Early Risers.

[laurenceb]

Night awl

[monkeysarefun]

47 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Things have changed substantially since those days and the Australian flag is almost as ubiquitous in Australia as the US flag is here.

 

Mainly on eskies and thongs.

(which are what the UK calls flip flops not those undies that go up your clacka.)

[J. S. Bach]

Night Owl from the Piedmont.

[BR60103]

I have said before that you shouldn't need a degree in plastics engineering to throw out your garbage.

 

I'm still incredulous that I read that we should use see-through bags for our garbage so that they can check what we're throwing out.  SWMBO says no way.

 

The flags on the buildings at Disney World look like American flags but are all different in some way (wrong number of stars or stripes). A regulation flag would have to be lowered at dusk every day; the wonky ones can stay up.

 

[J. S. Bach]

28 minutes ago, BR60103 said:

 ...snip...  A regulation flag would have to be lowered at dusk every day ...snip...

There are a few exceptions to that:

Flying the American flag 24 hours a day is allowed at all locations, as long as your flag has the proper lighting and illumination at night. Proper flag illumination at night is broadly defined as bright enough that the flag is recognizable by the casual observer. These are just few of the many customs that are observed when following proper flag etiquette.

There are however, 8 places in the country that always fly their American flag 24 hours a day. These places are listed below and have been authorized by law to do so. All of these locations hold a significant historical importance to the country of the United States of America.

 

Where is the American Flag Flown 24 Hours a Day?

The White House in Washington D.C.

The Washington Monument in Washington D.C.

Fort McHenry National Monument in Baltimore, Maryland.

Flag House Square in Baltimore, Maryland.

United States Marine Corp Memorial in Arlington, Virginia.

On the Green of the Town of Lexington in Massachusetts.

United States Customs Ports of Entry (in numerous cities and states)

National Memorial Arch in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania.

 

The above is from Collins Flags website.

[TheQ]

When I get back to sailing, I raise and lower  the clubs flags. Red ensign up first, down last.

For regatta week up at 08:00 to the sound of the cannon firing. ( Followed by putting the buoys out and ordering the bacon buttys by radio on the way back)

Down at 20:00.

Club flag above visitors flags.

Flags raised to the peak then lowered to half mast, if there is a reason to do so. From half mast raised to the peak then lowered, at the end of the day.

[chrisf]

Greetings one and all

 

It became clear very quickly yesterday morning that the Barclays app would be the subject of a saga.  On the logic that many IT faults are cured by switching off and switching on again I decided to delete the recalcitrant app and download it again.  This theory proved faulty, for the app declined to be downloaded.  For the first time I used Twitter in anger and made contact with the bit of Barclays that is supposed to help with the app.  Uncharacteristically wisely, I suggested to the member of staff assigned to help me that he should telephone me.   Good call: he was on the phone for an hour.  Not so good call: the app would still not download.  My next port of call was the local branch of the bank.  There I found a most helpful young lady who knew her way not only round the app but around the darker recesses of android phones.  All was well, but it had taken six and a half hours to sort it.  There are many ways of spending that length of time a lot more productively and without feeling a complete ninny at the end of it. 

 

I wonder what will go wrong next?  Best wishes to all

 

Chris

[jamie92208]

Good moaning.  Chicken run frame now finished, major part of grass cut and Beth well enough to cook tea. A good day all in all.

 

Today an expedition to The Danglies is in prospect.  Lemon trees are on offer at Leclerc's apparently.  I feel some digging coming on. I will also try to buy some chicken wire and a little implement for joining it up.  It is also meant to rain today but I haven't  opened  the curtains yet.

 

On the subject of flags, I once heard an Alistair Cook, Letter from America, in which he reported that the US flag  in many ways took the place of a monarchy in the US.

 

Jamie

Edited March 25, 2021 by jamie92208

[Barry O]

Ey up!

Woken by having nightmares.. can't remember them so it isn't  likley to set me up for a bit of deja vu.

 

Herself has set off for shopping at moreasons  so time to finish my mugatea , go amd turn the beast around and crack on with Thursday.

 

An hour long video chat with Dr Eldest Herbert who seems to already be planning outdoor meet ups when allowed to do so. He is in "reviewing and marking" phase of his academic year at the moment. It means he gets to hear and see a lot of different political viewpoints..and he can't comment .

 

Hope that you all have a great Thursday!

Baz

[TheQ]

Mooring Awl Inner Temple Hare, 619/387

3.5 hours sleep, short awake, 2 hours sleep, long not a lot of dozing..

 

Ben the lazy Collie was very late from stirring from his bed, not appearing at the kitchen door till I had SWMBO's muggotea in my hand..

 

Frosty grass this morning, blue skies, but clouds on the distant westerly horizon, Car not frosted.

 

I have a new cockwomble to avoid, driver of a grey brown Sirocco , I saw him for the first time yesterday driving exceedingly rapidly, Today he over took myself at the back , another car then a bus, went the wrong side of a central Island, had then to swerve in rapidly for a car coming the other way, then brake for a parked car.. All while we were on a slight left hand bend.. To top that he then turned off 200 yards later.. We were doing the 30mph limit in effin clown town.

 

I must admit I liked the letters from America, I missed them when he stopped..

 

Of computers, it was on the radio this morning, that one of the big milk delivery companies in Norfolk has announced that from next  week they will only take orders via their online app. Me suspects that from next week, they will loose a lot of orders..

 

More discoveries on rudders is leading to more research, another eminent naval architect pointed out that all these fancy shapes and profiles for rudders and keels apply to sailing boats with a Reynolds number in excess of 500,000. My boat will rarely reach that. 

Reynolds number is a dimensionless figure which is useful in fluid dynamics.. R = Vc/ν,

R= Reynolds number

V= Velocity

C = chord length

v = the kinematic viscosity of the liquid

 

Further research required

 

Most shunts done, five 50 or 100 Amp shunts to do, That might warm up the lab a bit.

 

Time to ... get on with it.

[The Lurker]

Greetings all from Sidcup where the skies are clear and blue and the sun is once again eagerly pouring in over my shoulder and trying to read what you lot have posted on ERs.

 

Not a huge amount to report here.

 

I have never been over fussed by flags, ours or anyone else's. The trend to fly flags seems to have morphed from a thing you did when the footie was on (Italia 90 onwards) to some people flying them all of the time.

 

When we went to NY we were struck by the number of flags flying; but we put that down to it being 6 weeks post 9/11.

 

But I think it is more prevalent than that!

 

Have a good day all

[polybear]

8 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

I think that's true for many professions.  From my first day on the job more than 35 years ago I worked in a specialized field where I had no in-depth formal instruction. I did have the necessary problem-solving skills and thought process though.

 

Bear recalls a radio interview that mentioned a certain young degree-qualified manager in an engineering firm (in Luton?).  It soon became apparent that the manager's knowledge of engineering matters was, er, slim.  When questioned, the manager told them his degree was in.....Art.  Reason?  He said it was the easiest way to get a degree.  Obviously the company Bosses/HR never asked about his degree, or weren't bothered.

 

7 hours ago, BSW01 said:

Anyway, the last of the tanking has been done and there isn’t much of the powder left over, probably about 0.75 - 1kg. It looks rather ridiculous in the bottom of a 25kg drum, so I’ll have to find a smaller container in which to store it. The tanking was finished before dinner, as was the cleaning of the brush and tools.  After dinner, I cleaned off some of the shelves and moped the floor, I definitely won’t get into trouble like I did last week, for leaving dusty footprints everywhere. 

 

 

 

How good does that feel?  Don't tell me - LDC good.....

As for the tanking powder, unless you have another job coming up it may be worthwhile to just use it up by giving what may be a "damper" area a second coat, as the powder may have a use-by date?  Although Bear has been guilty on many occasions of using building materials supposedly well past their date with no apparent ill-effects.

 

4 hours ago, BR60103 said:

I have said before that you shouldn't need a degree in plastics engineering to throw out your garbage.

 

I'm still incredulous that I read that we should use see-through bags for our garbage so that they can check what we're throwing out.  SWMBO says no way.

 

 

Unless there are bin inspectors prepared to go right thru' the contents of a wheelie bin then the contraband simply goes at the bottom of the bin; if a bag at the top looks gungy and is ripped then that's even less of an incentive to go rummaging.  Or so I'm told.....

 

25 minutes ago, TheQ said:

I have a new cockwomble to avoid, driver of a grey brown Sirocco , I saw him for the first time yesterday driving exceedingly rapidly, Today he over took myself at the back , another car then a bus, went the wrong side of a central Island, had then to swerve in rapidly for a car coming the other way, then brake for a parked car.. All while we were on a slight left hand bend.. To top that he then turned off 200 yards later.. We were doing the 30mph limit in effin clown town.

 

At times like this it pays to send off a copy of any dashcam footage anonymously to the local nick - hopefully the driver will get a visit to "discuss" his driving skills....

 

In other news:

Today is.....Grouting Day - meaning the floor tiling will be finished.  I have almost three boxes of tiles left over (I specifically wanted a box for spares, should anything untoward happen in the future - the box can be stored under a kitchen cabinet, behind a plinth panel).  The other two are the usual spares that a sensible to buy in case of breakages etc etc during installation, cutting etc. but in this case were never needed).  I'm hoping that the tile shop will accept them back - they have a returns policy - but Bear is now outside the 28 day clause.  Twenty-six quid's worth, so worth doing.

 

Bear saw this in the news - unbelievable:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-56506466

- Bear will be sure to send his first ever tweet (WTF is a "tweet"......??) today, mentioning LDC no less.  I'll be in discussions with Sotheby's in the morning, should anyone be suitably well-heeled.  Grab yourself an investment bargain.

[laurenceb]

20 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

 

 

Bear saw this in the news - unbelievable:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-56506466

- Bear will be sure to send his first ever tweet (WTF is a "tweet"......??) today, mentioning LDC no less.  I'll be in discussions with Sotheby's in the morning, should anyone be suitably well-heeled.  Grab yourself an investment bargain.

More money than sense springs to mind

[Andrew P]

Another glorious start to the day, but alas, no walk will be partaken. The Lawn needed a cut yesterday, and although not huge by any stretch of the imagination, it was enough to upset my lower back again.

I wanted to go for the walk this morning but was advised, naa told not to by my Good Lady, and so I heeded her wise advice.

Still I can sit and look out at the Sunshine and dream of mornings to come.

 

Stay safe and well one and all.

[New Haven Neil]

Good morning chaps and chapesses.

 

Pfizerisation roughness is receding, but not yet eliminated, still more creaky than the norm in the joints and a little spaced out.

 

Flags are flown a lot here, there is a lot of nationalistic pride, you are allowed a flagpole in your garden of a certain height without planning permission.  Planning rules here are VERY strict, after a lot of 1970's trash got built when it was a free for all.

 

I can't emphasise enough how valuable a dashcam is, even here on sleepy Fraggle Rock - ours have resulted in a Court case against Mrs NHN being thrown out as the complainant was proven to be a lying git, and another resulted in a driver being prosecuted for overtaking on double white line into the face of opposing traffic. Or, us, as it was!  Emergency stop time.

 

Q I had wondered about the modest speed and accompanying R value of a small sailing vessel having such a huge effect on rudder design, but my naval architecture training was more about the design of hull framing etc than fluid dynamics, although it was touched on. It seems to me the construction of a couple of different designs should be made and tried to see if any differences can be observed in practice.  A high rate of turn with as low drag possible presumably being the crucial desire?

Edited March 25, 2021 by New Haven Neil

[PeterBB]

2 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

On the subject of flags, I once heard an Alistair Cook, Letter from America, in which he reported that the US flag  in many ways took the place of a monarchy in the US.

 

Jamie

Used to listen regularly to Alistair Cook's 'Letter from America' - extremely informative and spoken in a very pleasant tone.  How long ago that was I cannot remember but it. must go back more than 60 years.

 

[JohnDMJ]

Good morning, for it is still thus!

 

3 hours ago, chrisf said:

[snip]

 

I wonder what will go wrong next?  Best wishes to all

 

Chris

 

Chris: were you a born pessimist or is it a skill that you have developed over the years?

[jonny777]

Hello from North Somerset. Dull and damp here, but rain has been absent for a while so I will not complain. 

 

I sympathise with Andrew P over lawn cutting and backache. I am the same, in fact anything which involves pushing arms forward and then bringing them back again. Using the hoover has the same effect, as does standing and washing up. This was the main reason we (I) bought a dishwasher. In my case there are horizontal muscles across the base of my back (just above my ar5e cheeks) which seem to be the ones to go 'twang' at the earliest opportunity. 

 

I used to know most flags; because in the 1960s I collected cards with flags on. They may have come from packets of bubble gum, but I can't remember. I eventually collected the whole set, but it took me an age to get El Salvador. It became a craze at primary school and we would swap cards in the playground despite these pleasurable activities (in fact *all* pleasurable activities) being banned by the headmaster. In the end I gave all my duplicates, which must have numbered about twenty, to the school bully in exchange for El Salvador. He thought he had a giant bargain, but I didn't care as I now had the whole set and wasn't to be bothered with swaps any more. 

Edited March 25, 2021 by jonny777

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Heating/hot water was off again this morning so it was a climb into the loft to top up and restart the boiler. I bled the radiators and found a lot of air in the radiator in my bedroom  . When I came downstairs there was a damp patch on the carpet in the hallway directly beneath the radiator. At least the affected area is accessible, without moving any heavy furniture. I shall keep an eye on it, the damp patch was very small and has since dried up so might have been from when I bled the radiator.

12 hours ago, TheQ said:

I have a new cockwomble to avoid, driver of a grey brown Sirocco , I saw him for the first time yesterday driving exceedingly rapidly, Today he over took myself at the back , another car then a bus, went the wrong side of a central Island, had then to swerve in rapidly for a car coming the other way, then brake for a parked car.. All while we were on a slight left hand bend.. To top that he then turned off 200 yards later.. We were doing the 30mph limit in effin clown town.

 

12 hours ago, polybear said:

At times like this it pays to send off a copy of any dashcam footage anonymously to the local nick - hopefully the driver will get a visit to "discuss" his driving skills....

 

 

Q mentioned a bus in the line of traffic that was overtaken. Many buses nowadays have cameras so there's a good chance that there is a recording. It might be the bus operators policy to pass such recordings on to the police. Just in case I would suggest reporting it to the police mentioning that there was a bus in the queue and time and place and possibly the car driver could find himself in front of the magistrates.

Edited March 25, 2021 by PhilJ W

[PeterBB]

1 hour ago, polybear said:

Bear saw this in the news - unbelievable:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-56506466

 

Read this and then saw the article on Argentina 'policemens' families and the effect it had on them.

[PhilJ W]

6 minutes ago, PeterBB said:

Read this and then saw the article on Argentina 'policemens' families and the effect it had on them.

I read that as well. Getting rid of the junta was the one benefit for the Argentinian people of the Falkland war.

[Mike Bellamy]

40 minutes ago, PeterBB said:

Used to listen regularly to Alistair Cook's 'Letter from America' - extremely informative and spoken in a very pleasant tone.  How long ago that was I cannot remember but it. must go back more than 60 years.

 

 

Wikipedia tells me that there were 2869 broadcasts from 24 March 1946 to 20 Feb 2004. A number are available on the BBC Iplayer

.

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone 

 

Like yesterday, we’ve had some overnight rain as the patio is very wet' but that has stopped and the sun is shining brightly at the moment. 

 

Today I’m visiting the Trafford Centre, as Mike and Sarah are dropping by tomorrow at about the time I've brought it forward 24 hours. I’ll still walk to the butchers tomorrow morning, as I usually get back from there about 10 o’clock, so I should get back in time. 

 

After my return from the Trafford Centre, I’ve not got anyone else planned, so a day of reading and research may possibly take place. 

 

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

 

Brian

[Tony_S]

Morning all.

It looks like a nice day. I haven’t  been out yet. Food will be arriving after 11. The jaw pains following the tooth extraction are down to slight twinges now rather then the earlier throbbing. I didn’t wake up needing paracetamol in the middle of the night. 
I am supposed eat soft food for a couple more days. This isn’t a problem, we have loads of dal in the freezer still. 
Tony

[Andrew P]

2 hours ago, Andrew P said:

Another glorious start to the day, but alas, no walk will be partaken. The Lawn needed a cut yesterday, and although not huge by any stretch of the imagination, it was enough to upset my lower back again.

I wanted to go for the walk this morning but was advised, naa told not to by my Good Lady, and so I heeded her wise advice.

Still I can sit and look out at the Sunshine and dream of mornings to come.

 

Stay safe and well one and all.

And now it's spittin, would you Adam and Eve it.

 

SO, I can sit and have my 11's looking at the spittin rainie stuff.