Early Risers.

[tigerburnie]

23 minutes ago, PeterBB said:

After 70 you have to pay for an eyesight test and a medical to 'prove' that you are fit to drive ... repeated every three years after that although if you agree to only drive a car it becomes easier.  

 

Andy - panic mode will raise your BP ... just quieten down!

Not in Scotland my eye tests are still free and I just answered a question if I could drive without glasses and had no medical history to exclude me from driving, if I wanted to carry on driving lorries, then I needed a medical. I can still drive a motor bike even though I haven't been on one for over 30 years!!

[tigerburnie]

G'night all

[AndyID]

24 minutes ago, tigerburnie said:

Not in Scotland my eye tests are still free and I just answered a question if I could drive without glasses and had no medical history to exclude me from driving, if I wanted to carry on driving lorries, then I needed a medical. I can still drive a motor bike even though I haven't been on one for over 30 years!!

 

I seem to remember I was good for steam roadrollers and a few other things but they probably took that out by now. 

[Barry O]

Good morning from Perth. Off to see the quockers shortly.

 

Does the USA add more oomph to the stuff I used in the 1980s? It was more a case of water with a bit of petrol added in those day (89 octane)

 

Petrol here is very cheap compared to the uk. 

Sleep welluk residents and get well soon Rick

Baz

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. Club night tonight and the revised date of our exhibition this year has been settled. It will be the 31st. of October (half term) for one day only. It will be at our usual venue in Laindon, the James Hornsby School.

1 hour ago, PeterBB said:

After 70 you have to pay for an eyesight test and a medical to 'prove' that you are fit to drive ... repeated every three years after that although if you agree to only drive a car it becomes easier.  

 

Andy - panic mode will raise your BP ... just quieten down!

You only have to take a medical and eye test if you want to keep 'grandfather' rights. Thats minibuses up to 17 seats and GVW of 7.5 tonnes. You are still able to drive vehicles with up to 7 seats or 3.5 tonnes GVW without taking a medical/eye test. You just have to declare that you are fit.

15 minutes ago, AndyID said:

 

I seem to remember I was good for steam roadrollers and a few other things but they probably took that out by now. 

My dad also had track laying vehicles on his licence. He had passed his test before joining the army but as a driver/mechanic he was expected to drive anything and everything.

[Gwiwer]

2 hours ago, brianusa said:

Wots "petrol"

 

[PhilJ W]

Gas or petrol. The answers simple, gasoline and petrol were trade names that were adopted for the product in general. Rather like vacumn cleaners are refered to as hoovers but unlike hoover neither name crossed the Atlantic. 

[pH]

3 hours ago, AndyID said:

Of course I had actually poisoned the catalytic converter by putting leaded petrol where leaded petrol was not supposed to go.

 

I've done similar, and put gas into a diesel. A couple of years ago, we rented a diesel van in the UK. Diesel pumps used to be green in Canada:

 

https://www.alamy.com/self-service-petrol-pump-with-diesel-regular-plus-and-supreme-grades-image238757371.html

 

Without thinking too hard, in a UK gas station, I used a green hose to put fuel into the van. I don't know what alerted me to the mistake (possibly the smell), but I stopped after about 3 litres. Since the van's large tank was almost empty, filling it up from there with diesel appeared to dilute the gas enough that it was OK. (At least, it got us a couple of hundred miles back to the rental office without any obvious problems.)

Edited January 22, 2020 by pH

[Gwiwer]

The brand name "Hoover" is very widely used in the UK generically for any vacuum cleaner but is not widely understood anywhere else.  I never heard it used in Australia.  The expression "to Hoover up" is simply "to vacuum" often suffixed with "the place".  

 

Has anyone written a thesis suggesting why some names, like Hoover, stick in certain places and not others while other names simply don't.  No-one ever goes to the Smeg or the Kelvinator for chilled food for example, nor do they flush the Shanks.  

[The Stationmaster]

Evening all,

 

 

Happy birthday Mick.  

 

Driving Licence renewal at 70 - watch the b*ggers if you tell the truth about various medical conditions because they then get effin stupid and expect you to get a medical exam within 48 hours if you really do not want to be without a Driving Licence for month while they recover from the festive season (which is what happens with a birthday barely a week after Christmas). Otherwise it's as Phil has said and you don't need a medical if you are prepared to forego teh exotic amusement of driving minibuses etc.  and do it online - if you use proper postal methods they seem intent on ignoring your communication until the last possible moment - a very uncivil bunch of public 'servants'.

 

Hope all goes well with the next medical stage for Tony - radioactive tracers can be fun if being done for teh right thing.  I had some sort of radioactive stuff injected (from a lead lined hypodermic!!) and got to watch the results on a computer monitor - it;s like devising your own extremely personal 'star burst' style screen saver as the radioactive bits get onto clots of blood and bounce around the lungs on them.   My biggest interest, and a question worth asking, was in the half life of the stuff they shot into me and it was literally only a matter if a few hours (they said).

[The Stationmaster]

12 minutes ago, Gwiwer said:

The brand name "Hoover" is very widely used in the UK generically for any vacuum cleaner but is not widely understood anywhere else.  I never heard it used in Australia.  The expression "to Hoover up" is simply "to vacuum" often suffixed with "the place".  

 

Has anyone written a thesis suggesting why some names, like Hoover, stick in certain places and not others while other names simply don't.  No-one ever goes to the Smeg or the Kelvinator for chilled food for example, nor do they flush the Shanks.  

However people do - or certainly used to  - talk about (excuse me) 'going to the crapper' so maybe said gentleman sold more of his sanitaryware than Shanks, or others. did of theirs.

 

https://www.thomas-crapper.com/The-History-of-Thomas-Crapper.html

 

Another one of course is the humble fridge which might indeed be a quick way of saying refrigerator but equally could be a shortening of Frigidaire which as an early manufacturer of the appliance often had their name used to describe any household refrigerator although that was mainly in the USA.  

 

Coming back to Britain there is of course a brand name used by the London Rubber Co on one their product ranges which was definitely in very common use at one time not too long ago to describe the article irrespective of who made it or what other LRC brand names it carried and instead of its correct name (which I suspect many people didn't even know).

Edited January 22, 2020 by The Stationmaster

[AndyID]

11 minutes ago, Gwiwer said:

The brand name "Hoover" is very widely used in the UK generically for any vacuum cleaner but is not widely understood anywhere else.  I never heard it used in Australia.  The expression "to Hoover up" is simply "to vacuum" often suffixed with "the place".  

 

Has anyone written a thesis suggesting why some names, like Hoover, stick in certain places and not others while other names simply don't.  No-one ever goes to the Smeg or the Kelvinator for chilled food for example, nor do they flush the Shanks.  

 

The first fridge my parents had was a Kelvinator. Dad bought it because his second cousin worked for Kelvinator in Adelaide.

 

And topically;

" The haggis was piped in by a piper from Ayr and piped out by Shanks of Barrhead. "

[Dave Hunt]

Today's main frustration was making sure that one of us was in at all times as the electrician was coming to sort out the dodgy light fitting in the bathroom but wasn't sure exactly when he'd be arriving. We're still waiting. 

 

Jill's blood pressure is still going up and down like a tart's knickers but the average seems a bit lower than it was a few days ago. Her next GP appointment is next Wednesday when her doctor gets back from Sri Lanka and with any luck something positive may be done about it.

 

I managed an award winning multiple GDB this afternoon when under the la**ut doing some wiring. In rapid succession I went to pick up a pair of pliers and in so doing knocked over an open bottle of IPA, tried to grab the bottle but put my hand on the hot soldering iron, jumped and banged my head on a cross brace, cursed and finally got hold of the bottle, then when getting out from under the baseboard slipped on the puddle of alcohol and caught my elbow a right crack. Burns, blood and bruising in the space of about five seconds. I'm seriously thinking of taking up alligator wrestling as a safer hobby. 

 

A belated happy birthday to Mick and commiserations to Rick.

 

Wishes for a peaceful and restful night to all on this bit of the globe, enjoy the evening to the Transatlantics and have a nice lunch Baz and the rest of the Antipodeans.

 

Dave

[Gwiwer]

26 minutes ago, The Stationmaster said:

refrigerator but equally could be a shortening of Frigidaire

I had always though of that name as being a derivation of or b@stardised French simply meaning "cold air".  But now you come to mention it ..... 

 

Billy Connolly, in his earlier years, performed a routine which included bemoaning the fact that us chaps had little of interest to read whilst standing in line performing natural functions.  In his words "Once you're read Shanks Barrhead that's your lot".  He went on to describe the fascination in occasionally finding more to read - a notice pasted right in front of you referring to a Special Clinic.  No doubt for those who might have failed to make use of the London Rubber Company's products  

[AndyID]

59 minutes ago, Barry O said:

 

Does the USA add more oomph to the stuff I used in the 1980s? It was more a case of water with a bit of petrol added in those day (89 octane)

 

 

Different rating systems Baz. The UK uses RON and the US uses AKI. 89 in the US is equivalent to 92 in the UK. In the "high plains" (Colorado, Utah, Wyoming etc) you can run on even lower octane gas because the air is less dense. The only reason to use higher octane is to prevent "engine knock" or "pinking". There's just as much energy content in the lower octane grades. The oil companies don't advertise that

[pH]

I've just had a ride in my son's brand new Tesla Model 3. Quite the experience! Certain similarities with diesel railway locomotives - regenerative braking - and steam and electric locomotives - maximum torque at zero revs (!!). He showed me it in autopilot mode, but we agree that neither of us would be comfortable with that at the moment. 

 

He and his wife are keeping their existing car for a year or so to see how they feel about going completely electric. In the meantime, the Tesla will be used mainly 'locally', with that definition being gradually stretched. I have to say, I wouldn't be prepared to go electric yet. We did think about a hybrid when we were looking for a new car late last year, but decided to stay with a gas engine, at least for now. I'll watch with interest how son and daughter-in-law get on with the Tesla.

[pH]

9 minutes ago, Gwiwer said:

He went on to describe the fascination in occasionally finding more to read - a notice pasted right in front of you referring to a Special Clinic.   

 

Black Street  - I remember those notices.

[laurenceb]

Birthday greetings Mick

Get well soon Rick

Night awl

Edited January 23, 2020 by laurenceb

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone 

 

Well I think I spoke a bit too early this morning about not having a lot planned, I ended up doing 4 wash loads of laundry today, as well as a bit of tidying up, not to mention adding the whipped cream to the cakes. So I didn’t spend as much time with the soldering iron as I would have liked, but I did get some and in that time I managed to do 2 more MERG kits. 

 

This afternoon I picked Ava, Evie and Max up from school and they stayed for tea. Tonight thawed were all a little hyper and kept winding each other up. This didn’t do Sheila’s blood pressure much good and I had to raise my voice several times, especially to Max, who is the sort who ALWAYS has to have the last word. He’s not been like that for a couple of months now and we were hoping that he had changed for the better, but it appears not, which is a shame. As I was taking them home, Max said that he hated coming here and didn’t want to come anymore, this rather upset Sheila and both Vickie and Ian weren’t amused, I expect he got into a lot of trouble once they got him inside. 

 

Goodnight all. 

Edited January 23, 2020 by BSW01

[AndyID]

RIP Arthur "Two Sheds" Jackson.

[The Stationmaster]

G'night all

[Ozexpatriate]

1 hour ago, Gwiwer said:

 Has anyone written a thesis suggesting why some names, like Hoover, stick in certain places and not others while other names simply don't.  No-one ever goes to the Smeg or the Kelvinator for chilled food for example, nor do they flush the Shanks.  

 

1 hour ago, The Stationmaster said:

Another one of course is the humble fridge which might indeed be a quick way of saying refrigerator but equally could be a shortening of Frigidaire which as an early manufacturer of the appliance often had their name used to describe any household refrigerator although that was mainly in the USA.  

Early US parlance for the mechanical refrigerator was "Icebox" after the apparatus that it replaced. I doubt very much that the brand name Frigidaire had an influence on settling on refrigerator / fridge. The term refrigerator was contemporaneous with it's invention. Presumably there were enough competing suppliers for none to be the dominant brand and generic term.

 

Wikipedia has a long list of genericized trade marked brands in addition to the ones we might immediately think of (like Hoover, Kleenex, Xerox and Google.) It's also interesting how some (like Xerox) can lose currency they once had as a generic term.

 

Clearly when there is an overwhelmingly dominant supplier for a product (Band-Aid, Vaseline, Post-It) the brand is associated with the product. This can produce regional differences (Tipp-Ex v. Wite Out) depending on the dominating brand in that region. What it takes to get that kind of market recognition is the stuff that marketers dream of.

 

Some products never settle on a generic name. Carbonated soft drinks are a good example, regionally varying along the lines of soft drink, soda, soda pop, pop, and even cola and Coke where the latter is a brand name used as the generic for all carbonated soft drinks, not just colas.

 

Edited January 23, 2020 by Ozexpatriate

[Happy Hippo]

46 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

I managed an award winning multiple GDB this afternoon when under the la**ut doing some wiring. In rapid succession I went to pick up a pair of pliers and in so doing knocked over an open bottle of IPA, tried to grab the bottle but put my hand on the hot soldering iron, jumped and banged my head on a cross brace, cursed and finally got hold of the bottle, then when getting out from under the baseboard slipped on the puddle of alcohol and caught my elbow a right crack. Burns, blood and bruising in the space of about five seconds. I'm seriously thinking of taking up alligator wrestling as a safer hobby. 

There was no need to clear up prior to my visit on Friday, although if you put the hose onto the lawn tomorrow morning and then leave it turned on, it will be suitably soft for my arrival.

 

Slipping on a puddle of alcohol sounds as if you were down The King's Head!

 

Generally speaking, I will avoid grabbing hold of the hot end of a soldering iron until Saturday evening.

[AndyID]

33 minutes ago, pH said:

I've just had a ride in my son's brand new Tesla Model 3. Quite the experience! Certain similarities with diesel railway locomotives - regenerative braking - and steam and electric locomotives - maximum torque at zero revs (!!). He showed me it in autopilot mode, but we agree that neither of us would be comfortable with that at the moment. 

 

He and his wife are keeping their existing car for a year or so to see how they feel about going completely electric. In the meantime, the Tesla will be used mainly 'locally', with that definition being gradually stretched. I have to say, I wouldn't be prepared to go electric yet. We did think about a hybrid when we were looking for a new car late last year, but decided to stay with a gas engine, at least for now. I'll watch with interest how son and daughter-in-law get on with the Tesla.

 

We considered getting an EV. Electric power (a lot of it hydroelectric) is so inexpensive here the "fuel" cost would be negligible but we chickened-out because of the high capital cost, concerns about range limitation and the need for four/all-wheel drive.

 

What I'd really like is EV version of a Fiat Spider with four motors. That would allow the torque to be controlled at each wheel which is something automotive engineers have been trying to do for a long time. I'm slightly surprised someone hasn't done that already but it's more than likely someone has and I just haven't been paying attention.

[AndyID]

1 hour ago, Dave Hunt said:

 and in so doing knocked over an open bottle of IPA,

 

Wot an 'orrible waste of IPA!

 

(Around here IPA is India Pale Ale)