Early Risers.

[The Stationmaster]

18 minutes ago, grandadbob said:

The rain arrived a bit earlier than expected so I didn't go for a walk and took the car for a burst down the A3 instead. 

Was my journey really necessary?  Well, I needed to get some more diesel as I was running on fumes, the last time I filled up was in March.  Also I haven't used the car since lockdown 2 started and after it stood idle for a couple of months in lockdown 1 I ended up with engine management warning lights staying on and had to take it to the garage to get sorted. They did suggest giving it the occasional run so that's now done for another 2 or 3 weeks.

The Boss has just asked me to finalise tomorrow's online shopping list so that's next.  Sod's law says that later on I'll have to "re-finalise" it.

Bob the AA man's advice to me (when he came to boost the battery so I could start the car after Lockdown 1) is to run the engine for at least one hour every week.  any shorter time than an hour and you are likely to take more out of the battery than you put back in.

[Tony_S]

1 hour ago, The Stationmaster said:

Bob the AA man's advice to me (when he came to boost the battery so I could start the car after Lockdown 1) is to run the engine for at least one hour every week.  any shorter time than an hour and you are likely to take more out of the battery than you put back in.

The advice from Land Rover for my car was if it had been standing for a considerable time was run the engine for 30 minutes with the air con set to 22C. Then weekly run it for 15 minutes, again with the air con on.   Seems to work but it does have quite a big battery! I do the Fiesta at the same time. The Evoque  has had a couple of trips to Canvey for my blood test visits where there is a short stretch of road with a 50mph limit. Aditi’s Fiesta has had a couple of 70mph blasts when she has delivered me to Basildon Hospital. 
When I run the engines I drive them back and forward in the drive or try and put a different bit of tyre down too. 

[iL Dottore]

21 hours ago, AndrewC said:

Pretty close. The actual reference is to a long lost but still bloody funny program. WKRP in Cincinnati. 

 

Really a fun sitcom, back in the days when American sitcoms could be funny (anyone remember the first two seasons of Mork and Mindy? i.e. the seasons before the television executives got their hands on it)

Apart from the humour, WKRP in Cincinnati became famous because of the pneumatic qualities of Miss Loni Sanders,  although to be candid I much preferred the rather appealing Bailey Quarters (Jan Smithers).  Pneumatic blondes have never held much of an appeal for me.

15 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

One for Polybear and HH.

Now doesn’t that just take the biscuit?

14 hours ago, brianusa said:

 

..... A lot of my youthful contemporaries fitted that bill...

True, true. But let’s not forget, back in those days we may have been stroppy hooligans but we were better quality stroppy hooligans. No going into meltdown because someone used the wrong pronoun in addressing us or perhaps used an epithet or slur that we might have found objectionable.  Unlike most of the yoof of today we were – as the vernacular puts it - “well hard“

7 hours ago, chrisf said:

.....  My seasonal travelling companion BokStein is absolutely right to laud the public transport of Switzerland, where in many respects 25th December is just a normal day.  In the UK there are, as I recall, few signs of life should one venture out.  I look forward with little enthusiasm to discovering this for myself. .....

One of the differences that can explain why travel in Switzerland over the Christmas period is very different to that in Great Britain is that Christmas Day is not a big celebration. People get together on Christmas Eve, exchange presents and then - in the Catholic Cantons - head to Midnight Mass. so Christmas Eve is the big family event, not Christmas Day.

 

As some of our learnéd railway historians can tell us, the complete shutdown of the travel network on Christmas and Boxing Day is a relatively new phenomena. In the pre-World War 1 heyday of railway travel, Christmas and Boxing Day  were busy periods for the railways. Whether or not the complete shutdown of all travel and shops dates back to the first or the second world Wars, I couldn’t say. But certainly it is true that a lot of the restrictions on things like drinking, shopping, et cetera were put in place during one or the other of the world wars and never removed.  At least in the UK.

1 hour ago, The Stationmaster said:

Bob the AA man's advice to me (when he came to boost the battery so I could start the car after Lockdown 1) is to run the engine for at least one hour every week.  any shorter time than an hour and you are likely to take more out of the battery than you put back in.

That’s interesting, Mike. I had been led to believe, at least by the Skoda salesman who sold us our much loved Skoda Yeti, that modern generation batteries don’t have to be charged up over a long period of time – which is what this advice suggests. Sometimes, nowadays, with all the competing advice from different “experts”, each with a particular axe to grind, it is difficult to figure out what is true and what is not.

 

Well, that’s my lunch break over (a late “proper“ English breakfast: bacon, eggs and black pudding [sausage will be had tonight]),  so back to work it is. But not before I tease our good chum Mr P Bear by announcing that over the next few days I will be baking a French Apple Cake, a Turkish Quince Cake and an old-fashioned English Boiled Fruitcake. And to twist the knife just a little bit more, the cakes are also very bear friendly as not a single dollop of whipped cream of any description is part of their recipes

 

Enjoy “hump day”

 

iD

Edited November 25, 2020 by iL Dottore

[New Haven Neil]

Ah it depends on the type of battery, iD.  AGM (not not a club AGM, absorbent glass mat....) types have a much lower self discharge rate than traditional lead-acid types.  They have been very useful to us in our fleet of motorcycles that don't see much use over winter.  No need for mid-winter charging.

[Tony_S]

3 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

Jill announced that the freezer needed defrosting

Will the next one you buy be a frost free version?

The one we bought to replace our starting to fail 40 year old freezer is a frost free type. It does seem to be so! It is bigger outside than the old model but smaller inside.  The walls are very thick. The problem is we constantly seem to be one shelf short of space for what we want to keep frozen. Arrangements are underway to supplement freezer space. Not by eating the 3 month supply of frozen fruit from the garden or cakes though. 

[New Haven Neil]

Just now, Tony_S said:

< snip  The problem is we constantly seem to be one shelf short of space for what we want to keep frozen. 

 

Is that not ALWAYS the case?  Sod's law applied.

[Gwiwer]

1 hour ago, The Stationmaster said:

the implied Christmas travel arrangements of the 5 day 'window' (and reference other parts of the same post)

Officially no-one knows what Tier they will be in come Christmas.  Many of us have an idea and some detail might slip out a little on the early side of tomorrow's expected announcements.  It isn't going to be easy.

 

Let's just look at two "areas".  Kent is one administrative area for most purposes.  Most of rural Kent has seen the virus retreating to very low - even negligible - levels hen the gov.uk "dashboard" is used.  The map shows a lot of green and plenty of white, the latter representing fewer than three cases in the past seven days.  Most of urban / suburban Kent is suffering from very high infection rates with Swale being one of (if not the) highest in the nation right now.  Allegedly this is a factor of several things - prison populations which then spread infection through staff and families into the communities, industry especially meat-processing plants and heavier industry of which pockets remain and which cannot be done from home.

 

There is a near-straight line dividing these two extremely different situations along the course of the M2 Motorway.  If one extends that line by the same roughly SE - NW vector it then divides much of London from its outer eastern suburbs and neighbouring Essex where once again infection rates are high and the areas show as purple on the gov.uk map.  Almost all of the rest of London is green or pale blue - with a few white or dark blue patches - meaning infection is at quite low levels and generally falling sharply.  

 

As such how would one put all of Greater London fairly and equitably into one Tier?   How would one deal with Kent?  To place Kent into Tier 3 would be to dis-service the large rural areas (many of which are Tory strongholds if we count votes) where Covid is clearly in retreat.  To leave the northern coastal areas in Tier 2 would be inviting dissent from northern cities likely to revert to Tier 3 but with lesser levels of infection.  

 

Moving on to travel.  We are advised to not use public transport if possible for Christmas travel yet we are being reminded it is safe and ready for all to use - and we are sometimes reminded that the industry badly needs passengers to return for its longer term survival.  A contradiction, surely?  The "Five Days of Christmas" allows the travelling public only two to get from A to B which will produce a sharp seasonal 48-hour peak in traffic and, no doubt, crowded trains with social distancing impossible.  There is only one day, 27th December, with a fairly complete train service (though engineering works will affect many journeys) for everyone to get back.  The 48-hour peak will become a 24-hour super-peak of people who have been in close quarters with others for the past several days.  Infection is likely to spread simply because numbers travelling will exceed capacity to supply reasonable space.  

 

To my mind this has not been thought out thoroughly.  Tiers were working.  They never really had a chance to show how well before they were replaced with Lockdownout 2 which skewed the statistics.  They will work again.  So instead of forcing everyone to crowd into the limited amount of space available why not allow people to make arrangements which suited themselves?  You may still only have a maximum of five nights away and with the three-household bubble but if you preferred to stay home for Christmas and have New Year / Hogmanay away then so be it .  Load shared.  Peak distributed.  Scots, for whom Hogmanay especially can be the bigger celebration, appeased.  Welsh, who are still asking for greater limits, placated.  Irish - who have an extra day at both ends for "travel" - brought onto an equal footing with five not seven days break.  It takes longer to travel from Plymouth to Glasgow than London or Dublin to Belfast.  I don't get why Ireland needs a concession.  

 

30-minute tests offered at a handful of key railway stations through which the largest number of people is likely to pass on foot at some point (as opposed to passing through on a train) and motorway service areas on a voluntary basis.  Removal of all artificial capacity "limits" on buses.  They don't exist on trains, trams and tubes so why buses?  Only the main-line TOCs which offer seat reservations have any way to manage numbers and they still have to, and do, accept walk-up business though try to keep quiet about it.  

 

When the wash-up starts and people in power are called to account for their decision-making there will be some significant errors of judgement to address in my opinion.  Some might not be foreseeable.  Some, such as trying to squeeze the entire UKs Christmas travel into 48 and then 24 hours (and factoring in that there ideally would be no New Year's travel) could be better managed.

 

I suspect what will happen is that a significant number of people will do their own thing regardless.  The government may well have taken that into account already.  "Give them five days because some will take ten" rather than officially giving out more.  Advice to not travel into nor out of Tier 3 areas is likely, in my opinion, to be widely ignored.  And going forward I suspect that any attempt to place the nation into Lockdown 3 may also be vehemently resisted in some quarters.  Not least by the licensed and hospitality trade who currently stand to lose an entire Christmas and New Year's worth of business.  Some may have been relying on that for survival.  

 

Rant over.  

[Chris116]

Many years ago I came to the conclusion that most people who put themselves up for election in either local or national government were simply proving that they were unsuitable to run anything. Nothing that has happened over the last year has made me even think of changing my mind and much of what has happened has reinforced my view. Politicians only think about the time to the next election. In the first year or two after they gain power they will be happy to do what is best even if unpopular. But as soon as the next election looms (about three years away) then every decision is based on what will get them re-elected. 

[Tony_S]

3 minutes ago, Chris116 said:

Many years ago I came to the conclusion that most people who put themselves up for election in either local or national government were simply proving that they were unsuitable to run anything. Nothing that has happened over the last year has made me even think of changing my mind and much of what has happened has reinforced my view. Politicians only think about the time to the next election. In the first year or two after they gain power they will be happy to do what is best even if unpopular. But as soon as the next election looms (about three years away) then every decision is based on what will get them re-elected. 

I don’t think all politicians should be judged by some of those in senior positions. I am often amazed at the level of ignorance about laws or treaties shown by some. However there are those who work hard for their constituents at a national and local level. Some of them even do so while being in parties I wouldn’t vote for. 

[Chris116]

8 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

I don’t think all politicians should be judged by some of those in senior positions. I am often amazed at the level of ignorance about laws or treaties shown by some. However there are those who work hard for their constituents at a national and local level. Some of them even do so while being in parties I wouldn’t vote for. 

I would agree 100% that there are many in the lower reaches of all parties who work very hard but there are too many whose main aim is to rise to the top with help for those they represent being a secondary concern. In my own area we have one independent councillor who does more good than the rest of the council put together but people like that are few and far between sadly.

[Tony_S]

I looked at the most recent Government statement about Christmas bubbles. 
I found the sentence about people like me who are extremely clinically vulnerable . Basically, don’t join any bubbles, and the supermarkets won’t be taking your name off the priority list. So no change really. Whether we go up a tier to 3 won’t make any difference to me though. A few people who live nearby have been told they will be working from home permanently. They used to commute to Fenchurch St daily. There are a lot of jobs like that round here but another neighbour wouldn’t be able to work from home as he works at Ford Research and needs “hands on”  on vehicles. 
We won’t be going anywhere and no visitors inside, except for the Covid secure delivery of a few items (not by Father Christmas). 

[simontaylor484]

Jeans have a habit of making my back hurt recently so have resorted to joggers. 

 

I dont have jeans with a zip fly due to a very nasty accident in my university days. 

 

I had caught  a train from Sheffield to Pontefract Baghill which was lucky really in the end (there were only 2 services a day direct). I was wearing a pair of jeans with a faulty zip that would come down of its own accord. So i sit on the Pacer reading the paper alls well. I go to stand up and jeez the pain from my groin area shall we say was eye watering i coudnt stand up straight. I managed to get off the train and down into the subway shuffling like Igor. I got to a phone box looked down the zip on my jeans had come down trapping my on the slider of the zip. I had to ring my Mum at work to tell her i was going to be late all she did was laugh. I then had to go to casualty which was luckily only a quarter of a mile shuffle away. I was taken into a side room i seemed to end up with a lot of medical professionals in that small room to look at my predicament. Full marks to the dr who managed to free me.

My mum worked in a bank full af women every time i went in they called me Zippy

[Tony_S]

2 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

, that modern generation batteries don’t have to be charged up over a long period of time

The batteries do have a long life if not used but modern cars when standing still still draw current and over time can get run down. Security systems are particularly active. The first generation software in my car had a fault that caused the radio in standby to do something to affect battery life. The latest version if the  car isn’t used for some time starts switching off features. It sent me a message I would no longer be able to remotely start the car to warm it up, not  that I wanted to anyway. 

[simontaylor484]

I recently had to have the battery in my car replaced it was one of the Agm type £237.

I was told that it would need to be run 20 min to recharge a start up.

The original battery had become distorted and took some getting out 

[The Stationmaster]

Interesting piece in yesterday's 'Daily Telegraph' business section (yes, I do read it a day behind - that can be amusing at times as articles are overtaken by events).  Anyway back to what it had to say and that is that all Covid vaccine stocks for many months ahead have been purchased in advance by Govts thus there is no likelihood at all that any vaccination will be possible outside the Govt's proposed priorities because there isn't any vaccine available for anybody else to purchase.  So that, in turn, means that all the vaccine which will pass through the wholesale distributors is already sold so they will not have any to offer to other customers should anyone try to buy from them and the manufacturers are unlikely to have any to sell either because it has already been sold to national Govts..

 

As for Christmas as I've already said there are a substantial number of people who already ignore the rules and guidelines (hence a second peak of infection) and that will be even worse come Christmas time irrespective of what any Govt in the UK has to say about it.

 

The odd thing about infection in households seems to be the mechanism by which it does or doesn't happen because clearly it sometimes doesn't (as in our case, and others I have heard about) while according to the experts it is a major route of infection transmission.  To me that indicates it might be a lot more down to personal behaviour (and applying guidelines?)  rather than simply 'the infection spreads in households'.  I bet people won't think about that when they have a house full at Christmas; and maybe mistletoe should be banned this year?

 

 

[Tony_S]

3 minutes ago, The Stationmaster said:

Christmas; and maybe mistletoe should be banned this year

I saw a report that one of the big mistletoe farmers wasn’t bothering this year. 
Earlier this week I saw a report that the best place to get Covid now was supermarkets. 

[Tony_S]

4 hours ago, polybear said:

 

And on a final note, I see Mr Biden is sticking his nebby on over Ireland, saying he doesn't want to see Guards at the Border following Brexit.  Are we swapping Brussels for D.C. perhaps?

Ireland is still in the EU so Brussels has a interest. The US was very active in supporting peace initiatives. It wasn’t the US or the Irish government that said they were willing to break International Law with respect to the border in Ireland recently. You probably have to go back to the Beaker People (famous for introducing brewing beer) era to be in Ireland without people from other places interfering. The  Democrats in the US have consistently stated there won’t be a UK US trade deal if the conditions of the Good Friday/Belfast agreement are not complied with. So anything Joe Biden has expressed has been known for ages. Perhaps the British Government assumed he wasn’t going to win. 

Edited November 25, 2020 by Tony_S

[Barry O]

Having had a bit of eye lid inspection and a paracetamol my eye fwels less sore and Ed Cold seems to be on the retreat.

 

On the BBC news last night one or two of the families interviewed said they wouldn't bother travelling at Christmas.  Some students have already gone home for Christmas..without bothering to get a test...juggling hand grenades with the pins out may be easier than being a politician at the moment. It is very easy to have a go at them... but if they are so bad.. do it yourself as my old man would say.

 

Beautiful sunset here tonight as the rain clouds have dispersed.  

 

Baz

[Barry O]

With the beast being a PHEV it has dire warnings of not letting the batteries go flat. He gets a run out every week and is plugged in overnight once a week.  When we returned from the Antipodes in March and qent into proper (ish) lockdown i had a warning to "use old fuel".. he is quite cunning is the Beast.

 

Baz

[Simon G]

I have duly paid for my gluttony last night when I ate the reduced chocolate eclairs, tea cake etc.  Today turned out to be a nice calm sunny day, so we went out for a walk this morning, which by the time we had finished also included part of the afternoon.  Three and a half hours in total, so probably at least 10 miles, taking the back roads up to St Bees lighthouse, and then back by a slightly different route.  I am now rather weary!

 

The later part of the afternoon has been spent closing an account with National Savings and Investments after their interest rate on the account was slashed from 1.15% to 0.01% in one go.  Once the money is cleared into our bank account, we will find a new savings account.  It certainly pays to keep a close eye on these things.

[pH]

19 hours ago, PeterBB said:

Too low waistbands seems to be a common theme in all menswear.  The other thing is this idea of going up in 2" categories for size.  This means that the 'lower' size is just too tight and the 'next size up' needs a tight belt to stop them falling down.  That in itself is uncomfortable. Just when will the trade come to the idea that 1" , computer design etc can do this easily for cutting, is needed because 2" is one great jump up.

 

I don't know about Costco in the UK, but Costco in Canada do their own brand of jeans, still with 2 inch waist increments, but odd numbers of waist size. So all (?) other manufacturers produce jeans with waist sizes of 32,34,36 etc. Costco do 31,33,35 etc.

 

[Edit - I have to correct this, and apologize to everyone who has read it. It’s not the waist size that is in odd inches - it’s the inside leg measurement, which isn’t so unusual. I buy these jeans with 31 inch legs because 30 inch in other brands are up around my ankles, but 32 inch fray on the ground at my heels. 

 

I apologise again to anyone who may have rushed off to their local Costco on reading this post. (Note to self - it’s not just railway information you should check before posting.)]

Edited November 26, 2020 by pH

[PhilJ W]

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. Looking at the confirmed C-19 infection data locally I see that my ward has gone from green to orange but Tony's ward has jumped from green to red! Its not as bad as it looks as my ward as well as Basildon hospital contains the local Royal Mail sorting office which has had a number of cases. I'm not sure but IIRC there is a 'sub sorting office' near Tarpots corner, not far from Tony. Strangely enough Foulness Island is also a hot spot, the population is so sparse it only would take a dozen or so cases to send the infection rate through the roof. Union Blue jeans were recommended to me by someone here on ER's. At the time a few years ago button fly jeans were all the fashion, you couldn't find a zip fly anywhere. Not much good with a 70+ year old bladder!

[Gwiwer]

1 hour ago, Tony_S said:

Earlier this week I saw a report that the best place to get Covid now was supermarkets. 

Out of stock at Ocado

Edited November 25, 2020 by Gwiwer

[Tony_S]

17 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. Looking at the confirmed C-19 infection data locally I see that my ward has gone from green to orange but Tony's ward has jumped from green to red! Its not as bad as it looks as my ward as well as Basildon hospital contains the local Royal Mail sorting office which has had a number of cases. I'm not sure but IIRC there is a 'sub sorting office' near Tarpots corner, not far from Tony. Strangely enough Foulness Island is also a hot spot, the population is so sparse it only would take a dozen or so cases to send the infection rate through the roof. Union Blue jeans were recommended to me by someone here on ER's. At the time a few years ago button fly jeans were all the fashion, you couldn't find a zip fly anywhere. Not much good with a 70+ year old bladder!

Our electoral ward has gone darker, but my map has different colours to Phil’s. The increase is 8 new cases which could be just two unfortunate families. However there is a large secondary school serving the neighbourhood and children keep getting sent home due to confirmed cases in their teaching groups. There are not enough teachers now for all years to be in at once. These cases probably date from the end of the Tier system, so perhaps the soon to end lockdown will produce a reduction. 

[Erichill16]

Afternoon All,

We had a car battery incident yesterday on our 2year old Audi A3 with stop/start.

we set off to pick the nephews up with absolutely issues, no stutter or anything. When we had done the necessary the car just groaned and the dashboard lights flashing. I had to grab a lift home with one of the other parents and return with my van and jump leads. It’s probably a 3 mile walk and on country roads in the dark with my balance issues defiantly something to avoid.

I know at the moment  we’re making too many short journeys but a car costing £30K and with all that technology packed in I would have thought a warning would have come up on the dash saying the battery was in a fragile state.