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Neil Turner's Blog

Neil Turner's Blog

@neilturner.me.uk

Technology and randomness, since 2002

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Getting free prescriptions in England

As well as a free bus pass, one of the silver linings of being diagnosed with epilepsy is that I no longer have to pay for prescription medication. Epilepsy is one of several medical conditions which makes me eligible for a medical exemption certificate which you can get from the NHS Business Services Authority. There...

englandepilepsy

Setting the Stage at the Media Museum

2026 marked 70 years since the very first Eurovision Song Contest, and so the National Science and Media Museum in Bradford is holding a special exhibition called Setting the Stage. I visited a couple of weeks ago, along with our ten-year-old and some friends from university. Setting the Stage spans two floors, taking up both...

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My disabled bus pass

As I'm currently unable to drive for health reasons, I've applied for a Disabled Person’s Travel Pass to give me free bus travel. Indeed, the letter I received from the DVLA notifying me that I was unfit to drive was sufficient proof that I'm eligible for a bus pass. I wish I'd known this when...

Recent ESPHome things

This is a miscellaneous post about recent things that have happened with the ESPHome project, and how I've implemented them at home. As well as a little bit of troubleshooting. ESPHome Remote Build server The fact that you can compile ESPHome binaries for each individual device is both a good thing and a bad thing....

I have new glasses now. These are my third pair since I started wearing glasses in 2021, and, for the first time, I have varifocal lenses in them. My eye test was actually back in July, and I picked up the new pair in August, so I've had almost two months to get used to...

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MCR Made Icons at the Manchester Arndale

If you fancy seeing a bit of free public art, head along to the Manchester Arndale Centre some time in the next three weeks to see the MCR Made Icons. These are massive balloons, suspended from the shopping centre's ceilings, depicting various famous Mancunians. All the designs are by Mancunian illustrator Stanley Chow. He's done...

A not so autumnal start to October

The very warm summer has given way to quite a warm autumn. We still haven't yet put the heating back on, which is nice from a money saving perspective, but makes me a little concerned about climate change. Certainly, many trees still seem to have most of their leaves - at least, those that didn't...

bathroomoctober

Unblogged September

It's been a year since I started doing these round-ups of things that haven't warranted a full blog post at the end of each month. There's a few things to talk about this month, which has once again been a busy one. Work has been busy as it's the start of term, and we've had...

The Washing Line Index

Is it worth hanging your washing out to dry? If you live in the UK, then The Washing Line Index is a web site designed to help you make that decision. It was created by a guy in Sheffield, and gives a score from 1-5 for how likely it is that your wet laundry will...

How to: hide Substack links on Bluesky

Do you hate nazis? Do you want to boycott a platform that makes money from nazis? If your response to this is 'sure, that's why I use Bluesky instead of Twitter/X', then you should also be boycotting Substack. Substack has been tolerating far-right content since back when Twitter was still called Twitter. Indeed, there are...

Frogs behind the scenes at the Manchester Museum

We finally got to redeem my wife's Christmas present, and go behind the scenes at the Vivarium at the Manchester Museum to meet their collection of frogs and toads.

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What we didn’t do on our Wales holiday

Back in 2024, when we went to Northumberland for our summer holiday, I posted a list of the places that we didn't go to but had considered. I didn't publish a list last year, as I knew we were going back to Wales this year. But we've decided we'll be going to the Yorkshire Coast...