Early Risers.

[The Lurker]

Greetings all from Sidcup where mist is shrouding the view from the "office" window in a light veil.

 

I don't drink tea but do drink black coffee. I find the chains vary from shop to shop and day to day. I used to always prefer Costa to the rest except the long since departed Seattle Coffee Co, but nowadays, the local Caffe Nero seems to selling a less harsh roast which is nice.

 

I don't really do Starbucks but we did drink quite a bit a couple of years ago on our West Coast journey. Having said that, the best coffee we had was a tie between the drink we had in an independent place in Seaside Oregon and another in Fort Bragg California. 

 

I prefer a cafetiere or even a percolator over aeropress or whatever they like to call the system for making the coffee in the chains. That definitely changes the way the coffee tastes.

 

Our group's coffee house supplies coffee to a lot of the chains in various countries as well as the coffee producers themselves. Having tasted some of the coffee at a tutored cupping session, I know they supply good coffees; I guess it is what is done with them. Our US coffee subsidiary has an operation which sells smaller parcels of green or roasted beans to independent stores or for home consumption. Maybe that is the way to go!

 

I too will have to watch or at least listen to the budget today. I suspect that we will hear of future pain in the form of tax rises  but nothing that hits quite yet.

[jonny777]

Dull and overcast in North Somerset this morning. The ground appears wet and it would seem we have had a little rain overnight, but it is dry at the moment. 

 

Expecting parcels today, possibly a dozen flag irises to plant around the pond; and so I would like dry weather as they need to go in the ground as soon as possible in order to get them growing properly to maybe flower in May or June. 

 

Have 5 Amaryllis bulbs which have sprouted again over the last few days after their winter hibernation. These will be fed and watered regularly now as they grow really quickly once they start. I would like them to be flowering by Easter.  

[The Lurker]

11 hours ago, andyram said:

It begin with a fruitless online search for an item this morning. Placed said item in trolley at Argos. Got to check out - then found listed as unavailable for both pick up at all local stores and home delivery. Then it appeared as available to collect in Long Eaton, but when I proceeded to payment screen it was back out of stock again. The same cycle was repeated 4-5 times over the hour before it booted me out completely. Amazon showed stock, but jumped straight to error screens too so no success.

 

 

PS5? 

 

I have been trying to get one for Elder Lurker with a similar lack of success and frustration, although you appear to have got closer with Argos than me!

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. In the news this morning, Fraggle Rock is back in quarantine I see. No doubt Neil will fill us in on the details. As Tony said its  bit foggy hereabouts, hope it clears soon before I go out. I have my heating on low all the time but having a new boiler fitted last September has reduced my gas consumption as well. When I was working I had the central heating on a timer as the house was empty during the day. Since I retired I've had it on 24/7 at a set temperature but I've never noticed any change in gas consumption. The house is well insulated and I had the loft insulation topped up only a few years ago. Muggatee to be drunk so its be back later.

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone 

 

A little late out of bed this morning, but I don’t care, I’m retired, I’m allowed to have a lie in now if I want one, so there   

 

It’s quite a sunny sunny day here in England’s northwest, but I’m going to spend the most part of it ‘playing’ in the cellar. I have a few experiments I want to conduct with my DCC controller and a few bits and pieces, so it should be a fun time. However, my first task is to fix the light pull in the bathroom, Sheila managed to severe the cord between the pull knob and the switch, so I have to source some new cord. I know there is some, i saw it a few weeks ago when I was sorting out stuff in the cellar, I’m just not sure where I’ve put it. 

 

Stay safe, stay sane, enjoy whatever you have planned for the day, back later. 

 

Brian

[Gwiwer]

Good morning all from a grey and somewhat misty Hill of Strawberries.  We are warned of yellow fog but haven't seen any yet.  

 

Of tea and coffee both can be made in myriad different ways and both have socio-cultural implications.  "Let's have tea" can be a British way of settling minor local differences while an invitation to coffee in some cultures (I know it from parts of Turkey and Iran) means great celebration such as the announcement of a wedding.  

 

Coffee seems to have progressed from "Camp" brand chicory and coffee essence which was all that was in the house when I was very young through the various levels of instant to the far more refined cafetiere (or "jug") which is equally at home in a domestic or restaurant setting and the seemingly never-ending range of variants from the espresso machine.  We also have capsules, home milk frothers and all sorts these days.  Coffee is such a vast subject.  We all like it differently and  our backgrounds and cultures may influence how and when we drink it.  Our Turkish neighbours brew it thick and strong and offer it to us to celebrate the birthdays of their children (in non-Covid times).  I'm not a great fan of Costa as they heat the milk first then add the shot which to my mind is the wrong way round.  Nero use a blend which I find slightly bitter but while Pret make theirs in a high-volume machine rather than the traditional "Gaggia" type beast  it does come out usually rather well.  

 

Tea.  Where does one start?  Milk in first?  Tea in first?  No milk at all?  Same considerations as coffee but for a totally different beverage.  "Tea" encompasses so many options.  Just as coffee at home might well be instant so tea is often brewed using bags.  Then there is the range of herbal "teas" many of which don't come from a tea-plant at all but are similarly-brewed infusions of herbs, petals or fruits.  

 

I usually have a "gold" style instant coffee at home and Yorkshire tea bags but there is a choice.  Currently I have four different blends of ground coffee, of which one is a decaf for SWMBO, for the jug and a couple of other teas.  SWMBO is a big fan of the "afternoon tea" with china cups, saucers, tea-pot and all.  She collects sets and finds reason to use them.  Of note to @Happy Hippo and @polybear is that such events normally involve c**e   

 

I must now finish the current MuggerOcadoColombianGold before it gets cold and before I waffle on any further.

 

Suffice to say I have a slightly stiff shoulder from yesterday's jab but no other side-effects.  My phone mysteriously runs on 5G and I have several new and curious appendages growing but that's OK.  The governments of the UK and Chine know my every move and I bleep every five seconds.  But no side effects   

[Tony_S]

I rang the dentist surgery. I can go for my throbbing tooth to be looked at at 11.30 today. We seem to do well in what some call  the postcode lottery of healthcare. Normally we can see the dentist’s surgery but it is shrouded in mist/fog today.   The receptionist always recognises my voice so I must sound different to most people round here. They don’t have any caller display technology. Everything is quite traditional (paper filing system, cash or cheque) except for the dental equipment. 
Tony

Edited March 3, 2021 by Tony_S

[New Haven Neil]

Morning, from a slightly misty rock.

 

Yes, another circuit breaker here, some CV has got into a school so there was a wee panic about that last night, although the break had already been announced.  This may give another lead to trace back, there is a missing link at the moment.  Untruths have been hinted at.

 

Pfizering went OK, a slight headache last night and a prickling skin feeling.  Woke through the night absolutely roasting, lay on the bed uncovered for an hour until it subsided.  This morning a sore arm, and any arthritic bits (I have a selection) are feeling VERY arthritic.  Nothing to write home about really, hair not purple, I appear not to be broadcasting my whereabouts or receiving instructions from the US - just from the other half as usual.

 

Debs last day at work should have been today, but due to the lockdown was sent home yesterday late afternoon, no point in bringing everything home to take it all back today after doing no work!  New job induction on Monday is obviously compromised, her new boss is self isolating as one of his kids is at that school mentioned above!

 

Neither of us drink tea, I can't even stand the smell of it.  We drink coffee weak and milky, latte if out and about.  We don't have a Star*ucks over here, so can't comment, but Costa have a three branches but we prefer to use independents if at all possible. The only place we get bad coffee is the MSPCA tearooms, a shame as their grub is good!  It's like battery acid, not sure what beans they use but it is foul.

[tigerburnie]

Morning, foggy and cold again, we should have had the Aurora last night, but not in the fog and cloud we didn't. Of coffee and tea, I no longer drink either much, son in law is a coffee nut, paid a fortune for a fancy machine to make his fancy drinks at home, when out I will join him in Starbucks for a coffee, especially if he's paying, it tastes inoffensive to me. I tend to drink water out of the tap more than anything else these days.

[Mike Bellamy]

On 01/03/2021 at 22:43, sixoh8sixoh said:

 

I remember seeing tables at exhibitions overflowing with every volume of Yeadon’s Register not so long ago, but they seem to be far rarer now. I managed to pick up a K3/K4 volume and have reserved a K1/K2 which I need to pay for tomorrow. I presume they’re now out of print.

 

 

Mike - sorry I'm late responding to this - have a look at Booklaw publications of Nottingham - they seem to be advertising almost every volume at £9.99 - I think they may now be the publishers ?

 

https://www.booklaw.co.uk/yeadon-registers.html?page=all

 

 

4 hours ago, pH said:

 Some years ago the local energy companies were subsidizing energy upgrades to homes. To get the subsidy, you had to get an energy audit of the house before and after, done by an approved inspector.

 

 

After dad passed away, my brother and I rented out his little bungalow in a sheltered housing development. It is a legal requirement to have an Energy Performance Certificate from a suitably qualified and licenced assessor. As the property had a solid concrete floor there was a recommendation to install floor insulation at an estimated cost of £4-6000 with an estimated annual saving of £39 !! The other recommendation was that we should install solar water heating, again at a cost of £4-6000 with a saving of £42. As the property was so small you would only be able to get one solar panel on the roof. I suppose you can guess that we decided to ignore these recommendations !!

.

[The Stationmaster]

Morning al,

 

Currently cold and misty. but itis promised to warm up later-  when the yellow rain arrives.  I find coffee the most disappointing drink I have ever come across, the only thing that was in any way worse was some Bulgarian plum brandy I had in Poland in the years before glasnost.  My big problem with coffee is that the decent stuff smells very nice but the taste doesn't come up to the aroma hence disappointment.  When I'm on the mainland (of Europe) there is really little choice but to drink it as the foreigners have not the faintest idea of how to make tea so I have little choice but to consume black coffee (hoping to find some decent tasting stuff) plus a considerable quantity of sugar.  Much to my surprise it took me a long time to find a decent brand of tea for 'home' use when I was working in Aus - there's some right rubbish on the market over there but eventually i found a really good one so ceased to worry about my working visit being extended.

 

As we havea modern bult house we have loads of insulation and, obviously, double glazing, and we got very high marks on the compulsory leakage test after completion.   So the boiler isn't on all the time except when it gets really arctic like.  we have the advantage too of solar panels for water heating on teh southern end of the roof which also makes a difference. And when we fire up the wood burner it is very good at producing an excellent output and over this winter it is mainly burning the results of the tree surgeon's attentions to our own trees.

 

Kitchen has now been very thoroughly decontaminated by the management and GD and the latter even managed to shift out the range cooker and had a good clean up behind it as well.  She found four stray screws, presumably from the cooker which clearly had not been taken out by ratty and which equally clearly didn't have anywhere to reinsert them, strange!  there were also two stray ,thin, and very short, earth leads which were only long enough to be attached to the same bits of metal they were attached to at the other end and no where which would take any of four different patterns of screw.  I wonder what the odds are of getting a service manual and/or wiring diagram for a 13 year old cooker of a design which is no longer made and where the brand name has been long sold off by the original manufacturer?

 

Have a good day one and all

[Gwiwer]

5 minutes ago, The Stationmaster said:

the decent stuff smells very nice but the taste doesn't come up to the aroma hence disappointment.

Same with fish & chips often as not  

[Gwiwer]

5 minutes ago, The Stationmaster said:

I wonder what the odds are of getting a service manual and/or wiring diagram for a 13 year old cooker of a design which is no longer made and where the brand name has been long sold off by the original manufacturer?

The internet knows everything.  I found a pdf file someone had uploaded of the instructions for an old 1960s Dansette record-player.  

[The Stationmaster]

4 minutes ago, Gwiwer said:

The internet knows everything.  I found a pdf file someone had uploaded of the instructions for an old 1960s Dansette record-player.  

And odd to remark I have just managed to get the correct one off the 'net.  There is no mention if any green wires in the wiring diagram so that's taht one sorted by default.   alas the diagram is a block diagram and it doesn't give the spec for any particular wire and this model is n longer made.  Espares will be my next r target - they send me enough promotional emails so they must like me  (maybe)

[The Stationmaster]

The lad has had his promotion approved by the MD  - along with a nice salary increase (just in excess of 5%) plus his company bonus percentage rate has also been increased.  So well done Rob and the Swiss.

[PeterBB]

On 02/03/2021 at 09:11, PhilJ W said:

Morning all from Estuary-Land. One thing that niggles me is that people mis-spell my forename. My name is the 'royal' version spelt with two L's. This causes problems with e-mail addresses in particular and I have taken pains to point out the correct spelling. I was surprised this morning when most of the media reports of Prince Phillip's current illness spelt his name with only one L, including the BBC! A good indication of the sloppy reporting in the media today.

A lot of this is due to spell check.  Both my surnames are often incorrectly spelt and the first of these spell check changes a y for an I even after correction.  It is frustrating and sometimes official documents appear with incorrect spelling in them - its no joke.  One of the problems, particularly with first names is that 'correct' spellings' were inadvertently altered and have become in common usage.  There are also of course those who have names that are excruciating long so use different versions of them for different things e.g a student might use one name for enrolment, one name for payment, and yet another of written assignments - working through that lot causes a lot of wasted time.

 

It seems that my reply has become a rant - apologies.

[Barry O]

I have found that our "ferrari" (a Gaggia coffee machine) woks really well with Lavazza D'or.. not cheap but it makes excellent coffee. Not tried the Rossa or Decaf yet..

 

Baz

[The Lurker]

43 minutes ago, Gwiwer said:

The internet knows everything.  I found a pdf file someone had uploaded of the instructions for an old 1960s Dansette record-player.  

Agreed.

 

I found a scorecard which had me scoring a 50 in 1996 in the opposition club's website. 

 

I hadn't imagined there would be any such records, especially as the club I played for has long since merged with another, if, indeed, it still exists.

[Barry O]

a duplicate now removed!

 

Baz

Edited March 3, 2021 by Barry O

[Barry O]

Big echo appeared on ERs.....

[Danemouth]

Talking of coffee I remember my mother had a bottle of Camp Coffee used exclusively for making coffee sponges - nobody would drink it as a cip of coffee.

 

I am a confirmed tea drinker but one of my closest friends is Italian. When I go there his Irish wife makes really good coffee with a fancy machine. When he offers to make coffee if she is not there I ask for tea as his coffee is really strong - you could stand a spoon up in it!

 

My younger daughter has the same machine and it also makes excellent coffee.

 

Regards to you all on yet another dismal day,

 

Dave

[jamie92208]

2 hours ago, Mike Bellamy said:

 

Mike - sorry I'm late responding to this - have a look at Booklaw publications of Nottingham - they seem to be advertising almost every volume at £9.99 - I think they may now be the publishers ?

 

https://www.booklaw.co.uk/yeadon-registers.html?page=all

 

Booklaw are indeed the current publishers and they always have a huge range of Yeadons on their stalls. A good company to deal with.

 

Jamie

[Tony_S]

I think the dentist found the poorly tooth. I twitched a bit when he prodded it, and he asked me to try to be still so he could investigate further. I did my best. Then he said a filling had come out. I wasn’t aware of that until it started hurting last night. So I had an x ray, started a course of antibiotics, and have to ring back on Friday morning. He wants to see the x ray but thinks it will be an extraction rather than filling. If it hurts I should take paracetamol. 
Tony

[laurenceb]

Another coffee drinker, fliter at home, usualy Weatherspoons therefore Lavazza when out. If I go into C or S I allways ask for single shot americano, I know that you are supposed to be able to float a horseshoe on it but I draw the line at the horse & rider as well.

[Coombe Barton]

Next door have people in drilling holes with hammer drill.

Lots of holes

 

 

Edited March 3, 2021 by Coombe Barton
typo