Early Risers.

[TheQ]

Mooring Awl, inner Temple Hare,

I had solid sleep, I thought for 7.5 hours, but of course there one been stolen, so only 6.5 hours solid , still good for me.

 

The company I work for has organised well for covid, masks are provided, and must be worn when not at you're own desk. Cardboard dividers and see through plastic windows have been fitted to split up desks too close to each other or by corridor areas.

The T bar area has been split into individual spaced tables, with floor markers  to the coffee machines which have been pushed apart.

There is a one way system around the factory, except for the wide corridors, which are marked with traffic lanes.

Tea / lunch breaks have been staggered.

However it's noticeable the youngsters generally have a different version of staying 2 Meters apart, more like 2 feet. And the smokers are worse, but at least they are outside and I go nowhere near their hovel.

 

As for Arthur's itis, well I do think joint pain has increased since the jab, for me in the fact it's taking longer to recover from anything that upsets them, my left elbow being the prime case, still painful after last weekends strain.

 

Brown eyes is giving me the stare,

 

Time to, go for a wind blown patrol..

 

 

[NGT6 1315]

7 hours ago, J. S. Bach said:

A friend who drives a bus for the MTA in Baltimore, Maryland was offered the chance (due to his seniority) to switch over to the rail side (subway or trolley) but refused mainly because he did NOT want to be "locked" in the cab. Me, I would have accepted in a heartbeat.

 

Yes, I have taken notice that at least some bus drivers do actually appreciate the partially open nature of their work space. As I mentioned, I absolutely don't, but I respect their view.

 

This, of course, was a different point to be considered when implementing safety screens, as in, finding an acceptable balance between enhanced safety and the desire for open space, which were, in fact, often expressed by the same individuals.

 

Mawnin' awl. You may have taken notice of my having switched to mostly daytime shifts recently, so as to be able to see my family a bit more frequently and to allow for more regular sleep patterns. In fact, I'm just about to set off to work. Here's hoping that this'll be a calm Sunday!

[NGT6 1315]

Setting the mood. 

 

 

[Andrew P]

My clock has no respect for my body. It has leapt forward an hour and and so I'm up.

 

BUT the Central Heating is another matter. It has the most complicated clock setting known to man. Its digital and one needs to go through the Central heating timings and then the Hot water timings before it allows you to set the clock time. All would be fine, but you only have about 3 seconds between each press of the appropriate, up / down / program / set buttons before it goes back to the beginning.  When we first moved in I spent almost an hour trying to get it right. In the end the Good Lady had to stand next to me and shout out the next command. It does have a change facility button for changing from GMT to BST or back, but the numpty engineer that serviced it, back before Christmas admitted it confused him at times and he had set it to BST as the clock doesn't show which it is set to, so this morning, when I hit the change button, it went BACK an hour instead of forward.

Rant over

Edited March 28, 2021 by Andrew P

[iL Dottore]

17 hours ago, NGT6 1315 said:

...I deffo need a desk job ...

Someone once wrote, and I’m afraid I can’t remember where I read it, that an idea of heaven would be “an indoor job with no heavy lifting and three meat meals a day“!

However, with nearly everyone working from home nowadays, working from home  as a consultant has lost the cachet it used to have...

17 hours ago, polybear said:

Bear's Tip Of The Day:

...Don't forget that there's a (plastic handled) frying pan stored in the oven. 

This is exactly why none of my pans have plastic handles.

I have a set of sauté pans plus a frying pan (a sauté pan is like a frying pan but has higher sides) and all have metal handles. This means I can do things like sear a steak in the frying pan and finish cooking it in the oven or use a small sauté pan to make a frittata - which is finished under the grill set at maximum (although there are many, many different versions of frittata, one favourite is the one that uses up leftover spaghetti: about 6 eggs are beaten together with salt and pepper whilst a good knob of butter melts in a small sauté pan on a low heat and the grill heats up. Stir in the spaghetti [and any other items you wish to add - such as chopped ham], the eggs are poured over the pasta and when the bottom half is set, the pan is put under the grill for the top half to cook, set and brown. Take pan out of oven once top is browned and set [don’t forget to use an oven glove], let cool for a minute or two, turn out onto a plate, cut into wedges and serve. Feeds 1 - 4 depending upon appetite)

14 hours ago, chrisf said:

Thank you, Mr Bear.  My local Tesco is not noted for class merchandise. ..

Tesco? I would have thought you would be a M&S customer.
When in the UK on a shopping expedition I tend to shop for the pantry at M&S (sometimes at Waitrose and at more specialised shops as well)

13 hours ago, New Haven Neil said:

Having spent the afternoon skinning knuckles on a 40 year old Hodna's engine

Hodna? Is that a cheap Chinese knock-off of a Honda?
From what I can gather, there is a very lucrative trade in supplying poorer countries desperate for affordable consumer goods with “knock-off” items whose labels are almost but not quite right (such as “Philipps Electronics” or “Boch” tools). One assumes that because they are not producing counterfeit Bosch labelled tools (or similar) but “Boch” labelled tools it is completely legit - relying on customers having heard of - say - Philips TVs, but never actually ever having seen one...

12 hours ago, The White Rabbit said:

At the (considerable?) risk of being misquoted, I have a stated policy of always keeping anything valuable in my trousers... 

You mean....  No, no, no. I’ll behave and won’t go there- no matter how great the the temptation

10 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

...pizza tonight was also no shining example of the Pizzeria Italiana craft.  It goes on the stone which is pre-warmed amidships in the oven and the chips go on the metal tray up top...

Pizza AND chips?

Why?
Surely the only accompaniment a pizza ever needs is a green or mixed salad: thus making it a well rounded meal (and with a slightly rough red wine makes for an excellent rustic supper).

It must be a British thing this “chips with everything”. Even the Germans - not renowned amongst the Italians, French and Spanish for culinary sophistication - don’t eat pizza with chips (and the Germans do plumb the depth of pizza ignominy with the Pizza Hawaii - don’t ask) 

10 hours ago, pH said:

I presume you’ve heard of dessert pizzas, for example:

 

https://www.walmart.ca/en/ip/great-value-triple-chocolate-thin-crust-pizza/6000199206844

 

Have you ever thought about an LDC pizza?

That’s as bad as a Vegan Roast Beef Dinner!

Thinking about “chips with everything”, I wonder if this a relic of Britain being the first to industrialise coupled with the long term effect of the land enclosure acts - the net result being the near total elimination of any peasant cooking tradition in the UK (unlike Italy, France and Spain who came late to industrialisation and have retained strong peasant cooking traditions). Add to that the fact that for many of those displaced from the land who became fodder for Britain’s early industrial machine a penny or two of hot fried potatoes was often one of the few hot meals that they could afford and you can understand this love of chips. And like many things in Britain, there is a strong class aspect associated with this.

 

Pen Vogler, in her book Scoff, takes a very interesting look at Britain’s food culture and history - quite literally much food for thought!
 

Wishing you an enjoyable Sunday, and if you are so inclined, a wonderful Sunday lunch (roast rib of beef with all the trimmings!!!!)

Edited March 28, 2021 by iL Dottore
Typos

[Andrew P]

Well with the RANT out of the way, let me say a Happy Sunday morning to you all, bit dull here and the back is still giving me a bit of jip, so the Car will be used to collect the paper and some bits for Lunch. 

There is a bottle of wine in the fridge with our name on it for Lunchtime.

 

Not a lot planned for today so far apart from watching The Grand Prix at 8-30 tonight.

EDIT = AND re doing the Boiler timer, as seen above.

 

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

Edited March 28, 2021 by Andrew P

[Barry O]

Ey up!

I hate the Time Bandits!

Blowing a hoolie, raining and so I won't be venturing out much.

 

Won a small prize on the Lottery. Means I have some extra muddling tokens. Great!

 

Time to have some breakfast.. but first.. a Mugatea!

Baz

[chrisf]

38 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

 

Tesco? I would have thought you would be a M&S customer.

Clearly you don't know me very well.  A minor detail is that the Bedford branch of M&S closed a couple of years ago.

 

Chris

[polybear]

AZ side effects.  Pah!

Edited March 28, 2021 by polybear

[jonny777]

It is  grey and windy in North Somerset, but dry at the moment, but the rainfall radar shows something light drifting up the Bristol Channel, and I am not talking about shipping. 

 

I carried on with my policy of moving poppy seedlings from one part of the garden to the other, in order that they might try and seed themselves in different places. I had sat in a chair near the greenhouse and decided on a sunny patch where they might do well, but it is near the path to the greenhouse and so risked being trodden on. 

 

However, I thought I would take a chance and moved a few plants. SWMBO appeared and I told her what I had done but she said they were far enough from the path to be safe, did a bit of un-neccessary tidying up around the greenhouse and on her way back trod right on the poppy plants. 

 

Then once I pointed out what she had done, she vanished inside for a sulk. I think clodhopping 'gardeners' should be restricted to wide open spaces like municipal parks, but I haven't told her that yet as A&E are probably still rather busy. 

[jamie92208]

Good moaning from a very sunny Charente  where the sky is a nice overall blue colour.  

 

More work donebon the chicken run yesterday. The wiring is nearly finished.  Mike (SM) rest assured, there is an actual hen house with nesting boxes inside the old aviary  bit. One question, does anyone know if Ivy is harmful to cluck birds. If not I will leave it for them to clean.  

 

Today we are having friends up for lunch, so an apple and rhubarb  crumble has been prepared and a leg of lamb is slowly roasting.  The distaff side went into her usual whirling dervish mode, as she does on these occasions and I have been tasked with many and varied bits of domestic engineering.  Thus I'm a little late on parade.

 

Regards to all.

 

Jamie

[NGT6 1315]

All Along What Was Once Known As Leninstraße…

[pH]

2 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

... and the Germans do plumb the depth of pizza ignominy with the Pizza Hawaii - don’t ask

 

Actually, Canada claims to be (or, alternatively, admits to being) the origin of the Hawaiian pizza:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaiian_pizza

 

 

[jcm@gwr]

2 hours ago, Andrew P said:

My clock has no respect for my body. It has leapt forward an hour and and so I'm up.

 

BUT the Central Heating is another matter. It has the most complicated clock setting known to man. Its digital and one needs to go through the Central heating timings and then the Hot water timings before it allows you to set the clock time. All would be fine, but you only have about 3 seconds between each press of the appropriate, up / down / program / set buttons before it goes back to the beginning.  When we first moved in I spent almost an hour trying to get it right. In the end the Good Lady had to stand next to me and shout out the next command. It does have a change facility button for changing from GMT to BST or back, but the numpty engineer that serviced it, back before Christmas admitted it confused him at times and he had set it to BST as the clock doesn't show which it is set to, so this morning, when I hit the change button, it went BACK an hour instead of forward.

Rant over

 

What I've done with a number of my older customers, and those that struggle with that

kind of system, is to set the clock 30 minutes out, ie half-way between GMT and BST.

You don't need the clock to be that accurate, and you hardly notice if the heating is

coming on slightly later or earlier, the heating timing is irrelevant, so long as you have

hot water!

[Tony_S]

Morning all.

It is rather breezy here. No blue sky at the moment.  Most of our clocks don’t need altering, they sort themselves out. I just need to check they have done so. Our recently purchased oven allegedly gets the time from the internet.

My car gets its time from GPS and you can’t alter it. Aditi’s Fiesta’s clock has to be manually adjusted but it is really simple. I haven’t done the water softener timer yet, but as it recharges at 2am it isn’t exactly urgent.

I am not planning much today, the antibiotics prescribed recently are working nicely but I can’t go too far from a loo. Only a couple more days to go.  There is cricket and motor racing to watch if I feel like it. 
Tony

 

[Andrew P]

47 minutes ago, jcm@gwr said:

 

What I've done with a number of my older customers, and those that struggle with that

kind of system, is to set the clock 30 minutes out, ie half-way between GMT and BST.

You don't need the clock to be that accurate, and you hardly notice if the heating is

coming on slightly later or earlier, the heating timing is irrelevant, so long as you have

hot water!

Nice idea, our Hot water is set to constant so I like that idea for the heating side. 

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone

 

Well, even though the clocks changed last night, we ended up sleeping in a lot longer than we expected to.

 

The Danish film we watched last night was Mine Land, if its still available to watch on the BBC iPlayer service, I strongly recommend it. 

 

The weather is a little bit cooler than yesterday and the wind is a bit stronger as well, but it is still raining.

 

I'm definitely going to make a start on the turntable drive mechanism modifications, I'll start straight after this post. 

 

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

 

Brian 

[PhilJ W]

1 hour ago, jamie92208 said:

Good moaning from a very sunny Charente  where the sky is a nice overall blue colour.  

 

More work donebon the chicken run yesterday. The wiring is nearly finished.  Mike (SM) rest assured, there is an actual hen house with nesting boxes inside the old aviary  bit. One question, does anyone know if Ivy is harmful to cluck birds. If not I will leave it for them to clean.  

 

 

 

Jamie

For your information.

https://www.hobbyfarms.com/14-toxic-plants-your-chickens-must-avoid-3/

[NGT6 1315]

32 minutes ago, Andrew P said:

Nice idea, our Hot water is set to constant so I like that idea for the heating side. 

Top tip: Stock some hot water in the freezer. It’ll keep, I promise!

 

 

 

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Arthur Itis and his mate Si Attica were in full cry this morning accompanied by the Ex Zemma which decided to itch like mad. After a long soak in the bath and a brace of Nurofen they are now in retreat. Muggatee awaits so its be back later.

[PhilJ W]

1 minute ago, NGT6 1315 said:

Top tip: Stock some hot water in the freezer. It’ll keep, I promise!

 

 

 

[NGT6 1315]

And a pop quiz for you all. You’ll be able to see a loudspeaker (highlighted in yellow) next to the OHLE pole and the tree. There’s a story to these speakers. Any of you happen to know what this might be?

[polybear]

Bear not a bouncy tigger today due to AZ side-effects - a cr@p night (aching & shivering, and generally feeling like sh1t).  Effects are slowly wearing off, but not a day for much activity I think.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[petethemole]

3 hours ago, chrisf said:

Clearly you don't know me very well.  A minor detail is that the Bedford branch of M&S closed a couple of years ago.

 

Chris

How times have changed.  I was dragged round there regularly to be bought  underwear and other items, and to wait patiently (not) while Mum bought clothes and things that were embarassing for a small boy to be near.

 

Chris, I don't know whether you have Sky, but there was a documentary on Sky Nature last night, 'Bear: Koala Hero' about a search dog who is used to locate stranded koalas in the fire-ravaged forests.  It's available on catch-up and can be watched on-line if you use some Sky app.

 

There is a cold wind blowing and I have to spend time outside, draining and refilling Mrs mole's hot tub ready for use.  I may be some time....

[The Stationmaster]

Mornong all,

 

Cement mixer will be go - once I've finished cuppatea of the day No. 4 .  It's cloudy out there but no precipitation is anticipated, I hope.    Clock resetting is a managerial duty well above my pay grade and as far as the car is concerned the rest of the country has now caught up with the time displayed in my vehicle.   The satellites, various, do adjust the minutes  if the time is set more or less right in that respect but they do not change the hour, that relies on the in-housecar 'puting device.

 

Presumably the loudspeakrers in  Leipzig are a remnant of the previous regime for either the issue of orders etc to the populace although is there a possibility of flooding which might need a warning system?  As it is Germany they are hardly likely to be there to advise the punters of delays to the transport system. 

 

Have a good day one and all and stay safe; I'm off to play with slab laying.  BTW Jamie some websites warn that Chicken might not be relied on to clear ivy,