Early Risers.

[Ozexpatriate]

14 minutes ago, The White Rabbit said:

Even at that age, my interest in maritime modelling showed in my 'Hawkins razee rebuilds*' - Lego's versions of the pirate/soldiers ships were somewhat top heavy, with massive castles. I wanted better sea boats, so rebuilt them as race-built/razeed ships and updated some features by 200 years or so. 

Interesting that you say that. LEGO are (re)issuing a reinterpreted version of the 1989 Eldorado Fortress (set 6276) from the "Pirates" theme with set 10320 as an 90th anniversary celebration of special editions from the Castle/Space/Pirates themes. (They already released the Castle and Space editions.)

 

You'll note the included sloop is evocative of a small razee in style.

 

Edited June 16, 2023 by Ozexpatriate

[pH]

6 hours ago, southern42 said:

But does anyone remember the tin of Zubes?

“Zubes, Zubes, Zubes are good for your tubes!”

Edited June 16, 2023 by pH

[The White Rabbit]

46 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Interesting that you say that. LEGO are (re)issuing a reinterpreted version of the 1989 Eldorado Fortress (set 6276) from the "Pirates" theme with set 10320 as an 90th anniversary celebration of special editions from the Castle/Space/Pirates themes. (They already released the Castle and Space editions.)

 

You'll note the included sloop is evocative of a small razee in style.

 

 

Yes, though my eyebrows went up a bit at the rig. I built a few similar sloops and cutters but never really found one I liked. Sails were made from scrap cloth - though some of the patterns on them would have made Captain Redbeard choke on his rum!

 

When I was a bit older I built a model of a topsail schooner as a sail training demonstrator. (I tried a brigantine but the quantity of cordage for the foremast was overwhelming, it was too cluttered to be useful). I used the hull pieces from the Barracuda ship and had a very simple deck layout, mostly with umpteen belaying pins and blocks. No standing rigging and very simplified running rigging but it was a useful 3D introduction to sailing vessels larger than a dinghy. We used a hairdryer to simulate wind. 

 

[Coombe Barton]

... Think that for the local Scarecrow Trail next year I’m going avant garde and get a straw bale, leave it lust like that in the front garden and call it “Cubist Scarecrow Streaking”. ...

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2023/06/16/up-again-wobbling-and-daily-mail-takes-times-reject/

[monkeysarefun]

7 hours ago, 45156 said:

It's a Cookworks - and was the only immediate replacement in Ludlow at a good price, our Argos is tiny and that was the only one in stock - and tbh we only use it for warming stuff - but we are going to be a lot more careful about not leaving ANY residual water in this new  one - I suspect that we were not as assiduous over the wiping as we should be.  There is an indendent in town, which can be cheaper for large purchases, but they did not have any cheapish ones in stock - and we didn't want a complicated and unfamiliar machine at twice the price.

 

 

Are there no "implied warranty" laws there? Here there is a period beyond the actual warranty where  a purchaser would have a reasonable  expectation that an item would be good for, so if it fails in that time the seller has to honour an implied warranty. So a TV or microwave etc might have a 12 month manufacturers warranty but because any buyer would reasonably expect them to last longer, the seller has to honour the implied  warranty on a sliding scale  from purchase date.

 

Many sellers of electrical and whitegoods  still attempt to sell rip-off extended warranties betting on the buyer not understanding their consumer rights but any benefit that these have is also covered by the governments  implied warranty laws  so are a waste of money. 

 

 

 

 

3 hours ago, Barry O said:

For @monkeysarefun.,

 

Roooooooooooooooooooootttttttty!

 

Just saying.. 

 

Baz

   

 

Went to bed at 5-124 so missed potential English heriocs.  It might actually last 5 days for a change!

 

Or rain will end play on day 3.

Edited June 16, 2023 by monkeysarefun

[PhilJ W]

Afternoon/evening all from Estuary-Land. Spent too long on eyelid inspection this afternoon. I might not be going to my brothers place tomorrow, I might not have time as I've a lot to catch up on.

[Ozexpatriate]

4 minutes ago, The White Rabbit said:

Yes, though my eyebrows went up a bit at the rig.

Indeed. LEGO rigging is more evocative than representative and they drive so much 'selective compression' that lots of things a modeller would include as essential, get left out - like their recent (low profile) Hogsmeade station set omits the second storey of the Goathland booking hall entirely. Nothing to stop someone so inclined from building one however.

[monkeysarefun]

11 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

Or rain will end play on day 3.

 

 

 

In which case hopefully they'll take the opportunity to use the time to  let you see "Warnie" the new  mini series there!

 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/video/tvshowbiz/video-2950367/Video-Channel-9-releases-trailer-Shane-Warne-mini-series.html

 

A bit like that  Geoff Boycott mini-series they used to play here.

 

Oh, oops that was the test pattern. Took us ages to realise that!

 

 

Edited June 16, 2023 by monkeysarefun

[pH]

1 hour ago, The White Rabbit said:

I can't speak for others but after purchase, I tended to build the kits as per instructions ... well ... most of the time! And then soon afterwards, take them apart and use the bricks and parts for my own inventions.

Our grandkids follow that process, too. One grandson has his 7th birthday tomorrow. A joint present from both sets of grandparents (his parents are starting the process of teaching him about money!) is the Harry Potter Hogsmeade Village Lego set. His 5 year old brother will follow the building diagrams, find the pieces for him and the birthday boy will fit them in place. Outbuildings will probably be added, using pieces from the existing massive Lego pile. And after a couple of days playing with the completed model, it will be taken apart and added to that pile for ‘freeform’ modelling. 

[PupCam]

Evening All!

 

Been away for a couple of days daan saaf with only a phone to connect me to t'interweb.  So, a bit of high speed post catching-up has been undertaken so apologies if I've missed rating any celebrations, commemorations or condolences.     I note our Swiss correspondent  has been spreading the love chocolate  - well done 😄.

 

Before setting off for 'ampshire you may recall I'd been playing with a little WiFi controller.     I'd cracked the basic communication problem that I had and, as usual, was far simpler and required less code than anticipated.    The critical thing of course is to get the right code ......    Having done that I then was having a lot of trouble forming command instructions that didn't crash the processor.   This was particularly annoying because they are not tricky, just sequences of characters such as <t 1 3043 24 1>.   Whilst away I had a Eureka  moment; I'd obviously had brain fade and had been terminating (ending) the commands with a new line character.    Every programmer worth his salt knows that C strings are terminated with the NULL character!     Go to the back of the class Puppers, were you drunk? 🤣

 

Anyway, I came home updated the code and of course it does exactly what it should.     So, with two components; the little processor board and a rotary encoder plus five wires I give you a full functioning speed and direction controller for things that shan't be mentioned  (The USB lead is just providing power).   By the magic of WiFi the position of the knob leaps across the ether to the grey box which then might cause a specific small box sitting on the parallel strips of metal to move and maybe even make a noise.     The next step is to re-build the code for my rather more extensive all singing all dancing controller for use on the new processor.     Oh yes, I might have to buy a slack handful of the new processor boards too now I know they work.

 

UPDATE:   Slack handful of modules and some nice little displays to go with them are winging their way to Puppers Towers as we speak.   The processor modules work out at about £3.80 each.    So much power, so little cost ... 😀

 

Note: items in this image that might cause distress have been obscured 🤣

 

 

In other news.

 

Puppers is getting really cheesed off with "life" as it keeps dealing someone very close  to his heart really bxm deals.    Well, "life" FFS stop it and give them a break!

 

I did wonder if there might be an opportunity for a bit of astronomy this evening.       Looking at the clouds, clearly the answer is no!

 

TTFN

 

 

Edited June 16, 2023 by PupCam
Update added

[TheQ]

Fishermens friends, zubes and all such concoctions taste more like paraffin to me. Therefore I have never consumed after spitting out the first one..

 

If they do a sugar free mint, there is an outside chance of buying them, otherwise it's just sugar free strepcils for me.

 

At the museum more visitors than before, but that was partly due to a group visit by the U3A.

Still got a lot of muddling done though, a pan scrubber cut up, well a bit of one, at 1/1000 , scrubber goes a long way. ..

 

First uncut a 4 mm slice off a 6 mm thick green scrubber,  that then is cut in half lengthways, leaving a 3mm by 4 mm piece,,that is rolled around in the paws and stretched a little to about 3 mm by 2 mm, that translates  to 9 ft by 6 ft or a large hedge, they were then super glued in place. , Then brown plastic rods of 1 mm diameter were glued to scraps of scrubber, to produce 10 mm tall trees aka 30ish foot. They were then planted..

Then out came the paint box , and various shades of green brown and yellow were very lightly applied to hedges and trees to produce a more variegated effect.

You might get treated to a photo next week..

 

Later on packing up , Henry came out to vacuum the escaped bits. Unfortunately a tree went Henry's way, so next week I'll have to make another one.

The hedging really has made the model look a lot better, so it's now almost  complete except for some touching up of paint.

 

Oh I need to put up a flag pole can some one paint me an RAF flag? That's on a piece of paper  about a 1mm by 1.5 mm,🙂

 

Then on to the MRC just finishing the building of a water tank, painting and filling the tank starts next week.

 

 

 

 

 

[Andy Hayter]

An interesting drive to the supermarket today with having to negotiate around several tens of cyclists all out  as a final preparation for tomorrows big event or part of a longer trek.  Groups had been out since dawn heading down the hill.

 

Tomorrow there will be something like 12,000 cyclists going through the village.  Rolling road closures across the departement will create problems for all those unprepared for the event.  Our closure is posted from 6am to 11:30am but from previous experience the roads will probably open a bit earlier, depending on how slow the stragglers are.

[Winslow Boy]

2 hours ago, polybear said:

Bear here.....

Today?  Hmmm.....

Unintentionally up at alittlebitsillyo'clock (0545) - the plan was for 0630 but No.1 decided otherwise....

As a result of which I decided to do an unplanned early dive into Wickes for some timber moulding, gripfill and wall plugs.  All went to plan until I discovered they were out of brown 7mm H-D Wall Plugs 🤬 - bluddy hell, that's like a cake shop being out of cake.  Turdycurses.

There's a Homebase nearby - only I discovered they didn't open for another 90 minutes.  TC's #2

So on the way home I dived into Travis Perkins (not a place I visit often, despite being very close to Bear Towers - they're far too expensive) - they had brown Rawlplugs but I thought "Jeez, they look short".  And they were (30mm) - the ones I've been using are 40mm; when I'm danglin' something on a wall that needs HD wall plugs then I far prefer most of the plug being in brickwork rather than the plaster.....

Tracking down decent 40mm long plugs on-line hasn't been easy either - the ones I want seem very elusive and some sellers want obscene prices too; I can get them where they work out cheaply, but I'm not sure I really need 1000 wall plugs.....

 

The morning was spent cutting the timber moulding to finish off the front door architrave, then priming it; after that I cut n' filed a rectangular piece of aluminium (with two 15mm U-shaped slots in) to finish off/tidy up the hole where the hall radiator pipes come out the side of the boxing-in.  That's a Tick.

However, during the entire morning a Certain Little Bear felt extremely washed-out - the Tigger Bounce has actually gone negative (Mole Bounce?); I did plan to do some more work on the hall skirting post- din dins but but a zedd intervened instead......

 

I also had cause to test the new phone system at the Docs - they now have one of those "For blood test results press option 1, for test results press option 2, to place a bet on the 4-30 at Newmarket it's 3 and for a GP Appointment it's 4.  Now. why the f. isn't the GP appointment at option 1 - that's what most people want, after all.  That's a rant.  

They do get a tick cos' once you've pressed option 4 they tell you what number you are in the queue, which is a significant improvement.  As to whether or not the system can cope at 8am on a Monday morning has yet to be tested, however.

They also get another tick (a big one) cos' they are now doing blood tests in-house, rather than at a clinic 3 miles away; Bear has an appointment with Nurse Dracula next week as a result.....

 

BG

 

Just for info my Dear Bear Wickes is owned by Travis Perkins.

[polybear]

Bear here....

I've just received the latest Bill from EDF - the Gas usage for the last month has only been £4.83 more expensive than last month, despite using the shower instead of wallowing; leccy has £7.35 more expensive - but I'm sure that can't be down to the HW pump running for longer.  Verdict?  If Bear fancies a wallow, then wallow it is.....

 

In other news.....

If Bear sees that fuggin' advert for a new BBC TV programme that started tonight at 21-30 called "Queen of Oz" just one more time I swear I'll put my hind paw thru' the TV 🤬 If there's anything that would put someone right off a new programme before it even starts then it'd be that advert.  And for our foreign correspondents that haven't seen it - count yourselves lucky.

That's most definitely a Rant.

 

BG

Edited June 16, 2023 by polybear

[BSW01]

Goodnight all 

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[Ozexpatriate]

42 minutes ago, polybear said:

And for our foreign correspondents that haven't seen it - count yourselves lucky.

No sign of it here. Though there are a couple of type II diabetes medication commercials and some from Franklin* Graham I would happily trade.

 

* Son of Billy

 

The thing that really drives up the "grating" factor is how heavily in rotation they can be.

 

Edited June 16, 2023 by Ozexpatriate

[monkeysarefun]

2 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

No sign of it here

 

 

 

Just checked it out on youtube.

 

Gotta be blunt,  its no "Warnie - The Mini-series.". 

 

 

Not a cloud in the sky, just need to up the predicted 19 deg by another 10 or so and it'd be perfect!

Edited June 17, 2023 by monkeysarefun

[big jim]

Went to see Phil wang at the crewe Lyceum theatre tonight then made the mistake of going to the pub afterward for a ‘quick half’ then remembering we need to make a load of muffins for a charity fundraiser in the morning, my wife has managed to make 3 dozen, quite what they will taste like I dont know as we’re both a bit ‘merry’! 
 

baby Guinness shots and cocktails weren’t a good idea

Edited June 17, 2023 by big jim

[Ozexpatriate]

1 hour ago, monkeysarefun said:

Not a cloud in the sky, just need to up the predicted 19 deg by another 10 or so and it'd be perfect!

We had blue skies and 25°C yesterday - a lovely day. Today is warmer (27°C) but is now cloudy. Cooler tomorrow and rain on Sunday.

 

There's a chance of a record low, high temperature for the day on Monday - forecast is >15°C.

 

Edited June 17, 2023 by Ozexpatriate

[Ozexpatriate]

1 hour ago, big jim said:

cocktails ...

Those are very blue. With the strawberry(?) garnish it's hard to guess what it might be.

[monkeysarefun]

The nearby small aerodrome, apart from being a base for NSW gliding so the frequent  drone of glider tugs fills the air, is also home to Air Combat Australia with their Czech Albatross jet fighter and the occasional Strikemaster, often  flying low  nearby on their way to nearby Burragorang Valley to play Top Gun. They've  just gone past overhead for the 3rd time today so far  so I'm assuming a cashed up bucks party is making a day of it.

At $2700 per flight for 25 minutes airtime it's not a cheap day out!

 

https://aircombataustralia.rezdy.com/288342/sydney-35-minute-jet-fighter-flight?PHPSESSID=6s86i1cvirh3400kadj9224f8m

 

There's also a couple of WW2 Texan trainers based there that conduct  aerobatic joy flights, usually right over my house.

[big jim]

18 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Those are very blue. With the strawberry(?) garnish it's hard to guess what it might be.

 

blue lagoon apparently

[iL Dottore]

My ride for today: the JR East N700 Shinkansen “Kodama”

 

Note the amount of space between the platform barrier and the edge of the platform on the Shinkansen tracks

And how is HST2 progressing?

[BR60103]

We are planning a trip to an RCAF museum tomorrow. I want to pass on a few things from my father's estate. One is a set of slides: