Early Risers.

[jonny777]

6 minutes ago, BSW01 said:

Make that 3!

 

4 if you count me. 

 

My brother has one but switches it off while I am there, in case I say something 'dodgy' while she is listening - such as Alexa? Where are the Skripals, currently? 

[simontaylor484]

 When you could go in shops properly where they had Alexa on display i used to say Alexa self destruct which it into a short countdown.

 

I always wanted to try to get her to play fat bottom girls by queen of big panty woman by the barefoot man

[AndrewC]

7 hours ago, PupCam said:

But have to replace the boiler every 3 or 4 years maybe (from the experiences of friends and relatives)?

 

As with everything in life, a systems engineering approach is always required (Puppers being, amongst other things, an ex-systems engineer) and the CBA is never straightforward when you look at the full context.   Now, where did I put those solar panels ......

Not even close. Our previous one was 4 when we moved in. Required only one bit of maintenance which I was able to perform. It lasted 14 years and we only replaced it because we wanted a more efficient unit. The current one has a 10 year parts and labour warranty. It gets a look over every spring. Not a peep from it. Realistically there are only 3 parts that can go wrong. The pressure bladder, circuit board, and heat exchanger. 

[Ozexpatriate]

12 hours ago, Mike Bellamy said:

the Vice-Chancellor asked me to order a round of drinks for everyone

In my former job, there was a (fairly) strict rule of "most senior person pays for entertainment / dining".

[brianusa]

11 hours ago, Andrew P said:

Reading Rick, @Gwiwer tales of Boiler woe, like his, ours is stupidly complicated.

We now have the water on constant and the heating to come on at 06-30 and off at 21-30 and then control it by the Hall thermostat. but if I suddenly wanted the heating on all night, i.e. cold winters night, we have to go through a total re set of the whole system starting with the hot water, then one of the 3 fixed water temp settings before we can move on the Central Heating.

Our last place was so simple, 

Hot water, 3 way switch, =  on / off / timed with a dial for the temp.

Central heating, 3 way switch, = on / off / timed with a room stat.

Timing done on a manual dial / clock with push in / out tappets.

So for constant heating flick the switch to on SIMPLES.

The thermo stays on 73 old degrees all day and all night long.  Heater or A/C doesn't usually go on at night except on very hot days when the A/Cs on all day, which doesn't occur very often.

      Brian.

[Ozexpatriate]

10 hours ago, AndrewC said:

My younger brother who spends more of his life living in hotels than is healthy, refuses to stay in a Fairmont. 

At one point I had a corporate rate with a Fairmont and was a regular guest. Their level of hospitality was unsurpassed. (I was a very regular guest.)

 

I was frequently upgraded to a suite* with a complimentary welcoming tray of treats like chocolate-dipped strawberries. The valet in the driveway would welcome me by name and hand me my room key, sparing me the need to go to the desk.

 

* Often the same one used by visiting celebrities, though not at the same time I hasten to add.

 

One of the nice things about many of the Fairmont hotels where I have stayed is their separate shower stall and soaking tub. Generally the bathrooms in Fairmont hotels are exceptionally appointed. (I don't know about the older historical hotels.) I really enjoy not having to shower in a standard tub.

 

But yes, if you use the hotel services - like bar, restaurants, etc, it is expensive. Nice if you don't have to pay for it. Their frequent guest program wasn't particularly generous, but I did use it to combine free room / free suite upgrades during a trip with my son to Chicago.

[Ozexpatriate]

7 hours ago, JohnDMJ said:

The use of English is deteriorating rapidly. Even within this parish, the distinction between your, you're, yaw, and yore along with their, they're and there seems to be often absent.

Perhaps it is because of the amount of televised sporting events that I watch, but the demise of the adverbial form* is the grammatical distinction that I see as the most likely.

 

* Not so much the intent of the adverb, but the elimination of the suffix "-ly" where it is appropriate.

 

Advertisers are particularly guilty of this to try to "punch up" their copy and make snappier tag lines - like "eat healthy" (rather than "eat healthily").

 

[Gwiwer]

9 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

It was a package holiday organised by Club 18-30 so no one was there for the food.

Some would have been there for the package though.  Others brought their own.   

[Ozexpatriate]

2 hours ago, jonny777 said:

My brother has one but switches it off while I am there, in case I say something 'dodgy' while she is listening - such as Alexa? Where are the Skripals, currently?

On conference calls where I knew at least one attendee had an Alexa unit near his speakerphone I attempted to engage it with "Alexa, play Stairway to Heaven", but was unsuccessful.

[Tony_S]

51 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

One of the nice things about many of the Fairmont hotels where I have stayed is their separate shower

We went into the Chateau Lake Louise Fairmont in April 2013 following a snow shower that became blizzard like. Had a nice meal before driving back to Banff. The week before we had visited their Jasper Park Lodge for afternoon tea. It was really sunny that day. 
When we went to Quebec in 2019  we took a few photos of the Fairmont Chateau Frontenac but didn’t go in. Went to a bar for beer and poutine instead. 
 

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. I haven't tried the TV yet after switching it off, there's nothing in particular I want to watch but switching it off at the plug seems to do the trick.

22 minutes ago, Gwiwer said:

Some would have been there for the package though.  Others brought their own.   

I brought some packages with me (3 per pack) but I never had to use them. Almost all the girls were on the pill and said not to bother with them. The only other requirement was penicillin. If you told todays millennials what went on they'd be horrified. 

[PupCam]

20 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

I attempted to engage it with "Alexa, play Stairway to Heaven", but was unsuccessful

Nice try though!

 

I feel it is our mission, no, duty to distract Alexas everywhere.   Onward chaps and report back on your successes!

[PhilJ W]

5 minutes ago, PupCam said:

Nice try though!

 

I feel it is our mission, no, duty to distract Alexas everywhere.   Onward chaps and report back on your successes!

Ask an Alexa to give a wake up call at 3 a.m. playing Ride of the Valkyries at full volume.

[Andrew P]

Lovely Service today, and Her Majesty did the Nation proud, as always.

[PeterBB]

12 hours ago, Coombe Barton said:

Bonuses are that it uses a load less gas and you don't run out of hot water.

 

We don't have gas in our village and run heating on oil.  We also have some rather long runs, the kitchen being the furthest and the en-suite the next longest.  Not complaining, love the home/house. 

[Coombe Barton]

... and gourmet toast ...

 

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2021/04/17/5526/

[tigerburnie]

G'night all.

Edited April 17, 2021 by tigerburnie

[polybear]

12 hours ago, Coombe Barton said:

My son will only fit Vaillant and Glow Worm - made in same place, same company. He said Vaillant for me because of their performance, both short and long term.

 

Bear has just checked Which? Magazine's boiler "best buys" reviews - the top 12 places go to.....Vaillant.  All subsequent ones rated as best buys go to Worcester-Bosch.

 

10 hours ago, PupCam said:

 

One of Pupper's friends has gone OTT with Alexa.   He can't move for tripping over the blxxdy things.   

 

 

Bear has five such devices.  Ooops.

One "bean can" flavour, 3 hockey pucks and one that plugs straight into a socket with no need for a separate mains adapter (though the sound quality is worse than the others).

 

I find them useful for radio, alarms, reminders, timers, talking books and the odd question.  Shopping, phone calls etc. - forget it.

 

10 hours ago, Coombe Barton said:

Really does depend on how many plastic, rather than metal, bits there are in it.

Plastic is cheaper, obviously.

But son has been telling me than many of the boiler failures he sees are caused by the plastic bits failing. Repacking them often costs more than a new boiler because of the complexity of fitting those to existing installations.

 

It seems to Bear that a common failure nowadays appears to be those famous words "you need a new circuit board....."

 

In other news:

Bear & buddy have successfully relocated the fridge freezer to the kitchen - which takes some though as it's taller than the doorway.  The only problem now is that Bear has to go into the kitchen each time I want milk etc. etc. - I've spent the last 4 months with all that in the lounge so it's a bit weird....

Bear has finally purchased a dishwasher - Bosch.  Seemed to be the best bet, based on a combination of Which? magazine test results, buyer reviews, brand reliability reports and price.  The fact that it's a slimline means that choices are limited.  I also threw caution to the wind and forked out for an Induction Hob too - that's an AEG, chosen in a similar manner (though choices were much wider, which made choosing even harder....).

 

I also saw much of HRH's funeral, which I thought was rather well done.  One thought did strike me - on a day which must've been one of (if not the) hardest of the Royal Family's lives, not only did they have the loss and the ceremony to contend with, they also had to suffer probably 100+ Million people watching their every move live on telly. 

[monkeysarefun]

9 hours ago, BSW01 said:

We never travelled for work other than on training courses

I was doing a training course in a conference room in a hotel at Manly a few years ago, when one morning Julio Iglesias walked through a  door at the front of the room, waved politely at us as he walked across the  room and out the door on the other side.

 

That was somewhat unexpected we thought.

 

(turns out he was staying there and was on his way to a press conference room and getting there via our room avoided lots of screaming mature ladies.)

Edited April 17, 2021 by monkeysarefun

[The Stationmaster]

G'night all

[simontaylor484]

Ah julio the glassman, he was foing a concert in Tenerife when we went once there were posters everywhere.

[J. S. Bach]

1 hour ago, Tony_S said:

 ...snip...  Chateau Frontenac

My parents honeymooned there.

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone

 

Well it’s been glorious sunshine all day, the temperature got as high as 14C this afternoon. Breaking lumps of concrete and bits of bricks isn’t much fun, but it does serve a number of purposes.

 

1 It recycles stuff that would otherwise get dumped into the skip. 

2 The pile of rubble stacked in the garden is a lot smaller now. 

3 Therefore I now have less rubble to transport round to the skip. 

4 Most importantly, it saves me a few modelling tokens at the same time! 

 

Today I managed to get about 2 thirds of the trench filled with gravel before packing up for the day, my shoulders and arms were aching. Hopefully I’ll get the rest done tomorrow before dinner, leaving just the tamping down and the adding layer of sharp sand. I can then give the garden a good watering as we haven’t had any rain for about a week now. 

 

After my hard day’s work in the garden this morning, I had quite a relaxing afternoon, mainly catching up on ER’s, reading the latest copy of BRM and doing sudoku. 

 

We didn’t watch any of today’s funeral. We aren’t anti monarchist or anything, we just find the whole media spectacle these things create a complete bore. We feel just the same when it comes to royal weddings etc, we can’t be doing with all the b******t spoken by the vacuous royal corespondents/commentators and the droning on they do. 

 

Tonight’s tea was relatively easy to do, the sauce was made yesterday, the saag aloo was made a few weeks ago, so all I had to do was dice some chicken, fry it, then add the sauce, whilst the saag aloo warmed up in the oven. 30 minutes after I’d started dicing the chicken, we were sat at the table eating. 

 

The evening was once again, rounded off with a bottle of wine, tonight we had a Malbec and we watched a film we’d recorded a few weeks ago called ‘Rush’ about the rivalry between James Hunt and Niki Lauda. It had been recommended to us by our youngest son Mike, who’s really into cars and F1 etc, he was right it was a very good film. When compared to the documentary that we watched about the same subject a couple weeks ago, it stuck very well to the facts, thoroughly enjoyable film. 

[BSW01]

Goodnight all 

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.