The Night Mail

[TheQ]

SWMBO, moved from "we're not having another dog", after the loss of Ben, to today she said," if we have another dog".

 

I was the water tester for legionella disease for Tescos for East Anglian, clambering around in the roof spaces of supermarkets and filling stations, even in the UK , on a normal summers day of just above 20C, they were often well over 40C.

 

I'm dreading our main freezer failing, it's a huge chest freezer installed in the kitchen conservatory before, washing machine, drier, dishwasher, a lot of cupboards and shelves. The freezer is pre 1999.

[AndyID]

2 hours ago, jjb1970 said:

Air conditioning is addictive. I find ceiling fans fine most of the time unless it's a very hot day. We run them at night to cool the bedrooms before going to bed, once cooled down the ceiling fans are fine. 

 

We came to hate air conditioning. If the A/C konks out in Arizona you are in a motel PDQ. Fortunately we don't need it here. It can get pretty toasty in the afternoon but it cools down quickly in the evening.

[Northmoor]

Grrr, freezers.  I'll summarise our experience this year.....

• We bought a HiSense fridge-freezer in March (replacing a F/F only about four years old) from ao.com.
• In mid-July it suddenly stopped freezing, fortunately we have an "overflow" under-counter freezer in the garage so nothing wasted. We went online with ao.com and the advice was take it up with the manufacturer's warranty company to request repair.  Chilled items were now being kept in cool bags with a cycle of cool packs back and forth to the freezer.
• Three days later the fridge failed.  The booked engineer's visit got delayed for four days because he was ill.  Must be the only one in SE England.
• Engineer said it was short of coolant.  He didn't have any coolant, plus pumping coolant into a leaking system would hardly be good practice.
• Another engineer turned up about a week later with a replacement circuit board, they knew nothing about the previous engineer's diagnosis.  Replaced it and the F/F still didn't work, funnily enough.
• After nearly four weeks and some pretty irate phone calls* we called ao.com.  They offered to set up a 3-way with Hisense but after 30 minutes they couldn't get a response from them either, so offered to replace the appliance immediately.  I suspect there might have been a quite irate phone call which we weren't party to where ao.com tore them a new one for how they treated ao's customers.

 

*Never with the ladies on the helpdesk, not their fault they were unable to forward me to anyone who could actually do anything or make a decision.  Like too may helpdesks they are just low-paid staff there to form a barrier to those with the authority, responsibility and the salary to reflect this, but are protected from having to actually deal with anyone.  But I did ask the helpdesk to pass on my view of their company as incompetent beyond belief.  They had the option of repairing or replacing their product under warranty and In four weeks, had managed to do neither.

[SM42]

I have an interesting conversation  with the helpless of a high St retailer who deals with bike and car accessories 

 

" Can I have your email  address for GDPR?'

 

" Odd.  No you cannot  because of GDPR."

 

Alll I wanted  was to call my local store to save me a trip over to ask a question. 

 

They tried for me, to ask the question that is,  ( how odd) but couldn't get through. ( you'll need to hold for more than 30 seconds) 

 

I drove over in the end. 

 

 Question asked, acceptable answer received, services engaged and a repaired bike ridden home today. 

 

The whole personal visit took less time than the call. 

 

Andy

[J. S. Bach]

5 hours ago, Hroth said:

 ...snip...

Mmmm, dinner!

[J. S. Bach]

45 minutes ago, SM42 said:

I have an interesting conversation  with the helpless of a high St retailer who deals with bike and car accessories

" Can I have your email  address for GDPR?'

" Odd.  No you cannot  because of GDPR." ...snip...

Andy

And what is gdpr?

[skipepsi]

General Data Protection Regulation

[J. S. Bach]

We have similar laws over here.

[Hroth]

21 minutes ago, J. S. Bach said:

Mmmm, dinner!

 

I think the National Trust would take umbrage if you tried to dine on one of their deer.....

 

https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/cheshire-greater-manchester/dunham-massey

 

The ldeer was lounging just to the left of the central stone feature.

[Winslow Boy]

2 hours ago, SM42 said:

I have an interesting conversation  with the helpless of a high St retailer who deals with bike and car accessories 

 

" Can I have your email  address for GDPR?'

 

" Odd.  No you cannot  because of GDPR."

 

Alll I wanted  was to call my local store to save me a trip over to ask a question. 

 

They tried for me, to ask the question that is,  ( how odd) but couldn't get through. ( you'll need to hold for more than 30 seconds) 

 

I drove over in the end. 

 

 Question asked, acceptable answer received, services engaged and a repaired bike ridden home today. 

 

The whole personal visit took less time than the call. 

 

Andy

That is the idea. Make it as awkward as they can in order to stop you from stopping them from doing some "proper work" - I'll leave that bit up to you to decide what "proper work" might be.

[J. S. Bach]

Night Owl from the Piedmont.

[AndyID]

3 hours ago, Hroth said:

 

I think the National Trust would take umbrage if you tried to dine on one of their deer.....

 

https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/cheshire-greater-manchester/dunham-massey

 

The ldeer was lounging just to the left of the central stone feature.

 

But they were brought to Britain for so affluent types could have their venison.

[BR60103]

I do this with my freezers:

Fill plastic water bottle halfway with water.  Freeze it in standing position.  Leave it in freezer on its side.

Check, if suspicious, to see if the ice has melted and refrozen in new position.

I used this in our motorhome when travelling with power off.

 

 

[jjb1970]

On dogs we never had another after my parents last one was put to sleep. Although we all may know it is the kind thing to do my parents said they could never go through it again, they were adamant the dog knew what was happening from the way she looked at them for the last time (which I believe, simply because the body language and emotions from them must have been like a 2000decibel klaxon). 

 

My dad used to joke it was the most expensive dog in the world even though it was a scrawny mongrel desert dog. She attached herself to him near the end of his time in Jeddah (Saudi Arabia) and he decided to bring her home meaning flying her over and paying for quarantine etc. She must have been quite young at the time as we had her for over ten years, she looked like a skinny and small alsatian, very nice looking dog.

 

My kids won't believe she was racist, I shouldn't laugh about it as it could be misconstrued but those familiar with the Islamic world might know many Muslims have a thing about dogs and can treat them very badly, throw stones at them to drive them off etc. The experience left our dog with a life long aversion to anyone who looked remotely middle eastern. Which might not have been a problem but we lived next to the local hospital which had a lot of Asian doctors and student doctors, she used to go nuts whenever she saw them, growling and acting in a rather threatening way, oh dear......

[polybear]

2 hours ago, jjb1970 said:

My kids won't believe she was racist, I shouldn't laugh about it as it could be misconstrued but those familiar with the Islamic world might know many Muslims have a thing about dogs and can treat them very badly, throw stones at them to drive them off etc. 

 

I believe Muslims have an aversion to cats as well

[pH]

CN and CPKC in Canada are shut down as of Thursday. CN have locked out their unions as of about half an hour ago (Midnight EST). (It’s just been announced that CPKC have locked out their unions too.) The railways have been refusing some offered traffic for the last couple of days, and some shippers have stopped offering traffic. This is the first time both major Canadian railways have been shut down at the same time.

The US lines of both railways will continue to operate, but nothing will be crossing the Canada/USA border in either direction.

 

While this overwhelmingly affects freight, there are commuter operations that use  CN or CPKC tracks. They will also be shut down - in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver.

[Compound2632]

33 minutes ago, polybear said:

I believe Muslims have an aversion to cats as well

 

A quick bit of goggling demonstrates that your belief is unfounded. Rather the reverse: cats are considered to be ritually pure and indeed the Prophet Muhammad is traditionally believed to have had a favourite cat called Muezza. 

[Oldddudders]

1 hour ago, Compound2632 said:

the Prophet Muhammad is traditionally believed to have had a favourite cat called Muezza. 

And the chap who calls the faithful to prayer is a muezzin, so perhaps she was particularly articulate.

 

As it happens my 2-y-o tabby re-appeared last night, after 12 days unexplained absence. As the fields around us have all been harvested, I suppose he's had to go further to find vermin to chase, but all the same. His injections are due in the next few days, so he'll be so pleased to be in time for those!

[Happy Hippo]

9 hours ago, Hroth said:

 

I think the National Trust would take umbrage if you tried to dine on one of their deer.....

 

https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/cheshire-greater-manchester/dunham-massey

 

The ldeer was lounging just to the left of the central stone feature.

Like all deer herds, they have to be 'managed' (culled) on a regular basis to ensure they remain fit and healthy.

 

Almost invariably, this is carried out with a rifle, but the type of deer will affect the calibre and type of ammunition used, as will where you intend to place your shot.

[polybear]

1 hour ago, Compound2632 said:

 

A quick bit of goggling demonstrates that your belief is unfounded. Rather the reverse: cats are considered to be ritually pure and indeed the Prophet Muhammad is traditionally believed to have had a favourite cat called Muezza. 

My understanding was based on info from a (white UK) friend who lived and worked in Malaysia; his wife was Malaysian (and I’m pretty sure Muslim) - the idea of a cat as a pet horrified her (based on teachings/upbringing) - but soon came round to the idea once they’d got one.

She rapidly learned than many things she been tought weren’t quite what they seemed after all.

 

Bear

(who has a very, very good buddy who is Muslim)

[iL Dottore]

8 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

Like all deer herds, they have to be 'managed' (culled) on a regular basis to ensure they remain fit and healthy.

 

Almost invariably, this is carried out with a rifle, but the type of deer will affect the calibre and type of ammunition used, as will where you intend to place your shot.

I recently read that in one of the North Eastern states activists managed to stop the culling of deer herds. Now it seems that in that state, suburban gardens, farmers’ fields and elsewhere are facing an onslaught of starving and diseased deer that are causing significant disruption and damage.

 

A clean kill is a quick end and much more humane than letting the poor beasts die slowly of starvation and disease (of course, nature intended that apex predators would do the job of keeping herds “under control”, but humans got rid of those…)

[Compound2632]

24 minutes ago, polybear said:

My understanding was based on info from a (white UK) friend who lived and worked in Malaysia; his wife was Malaysian (and I’m pretty sure Muslim) - the idea of a cat as a pet horrified her (based on teachings/upbringing) - but soon came round to the idea once they’d got one.

She rapidly learned than many things she been tought weren’t quite what they seemed .

 

Which might suggest aversion to cats is an aspect of Malaysian culture rather than Islam? 

[Compound2632]

Just as a preference for bitter is a product of English culture rather than of Anglican teaching.

[Happy Hippo]

20 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

I recently read that in one of the North Eastern states activists managed to stop the culling of deer herds. Now it seems that in that state, suburban gardens, farmers’ fields and elsewhere are facing an onslaught of starving and diseased deer that are causing significant disruption and damage.

 

A clean kill is a quick end and much more humane than letting the poor beasts die slowly of starvation and disease (of course, nature intended that apex predators would do the job of keeping herds “under control”, but humans got rid of those…)

In the Ultimately Shoot Anything, target acquisition is so poor in the hunting community, that one needs to wear bright orange when out in the woods to avoid getting shot.

 

I am led to believe that this also why the train crews in certain areas wear bright orange bump caps over and above their hi viz tabards.

 

Interestingly, it appears that these tabards can be either orange or yellow.  In the UK, anyone who goes trackside on the national rail network must wear orange, as yellow is a colour used in signalling.  One would have thought that being trackside in a yellow jacket would be an advantage as it does highlight that the driver might like to exercise some caution🤣.  However, I assume that orange does show up better than yellow in certain light conditions.

[pH]

4 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

In the Ultimately Shoot Anything, target acquisition is so poor in the hunting community, that one needs to wear bright orange when out in the woods to avoid getting shot.

It doesn’t always work. One year, after the first day of deer-hunting season in Ontario, a local newspaper had an article titled “Hunters 1, Deer 2”.