Early Risers.

[Tony_S]

5 minutes ago, Erichill16 said:

 

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.

My car has stop start and if the battery is low you do get a visible and audible warning of low battery. The warning is something like “battery low, start engine”. I hadn’t been doing my weekly start recently after being in hospital and did get the warning. A 30 minute engine run has meant the battery doesn’t now generate a warning. The original battery in my car failed when it was about 2 years old producing only a couple of volts. It was replaced under warranty by Land Rover. I don’t know whether your car is similar but because mine has stop start the instructions about jump starting are very specific about not connecting the negative lead to the battery. Of course the bolt you are supposed to use isn’t fitted in my car as it isn’t the Diesel engine in the illustration. I just found one that looked similar that looked earthy!

[Tony_S]

I bought a pair of jeans last year . I hadn’t bought any for ages. Certainly not during the time we had a dog. Generally taking Robbie out could involve getting damp even if it wasn’t raining. And he didn’t care about rain anyway. I don’t like soggy jeans at all so preferred something like Berghaus or Craghoppers trousers. They made then in normal, lightweight and winter materials but all of them don’t hold water like denim and dry quickly. 
Tony

[Barry O]

Craghoppers workwellfor me as you can get them cheaply from their outlets.

 

My civic had stop start. It automatically stopped doing it if the battery was low..and a message used to come up and tell  you why it was doing it.

 

Baz

[grandadbob]

My Duster has stop/start and it won't function if the battery is low. (and wasn't when I started out) My drive today lasted about 40 minutes including approx 20mins at 70mph on the A3.  By the time I got back in the 30mph zone 8 minutes from home the stop/start was working again.

 

 

 

 

[Gwiwer]

7 minutes ago, grandadbob said:

My Duster has stop/start and it won't function if the battery is low

Mine relies on hand operation.

 

Oh.

 

THAT sort of Duster.  The Dacia version.  Not bad cars, actually.  Daft name.  

[rockershovel]

1 hour ago, Gwiwer said:

Out of stock at Ocado

 

Chilblains sent as substitute...

[rockershovel]

4 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

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.  

 

It’s difficult to follow the logic. Perhaps we might mark the occasion by exchanging cigars and uniform buttons, and playing football in No Mans Land? 

[Ian Abel]

HUMP day, taking the day and the rest of the week off...

 

Nothing much to report, windows completed at the rental property, look great although the exterior trim/woodwork NOW is more obviously in need of repair/painting than it was before <sigh>, never ends.

 

On the recommendation of friends, watched "Fisherman's Friends", we both thoroughly enjoyed it and loved the scenes around Port Isaac, having visited there as a result of being "Doc Martin" fans.

Wish we'd have known that they were probably still singing Friday nights when we were over there 4 years ago, would have made it a must see. 

 

Today, Whitney is visiting, we've not seen her for ages as Jemma is on "unassigned" status and not travelling/flying. On that note, their pilots union voted in favor of the latest Delta deal, which means a large reduction in pay, BUT, neither Jemma nor Brendan will be furloughed.

Basically better news than the alternative, and whilst they are on unassigned status they are allowed to take some flying jobs, which includes then being able to return to the University of North Dakota (both got their degrees/licenses there) and work as flight instructors until the airline industry picks up again. As they are both qualified single and multi-engine instructor "instructors" they are actually in demand!!!

 

0 and overcast first thing, 2 expected high.

 

Off to do some chores, walk Whitney and maybe make a start in the "basement/train room"

Edited November 25, 2020 by Ian Abel

[tigerburnie]

Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh....................new deezul burner turned up, Hornby dcc chip fitted and some testing on parallel bits of metal have taken place. Flippin' fiddly getting the top back on after the elctrickery bits had been fitted, at least 3 hands required, a fine looking bit of kit................for an oil burner that is.

[simontaylor484]

I often wonder how many people have gone into a Dacia dealership asking for a yellow duster

[polybear]

7 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

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)

 

 

Nanu Nanu....

Mork calling Ork, come in Ork.....

Does that make me sad?

 

4 hours ago, simontaylor484 said:

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

 

So mum grassed you to all her workmates.  Bless....

 

4 hours ago, Simon G said:

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.

 

Been there, done that, got the T-shirt.  Not long after being seduced into opening an account with them due to their headline topping best rate.  I wonder how much got pulled from the bank following their interest rate cut I wonder?

 

Bear has been shamed by @BSW01   ( @Barry O taught me how to do that ) into removing paint from brickwork in the kitchen by scraping.  Apparently the council ran out of money when building the houses in the mid 20's so some rooms didn't get plastered - my kitchen being one of them.  I believe it was first plastered in the 60's, and then again in 1990.  Two walls have recently been taken back to brickwork, with most of the paint going with the plaster rubble.  Today's fun was scraping one of the walls to remove any remaining paint as well as loose dross, which has worked well.   One wall left to do, though that won't be tomorrow cos' I suspect my paws will be giving me grief in the morning...

 

 

[Simon G]

2 hours ago, Tony_S said:

My car has stop start and if the battery is low you do get a visible and audible warning of low battery. The warning is something like “battery low, start engine”. I hadn’t been doing my weekly start recently after being in hospital and did get the warning. A 30 minute engine run has meant the battery doesn’t now generate a warning. The original battery in my car failed when it was about 2 years old producing only a couple of volts. It was replaced under warranty by Land Rover. I don’t know whether your car is similar but because mine has stop start the instructions about jump starting are very specific about not connecting the negative lead to the battery. Of course the bolt you are supposed to use isn’t fitted in my car as it isn’t the Diesel engine in the illustration. I just found one that looked similar that looked earthy!

My car also has a stop start, and when the battery packed up last year, the new one was about twice the price of a normal battery.  Any savings I had managed from the use of the stop start facility were more than wiped out by the extra cost of the battery.  I don’t see stop start as being worth having now.

[New Haven Neil]

1 hour ago, tigerburnie said:

Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh....................new deezul burner turned up, Hornby dcc chip fitted and some testing on parallel bits of metal have taken place. Flippin' fiddly getting the top back on after the elctrickery bits had been fitted, at least 3 hands required, a fine looking bit of kit................for an oil burner that is.

 

Just getting the body shell off Heljan diesels is a double word score event!  Bloomin murder in my experience, and I used to fit DCC to a lot at work - hated them, was always convinced bits were going to go flying.  We stopped selling them as A N Other dealer was selling them out at less than we could buy them in for, yet Heljan insisted they didn't have a special deal (so how?), didn't shed a tear.....

[simontaylor484]

Have aby fellow Ers seen thst new series with Sarah Beeny. I watched the series where they did Rise Hall but this one yhey wsnt to build a Palladian style mansion in Somerset i have only seen the first episode streamed whilst Swmbo was watching Corrie.

I thought it was utterley cringeworthy they seemed to come across with a terrible sense of self entitlement. 

Think i am going to stick with Dick and Angel Strawbridge instead.

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. The preparing of the venison went quite well with no major disasters and it was delicious. Only one minor setback, yours truly got the oil in the pan really hot then I dropped the venison steak in. Problem was having rinsed the steak off under the tap I forgot to dry off the excess water resulting in a lot of hot oil flying about. Fortunately no damage to myself or the kitchen but its taken half an hour to clean up the cooker top/splashback/worktops. Once cooked I gave it a quick blast of microwaves to make sure it was cooked throughout. Tomorrow I'm going to make the other steak into a casserole, dice it, fry it in the same pan and into the oven dish with all the juices from the pan with a few extras then in the oven.

[Andrew P]

9 minutes ago, New Haven Neil said:

 

Just getting the body shell off Heljan diesels is a double word score event!  Bloomin murder in my experience, and I used to fit DCC to a lot at work - hated them, was always convinced bits were going to go flying.  We stopped selling them as A N Other dealer was selling them out at less than we could buy them in for, yet Heljan insisted they didn't have a special deal (so how?), didn't shed a tear.....

When we had a Record and Video Shop we had a similar situation with a supplier saying that all Trade Discount was the same. That was until one day we received a larger Stores invoice by mistake. WOW, that was an eye opener.

Edited November 25, 2020 by Andrew P

[simontaylor484]

Think my mrs had been meddling with the ads on here today Ugg boots and designer handbags.

[New Haven Neil]

I find Adblock works.....

[Erichill16]

13 minutes ago, simontaylor484 said:

Think my mrs had been meddling with the ads on here today Ugg boots and designer handbags.

Wasn’t impressed with your earlier idea so dropping you a couple of hints?
 

[PhilJ W]

34 minutes ago, Andrew P said:

When we had a Record and Video Shop we had a similar situation with a supplier saying that all Trade Discount was the same. That was until one day we received a larger Stores invoice by mistake. WOW, that was an eye opener.

My first job upon leaving school 56 years ago was with Kearly & Tonge the parent company of International Stores, a large grocery chain. One of my jobs was checking invoices from different suppliers of branded goods to the shops. They sometimes sent the invoices for such as Sainsburys to us in error. If Sainsburys got a discount  the directors would write to the supplier asking for the same discount. (FYI International Stores are now part of Morrisons.)

[Coombe Barton]

... Is it that science is just too damn difficult for a Classicist with a 2:1 to understand? ...

 

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2020/11/25/third-wave/

[brianusa]

8 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

KRP in Cincinnati became famous because of the pneumatic qualities of Miss Loni Sanders,  

Surely you mean Loni Anderson, although if Miss Sanders is equally endowed............

      Brian.

[Erichill16]

Evening All,

Firstly thanks for information on stop/start and battery warnings. I’ll have a good look in the manual tomorrow, there must be a warning but surely you can’t override a warning, so don’t know what to expect. If you remember I’ve had a belly full of vehicle batteries earlier this year with the works van acting up during lockdown 1.

Moving on, I had a phone consultation with my dietician this morning but without blood tests he can’t tell how well (or not as the case may be) I’m doing. He’s added to my notes that the next time I see anyone in the hospital then they should arrange for the blood test he’s recommended. I’m supposed to be seeing the neurologist in February but I think that will also be done electronically so not sure when the blood tests will get done. 
This afternoon fined up so we took Syd for a walk before SWMBO went to pick the nephews up. Usually I go as well to act as referee but I stayed at home just in case I was needed to come to the rescue with jump leads etc.

Tea was GF pasta bake for us all which is unusual as if the boys hear  GF they won’t eat it. This was followed by GF apple crumble. This saved SWMBO making two separate meals so turned out well.

Managed to get a bit of book keeping done but no shed time. There’s always tomorrow ..........

Goodnight

Robert

[pH]

2 minutes ago, Erichill16 said:

Evening All,

Firstly thanks for information on stop/start and battery warnings. I’ll have a good look in the manual tomorrow, there must be a warning but surely you can’t override a warning, so don’t know what to expect.

  Can you not disable the stop/start function? I’ve rented a couple of cars in the UK with the function and have immediately looked up how to shut it off.

[Erichill16]

18 minutes ago, pH said:

  Can you not disable the stop/start function? I’ve rented a couple of cars in the UK with the function and have immediately looked up how to shut it off.

I’m not too sure about the car. It’s SWMBOs and I’ve only driven a couple of times. I thought I read in the manual  when we bought it that the stop/start function wouldn’t work in certain circumstances, eg if the engine hadn’t warmed up or it was being used constantly as In a traffic jam etc so I would have thought it would automatically disengage when the battery was low. I’m wondering if the stop/start function has not been used for couple of days and we hadn’t noticed the issue was developing but even so a warning should be given that the battery is about to expire.

I think you can disable the function but you have to do it every time you start the car.

None of this rubbish on my works van or my 1968 Lotus!

Regards

Robert