’s slack, surprisingly some people also got the reference ^_^

Training in Quarantine – Day 116

Warm day with a few heavy downpours of rain. Still managed to get a walk done, and realised this postbox I’ve been walking past for years, doesn’t have the “EIIR” logo on it, but has a “GVIR” logo instead.

Which I _believe_ means it’s a box erected during George VI’s reign (the EIIR stands for Elizabeth II, Regina (queen), and the GVIR stands for George VI, Rex (king)).

If so, this box was erected between 1936-1952, meaning it’s at least 68 years old.