Early Risers.

[Winslow Boy]

8 hours ago, BSW01 said:

Good evening everyone 

 

Well, I never got to the DIY shop, but hopefully I’ll get there tomorrow, on my way back from buying some plants for a new hedge. Our box hedge has fallen victim to the box moth caterpillar and is now a living skeleton. So, it’s all going to be dug up and replaced once I’ve bought the replacement plants. We’re think holly bushes, definitely something that’s prickly and a decent enough height so that the postie won’t want to step over it, instead of walking round, that way it’ll at least have a chance to take root. Once back home, I’ll continue working the cellar if the weather is as bad as predicted. 

The blight has been very bad this year. The weather was ideal for it I understand. I've had it bad on several hedges and am mulling over what to do. I did get it several years ago, but managed to nurse the plants back to health however it's much more obvious where it's struck this year.

[iL Dottore]

1 hour ago, polybear said:

 

Bear bought a cheapo (Co-op?) Pud in the post Chrimbo flog-off and it's been in the cupboard for, well, yonks - so I've matured it with none of the aggro at the start.  Win-Win.

 

I reckon that when you do shuffle off this mortal coil Bear (which I hope won’t be for many decades hence) the authorities will be in a dilemma as to how to give you a proper send off. Given the huge amount of chemicals you have ingested over the years by eating “industrial” food, cremation may not be option (the crematorium might explode) and burial is also out (as you are unlikely to decompose) and for environmental reasons burial at sea and leaving your remains out for “the ravenous birds of the air and the devouring beasts of the forest” are also unlikely.

 

No, I reckon you’ll be the next Jeremy Bentham: your mortal remains seated in a glass display case, prominently placed at the entrance of some great seat of learning (even better if the body comes with a bequest)

 

In all, being seated for all eternity in a glass case in front of the Polybear Applied Engineering Lecture Theatre isn’t a bad way to be remembered.

[Mike Bellamy]

9 hours ago, Winslow Boy said:

I have for the last three weeks been attempting to open a saving account. Firstly can't do that in a bank it has instead to be done  online. So online it is. Wade through the requirements of what month was your grandmother born, where did you live forty years ago and so on etc etc- you get the drift. Anyway finally get to the bit with how much money do you wish to donate to our pyramid scheme only to be told I need a card reader.

 

Sorry to hear that - I have used online banking with Lloyds for about five years now and a few weeks ago I was able to open a savings account with just a couple of mouse clicks and no need for a card reader. Lloyds don't use those for personal accounts but I do have a card reader for the Club account. However I recall having to use one with Nationwide when I had an account there. After opening the account, I immediately got an email with the new account number and an invitation to transfer money - all done in about five minutes.

.

[iL Dottore]

1 hour ago, The Lurker said:

Brandy butter for me with my Christmas pud.

 

don’t like cream and custard is one of the foods of the devil.

ALL custard? Or just that custard that comes from a packet/tin?

 

There is a huge difference between custard from a packet (mostly cornstarch, flavourings and annatto colouring), and a proper custard (or crème anglaise) which is made from just egg yolks, sugar, heavy cream and a vanilla pod (or vanilla essence/extract).

 

You can also have savoury custards: a particular favourite of Mrs iD is my version of Tom Kerridge’s lo-carb moussaka, which is made with a cheese custard as a topping and which is spectacularly more-ish

[DaveF]

I woke about a minute before the alarm went off but I had been awake during the night.  The waterworks are very slightly better this morning, I am hoping the progress continues in the next few days.  While I was awake in the night I had a good worry, I'm not quite sure what about but it does happen from time to time.  I suspect it was brought about by seeing the GP yesterday, for the next few days every ache and pain will make me think I am at death's door.  What I must do is organise an appointment to discuss the hernia and what to do and arrange for the GP to be prepared to write a letter to a consultant if/when surgery becomes necessary. As with the previous one on the other side it may get done privately if it comes to that.

 

Today is very grey but dry so far.  I am hoping to plant the bulbs then the rest of the garden jobs for the year will just be trimming and picking up dead bits.  I thnk there are three more garden bin collections this autumn, the last being in December so there is plenty of time for the final odds and ends to be done.

 

After that I need to visit a local shop to try to find a replacement for something not delivered as Asda has run out of it, then I may go the beach for some fresh air.

 

Apart from that a quiet period would be nice to catch up on hobbies and doing other things.  There is a possibility of an Evri delivery later on, or it might be tomorrow as at the moment the parcel has arrived at the delivery depot.  Hopefully they will send me an e mail about it.

 

Sometime this week the roofer should come to sort out the cement under tiles along the gable end.

 

David

[TheQ]

HSBC and Barclays both use card readers, Barclays I went in bank to set up online banking and it all went ok. Hsbc the MRC account we've now had 3 attempts at getting the old treasurer, now chairman back on the account without success so far.

 

[Winslow Boy]

37 minutes ago, Mike Bellamy said:

 

Sorry to hear that - I have used online banking with Lloyds for about five years now and a few weeks ago I was able to open a savings account with just a couple of mouse clicks and no need for a card reader. Lloyds don't use those for personal accounts but I do have a card reader for the Club account. However I recall having to use one with Nationwide when I had an account there. After opening the account, I immediately got an email with the new account number and an invitation to transfer money - all done in about five minutes.

.

The only reason I opted to bank with  them many moons ago, was they had a branch on campus and despite being tempted/offered alternatives I have stayed with them. This is despite them closing the branch that I could walk to and showing indifference when I wanted to invest the proceeds of my house sale.  This latest episode though has really driven me to the edge, especially when I've had superb service from one of there competitors. When it started to go 'wrong' I lodged a complaint and there response was to send me a letter based upon 'if we write him a long letter he'll give up'- and they still didn't answer the complaint. Well they've shot themselves in the foot this time. There are several other banks nearby so I'll just swop to one of them.

[Winslow Boy]

44 minutes ago, DaveF said:

I woke about a minute before the alarm went off but I had been awake during the night.  The waterworks are very slightly better this morning, I am hoping the progress continues in the next few days.  While I was awake in the night I had a good worry, I'm not quite sure what about but it does happen from time to time.  I suspect it was brought about by seeing the GP yesterday, for the next few days every ache and pain will make me think I am at death's door.  What I must do is organise an appointment to discuss the hernia and what to do and arrange for the GP to be prepared to write a letter to a consultant if/when surgery becomes necessary. As with the previous one on the other side it may get done privately if it comes to that.

 

Today is very grey but dry so far.  I am hoping to plant the bulbs then the rest of the garden jobs for the year will just be trimming and picking up dead bits.  I thnk there are three more garden bin collections this autumn, the last being in December so there is plenty of time for the final odds and ends to be done.

 

After that I need to visit a local shop to try to find a replacement for something not delivered as Asda has run out of it, then I may go the beach for some fresh air.

 

Apart from that a quiet period would be nice to catch up on hobbies and doing other things.  There is a possibility of an Evri delivery later on, or it might be tomorrow as at the moment the parcel has arrived at the delivery depot.  Hopefully they will send me an e mail about it.

 

Sometime this week the roofer should come to sort out the cement under tiles along the gable end.

 

David

May I offer a piece of caution about waiting for the hernia to get bad. Based upon my mother's dealings with the medical profession I wouldn't be tempted to leave it to long. When mum did that, she found that the 'well you have to consider the risk/benefit' excused being used for it to be not done deployed. This was extremely annoying to me as all they were looking at was there 'bottom line'. It also didn't help that the various consultants who she'd got to know had retired.

[tigerburnie]

Morning, a minor miracle occurred yesterday, I have had a bit of ear ache and over the weekend it became rather painful, so yesterday I rang the health centre, a GP rang later and I was invited in for a consultation. First one in 18 months since our old GPs closed down, during which time I have had three different operations and high blood pressure has arrived, all previous consultations have been done on the phone. Now got a squirty thing to spray in my lug three times a day.

Some of our roads have reopened some have not, one where I go fishing has had the bridge collapse, it may just have to be demolished.

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone 

 

Well, the sea twirlers got it right, it’s chuckinitdarn here and has been for some time by the looks of things. I’ll be setting off shortly to look at and order some plants for the new hedge. We’ve both decided to go for holly as it’ll be prickly but not TOO prickly and cleaning up won’t be to painful afterwards. After that I’ll spend the rest of the day in the cellar, hopefully moving the laminate flooring and other bits into the centre of the room so I can get full access to the walls and still reach the centre of the ceiling. Once that’s done, I can then mix some paint. 
 

Back later. 
 

Brian

[PhilJ W]

3 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

Ah, yes commercial Christmas Puds can be had for as little as £1. But I’m pretty certain that Phil’s mom didn’t have a degree in chemical food engineering or used an umpteen acre chemical plant to produce her ingredients.

 

I bet Phil’s mum was boringly old fashioned and just used natural ingredients prepared with care, attention and love. And as for waiting a year for the puds to mature, why not? Many great things - whisky, parmesan, wine - need to sit around a bit before they are ready.

 

Besides, a good Christmas Pud is the highlight of Christmas lunch - given that most turkey nowadays is boring, bland and pretty much tasteless (and let’s not even go near the topic of Brussels Sprouts)

 

The only contentious issue with Christmas Pud is do you have (a) custard, (b) brandy butter or (c) heavy cream with it?

I do (just) remember my mum and my gran* making Christmas puddings in the early 50's. One of the ingredients was grated carrot. At the time a lot of the ingredients used in cakes and puddings were rationed/in short supply but by the time those Christmas puds were eaten they were readily available. *My gran was one of fourteen children, eight of them girls who all combined to make Christmas puds and cakes. My aunt (mums sister) used to make Christmas cakes for the family.

[jjb1970]

Some of the issues with banking are down to government requirements intended to counter things like money laundering and fraud. At the risk of sounding cynical or angry the people these regulations are meant to catch are generally quite capable of working around them and it is regular customers who are yanked around.

 

If it's bad for people at home, spare a thought for people living/working overseas. I now have an IoM Bank account because the default position of UK banks is now to shun such customers as more trouble than they're worth. I could understand if my circumstances were unique, but there must be literally millions of UK nationals living, working or retired overseas who want to retain UK banking. In fairness once you have an account and set up Internet banking I find modern banking apps are excellent but getting to that point can be painful these days.

 

This is one area where a digital identity and ID card can be useful. To be clear there are arguments for and against and I cringe at the way a certain former Prime Minister appears every time there's a crises of any sort to claim the answer to everything is ID cards. However, I have to admit the Singpass system here does make some of these things much easier, they can scan a 3D barcode and I press a notification allowing them to do an ID check.

[The White Rabbit]

Morning all,

 

Sympathies and best wishes to Neil and his lass, hope it's not too bad and clears up pronto. 

 

For Brian, no new plants to suggest but (before reading the post above) I was going to agree with berberis, pyracantha, or holly, ours takes a while to grow but the birds like it. Plenty of berries on it now, which makes me wonder about the old wives tale of that meaning we'll have a hard winter. The biggest gripe I have with it is picking up the dead leaves... spiky. Pyracantha self-seeds, we started with one from a good local garden centre and now have four fair sized ones plus a few tiddlers. 

 

AI, I have wondered and tried a few online sites, though with disappointing results. Mainly because the sites/AI didn't listen to all my instructions... so any suggestions welcome. 

 

Track making, I have tried a little DIY with chairs cut from proprietary flexi and rail ditto (for a bridge modelled on engineering principles rather than a plywood deck) and got very nervous about keeping fingers intact and not releasing some of the red stuff. Threading on wasn't too bad, cutting the chairs off was - yes, I know (now!) you can buy these separately.

 

Christmas cake, rather than pudding, used to mature for a few months round here. Mother Rabbit used to make hers around September time and store until the week before Christmas, then adorn with marzipan and icing. 

 

Anyway, time to head elsewhere now, one large nettle to grasp this am. 

 

Edited October 24, 2023 by The White Rabbit
grammer

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Not a bad night last night, bladder control only pressed the button twice and the second time was just before seven so I got up. It's now stopped raining, it was persisting down this morning, so much so that I'd thought I'd left a tap running.

[PhilJ W]

14 minutes ago, jjb1970 said:

Some of the issues with banking are down to government requirements intended to counter things like money laundering and fraud. At the risk of sounding cynical or angry the people these regulations are meant to catch are generally quite capable of working around them and it is regular customers who are yanked around.

 

If it's bad for people at home, spare a thought for people living/working overseas. I now have an IoM Bank account because the default position of UK banks is now to shun such customers as more trouble than they're worth. I could understand if my circumstances were unique, but there must be literally millions of UK nationals living, working or retired overseas who want to retain UK banking. In fairness once you have an account and set up Internet banking I find modern banking apps are excellent but getting to that point can be painful these days.

I've just watched BBC's 'Scammer interceptors'. It's frightening how easy it is for scammers to steal your money. I am usually very careful but even then I have received a scam e-mail that I didn't recognise as such, no harm was done as it was irrelevant to me. It appeared to be from Amazon Prime saying that I hadn't activated my Amazon Prime account, though I have had dealings with Amazon I have never opened any accounts with them. I told the e-mail sender that I did not have a Prime account, they apologised and I just deleted the e-mails. I realise now that it may have been scammers phishing for those with Prime accounts as their intended victims all had prime accounts.

 

[PhilJ W]

35 minutes ago, jjb1970 said:

This is one area where a digital identity and ID card can be useful. To be clear there are arguments for and against and I cringe at the way a certain former Prime Minister appears every time there's a crises of any sort to claim the answer to everything is ID cards. However, I have to admit the Singpass system here does make some of these things much easier, they can scan a 3D barcode and I press a notification allowing them to do an ID check.

I have no problem with ID cards, why should I. I'm not up to anything nefarious or any criminal activity. Also if we had ID cards we could sign up to the Schengen Agreement which will mean no passports required to visit those countries also in the agreement.

[Barry O]

Wooooopppppiiiidddddooo!

Consultant rang.. early!

 

Off water tablets, quick scan to be scheduled at the LGI.. if all is well bye bye thebothervtable5s. Hebis also suggesting we reduce the Ramipril tablets....

 

Next in my sights.. reduce metformin dose... that's next weeks' challenger!

 

Baz

[Gwiwer]

1 hour ago, BSW01 said:

sea twirlers

Some kind of mermaid dance troupe?  
 

My mind is boggling. 

[petethemole]

5 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

The only contentious issue with Christmas Pud is do you have (a) custard, (b) brandy butter or (c) heavy cream with it?

Preferably (b) and (c) together, followed by seconds with custard.  Followed by a nap.  Sadly such luxuries are no more, apart fron the nap

[Hroth]

4 hours ago, The White Rabbit said:

Christmas cake, rather than pudding, used to mature for a few months round here. Mother Rabbit used to make hers around September time and store until the week before Christmas, then adorn with marzipan and icing. 

 

My mother and grandmother would make the Christmas cake around then, and store it in an airtight tin, opening it at intervals to "feed" it with sherry and rum before taking it out to air a bit and layer on about three quarters of an inch of marzipan followed by armour-plated icing.  It was a jolly good cake!

 

They also observed the tradition of Stir-Up Sunday when the Christmas pud was constructed.  Again it was something that was treated to regular "feeding" before Christmas Day....

 

ION

 

Back again after a slightly soggy long weekend in the Western Lake District, with splendid views over Sellafield*, amongst other places...  Entertainment included an administration of rain and steam** on the Lakeside and Haverthwait railway.  The tomtom also played its little tricks of trying to send us around the "faster" white roads, where we were held up at a level crossing to see two Class 156 DMUs pass in opposite directions, the gates being manually operated by a Network Rail operative...

 

Back to normal now....   Hey Ho!

 

* Sadly not misty, so we couldn't see the traditional orange glow about the site...

** The engine crew watering a thirsty "Princess"...

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 24, 2023 by Hroth

[woodenhead]

2 hours ago, DaveF said:

I woke about a minute before the alarm went off but I had been awake during the night.  The waterworks are very slightly better this morning, I am hoping the progress continues in the next few days.  While I was awake in the night I had a good worry, I'm not quite sure what about but it does happen from time to time.  I suspect it was brought about by seeing the GP yesterday, for the next few days every ache and pain will make me think I am at death's door.  What I must do is organise an appointment to discuss the hernia and what to do and arrange for the GP to be prepared to write a letter to a consultant if/when surgery becomes necessary. As with the previous one on the other side it may get done privately if it comes to that.

 

 

 

2 hours ago, Winslow Boy said:

May I offer a piece of caution about waiting for the hernia to get bad. Based upon my mother's dealings with the medical profession I wouldn't be tempted to leave it to long. When mum did that, she found that the 'well you have to consider the risk/benefit' excused being used for it to be not done deployed. This was extremely annoying to me as all they were looking at was there 'bottom line'. It also didn't help that the various consultants who she'd got to know had retired.

I've had a small hernia near my groin for about 10 years, discovered it when I lost weight and I noticed a small part of me wasn't getting slimmer. 

 

Got to the hospital, consultant said yep straightforward op, we'll book you in.  But around the same time I had also had an MRI on my brain and they discovered a problem that I was born with, another hernia, this time of my brain.  It's a condition that until MRI was invented was only ever seen in deceased people who's head had been opened for autopsy or medical training.  Luckily for me I didn't have the painful side effects of the condition so no operations required but it did explain some issues over life.  The trouble was now I could not have my original hernia operated on because the Anesthesiologist would not put me under until a Neurologist had seen me and approved me being put under.

 

By the time he had seen me and signed me off as being capable of being put under anesthesia I had decided that as the hernia was not impacting on me in any way, plus the horror stories about the gauze they had been using on hernia and the raised risk due to my brain I would simply leave it be.  I still run and go to the gym just being careful not to over exert in that area and whilst sometimes I does let me know it is there I don't notice it day to day.

 

I think if you do decide to go ahead, check on the method they intend to use and possible side effects and weigh that up against how it is impacting your every day life.

[Andy Hayter]

16 minutes ago, Winslow Boy said:

The blight has been very bad this year. The weather was ideal for it I understand. I've had it bad on several hedges and am mulling over what to do. I did get it several years ago, but managed to nurse the plants back to health however it's much more obvious where it's struck this year.

 

There are two maladies.

Box blight which essentially kills the box and there is no cure.  Box might hang on for a year or two but it is a losing battle

Box Moth Caterpillar which is an imported pest.  The caterpillars de-foliate the box but with established plants, they may recover in future years.  There are treatments for this, mostly nasty poisons but you can get a pheromone trap which lures and traps males so they cannot reproduce and the females create caterpillars

[iL Dottore]

2 hours ago, Winslow Boy said:

May I offer a piece of caution about waiting for the hernia to get bad. Based upon my mother's dealings with the medical profession I wouldn't be tempted to leave it to long. When mum did that, she found that the 'well you have to consider the risk/benefit' excused being used for it to be not done deployed. This was extremely annoying to me as all they were looking at was there 'bottom line'. It also didn't help that the various consultants who she'd got to know had retired.

It is certainly true that for many conditions the sooner you medically intervene the better the outcome  (which why my right knee - not operated upon until it was pretty much bone-on-bone, is more problematic than my left knee - which still had cartilage present when operated upon).

 

However, having said that the cynic in me wonders if the risk/benefit ratio is set too low (too high?) deliberately - just to get people off the waiting lists. Rick @Gwiwer has mentioned how an operation to fix Dr SWMBOs knees is considered “too risky”; yet reading what little he’s mentioned (and reading between the lines) I would imagine that she’s no more at risk than I was when I had bilateral protheses inserted 15 years ago! And there have been considerable advances in surgical technique, materials technology and anaesthesiology since then.

 

I wonder how the surgeon who performed my surgery would regard Rick’s Dr SWMBO’s case. He certainly at the top of his profession being one of the orthopaedic surgeon retained by a famous football club (and when a lot of serious money is being spent on footballers and keeping them on the field playing - you have to be very good to be hired).

 

Incidentally, Switzerland is one of the best places in the world for orthopaedic surgery training - primarily due the annual winter carnage on the Swiss pistes as people think that they are better skiers than they actually are (and in summer you have clueless and unprepared hikers and ramblers falling into crevasses or off mountains).

[TheQ]

Afternoon Awl,

Just after the earlier missive, the heavens opened and it was fire hose time. About then the stopcock men arrived, but stayed in their van until it was merely torrential. 

They then dug down by spade to the pipe, and the fountain coming out of the top of the tap.

The ground they dug into was wellie losing soft mud,  they've fitted an upright access tube that is adjustable in height.

I think I'm going to have dig much mud out and fill with ballast before putting in the new hard pathway.

 

Meanwhile I've completed base for the last unit of unmentionables, all four are now in my muddling room. After a reshuffle of the contents of the room, I could now put up all units. But not work on them.... The best possible is three units at a time, one or the other of the end units will have to be left off normally.

Having a trial fit of the pivot hinges I've decided the load spreading washers don't look neat and tidy. I've ordered another set of pivot hinges to sandwich the ply between.

 

The rain is now no longer sinking into the garden, it's made a huge multi hippo sized pond in the gravel driveway and flowing out of the driveway onto the road. It's just got very dark, its fire hose time again. The weather radar shows we are under a bright orange area.

 

Time for an eyelid inspection before hopefully it's drier to take Ben on long patrol.

 

 

 

 

[Tony_S]

25 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

Switzerland is one of the best places in the world for orthopaedic surgery

My nephew and his pregnant partner (they live in Zurich) are very impressed with Swiss antenatal care. Appointments are  “would you like to come in this afternoon ?” and all the latest scans and tests are available. They were asked if they wanted to know whether they were getting a boy or girl and they did find out. No waiting until 24 weeks have passed like here. The baby won’t be Swiss though, like the UK being born there doesn’t give you citizenship. Magda is Austrian so the baby will have Austrian nationality automatically by being born to an Austrian mother but I am sure the baby can get British citizenship too, but I bet the forms are more complicated.