Early Risers.

[J. S. Bach]

21 minutes ago, Gwiwer said:

I can't seem to find that on the shopping list.  Maybe it goes by another name south of the border  

Tequila?

[J. S. Bach]

6 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

No need to worry Dave. Perhaps the tooth fary has already exacted a pennance. I had a wonderful day out trainspotting and my snap included an eccles cake. Also sanwich fillings made with fresh laid eggs from a neighbour and very nice home grown tomato, also one filled with plum jam made from our own plums. Life is hard.

 

Jamie

Your neighbor lays eggs????

[pH]

51 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

 ... when I got home there was waiting for me an invitation to visit Telford hospital on Monday morning for a colonoscopy together with instructions on diet from Friday. The preparations on Sunday are not something I want to share here.    

I think you’ll find that there are quite a few people on here who are already familiar with such preparations!

[Coombe Barton]

... and more building deliveries ...

 

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2020/09/23/second-face-to-face-day/

[Andrew P]

13 hours ago, Andrew P said:

Thank you Bob, and I thought it was me giving my Car it's almost annual wash that had caused the rain over night. Mine too was gleaming and I was so pleased I went out at tea time for another look at it before dark. that's when I felt it, it was in the air, there was moisture above, the Car looked damp, and I was gutted.

Now the Sun thing is shining and I'll probably go and give it a wipe over shortly as you can bet your bottom dollar the rain had Sahara Dust in it leaving my beautiful gleaming shining specimen decidedly spotty.

Glad I didn't wipe it over, it poured down again late morning.

[Erichill16]

Evening All,

Not a good day topped off by football team losing 6-0.

I hope everyone is doing ok as I’ve not been keeping up to date with all the comings and goings.

A relatively early night as full day at work tomorrow.

Goodnight,

Robert

[Erichill16]

Ps, SWMBO and I once looked at buying a holiday flat in Switzerland but restrictions on ‘foreigners’ owner properties reduce the choices of available. Regulation vary from Canton to Canton and where we fancied the restrictions were amongst the most severe. I can understand the reasoning for the restrictions. 

[tigerburnie]

22 minutes ago, pH said:

I think you’ll find that there are quite a few people on here who are already familiar with such preparations!

I think we need a new emoticon...........................a way too much information one.............................

G'night all

[simontaylor484]

1 hour ago, Gwiwer said:

A fondness for the Swiss Guard, however, would not qualify you for much other than absolution and perhaps ten Hail Marys.   

Although those uniforms are rather fetching 

[Tony_S]

13 minutes ago, Erichill16 said:

Ps, SWMBO and I once looked at buying a holiday flat in Switzerland but restrictions on ‘foreigners’ owner properties reduce the choices of available. Regulation vary from Canton to Canton and where we fancied the restrictions were amongst the most severe. I can understand the reasoning for the restrictions. 

We were staying in France near Lac Leman and caught the boat over from Yvoire to Nyon in Switzerland. We were engaged in conversation by an English woman. I think she loitered near the terminal looking for someone to talk to. She was living locally, her husband was some sort of UN official. She hated living in Switzerland. She had thought it would be an orderly sort of place but was most indignant about locals,not obeying laws about gardening or washing or whatever at the weekend. Her final comment was that it was so bad it was just like being in France. 
 

[laurenceb]

Night awl

[The Stationmaster]

3 hours ago, BoD said:

Depends how former and how ‘friendly’.

Very 

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone 

 

The rain continued to fall all day, but it briefly stopped about dinner time and the sun began to shine. It didn’t last though, by mid afternoon it was chuckinitdarn again. However as I’d decided to stay inside today it didn’t really matter. 

 

The computer sound card still isn’t working properly, but some progress has been made. When I checked all the inter board connections they all appeared to be fine, but when I re-connected everything back up it still didn’t work. So I changed the lead which links the computer to the amplifier and still nothing. I then checked both the leads and discovered that they were faulty, but each lead having a different fault. Hopefully, I’ll be able to pick up a replacement when I go to the Trafford Centre on Friday. I did however find and replace the computer clock’s back up battery. This means I no longer have to reset the clock every time I switch the computer on.

 

Goodnight all. 

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. Just remembered to put the bin bags out, saves a rush in the morning. And so to bed, goodnight all.

[J. S. Bach]

26 minutes ago, BSW01 said:

Good evening everyone

 

The computer sound card still isn’t working properly, but some progress has been made. When I checked all the inter board connections they all appeared to be fine, but when I re-connected everything back up it still didn’t work. So I changed the lead which links the computer to the amplifier and still nothing. I then checked both the leads and discovered that they were faulty, but each lead having a different fault. Hopefully, I’ll be able to pick up a replacement when I go to the Trafford Centre on Friday. I did however find and replace the computer clock’s back up battery. This means I no longer have to reset the clock every time I switch the computer on.

 

Goodnight all. 

A quick question: Are you getting a signal out of the turntable?

[The Stationmaster]

G'night all

[pH]

1 hour ago, PhilJ W said:

Evening all from Estuary-Land. Just remembered to put the bin bags out, saves a rush in the morning. And so to bed, goodnight all.

We get a byelaw ticket for doing that!

[pH]

I bought a new garden tool today - a spading fork:

 

https://www.rona.ca/en/craftsman-4-tine-spading-fork-tempered-steel-11-x-75-cmxmlbasf-01235698

 

(I already have a forking spade.)

[J. S. Bach]

Night Owl from the Piedmont.

[iL Dottore]

13 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

...If the Swiss are as efficient as their German neighbours are famed for then I for one would be happy to return there.  

Very much so. Indeed, there are some Swiss who believe that in comparison to the Swiss, the Germans are far too lax and sloppy...

11 hours ago, J. S. Bach said:

The doctor that I use is a member of a small PA and the head honcho is, I was told by my doctor, a big fan of nuclear medicine. So when I had to have some test that required a radioactive tracer, it was done right there. He had purchased a large multi-million dollar "scanner" and all I did was report to a different door on the day of the test, no traveling to a distant hospital.

At least the practice is using the scanner. I have heard of a rumoured wheeze used by some medical practices in the US whereby a very expensive piece of equipment is purchased/leased, but not used by the practice. The sole purpose of purchasing/leasing such a piece of equipment is to allow the practice to increase the fees they charge. Whether or not this is true, I cannot begin to speculate.

7 hours ago, simontaylor484 said:

Would a love of toblerone qualify for Swiss residency...

Presumably if you are buying several tons of the stuff each month on a regular basis, this would probably count towards you getting approval for Swiss residency.

It might be worth a try....

7 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

A fondness for the Swiss Guard, however, would not qualify you for much other than absolution and perhaps ten Hail Marys.   

But certainly not a residency permit for Switzerland. Although such an interest might help you in getting a residency permit for the Vatican.

6 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

....and very nice home grown tomato, also one filled with plum jam made from our own plums..

Homegrown tomatoes filled with plum jam? I’m all for culinary innovation, but this does seem a little bit “out there“.
I guess, like most anybody with any degree of Anglo-Saxon or Germanic blood in them, I will never understand the French.

6 hours ago, pH said:

I think you’ll find that there are quite a few people on here who are already familiar with such preparations!

Oh yes, I am certainly familiar with the preparations for such procedures. Fortunately, I can say (with a degree of sadistic relish) that it has always been as an administrator of such things and not as a recipient.

It’s amazing what medicine can do nowadays and it’s always preferable to be at the blunt end of the scalpel or syringe. 
Sadly, medicine progresses so fast nowadays that one’s skill sets too quickly become obsolete. And to think I could once boast of doing a leg amputation in under a minute using nothing more than a scalpel, a bone saw, a bucket of hot pitch and a thick rubber gag. Wellington was most impressed!

6 hours ago, Erichill16 said:

Ps, SWMBO and I once looked at buying a holiday flat in Switzerland but restrictions on ‘foreigners’ owner properties reduce the choices of available. Regulation vary from Canton to Canton and where we fancied the restrictions were amongst the most severe. I can understand the reasoning for the restrictions. 

Quite a few places have restrictions in order to prevent the locals from being priced out of their own home town/village, although in some places these regulations were put into place a little too late.
There has been a very interesting development in the holiday flat business in Switzerland following the coronavirus pandemic. The company from whom we bought the “holiday hovel“ (SWMBO’s holiday flat) has said that the flats that they have had on their books for years and couldn’t even shift - even were they to throw in a free BMW - are now flying off the shelves and at considerably more than the asking price. This all being due to a lot of Swiss realising that foreign holidays are off the table for the foreseeable future and have thus been looking to take their holidays in Switzerland, but not in hotels.

5 hours ago, Tony_S said:

...She had thought it would be an orderly sort of place but was most indignant about locals,not obeying laws about gardening or washing or whatever at the weekend. Her final comment was that it was so bad it was just like being in France. 

Ah, well, she was living near Geneva in the Suisse Romande. If you were to listen to the some Deutschschweizer (German Swiss - who are the majority in CH) the inhabitants of La Romande are just 1 step removed from being (gasp) French! The North-South Divide in the UK has nothing on the Röstigraben.

 

Dog walking, physio, recycling and shopping (in that order) await and then it’s pretty much a day off for me.

 

Tschüß

 

iD

[chrisf]

Greetings one and all

 

Monkeysarefun, you know me too well.  When I need cheering up, which is not unusual, I do like to view footage of koalas and there is plenty of it on YouTube.  However, the other day there was a clip of a tiny baby koala which must have fallen out of its mother’s pouch.  The poor animal was very cold and those caring for it were anxious that it might not survive.  Most of what I see is much happier viewing, thank goodness, and it does not take much for me to go into full soppy mode.

 

The diabetic review took place at a commendably early hour yesterday morning.  By and large I’m OK, though I need another blood test and there is some deficiency in my kidney function.  There was good and bad news.  The good news is that I need to drink more!  The bad news is that it will be water.

 

To those who wish to emigrate to Switzerland, I can’t say I blame you.  The rail network is first class and always makes me ashamed of ours.  I’d have to settle for my regular fortnight embracing C*****mas and New Year but if that happens this year I will be very pleasantly surprised.  I will know soon enough. 

 

Best wishes to all

 

Chris

[jamie92208]

Good moaning from a still rather dark Charente.  The nights are definitely getting longer. A very good day out was had yesterday watching full size trains.   Tea was consumed and then I had a terrible task.   Beth had prepared afternoon tea for two ladies (French and English) and there was leftover cake and scones that had to be eaten.  More will be consumed today.   I better get the anti aircraft artillery out in case a flying Hippo appears, though he could use the pool as a landing zone.   

 

Yesterday we got two rather unwelcome letters from HMRC telling us that we were being fined £100 each for later submission of a Capital Gains tax report on the house we sold in March.  Apparently we were 2 weeks late submitting the report.   I think it's revenge as they have emailed us both to tell us that we don't owe them any tax.  We have been given 3.5 months to appeal so I will be composing a suitable letter in due course.  I will of course blame the dreaded virus.

 

This morning a guy is due to look at two computers, Beth's laptop and an old desktop of mine that has several years worth of photos on it that doesn't want to talk to a monitor.   Some phone calls need to be made and hopefully I will get some time in the shed this afternoon.

 

As to living in Switzerland, I'm quite happy with the gentle chaos of France.  Fortunately we are still in a green zone for the virus and hope that that situation continues.   

 

Regards to all.

 

Jamie

[roundhouse]

4 hours ago, pH said:

We get a byelaw ticket for doing that!

I guess to stop the wildlife, particularly bears from shredding them.

 

Morning all.

 

First day of new rules in pubs. Just seen FB posting from a favourite Devon pub that has been serving customers from their outside bar hatch. We were there back in July and it worked well. However they can no longer do that and you need to be wearing a mask when entering the car par seating area and wait to be served. They reckon its is less safe now than the way they were serving prior to today and now they will have to employ extra staff which will make things harder for them to survive as the cooler weather approches and fewer customers will want to sit outside.

 

We will be out visiting our favourite local brewery which is outside seating. My other half has hopefully managed to secure a half days leave today so we can go out earlier to make up for the earlier closing times. What a great way to celebrate ones birth day wearing a mask into a pub garden. Just hope it isnt raining as hard as it just has been. Didnt even chance running up the garden to the shed.

Edited September 24, 2020 by roundhouse

[TheQ]

13 hours ago, J. S. Bach said:

There is only one shut-off valve for the whole house? I would have thought that every hydro appliance would have its own; both line and load side if necessary.

My house built 1906 has just the one stopcock, certainly houses I've lived in, built up to 1975 had just the one stop cock. having just had a quick look for any regulations there still appears NOT to be requirement to fit isolation valves to every point of use .. just "A sufficient number of stopvalves shall be installed for isolating parts of the pipework"

Edited September 24, 2020 by TheQ

[BokStein]

Morning Awl,

 

Wet with a vengeance here; just waiting for a lull to get out to the car!

 

1 hour ago, chrisf said:

However, the other day there was a clip of a tiny baby koala which must have fallen out of its mother’s pouch.  The poor animal was very cold and those caring for it were anxious that it might not survive.  Most of what I see is much happier viewing, thank goodness, and it does not take much for me to go into full soppy mode.

 

Did it fall or was it pushed?

 

There is an argument which follows Darwinian principles of survival of the fittest!

Edited September 24, 2020 by BokStein