Anthony

I have a Rancilio Silvia and a Rancilio Rocky grinder, and have had for years, but the coffee is always bitter. It's clean - backflushing and descaling. I do the temperature surfing thing (due to the machine supposedly getting too hot), where I run water through before extracting a shot, to keep the temperature down. It seems whichever beans I try, the coffee is always bitter. From Basic CoOp Italian beans, to £14 artisan roasted beans, it's still **** bitter. I'm missing something, but what is it?

Gave my grinder a right good seeing to on Thursday. Coffee so much better now. I set them up...

Right then kids, I had this idea of getting a tablet to use as a remote control for stuff. Specifically, putting widgets on the home screen, so youtube music, tv streaming apps, tapo smart home stuff, and the control for my amp. You'd think it was straightforward, but oh god, no. I bought a crappy amazon fire thing, used the toolkit to change the home launcher, but it keeps changing itself back. And the tablet is utter shit. Sometimes it'll take three or four minutes to open an app, then the same for every button you want to press. So, what does the VT massive suggest? Is there a general remote app that actually works and has widgets? Is there a tablet that isn't shit that doesn't cost a fortune? The pixel tablet might do what I want, but it's 600 notes, so can get in the **** sea. Over to you.

Just put a coat over your lap and lean forward a bit.

FFS. You're letting us all down. Glad to hear the op appears to have been a success.

Was it actually Scuba Steve? Good that you're back on your feet.

Anyone watching Deadloch? On Prime and the high seas. Some excellent swearing. Also very funny.

It's cold out. I know this because I'm waiting for a train.

Watched a few films last year, some new, some oldish: Barbie and Oppenheimer - nothing to add to what is already said. Saint Omer - saw someone else on here had seen this - my feelings are pretty much the same. No interesting takes on trauma/mental illness at all, just dull. So dull. Saltburn - great performances, beautifully shot, awesome final scene, but there was no exposition around the main character, so I was just left thinking "Why?" Maybe that was the point? Widows - great actors, OK performances, not particularly groundbreaking or original in any way. Barb and Star - expected utter crap, was really quite sweet. Free Guy - had heard bad things, but good fun. Taika Waititi good. What you talkin' bout Willis? Florence Foster Jenkins - resisted watching it for months, but got forced into it. Really enjoyable and uplifting. Control - excellent all round Far from Heaven - Beautiful to look at, but not much depth Belleville Rendezvous - Irritating, but good. Don't Worry Darling - Looks beautiful. Florence Pugh as watchable as always. Harry Stiles surprisingly not shit. Ultimately not very interesting though. High Society - God Grace Kelly was stunningly beautiful. Perfectly OK film of its era. Romy and Michele's High School Reunion - Would've been better if the sound wasn't out of sync for the whole film, but really good fun. Awful hair.

St Andrews is the control - it looks the same in either situation.

You got beer though right? Right? You didn't drink it all over Christmas? It's really good for washing, showering and laundry. IPA is particularly good for pouring straight down the toilet. No wee or poo necessary.

Ha! The above mentioned friend just got awarded an MBE.

One of my best friends is a nightmare at this. "Shall we meet on the 18th or the 19th?" "YES!!!"

Very much not Brideshead Revisited, though I can understand why it may look like that from the trailers.

Missed your chance yellow belly. We're back home now watching Place in the Sun.

Pub? Looks like a taproom with that font. My girlfriend reckons I should offer you outside for that.

Oh god yeah! See also 299£

Once managed to get my girlfriend in the eye. Actually, it landed on her glasses, but we were both pretty impressed.

Got swollen glands in my neck for the past few days. Called the doctor at 10am to see if I can get an appointment. 920am tomorrow, face to face. Nice.

I used to be a financial advisor. My clients were people in their twenties. Essentially, the message was, you're going to be shit with money, so embrace it, but let me do sensible things with a little bit for you, and put it where you can't get at it, and you can piss the rest up the wall. Most of my job involved metaphorically slapping people until they got the message. The actual advice bit was about 5% of my time.

She's in a family full of eccentrics.

TBH, I haven't looked and I never do. Its continued existence is a puzzle to me. It's like the annual 'Most Empathic Sports Car of the Year' awards, or the 'Most Satiny Fighter Plane of the Year' awards. Completely bizarre. Traffic Warden Personality of the Year maybe?

Sports Personality of the Year

Bloody Philistine.

Thought about posting this in the car thread, but I wouldn't want people to think I was trolling, because that would definitely not be the case. Oh no, not at all.