Early Risers.

[The Stationmaster]

G'night all.

[Ozexpatriate]

3 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

I had no idea about his politics. I had enjoyed people watching the dynamics within the group. 

Jamie I assumed so and did not mean to imply anything by my observation. Queensland politics is some of the craziest in the English speaking world.

 

3 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

The cafe is in the Alice Street Botannical gardens at the top of the hill above the river. It's about 500 yards from the main entrance on Alice St . We loved the gardens and thought them well laid out.

Thank you. I had guessed it was Alice Street and was trying to place/remember exactly where.

 

My dad has some great slides of the gardens from the 1950s. Sadly the colours are starting to go (or at least they were already going the last time that I viewed them which is years ago now).

 

In many of Dad's slides you can see the Galápagos tortoises that made the gardens their home from 1860 - 1950s.  They had previously lived down-river at Newstead House from 1841 - 1860. Reputedly (though some argue differently) they were collected during Charles Darwin's expedition on the Beagle in 1835. Somehow they wound up in the Queensland colony. Harriet (the last of the tortoises) spent her last days at Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo (where I was able to see her) before dying in 2006, having lived for around 175 years. During her time at the gardens she developed a fondness for hibiscus flowers, which became her favourite food.

[Robert]

Morning All,

 

We have a very damp morning today.  It seems to have been raining for much of the night, and is still doing so.  However, it is very good for the garden!

 

Time for a coffee.

 

Have a good day everyone...

[jamie92208]

3 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Jamie I assumed so and did not mean to imply anything by my observation. Queensland politics is some of the craziest in the English speaking world.

 

Thank you. I had guessed it was Alice Street and was trying to place/remember exactly where.

 

My dad has some great slides of the gardens from the 1950s. Sadly the colours are starting to go (or at least they were already going the last time that I viewed them which is years ago now).

 

In many of Dad's slides you can see the Galápagos tortoises that made the gardens their home from 1860 - 1950s.  They had previously lived down-river at Newstead House from 1841 - 1860. Reputedly (though some argue differently) they were collected during Charles Darwin's expedition on the Beagle in 1835. Somehow they wound up in the Queensland colony. Harriet (the last of the tortoises) spent her last days at Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo (where I was able to see her) before dying in 2006, having lived for around 175 years. During her time at the gardens she developed a fondness for hibiscus flowers, which became her favourite food.

No problem at all.  The gardens were very good. Apparently the pond by th eAlice Ste entrance was rebuilt at some point and is now an arty type of shape rather than round.

 

Today we walked over the river and along the South bank through what is now a lovely park but was the site of Expo88. Then a City Cat down the river to Hamilton before lunch at New Farm Park and back to the city. We got off at the south end of Queen st and Beth was so busy berating me about something minor that she totally missed th naked man in handcuffs lying face down on the floor gaursed by a police officer. Then a bit of shopping and bqck to the hotel. By some quirk of fate an Australian Railway Magazine found it's way into my sticky mit.

 

Jamie

[chrisf]

Good morning one and all.  Once again I have slumbered overlong but if it part of the healing process then I can hardly complain.

 

Last night's quiz was not as enjoyable as it might have been.  The format of directing questions to each team in turn is vulnerable to all concerned remembering whose turn it is.  The home team was thrashed, again, and there does seem to be little appetite for continuing with the contest.  If I get time before I head for Harpenden this morning - Area Group lunch, followed by concert in London - I will set about writing a report for the Club Bulletin.  This will need to be dispassionate and I'm not in that sort of mood right now. 

 

I promised to return to the subject of my forthcoming trip to Exeter.  Not for the first time, you lot have been wonderful and generous with your advice and I feel guilty for not being able to take it all on board.  Fixed point one is where I will be staying - the Travelodge near M5 J30.  Everywhere else was more expensive and this place is handy for the park and ride bus.  Where it leaves much to be desired is breakfast.  Travelodge do not excel at this vital commodity.  Wetherspoons do and I have four from which to choose, with the fare offered by the service area in which the hotel is located as back-up.  Breakfast needs to be comprehensive as the nature of the event that I am to attend is such that I will not know where the next meal is coming from - never as bad as it sounds.  If there is a source of a decent full English other than 'Spoons in Exeter city centre I'm interested!  Fixed point two is the event that I will be attending.  The parade is due to assemble at the St Sidwell Centre from 11.30 and move off at noon, cluttering up the city centre for an hour or so before arriving at Northernhay Gardens where the festival takes place.  My lack of familiarity with Exeter city centre is such that I have spent a couple of hours printing off maps to help me find things.  The last time I can recall being there was several Sidmouths ago when I had to spend the morning and much of the afternoon there, firstly buying a new tent and then taking its defective poles back to the shop.  Apart from whatever merchandise may take my fancy at the festival I have no plans to go shopping!  However, if I reach the hotel at a sensible hour on the Friday afternoon - big if where the M5 is involved! - I plan to get the bus into the city centre and familiarise myself with the landmarks and amenities.

 

Best wishes to all

 

Chris

[TheQ]

Mooring Awl, Inner Temple Hare,

About 5 hours sleep in 3 pieces not so good..

 

I would love to get 2 bar water pressure, if I open a downstairs tap we get none upstairs.  When we still had a tank in the roof occasionally it would run dry as the water wasn't high enough pressure. Normally when I get up in the morning we have, full for us, pressure so when I open the cold tap  we just get cold water. But later in the day when I open the cold tap the combi boiler comes on as the pressure drops..

 

As for the history I see mentioned before I've heard of all the references But my main history subject at Inverness high school was British and european history 1800-1945. Anything out of that I've known probably due either due to a bit of general history done or because I read a lot of history books.

 

Two Cockwombles today, the first obviously had a good noght last night or something this morning , he was bouncing against the grass verges or wandering across to the other lane, along with massive direction changes trying to go round curves.  He later carried on at 40+ when I slowed to the 30 limit of Effin clown town, I was glad of the extra distance between him and me.. The second cockwomble pulled out of his drive looking the wrong way on the road, when he turned his head to look right, he stood on his brakes and I swerved around the front of his car.

 

I'm going to do some resistors this morning, 20G ohm ones, thats 20 minutes settling time for each measurement when I can't move.. I have 5 measurements to do....

 

Time to sit around a lot..

 

 

[Barry O]

Ey up!

Hope all who ail are improving and that some of our missing ERs call by.

 

I have a car to pack and prepare for our trip to Robin Hoods Bay.

Various emails must also be answered (mainly regarding cricket) before we go. Have a good day everyone.

 

Baz

[roundhouse]

Good morning from what was a wet Glasgow last night.

 

This morning we plan to go to Weymss Bay, a wonderful Station then catch the ferry to Rothsey for a quick pint then back. Will be using the Strathclyde day tripper ticket so should be able to take th bus from Weymss Bay to Lairgs then train from there

[TheQ]

Sat here doing not a lot.. waiting..

I notice BQ are doing modular fence panels...£200 per panel!!

I walked into the outer lab and even more equipment has been removed, and electricity supplies removed from the wall ready for the AC installation which is due to happen Tuesday.

 

Well I'm over the hump for the week as we have Friday off of course, probably to be spent shopping... The other 3 days of the easter break will be spent building the tin garage.

 

The reference is 19.980483 G ohm +1000 ppm (as the dmm is set 1000ppm low so I can read over 20 G Ohms) First measurement done, time to wander down the factory and get the first unit to be tested.

 

The forecast has changed the weather will have more easterly winds, which means while most of the rest of you get into the low 20's C we'll be lucky to reach 15C  at this time of year, till the north sea warms up..

[The Stationmaster]

Morning all,

 

Nice sunny day, even in Harwich according to the BBC.  You all be good while I'm all at sea an' that.

 

Have a good day one and all.

[grandadbob]

Good morning all, 

'Tis a fine one at that and should stay that way. We had a bit of rain yesterday but as John mentioned elsewhere we could do with some more.

Electrician has confirmed he will be available the week after the shed is erected. He's doing some work in the house as well so will be here for two to three days.

Shopping first today and then I have some paperwork and finances to deal with.

Have a good one,

Bob.

[BoD]

Enjoy your trip Mike.

[laurenceb]

Have a good trip Mike 

Mornin awl 

[Dave Hunt]

Yesterday I finally got past the 'analysis causing paralysis' stage of base***rd planning and ordered the wood cut to size. Although it may take a couple of weeks for it to arrive it will save me a lot of time and since we have family descending on us in relays starting on Thursday for over a week that is something that will be in short supply for a while. Market day today so SWMBO and I are just about to start a planning session on what supplies are required for the first few days of the gathering then I'll be off shopping.

The car decided to complain about its catalytic converter again when SWMBO was driving it so she took it back to the garage where the result was the same as before - 'undocumented fault' - so they said again to leave it for a while and see how it goes. A short while later I was out in it and lo and behold, no warning light so I think it is probably a glitch in the fault detection system but what to do about it? If I'm lucky it may go away but then again.....

Anyway, once muggercoffee is finished I'd better get on with things. Have a good day everyone with thoughts and prayers for those who can't.

 

Dave

[grandadbob]

Bon voyage, Mike.

[Kingzance]

11 hours ago, JohnDMJ said:

BTW, if you're in a hard water area, get a decent permutit style water softener. Works infinitely better than filters and will save you £s on calgon and the like for your washing machines. BTW, it's safe to drink too, and tastes a lot better. I have this one! If you have the choice, route the softened water to all washing machines, the boiler and all washing outlets. Route the hard water to the cisterns and garden tap. (I ain't wasting softened water to flush the loo!) I've used a permutit style water softener since 1967 in various forms with no problems.

I'm a fan of water softeners but SWMBO isn't - says she has to use too much water rinsing her hair but won't reduce the amount of shampoo she uses. That was a battle I was never going to win so I surrendered.
Modern softeners can be designed to regenerate their resin chambers by time or by volume. Those that use volume are far better, as are those described as "duplex" where there are two resin chambers. This ensures one is always in service whilst the other regenerates. The chemistry of said devices results in a higher level of Sodium ions in the treated water. In the case of drinking water, this is not good for anyone who should be on a low sodium diet and so a separate drinking water tap is advised in all installations. In almost every other way, soft water wins (the exception is if brewing beer at home).

As for water pressure issues, we live in a new house with its own supply from a recently relaid water main. If I need to top up the closed circuit in the boiler after bleeding a radiator (necessary once after we moved in), I can easily get in excess of an indicated 2 Bar. I don't as I like to keep the system at around 1.5-2 Bar so the system's relief valve is not close to releasing excess pressure. 

Last night's cribbage was fine but the trip back home proved eventful. We discovered an elderly village resident (who suffers from Alzheimers) somewhat lost and certainly unprepared to be out as we approached the midnight hour. Luckily one of the group new knew of him so we were able to contact his family get him back home and into the warm. The poor old guy even wanted to pay us but his offer was of course refused. The joys of longevity!

Ah well, back to treating large areas of wood for the rest of the day.

 

Edited April 17, 2019 by Kingzance
Knowing me, knowing you aha!

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone 

 

The sun is shining and the sky is blue, but there are quite a few clouds about. Once breakfast has been consumed I will make a start on a carrot cake, which has been requested by Ava for tonight’s tea. 

 

Dave. Part of my work before retiring, was fault finding. I always liked to be able to find something tangible that I could say was the cause of the problem and I always HATED it when I couldn’t find what caused the fault, because you could always guarantee it would come back again and often when you didn’t want it to. In fact, I would often dismantle parts, particularly those that seemed to go WRONG on a regular basis, to see if I could find out why. Doing this once solved a regularly occurring, but a very expensive fault. Turned out to be a valve spindle leaking and filling up the inside of the motor drive unit, burning out the motor and PCB. I guess it comes down to the fact that I’m just a nosey bu99er.

 

Mike. Enjoy your trip. 

 

Back later

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. I've made some adjustments since having the smart meter installed, reducing the amount of water I put in the kettle and switching on some lights only when necessary. I also reset the fridge/freezer as it was set for summer temperatures, it is also in dire need of a defrost. I was considering a water softener but after what Kingzance said about them raising sodium levels I'll give them a miss. I am just keeping my BP within safe limits without popping pills and I want to keep it that way. Thats it for now, be back later.

[Sir TophamHatt]

22 hours ago, Kingzance said:

have you tried the Energy Saving Trust as you are of a senior disposition?

 

Too young

And earn too much (despite earning under £30k a year!) to get any sort of grants for anything.

 

It wasn't too bad a chat actually.

 

More fun - someone who we had quote us for a new fence turned up for next door to quote them!  He is a bit more expensive for the cheapest fence than someone else, but less expensive than what we want from the fence.  It's whether Mrs STH will accept a more rubbish fence at 50/50 cost or whether she'll want something more expensive and we foot 100% of the cost.

 

Interesting times ahead!

[Sir TophamHatt]

23 hours ago, tigerburnie said:

Sir TH if you can get a condensing combi boiler, saves money, no tanks and it runs off 2bar pressure and you only heat water when you need it.

 

This is what we're changing to.

 

Means I'd get about a 3rd extra space in the loft.

 

The downside means I have to spend a day moving things around to board it... after spending a little more to get the hatch widened!

[AndyB]

Afternoon all,

First day off and not due back in the office until next Tuesday. 

Plans for the week are mainly around diy. But if I make adequate progress I may get a day working on the layout. 

So, on that note I shall grab a paint brush and start! 

Have a nice day one and all.

[grandadbob]

14 minutes ago, AndyB said:

So, on that note I shall grab a paint brush and start! 

Have a nice day one and all.

 

On my recent perambulations around the garden I have noticed that our fences are in dire need of a coat of something.

On my recent clear out of the shed I found 2 large containers of something to coat the fences with.

I have now hidden them and "forgotten" where I put them!  

[Dave Hunt]

Speaking of fences, a pal of mine recently told someone that they should back a horse in the National called Creosote because it was good on fences. The following day said person complained to him that he had given bad advice because there was no such horse running - she knew that for a fact because the bookie had told her so.....

 

It's a nice day here. Now I've done the shopping etc I think I'll spend the rest of it indoors - in the workshop.

 

Ta ta

 

Dave

[Ian Abel]

17 hours ago, JohnDMJ said:

 

Yeah, you will get (if the supply is up to the job) 2 bar out of one tap. Switch on a second tap (happens often if there's more than one of you in the house IMHO) and you get 1 bar out of each tap. 4 taps on, 0.5 bar per tap.

 

Never mind the 2 bar bit, with a properly designed and plumbed tank system, at each tap at each level (pressure = water density x gravity x head) you will get the same water pressure regardless of how many are on.

 

It's basic physics!

Just to add some "confusion" into the mix. I never EVER understood why "back home" it's all run from some water tank relying on gravity to provide the pressure.

After my first visit to the US, and discovering that showers actually have "PRESSURE", and that flushing a toilet in the house doesn't mean the rest of the house has a dribble from any faucet until the tank fills, I can honestly say having street pressure water supplies are one of the modern wonders of the world 

I'm sure there are pros/cons to every choice, but, simultaneously flushing a couple of loos, while the washing machine is running, and someone is showering, with the system NOT losing any pressure is simply brilliant - personal opinion of course

 

EDIT: The second sentence applies to all the "Older" houses such as those I grew up in, I'm sure/hopeful that new/newer housing now uses a more sensible method than dead pigeon infested loft tanks

Edited April 17, 2019 by Ian Abel

[TheQ]

A loft tank should of course have a lid on it but many have been displaced or lost over the years..

My own loft still has the cut outs from when the "tank" was a barrel filled from the well, water from which was pumped up when required..

 

At the last company social raffle a man with no hair won a hair dryer, This time a man with 2 acres of lawn and a ride on mower won.... a small battery push along flymow...

 

ME, I've won a BIG box of ferrero Rocher, so my brownie points runneth over, SWMBO loves them..