The Night Mail

[Dave Hunt]

35 minutes ago, Hroth said:

 

Its not a hole, its a "wallow".

 

A well planned visit from HH can be beneficial. Before the first time he came to Hunt Towers our garden had a large featureless lawn. Afterwards we had a pond feature. 
 

Dave

[Winslow Boy]

47 minutes ago, Hroth said:

 

Its not a hole, its a "wallow".

 

I thought that was what he did in the hole.

Edited yesterday at 07:24 by Winslow Boy

[Winslow Boy]

14 minutes ago, Hroth said:

 

Its to be expected, he's* been distracted by traffic cones recently.

 

* WB, not Dougie Dog

 

 

There breeding you know.

 

This morning is crunch time. More traffic. Will report back later if I survive.

[SM42]

1 hour ago, Dave Hunt said:

Having a lovely time in (not so) sunny Glasgow. Just about to go and get the train to Oban (where it is raining). At least we should have some good scenery to see out of the rain lashed windows.

 

TTFN

 

Dave

 

You may not. 

 

"If you can see the hills, it's not raining. If you can't see them, it's raining. "

 

Andy

[Northmoor]

30 minutes ago, SM42 said:

 

You may not. 

 

"If you can see the hills, it's not raining. If you can't see them, it's raining. "

 

Andy

On the West Coast of Scotland there are four weather conditions:

1. Raining
2. Just stopped raining
3. Just about to start raining
4. Midges

[Hroth]

1 hour ago, SM42 said:

 

You may not. 

 

"If you can see the hills, it's not raining. If you can't see them, it's raining. "

 

Andy

 

We say the same about Wales.

I expect the Welsh have a similar expression about England*....

 

*  According to Google Translate:

Quote

Os gallwch weld Lloegr yn bwrw glaw, os na allwch ei bwrw glaw.

 

 

Edited yesterday at 09:37 by Hroth
Got the wrong aspect for the Welsh....

[Dave Hunt]

1 hour ago, SM42 said:

 

You may not. 

 

"If you can see the hills, it's not raining. If you can't see them, it's raining. "

 

Andy

I thought it was:

”If you can’t see the hills it’s raining and if you can see the hills it’s about to rain.”

 

Dave

[PhilJ W]

9 hours ago, SM42 said:

Tomorrow ( or rather later today) promises  to be  busy.

I've also got to sort the house insurance out.  A 68% increase  on last year seems a lot, but still cheaper than anything I've found elsewhere so far. 

Andy

I received my house insurance quote back in January, it had nearly doubled! When I looked at the figures they quoted rebuild costs of £500,000, on a house recently valued at £300,000. I did no more than get a few quotes from other insurers and got a quote* for slightly less than I'd been paying.

*FYI it was from the Nationwide Building Society.

[Dave Hunt]

Just passed Loch Lomond in sunshine! Mind you, from the look of the clouds all round it’s probably about to rain, Still, it’s lovely scenery.

 

Dave

[Tony_S]

49 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

it’s probably about to rain, Still, it’s lovely scenery.

It was raining as we crossed over to Canvey Island. Nice scenery, if you like tidal marsh and mud flats. 

[SM42]

2 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

I received my house insurance quote back in January, it had nearly doubled! When I looked at the figures they quoted rebuild costs of £500,000, on a house recently valued at £300,000. I did no more than get a few quotes from other insurers and got a quote* for slightly less than I'd been paying.

*FYI it was from the Nationwide Building Society.

 

Current market value and rebuild cost are not the same. 

 

The house may only worth 300k but if it was built today, how much would it cost. 

 

Possibly less than market value, but it could also be more, which would go some way to explain  why house building has slowed to a crawl in some areas

 

It's not financially viable.

 

Rebuild costs are also the excuse the insurance industry is giving for the huge increases in  premiums

 

Based, as a rough and ready guide,  on the cost of the East Wing at SM42 Towers, I reckon it would cost just over market value to completely rebuild the whole house, not including demolition and other costs. 

 

As it so happens my renewal is about £400 lower than the next, equivalent cover, nearest quote ( £500k buildings cover only though) and includes  unlimited buildings cover. 

 

 

I have re-evaluated what I need cover for and removed some nice to haves to cut the cost a little. 

 

For instance, items in the garden are covered by house contents insurance up to a value that would probably do the job, so for an extra £ 250  of cover, it doesn't seem worth the cost.

 

The biggest con is food in freezer cover.

It's unlikely that anyone has more than the value of the excess in there, unless you really,  really like caviar. 

 

We could restock ours for about £120.

Much less than the excess. 

 

Andy

Edited yesterday at 12:40 by SM42

[SM42]

Why is it that having a badly tuned engine is so popular?

 

A car has just gone past that sounded more like a 21 gun salute than a piece of precision engineering. 

 

Didn't sound like a standard exhaust either. 

 

Andy

 

 

[polybear]

Bear Towers this morning....

 

 

OK, own up.....who was the fuggin' Jonah??  C'mon now, don't be shy.....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Winslow Boy]

Well you'll be pleased - other words are available, that I managed to avoid being mugged by the cones. There has been a frightening development. Some of the cones have mutated into barriers and are in a race with the cones to see how much road they can obstruct- none of which has any sign of being worked up.

 

Clearly my pleas to omnipotent highway engineers fell on deaf ears. What is even more worrying is that the road works have now reached the roundabout, so they are obviously trying to impend the traffic on another five roads. Gridlock here we come.

[Tony_S]

Near us on the A13 it is two lanes in each direction, no central reservation. For a while they have been roadworks while water mains are replaced.  So they dug out from the pavement shutting that lane. Not on opposite sides at the same time , so often only one lane in each direction was closed. However the stage has come where the middle lanes are being dug up , clearly marked by signs and cones, so the left and right pipes can be joined. All very clever but defeated by someone who tried to turn right, where there was no longer a right turn, and  ended up in cone land on Sunday.

[jjb1970]

4 hours ago, Northmoor said:

On the West Coast of Scotland there are four weather conditions:

1. Raining
2. Just stopped raining
3. Just about to start raining
4. Midges

 

Replace point four with dangerously high UV sunlight and it'd be Singapore 🤣

[Hroth]

1 hour ago, polybear said:

Bear Towers this morning....

 

OK, own up.....who was the fuggin' Jonah??  C'mon now, don't be shy.....

 

 

You obviously mix with the wrong sort of people!

 

[PhilJ W]

21 minutes ago, jjb1970 said:

 

Replace point four with dangerously high UV sunlight and it'd be Singapore 🤣

Yes, but Singapore rain is warmer than Scottish rain.

[PhilJ W]

1 hour ago, Tony_S said:

Near us on the A13 it is two lanes in each direction, no central reservation. For a while they have been roadworks while water mains are replaced.  So they dug out from the pavement shutting that lane. Not on opposite sides at the same time , so often only one lane in each direction was closed. However the stage has come where the middle lanes are being dug up , clearly marked by signs and cones, so the left and right pipes can be joined. All very clever but defeated by someone who tried to turn right, where there was no longer a right turn, and  ended up in cone land on Sunday.

I will be going that way on Thursday, fortunately in the early afternoon before the rush hour.

[Hroth]

Doing some junk sorting - big box full of stuff that was put aside for later,  "just in case".  Later has arrived and its being triaged into immediate use, keep for later "just in case" and chuck.  The chuck pile isn't big enough at the moment...

 

Anyhow, one of the things found was a piece of card clipped from the back of a packet of WH Smith Typing Paper, containing all sorts of info on how to produce an effective typed letter.  Headings include:

• Use of Capital Letters
• Taking Copies (Carbon paper)
• Formatting a letter
• Complimentary Closure (faithfully/sincerely)
• Folding a letter into an envelope
• Typing a report

I will be keeping* it...

 

Next, "Cokin Creative Filter System" booklet.  Keep?  Chuck?  🤔

 

* I still have three working typewriters**...

** I'm not a hoarder.  Honest!

 

Edited yesterday at 14:37 by Hroth
A bit more

[AndyID]

3 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

Just passed Loch Lomond in sunshine! Mind you, from the look of the clouds all round it’s probably about to rain, Still, it’s lovely scenery.

 

Dave

 

The weather there does tend to be a bit better there in June and September.

[Northmoor]

2 hours ago, polybear said:

 

Congratulations!  When's it due?

[SM42]

Two trips to the tip today.

 

Included in the load were some bricks I gained by removing the fireplace ( how 80s) 16 years ago.

 

I still have loads left. The damaged amongst them are now facing a future as hard-core or landfill. 

 

Other items were offcuts of flooring, a composite stone flower tub, cardboard boxes, polystyrene packing, an old mop handle and assorted other stuff from around the garden. 

 

I can now open the shed doors fully, which is good as I will need to get in there on Sunday to retrieve items from the darkest corner.

 

 

I suspect further car loads will be taken away before long. 

 

The in laws are coming in August and time is short to make The Towers tidy as the move to the West Wing moves slowly on,  the spare bedroom is packing central at the moment. 

 

I reckon another 4or 5  boxes should do it. 

 

Then I've just got to move them.

 

Andy

Edited yesterday at 15:59 by SM42

[Dave Hunt]

4 hours ago, polybear said:

Bear Towers this morning....

 

 

OK, own up.....who was the fuggin' Jonah??  C'mon now, don't be shy.....

Looks OK to me, Bear. As it indicates on the right hand side it is a cake tester, the symbology below shows that the level was taken from four drops of blood and the blank in the window by the s shows it was satisfactory .

 

Dave

Edited 23 hours ago by Dave Hunt

[SM42]

Free doughnuts today, courtesy of a voucher from Morrisons. 

 

Not the best but I'm not complaining; the price was right.

 

Andy