it's a dark grey morning. horsemouth has just turned the lights on and it's 8.19

 '... the postman came in with the latest news, the evening standard, williams tore the paper open and we saw the reports of saturday confirmed and that a republic had been proclaimed in paris under general trochu...'  - kilvert's diary, thursday 6th september 1870. 

while the reverend kilvert lives a quiet life in clyro the franco-prussian war goes on. horsemouth will be dropping back into that autumn and winter of 1870. (and later in 1871 and 2025 the paris commune) 

it is bandcamp friday (horsemouth will have to recommend an album for you to purchase). 

horsemouth has posted a little of this to substack the evening before. now he will turn off the computer, read for a little while, and then go to sleep.

in the morning they are due a visit from a washing machine engineer (9am - 12noon)

oh dear. horsemouth just had a minor meltdown - they want some more info on the machine but horsemouth can't submit it on their email form and the call centre is taking its sweet own time about answering (so fuck them then). if they needed these numbers surely they should have taken them during the first call. 

horsemouth tends to think it is a limescale blockage and can probably be sorted out by bombing the machine with calgon - if it isn't, or if it's too late, then it's fucked and it's a new one anyway. parts (for which they would need to know the make and model of the machine) are really not no nevermind. 

it is the afternoon of the day before when horsemouth types this  and it has started to pelt it down. it's rain all tonight and it's rain all friday. the weather here-on-in is remarkably rubbish. ok on closer inspection it is not as bad as it at first appeared to be. 

with a bit of luck the washing machine repair lorry will get trapped by the flood water (or be washed away). 

the real source of horsemouth's grumpiness is the net-zero consultants - they have gone a bit radio silent and this is making horsemouth a bit anxious about the whole thing. 

now horsemouth wants to get on and get it done. he wants to spend the money the communal endeavour currently has in the best possible way and then (secure in the knowledge of what they have to do and how it is roughly going to cost) begin planning in how they will fund the rest of it.

there is an argument (of the type justice) for spending a chunk of the money on the worst performing property (because it is considerably colder than any of the other properties).  

horsemouth thinks the money would best be spent getting as many properties up to the EPC C standard as possible. and then at least the communal endeavour will know it has complied with the regulatory requirements upon it (and it should save people some money on their gas and electricity bills).

up at the house on the common there's a video surveillance sign up and someone has been in and taken down some of the larger trees in the back garden with a chainsaw (a very big chainsaw by the looks of it).

meanwhile in the house of commons when keir starmer got up to give his speech of apology for the grenfell disaster many other MPs also got up and left to be self-important and invaluable elsewhere. nice one MPs! keep it classy. members of grenfell united including people who had lost family members in the fire were in the public gallery. 

it's a dark grey morning. horsemouth has just turned the lights on and it's 8.19. there is serious low cloud and there is serious fog. horsemouth has a slight headache but when he has finished the thing with the repairman his week is over.