Neil Turner
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mastodon.neilturner.me.uk
Neil Turner
@mastodon.neilturner.me.uk
Millennial Yorkshire queer partially deaf geek dad/husband. Works in university admissions, specialising in PhD and MBA. Likes photography and social media […]

[bridged from https://mastodonapp.uk/@neilturner on the fediverse by https://fed.brid.gy/ ]
I've been asked this survey question about who my electricity supplier is.

Except:
🔵 It's missing Octopus and Ovo, now the biggest and third biggest suppliers
🟢 It includes nPower and SSE which no longer have retail electricity businesses.
November 13, 2025 at 7:18 PM
New blog post: Playlist of the month: Songs about Trains

Inspired by Sunday’s blog post, this month’s playlist is all songs about trains. There’s no shortage of songs about trains – Wikipedia has a list of almost 800 – but what I did notice when compiling […]

[Original post on mastodonapp.uk]
November 13, 2025 at 10:05 AM
New blog post: WordPress Wayback Link Fixer plugin

Link rot is a major problem for long-established web sites that link to other sites. It’s a particular problem for blogs – the word ‘blog’ is, after all, a shortened form of ‘web log’ and the original blogs […]

[Original post on mastodonapp.uk]
November 11, 2025 at 10:05 AM
New blog post: Why do I like trains so much?

If you’ve been reading this blog for a long time, you may have noticed that I write about trains and public transport quite a bit. Recent posts have included the railway station in Wales with the excessively long […]

[Original post on mastodonapp.uk]
November 9, 2025 at 10:05 AM
Current broadband provider has sent me THREE emails in the space of half an hour as a result of signing up to switch to another provider. Smacks of desperation frankly.
November 8, 2025 at 9:36 AM
Urgh, it's *Thursday*
November 6, 2025 at 11:50 AM
New blog post: Using an iPad as a desktop PC

If you have one of the newer iPad Air or iPad Pro models, then you can plug in an external keyboard, mouse and screen, and use it like a desktop PC. All you need is USB-C docking station with USB and HDMI ports […]

[Original post on mastodonapp.uk]
November 5, 2025 at 10:05 AM
Oh wow, not seen one of these messages in a while!

(Technically the UK isn't part of the EEA anymore)
November 4, 2025 at 7:27 PM
New blog post: The World of Glass

Until a few weeks ago, I wasn’t aware that there was a museum dedicated to glass in St Helens. But Diamond Geezer recently visited on one of his non-London gadabouts, and so I took our nine-year-old along to The World of […]

[Original post on mastodonapp.uk]
November 3, 2025 at 10:06 AM
New blog post: Now it’s November

Good grief, are we really almost at the end of 2025 already? I can’t believe it’s November now. We had a quiet end to October, as both Christine and I had bad colds. Indeed, we had several days booked off work together, and the best that we could manage was a […]
Original post on mastodonapp.uk
mastodonapp.uk
November 1, 2025 at 10:05 AM
New blog post: Unblogged October

Last month, for the first time, I did a summary blog post of things we did in September, but that didn’t merit a whole blog post. So here’s some of the things I did this month. Away day in a former nightclub Every now and […]

[Original post on mastodonapp.uk]
October 30, 2025 at 10:05 AM
New blog post: Rude Science

If you like explosions, or want to know what chemicals make up a fart, then the Rude Science live show may be right up your street. Especially if, like us, you have kids in the 6-14 age bracket. The Rude Science show came to the […]

[Original post on mastodonapp.uk]
October 28, 2025 at 10:05 AM
New blog post: Meeting the Map Men in Leeds

Last week, I went to meet the Map Men at Waterstones in Leeds. They have a new book out, called This Way Up, which you can buy from Waterstones or Amazon (sponsored link). The Map Men are Jay Foreman and Mark […]

[Original post on mastodonapp.uk]
October 26, 2025 at 10:05 AM
New blog post: Castlefield Viaduct

In my review of local National Trust properties, I somehow missed out Castlefield Viaduct in Manchester. It’s one of the newest, having only been open for a few years, and occupies an abandoned railway viaduct that crosses […]

[Original post on mastodonapp.uk]
October 24, 2025 at 9:05 AM
New blog post: How many theatres are there in Bradford?

Seeing as it’s UK City of Culture this year, and theatres are places where you can see cultural things, how many theatres are there in Bradford? I think there’s eight, and here’s a list. By the way, I’m […]

[Original post on mastodonapp.uk]
October 22, 2025 at 9:05 AM
🎶 "If you like a lot of [chocolate flavoured edible product] on your biscuit, join our club!" 🎶

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c86737yg3jlo
Penguin and Club bars can no longer be described as chocolate
The rising cost of cocoa has led to the manufacturers changing their recipe.
www.bbc.co.uk
October 20, 2025 at 5:03 PM
New blog post: Operation Ouch: Brains, Bogies and You

Last weekend, we made a return visit to the Science & Industry Museum in Manchester, to see the Operation Ouch: Brains, Bogies and You exhibition. This is the second consecutive Operation Ouch exhibition […]

[Original post on mastodonapp.uk]
October 20, 2025 at 10:52 AM
New blog post: Park and Ride for Northern English Cities

I like a good Park and Ride system. You park your car somewhere on the edge of a city, usually for free, and then switch to a more sustainable mode of transport to get to the city centre. I grew up in […]

[Original post on mastodonapp.uk]
October 18, 2025 at 9:07 AM
New blog post: Difference between level 1, 2 and 3 chargers

This is one of those blog posts where I’d wondered something, looked it up, and am now sharing what I’ve found out. When it comes to charging your electric car, you may hear the terms ‘level 2’ or […]

[Original post on mastodonapp.uk]
October 16, 2025 at 9:05 AM
New blog post: Playlist of the month: Rain

This month’s playlist is coming a little earlier than usual. As I write this, Storm Amy is delivering lots of wind and rain, and I’ve had a complete change of clothes having got completely drenched merely by being […]

[Original post on mastodonapp.uk]
October 14, 2025 at 9:05 AM
New blog post: Windows 10 Extended Security Updates

Microsoft is ending support for Windows 10 in just two days time. What this means is, if you’re using Windows 10 and don’t take action, you’ll no longer get security updates for your computer. And that would […]

[Original post on mastodonapp.uk]
October 12, 2025 at 9:06 AM
Wordle 1,576 6/6*

⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

That could've been a disaster.
October 12, 2025 at 5:15 AM
Today I learned that there's an author of a series of books who is also called Neil Turner.

I found out because someone emailed me to speak at a literature festival.
October 11, 2025 at 11:43 AM
New blog post: Haden 4-in-1 Air Fryer Microwave review

It may surprise you to hear that we haven’t owned an air fryer until recently. They’re really popular, especially as, when compared with a regular convection oven, they can cook food faster and more […]

[Original post on mastodonapp.uk]
October 10, 2025 at 9:05 AM
One perk of working in a 1960s building which hasn't been completely modernised yet, is that you sometimes see examples of original signage like this.
October 9, 2025 at 8:50 AM