Early Risers.

[polybear]

Bear checks in the discover that @chrisf gets the tail-end charlie slot as per usual...

Oh, hang on - a late move by @Andrew P steals the slot.  Does Chris have desires to make a break for the pilot's seat one wonders?

Bear sees a perfectly clear blue sky out the window - and those nice people at the met office are telling this Bear that it's gonna be nice weather until at least Wed next week.  Don't they know it's a bank holiday weekend?

Bear has a meet-up with a buddy from the model engineering evening class later; kitchen work before & after should take up the day, with possibly a quick Co-op dash thrown in for good measure.

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Bright and dry this morning with wall to wall blue sky. No evidence of the bin wagons dawn chorus yet, not even the lesser spotted glass and bottle wagon, perhaps they're taking a lie in. The weather report is looking good and even better for this time next week, mid 20's+. Now time to run a bath, be back later. 

[jonny777]

Dry and sunny here in North Somerset. At last some semblance of summer might be arriving, even if it is going to take a while to reach decent* temperatures. 

 

* I have strict temperature parameters. I can cope with most of the 20s Celsius, although 28/29 is a little too high. Anything above or below this, as a daytime maximum, is deemed uncomfortable and so is to be avoided. Unfortunately, whenever this subject is mentioned temperature one-upmanship tends to take over, and so I will retire gracefully. 

 

 

[Robert]

On 17/05/2021 at 08:08, Barry O said:

 One or two others are missing at the moment @Robert

 

Morning All,

 

Thought it was about time I checked in!

 

All is fine in this part of the world.  There isn't really anything to report at the moment.  We are having an unseasonably cold spring, but otherwise things are ticking along quite nicely.

 

Have a good day everyone...

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone 

 

The sun is shining and the skies are blue, there are a few clouds to be seen, but they are white and don’t look threatening at all. The plans for today are to clean the car. This hasn’t been done since well before Christmas, but the house across the road is having an extension built and there has been a skip opposite where the car is normally parked and the dust was going everywhere. The skip finally went on Monday morning, so as I’ve no other tasks that require immediate attention, the car will get a wash, it does need it!

 

After that I’ll look at doubling up some of the smaller camomile plants and planting up the spare ones in small pots, just in case! I’ll then water the ones I planted yesterday again, particularly as it’s going to be a warm sunny day. 

 

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

 

Brian

[tigerburnie]

Morning, hmmmmmmmmmmmmm, can I have a shot of your sunshine, we have a rather dank Autumnal looking day here and there's a pile of the "G" word that needs doing, maybe adjourn to the old summer house for some running of volts through parallel bits of metal, take care all.

[polybear]

Oven base unit fixed, fitted, secured, in place, level, done

That's all the base and wall units done - so Bear now swaps to "decorative bits" mode (end panels and corner trims) - some of which has already been carried out.

I even surprised myself by hooking up the power cables for the oven and hob to the dual outlet cooker supply plate, so that's another job ticked.

Tea & biccies done, so now it's off to see buddy time , followed by the S-word....

[Tony_S]

Morning all.

It is a pleasant morning here. It is as usual very quiet here. We are not going anywhere and no expected deliveries. There will be one tomorrow. The coffee machine failed. I did look up the cost of parts and a repair but we have had it a long time and Aditi decided it was time for a new one as we suspect another part of the old one is failing too. We are going for the same make. I no longer drink coffee but I think Aditi may be able to cope for a day using a cafetière. 
Tony

[Pacific231G]

Morning all

First BBQ of the year in a friend's garden in deepest Oxfordshire yesterday. Four of us there but between us we managed to burn the spare ribs - I'd brought a couple of those instant light the corner bags from Waitrose in Beaconsfield. They were still too fierce after 40 minutes but it was realy a case of poor CRM (Crew Resource Management) as we'd never actually determined who was in charge of cooking on the BBQ. Everything cooked afterwards was fine though. 

 

Looks like something vaguely resembling summer may be approaching. It's bank holiday weekend though so if it does get warm and dry then clearly the weather gods can't  have been reading the script.  Everybody knows that British bank holiday weekends are supposed to be rainy, cold and windswept. So, washing the sheets today with a good chance of getting them dry on the line.

 

Stay safe and remember that the spiky enemy is still out there trying every trick in the evolutionary book to get into you. 

 

 

 

[Barry O]

Awaiting her indoors return from the Charity Shop as she is off to a music group meeting later today.  Her lunch time sandwich awaits her return.

 

Spent some time soldering wires together this morning and, glory be, the objects in question work!

 

I may need to go and have a lie down to get over this!

 

Had a quick chat with someone who has furnished me with some advice regarding Building Control in Leeds. I just need to follow his guidance tomorrow. 

 

Glad to hear that Robert is OK.

 

Time for a mugacaf!

 

Baz

[The Stationmaster]

Morning all,

 

Good old sol, the long lost friend, is occasionally peeping out from behind the passing clouds (can you still get them from a good tobacconist?)   So the day bodes fairly well.  well it did until I turned on a tap and nothng but air and a few spurts of liquid emerged - cause soon traced as the hole diggers of yesterday were the fire hydrant renewers of today and had duly cut out the old hydrant and what shoudl have been coming out of our taps was gaily flowing down the road.  But all was relatively soonest mended and normal service was resumed.

 

The restraunteur duly responded to the GD yesterday evening expressing the view that the paté would seem to have been the my problem and there are no procedural indications of any possibility of cross contamination from shellfish.  In view of our (or rather the GD) going to them and not splattering dire warnings and wicked words across miles of (anti)social media we have been offered a 'VIP freebie' at our chosen opportunity and the GD has accepted, with alacrity, on our behalf.  ERs are duly requested to form an orderly queue should they wish to become our new very bestest dining friends 

 

As BSW would seem to have some plants left over and obviously enjoys gardening could he please make his way here before the management returns from her current visit to Devon.  However rather strangely she and the GD went to Wells (not in Devon for those unfamiliar with UK geography) yesterday which seemed a little odd to me as there surely isn't an exhibition on there at present (or at all this year); maybe she was interested in other things? 

 

I hope Chris gets his ticketing/banking stupidities sorted out today.  I'm not entirely sure about staying on the seafront in Sidmouth unless you know well in advance more than a little about the place you are booking into (which Chris might well of course from previous visits).  We chose what looked like a fairly nice, well situated, reasonably priced establishment the first time we stayed there only to find that it was noisy enough to keep the deceased from their rest for much of the night.  so on our second visit to the area we stopped in Sidford - pricey but nice and at the right time for their flower and produce show.  Next visit after that we were back in Sidmouth and somewhere a bit back from the front and a largish hotel - nice room, decent food, but the catering arrangements left peace and quiet while eating to be desired at some times of day.  Our next visit is booked for much later this year and is benefitting from having not spent on four week long trips to sea, i.e. it's pricey; but we have eaten there once previously and it's good and we've reserved a room with a sea view so we can watch the equinoctal storms dashing past..

 

Enjoy the rest of your day one and all and hoping Dave's dad is continuing on the more positive path and that we'll soon hear some better news about Gordon.  There is apparently an increased need to stay safe if the answering message from our GP surgery is any indication.

[PhilJ W]

Hello again from Estuary-Land. Final load of washing will be going in shortly, once done it can go outside to dry. Just need to put away yesterdays washing first, just as well jeans don't require ironing. Late last night I spotted a pair of Muntjac passing the house. I've been hearing them for weeks, apparently there's quite a colony of them over the golf course. Muggatee awaits so its be back later.

[Tony_S]

5 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

Muntjac passing the house.

None spotted in Benfleet as yet. Sightings in Basildon, Southend and Hockley  according to Google. Perhaps they don’t like living near badgers!

Edited May 27, 2021 by Tony_S

[Gwiwer]

Afternoon all from a sunny Hill of Strawberries.

 

Just a quickie to note that this site has for several days now been extraordinarily slow to respond on all my devices and has usually timed out before I got in.  I may be Mostly Missing In Action until our illustrious leader sorts things out if the problem is at that end.   I simply don't have the time to continually refresh the request and doing so may hinder rather than help the server load.  

 

All the best.  I'm always around on email and at Auntie Sorcha-l'meeja if wanted.  

[PhilJ W]

1 hour ago, Tony_S said:

None spotted in Benfleet as yet. Sightings in Basildon, Southend and Hockley  according to Google. Perhaps they don’t like living near badgers!

Around here they live alongside badgers so it can't be that. A main restriction to their movement appears to be major roads and a few appeared in new areas during the first lockdown. It is thought that the ones in Basildon came from the open countryside to the east between the A127 and the A13. 

[J. S. Bach]

47 minutes ago, Gwiwer said:

Afternoon all from a sunny Hill of Strawberries.

Just a quickie to note that this site has for several days now been extraordinarily slow to respond on all my devices and has usually timed out before I got in.   ...snip...

I have noticed no problems with slowness logging on or posting from over here.

[jonny777]

Am I the only person who fails to understand Aviva adverts? The previous one with a couple of bulging eyeball (druggy?) women who crash into a petshop on a deserted road during daylight was bad enough, especially as one of the petshop animals appeared to be a hedgehog?; but the latest nonsense features another woman who drives from her city home with thoughts of kids in her mind. It appears that the weather takes a turn for the worse around Lancaster and so she abandons her car in a downpour and wanders off into the moorland without any bags, and without getting even the slightest bit wet, then walks all the way to the Isle Of Skye where she reunites with members of her extended family who appear to be living in some isolated hovel with no road access. 

 

If they thought the stupidness would make more people insure with them, it has backfired in my case. 

[polybear]

2 hours ago, The Stationmaster said:

ERs are duly requested to form an orderly queue should they wish to become our new very bestest dining friends 

 

Sounds good to this Bear; what are the puds like?

 

Bear is currently watching the tail-end of a programme called "Restored by the Fords" (a US House refurb programme - never seen it before).  They've just showed a pair of pretty ordinary looking wooden French Doors, albeit about 8ft tall.  To you sir? $12,500 

 

Bear's visit to the Co-op this morning revealed that LDC sorry, LC is currently on offer at 25% discount.  Did Bear submit?  Nope, not on your nellie - are you listening, Steve Murrells (Co-op CEO)?  Instead it was "Irresistible Strawberry & White Chocolate Cake" - with no discount , but with a sticky gooey layer between ground and 1st floor .  It may be fair to assume that Bear has been upset.....

[petethemole]

20 minutes ago, jonny777 said:

Am I the only person who fails to understand Aviva adverts? The previous one with a couple of bulging eyeball (druggy?) women who crash into a petshop on a deserted road during daylight was bad enough, especially as one of the petshop animals appeared to be a hedgehog?; but the latest nonsense features another woman who drives from her city home with thoughts of kids in her mind. It appears that the weather takes a turn for the worse around Lancaster and so she abandons her car in a downpour and wanders off into the moorland without any bags, and without getting even the slightest bit wet, then walks all the way to the Isle Of Skye where she reunites with members of her extended family who appear to be living in some isolated hovel with no road access. 

 

If they thought the stupidness would make more people insure with them, it has backfired in my case. 

She also appears to age about 40 years in the process, which is disturbing.  The pet shop stock also includes a hare. 

 

Bright and breezy here, with no rain forecast for a change.  If I hadn't been distracted by the Hornby tiers thread I could have done some washing.  I might fix the strimmer but more pleasant tasks are available.

[Andrew P]

Grandson finished this morning and I just have to give the New Summerhouse a coat of paint and move a few garden statues and pots once that is done.

 

[simontaylor484]

Afternoon all 

 

I too suffered from a non responsive site earlier when i tried to log on earlier its not just you @Gwiwer.

 

Suffering major lack of motivation i need to book a skip to clear out some junk thats accumulated i just can't get around to doing it. I feel so worn out .

 

@Erichill16 i used to dread the level crossing at Dodworth before the bypass was built. It seemed that the gates went down when the train left tarn 

[phil_sutters]

15 hours ago, phil_sutters said:

The wall does face straight down the English Channel, albeit with a mile or so of town sloping down to the beach.

I am now informed, by a usually reliable source, that the plant is a Navel wort - Umbilicus rupestris. I did ask her if those were the correct spellings - A Naval Wart looking like that would have me booking an appointment with my GP - although it would probably have dropped off by the time I saw him.

[PupCam]

1 hour ago, polybear said:

Nope, not on your nellie - are you listening, Steve Murrells (Co-op CEO)?  Instead it was "Irresistible Strawberry & White Chocolate Cake" - with no discount , but with a sticky gooey layer between ground and 1st floor .  It may be fair to assume that Bear has been upset.....

But they still got your money, so Steve won.   He doesn't care what you pick off of the shelf just so long as it's his shelf.  

 

To make the protest stick you've got to pick it off of someone else's  shelf unfortunately.    Knowing that Bear formerly had a contract for industrial quantities of LDC a loss of such a contract could severely impact the Co Op's  annual profits.

 

Edited May 27, 2021 by PupCam

[Tony_S]

1 hour ago, jonny777 said:

but the latest nonsense features another woman who drives

I think as the woman ages throughout the advert we are supposed believe that Aviva support clients throughout life. However when I first saw it (without paying much attention) I thought it was an ad for car breakdown services. One advert at the moment I find irritating is the use of Albert Einstein’s image to promote Smartmeters. 

[southern42]

Waiting for Ray to come in with click n collect groceries & he’ s here.