Early Risers.

[TheQ]

Mooring Awl,

2 hours sleep. Woke with pain from left elbow must have been sleeping on it wrong, pink pill, 5 hours sleep. Woke thinking I need to blow my nose.. no I'd sprung a leak from my nose big time, first time that's happened in many years. Because of the cold I had tissues to hand..

 

Ben hadn't tried get me up, as Ben the sensible Collie waited till the rain stopped. We've now been on patrol, a full one, he seemed to enjoy it, disappearing off into the darkness.

Windy, cloudy, and the ground soggy.

 

Plans for today,

Await bits for Landrover,

Have another search for my new tin of wood filler, can't seem to find it anywhere,

Start work on the new rudder shaft, .

SWMBO is out all afternoon at her weaving group, so I'll be making dinner,

Then I hope to go to the MRC tonight, though it'll be chaos there, as they need to play musical layouts to put up one that's for sale as a prospective buyer is visiting.

 

But first, I need a muggacoffee.

Time to turn the kettle on.

 

 

[New Haven Neil]

Mornings, from a rock that suddenly has stopped being rained upon, after a couple of heavy showers.  8c so not too bad, clearing skies to the east. Oh 7c now - that's those clearing skies.

 

Today will see the launch of the new Bosch vacuum cleaner - what exciting lives we lead.  Not.  Then who knows, oh no hang on, I have to go way out west to Kirk Michael to collect medication. maybe call in on friend C there, to have a railway chat.  

[grandadbob]

Good morning all,

Lots of rain yesterday but it's stopped for now. 

A mainly dry and fine, breezy day is forecast.  Very mild here at 11°C.

Another busy day yesterday so I didn't get around to posting.  A lot of time in the morning spent clearing up after our our pre-Christmas family get together on Sunday which was brilliant.  Considerable amounts of food and drink were consumed and all had a great time.  Whilst talking to some of the younger family members about our forthcoming short cruise with Steve next year they have expressed an interest in joining us so it looks like 2 granddaughters, one with boyfriend and also a niece will come along to look after the old folk!    😂   We're looking forward to it even more now.

 

At long last my energy billing problem has been sorted and I have an up to date bill which leaves me in credit to the tune of about £250.  I've boosted this by repaying the three months energy refunds of £199 that they had paid into my bank account.  Can't understand why they didn't just credit it to my energy  account as talking to friends it seems that's what other companies have done. After a further lengthy discussion with my "advanced resolutions specialist" I have accepted another £100 compensation payment on top of the £75 they'd already given me for the upset caused.  Not a fortune I know but better than nothing and TBH I'm surprised that they did that.

 

Nottalot to do today except ferry The Boss to and from the hairdresser. 

Have a good one,

Bob.

[Grizz]

Good Morning All

 

Well the nice snowy, cold and most importantly dry weather has well and truly departed from the Deep South. To be replaced by warm, wet and very windy weather. ………swearyswearyswearyswearywords!

 

Result…my breathing is now totally rubbish for a start…..and our fields, where Mrs Grizz keeps her field ornaments, are sticky, slippery mud. So I have decided not to attempt to fit the feather edge boarding to the stable, at least until it stops raining. It is chuffing well annoying because I was really quite enjoying doing the chippying.

On the up side I have now found the hammer that had fallen off the roof and into the snow last week. I was amazed just how far it had travelled, as it wasn’t where I expected it to be. 

 

Mrs Grizz kindly helped me to fix down the last of the metal sheet roofing on Saturday. We decided to use 1m x 5.4m long sheets which, although difficult to handle, has meant that there is no horizontal joint across the roof. Fortunately my cousin’s eldest son works for the local sheet metal roofing firm, so we were able to get excellent personal support and advice on the best products and fixing methods, given the conditions we face up on top of the South Downs. The old stable was built by Mrs Grizz and my FIL 45 years ago. It was very well constructed but had felt and batten roofing that inevitably leaked on occasion and finally caused rot. The building foot print is the same as the old one so there is little change visually. The front of the roof will have 3 posts that will give support and secure it down, again using Bullhead rails with timber bolted to it.

 

 

The structure is anchored to the ground using 2.3m lengths of Bullhead Rail, concreted up to 1m into the rock chalk. As the white painted piece in the bottom left corner shows. 

One of the aims of the project was to be able harvest rain water, as apparently horses prefer it to tap water. So as we now have just over 40 sq metres of roof to gather it from, we plan to buy 3 ISO containers like these. Fortunately we have been donated a load of plastic guttering, so all we got to get are the brackets and any fittings we might need. 
 

 

Apparently one of Mrs Grizz’s friends has 3 linked together, with goldfish in them to eat the mosquitoes. The jury is out on that one. 
 

Have a great day all. 
 

ATB Grizz

 

[polybear]

9 hours ago, Erichill16 said:

One of those frustrating incidents. I’ve had pain from this tooth for quite a few years and have be told that it’s partly due to it having a large filling and also receding gums. I have  on occasion smeared Synsodyne  toothpaste over the effected area as recommended by the dentist for a few days and that has eased the issue but this time nothing has helped. Last week it hit a crescendo and I decided to make an appointment and after looking at an X ray the dentist  thinks the tooth may be cracked. Seems ridiculous that I’ve had issues for years and now, less than a week before Christmas I’m chasing around to get it removed.

I don’t want to tempt fate, but it’s not as bad today, I thinking last weeks cold weather made things worse but I think it’s time for it to come out.

I don’t think there’s much of the tooth to save as most of it is ‘filling’

 

Beary Tip:

Cordosyl Mouthwash - or one of the cheap copies as they have the same magical ingredient.  Not to be confused with Listerine etc. - Cordosyl really does sort such things if it can be sorted without a Dentist, if only in the short term.

Not for long term use though, and try and lay off the Tea & Coffee (or time them for before the Cordosyl) in order to avoid staining yer Goobers (which will polish off).

 

9 hours ago, Winslow Boy said:

I shall be monitoring you closely Mr Bear as I have a new staircase to fit this winter. Now that the weather has turned inclement, work on the boundary fence has been put on the back burner, so my attention  has turned to this much delayed installation.

 

I'd love a new staircase - but that would be humongously serious engineering in Bear Towers and not an option, sadly.

 

Bear here......

Well today's the day I was promised an update from EDF regarding my very unsmart Meters; the website won't let me swap to the "Direct Debit - pay full amount owed" option either as every time I try to access it I get a "Technical Issues" etc. message.  I'm not holding my breath, strangely....

 

SPECIAL BEARY ANNOUNCEMENT

Come to Bear's Sanding Party - 9am onwards at Bear Towers.  Bring yer own Sandpaper.  Tea n' Jammie Dodgers provided (I may even break out the Choccy Ones too).  Entertainment laid on - Alexa reading Harry Potter Book 3.  Be there or be square.....

[Erichill16]

27 minutes ago, polybear said:

.

 

SPECIAL BEARY ANNOUNCEMENT

Come to Bear's Sanding Party - 9am onwards at Bear Towers.  Bring yer own Sandpaper.  Tea n' Jammie Dodgers provided (I may even break out the Choccy Ones too).  Entertainment laid on - Alexa reading Harry Potter Book 3.  Be there or be square.....

Sorry Bear, but sock drawer needs tidying, but good luck.

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. I went out like a light last night despite Arthur Itis. I'd stripped the bed ready for some clean sheets but Arthur Itis prevented me from remaking it so last night I slept on the bare mattress with just a couple of pillows, no problem with the CH on. My rash is still there so I dialled 111 and spoke to them about it, they think it may be shingles which is a surprise as I had the shingles jab just over a year ago. I have no pain but it itches like mad, I don't feel ill at all so its only the itching to contend with.

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone 

 

Here in the northwest corner of England, the rain has stopped, the sun is shining and the sky is blue, there is a slight breeze and the temperature is currently 7C. So, I’m hoping to get a little bit of work done in the garden, something I’ve not done for almost 2 weeks now. The frost has made the leaves on the hydrangeas go very limp, so they will all be removed as well as some rose flowers that have turned brown due to the frost and as always at this time of year, there are some leaves to sweep up. I’ll then clean out the bird feeders and then top them up, this will probably take the entire morning. 

 

The plan for after dinner is to stock up the recently assembled small storage unit in the workshop. 

 

Back later. 

 

Brian

[iL Dottore]

1 hour ago, polybear said:

SPECIAL BEARY ANNOUNCEMENT

Come to Bear's Sanding Party - 9am onwards at Bear Towers.  Bring yer own Sandpaper.  Tea n' Jammie Dodgers provided (I may even break out the Choccy Ones too).  Entertainment laid on - Alexa reading Harry Potter Book 3.  Be there or be square.....

 

42 minutes ago, Erichill16 said:

Sorry Bear, but sock drawer needs tidying, but good luck.

Sorry Bear, but I’m washing my hair….

[BoD]

2 hours ago, TheQ said:

Ben hadn't tried get me up

Well you did tell him that you’d retired didn’t you.

[iL Dottore]

Just a drive-by posting today: partly because I’m discovering new bruises in new places from last week’s falls. Today it’s my right wrist (no sniggering in the back) - so minimal typing is in order.

 

Finally, I’m now getting on RMWeb video ads for that Netflix fantasy series starring Harry and Meghan. Quite frankly, I wish @Andy Y would bring back the Crypto Currency ads: much, much more enjoyable….
 

I won’t comment further as it would put me on the “naughty step”

 

Enjoy Tuesday

Edited December 20, 2022 by iL Dottore

[BSW01]

1 hour ago, polybear said:

SPECIAL BEARY ANNOUNCEMENT

Come to Bear's Sanding Party - 9am onwards at Bear Towers.  Bring yer own Sandpaper.  Tea n' Jammie Dodgers provided (I may even break out the Choccy Ones too).  Entertainment laid on - Alexa reading Harry Potter Book 3.  Be there or be square.....

Sorry, I can’t make it either, I’ve got a few roses to dead head.

[grandadbob]

 

1 hour ago, polybear said:

SPECIAL BEARY ANNOUNCEMENT

Come to Bear's Sanding Party - 9am onwards at Bear Towers.  Bring yer own Sandpaper.  Tea n' Jammie Dodgers provided (I may even break out the Choccy Ones too).  Entertainment laid on - Alexa reading Harry Potter Book 3.  Be there or be square.....

 

I've got to watch some paint dry.  I actually did the painting 4 years ago but I just want to make sure.

[monkeysarefun]

1 hour ago, polybear said:

 

 

SPECIAL BEARY ANNOUNCEMENT

Come to Bear's Sanding Party - 9am onwards at Bear Towers.  Bring yer own Sandpaper.  Tea n' Jammie Dodgers provided (I may even break out the Choccy Ones too).  Entertainment laid on - Alexa reading Harry Potter Book 3.  Be there or be square.....

Its Tuesday night here so I've missed it already. Hope it went well.

Edited December 20, 2022 by monkeysarefun

[jamie92208]

2 hours ago, Grizz said:

Good Morning All

 

Well the nice snowy, cold and most importantly dry weather has well and truly departed from the Deep South. To be replaced by warm, wet and very windy weather. ………swearyswearyswearyswearywords!

 

Result…my breathing is now totally rubbish for a start…..and our fields, where Mrs Grizz keeps her field ornaments, are sticky, slippery mud. So I have decided not to attempt to fit the feather edge boarding to the stable, at least until it stops raining. It is chuffing well annoying because I was really quite enjoying doing the chippying.

On the up side I have now found the hammer that had fallen off the roof and into the snow last week. I was amazed just how far it had travelled, as it wasn’t where I expected it to be. 

 

Mrs Grizz kindly helped me to fix down the last of the metal sheet roofing on Saturday. We decided to use 1m x 5.4m long sheets which, although difficult to handle, has meant that there is no horizontal joint across the roof. Fortunately my cousin’s eldest son works for the local sheet metal roofing firm, so we were able to get excellent personal support and advice on the best products and fixing methods, given the conditions we face up on top of the South Downs. The old stable was built by Mrs Grizz and my FIL 45 years ago. It was very well constructed but had felt and batten roofing that inevitably leaked on occasion and finally caused rot. The building foot print is the same as the old one so there is little change visually. The front of the roof will have 3 posts that will give support and secure it down, again using Bullhead rails with timber bolted to it.

 

 

The structure is anchored to the ground using 2.3m lengths of Bullhead Rail, concreted up to 1m into the rock chalk. As the white painted piece in the bottom left corner shows. 

One of the aims of the project was to be able harvest rain water, as apparently horses prefer it to tap water. So as we now have just over 40 sq metres of roof to gather it from, we plan to buy 3 ISO containers like these. Fortunately we have been donated a load of plastic guttering, so all we got to get are the brackets and any fittings we might need. 
 

 

Apparently one of Mrs Grizz’s friends has 3 linked together, with goldfish in them to eat the mosquitoes. The jury is out on that one. 
 

Have a great day all. 
 

ATB Grizz

 

I've got 4 of them dotted around, 2 if them li ked together. 40 sq m, shluld give you a surprising amount of water. I have been told that it's possible to a straining net that screws in the top to stop detritus getting in and causing discoloration.

1 hour ago, Erichill16 said:

Sorry Bear, but sock drawer needs tidying, but good luck.

I'll have to tender my apologies as well i've got two jobs, the fitst iscto find out how long each log takes to burn for a statistical survey and also there is cake that needs eating.

 

Jamie

[New Haven Neil]

@polybear just waiting for you to send my ferry tickets.

 

Next thing you'll be telling us the sanding is why you have no fingerprints, rather than nefarious activity regarding Swiss raids is the real reason.....

[jjb1970]

A colleague from Brussels visited today on his way to Sydney for a holiday, being an enthusiast of fine dining the Singapore office team took him to an excellent dim sum restaurant called Peony Jade. It's funny, in the Western world Chinese food has been devalued by rather dodgy take-away and buffet places and bizarrely enough it has a similar problem in Singapore. The local food tradition here is very different from Chinese food (I have spoke before of the complication when talking about 'Chinese' that it is a nationality/country and an ethnicity/cultural identity and the two can be very different) and while peranakan, straits Chinese and Malay/Indonesian food here is superb much of the Chinese food based on actual Chinese cuisine is disappointing. However if anyone is in Singapore and wants Chinese I'd recommend Peony Jade, it's not cheap (it's rather expensive) but the food and service is superb. Another excellent one is Putien. Our Brussels colleague was suitably impressed.

[The Lurker]

I always used to reckon that in the UK restaurant Chinese food was much better than takeaway, as witnessed by the price differential; on the other hand, a curry was exactly the same, so less of a differential to sit in. It's harder to ascertain locally now; when I moved to Sidcup there were three sit down Chinese restaurants on the High Street or by the station (and one came a few years later), and four curry houses. Now there are no Chinese restaurants and five curry houses (and a Sri Lankan restaurant). 

 

I realised that the restaurant that jjb1970 mentioned the other day in London (Rasa Sayang) is on my "to eat at" list. At the time of his post I was more reminded that it was the name of the hotel we stayed in in Penang in 1975 as we began the long and circuitous journey back to Paddock Wood!.

[Winslow Boy]

4 hours ago, polybear said:

 

SPECIAL BEARY ANNOUNCEMENT

Come to Bear's Sanding Party - 9am onwards at Bear Towers.  Bring yer own Sandpaper.  Tea n' Jammie Dodgers provided (I may even break out the Choccy Ones too).  Entertainment laid on - Alexa reading Harry Potter Book 3.  Be there or be square.....

 

Sorry Bear the weather has improved and I've resumed outside operations.

 

I am available to Zoom the party though.

 

Yours 

 

A fellow staircase refurbisher.

[southern42]

' afternoon all from red dragon land.

7C Sunny.

Not exactly sunny indoors, though. First, I had an email to say that a parcel I ordered online was being delivered - to ME 🤣 NOT to where it should have gone. It seems I forgot to add recipients address at Check out! Hohoho!🤶 Hopefully, I can get a courier to get it to the right place by Saturday. A couple to choose from, here.

 

Then, wrapping a couple of presents, I discovered a few annoyances: the wrapping paper itself is prone to tearing; and the box containing the first present had an open top so after I had wrapped it up, my finger punctured a hole in the top through the wrapping paper! Start again, cut off a suitable size piece of card from an envelope, cover the top and re-wrap the  present.

 

Just finishing off lunch, then I will be getting the cake iced.

 

Yesterday's effort to do the marzipan.

 

 

I only needed a short section round the side to finish, so marzipan snowballs made from the leftover strip for Him. I ate the off-cuts from the other threes sides as I went along!

 

Polly

[The White Rabbit]

Hello all. I thought I'd take advantage of a 'Christmas ceasefire' in medical activity to pop in. I'm afraid I've not seen much of the last few weeks posts, though I have seen the bad news about Chris. Sobering thoughts. I will try and catch up when I'm up to it. Meanwhile, in case I don't make it back in the next few days, best wishes for Christmas everyone. 

 

I'll have to be a square [peg in a round hole] re Bear's sanding party. I have a note from Matron... 

 

No definite news on long term prospects just yet, the latest round of the saga was mostly positive but I confess to being wary/cynical about possible relapses/nasty surprises. So fingers crossed and keeping my head down. 

 

Time to try a little air. It was fine, then I replied to a PM before coming on here and it started kapurtling, then it's back to blue sky and sunshine. Hmmm... do I feel lucky...? 

[PhilJ W]

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. The comments about Chinese and Indian cuisine set me thinking. Both nations have a vast land area means that different areas have there own style of cuisine. For instance Punjabi cuisine is probably quite different from Bangladeshi cuisine but each could legitimately called 'Indian'. If you want genuine Indian food Brick Lane in London is said to be the place to go, however most of the people of Indian extraction in the area are Bangladeshi and that will be reflected in the cuisine.

[TheQ]

Sorry Bear, I've got sanding to do, in fact orders of the day / week are to start work on redecorating the hall way... Now I know a Bear that's expert at that...

 

Following on from that it means Thursday I'm off to the bank to pay for a RAF Locking Station Blazer Badge, with TG3 Association embroidered below that.

Then to the big orange shed to pick up a tin of hard wearing cream paint for hallway woodwork. Also picking up some 10 mm threaded rod plus nuts.

Then to my final section Christmas dinner.

 

Today,

Filled four doors which hopefully will be sanded tomorrow,

Cut a 40 inch long section of 32mm OD, 26mm ID  stainless steel tube.

Then drilled 8 10mm holes through it. 

 

Fitted a plant heater to the special paint glue and similar substances cup board. It's set to 20C and at 10W will be a lot cheaper than heating the entire workshop with 2KW to 5C

 

The house of strong ladies says Landrover bits are imminent, but I'm not sure about that, one of the three bridges is closed due to a burst water main.

Another has other road works near it. The radio wombles report road chaos put there.

 

SWMBO is at her weaving group today, she got a phone call to pick up a committee member on the way. The committee members Freelander won't start, engine turns over but no go..

 

I'm topping up my red level with some liquid red, the an eyelid inspection beckonds

 

 

 

 

 

[Barry O]

Diddlesbury visited.Cheese has been bought  Dr Eldest Herbert is now back here.

 

White van drivers are now only allowed to drive at 68mph on the M62 apparently..pah!

 

Th crest of the day is now my own apparently.. time to check some Danish designed wiring as it seems to be illogicaly connected. PAH!

 

TTFN

 

Baz

Edited December 20, 2022 by Barry O

[Tony_S]

1 hour ago, The Lurker said:

 

I realised that the restaurant that jjb1970 mentioned the other day in London (Rasa Sayang) is on my "to eat at" list.

I am not sure where she ate dim sum yesterday but we received a nice photo of Aditi’s sister eating them. It was her birthday  and her younger son and his partner who are visiting from Switzerland gave her a mystery tour round central London that included a Chinese lunch and a trip round the National Gallery. Our nephew’s partner’s first degree was in art so it was a well informed visit. It was great fun on Sunday when they wouldn’t tell SiL where they were planning to go. SiL is very much a need to know, plan everything thoroughly in advance sort of person. 
Tony