It’s dad’s birthday on tomorrow and I’ve made a present for him. It’s a novelty Norwich City football. It’s got a miniature MP3 player and a tilt switch inside it. If you turn the ball over, it will play the next song in a set of 3 Norwich Football songs (“On The Ball City” which is possibly the worlds oldest football song that’s still in regular use and “The Canaries” and “The Norwich City Calypso” from a single produced in 1972 when the club first got to play in the top flight).

The ball as shown isn’t quite round. I added a middle bit as to help with some I hadn’t thought of... That is that the volume level drops when the two half spheres are joined together. I could try a redesign instead but at around 9 hrs to print one of the 100mm dia halves (yes, 3d printing can be very slow…), I’m not keen on that idea. He’s sure to like it as it is anyway.

Other things… We had a power cut last week. It only lasted about 2 hours but it left me with a bit of a poser when it happened. Wiltshire Farms arrived with a large order of frozen meals about 5 minutes into the cut and before I had any information on it. I wasn’t sure whether to accept the order and open the porch freezer to put in in or what and the delivery driver didn’t know either. I took the gamble that power would be restored soon (cuts are usually short here) and it worked out OK.

I’ve just had an email that my (mostly) greenhouse seeds have been dispatched. I’d ordered them a while back but the company said they were struggling (staff shortage with Covid and the busy time of year for them) and there would be a delay. I should have them in the next couple of days and will start planting the seeds in the propagator in the porch.