Early Risers.

[TheQ]

Me thinks, Il Dottore is try to sugar the pill cake.

 

Mooring Awl, Inner Temple Hare. 637/393

 

Sleep what's that? woke after half an hour, and just about every hour after that, no sleep after 03:00, ended up watching NZ winning the Americas cup.. That has not a lot to do with real sailing anymore, even more divorced from sailing than F1 Cars are from road cars, a Lot More divorced..  A boring course, boring boats of no sailing interest, though of some technical interest.

 

Me can speak, West Country, or normally a generalised from nowhere English, I can understand Scots, Geordie, Norfuk   and Highland Varieties of English. I know a few words of the Gaidhlig, but not enough to make a sentence. Brain has to think about words and is therefore too slow to speak it.

 

In theory Tanking turns the cellar into a tank, but one to keep the water out, not in. In days gone by often tar based , these days often a lighter chemical that soaks into Brickwork.

 

On the way in the Hedges are starting to green up, a Cafe had put up a White plastic tent a few days ago to expand their distanced sitting areas due to covid. Yesterdays wind mean it's a broken heap on the ground.

 

More thoughts of rudder shafts have been running through brain, will investigate possibilities later..

 

Time to, go finish this weeks first major system, lots of fiddly bits to do first.

 

 

[jamie92208]

49 minutes ago, chrisf said:

 The other observation prompted by the date concerns what the Australian singer-songwriter Jack Carty did to one of his own songs.  As written, it went "Drinking like a Mick on Paddy's Day".  What a brilliant metaphor, I thought.  At a subsequent live performance, however, I was dismayed to hear him sing "Drinking like I don't know what to say".  Pure vandalism!  Maybe someone had whispered stuff about political correctness in his ear.  He should not have listened.

 

Chris

Exactly the same happenned in John Denver's  cover of The City of New Orleans by Steve Goodman. Several lines are changed. The one I can remember is that " freightyards full of old black men," Was changed to something else.  Total vandalism to a classic. 

 

Anyway, good moaning to all and of course sundry.  Welcome to the land where LDC us absent, and more seriously, Eccles Cakes and the AZ vacccine.  We have reluctantly decided that there is no chance of getting safely and vaccinated to the UK by mid June so have offerred our Bournemouth timeshare to No 2 son and his girlfriend.  Some time ago we decided that we would both have to be vaccinated and not have to quarantine  in the UK before we go over.  Chats with young Emily  will have to remain electronic for the forseeable.

 

A little trip out today to post a small present to the UK, due to the B word this now neds 7 sheets of paper, downloaded from La Poste website and the minimum charge, for a 7 oz parcel is €15.90.  Such is progress. I have done the paperwork  but now need to take it to the post office.

 

We still await the phone call from the removal contractors to say that the furniture is arriving.

 

Regards to all.

 

Jamie

[Andrew P]

Well another stunningly wonderful day awaits the pleasure of my feet parading around the Block, well just a gentle walk before breakfast actually.

 

In fact, its ALMOST Shorts weather

 

Have a good day one and all, stay safe and well.

[Andrew P]

I get really annoyed with this, WAIT so many seconds before you can post again,

I have a life to live,

things to do,

places to go.

People to see.

Rant over.

Edited March 17, 2021 by Andrew P

[Dave Hunt]

Dad's 98th birthday today so much to do before picking him up later this morning, starting with a trip to the market. Have a good hump day people.

 

Dave

[iL Dottore]

56 minutes ago, polybear said:

Go on iD, brighten Bear's day why don't you.....

Would the study get IRB/EC and MHRA approval?  Well it gets Bear's approval, so why worry?  Who needs "hangers-on" when LDC is involved?

Target Population?  Bears.  Try to keep up....

 

My dear Bear, I am more than “keeping up”, clearly you are not of scientific bent otherwise your question would have been “Target Population”? Which one of the bear family?”

There are eight species of bear: Ursus Americanus, Ursus Arctos, Ursus Maritimus, Ursus thibetanus, Tremarctos ornatus, Ailuropoda melanoleuca, Melursus (Ursus) ursinus and Ursus malayanus plus various subspecies. So which bear do we go with?

And don’t get too cocky about Ursus Maritimus being on the list. It’s only one candidate of many, the CRC (Cake Research Committee) may decide to use another species or even a mix of species (currently the CRC is favouring  Ursus thibetanus).

One final point: not one, single, crumb of cake get dispensed without IRB/EC (Institutional Review Board/Ethics Committee) approval. Never, ever!

iD

p.s. If we do decide to go with Ursus Maritimus, and you sign up, you do realise that you have a one-in-three chance of being assigned placebo LDC (we’d use a 2:1 randomisation schemata).

[BSW01]

11 hours ago, BR60103 said:

Brian W

What is this tanking? Not a term used here.

 

As Poly Bear stated earlier. 

 

Tanking is the application of a waterproofing solution to the walls of the cellar (basements), generally applied to walls that retain or hold back earth or are external/outside walls. It come as a powder, that is mixed with water to form a thick slurry and is then applied using a brush. 

Edited March 17, 2021 by BSW01

[New Haven Neil]

Morning.  Dry out, windy in.

 

Oh, placebo LDC?  What on earth could you use?  

 

NHN is left wondering how Baz grades his Sand Dancer accent, being from the true north east..... 

 

Some Manx gaelic is known here but only 'tourist' phrases.  Otherwise language skills are poor, a little badly recalled schoolboy French, just words, constructing sentences in furrin was beyond me then, never mind now.  Just one of the skills, like art, that I am not equipped with.  There are many. 

[Andrew P]

55 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

Dad's 98th birthday today so much to do before picking him up later this morning, starting with a trip to the market. Have a good hump day people.

 

Dave

I remember meeting your Dad at Telford O Gauge I think, I hope you all have a good day David.

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone 

 

Up a little earlier than usual just in case my phone call from my oncologist is early. The phone rang a few minutes ago so I answered it and heard a pre-recorded message saying I’d missed a call from my internet provider, I hung up! I don’t usually answer unknown numbers, but the oncologist has on occasion rang me on the land line so today I made the exception. Typically it was a scam call, barstewards! 

 

Anyway, back to today. After the ‘CALL’ I’ll sit and discuss the results with Sheila and  then let the kids know. After that it’ll be a quick fodder run as I was unable to get enough milk for the whole week on Monday evening. After that, there are no firm plans, but I may do a bit more calligraphy practice. 

 

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

 

Brian

[jonny777]

Dry and sunny here in North Somerset. 

 

We had a lovely spring day yesterday, and I skimmed some duck weed off the pond surface. I also became very optimistic and planted gladioli and freesia bulbs in tubs for some summer flowering. 

 

I still have a bit of gum ache, head in a vice feeling, and itchy spots on my skin, occasionally but they are becoming much less severe and also less frequent which is good. 

 

I saw a couple of 50 litre bags of potting compost advertised online for £14 with free delivery yesterday, and took advantage of the offer. I have just had an email saying they will be delivered this morning. Wow, that is a decent free delivery option, as I clicked on "3-5 days standard". 

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Not much sleep last night as Arthur Itis and Zecs Ma combined to keep me awake. Suitable treatments were swallowed and applied as and where necessary but did not kick in until a couple of hours before it was time to get up. I'm still getting the stiff joints of a morning that I've been getting since the jab. Little if any pain but it takes a good five minutes to straighten up. Thats it for now, be back later.

[New Haven Neil]

Three 'Ama-zonnnnn' scam calls yesterday, getting very peed off with these.  The day before it was HM's inland revenue demanding back taxes and stuff, odd as we have our own, not the UK version....last week it was 'Microsoft'....#sigh#  Why is it beyond the ken of all the modern technology not to be able to block these barstewards, screwing money out of gullible folk?  I presume there must be a cost, that may interfere with telecom providers profits. Humph.

[Tony_S]

Morning all and happy birthday greetings to Dave’s Dad. 
I did wake up in time to put the rubbish bags out but as Aditi was up I assumed she had gone out. Aditi has a dental appointment today for a filling.

I will continue cleaning the bathroom carpet. This isn’t more complex than vacuuming it today to remove the remains of the cleaning powder. Aditi isn’t convinced that the “damp” smell has gone. I think the smell is from the cleaning chemicals. I won’t disagree though, my sense of smell is not good. 
Tony

[Barry O]

@New Haven Neil.. that gentle soft burr is so obvious to say you are a Sandancer.

 

We used to have a group of older gents who always drank together in one of the Clubs in the village. One of them, by the name of Tot Carr was a true Northumbrian.. his rolled "R"s were hard to catch.

 

Shark has been wielded, Brasso has been applied to various brass ornaments and the floors have been washed.  Time for a mugacoffee methinks!

 

Baz

[New Haven Neil]

I am told I have lost a fair bit of my accent in the 19 years we have been here, Baz.  I do find myself using Manx phrases now. Yessir.

 

The funny thing is Debs sounds more Geordie than me, but she's Cornish!  She was moved around continually as a kid so learned to adjust to wherever she was.  Cornwall, Caterham, Guernsey, New Zealand....she was 16 when she came to Tyneside.  We became a pair a couple of years later.

[PhilJ W]

31 minutes ago, New Haven Neil said:

Three 'Ama-zonnnnn' scam calls yesterday, getting very peed off with these.  The day before it was HM's inland revenue demanding back taxes and stuff, odd as we have our own, not the UK version....last week it was 'Microsoft'....#sigh#  Why is it beyond the ken of all the modern technology not to be able to block these barstewards, screwing money out of gullible folk?  I presume there must be a cost, that may interfere with telecom providers profits. Humph.

Most of them seem to come from 'A provider that doesn't give out numbers' or some such nonsense. My reaction would be to block the provider then there would be no more cold calls.

[Winslow Boy]

1 hour ago, jonny777 said:

Dry and sunny here in North Somerset. 

 

We had a lovely spring day yesterday, and I skimmed some duck weed off the pond surface. I also became very optimistic and planted gladioli and freesia bulbs in tubs for some summer flowering. 

 

I still have a bit of gum ache, head in a vice feeling, and itchy spots on my skin, occasionally but they are becoming much less severe and also less frequent which is good. 

 

I saw a couple of 50 litre bags of potting compost advertised online for £14 with free delivery yesterday, and took advantage of the offer. I have just had an email saying they will be delivered this morning. Wow, that is a decent free delivery option, as I clicked on "3-5 days standard". 

By gum that's a bit dear. Saw them in Morrisons yesterday for less than a fiver for a similar size. Hope its a few bags.  Or is it something special ie. Canna compost. I will say it's a good idea to only buy fresh as it does go off.

Edited March 17, 2021 by Winslow Boy

[jamie92208]

1 hour ago, New Haven Neil said:

Three 'Ama-zonnnnn' scam calls yesterday, getting very peed off with these.  The day before it was HM's inland revenue demanding back taxes and stuff, odd as we have our own, not the UK version....last week it was 'Microsoft'....#sigh#  Why is it beyond the ken of all the modern technology not to be able to block these barstewards, screwing money out of gullible folk?  I presume there must be a cost, that may interfere with telecom providers profits. Humph.

We get 5 or 6 calls per day trying to get us to sign up for insulation or hest pumps. I usually don't answer them but as we are waiting for the call from the movers I've had to today.  Beth gets ones from thecUK on her mobile.

 

Jamie

[PupCam]

13 hours ago, polybear said:

 

You've been sniffin' the Trich again, haven't you Puppers?  Bear has warned you about that before....

As for the critical mass of LDC, Bear continues to conduct extensive research into the subject without any thought for the personal risks involved (such as being tramped by rampaging pachyderms).  It's a tough job, but someone's gotta do it

Have you got that lathe up and running yet?

Oh I'm sorry, but it's been a while since I sniffed the Trich, I sort of fell off the wagon temporarily (that's probably why I fell off!)

 

How very noble of you, but don't forget others are available to help with, shall we say, the more practical aspects of your research (i.e, Scoffing copious quantities of LDC).

 

Yes lathe up and running some time ago with some nice new, modern switch gear to replace the knackered  and dangerous old Dewhurst switch and non-existent NVR switch.   I've already done lots of useful work with it and it's a shame I didn't get one 20 years ago!    Although many would be amazed at the extent and diversity of the work I've done on the old Unimat 3 over the years.   I even used it as an optical bench on one occasion but that's another story ....

[iL Dottore]

2 hours ago, New Haven Neil said:

Oh, placebo LDC?  What on earth could you use? ..

Simples, a vegan, gluten free LDC substitute: no eggs, no dairy, no flour and synthetic lemon flavouring. Of course, sitting side-by-side with a real, home-made LDC the difference would be immediately apparent. But in a clinical trial when the subject gets the placebo they get it without reference to what anybody else is taking - so no side-by-side comparisons.

 

However, if the preliminary SAD and MAD studies (Single Ascending Dose and Multiple Ascending Dose) shows that a placebo LDC is not feasible, then we would use an randomised, open-label, trial design. Subjects would get randomly assigned to either receive Standard of Care (the CRC is considering the Chocolate Digestive as SoC) or SoC plus LDC. Administration will be oral, once a day and exactly at 16:00 hours (4 pm). Administration will be preceded and accompanied by adequate hydration in the form of “English Builder’s Tea“, “Japanese Green Tea“ or an Italian Cappuccino (this will be left to the clinical discretion of the supervising investigator). In a small subset of subjects, there will also be blood samples taken for PK and PD analyses. These will be taken before, during, immediately after and eight hours after dosing. The CRC is also considering abdominal fat fold measurements and abdominal fat punch biopsies - also in a subset of patients (the biopsies will be, for subjects, an optional assessment).

 

Treatment will continue on a daily basis until a sufficient number of primary parameters events have occurred on the subject population.  Therefore subjects must expect to be on either SoC or SoC plus LDC for at least nine months. All study consumables will be provided by the sponsor and reasonable travel expenses covered as well.

 

If the ER community is interested I can post a study synopsis later this week

[PupCam]

5 hours ago, polybear said:

 

 so another slow-ish day for Bear

A chance to crack on with another loco kit then perchance?

 

5 hours ago, polybear said:

Colour co-ordination isn't a skill P.Bears are renowned for, coming from a land where pretty much everything is white.  A bl00dy minefield, if you ask me. 

I thought Khaki, Battleship Grey (Light, Mid and Dark) and Camo colours were more up you street Brian?

 

Dare one mention that minefields are frowned on these days and you'll need to come up with another metaphor for fear of offending someone in this soft and cuddly age in which we live?

[Gwiwer]

4 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

Which one of the bear family?”

Ursa libumensis. The cake bear. 
 

2 hours ago, New Haven Neil said:

I am told I have lost a fair bit of my accent in the 19 years we have been here, Baz.  I do find myself using Manx phrases now. Yessir.

 

The funny thing is Debs sounds more Geordie than me, but she's Cornish!  She was moved around continually as a kid so learned to adjust to wherever she was.  Cornwall, Caterham, Guernsey, New Zealand.....

 

We moved frequently while I was a little tacker. I moved frequently as a student and for a few years after. And then there was marriage ..... 

 

So any strong accent is long gone. People tell me they can hear Cornish and Australian; not surprising as I lived for around 17 years in both places.   But never East London where I lived for almost as long. I know the “Newham accent” well and can still differentiate between Cannin’ Taon and Stratf’d locals. But I spent most of those years in Manor Park where I was one of only two white people in the street, the large Plashet School over the road was almost entirely “black” and the what you heard spoken most often was Sylheti, Gujarati, Urdu, Tamil and Jamaican patois. 

The House of Fun management tells me I have a “radio voice” which is particularly clear. I will still sound a little Aussie at times and use Cornish dialect and everyday speech unless (such as in the greeting “Right are ‘ee my lover?” which can be used to anyone) it is inappropriate in the context. I would never ever refer to anyone in London as “my duck”, “my c0ck”, “my beauty” and seldom as “my ansum” but all are normal west of Truro. 
 

In other news I read a concerning piece about a species of SE Australian honey-eater which is down to around 300 widely-distributed individuals and faces imminent extinction. I have been fortunate to have seen a few Regent Honey-eaters before their population collapsed.

 

But the last line amused me. The piece is about bird-song, remember   

 

 

[polybear]

1 hour ago, PupCam said:

How very noble of you, but don't forget others are available to help with, shall we say, the more practical aspects of your research (i.e, Scoffing copious quantities of LDC).

 

 

What??  And introduce an unknown variable into what is a very technical and scientific study?  Bear feels sure that iD would not approve....

 

1 hour ago, PupCam said:

A chance to crack on with another loco kit then perchance?

 

Dare one mention that minefields are frowned on these days and you'll need to come up with another metaphor for fear of offending someone in this soft and cuddly age in which we live?

 

Is Puppers not familiar with "The Great Awl"?  Incoming.....

 

As for not offending, where would the fun be in that?

[Ian Abel]

2 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

Ursa libumensis. The cake bear. 
 

 

We moved frequently while I was a little tacker. I moved frequently as a student and for a few years after. And then there was marriage ..... 

 

So any strong accent is long gone. People tell me they can hear Cornish and Australian; not surprising as I lived for around 17 years in both places.   But never East London where I lived for almost as long. I know the “Newham accent” well and can still differentiate between Cannin’ Taon and Stratf’d locals. But I spent most of those years in Manor Park where I was one of only two white people in the street, the large Plashet School over the road was almost entirely “black” and the what you heard spoken most often was Sylheti, Gujarati, Urdu, Tamil and Jamaican patois. 

The House of Fun management tells me I have a “radio voice” which is particularly clear. I will still sound a little Aussie at times and use Cornish dialect and everyday speech unless (such as in the greeting “Right are ‘ee my lover?” which can be used to anyone) it is inappropriate in the context. I would never ever refer to anyone in London as “my duck”, “my c0ck”, “my beauty” and seldom as “my ansum” but all are normal west of Truro. 
 

In other news I read a concerning piece about a species of SE Australian honey-eater which is down to around 300 widely-distributed individuals and faces imminent extinction. I have been fortunate to have seen a few Regent Honey-eaters before their population collapsed.

 

But the last line amused me. The piece is about bird-song, remember   

 

 

Surely (DON'T CALL ME SHIRLEY!!), they would have been better served posting this on Twitcher rather than Twitter?!?!?! 

Coat, hat, etc... on me bike!

 

 

HUMP day, ta da!

 

On language. I can attest to speaking "Home Counties English, Weybridge Surrey semi-posh variety"  , also a spattering of French and German obtained in school and served me well during forays into the skiing regions of Austria, Switzerland and the Italian Alps.

Since moving to the US, they haven't been used except a brief time in the late '70s when I was working in Montreal and the French was recognizable and generally accepted!

 

I AM however extremely fluent/conversant in both spoken and written American, and have successfully conversed AND BEEN UNDERSTOOD by people in every state I've visited!  

 

Yesterday, eye exam, actually REDUCED my prescription, seems my eyesight is getting a little better. Eye doctor said that's not uncommon - citing the AGE factor - and sometimes is a forerunner of cataracts. None visible at present, so roll along, will obtain a new pair of specs once the CEO can accompany me and approve any choices!

 

In keeping with our TYPICAL March weather, and unlike @Andrew P suggests regarding shorts, we got another 2 inches of SNOW overnight - UGH!  

-1 searching for the newspaper in the snow, supposed to reach +6 but stay cloudy all day.

 

Later.