Early Risers.

[Tony_S]

8 minutes ago, grandadbob said:

About 10 years ago The Boss and I stayed in a holiday cottage in a little Norfolk village and I couldn't get a mobile phone signal.  On chatting to the landlord of the local pub he said "You need to go out on the green outside and stand on the other side of the pond and you'll be OK."  I thought he was winding me up but he assured me he wasn't so I decided to try it and it worked.  Only place there that it did! 

We were in rural Vermont  14 years ago. We wondered why people kept wandering to a certain part of the hotel grounds. That was the only place any phone signal was available. We had phones with us but I don’t think we used them much if at all. International roaming was quite pricey then. 

When we were in North Devon this summer there were lots of places with no mobile signal, certainly not for any of the network providers we used. 
Tony

[Coombe Barton]

17 minutes ago, grandadbob said:

You need to go out on the green outside and stand on the other side of the pond and you'll be OK

In Dulverton when we camped there it was "just stand behind Harry's gravestone in the churchyard, or something like that.

 

Dulverton is the only place I've seen a 4x4 jam.

[PeterBB]

19 minutes ago, grandadbob said:

About 10 years ago The Boss and I stayed in a holiday cottage in a little Norfolk village and I couldn't get a mobile phone signal.  On chatting to the landlord of the local pub he said "You need to go out on the green outside and stand on the other side of the pond and you'll be OK."  I thought he was winding me up but he assured me he wasn't so I decided to try it and it worked.  Only place there that it did! 

Where I was staying at the W/E had no internet or mobile telephone access - surprising just how frustrating that can be these days.

[New Haven Neil]

53 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

We had an office “Secret Santa” max £3, so I don’t think much corruption was involved. 
 

 

To clarify, I meant from outside sources, not inter-office Christmas parties!  Bottles of falling-over juice from contractors, etc.

[New Haven Neil]

1 minute ago, Coombe Barton said:

In Dulverton when we camped there it was "just stand behind Harry's gravestone in the churchyard, or something like that.

 

Dulverton is the only place I've seen a 4x4 jam.

 

Decent little campsite, that!

[Coombe Barton]

2 minutes ago, New Haven Neil said:

Decent little campsite, that!

Caravan club one by the river?

[DaveF]

29 minutes ago, grandadbob said:

About 10 years ago The Boss and I stayed in a holiday cottage in a little Norfolk village and I couldn't get a mobile phone signal.  On chatting to the landlord of the local pub he said "You need to go out on the green outside and stand on the other side of the pond and you'll be OK."  I thought he was winding me up but he assured me he wasn't so I decided to try it and it worked.  Only place there that it did! 

 

According to maps from proivders my area has good 4G reception.  Most of us have to go outside to make calls with a mobile.  I can get a signal near the house windows but if I move I lose it, very awkward when making important calls.  If I want to access my bank account etc I have to use wifi.

 

Rember I live in a coastal town, not out in the country where it is worse - in Northumberland there are large areas inland with no signal at all.  At National Trust properties round here a lot of staff use walkie talkies.

 

David

Edited December 15, 2022 by DaveF

[New Haven Neil]

3 minutes ago, Coombe Barton said:

Caravan club one by the river?

 

Yarp!

 

[Tony_S]

6 minutes ago, New Haven Neil said:

 

To clarify, I meant from outside sources, not inter-office Christmas parties!  Bottles of falling-over juice from contractors, etc.

I did assume you probably meant no outside sources. Most of my colleagues managed to avoid the Borough Education Department Christmas lunch. However as I was shared by two line managers I had to go. It wasn’t free, though the boss did pay for our admin staff. I do remember the first course was some sort of festive giant snail. 

[Tony_S]

10 minutes ago, DaveF said:

According to maps from proivders my area has good 4G reception

I was talking about that with my brother. For much of his working life he worked in telecommunications.  I said how can the companies publish maps and coverage statistics that don’t seem to reflect real life performance. He did explain. The maps are generated from a model of signal propagation. No one has actually been out with a signal meter to check. Unless of course there are lots of complaints.
Where my cousin lives in a part of Solihull, not rural,  the residents object strenuously to any cellular aerials. It was one of the places where a 5g mast was torched. 

Edited December 15, 2022 by Tony_S

[New Haven Neil]

Being a hilly rock, there are any places here with poor (here in NHN Towers) or no reception. 

 

Apparently operation of 'smart' (sic) meters depends upon mobile signal to work.  A friend recently had one forced on him, after insisting there was no point as he had no mobile signal at all, and of course as he lives behind a big bit of rock, it didn't work.  The electricity authority here (Government owned) then wanted to charge him to install a conventional meter. Just like wot the one they took out a month prior. 

 

As you may imagine, the second word was 'off'.  Issue still ongoing, may get an update tomorrow at the bike club.

[BoD]

Happy retirement @TheQ

 

Enjoy.

[BoD]

7 hours ago, TheQ said:

Came home via Currys.. hmm lying barstewards," if you don't take our insurance you can't bring it back if it fails"

When faced with similar I reply: 

 

 Hang on a minute, you have just spent ten minutes selling me this and telling what a fantastic, reliable product it is but now you are saying you think it won’t last a year and I need to insure it. I’m sorry but I no longer wish to purchase it.

 

Try it sometime and watch their faces.

[Barry O]

@polybear.. that's the Macaroni influence. When I worked forvthe proper company at St Evenage we were taken out for lunch ..free, we finished before 12 and even managed a clandestine glass or two at work effort leaving for Christmas...

 

@The Q..many congratulations.. and 3xcellent choices of items to buy!

 

Had a busy day.. involving a bit of muddling, a bitnof cricket adminthen a meeting of like minded friends where the world was put to rights...

 

And..another visit from the Awl .. twice in 2 days..great to see a return @Debs..

 

I used to get a few things at Christmas while working. Small gifts from various companies and.. a bottle of Jamisons every year from very good boss (everyone else got a bottle of Baileys).

 

It will be a while before my Christmas present arrives.. a sweet little North Eastern model.

 

Tomorrow involves a Teams meeting as well as answering some "question" raised in September.. strange I haven't got a clear written record of somenof these but hey ho.. 

 

When we stay in Robin Hoods Bay mobile phone signals are poor.. in fact at one cottage we stayed in you had to go tothe 3rd floor and lean out of the window to get any signal at all.

 

Time for a bit of shut eye!

 

Sleep well!

 

Baz

[Winslow Boy]

1 hour ago, New Haven Neil said:

 

To clarify, I meant from outside sources, not inter-office Christmas parties!  Bottles of falling-over juice from contractors, etc.

 

We had that. You were supposed to declare them and then buy them back. I always wondered what happened to the money.

[Ozexpatriate]

On 14/12/2022 at 11:03, monkeysarefun said:

One of the two surviving officers had only been in the force a few months, they tried burning her out by setting light to the paddock. She thought she was dead and texted friends and relations goodbye.

Besides the fear of bullets and fire we should not forget the snakes and ants disturbed by the fire. She was on the telephone to coordinating officers having called 000 and been connected.

 

Edited December 15, 2022 by Ozexpatriate

[monkeysarefun]

6 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Besides the fear off bullets and fire we should not forget the snakes and ants disturbed by the fire. She was on the telephone to coordinating officers having called 000 and been connected.

Says a lot about Telstras  regional/outback  Queensland mobile phone  coverage.

 

Edited December 15, 2022 by monkeysarefun

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. Getting cold outside but not as cold as last night. Now some idiot is letting off fireworks. The ice out front hasn't melted one little bit today, not surprising as the sun doesn't penetrate as far as the road this time of year.

[Ozexpatriate]

11 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

... outback Queensland

That depends on where the black stump is. Weiambilla* is still east (substantially closer to the coast) of the east-west midpoint of southern Queensland (the narrower bit).

 

* The area is the western downs at 150° E

 

It's almost due north of where you live. Very rural, yes, but not like Thargomindah.

 

Edited December 15, 2022 by Ozexpatriate

[monkeysarefun]

19 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

That depends on where the black stump is. Weiambilla* is still east (closer to the coast) of the east-west midpoint of southern Queensland (the narrower bit).

 

* The area is the western downs at 150° E

 

It's almost due north of where you live.

I edited my post and  added a "regional" tag - I initially called it "Outback" because all the overseas coverage I've seen label it as such,  even though  its more like the Scrub than the outback. I spent time in the district on oil exploration surveys - Surat , Roma, St George. Kangaroo shooters, red dust  and emus are my main memories. 

 

Tele-communications have obviously changed since I was there in the 80's - back then if you wanted to make a non-local  call you had to go the the telephone exchange in St George, speak to an operator through a window grill, then wait outside  for a few minutes while they connected it and then a loudspeaker would announce when your call was ready and tell you  which numbered phone in the bank of wall-mounted phones it was on....

Edited December 15, 2022 by monkeysarefun

[polybear]

3 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

Still not sure who the Great Empire is but is it a UK company that starts  with B and ends in E? 

 

Yep, once upon a time.....

Now the GE is all mixed up with numerous EU Companies as well - especially the French 🙁.

Dunno what the various share percentages are, but the same UK company still has a very large slice of the pie.

 

3 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

If I was able to stick one on certain managers and HR I would have done so. (Well I did stick one on HR by wrangling an early retirement, only thing was they were so far up their own posteriors that they didn't notice.

 

 

No chance at all for Bear getting paid to bvgger off early retirement, sadly.  When I did apply to clear off early it was signed & approved in less than 18 hours (so quite possibly a lot quicker than that).  No summons to see the Boss, HR etc. - just approved and that was that.   I think it's the fastest that HR have ever got off their ar5es and done something.  Do you think I upset them?  Oh good......🤣

 

In other news.....

It seems that two of the four boys that drowned when they went thru' the ice were brothers, with a third being their Cousin.  VSBT's to that family....

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone 

 

This morning’s visit to Ikea was successful, I managed to get everything on my shopping list, even Charlie’s display cabinet. Once the car was loaded up, I went straight round to Vickie’s and dropped the cabinet off. Which gave Charlie something to do this morning, as he planned to get it assembled before he came round here this afternoon. 

 

It was still -3C this afternoon and even with the heater on full, it was still cold in the workshop! So, after about an hour, we decided to call it a day and came back inside instead and we all sat in the living room chatting, which cheered up Sheila as she doesn’t usually see much of him on a Thursday afternoon because were usually in the workshop and Sheila NEVER goes in the workshop. 

[BSW01]

Goodnight all 

[AndyID]

4 hours ago, grandadbob said:

apart from some sort of compensation for all the grief it has caused me.

 

I'll have some of whatever you are drinking.