Early Risers.

[iL Dottore]

8 hours ago, New Haven Neil said:

 

Indeed, he failed as he has a nice smile, rather than Eeyore's depressive outlook.  He was rescued from Disney Somewhereorother, the Florida one I think, by one of Mrs NHN's mates years ago.  Donkeys years ago.........sorry.

 

 

 

Bluddy Hell, NHN. Donk’s on the Horse Tranquilliser again. Look at that spaced-out smile

I thought that, after his last stay in my Swiss Rehab Clinic, he had sworn that he’d given up on xylazine, carfentanil and the like - for good!

 

Obviously not.

 

What have you been doing to him, NHN, to make poor old Donk turn to really serious drugs?

[iL Dottore]

8 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

 And it's superb straight from the tap.  

Isn’t that what they say about Australian beer?

Edited February 14, 2023 by iL Dottore

[iL Dottore]

50 minutes ago, pH said:

What does our resident ursine know about this 😳?

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocaine_Bear

Well he doesn’t drink alcohol, so I suppose he has to get his kicks somehow….

[Barry O]

Ey up!

 

Busy day yesterday.. but an excellent one.

 

Stay safe!

 

Baz

[TheQ]

Mooring Awl,

4.5 hours sleep not enough, no chance on any more, artics have been thundering past, 6 ft from the window since 05:30, about 1 every 10 minutes.

 

Very heavy fog out there..

 

Water ,

Wiltshire and much of Norfolk have hard water from chalk layers. Though it upsets kettles and washing machines, to humans it can be beneficial as calcium  and magnesium are of use in bones and some reports it reduces cardiovascular disease.

It's noticeable that "up north," which is without chalk in the water,  are areas renown for increased heart problems.

 

Living in the Hebrides the water was brown coming out of the taps due to the peat.

Coca Cola's Dansai water in the UK comes from Kent tap water.

Bells whisky is made from "the pure waters of Loch Katrine", aka Glasgow tap water.

"Northumberland spring" is also a tap water.

 

When I worked for Tesco at the Hartford Bridge store (southern edge of Norwich) it had its own water plant. Regular pre and post processing tests on the water were required. Both always passed the tests as safe for drinking. ( From the chalk layer)

 

Today's plans,

Wear overalls, at the radar museum.

 

But first Artics have disturbed Ben, I'm wanting out Collie

 

Time for a stroll.

 

 

 

[jamie92208]

Good moaning. Another warm day in prospect but it has been cool overnight.  I got my concreting  done yesterday morning then had an unexpected afternoon  trainspotting.  Andy was still out of commission so I was on my own.  Today I have to help a friend move a mattress then the ironing awaits. 

 

Ttfn.

 

Jamie

[polybear]

2 hours ago, pH said:

What does our resident ursine know about this 😳?

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocaine_Bear

 

Poor Teddy.  At least he went out on a high.

(Good to see that the scumbag drug smuggling Pilot responsible for teddy's demise snuffed it too.  Natural Justice).

 

Bear here.........

Wellwottafuggin'sh1ttynightthatwas 😡

The left paw was givin' serious grief all night, no doubt due to "The revenge of the Coving"; I do recall thinking yesterday that "Bear's gonna pay for this later" and I wasn't wrong.  Still, no pain, no gain - at least that concludes the ceiling jobs for the Great H/S/L Refurb so hopefully that'll help.  Or not.

 

Today sees some priming of walls ready for papering methinks.  That'll do for starters.  Oh yes, and I need to help Postie unload the van.........🤣

Bear gone.

 

 

 

 

[grandadbob]

Good morning all,

Frosty and foggy here but this will clear giving plenty of sunshine and staying dry and mild  for the rest of the day.  2°C rising to 13°C possibly.

Our water is hard and 85% comes from underground aquifers in the chalk of the North  Downs or greensand south of the Downs.  The rest comes from a reservoir in Edenbridge which is filled from the River Eden in Kent.  Surprisingly last summer we didn't have a hosepipe ban although I believe we came close.

Today The Boss is visiting her hair mechanic so I will be left alone to cause havoc for an hour or two.  This may well take the form of some DIY.  There is a small amount of lining paper to be hung.

Other than that I know not what but it probably won't be very energetic.

Have a good one,

Bob.

 

Edited February 14, 2023 by grandadbob

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Not a bad night last night but I still have the blocked nose. Thick fog this morning but most of it has now burnt off.  Not feeling as tired as recently, just as well as I need to get some bread and milk in so a trip to Tess Coes will be necessary later.

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone 

 

Well I hope I don’t have a night like last night again for a long time! I got up just after 6 o’clock to visit the small room, when I got to the radiator on the landing my feet got wet, yep the radiator was leaking. This resulted in a very quick visit to the smallest room, back into the bedroom to get dressed and then downstairs to the cellar to get my tool box and a load of old towels (they always come in handy). I could tell immediately that one of the seals had gone on the output valve. So I closed both radiator valves, unscrewed the output valve and then drained the radiator. Luckily I have always got spare seals and as a precaution I replaced both the input and output seals. Reconnected the radiator, opened both valves and bled the radiator. I then checked for leaks, which thankfully there was none and then went back to bed for a rest. I didn’t get back to sleep, but an extra hour lying down didn’t do any harm. Thankfully when I finally got up, the floor had started to dry out, so there is no need to get out the wet vac, which I was expecting to have to do. 
 

As for the rest of the day, I’m at the doctors at 10:30 for a blood test, this is to check my testosterone level, then I’m going to head off to the plumbing shop to buy some more seals, as I’ve only got about 3 left and there are 5 radiators that have this type of seal fitted. 

It was frosty when I went to the shed this morning to get my box of seals, but it’s gone now and the temperature has risen to 1C and the sun is shining, so I should have a nice walk to the doctors.

 

Back later. 

 

Brian

Edited February 14, 2023 by BSW01

[Erichill16]

10 hours ago, Winslow Boy said:

Further to my previous posting/inane ramblings/dribble - take your pick as the mood suits you, I thought I would post some photos showing the low water levels.

 

Here in the northwest we get our water from the 'upspoilt' valleys of the Lake District & the Pennines. Piped via miles of Victorian/Edwardian civil engineering. And yes folks it's still doing what it says on the tin.

It’s noticeably dryer around here. Some of the footpaths we use are almost impassable this time of year but of late they are useable. Can’t remember when we last had a good dose of the wet stuff.

[PeterBB]

13 hours ago, Tony_S said:

It wasn’t the usual chlorine. That can be left to stand for a while for fish use. This was something else to kill the shrimps that were coming out of taps. 
Tony

South Staffs Water did this same thinga good many years ago.

[New Haven Neil]

3 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

Bluddy Hell, NHN. Donk’s on the Horse Tranquilliser again. Look at that spaced-out smile

I thought that, after his last stay in my Swiss Rehab Clinic, he had sworn that he’d given up on xylazine, carfentanil and the like - for good!

 

Obviously not.

 

What have you been doing to him, NHN, to make poor old Donk turn to really serious drugs?

 

https://www.manxradio.com/news/isle-of-man-news/tainted-batch-of-ketamine-did-cause-concerns-say-police/

[PhilJ W]

Further to the hardness of water in different parts of the country. I'm not sure if its still done but many soap and detergent makers used to use different formulas for different parts of the country. I live in a hard water area and when I was working sometimes I went to a 'soft' water area on business. I usually took my own soap and you could tell it was a soft water area by the amount of lather from the soap.

[Tony_S]

Apart from a couple of taps downstairs all of our water is treated by a water softener. It was added when we had a new boiler a few years ago. It is a lot easier to keep shower screens clear now!

[New Haven Neil]

Water in Geordieland was very hard, awful for kettles and boilers but in comparison the water here is really good, never have to descale anything and fine for use in model loco boilers out of the tap.

 

A disappointing weather day, yesterday was really nice and spring-y, and today was supposed to be better, but its damp feeling and 7c first thing has struggled up to 8 but 'feels like' 4 officially.  Bleah.

 

Mate Harry has been around for a brew and a couple of hours putting the world to rights, interspersed with train talk.  Always good to see him, he was very ill a couple of years ago but has got it sorted now, thanks to the efforts of iD and his ilk.  As he was a scrub nurse, he knew only too well what the future seemingly held for him but treatment has been very successful.

 

As for Donk and drugs, this is his brother Dink, who really does hit the hard stuff, obviously even when working.  The eyes are the give away that this isn't Donk.

 

 

[Gwiwer]

5 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

Isn’t that what they say about Australian beer?

They might say it and I might disagree.  

 

I found a few drinkable beers there but none of them could be called superb.  And none of them came from taps.  The best in my opinion were (and probably still are) the products of Grand Ridge Brewery in Mirboo North.  The best mass-produced beers I found were the Tooheys range.  All of those are bottled.  Some of the Tooheys range is also canned and from taps but the bottled stuff seems to be the best.

 

G'morning all.  A most foggerous day it is Upon the Hill of Strawberries and thicker still Upon the Nearby Hill of Hampton.  I was invited to join Dr. SWMBO for breakfast at a location of our choosing to mark the occasion today.  We don't do commercialised stuff but we do celebrate the love we share.  So off we went.  The first place - open from 8am - didn't do breakfast until "after 9"  and the reception we got was so frosty we didn't stay for a coffee while we waited.  We could have been offered one, even an order taken on the promise that it would be filled when the kitchen opened.  But no - it was a terse "Not until after 9".  

 

The next place we tried was "after 10" which struck us as a little late to capture the breakfast trade.  The third option has a lot of poor reviews and we had been reluctant to try it but today was its turn.  "After 9 - but I'll ask the kitchen for you" was the greeting immediately followed (at 8.30) by "Sure, the kitchen's ready so come on in".  And quite good it was though not the very best ever.  Bacon cooked on the bars of a griddle was unusual; the sourdough toast had the same black stripes giving away the technique.  But perfectly OK for that.  And good coffee too.  

 

A quick visit to the g****n centre on the way home has added some more terracotta pots to our collection and a bag of seed-raising compost.  I'm sure Dr. SWMBO knows what to do with those.  Just as I am sure who will be doing it 🤣

[Erichill16]

24 minutes ago, Gwiwer said:

The first place - open from 8am - didn't do breakfast until "after 9"  and the reception we got was so frosty we didn't stay for a coffee while we waited.  

it 🤣

Dont see why you’d open up at 8.00am and not serve breakfast until 9.00. Wonder what Alan Sugar would make of it?

[Gwiwer]

3 minutes ago, Erichill16 said:

Dont see why you’d open up at 8.00am and not serve breakfast until 9.00. Wonder what Alan Sugar would make of it?

We agreed.  If you're going to offer breakfast you need to be open at breakfast time.  I understand that 7am or 6am are not viable options for all places through the week (honourable mention to all those cafes who are geared up for that, however) but surely by 8am???

[The Lurker]

greetings all. It is sunny here in LBG.

 

When I lived in Leeds, the water was the colour of weak tea. Tasted ok though (better than the Tetley's beer!)

 

And as for our local water, Ozex' mention of Dasani reminds me of the UK debacle for that brand - link to the Grauniad:

 

https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2004/mar/19/foodanddrink

 

all just down the road from me in Foots Cray 

 

It's very hard water, so hard it furred up the internal workings of our previous coffee machine despite only using Brita filtered water on it. Like Tony we had a softener put in when we had the new boiler a few years back

[polybear]

Bear here.....

Various areas of walls (those that are bare plaster) have been primed with Wallrock's "Special Primer" - which is basically PVA.  The remaining areas of wall (those which show obvious signs of having been painted many, many moons ago - probably 60+) will be sized with a thinned 50/50 mix of Wallrock Adhesive and water, as advised to Bear; I'll not be doing that today though - the Beary body is protesting somewhat....

Bear gone.

[Gwiwer]

Ah. The big shiny thing has arrived. The grey swirly stuff has departed. 

[polybear]

3 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

I hope that you are enjoying the benefit of a huge amount of "toys" (of your personal preference) plus huge amounts of CAKE - enough to choke a Hippo or give a Bear indigestions

 

Such a quantity has yet to be determined.......

[NGT6 1315]

Cheers all.

 

Stomach bug hit me hard on Sunday night, meaning I did not sleep one single minute and instead qualified for permanent resident status in the bathroom. No fun at all, that, and still feeling awfully exhausted. Given that stomach bugs are doing rounds in Livia's nursery too and that she had it over the weekend as well, I strongly suspect that was the source of all the misery. Illness-related absences also mean opening hours there will have to be shortened from tomorrow until Friday.

 

Generic greetings and commies as appropriate. Do stay safe...

[Winslow Boy]

40 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

Such a quantity has yet to be determined.......

 

I think I may have come close. He says with bulging belly and a groan.