Early Risers.

[JohnDMJ]

Good Evening Awl,

 

After a relatively mundane day, please permit me to quote a post and pose a question.

 

8 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

Ian Fleming's James Bond (the books, not the films) had an inordinate influence on me when I was a spotty teenage.

 

How are James Bond and Dr. Syn, of Romney Marsh smuggling repute, connected? (This could be extended to the connection between Ian Fleming and Russell Thorndike!)

 

FYI, multi-quote is not quoting but single quote is under Firefox.

[Coombe Barton]

... dressed as a fairy in a tutu with magic wand and wearing hiking boots, and with a sparkly beard ...

 

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2021/10/08/more-increase/

[Erichill16]

Evening All,

As you may (or probably not) have noticed I’ve been absent for a week or so and you may (or may not) like to know that I’ve been away on my hols and haven’t been able to keep in touch.

I don’t think I’m going to be able to catch up on all the comings and goings but I do wish Simons other half a speedy diagnosis and effective treatment. I hope I find the rest of you in reasonable health.

Two of my vehicles are fitted with radio/ cassettes and my other doesn’t even have a radio. The radio/cassettes are the type that you pull the whole thing out of the dashboard. I used to have one in my VW polo and you had to remember to move the heater controls all the way across to full heat whenever you pulled the radio/cassette out otherwise you snapped the heads off the control leavers. All state of the art in the early 90s. 
I think my other car is so old that audio cassettes weren’t even on the market when it was made. At the moment it doesn’t even have a radio as I’d be much happier listening to it tootling along. 
Hopefully tomorrow I’ll be able to catch up a bit more and offer my thoughts on the burning issues but for tonight,

goodnight.

Robert

[TheQ]

Evening Awl,

Just back from the MRC,

Where there was a huge attendance of 1.. I did know some would be away, but not all of our six person bubble.

Anyway progress was made, enough so that next week I need to take a couple more in progress pictures for the records.

 

Reached one road junction on the way there and looked directly across into a bungalow... Their TV  is HUGE, took up most of the wall, I could quite easily have followed the action from the other side of the road...

 

More cars of second homers from London this friday, must be more fuel down there.

Lots of fist and mog on the way back, but quite warm out there. The cremated swan pub had a full attendance of diners for their evening meal , having just reached here from the smoke.

 

muggachoccy time..

 

good night Awl..

 

 

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. I read somewhere that Farcebook was down again but it seems to be running this evening. This has just come up in the news:- 

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/madeleine-mccann-prosecutor-100-convinced-25173564?x=#source=push Sadly its unlikely now that she'll ever be found.

[TheSignalEngineer]

Evening Awl. 

Back on the air after a period away on holiday and not much time for the internet. Have looked in a couple of times but I think I'm about 1000 posts behind at the moment so will probably be difficult to catch up.

 

A good session was had with plenty of MTB mileage, and a small amount on the shiny metals during a day of inclement weather. A couple of trips to the coast were also had by bus. Managed to get by without a visit to a petrol station. When I went shopping this morning I found that the price of fuel at the supermarket was the same as when I topped up a fortnight ago. There were only three cars there for 12 pumps. a bit different from the places we passed last week where there were queues onto the road and prices going up 5p per day if they had managed to get a delivery.

 

Need to make good use of time on the G word this week as weather looks reasonable.

Edited October 8, 2021 by TheSignalEngineer

[Gwiwer]

2 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

I have a Lexmark laser printer. The colour cartridges cost twice as much as HP but are four times the size. What is more when they run out you can buy bottles of ink and refill them yourself. As refilling the cartridges can be messy most just buy replacement cartridges.

I use a Canon.  The internet and the nerdworks suggest that ink cartridges for these cannot be refilled readily but generic ones can be used instead.  

 

Users - "Oh no they can't!"

Nerds - "Oh yes they can!"

Users - "Oh no they ******* can't!"

 

Canon has managed to slip something into the electronics which identifies genuine cartridges and rejects others.  Ask me how I know.  And make me an offer for two sets of generic ink cartridges minus a couple which were opened for use but which prompted the machine to have hissy fits and remove toys from its pram.  

 

Today has entertained me for long enough.  G'night all.  As Jack Warner (Dixon of Dock Green) once said.

 

[New Haven Neil]

Oh yes they can...on ours anyway!  

[tigerburnie]

G'night all

[Pacific231G]

5 hours ago, polybear said:

 

And what do the Chinese Government do?

China power cuts: Coal miners ordered to boost output, say reports - BBC News

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-58839894

 

 

Bear's "Why didn't I?" moment of the day:

 

Buy Tesla shares last October (fifty bucks a share) - now at 782 bucks a share....

Just because someone up the street is dumping their sewage in the village pond is no reason to do the same. You might though consider what you want to buy from said neighbour. 

If we could predict the movement of shares we'd be doing better than the overwhelming majority of financial advisors and would be very very wealthy . 

 

Evening all

A trip to West Oxfordshire today to visit a friend in hospital led to the useful discovery that the filling stations there actually have petrol.  I could only get premium (which is E5) so the problems arent over and it was at least 6 p/litre than in London but I was quite honestly more interested in getting it than worrying too much about the price. Fortunately, and even allowing for the fact that I'm driving more economically,  I seem to be getting better mileages from it  than from the E10 that was in the tank a couple of weeks ago.

Usual Friday numpties on the M40 today, crossing two lanes without looking, pulling out without indicating and including the inevitable "I own the road" pratt in a Merc. furiously flashing the car in front in the outside lane  to let him through when there was clearly no through to let him through to but just a solid line of traffic in the two outside lanes moving at about 65 MPH and fairly sensibly spaced out as far as the eye could see with most of the HGVs in the inside lane at abour 55MPH . I was watching all this from a few cars behind in the middle lane and it's something I seem to see more of on the M40  between the M25 and Stokenchurch than anywhere else.   

 

[laurenceb]

Night awl

[Pacific231G]

1 hour ago, Gwiwer said:

I use a Canon.  The internet and the nerdworks suggest that ink cartridges for these cannot be refilled readily but generic ones can be used instead.  

 

Users - "Oh no they can't!"

Nerds - "Oh yes they can!"

Users - "Oh no they ******* can't!"

 

Canon has managed to slip something into the electronics which identifies genuine cartridges and rejects others.  Ask me how I know.  And make me an offer for two sets of generic ink cartridges minus a couple which were opened for use but which prompted the machine to have hissy fits and remove toys from its pram.  

 

Interesting. I have a fairly new Canon Pixma and, though it grumbles when I feed it Whiskas rather than the Sheba blended with gold that it would prefer it doesn't stop it from printing. Isn't it illegal to actually make a device only accept proprietary consumables?  

G'night all and have a wonderful weekend.

Edited October 8, 2021 by Pacific231G

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone 

 

I decided to refuel the car before I went to the Trafford Centre, as I was done to about 80 miles worth of petrol left in the tank. Upon arrival, there was no queue, no shortage of fuel and no limit to what can be put it, I put in just over £50 worth. When I finally got to the Trafford Centre, it was quite busy, for some strange reason, there were lots of parents with young children, especially in the 8 - 10 year old group. It’s too early for school holidays, so I’ve no idea why so many weren’t in school. 

 

This afternoon wasn’t as busy as the morning was! After dinner I went downstairs to the office and sat and drew up a design for the underside of the engine shed roof. The kits roof just wasn’t quite right, the roofing timbers ran across the roof, as opposed to down and I wanted to add extra skylights too! Anyway, the whole process only took about an hour!  After printing a test piece, which proved to be just right, I printed off enough for both the engine shed and workshop. 

 

My printer is an Epson, so far (is this the kiss of death?) it’s been very reliable, but then I only use genuine cartridges. I learnt the hard this lesson the hard way, when I used to get my used cartridges for my last printer (another Epson) refilled locally, with non genuine ink, it eventually gummed up the machine. 

[BSW01]

Goodnight all 

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[J. S. Bach]

Night Owl from the Piedmont.

[Ozexpatriate]

18 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

Grey may be a "new" colour for mass market cars, but the idea of a grey coloured car is not exactly new.

Grey is hardly new at all for mass produced cars. My parents bought new, a 1974 Holden with a white roof, chrome rain strips and a silver/grey metallic body. It looked nice when new. Metallic paint was novel in the 1970s, but this one was an early GM attempt. We lived within a few miles of salt water and the paint work deteriorated badly over time. The white roof paint held up much better.

 

Most of them I find very dull and exacerbated by their ubiquity. My observations were more about noticing new interpretations of grey (usually with a hint of other colours to distinguish it) that seem to be trendy.

 

As to Fleming's creation, the Aston Martin DB5 in the 1964 Goldfinger film was of course grey. There is a convertible Bentley early in From Russia With Love, (with car telephone) but, if memory serves, it is green.

 

18 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

Such was the influence of the Ian Fleming books that I have always hankered after a Bentley - matt battleship grey was an option but not a "do or die" (incidentally, the Mark II Bentley Continental is an Ian Fleming invention).

But precisely what shade is "battleship grey"? I note that ship modelling forums seem to devote as much care and attention to that topic as people here who debate the proper shade of sage green for LSWR locomotives.*

 

* Or middle chrome green, or LB&SCR umber, or MR crimson lake, etc etc.

 

Edited October 9, 2021 by Ozexpatriate

[chrisf]

Greetings

 

Day 3 of the beer festival produced a small but significant crop of annual reunions - strictly speaking biennial reunions as the festival did not take place last year.  The numbers appeared to be slightly down but that is no great surprise.  In my younger days more people than now would pop in at lunchtime and go back to the office afterwards: how times change!   One year, I recall, we had a team meeting surrounded by the hurly-burly of the festival - rather more enjoyable than the conference room at work.  As the evening wore on my knees grew ever more painful and by 8.30 pm I had had enough -pain, that is, not beer.  After a good night's kip I feel a bit better so we shall see what Saturday brings.

 

Before I return to the fray for the final time I need to do the fodder run.  Once that is done and a few chores carried out I shall resume my revelry with a clear conscience.

 

Best wishes to all

 

Chris

Edited October 9, 2021 by chrisf

[jamie92208]

Good moaning. It's still dark but is likely to end up sunny.  Today I'm off to the tip to empty the rubbish bin traileras it's needed next week. That is after our usual hour talking to the girls. Then at 12.00 it's time to head to the airport in Limoges with our friend Joanne. She's off back home after having had a very enjoyable fortnight. We hope to see her back soon.  The day may get better as I've arranged to meet a former colleague  and friend near the railway in Limoges for a coffee and natter before setti g off home. It's a 2 hour drive each way.

 

As to printers, we've had an HP PSC for several years that takes  364  cartridges. In the UK it didn't like generics. The HP refill sets cost about €45. However  we've discovered that Action, a pound store, sells compatible sets for €10.  So far they've not caused a problem. They aren't always in stock at Action, so I always buy a couplevof sets when I see them.

 

Regards to all.

 

Jamie

[Barry O]

Ey Up!

 

Flu jab day....

 

Baz

[polybear]

13 hours ago, PupCam said:

I note @polybear skills at car valeting and one has to marvel at his attention to detail.    Once again, after he's finished his own vehicle he can come round here and do Mr & Mrs Puppers' 4 wheeled vehicles.    I'm just wondering if he's done the additional 2 wheeled vehicle qualification because, if so, I've got some further jobs for him

 

 

Not even for all the choccy in Cadburys Warehouse.  Stupid Boy......

 

6 hours ago, BSW01 said:

When I finally got to the Trafford Centre, it was quite busy, for some strange reason, there were lots of parents with young children, especially in the 8 - 10 year old group. It’s too early for school holidays, so I’ve no idea why so many weren’t in school. 

 

Schools and/or classes closed due to Covid infections perhaps, with kiddiwinks sent home to self-isolate.......

Cynical Bear.

 

6 hours ago, BSW01 said:

My printer is an Epson, so far (is this the kiss of death?) it’s been very reliable, but then I only use genuine cartridges. I learnt the hard this lesson the hard way, when I used to get my used cartridges for my last printer (another Epson) refilled locally, with non genuine ink, it eventually gummed up the machine. 

 

Bear has a Brother Colour Printer; the black cartridge is about to die so I checked out the genuine cartridge prices (eighty-odd quid for a genuine set, or thirty for copies....) and bought some from a company mentioned in a Which? Magazine Test that scored well and also have a guarantee that if their cartridges screw the printer up then they'll fix or replace it.  Not sure what evidence they'll want though....

The black is still hanging on but is in ITU, so I've yet to try it out.  I have seen  companies that say that going from genuine to copy cartridges requires all to be swapped at the same time - you can't mix real and copy versions for some reason.  No idea on this one - we'll see....  

 

12 minutes ago, Barry O said:

Ey Up!

 

Flu jab day....

 

Baz

 

Haven't you heard?  It makes your hair turn blue......

 

In other news:

Bear is gonna get his paws wet today.  Again......

[TheQ]

Mooring Awl, inner temple Hare,

6 hours sleep, followed by another couple of hours semi dozing, a good rest for a change..

 

Ben the I want out it's daylight Collie took me for a stroll down the garden, I was expecting heavy fist and mog as forecast by the seaweed inspectors but, there wasn't, clear skies, no fog, no wind, very heavy dew.

 

Printers , mostly had Epson as is our current one, this hasn't been used for years. But will have to be resurrected or replaced when I finish work.

I suspect any ink will have dried up, I've just checked that cleaning cartridges are available, well they are for Epson's, but I'll have to check to see if the exact model is available..

Should we have to replace this one, I'll need to find a printer that can take long periods of inactivity, but then be quite busy for short periods..

 

Plans for today,

Repair damage by mouse's to the pantry.

Attempt to extract broken drain rods from sewer pipe,

 A  little mowing...

 

But first, 

Time to wake up the bacon cremating pan..

[grandadbob]

Good morning all,

Foggy here and so's the weather.

Not posted here since July for reasons best kept to myself but have sort of kept up with the flow of things.

The main news from GDB Towers is that after two and a half years of planning, delays, disappearing plumbers etc we at last found a reliable firm to completely gut and refurb our ageing bathroom & WC.  This was finished 2 weeks ago and we are over the moon with the end result.  Really efficient workers who went out their way to do a clean and tidy job, turned up when they said they would, cheerfully worked all day with only a brief stop for lunch and not a swear word from either of them.  I only got the bill yesterday and it was exactly as per the original estimate except for a couple of small additions that I had  made.  It might surprise you to know that these two guys were English. 

In other news unlike some I have nothing but praise for our local doctor's surgery and the NHS in general.  It seems we must be very lucky.

A text message a couple of weeks ago advised us of a walk in flu jab clinic last Saturday and we duly turned up at 8.50 to find a queue of about 30 people in front of us.  Dealt with rapidly by a friendly receptionist (no Charlenes here!) and we were jabbed by the senior partner with cheery quick chat asking how we both were and we were away within 20 minutes.  

We also had a message from the NHS for Covid boosters and turned up for our appointment at a local vaccination centre and were dealt with promptly and efficiently.  That took 25 minutes including the obligatory wait for 15 minutes to see if they'd accidentally injected us with something lethal. 

Nicki had a major operation a few weeks ago and although still not yet 100% recovered she too has nothing but praise for the way she has been treated.

Abbie managed to catch Covid a few weeks ago but it seemed just like a bad cold to her.  We'd been in contact so tested every day for a week and were OK, as were the rest of the family. 

Today I will be replacing some door furniture and wielding a chisel or two.  Plasters are ready to be deployed. 

Tomorrow I'm heading to the Farnham show at Aldershot where I hope to catch up with a couple of old friends from here.

Have a good one,

Bob.

 

Edited October 9, 2021 by grandadbob

[Ref44]

The NHS aren't very popular in this house at the moment. SWMBO went for her 3 yearly breast screening at Broomfield hospital on Thursday. She is disabled and can't stand unaided. Despite the efforts of two nurses, they only managed to take 1 of the 4 photos that are normally done. Given the history of cancer in her family (numerous deaths), she is rather distressed. I can't believe the NHS can't cope with a disabled patient. A phone call will be made to the regional office on Monday to try and find out what is going on. The lady I spoke to at MacMillan couldn't believe it either.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Welcome back GDB! and I hope you don't need those plasters. Fist and mog this morning was thick but that is now lifting and a warm day is predicted. Will have to remember to draw out some cash for tomorrows day out. I will also have to break out the woolies, though its unseasonably warm the place where I'm going is rather exposed and can be a bit draughty. Thats it for now, be back later.