Matthew Somerville
@dracos.co.uk
I help people report broken street lights, find out their bin day, plan train travel, manage an orchestra, locate the nearest postbox, research old theatre productions, keep time in a choir, and occasionally play board games | https://dracos.co.uk
The best home appliance I have is the breadmaker. It takes 1:05oz (600g) of flour, which is pleasing because doing the usual, half wholemeal/half white, means 10.5oz (300g) of each, which is easy to remember whichever units the scales are set to. And then in the morning there will be bread!
January 12, 2026 at 10:32 PM
The best home appliance I have is the breadmaker. It takes 1:05oz (600g) of flour, which is pleasing because doing the usual, half wholemeal/half white, means 10.5oz (300g) of each, which is easy to remember whichever units the scales are set to. And then in the morning there will be bread!
Early life: Wellesbourne/Adur
Childhood: Mersey
Now: Rea (with a little egret, and I once saw a kingfisher)
Childhood: Mersey
Now: Rea (with a little egret, and I once saw a kingfisher)
Birth: the Lea
Growing up: the Avon
Now: the Thames, although I live close to where the Lea empties into it (albeit the other side of the Thames)
What's your home river?
Growing up: the Avon
Now: the Thames, although I live close to where the Lea empties into it (albeit the other side of the Thames)
What's your home river?
My favorite Twitter prompt was "RT this with your home river," so reskeet this with your home river.
Mine is the Patuxent.
Mine is the Patuxent.
January 12, 2026 at 10:19 PM
Early life: Wellesbourne/Adur
Childhood: Mersey
Now: Rea (with a little egret, and I once saw a kingfisher)
Childhood: Mersey
Now: Rea (with a little egret, and I once saw a kingfisher)
Ha, if I’d ever used any health thing, but no, I’d forget to wear a watch half the time if I had one. Perhaps yes, something that just checked something I would check. “Has he checked his bank account in the past month”; can’t trust a wordle type thing because I have no consistency there either.
January 12, 2026 at 6:29 PM
Ha, if I’d ever used any health thing, but no, I’d forget to wear a watch half the time if I had one. Perhaps yes, something that just checked something I would check. “Has he checked his bank account in the past month”; can’t trust a wordle type thing because I have no consistency there either.
I do sometimes in my more morbid (or sensible planning?) moments wonder about website succession/handover. Some way of having my website know I am no longer around would be useful. But I would definitely forget to check in. Some form of authenticated process to follow, much like a will, I guess.
January 12, 2026 at 5:18 PM
I do sometimes in my more morbid (or sensible planning?) moments wonder about website succession/handover. Some way of having my website know I am no longer around would be useful. But I would definitely forget to check in. Some form of authenticated process to follow, much like a will, I guess.
Don’t worry, Masalla Merchant will never close while we’re around ;-)
January 11, 2026 at 7:54 PM
Don’t worry, Masalla Merchant will never close while we’re around ;-)
I kickstarted Wild: Serengeti four years ago, beautiful game but (due to doing so well?) overly complicated and takes far too long, so hardly ever played. Today we found and played these rules: boardgamegeek.com/thread/29542... and had a lot more fun :)
"Kid friendly" variant | Wild: Serengeti
Hello All,
I've been really enjoying coming up with "kid friendly" ways to play some of the games I love in an effort to foster a love of gaming in my youngish children. I have done this for one of ...
boardgamegeek.com
January 11, 2026 at 7:04 PM
I kickstarted Wild: Serengeti four years ago, beautiful game but (due to doing so well?) overly complicated and takes far too long, so hardly ever played. Today we found and played these rules: boardgamegeek.com/thread/29542... and had a lot more fun :)
‘Last year the company made profits of £35million on an income of £65 million — a rate of return of more than 50 per cent.
The money goes to Blackbaud, a US-based cloud software company, which bought JustGiving in 2017 for £95 million.’ www.thetimes.com/article/d6d3...
The money goes to Blackbaud, a US-based cloud software company, which bought JustGiving in 2017 for £95 million.’ www.thetimes.com/article/d6d3...
JustGiving faces investigation over claims donors are misled
The fundraising platform is accused of prompting supporters to add costly ‘tips’, helping deliver multimillion-pound returns to its US owner at donors’ expense
www.thetimes.com
January 11, 2026 at 4:56 PM
So a child’s drawing of a house? :) Or a square based pyramid I guess, might be trickier!
January 11, 2026 at 2:09 PM
So a child’s drawing of a house? :) Or a square based pyramid I guess, might be trickier!
Seems to be, still meets the legal definition, at least!
January 10, 2026 at 4:16 PM
Seems to be, still meets the legal definition, at least!
There were 22 in the 74g bag, so I assume 11. Good portion, but not sure worth a pound either (my current tactic is to buy Tony’s Chocolonely big bars in bulk and make each last a week ;) ).
January 10, 2026 at 3:09 PM
There were 22 in the 74g bag, so I assume 11. Good portion, but not sure worth a pound either (my current tactic is to buy Tony’s Chocolonely big bars in bulk and make each last a week ;) ).
Cadbury Mini Eggs over the past few years:
2022, 80g: £1
2023, 80g: £1.25
2024, 80g: £1.50
2025, 80g: £1.85
2026, 74g: £2
Dunno why, but this hits my “just won’t bother” threshold. I wonder if I’d be more likely to get a £1 37g bag; probably?
2022, 80g: £1
2023, 80g: £1.25
2024, 80g: £1.50
2025, 80g: £1.85
2026, 74g: £2
Dunno why, but this hits my “just won’t bother” threshold. I wonder if I’d be more likely to get a £1 37g bag; probably?
January 10, 2026 at 2:14 PM
Cadbury Mini Eggs over the past few years:
2022, 80g: £1
2023, 80g: £1.25
2024, 80g: £1.50
2025, 80g: £1.85
2026, 74g: £2
Dunno why, but this hits my “just won’t bother” threshold. I wonder if I’d be more likely to get a £1 37g bag; probably?
2022, 80g: £1
2023, 80g: £1.25
2024, 80g: £1.50
2025, 80g: £1.85
2026, 74g: £2
Dunno why, but this hits my “just won’t bother” threshold. I wonder if I’d be more likely to get a £1 37g bag; probably?
I really enjoyed reading this alternative history murder mystery last year
Oh gawd it's January, which means my book is coming out in paperback on the 29th! Waterstones are doing an exclusive edition with red edges, a prequel chapter AND the first chapter of the sequel, The Hoard and can be pre-ordered THUSLY: www.waterstones.com/book/pagans/...
January 10, 2026 at 12:52 PM
I really enjoyed reading this alternative history murder mystery last year
Reposted by Matthew Somerville
The what now?
I should probably have the bot pick only 1 or two each time it posts, otherwise it’s a bit much when a contributor is on a roll!
I should probably have the bot pick only 1 or two each time it posts, otherwise it’s a bit much when a contributor is on a roll!
New production added: The Amorous Prawn, started 23rd August 1962, at Connaught Theatre, Worthing.
https://theatricalia.com/play/4fv/the-amorous-prawn/production/1hcb
https://theatricalia.com/play/4fv/the-amorous-prawn/production/1hcb
January 9, 2026 at 9:29 PM
The what now?
I should probably have the bot pick only 1 or two each time it posts, otherwise it’s a bit much when a contributor is on a roll!
I should probably have the bot pick only 1 or two each time it posts, otherwise it’s a bit much when a contributor is on a roll!
Those ones don’t appear to be stored in code, but in a database of some sort, so they’ll have to remove those themselves ;-)
January 9, 2026 at 9:24 PM
Those ones don’t appear to be stored in code, but in a database of some sort, so they’ll have to remove those themselves ;-)
The "quietly debuted" link still has a superfluous ] at the end, HTH.
Markdown reminds me of making a smaller version of the UK coronavirus dashboard, one part of which was a client side Markdown parser... dracos.co.uk/wrote/corona...
Markdown reminds me of making a smaller version of the UK coronavirus dashboard, one part of which was a client side Markdown parser... dracos.co.uk/wrote/corona...
Looking at coronavirus.data.gov.uk - Matthew Somerville
dracos.co.uk
January 9, 2026 at 5:56 PM
The "quietly debuted" link still has a superfluous ] at the end, HTH.
Markdown reminds me of making a smaller version of the UK coronavirus dashboard, one part of which was a client side Markdown parser... dracos.co.uk/wrote/corona...
Markdown reminds me of making a smaller version of the UK coronavirus dashboard, one part of which was a client side Markdown parser... dracos.co.uk/wrote/corona...
I put up dracos.co.uk/made/bluesky... a few weeks ago, for actual deleted posts (where you can still get the user, but obviously not the post). Guess I could add blocked posts to that, though bookmarklet makes more sense
dracos.co.uk
January 9, 2026 at 5:48 PM
I put up dracos.co.uk/made/bluesky... a few weeks ago, for actual deleted posts (where you can still get the user, but obviously not the post). Guess I could add blocked posts to that, though bookmarklet makes more sense
Perhaps I’d have made it more fancy looking if I’d known. I’ve added a sunrise ;)
January 9, 2026 at 1:41 PM
Perhaps I’d have made it more fancy looking if I’d known. I’ve added a sunrise ;)
Morrisons in Stirchley has exactly this (well, not 100m away but one in deli, one in dairy, yep)
January 9, 2026 at 7:07 AM
Morrisons in Stirchley has exactly this (well, not 100m away but one in deli, one in dairy, yep)
Think I’ve found the right repos to propose these for removal:
github.com/alphagov/gov...
github.com/alphagov/fro...
github.com/alphagov/e-p...
github.com/alphagov/gov...
github.com/alphagov/fro...
github.com/alphagov/e-p...
January 8, 2026 at 10:47 PM
Think I’ve found the right repos to propose these for removal:
github.com/alphagov/gov...
github.com/alphagov/fro...
github.com/alphagov/e-p...
github.com/alphagov/gov...
github.com/alphagov/fro...
github.com/alphagov/e-p...
EC4R 3AE is by the north bank and that’s 100%. SE1 9RQ is by the south bank and that’s only 93% (as not within the historic wall). So I imagine the middle of the bridge would be the same as the south side
January 8, 2026 at 5:48 PM
EC4R 3AE is by the north bank and that’s 100%. SE1 9RQ is by the south bank and that’s only 93% (as not within the historic wall). So I imagine the middle of the bridge would be the same as the south side
If you need to change trains at New Street, a helpful tip: the B ends of the platforms are all directly joined by walkway (red on this map), whereas the A ends are in two separate ticket-gated halves (1-5 in blue and 6-12 in green) - whoever designed it didn’t realise it’d have ticket gates‽
January 8, 2026 at 1:04 PM
If you need to change trains at New Street, a helpful tip: the B ends of the platforms are all directly joined by walkway (red on this map), whereas the A ends are in two separate ticket-gated halves (1-5 in blue and 6-12 in green) - whoever designed it didn’t realise it’d have ticket gates‽
If that turns out to be the case, the trick there in case you don’t know - when you arrive at 1a walk down the platform to the other end 1b, and go up the 1b escalator, then you walk straight down to 11b without any ticket gates which there would be if you went up the 1a end
January 8, 2026 at 12:44 PM
If that turns out to be the case, the trick there in case you don’t know - when you arrive at 1a walk down the platform to the other end 1b, and go up the 1b escalator, then you walk straight down to 11b without any ticket gates which there would be if you went up the 1a end