Early Risers.

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone 

 

Well today’s weather is a bit like yesterday, dull at the moment but the sun still keeps trying to show its self. 

 

Anyway, as it’s Friday, it means I have the day off from DIY projects, instead I’ll shortly set off for my walk to the butchers, where I’ll collect the weekly meat rations and hopefully a pastie for dinner. Once I’ve returned home, packed away said rations, I’ll then head of to the Trafford Centre for a few more provisions, I might also take a look in WHS to see what they have on the shelves to tempt me to part with some readies. 

 

As as I mentioned yesterday, after dinner I’ll walk to the bookshop and collect the 2 books that have arrived. 

 

Dave. The situation you find yourself in with your dad sounds very much like the one Sheila found herself in with her mum. Getting her to do any sort of physio was like trying to plait fog!

 

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

 

Brian

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Had my second jab yesterday and no apparent after effects but I still have the stiff joints from the first jab. Weather outlook here is much the same as the rest of the country, grey and wet with an expected high of 14.

[Dave Hunt]

Thanks for the input from BSW and Mike Bellamy in response to my last post regarding Dad's situation. I can see us having to go down the same route as Mike if Dad doesn't improve and I must say I'm not looking forward to the hassle involved. Here's hoping Dad's willpower will improve and he, and we, will be spared from it.

 

Dave

Edited May 14, 2021 by Dave Hunt

[AndrewC]

Greetings all from the boring borough. 

 

Friday once again. That wonderful time of the week when 2/3 of my day is wasted with box ticking meetings, PowerPoint Poisoning, and time wasting asshats. Roll on 16:00 and beer o clock. I've earned one (or more) this week. 

 

Yesterday's secondary interview went reasonably well. Feedback is they want me to continue to the third one next week. This is more like a bloody video game. Enter, pass the first test and enter the next chamber, pass the next test...... I just hope there aren't 142 levels to go through. So far no Italian plumbers have shown up so that's a good thing. 

 

Little else of note. Fajita Friday. Coffee needs refilling. Enjoy the weekend. 

[PhilJ W]

3 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

Good Morning...

I think....

Yesterday, with the second Moderna jab, despite the nurse nicking a nerve (or so it felt like) and the resulting injection site pain, I thought that It’d be plain sailing like before.

WRONG!

I trundled off to bed, a little tired and a little headachy, lay down and WHAM! My immune system decided to play with nearly all its toys at once: fever, fatigue, muscle and joint pain, nausea, fast breathing, headache, hallucinations (I dreamt that P Bear was eating a salad I’d made him) and rigors. Not full blown CRS but heading that way...

 

I wasn’t particularly concerned, but it was MOST unpleasant.  What was gratifying was that Lucy stayed with me all night and Mrs iD actually brought me a sweet coffee in the morning; an event SO unusual in itself that I was tempted to call Fleet Street and ask the broadsheets to hold their front pages. 
 

So on this particular POETS day I have a choice of 1) feeling sorry for myself; 2) feeling really sorry for myself; 3) feeling really, really sorry for myself; or 4) wallowing pathetically in self-pity, unwashed, unshaved and necking a catering sized bottle of McSporran’s cooking whisky...

 

Off to self-medicate my headache  Not sure if it’ll be with aspirin, paracetamol or ibuprofen...

 

Enjoy POETS day

 

iD

What option did you choose? I suspect # 4. My first jab put my immune system into overdrive, aching joints, sore arm and eczema flaring up but that is receding now. I too had my second jab and no ill effects discernible, I didn't even feel it. I didn't feel it possibly because it was injected near the top of my arm and higher than the first jab.

[New Haven Neil]

MOrning.  Better frame of mind today here at least - Mrs NHN eyes still of concern, but as we're back to the original diagnosis ( three later....) of episcleritis she isn't now too concerned and actually slept last night.  Other diagnoses have been eliminated - maybe - and the worse causes of episcleritis also now also discounted.  'Get on with it', apparently.

 

Hopes sent out for Dave's dad, and for some good news about Gordon too.

 

Off to the old farts bike club run soon, so it is gently raining. Pah.  We're off to a new eaterie, then to a bike museum down south in the boonies.  Passport affixed to the BMW.

 

As for arguments - two stroke versus four.  Don't like strokers.....but they're easier to fix!

 

 

[PhilJ W]

2 hours ago, TheQ said:

You bin standing too close to Mount St Helens  again..?

 

Mooring awl, Inner Temple hare..

6 .25 hours solid sleep, which followed some brain racing.. I was so late getting up, well not late for getting up for work but for going down stairs.. Ben the where are You Collie came to find me..

 

Why did Brain race... Threatening letters from the Broads Authority.. I will be prosecuted within two week if I don't get a Broads MOT for the boat... Unfortunately I've informed them twice that the boat is in the Boat yard having work done, and they've twice informed me no Broads MOT is needed when it's in said boat yard..

 Added that two post letter emails to the BA have been rejected as an address that does not exist..

 

Left arm feels like some one has punched it.. Well Mr Pfizer did for the second time yesterday, but for the moment neither I nor SWMBO is suffering other reactions than that..

 

Are you sure thats not a scam? I would check it out with the BA just to make sure.

[PhilJ W]

Dave, I hope your dad gets his mojo back again.

[tigerburnie]

Morning, thoughts with the Hunt family.

Remiss of me not to wish you good night, too much getting up early or it might have been too much cider........however, the day is as dull as dishwater today, not many plans, a bit of the "G" word and maybe a walk later, we try to get as much done in the week as possible and stay in over the weekend to avoid the crowds. Our visit to the garden centre yesterday was our first in well over a year, they are low on quite a lot of stock, not sure of the reason, did they sell off and not re-order the dry goods? Plenty of plants to choose from. Take care all and enjoy the day.

[TheQ]

17 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

Are you sure thats not a scam? I would check it out with the BA just to make sure.

I'd love to but they're not responding to emails..

[PupCam]

4 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

So on this particular POETS day I have a choice of 1) feeling sorry for myself; 2) feeling really sorry for myself; 3) feeling really, really sorry for myself; or 4) wallowing pathetically in self-pity, unwashed, unshaved and necking a catering sized bottle of McSporran’s cooking whisky...

4) Seems to be the most sensible and after sufficient McSporran's you won't care anyway!

 

Anyway, here's hoping the immune system is back to normal  ASAP and normal service can be resumed.  

A team of cynics is rudderless without a Captain ....

 

50 minutes ago, New Haven Neil said:

As for arguments - two stroke versus four.  Don't like strokers.....but they're easier to fix!

That's not an argument!  What would you rather have a Harley OR a motorcycle, now that's an argument

 

Oh how I long to re-live the days of my youth laying down a carpet of Duckhams 2 Stroke smoke along the road.    

I wonder if the air cooled RD is still for sale

 

30 minutes ago, TheQ said:

I'd love to but they're not responding to emails..

How about the phone ...

 

In Other News:

Although I'm waiting for the "proper" Arduino MEGA board to turn up I had a crack at building the code for the DCC++ EX system yesterday.      

 

It didn't go with a swing..... 

The destructions say that you can substitute a NANO for a UNO and the code includes NANO specific definitions etc but it falls over whinging about incorrectly set timer flags.  And despite setting it up so that Ethernet was not included it got into a strop because it couldn't find an Ethernet card so some surgery had to be performed.

 

So then I thought I'd have a go with the simple to use, installer designed for use by Noddy.  

NANO isn't on the list of processors to choose from - do make up your minds chaps!    

 

Anyway, I'll have another ponder today if only to pass the time and to educate myself.

 

 

Edited May 14, 2021 by PupCam
Added "Other News"

[Coombe Barton]

26 minutes ago, PupCam said:

How about the phone ...

Several hours on hold and then it cuts out?

[The Stationmaster]

Morning all,

 

Sorry to hear about Flavio's experience wir th the vaccination - hope things improve for him today.  The situation with Dave's da, and for dave of course, sounds like a Catch 22 of mixed blessings at a time when I suspect what his dad might really need is a lot more supoort from the immediate family (i.e. Dave and Jill) as much as attention from the physioterrorists - I hope some progress will be made.

 

Our important brush with teh wielders of needles is about to happen, albeit with seom confusion.  Covid reasons (various) have delayed greatly knee injections to deal with arthur's itis so it was great to receive a call a yesterday afternoon asking us to attend the surgery at 11.15 one day next week for the deed to be done.  Not so great was the amendment 'phone call less than an hour later changing the appointment to another day (no problems) but at 7.30.  And on questioning it turned out that the 7.30 in question is actually 07.30 - a time of day on my clockface which only exists when on holiday (I think I can remember what they were).  I duly asked the very pleasant lady on the other end of the  call if she could perhaps ring again  to alter the time and date yet again although if that happens the GD reckons it would simply be to bring forward the appointment time by another 4 hours and we'll be there in the middle of the night - time will tell.  But at least we're listed for jabbing and subsequently traversing our stairs should be a lot more comfortable. 

 

I wasted an hour of my life last night catching up on the cracked Hitachi thread and there is some interesting factual stuff there among all sorts of nonsense.  Some of the latter bringing out very much an 'I've got that T shirt feeling' when it seems all sorts of folk apparently 'know' they could do your job better than you can yourself.  i used to compare these situations to 3-D chess but GWR are regrettably in a situation where their planners are working in more like 5 dimensions than three - my sympathies, very much from considerable past experience, are with them as it can be a very uncomfortable T shirt to wear.

 

Have a good day one and all.

[iL Dottore]

1 hour ago, PupCam said:

4) Seems to be the most sensible and after sufficient McSporran's you won't care anyway!

 

Anyway, here's hoping the immune system is back to normal  ASAP and normal service can be resumed.  

A team of cynics is rudderless without a Captain ....

 

That’s very kind of you to say that Puppers...

 

Of course, in my addled state this morning I forgot option 5) “oh, for God’s sake, pull yourself together man. It’s only a vaccination; here - drink this coffee, stop feeling sorry for yourself and get back to work” - which, needless to say, is Mrs iD’s preferred option.

As counterintuitive as it may seem, the events I experienced definitely mean that my immune system is tickety-boo. Right now, I have the most bizarre image in my mind of my immune system; scarred, tattooed, leather-jacket-clad with love and hate tattooed on its knuckles, smashing a glass bottle against a wall and gesticulating to a group of viruses*, growling “come on then, if you think you’re hard enough” (*actually I think the plural should be virii).

Off to town tomorrow, gonna splurge and buy some new games for the PS4 - or at least some used ones (the PS5 remains a mythical beast around here) and stock up on Indian and Asian supplies for the pantry - things you can’t get here, out in the wind scoured wilds of suburbia.

 

Have loadsa Friday Fun, heh-heh-heh

[PupCam]

1 hour ago, Coombe Barton said:

Several hours on hold and then it cuts out?

Yes, now you come to mention it that is a distinct possibility!

 

I'm reminded of my efforts just over a year ago to get a grocer shopping account setup for my house bound self-isolating mother (it wasn't easy!).   On numerous occasions this involved calling the Customer Helplines at the various supermarkets.   Having endured the endless pre-recorded messages and the menu system for the supermarket that favours orange as its corporate colour, I was asked whether I would be prepared to do a short customer satisfaction survey afterwards to which I agreed.    I then joined the queue, sat patiently listening to the corporate muzac interspersed with those re-assuring messages telling me how important and valued I was. 

 

Having waited for precisely an hour the call was automatically terminated and transferred directly to the customer satisfaction survey .......

 

 

So yes, on reflection, that probably won't work either!

 

 

Edited May 14, 2021 by PupCam

[JohnDMJ]

Good Afternoon, for it will be when I post this!

 

Today turned rapidly into a POETS day without the need to PO! Re-read the appointment letter for today's swab and made a hasty 'phone call to work to say 'see you Tuesday!' (There's a copy of the letter visible on my desk if he disbelieves me!) I'd genuinely overlooked the bit in the letter about post swab self isolation and had accrued sufficient flexitime to cover the test period to return to a normal routine! So I'm now 'confined to barracks' with the appropriate preparatory potions for Monday's procedure! (Surprised none out there picked me up on this when I wrote about my busy weekend above.) Second vaccination now rearranged for 8 days hence. There is a massive irony here in that my job usually involves, effectively, telling customers to RTFM and also proofing the outgoing mailshots!

 

So, with my enforced day off, I have been catching up here on.

 

15 hours ago, pH said:

What you have described is the English university system. In Scotland, at least in the recent past, and at least at certain universities, the first degree in an Arts subject was an MA.

 

I believe some unis south of the border offer the opportunity to stay on for another year for a Masters, but not quite the same as you describe.

 

14 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

Professor, when I grew up, was an academic appointment so akin to but not exactly a rank.  The Head of Department, if accorded a Chair, was titled Professor.  The older the university the more likely it was to have chairs in particular subjects.  Traditions did vary of course but that was a general rule of thumb.  Some chairs were very specific, others more general.  Thus there might be a Professor of Earth Sciences encompassing geology and geography and / or a Professor of Micropaleontology being a very specific branch within the umbrella of geology and also owing something to chemistry and biology.  Professor Emeritus is one who retires from the Chair (and who might well retain some active involvement; Dr. SWMBO's principal PhD supervisor continued to supervise her students as Prof. Em.) in the way a high-ranking member of the military may retire with rank. 

 

I note your distinction.

 

13 hours ago, simontaylor484 said:

Steam v Diesel

 

I was trying to couch this in an anti-Awl fashion but, hey, let's go for it: Loco Hauled vs Unit!

 

10 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

 

 

Need more than that out west right now. 

 

 

 

Cue Ronnie Hilton?

 

6 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

(I dreamt that P Bear was eating a salad I’d made him)

 

that's a hallucination I wouldn't wish on anyone! OUCH!

 

15 hours ago, JohnDMJ said:

(question: is beer a clear fluid? Milk, apparently, is not but tea and coffee are)

 

Answer: apparently it is not. PAH!

[polybear]

3 hours ago, The Lurker said:

Younger Lurker has an inset day.....

 

 

Please forgive Bear for being dumb (lack of cake....) but what's an "inset Day"?  Is it a buzzword for an authorised skive off school?

 

Bear thinks he's got the small cabinet alignment cracked - hopefully.  And what a barsteward it was too.  One corner was too low - so adjust that upwards to get it level - only now the front is too f. high....  Spent hours fiddling about, and now pretty sure it's as good as it's gonna get now - the Granite Worktop website quotes a tolerance of 3mm; Bear was seeing a gap that looked worrying, but on further investigation it was something in the order of 1.4mm.  How does Bear know this?  Feeler Gauges.....on a feckin' kitchen.....

One of the drawbacks of being a (retired) Aerospace Engineer - applying that mindset to DIY Projects.....

And if you're thinkin' of sniggering at the back Puppers - just remember, I know where you (and your bikes) live.....

[Coombe Barton]

18 minutes ago, polybear said:

but what's an "inset Day"?

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

[The Stationmaster]

22 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

Please forgive Bear for being dumb (lack of cake....) but what's an "inset Day"?  Is it a buzzword for an authorised skive off school?

 

Bear thinks he's got the small cabinet alignment cracked - hopefully.  And what a barsteward it was too.  One corner was too low - so adjust that upwards to get it level - only now the front is too f. high....  Spent hours fiddling about, and now pretty sure it's as good as it's gonna get now - the Granite Worktop website quotes a tolerance of 3mm; Bear was seeing a gap that looked worrying, but on further investigation it was something in the order of 1.4mm.  How does Bear know this?  Feeler Gauges.....on a feckin' kitchen.....

One of the drawbacks of being a (retired) Aerospace Engineer - applying that mindset to DIY Projects.....

And if you're thinkin' of sniggering at the back Puppers - just remember, I know where you (and your bikes) live.....

At the school where Mrs Stationmaster was a Classroom Assistant the pupils had re-christened inset Days as 'Insect Days' and that name was duly taken up by everyone, including the Head Teacher Master.    But whatever they're called it was a posh name for a staff training day (which didn't require the attendance of Classroom Assistants  unless they were setting up their remedial teaching sessions for the coming term).

 

BTW Poly I  happen to have a decent stockholding of tapered spacers of various depths should such an idea appeal as a potential assistant in levelling things? 

Edited May 14, 2021 by The Stationmaster

[Compound2632]

20 minutes ago, Coombe Barton said:

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

 

Whoever wrote that article was a teacher with school-age children!

[jonny777]

Dry and sunny in North Somerset, but the goldfish are invisible despite the improved weather. 

 

I doubt a heron has had them, because water lilies cover 50% of the water surface and it is about 2ft deep at the lowest. I suspect that the water temperature is lower than they had been used to, and they have gone into delayed shock and are hiding together in the depths until things warm up. 

 

There is safety in numbers, even though they number only five. I really hope I have not done them a dis-service by chucking them out into cold water just as the weather turned into deluge-mode. 

 

Time will tell. 

 

Have been reading Mike Bellamy's care home difficulties. Don't forget that with a close relative in a care home, it is possible to claim attendance allowance if they need regular care or checking up on. The forms are a nightmare; about 30 pages or so, but the money helps to offset care home costs (I get about £350 extra a month for my Dad), and they did backdate it to the point at which he came out of hospital. 

 

Lunch beckons......

[The Lurker]

28 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

 

Whoever wrote that article was a teacher with school-age children!

it seems a fair amount of UK educational info on wikipedia is written by people with an axe to grind (probably the same for other areas but I have noticed it a few times on that topic). When Steve Chalke made comments about keeping schools open during the first lockdown, I looked him up because I (correctly) had remembered him coming into our school in his guise as minister of Tonbridge Baptist church and wondered if it was the same bloke, I was shocked at the bile that had been inserted, including linking him to the activities of Jimmy Saville because he'd done a marathon or two. I have n particular opinion one way or the other about him but I did report that to wikipedia and some of the bile was removed.

[Gwiwer]

1 hour ago, polybear said:

what's an "inset Day"? 

Day of Attendance for Teachers Without Small Persons Present.  

 

2 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

pull yourself together man. It’s only a vaccination; here - drink this coffee, stop feeling sorry for yourself

Or in the immortal words of Pink Floyd

"Okay (okay, okay, okay)
Just a little pinprick
There'll be no more, ah
But you may feel a little sick
Can you stand up?
I do believe it's working, good
That'll keep you going through the show
Come on it's time to go"

 

With my second dose due to be inserted next Friday I am hoping that it's a case of 

"There is no pain you are receding"
and not so much
"I have become comfortably numb"

 

In other news the filming due to have occurred at the House of Fun this morning did not occur for reasons unknown.  I am not therefore to be an in-house star of stage, screen and platform microphone.  At least not for now.  Dr. SWMBO tells me, with slight reluctance, that her BBC Radio 3 interview will be broadcast in a future edition of Free Thinkers on a date to be advised.  Several of her colleagues feature in the Channel 5 mini-series "Kew Gardens - A Year In Bloom" which was filmed across 2017-20; the first of four "seasons" was aired last night with the remaining three on Thursdays at 20 o'clock.  She is not featured but her work visibly is.  https://www.channel5.com/show/kew-gardens-a-year-in-bloom/  

 

It's delivery day here.  M&S have delivered some new shirts, "natural" colour jeans and a multipack of socks.  The butcher delivered the monthly supply of goodies.  Ocado arrive later with all items present and (hopefully this week) correct.  The postman delivered the P60 and the DPD man has delivered a hamper of cheeses, cold meats and crackers as part of my imminent solar-circumnavigational celebrations.  

 

8 hours ago, pH said:

Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis

 

I didn't see that until much later so all's well  

 

 

Edited May 14, 2021 by Gwiwer

[The Lurker]

Well Elder Lurker's jaw problem that Mrs Lurker "hoped" was a sore throat later seemed like a dislocated jaw as he could not shut his mouth or chew.

 

After trying the local GPs triage and being told he'd receive an e-mail by Monday 5.30, we tried 111. He spoke to a very nice lady who found someone an hour later who diagnosed him with TMJD. Jaw exercises, icepacks and ibuprofen required. Possibly more treatment if the situation persists or gets worse

[PupCam]

1 hour ago, polybear said:

And if you're thinkin' of sniggering at the back Puppers

As if!