Early Risers.

[New Haven Neil]

38 minutes ago, PeterBB said:

Leaves are easy to deal with, its those B' awlful seeds that are the bigger problem ... the diameter of out tree is over 2'.  The lawn-mower set  above the minimum picks up the leaves but the seeds get everywhere.

 

 

'Ours' (ownership dubious, on the property line) are a whole row of the damn things, although nothing like as big as yours.  Yes, the seeds now will annoy until about June!

 

[Gwiwer]

46 minutes ago, Gopher said:

Cardiff Central ?

Or Caerdydd Canalog to the Welsh. Indeed it is. 

[Danemouth]

38 minutes ago, Gwiwer said:

Or Caerdydd Canalog to the Welsh. Indeed it is. 

 

The station formerly known as Cardiff General (in my youth)

 

Dave

Edited October 26, 2022 by Danemouth

[Gopher]

6 minutes ago, Danemouth said:

 

The station formerly known as Cardiff General (in my youth)

 

Dave

Yes and mine.  Happy memories of catching trains from here, and also the lovely old TVR Queen Street (before it was rationalised in the 1970s). 

[simontaylor484]

We once had to go and sweep some sycamore seeds up when I worked for the council. On Station Lane in Pontefract they must have been a foot deep in the channels it was unbelievable 

[PhilJ W]

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. Doesn't time fly, the young guy Alex came round today to give the lawn a shave. He mentioned a few months ago that his partner was expecting. I asked him how it was going, the baby boy is now two months old. Nipped down to Tess Coes this afternoon and in the bakery reduced items there was a packet of six spiced rum flavoured mince tarts, funny thing is I can now only find the empty packet.

[J. S. Bach]

2 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

 ...snip... And this one 

 

For a bonus point where was I? 

It is gone now?? 😿

[monkeysarefun]

6 hours ago, New Haven Neil said:

 

Yes, my 2014 (crikey, where did those years go?) i30 has an immobiliser too.  It has also failed to go wrong in any way, unlike its Ford predecessor!

 

Immobilisers have been  legally required to be fitted to all new cars sold  in the UK and Europe since 1998, in Canada since 2007 and  Australia since 2001. I cant find any info on if they are mandatory in the US but going by a press release from Kia saying they will fit them to all their cars from 2022 I can only assume they arent, perhaps another example there of industry and big business  lobbyists  trumping the best interests of the general public..

 

Edited October 26, 2022 by monkeysarefun

[Ozexpatriate]

12 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

Christmas

10 hours ago, Erichill16 said:

Argh,!!!!

5 hours ago, Erichill16 said:

Seen and heard today!

Well, it is less than two months away - hardly egregious for retailers to mention it at this point.

 

Here we still have the Halloween juggernaut to keep Christmas out of the seasonal aisles until next week, but once that is over it will be full on. Thanksgiving puts up a bit of a fight, but the moment the turkey is carved the Christmas retail season is officially on - hence the origin of "Black Friday" shopping.

 

 

[Ozexpatriate]

5 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

I cant find any info on if they are mandatory in the US ... I assume they arent

I don't believe so.

 

According to Wikipedia:

Quote

Immobilisers have been mandatory in all new cars sold in Germany since 1 January 1998, in the United Kingdom since 1 October 1998, in Finland since 1998, in Australia since 2001 and in Canada since 2007.

Most of the US anti-theft statute is focused on engraving numbers on various parts - which has recently been proposed for catalytic converters. There are lots of links to petitions by manufacturers for engraving exemptions for vehicles with immobilizers. 

 

US manufactures selling to the North American market (by which I mean to include Canada) have to design them in anyway.

[Tony_S]

9 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Quote

 

Most of the US anti-theft statute is focused on engraving numbers on various parts -

The registration number of cars here  used to be etched/engraved onto the windscreen and other glass. Probably stopped a lot of windscreen theft 

[monkeysarefun]

2 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

I don't believe so.

 

According to Wikipedia:

Most of the US anti-theft statute is focused on engraving numbers on various parts - which has recently been proposed for catalytic converters. T

 

 

 

 

The cynic in me again wonders if  that is less an anti-theft measure and more a response to auto manufacturers lobbyists  who want to dry up a source of cheap second hand car parts!

 

If not then  it quaintly assumes that all car theft is due to  the car-rebirthing or spare parts market rather than teen joy riders who tear around in it for a couple of hours endangering themselves and everybody else  til they crash it or  the fuel runs out, or  the get-away car industry where its used in a crime then burned out - assumedly none of these  would give a rats if some serial number is etched into the engine block etc...

 

 

Edited October 26, 2022 by monkeysarefun

[PhilJ W]

55 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

The registration number of cars here  used to be etched/engraved onto the windscreen and other glass. Probably stopped a lot of windscreen theft 

I had an old Reliant Kitten* van that I was going to restore. It had a registration etched on the drivers and passengers door windows but not the actual registration of the van.  It appears that both doors had been replaced at one time as they had at one time been painted yellow and the rest of the van was originally green. *The Reliant Kitten was a Reliant Robin with four wheels. The vans were extremely rare, only about 200 were built and about 10% survive.

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. Arthur Itis made a surprise attack this evening but the Nurofen sorted him out. I've been watching some older (2018)  'Antiques Road Trip' programs on the digital channels and tonight they featured some local locations, Battlesbridge (inevitably), Hadleigh and Southend. It makes you feel old when something that was in common use in your younger days is now an antique.

[Coombe Barton]

... six student meetings scheduled - only one turned up, one was unwell, one didn’t realise it was a face to face meetings and three ignored me completely ...

 

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2022/10/26/downward-drivers-uncertain/

[jamie92208]

13 hours ago, PeterBB said:

Leaves are easy to deal with, its those B' awlful seeds that are the bigger problem ... the diameter of out tree is over 2'.  The lawn-mower set  above the minimum picks up the leaves but the seeds get everywhere.

 

We had a 2' diameter sycamore it was no match for the chain saw.  Unfortunately  it was only 12' from the lounge windows.  The wood burned very nicely last winter after 3 years seasoning.

 

Jamie

Edited October 27, 2022 by jamie92208

[Gwiwer]

Evening all.

 

A late-night (by my standards) visit between trips out.  As ERs will have seen above I was in Cardiff for a while this morning followed by a trip to Brizzle on what the modern-day GWR refers to as a "Castle Class" train.  No copper-cap nor brass-work in sight though and no steamy stuff.  There was a trace of smoke but it didn't smell as though coal had been burned.  From Brizzle it was a very quick(six-minute) turnback for the train back to London. 

 

Tomorrow - all being well - I plan to visit a city with yellow trams and blue trains.  

 

All will need to be well however.  Dr. SWMBO mentioned during her stay in Australia that she suffered from a brief visual disturbance which she described as like a shimmering but jagged rim of white / red light around the edge of her field of vision.  It remained when she closed her eyes.  In ten minutes it was gone.  

 

Yesterday she had the same whilst at work and it triggered her anxiety.  She called 111 but was unable to get through.  She called our GP surgery who couldn't offer her anything for three weeks.  She called me.  By the time she called me the ten-minute thing had timed out and the shimmering was gone.  She came home worried sick that this was a precursor to a stroke or other nasty end.  In all probability it was an ocular migraine.  She got through to 111 during the evening and eventually had a lengthy chat with a doctor from Croydon hospital who tried to assure her that there were no "red flag" signals and that there seemed no need for worry.

 

It happened again today and again she left work early.  This time she booked an appointment with an optometrist and followed that up with booking to see a private GP at her own expense.  Both of which are tomorrow.  So we may know more by then.  

 

My best interpretation is that ocular migraine will be diagnosed.  While inconvenient and somewhat alarming these are not described as dangerous nor necessarily painful.  It may mean - if she has more - that her driving days are over but she seldom drives anyway.  Having a significant visual disturbance whilst at the wheel is not a good thing.  Or it may be a passing thing and a manageable condition.

 

We shall see.  

 

At least she has gone to bed tonight far less anxious than she was last night and slightly reassured as to the likely cause of the problem.  

 

Speaking of sleep it's time to hit the hay. That 5am alarm doesn't wait.  And it's no longer invitingly bright and warm outside when it sounds.  

[PhilJ W]

A little item in the news this evening is that Ford is about to cease production of the Fiesta model.  I've had two Fiestas, a MkII and a MkIII, the Mk.II I inherited from my dad when his doctor told him to give up driving and the MkIII was purchased cheaply when I was practicing 'bangernomics'. Actually it was the last bangernomics car as I traded it in for my first brand new car in 2006.

[Tony_S]

11 minutes ago, Gwiwer said:

best interpretation is that ocular migraine will be diagnosed.  While inconvenient and somewhat alarming these are not described as dangerous nor necessarily painful.  It may mean - if she has more - that her driving days are over but she seldom drives anyway.  Having a significant visual disturbance whilst at the wheel is not a good thing.  Or it may be a passing thing and a manageable condition.

When I first had one I thought I was having a stroke as the symptoms seemed rather similar to those advertised for stroke awareness on the television. The flashing even with  closed eyes was most odd,  No pain though. I had when younger had conventional migraines, brain-pain, nausea, throbbing, all very unpleasant. But I learned how to prevent them. The ocular migraines stopped when I got proper reading  glasses instead of the budget ones. 
Since being on all the heart medication I don’t even get headaches now, which is a nice side effect. 

[monkeysarefun]

4 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

I had an old Reliant Kitten* van that I was going to restore.

 

Part of the charm of England is in its art  of the understatement. Other countries might have  a Puma, a Cougar or a Panther but Englands all "no, a Kitten will do  us!"

 

See also HMS Indefatigable.

Edited October 27, 2022 by monkeysarefun

[Tony_S]

13 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

A little item in the news this evening is that Ford is about to cease production of the Fiesta model.  I've had two Fiestas, a MkII and a MkIII, the Mk.II I inherited from my dad when his doctor told him to give up driving and the MkIII was purchased cheaply when I was practicing 'bangernomics'. Actually it was the last bangernomics car as I traded it in for my first brand new car in 2006.

Aditi loves her Fiesta. It is a really nice car. It has the 1.4 L 16 valve engine. A few years after our one was built,  Ford started making them with smaller engines but we haven’t driven one of those. Ours is 12 years old but is still ULEZ compliant for London, not that we are likely to drive in central London but the ULEZ area is moving out to just inside the M25 soon. Aditi's sister’s husband (lives in Enfield) had a Diesel Golf which wasn’t compliant but he traded it in for a Toyota Corolla hybrid .

Edited October 26, 2022 by Tony_S

[PhilJ W]

27 minutes ago, Gwiwer said:

All will need to be well however.  Dr. SWMBO mentioned during her stay in Australia that she suffered from a brief visual disturbance which she described as like a shimmering but jagged rim of white / red light around the edge of her field of vision.  It remained when she closed her eyes.  In ten minutes it was gone.  

 

Yesterday she had the same whilst at work and it triggered her anxiety.  She called 111 but was unable to get through.  She called our GP surgery who couldn't offer her anything for three weeks.  She called me.  By the time she called me the ten-minute thing had timed out and the shimmering was gone.  She came home worried sick that this was a precursor to a stroke or other nasty end.  In all probability it was an ocular migraine.  She got through to 111 during the evening and eventually had a lengthy chat with a doctor from Croydon hospital who tried to assure her that there were no "red flag" signals and that there seemed no need for worry.

 

It happened again today and again she left work early.  This time she booked an appointment with an optometrist and followed that up with booking to see a private GP at her own expense.  Both of which are tomorrow.  So we may know more by then.  

 

My best interpretation is that ocular migraine will be diagnosed.  While inconvenient and somewhat alarming these are not described as dangerous nor necessarily painful.  It may mean - if she has more - that her driving days are over but she seldom drives anyway.  Having a significant visual disturbance whilst at the wheel is not a good thing.  Or it may be a passing thing and a manageable condition.

 

We shall see.  

 

At least she has gone to bed tonight far less anxious than she was last night and slightly reassured as to the likely cause of the problem.  

 

10 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

When I first had one I thought I was having a stroke as the symptoms seemed rather similar to those advertised for stroke awareness on the television. The flashing even with  closed eyes was most odd,  No pain though. I had when younger had conventional migraines, brain-pain, nausea, throbbing, all very unpleasant. But I learned how to prevent them. The ocular migraines stopped when I got proper reading  glasses instead of the budget ones. 
Since being on all the heart medication I don’t even get headaches now, which is a nice side effect. 

The flashing lights could also be a sign of a detached retina (together with floaters in vision). I had a similar problem last year but a check up by the optician found nothing amiss. This years eye test I passed without any problem.

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone 

 

Ava was a huge help when preparing the vegetables for the pumpkin soup,we were all done just before dinner. The end result was I’ve been able to freeze 4 double portions for future use and we finished off the rest at tea time. This was the first time Ava had ever eaten pumpkin soup and she really enjoyed it. 

 

After dinner, I introduced Ava to the comic genius of Kenny Everett and we watched some of his videos. This was another first for Ava, as she’d never seen him before, I think I can confirm we now have a convert.  

 

After I’d taken Ava home, we had a quick tidy up then sat down to watch some recorded TV. I made myself a Bloody Maria, it’s basically a Bloody Mary, but made with tequila instead of vodka, something I’ve not had before. At best I’d describe it as interesting, but I think it’s a complete waste of tequila, the flavours just don’t compliment each other, so I won’t be making myself another. 

Edited October 26, 2022 by BSW01

[BSW01]

Goodnight all 

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.