Early Risers.

[TheSignalEngineer]

Another week ends, where did the last one go?

 

The west side of the Dark Peak seems to have missed most of the rain this wreek soi much of the G word done and now almost up to date. 

The grandsons had two cricket matches played. Third one postponed due to Covid outbreak at school attended by several of the opposition so they couldn't raise a team. Two big wins with both getting plenty of runs in their allotted overs without penalties for losing wickets.Both bowled their overs well with no wides or no-balls and both took wickets, so happy bunnies.  Sammy seems to have been made preferred opening bat and 'Death Bowler'

Weather looks dry here today so some outside jobs to do but can't see much chance of the cricket or Mrs SE's tennis match tomorrow, so may even get round to invoking the M word. Have three lots of etched sides to prepare for the waiting donor coaches.

[TheSignalEngineer]

On 18/06/2021 at 06:09, iL Dottore said:

My friend, and former GP, told me about something frequently used at A&E at the University of Basel hospitals: the Scumbag Index.

My mother worked for a group of 4 GPs for about 15 years. I sometimes used to earn a bit of pocket money by tallying up stuff for their pet research projects and filing away those old cardboard medical record packets when her assistant was on holiday. Certain ones had symbols on the top corner which indicated patients who were difficult to deal with especially hazards encountered on home visits such as over friendly pets or houses where you came out feeling you needed a shower before the next visit. As all of the patients lived in a fairly small area of the city mostly within 15 minutes walk of the surgery, these were used for determining the order in which the list of home visits were arranged. Easy ones were put on top of the pile and mopped up quickly on the first circuit after morning coffee with those who liked to keep talking next and truly obnoxious ones done after lunch as the last thing on your mind after entering certain houses would be eating. 

 

On 18/06/2021 at 06:21, polybear said:

Whilst a certain South American company comes in for a lot of flak, Bear ordered a Washing Machine Isolation Valve at 1230 yesterday - and it was delivered same day (at 2030 to be precise).  Impressed.  It means that a certain Bear will be doing some plumbing this morning.

 

On holiday in deepest Northumberland last week we were in need of one of those adaptors for plugging in a 2-pin device to a 3-pin socket. SiL ordered one through the aforementioned company at 8pm. We went out next morning and when we returned at 4pm it was waiting on the doorstep.

[TheQ]

Afternoon Awl 

Drizzle stopped.

Shed base finished,

Shed emptied,

Shed moved,

Stuff sorted. Keep, move elsewhere, , bonfire.

A few cases of..that's where that went!

Shed partly refilled.

Painkillers taken,

Await them taking action before keeping Ben happy.

 

[PhilJ W]

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. Where did this morning go? It might be something to do with the latest Railway Bylines dropping onto the mat this morning. Must get on, need to get to Tess Coes for eggs and milk and to see if there's anything I'd like to try on the reduced shelves. 

[JohnDMJ]

Art'noon awl,

 

Strimmer cord nowhere in sight; contemplating, as it isn't raining, trimming the font hedge.

[The White Rabbit]

17 hours ago, pH said:

Sorry (and surprised) you’ve had so much trouble giving away furniture...  

 

...But a neighbour was very involved with a charity that, amongst other things, furnished homes for people who had no furniture of their own (she got a very deserved MBE for her work). They cleared the house of everything that was left, including a piano...

 

Me too.

 

Several charities were tried, including a local one for the homeless ... nope. 

 

 

 

17 hours ago, polybear said:

One option for disposing of furniture is to list it on the 'bay, with a start price of a penny - collect only, naturally.  At least you're likely to get a decent audience; I would suggest adding the general location in the title to save the time of those looking, in case they live 200 miles away.

 

Well, that's what I thought, but that didn't work either ...  

 

 

I didn't expect to make much or have people fighting over it, but as it's all in good condition, I thought that someone, somewhere, would appreciate it. Despite trying personal emails to various people and clubs (excepting the beds, most of the rest would have been useful for model railway clubrooms) and then Facebook, a couple of local charities, British Heart Foundation and Freecycle, commercial house clearance firms ... more then the last resort, local council waste disposal - no slots available. 

 

Rabbit feels like he's been sent to Coventry/it's all a conspiracy. 

[The White Rabbit]

17 hours ago, polybear said:

At last - firm proof that not wearing a mask can be seriously harmful:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-57531646

 

Please - no laughing at the back - it's not funny.....

 

 

 

Oh yes it is...

[The White Rabbit]

Afternoon all,

 

The sun's playing dodgeball with the clouds. It feels like we need a 'good' thunderstorm to clear the air, it's very muggy. 

 

A busy (and productive) morning, envelopes stuffed with a certain society newsletter and invitation to part with some money, then the combination posted. The butchers visited to lay in stocks of essential supplies. Half an hour in the garden - the sparrows and blackbird were exceptionally bold, the former interested primarily in dustbaths, Forget-me-not seeds and peanuts and the latter in scoffing the redcurrants mentioned a few posts ago. I may not be much of a poet but from observation:

 

I sample daintily

You consume freely

He scoffs wantonly

We have a nibble

You indulge uninhibitedly

They gorge themselves silly.

 

 

[Pacific231G]

Afternoon all

At least it's not raining today but yesterday two of my near neighbours' back gardens, and in one case garden office, were flooded as was the road close to my house. Oddly the Brent wasn't really in full spate when I went for my walk after lunch so I guess the run off from NW London has probably drained into the Thames at Brentford by now. 

I was just gettig aclimatised to the hot weather last week but now 16deg. feels cold. 

Enjoy your respective weekends.

[The Stationmaster]

Afternoon all,

 

Herself has visited Tesco while I walked round their car park to a total distance of a little in excess of three quarters of a mile.  The rain stayed away - as it has all day (thus far that is) despite a mass of dark grey clouds passing overhead.  more rain tonight.  The rain has alas damaged much of next door's flower garden - tall things like foxgloves and lupins being very hard hit apparently.

 

No other plans for today however I am bidden to clean the vacuum once the GD has risen from her pit, hopefuly having had a good kip.  Incidentally it sounds as if Jamie needs to be searching fora china egg - if such things are still to be found? - which was the traditional method of dealing with a broody hen.  The idea was  having got her thoroughly fed up with sitting on it with nothing happening she'd be back to normal after a while.  the otehr way of dealing with a broody was an early conversion into Sunday dinner, sarnies, soup, and so on.

 

Have a good day one and all and stay safe.

 

 

[PupCam]

Clear Prop!

 

Good afternoon all.   First thing this morning Puppers and Mrs Puppers went and stood alongside a bit of the East Coast mainline to watch a boiling kettle go past     The kettle was painted BR Green and was equipped with German style smoke deflectors and a double chimney.  We won't hold that against it but I much prefer said kettle as nature, sorry Sir Nigel, designed it with a single chimney, no smoke deflectors and painted in glorious apple green.   As for painting SNG himself in BR blue, well that's another atrocity story .......

 

On returning home Puppers had to apply himself to investigating why  the shower's waste water pump had ceased to pump.      Fairly predictable reason, the thing was jammed solid with a horrific mixture of discarded hair and slime.   Those that know Puppers will appreciate that he can not be the source of the hair!   Pump unit removed, cleaned and tested in the back garden.   Hmmm, it mostly works but can be reluctant to start when power is applied (by the float switch).   Further investigations reveal that the pump/motor seems to have a very slight tight spot at one point on its revolution.   It's difficult to know what to do with it really.   Awkward to remove the motor from the plastic housing (its likely those plastic clips will fail) and I have found out that the motor is sealed unit full of oil so probably best left well alone then!       The alternative is to replace it of course but the price is typically just shy of £300 although I have now found one supplier who says £250 but at the end of the day it's just a motor, a pressure switch and a couple of one way valves so it seems a mite expensive to Puppers - perhaps I'm just a cheapskate!

 

Anyway, we'll have to make do with alternative facilities for the time being.

 

Alan

[Gwiwer]

Why is it that one can spend a couple of hours in the garden, get somewhat less than pristine whilst performing the required tasks, endure aching knees, pricked fingers and arms, fill a large bin with weeds then stand back at the end of it all and notice not a scrap of difference?  

 

 

[Natalie]

17 hours ago, Erichill16 said:

I’ll have a look seen what I can find in my bottom drawer, I think I’ve got some Fortral suppositories that bear can have. (Did you see what I did there?)

Reminds me of a time many years ago when I was transporting quite a lot of ‘gear’ in the back of my van when I pulled into a car park. A couple of minutes later a bloke meandered upto the car next door and the car window opened and a small bag was exchanged for quite a few modelling tokens. I bet the ‘’sh!t’ in the back of my van would have made the dealer blush. Anyway didn’t want to get into a turf war.
 

Hi

 Fortral supps?  They sound good, could do with those if they are 'going spare' to help with the gyp this right shoulder of mine continues to give, in the absence of being able to obtain a face to face GP appointment (not my GP's doing btw)... ;-)

 

I had a similar incident whilst working in a Cat B HMP. I was in the process of moving a substantial quantity of both liquid and tablet formed CDs to my department when I was met by one of the Dog Handlers. As the Handler also had a radio (but not the dog although he did have photo ID around his neck...) they would have known what I was doing as all prison movements except for mine had been frozen. I obviously also had my uniform on. (A uniform that looked like a nurse uniform as it was, involved trousers and was designed so that the wearer was both comfortable and not regarded as eye candy or 'fair game' from elderly mysogynsts or pervs...)

 

I was asked would I mind if the accompanying dog who was in training gave me the 'once over' as a test for him. No problem as the dog (a spaniel) got to work. Hardest bit was just standing there and not being able to stroke him (the dog). That is classed as assault on an officer if an establishment guest was to.

 

The dog declared me to be free of which I told the handler that I was loaded both in my bag and on my person with enough CDs to earn a hefty sum of money in the wrong hands. The dog found his training extended...

 

Upset to hear about Ziggy. Can cope with human demise but not that of a cat or dog... Best wishes and comfort to Winslow Boy.

Edited June 19, 2021 by Natalie

[iL Dottore]

10 hours ago, polybear said:

…only to be confronted with:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/203496764998?hash=item2f615a3646:g:F9sAAOSwBaRgwMNs

Eeek!

That reminds me, Mrs iD has a pair of leather Hippos which adorn either side of the fireplace: Oscar and Emma.

Emma is the one with the ribbon.

 

They are both handmade of leather over padding over a metal frame. Each one is unique. When she bought them, from - of all places - Fortnum and Mason, she spent absolutely ages sorting through a number of hippos before deciding on these two.

 

They certainly weren’t cheap, and I still have no idea how much they cost each. Mrs iD ponied up the readies for this purchase and she still hasn’t told me how much they cost (north of £600 each, I reckon, going the cost of a small leather lion from the same manufacturer). But having just purchased a Gibson Les Paul '70s Tribute (although it IS one of their cheapest models) I was really in no position to complain….
 

I also have no idea why Mrs iD wanted two - perhaps she was planning keeping them as a breeding pair?  If so, we have yet to be greeted by the arrival of a little leather calf (i.e. baby hippo).

 

Best not ask why, really….

Edited June 19, 2021 by iL Dottore
Typo

[Chris116]

1 hour ago, Gwiwer said:

Why is it that one can spend a couple of hours in the garden, get somewhat less than pristine whilst performing the required tasks, endure aching knees, pricked fingers and arms, fill a large bin with weeds then stand back at the end of it all and notice not a scrap of difference?  

 

 

You have just explained the reason why I HATE gardening and why when I sold my fathers house, I bought a flat on the 5th floor. No gardening and as I am the top floor, no dancing on my ceiling!

[simontaylor484]

Well that is it,The final day of the big clear out for now the second midi skip is full.We managed to clear some more rubbish out of the garden that the youngest was hoarding in his playhouse. The shark was serviced as per management request. The bottom of the machine was removed and cleaned using my shop vac emptied into skip. My knees are absolute agony painkillers have been deployed to no effect.

[polybear]

2 hours ago, PupCam said:

On returning home Puppers had to apply himself to investigating why  the shower's waste water pump had ceased to pump.      Fairly predictable reason, the thing was jammed solid with a horrific mixture of discarded hair and slime.   Those that know Puppers will appreciate that he can not be the source of the hair!   Pump unit removed, cleaned and tested in the back garden.   Hmmm, it mostly works but can be reluctant to start when power is applied (by the float switch).   Further investigations reveal that the pump/motor seems to have a very slight tight spot at one point on its revolution.   It's difficult to know what to do with it really.   Awkward to remove the motor from the plastic housing (its likely those plastic clips will fail) and I have found out that the motor is sealed unit full of oil so probably best left well alone then!       The alternative is to replace it of course but the price is typically just shy of £300 although I have now found one supplier who says £250 but at the end of the day it's just a motor, a pressure switch and a couple of one way valves so it seems a mite expensive to Puppers - perhaps I'm just a cheapskate!

 

Anyway, we'll have to make do with alternative facilities for the time being.

 

Alan

 

Ahhh....the joys of Macerators.....

Work fine, unless presented with things on the "No No" list - of which hair is probably the most polite to speak of.  Sounds like Puppers has hours of fun ahead.  Still, look on the bright side - it could've been hooked up to the loo, in which case you could've been faced with a container full of sh1t soup.....

Perhaps this could be a preventative measure:

https://bravetheshave.macmillan.org.uk/

Good luck.....

 

In other news:

What did Bear achieve today?  Well the new w/m pipe arrived as planned and has been installed - no leaks so far, though I'm always twitchy about "hand tight" fittings.  The felt pads on the rear feet on the w/m were showing signs of distress so a bit of time bvggering about with those.  Also the leccy supply to the w/m has been hooked up, albeit temporarily (I need to fit the wall isolation switch, but that won't happen until after the tiles are fitted - so today the wiring was simply "linked across" in the back box, meaning no more need to run the w/m off an extension lead).

As for the cornice work, well I did move a length of cornice indoors from the conservatory and unwrapped it.  Does that count?

Not a lot to show for a day really - bit of a flaky groove day really.  Dunno why though

 

edit:  I did do the washing up, and pay a visit to the cash point en-route to the Chippy....- though even that seems to have lost it's appeal slightly in the eyes of Bear - I think I'll lay off for a few weeks and stick to the delights of home cuisine, which is still somewhat limited without a hob.

Edited June 19, 2021 by polybear

[Tony_S]

I did restore the climbing roses to a more vertical state and fixed a few other plants in place. We then had a few drops of rain. My nephew phoned to ask my advice about dogs. we spent ages chatting.

I did have a trip out, first to get the Fiesta fueled and then collect my medication. I get a carrier bag for it now. 

I watched the F1 practice and qualifying.

Tony

[Winslow Boy]

21 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

I did restore the climbing roses to a more vertical state and fixed a few other plants in place. We then had a few drops of rain. My nephew phoned to ask my advice about dogs. we spent ages chatting.

I did have a trip out, first to get the Fiesta fueled and then collect my medication. I get a carrier bag for it now. 

I watched the F1 practice and qualifying.

Tony

 

Not to vertical I hope for the climbing roses as otherwise they will not flower in profusion.

[Tony_S]

18 minutes ago, Winslow Boy said:

 

Not to vertical I hope for the climbing roses as otherwise they will not flower in profusion.

Perhaps less horizontal was a better description. They are so covered in blooms the weight of all the rain water pulled them away from the fence. 

[PhilJ W]

Hello again from Estuary-Land. I spoke too soon about the TV, it started scanning again when I switched it on at lunchtime. Switching off at the socket and letting it stand for a few minutes seemed to do the trick. I'm even more sure now that its the heat that causes it as it was rather warm at the time. I've no need to watch anything this evening so its staying off until tomorrow and maybe even not then. Arthur Itis has been playing up so more Nurofen has been deployed, now time for a muggatee, be back later. 

[PhilJ W]

It's getting a bit heated on the Wacky signs thread, handbags at dawn stuff. 

[Coombe Barton]

... and he insisted, I tell you, he insisted ...

 

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2021/06/19/younger-people-at-risk/

[polybear]

1 hour ago, Tony_S said:

Perhaps less horizontal was a better description. They are so covered in blooms the weight of all the rain water pulled them away from the fence. 

 

Bear has examples of that too - along with mucho rose petals all over the lawn...

 

In other news:

Bear has just watched Episode 2 of Clarkson's Farm - seeing JC get electrocuted by his own leccy fence brightened my day up no end

He also learnt that sheep farming is not a great way to make money - it's a brilliant way to lose it though....

[brianusa]

16 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

I came back to find Lucy stretched out across the sofa, forcing me to try and get a few more winks in my Chesterfield wingback chair. Not terribly successfully, I have to say With Lucy’s permission I might be able to take an afternoon snooze today

Why do we give into our pets so much?  Our cat who is otherwise quite independent, demands in cat style that one of us go up to bed with her when she returns in the evening; no if ands or buts!  Silly us; we will comply, missing part of a favourite TV programme or some of our supper.  This something none of us would normally be doing but the cat gets away with it.

    Brian.