Early Risers.

[PhilJ W]

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. Mention of advent calendars reminded me that I had one that I hadn't started. A Tolberone one, where each compartment holds a miniature Tolberone bar. I normally don't bother with such things but Tess Coes had a few where the corners of the triangular box had been damaged so they sold them off at £2 instead of the usual £8, its now up to date.  

4 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

Artex is another horrible thing to get off. Long spell on each patch with the steamer then the scraper, assisted with a hammer. I think I may still have the scars on my palm from the blisters.

 

Jamie

 

 

I found that underneath the Artexed ceiling of the hallway (that was made from the original open porch) someone had used cardboard boxes flattened out instead of plasterboard. I discovered that when the flat roof sprung a leak and it all sagged. A bit at one end that was an entrance lobby with a proper plastered ceiling they had Artexed over old distemper paint and most of it came away with the distemper. A proper plasterboard ceiling is now in place.

[Tony_S]

31 minutes ago, The Lurker said:

 

Meanwhile Younger Lurker's school have sent home the Upper Sixth

My sister in law had to collect her children due to an emergency closure today. The school water supply failed and children had to go home. The school doesn’t have mains water (or in fact any “mains services). Generators have also failed in the past. The school has banks of mobile phones. At least it wasn’t a Covid related reason. This school isn’t in a really remote area, it just got built as planned but all the related infrastructure was and still is delayed. 
 

[Erichill16]

5 hours ago, polybear said:

Just watching a programme about Claridges whilst waiting for the 1pm news.  An American couple are featured (he sold his business to Hewlett Packard).  They been staying there for 40 years; they're in the Royal Suite for 16 nights - at £5.5K A NIGHT   They only left the Hotel twice in 16 nights.  Brekkies?  Coffee and toast.  Bear went wrong somewhere.

On second thoughts, there's not even a mention of a full english.  Or cake.

Claridges?  Keep it.  And the silly bill.

At that price I’d stay in the hotel, I’d want to get my monies worth!

[Tony_S]

1 hour ago, Erichill16 said:

At that price I’d stay in the hotel, I’d want to get my monies worth!

There were people (allegedly) who stayed on the cruise ships we have been on. Going on one cruise after another, sometimes transferring to another cruise ship. I am not sure how they would be coping with the lack of cruises at the moment. The longest we spent on a cruise was a month but it was the QM2 and the breakfasts are very good. I have just remembered that we were not “supposed” to refer to QM2 as a cruise ship. We were on an ocean liner on a voyage. 

Edited December 7, 2020 by Tony_S

[Tony_S]

All the ceilings in our house are Artexed, even the garage ceiling. It is a fairly subtle pattern and I have no intention of changing it.  Fashionable people have stripped off the artex and replaced it with plain plaster but it makes the larger rooms look a bit sparse to me. My parents had Anaglypta everywhere. I never learned how to hang it. For most diy jobs Dad was happy to chat and explain things but he needed to be left alone when hanging any wallpaper and especially ceilings.  In this house we have no wallpaper. Although we have decorated a few times we have kept the same colour for walls and ceilings. 
 

I had a call recently  to say my car was finished apart from cleaning so would be ready to collect tomorrow. I paid for the MoT over the phone so don’t need to even hand over my card tomorrow. I am glad we chose not to collect it tonight, it is dark and foggy. We both noticed cars without any lights on this morning. I wonder if some people don’t realise that it can sometimes be light enough in fog to switch their automatic lights off. First time I went out in my Evoque in fog I went to turn the front fog lights on and they were not in the same position as the Freelander. The rear light switch was. I stopped in a lay by and looked for the switch. I then went and looked round the front and the car doesn’t have front fog lights.  So that solved the switch problem. 
Tony

[pH]

I’m sitting in the customer area of the car dealership. The car is in for a regular service. They’re one technician down today, so it’s going to take longer than it’s meant to. I could go home and come back when the dealership phones to say it’s ready. But that would mean using a bus both ways, plus having at most an hour at home. So it looks like a couple of hours of RMWeb and Angry Birds on the dealership’s wifi.

Edited December 7, 2020 by pH

[Tony_S]

9 minutes ago, pH said:

.  I’m sitting in the customer area of the car dealership. The car is in for a regular service. They’re one technician down today, so it’s going to take longer than it’s meant to. I could go home and come back when the dealership phones to say it’s ready. But that would mean using a bus both ways, plus having at most an hour at home. So it looks like a couple of hours of RMWeb and Angry Birds on the dealership’s wifi.
 

 

I don’t think I could have stayed at the Land Rover dealership today. They had timed drop and collect slots with  only 3 customers on the premises at once. I saw a technician come out to collect a car from the forecourt. Masked, gloved and cleaning fluids in use. If Aditi hadn’t collected me I could have come home by bus but it isn’t exactly a straightforward journey. Normally the dealer collects and returns the car but they don’t now. The Ford garage did for Aditi’s car.I suppose they all interpret the rules differently and one feels they can collect safely and the other doesn’t.  There is a nearer Land Rover dealer but I prefer not to go there!

[Mark Saunders]

9 minutes ago, pH said:

I’m sitting in the customer area of the car dealership. The car is in for a regular service. They’re one technician down today, so it’s going to take longer than it’s meant to. I could go home and come back when the dealership phones to say it’s ready. But that would mean using a bus both ways, plus having at most an hour at home. So it looks like a couple of hours of RMWeb and Angry Birds on the dealership’s wifi.

Do they not provide complementary drinks and biscuits to assist the passage of time!

[pH]

4 minutes ago, Mark Saunders said:

Do they not provide complementary drinks and biscuits to assist the passage of time!

There is coffee, but no biccies (or cake!).

[Tony_S]

1 minute ago, Mark Saunders said:

Do they not provide complementary drinks and biscuits to assist the passage of time!

The ones we go to do but Covid rules change everything. The drinks and the biscuits at Land Rover are nice. Aditi said the Ford dealer offers lots of coffee but she said it is “not nice” so used to take her little flask if she had booked a while you wait. Though one while you wait turned out to be longer due to a unforeseen problem, so she phoned me to drive over and take her for a non alcoholic pub lunch. I have no idea why she preferred while you wait to a car collect and return option. It took me years to convince her. 

[PeterBB]

42 minutes ago, pH said:

I’m sitting in the customer area of the car dealership. The car is in for a regular service. They’re one technician down today, so it’s going to take longer than it’s meant to. I could go home and come back when the dealership phones to say it’s ready. But that would mean using a bus both ways, plus having at most an hour at home. So it looks like a couple of hours of RMWeb and Angry Birds on the dealership’s wifi.

I can think of many things worse than 'having' to work through the myriads of the RMweb - you are in a position where no excuse is necessary to avoid the work request of SWMBO ... RMweb heaven!

 

[PeterBB]

34 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

I don’t think I could have stayed at the Land Rover dealership today. They had timed drop and collect slots with  only 3 customers on the premises at once. I saw a technician come out to collect a car from the forecourt. Masked, gloved and cleaning fluids in use. If Aditi hadn’t collected me I could have come home by bus but it isn’t exactly a straightforward journey. Normally the dealer collects and returns the car but they don’t now. The Ford garage did for Aditi’s car.I suppose they all interpret the rules differently and one feels they can collect safely and the other doesn’t.  There is a nearer Land Rover dealer but I prefer not to go there!

Our main dealer has set up a marked waiting room with divisions 

 

34 minutes ago, Mark Saunders said:

Do they not provide complementary drinks and biscuits to assist the passage of time!

Before Covid this was possible but not now - the risk is considered too great.

[iL Dottore]

14 hours ago, chrisf said:

... ...I cannot think of this without being reminded of the Over 80s Nudist Leapfrog Team, made famous by the writers of “Beyond Our Ken” all those years ago...

And made even more famous in Round The Horne, the sequel to Beyond our Ken (FWIW, I think that RTH is the much better and funnier programme).

I have been a long time aficionado of RTH (and had the wonderful experience of being in the audience for a RTH recording, long before I knew what a double-entendre was).

 

What is perhaps is a sad commentary about today’s society is that RTH would not be considered “appropriate” (aka “politically correct”) today and yet the sympathetic portrayal of the the two gay characters in the series, the out of work actors Julian and Sandy, did much to paint gay people in a positive light (and the actors portraying Julian and Sandy were themselves gay).  And this in a time where homosexuality was illegal and homophobia rife in society.

 

When I looked at from a certain angle, RTH was very daring and progressive indeed, but as it was not “in your face“ and aggressive, the comedy did more to influence peoples opinions than any amount of “Woke”  posturing can ever do today.

6 hours ago, The Stationmaster said:

...confusion about the Pfizer vaccine as one report is now saying that it only remains effective for 6 months ...Perhaps Flavio will be much better informed than the UK media?..

Possibly.  Without digging up my reference books (I’ve only recently come back to immunology and I am still “getting up to speed“).  Basically, I think, they are talking about two distinct parts of the immune response to a vaccine. The first part is the creation of antibodies (that don’t hang around that long) the second part is when the body produces both B-Lymphocytes and T-Lymphocytes that “remember” how to fight this pseudo-infection (which was the vaccine) and are thus primed to take on any real infection of the type the person was vaccinated against. The thing is, the production of “memory” B-lymphocytes and T-lymphocytes does take a short while (and may require a booster, which is why the Pfizer/BioNteq  vaccine is given twice within a short period of time).

1 hour ago, Tony_S said:

There were people (allegedly) who stayed on the cruise ships we have been on. ... we were not “supposed” to refer to QM2 as a cruise ship. We were on an ocean liner on a voyage. 

It may be those people who hop from one cruise to another may be doing it for the same reason (I am led to understand) retired people buy huge mobile homes in the US and spend their retirement travelling from place to place. By having no fixed abode, they are, in effect, minimising their tax burden.

 

As to the difference between “a cruise“ and and “ocean voyage“ I suppose it is the difference between a mass produced item and bespoke, tailored, clothing. Certainly these huge (2000+ passengers) cruise ships are incredibly detrimental to the places they visit on their itinerary. As Venice and Barcelona can sadly testify. I suppose some might consider these cruises “luxurious“, although from what I’ve seen it seems to be quite a tawdry “bling“ type of luxury. And with many of these cruises, I get more than a whiff of “enforced jollity“ of the type you would find in a 1950s holiday camp. And yet, with the right ship, the right crew, the right level of accommodation and dining plus a good mixture of fellow passengers (and not too many) a cruise can be indeed a most enjoyable experience.
 

G’night All.

 

iD

[polybear]

7 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

Artex is another horrible thing to get off. Long spell on each patch with the steamer then the scraper, assisted with a hammer. I think I may still have the scars on my palm from the blisters.

 

6 hours ago, TheQ said:

I hope wearing a face mask, old versions of Artex had asbestos in them

 

Artex (= Asbestos Reinforced TEXtured coating) may well contain asbestos even up to as late as 1999.  I rather like the stuff - my conservatory walls are finished with it.  It's currently deemed to be "out of fashion" - which means all the designers flogged the stuff left right and centre until sales dropped off, then told everyone it was out of fashion and you should have something else instead.  (i.e. the same philosophy as saying "red is last year's colour").  Finding someone who can apply Artex well isn't easy now, as I found out 6 years ago when I needed a repair done to the conservatory finish (damaged due to damp ingress - now fixed with a new solid roof replacing the clear plastic cr@p).  He wasn't cheap, but matched the finish perfectly.

Mind you, how many of us have spent a sunday morning fitting new brake pads/shoes and blowing out the dust?  Asbestos dust, up until 1999 (or 2004 for classic cars) - of course such pads may well still exist (my 1985 Honda CB750F still has the original pads)

[polybear]

9 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

Certainly these huge (2000+ passengers) cruise ships are incredibly detrimental to the places they visit on their itinerary. As Venice and Barcelona can sadly testify.

 

As Bear can testify, having seen one of these jobbies navigating the Canale della Guidecca in Venice.  Who in their right mind thought that allowing such vessels to sail thru' the middle of Venice was a good idea?

 

In other news:

Bear has covered the framework of the stair box with plasterboard - another box ticked.  I think tomorrow will be a bit of a sort & tidy day in the kitchen, with maybe a bit of local Co-op shopping thrown in for good measure.  I've yet to decide what the next significant task will be in the great kitchen refurbishment - everything at the moment is geared towards getting the plasterer in to work his magic, which will be in January I suspect (and hope...).

[Coombe Barton]

... and alien monoliths and fridges ...

 

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2020/12/07/sounds-of-the-season-9-st-columbas-birthday/

[laurenceb]

Night awl

[Tony_S]

54 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

 a cruise can be indeed a most enjoyable experience.

We just treat them as a hotel that moves about. There are loads of activities available but we don’t do many. We have only been on P&O or Cunard ships. 
Quite a lot of the people on QM2 were using the regular Atlantic crossing as they didn’t  really like flying. Not that everyone has a week to spend eating 4 meals a day. Some of the passengers had 4 legs, I think it was 20 dogs and 1 cat. British dogs had a lamppost to wee on, there was a fire hydrant for US dogs. 

Edited December 7, 2020 by Tony_S

[simontaylor484]

Wokeness and political correctness are the scourge of modern society.

I have Polish neighbours one side and Ghanians on the other everybody gets on ok the only problem we have is a lot of houses are rented so there is quite a turnover of residents in normal times. 

[simontaylor484]

4 hours ago, Erichill16 said:

At that price I’d stay in the hotel, I’d want to get my monies worth!

I would want slightly more than the usual towel i liberate from hotels at that money 

Now how could i get the bed out i wonder?.

[Barry O]

Goodnight all!

Baz

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. I didn't venture out today, things are what could be described as a bit 'loose', must have been all that extra veg yesterday. I'd forgotten that supplies were low so tonights dinner was egg and chips, as that was all there was in the fridge. Thats it for now, be back later.

[monkeysarefun]

Todays Australia VS India T20 match at the SCG will be the first major sporting event since crowd limits were abolished here earlier  this week, allowing 100% capacity once again.

 

Will be interesting to see the crowd numbers, I assume many people will go just for the novelty value of being back to normal and standing crushed in a crowd again after all these months of social distancing.

 

If more than 47,000 and something turn up it'll  beat the recent NSW vs QLD state of origin Rugby League game as the 'biggest' (in crowd size)  sporting event in the world since the virus arrived. 

Edited December 7, 2020 by monkeysarefun

[tigerburnie]

G'night all

[Tony_S]

43 minutes ago, simontaylor484 said:

Wokeness and political correctness are the scourge of modern society.

I can’t see what is wrong about being aware of other peoples situations. I can’t see why not using insults or terminology nowadays just   because previous generations did is so wrong. I can remember as a child being embarrassed at my grandfather’s racist bigotry. I prefer living in a society where that behaviour would be frowned upon. I am not naive enough to think such views disappeared but criticising woke or PC ( which I actually think are silly descriptions) behaviour does imply a return to a less tolerant society.