Early Risers.

[AndrewC]

Greetings from a sunny but chilly boring borough. 

 

Another certification exam passed. Another bit of paper to stash in the filing cabinet. Oh well, only 3 more to go over the coming weeks. 

 

During the great rebuilding 3 years ago all sorts of strange stuff was found under the floorboards and in the walls, including a pair of specs. There must have been some rather major works done in the 50s as all the newspaper bits found dated from 1954. The house itself was built in 1900. 

 

My late step FIL was a general contractor. He wasn't a big fan of Bosch. The bulk of my power tools are therefore De Walt or Makita. Bloody indestructible those things. 

 

Good to see Mr York managed to pop to the offie and top up the forum's pay as you go key. On that note, we've had to book smart stupid meter installation. It appears as though our electric meter is out of certification and must be replaced. <sigh> 

 

Thank Fork its Friday. Time to pretend to work and await the coming of the blessed weekend. 

 

Have a good day all. 

[Gwiwer]

Good morning all.

 

The Hill of Strawberries is disrupted today.  The combi boiler is being replaced.  This means that we have no central heating and intermittently no water until late this afternoon.   It also means the entire contents of the utility cupboard are in the lounge, the contents of the meter cupboard are lining the hallway, the kettle and enough supplies to ensure adequate tea-age and coffee-age are on the dining table, lunch will be delivered from our favourite cafe and for Covid security we are largely confined to the bedrooms with His Pawship.  

 

The first problem arose early on when the fitters discovered we have no water stop valve (the proper word would upset the filter ) to the flat - only a communal one to the block - and had to devise a work-around.  I have always known that to be an issue; it is why we cannot be metered and have a fixed-price annual water bill.  

 

Dr. SWMBO has returned from her weekly walk with a work colleague and reports that it was enjoyable.  I have lined up some antisocially-distanced tasks for the day including playing with spaghetti beneath boards and deep-cleaning the areas only normally occupied by storage boxes.  I have also tried scanning some of my late father's slides from the collection I inherited after his passing.  He was never a great photographer and used film after film snapping flowers in bloom to a rather mediocre standard.  I also don't seem to have a quality slide-scanning option within VueScan - I thought there was one - so need to investigate alternatives as I also have some of my own slides which could be scanned and cleaned up.  

 

Then there is father's music collection.  Over 600 classical CDs which I also inherited.  I suspect most have only been played once and some not at all.  Most will only be played once here too.  I didn't share his enthusiasm for Mahler, Bruckner and some of the earlier theatrical and choral pieces.  On the other hand I am open to a journey of discovery and there will be some hidden gems in there for sure.  

 

It is time to raid the dining table for Muggercoffee The First.  I'll be back later.  Have a good POETS / BIN / FRI Day.

 

 

[Barry O]

Ey up! Having benn alerted to the lack of moneyintheslit for RMweb I have now arrived later than usual and after my breakfast.

 

Weight loss continues..good. latest blood tests show a reduced blood sugar level..even better

 

I have been asked to umpire 3 games of womens cricket in May. Hope it happens as they are great to umpire.

 

Herself is off volunteering again. They are selling items as fast as they come in, are sorted, priced and placed on the shelf..well some don't make it to the shelf..jigsaws are especially wanted!!

 

Have a good day! Hope  that @Dave Hunts dad is improving and that @gordon sis ok.

 

Baz

[The Lurker]

Greetings all from Sidcup which (given you will have just read a report of the situation in the Boring Borough) is sunny but chilly; once again there was quite a frosting. I think we have had more days of frost in a row this week than we had during the whole of the winter.

 

Yesterday was a busy day - first day back at work and no time to visit here, but I thought I would interrupt myself today!

 

Ocado have delivered the requisite shopping as required.

 

I hope that the people fitting Rick's combi boiler also fit a stop start valve. We had various similar work done a few years ago - in part driven by the old hot water tank starting to leak - and I was told that we did not have such a valve in the house, despite me pointing to something that I thought was one.

 

When we eventually had the boiler replaced by a combi boiler (and the offending hot water tank which had been replaced 6 months before removed altogether), they put a lever in (less likely to freeze than a stopcock) and lo and behold they removed the stopcock for the property from...exactly where I said it was. Still it was worth the hassle to have a warm house again! It was round about this time of year but a very warm day when they ran the boiler as a test to heat all the radiators to about 35!

[New Haven Neil]

Morning, from yet another frosty but sunny rock.  5 days frost in a row, that is usually a full winter's worth for us, we only had two other frosty mornings all winter.

 

The day should bring more work on that bike engine, that severely tested my patience yesterday - and will continue to do so.  The perils of rebuilding 45 year old machines that many parts are no longer available for , and many are 'specials'.  Even washers are having to be hand made, as standard commercial ones are too large outside diameter to fit in to recesses. 

 

6c currently so not rushing to the garage, I have been given other domestic tasks to while my morning away with #sigh#

 

I hoe the rest of the install goes OK Rick, and best wishes to Dave's dad and of course Gordon, whose condition is a worry.

[TheQ]

Mooring awl, Inner Temple Hare,

You may notice a I'm late on parade, why late?

Some cockwomble in IT decided to have almost every computer do a big update at the same time, it may be stupid o'clock in the USA, but not here.. Everything ground to a near halt as 200+ computers tried to access one fibre link..

 

A reasonable night's sleep was had, of about 5 hours plus some unspecified dozing on the sofa..

 

My power tools of preference are Makita, However I have the predecessor to the Screwfix SDS drill shown earlier..

and I also have a Parkside battery drill.. Parkside are the brand sold by Lidl, they are a cheap version made by Bosch, for their cost, they are very good..

Now I have no mortgage, gradually as power tools are replaced they will be Makita..

 

We've only had one floorboard up so far, that revealed a newspaper and fag ends dating from the installation of central heating in the house about 1984. The House is 1906, the Ceilings are Norfolk reed and Plaster covered with Artex..  I think the most common thing in there will be fossilised mice...

 

The biggest problem with travel lodge is the loss of Little Chef, often in the more remote sites, say near Sleaford, the replacement Burger royalty, Kentucky fried colonel aren't open till 10 or 11 Am, way too late for breakfast for many..

 

I've done the calibration adjustment section of the temperature meter, now I'm  plodding through all the functional checks checking every output is the correct value at each range..

 

I have to collect this months, rations of pills to keep us alive on the way home.

 

Thoughts are on tomorrow's work, which is finishing the constructional work of the shelving on one side of the library.

Also lifting the boat, then putting the marquee roof on.

Working out how to support the boat at the tow hook end, which is proving to be a problem in design. Blue Moon is  3ft wide at that point, but the trailer 3 inches, a little further backwards at the rudder the trailer is still only a foot wide.

Painting the majority of the trailer with topcoat will occur..

 

Time for... the next measurement.

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Woken up by Arthur Itis this morning then he went back to sleep which is more than I can say. Once he'd gone though his sidekick Si Attica jumped in. It took one sneeze as I was about to sit down to set him off. The sneeze was due to hay fever, there's a lot of ash trees around here. Face masks are a mixed blessing, they are a PITA in some ways as they make the specs steam up but they do stop some off the pollen getting through. As I understand it the face masks and social distancing has suppressed the flu virus considerably. Best wishes to Dave's dad and Gordon S, be back later.

[Tony_S]

Good morning. 
It is frosty and sunny here too.

Nothing planned though I suspect a walk to somewhere exciting like the nearest postbox will be suggested. Unless the gp rings to offer us vaccine appointments we seem to be free of any kind of medical appointments for a while too. Not a complaint, I do appreciate that many have taken place during the pandemic, I just seem to have had quite a few this year. It was MiL’s birthday yesterday. For the second year we were not able to get together but she is in a bubble with Aditi’s sister. In the past we have all met up at a pub in Enfield and MiL has enjoyed fish and chips for lunch. Yesterday she had fish and chips delivered from the pub. 
Tony
 

[polybear]

9 hours ago, BSW01 said:

..........but it has to be done and it will make putting the new lights up and all the associated wiring a lot easier.

 

and after

 

Bear would quite like to have downlighters in the new kitchen as it's somewhat on the dark side (not in a Darth Vader sense you understand) due to the presence of the Conservatory (which now has a solid roof) - however since the existing ceiling is (a) lath & plaster (b) covered in plasterboard (c) plastered then Artexed - and the model railway room directly above has (d) a laminate floor (e) with kitchen units around the perimeter it meant that Bear just wasn't going there.....LED lights below the kitchen wall units will work just fine, thanks very much.

 

That's a really nice finish on the chair - may Bear ask what you used?  It looks sprayed on.

 

8 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

Second shot? Compare that to  here, what with  blood clot dramas....

 

Seems that blood clots are "8 to 10 times more likely" due to Covid than the vaccine:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-56760163

 

8 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

 ........it'll be 2024 before we restart international travel we could all end up slightly stir crazy and talking to coconuts.

 

 

Don't knock it - Bear has had some of his most interesting conversations whilst talking to Coconuts - they're much cleverer than people realise.  Mind you, after working with some of the complete f.wits that Bear has been subjected to for the last 38 years there is a fair chance that may not be a completely reliable indicator.

 

1 hour ago, chrisf said:

In Wakefield there is a nice b&b where I have stayed s few times but when Scalefour North was cancelled in 2020 said b&b would not refund me for the cancelled room.  I am therefore not inclined to stay there again.

 

 

The least they could've done was to say that if they couldn't re-let the room then no refund; a partial refund should've been made as a minimum since you're not eating their brekkies or using the sheets etc.

Bear would've phoned them the day before and asked for a room for the night (the same night that you cancelled) - if they said "sorry - no vacancies" then I'd rip 'em to bits over it

 

45 minutes ago, Barry O said:

Ey up! Having benn alerted to the lack of moneyintheslit for RMweb I have now arrived later than usual and after my breakfast.

 

Bear did visit at 0630 but discovered that ratings weren't possible, nor was submitting a post.  The usual PC restart didn't fix it either

 

45 minutes ago, Barry O said:

Herself is off volunteering again. They are selling items as fast as they come in, are sorted, priced and placed on the shelf..well some don't make it to the shelf..jigsaws are especially wanted!!

 

 

 

No doubt this is a common issue for Charities:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-56759967

 

25 minutes ago, TheQ said:

The biggest problem with travel lodge is the loss of Little Chef, often in the more remote sites, say near Sleaford, the replacement Burger royalty, Kentucky fried colonel aren't open till 10 or 11 Am, way too late for breakfast for many..

 

The mother of a buddy of Bear's lives close to the guy that owns (or used to) the Little Chef chain.  Loaded?  Oh yes, and some.  Complete c*ckwomble?  The Chief CW.

 

25 minutes ago, TheQ said:

Working out how to support the boat at the tow hook end, which is proving to be a problem in design. Blue Moon is  3ft wide at that point, but the trailer 3 inches, a little further backwards at the rudder the trailer is still only a foot wide.

 

Bear's Maths O-Level predicts that 3ft into 3" will be a tight fit.....

 

In other news:

Bear, in a moment of madness, decided that a second application of Floor Tile Grout Sealer would be beneficial.  I'm currently on a Tea correction, knee break.  Back to work.....

[45156]

Morning All

 

First off - skipping has happened due to use of PC for more "important" matters.  So generic greetings are all that I can offer.

 

Not a lot to report - 30747 at work - 45156 got to vistit bank - Lily still recovering and back at vet again tomorrow.

 

Now then guitarists, this one came into my inbox this morning and is utterly jaw dropping - this has NOT been speeded up - Tommy and Trey actually played this at that speed - RESPECT.

 

Regards to All

Stewart

 

 

[Sir TophamHatt]

17 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

bad enough for me to consume a chocolate, ham and mayonnaise bap.

A strange combination of sandwich but... each to their own

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone (well it was when I started this)

 

Late on parade due to getting up later than planned, so once I’d eaten breakfast I was straight off to the butchers. The butchers was quiet for a change and I didn’t have to wait outside, all that was on the list was purchased and I was back home for just after 10 o’clock. Meat put away then I was straight out again to the Trafford Centre for the weeks second provisions top up. Again everything on the list was purchased, even managing to get myself an Eccles Cake too. 

 

Poly, the chair is hand painted using B&Q our brand primer/undercoat, the topcoat is Farrow & Ball eggshell finish, both paints are water soluble!

 

As I’m not doing anything else, the plan for this afternoon the plan is to make the curry sauce for tomorrow nights tea, which will mean I can stay out in the garden tomorrow a little longer and not knock off early to make the sauce. 

 

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

 

Brian

[jonny777]

I'm late also, but due to brain fade - which is occurring more regularly these days. 

 

Dry and bright here in North Somerset, but a cold wind - so much so that when the sun goes behind a cloud it is not very pleasant sitting in the garden. 

 

I have planted a lot of summer bulbs which were on offer online, and so I hope we have a decent display maybe in August, which is good because lots of flowers are past their best by then. I also pruned the elderberry as if left alone it grows very quickly into a tree and shades out everything for yards. 

 

 

[jonny777]

12 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

The B&B I stayed at in Newquay had an en-suite shower and toilet. Converted from what must have been a broom cupboard. It was a little over two feet wide and about five feet long. The wash basin was in the room itself. It was as cheap as chips but it was clean and the full English breakfast was good. I booked through Travelzoo which is a remainder shop for holidays.

 

I have encountered a room such as that in a Folkestone hotel. The 'en-suite' cupboard had a sliding door, because any other would have made the whole outfit unworkable. There was a shower and a toilet inside the cupboard, which was adequate I suppose - but to describe it as cramped would be a gross understatement. Again, the sink was in the room, although that was useful for washing cups without having to go into the en-suite cupboard all the time. 

 

The breakfast was also good and cooked to order in the kitchen, not dried up self service stuff; and their scrambled egg was so good I tried to discover what the ingredients were, but without much success. I tried to work things out for myself, and repeat the process when I was back home, but I couldn't quite get the same luxury feeling to it - even with butter, or double cream. 

[PupCam]

7 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

Team Cynical(tm) operates 24/7.  You don’t become the super villain’s super villain by working 9-to-5, Monday to Friday!

Well, you say that, but .........

[Erichill16]

2 hours ago, polybear said:

 

 

The least they could've done was to say that if they couldn't re-let the room then no refund; a partial refund should've been made as a minimum since you're not eating their brekkies or using the sheets etc.

Bear would've phoned them the day before and asked for a room for the night (the same night that you cancelled) - if they said "sorry - no vacancies" then I'd rip 'em to bits over it

Reminds me of an instance when I booked a hotel room at Birmingham airport when I accidentally booked the night as the same as the flight rather than the night before.

The receptionist said I couldn’t swap and had to rebook and to top it all the new charge was considerably larger than the original. I was seething and if it wasn’t so late I’d have told her where to stick the room and go somewhere else. I was contemplating going out to find a homeless person and tell them there was a nice room and full breakfast available to them for the following night.

Better get some work done.

 

[polybear]

Judge Rinder has spoken:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/business-56768197

Sounds good to this Bear

[jamie92208]

Good afternoon all. There's a chilly wind around here. However quite a bit has got done. A good afternoon was spent trainspotting with Andybyesterday, plenty of trains which was good. This morning I had various errands to begin with, andvthen whilst Beth strimmed, I attaked thecremaining partbof the sycamore with the chainsaw. The large piece is now in 5 pieces. These are nowcin the woodshed .  They need citting into somewhat smaller bits then put through the log splitter.  It's nice to see a clear bit of garden.

 

Not a huge amount to say so I will bid you good day.

 

Jamie

[TheQ]

Now that's odd news, the possible deputy head of lab, who was rejected because he was demanding vast amounts of money, is visiting Norwich tomorrow with family to see if they like the place. Norwich and Norfolk Verses Manchester hmmm.. I suspect the company will have relented a little but not much.. 

 

I think he may have realised 1 month after his first offer, that if he didn't accept now, it would be no chance..

 

I also know they way they work here is if he's got an offer above the centre of his pay band, then his future pay rises will be small...

 

That thermometer has been shipped off to Vienna, I'm now just measuring a couple of stray resistors to fill in time before go home time..

[The Stationmaster]

Afternoon all,

 

The weather is reasonable and teh sun has ccasionally appeared but the temperature is still a tad on the low side.  I trust Gordon and dave's dad are both making progress, fingers remain firm;y crossed for both of them.

 

To answr Chrisf's query I my lodge in Cardiff was on Firtzhammon Embankment and was excellent with good meals and nce and cean plus - usually - pleasant company with a mix of BR, BT and HMP regulars.  when i first worked in Cardiff back in teh late 1960s I stopped ina B&B in Cathedral Road and it was quite ok.  That road still n boasts a good number of such establishments some of which now call themselves hotels and hopefully the immediate competition would helkp keep them on their toes.

 

When staying anywhere apart from obvious things like comfort and cleanliness I do like decent food - properly prepared, cooked, and served.  That was an excellent point in its favour aboard our regular ship as Tony was a top notch cook who made sure he got in good ingredients whenever he could.   Hotels seem a bit hit & miss although I've had some reasonably satisfactory breakfasts in the Novotel in Sheffield despite them being of the buffet variety.  However in anywhere with 3 or more stars I would expect a breakfast of choice cooked freshly to order with a reasonable speed of delivery,   One of the best breakfast I've had was in what amounted to a hostel ('sheets included' it said) where the lad and i stopped in York years ago; the blokes cooking the breakfast, to order, had every appearance of being ex-cons but the breakfast was top notch and the best thing about the place although it was very clean.  

 

Poor food does put me off a place as quickly as anything else - some years back we stayed in a hotel in St Agnes and while breakfast wasn't too bad the evening meal was atrocious - we simply couldn't understand why some guests kept on about liking it so much they kept on going back to the hotel (we never have).  Now I of course 'went back' for school dinners (no choice about that) but they were generally far better than the meals served up in the evening in that hotel - in fact we twice drove across Cornwall to Falmouth for our evening meal - which wasn't bad during a four night stay and we ate out locally on the other evening.  So good grub definitely maketh my stay a welcome experience and might encouragea return visit.

 

Enjoy the rest of your day one and all and stay safe; it's time for mushrooms and bacon on toast for me.

Edited April 16, 2021 by The Stationmaster

[Northroader]

Not Mrs. Reagan’s?

[The Stationmaster]

43 minutes ago, Northroader said:

Not Mrs. Reagan’s?

You got it.  don't say you stopped there too at some time?

[jamie92208]

1 hour ago, The Stationmaster said:

You got it.  don't say you stopped there too at some time?

That's wierd, I've only stayed in Cardiff once and I stayed in a B and B on Fitzhammon Embankment. Not Mrs Reagans though, Austins just further up.  Not work related, a 3 day railrover to clear all the south Wales lines in my rail atlas. A night in Cardiff, next in Swansea, then back to Cardiff for the third. The whole 3 day plan was based round the boat train to Fishgaurd that took the Swansea District line. 

 

Jamie

[Ian Abel]

POETS, and definitely going to do just that

 

Another quiet day yesterday with just a few changes requested by the Long Island client.

Whitney walk and grocery shopping the only other highlights of the day.

Our garden/lawn spring cleanup handled nicely by our lawn service, so we're all ready for Spring/Summer if/when it finally arrives!

 

Zoom happy hour planned for this evening with our friends in Phoenix. The last one as the depart tomorrow to return home here. Be good to see them in person soon.

Nothing stellar planned for the weekend, dinner with Trevor and Meagan tomorrow and hopefully some hobby time thrown in so long as no "to do's" appear!

 

2 and partly sunny first thing, looking at 14 for the high, this will be repeated all weekend according to the forecast.

 

Enjoy the start of the weekend all.

[Andrew P]

Couldn't post first thing as something wanted to play games, (THANKS Andy Y for sorting).

 

Anyway, a short walk and a decent enough day.

 

A trip out up the A3 and through Selbourne to a certain Emporium in Alton to purchase a box of something with my Credit Note from before Christmas, and a nice drive back the other route through the Meon Valley in time for Lunch.

 

Fish and Chip Friday, so the Good Lady needs to get the bits out of the freezer pretty soon. (Oh she has just left her chair, so things are looking up for later). 

 

Have what is left of a good day, stay safe and well and thoughts as always to Dave @Dave Hunt for his dad, and Gordon, @gordon s at this time.