Early Risers.

[BoD]

33 minutes ago, grandadbob said:

they were on their way to Wimbledon to watch some tennis, rather them than me but we can't all like the same sports.

 

I can't imagine the front row wearing short white skirts and frilly knickers either.

 

Having said that, on more than one occasion .........

[Tony_S]

It is bit like Glastonbury here but with no sunshine, but at least we have plumbing. Having enjoyed seeing the Legends broadcast, Aditi has her Shania Twain Greatest Hits Album playing. She said it was one she used to listen to while driving (or sitting in traffic jams) to East Ham or Stratford (Newham, not the other one) 

[Tony_S]

Having our own sing along with the Eagles (never played at Glastonbury?) Greatest Hits now.

Having watched the Shania Twain performance broadcast on BBC I think there must be some very sensitive souls out there, as there were on screen apologies for “language” during the broadcast. 
 

[PhilJ W]

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. Checked on the weeds that I sprayed with weedkiller yesterday. Some of the leaves are looking a bit limp whereas with glyphosphate they would all be curling up by now. After that effort I took a bit of eyelid inspection.

[DaveF]

I got the lavenders in the front graden just about sorted out with the remaining dead bits cut off the two worst affected by the wet and windy Winter and Spring.  They will need a bit more doing but it started drizzling.

 

Later on a friend came round with a bag of well rotted manure he had spare - he gets it from a relative who keeps horses.  Since lunchtime I've sorted out several weeks worth of photos to put on RMweb and flickr and amended tomorrow's grocery order, which has grown to be much bigger than usual, partly as I want more vitamin tablets and I found a couple of books I "need".

 

It has rained on and off from about 10.30 and is cool, it got to 16°C just after lunchtime.  The greenhouse plants do not ned watering today.  However the blackbirds and sparrows have managed to empty the birdbath.

 

As I was doing photos I haven't watched the Tour de France, I'll watch the highhlights later on.  It looks as though the rest of the evening will be spent reading.

 

David

Edited July 1 by DaveF

[PupCam]

Afternoon

 

18 hours ago, polybear said:

Bear has one of them there new fangled leccy ovens and hobs - no fuss, no bvggerin’ about.  Sorted.

 

That Puppers has to be at least 2m away from when in operation so, unless I grew some Twizzle* arms it would be no good for me!

 

* Remember Twizzle?

 

18 hours ago, polybear said:

When did it last have a decoke?

 

No idea, before any of the recorded history**  was , err, recorded

 

**  That'll be no history whatsoever

 

18 hours ago, Tony_S said:

I haven’t seen it but it appears on UKTV Play a wholly BBC owned streaming channel. 

 

I didn't know that but would explain the heavy bias to old BBC content.

 

5 hours ago, polybear said:

Bear would never have a Tattoo (the fur gets in the way for a start); judging by the state of some of the people (and places) doing Tattoos I’m less than convinced about their sterile environment, equipment and proceedures.

 

The highlighted section is superfluous as far as Puppers is concerned,  they can be as clean or filthy as they like they aren't getting anywhere near Puppers!

 

5 hours ago, Tony_S said:

Did they not offer you the option of reglazing your existing frames? Mine did, but I said I was happy to keep the old ones as an acceptable spare. The new ones are same make, the lens is the same shape, only the colour of the bit behind the ears is different. 

 

When I tried to keep my existing (nothing wrong with them at all) frames once they said "Well Mr Puppers we can do that but it will put the price up".   I pointed out my astonishment (given the price of the new frames) that this could be so and the fact that it wasn't very environmentally friendly to chuck away keep in the back of a draw unused in case they should ever be of any use  to the assistant.  She did her best to justify their policy but it was of course all complete and utter BS.    I've been with this optician for some time now.  As the insurance renewals suggest, perhaps I could get better value for money elsewhere next time?

 

1 hour ago, Tony_S said:

Having our own sing along with the Eagles (never played at Glastonbury?) Greatest Hits now.

 

Now you are talking (well, OK singing)!

 

ION

 

The experimental spruce-up seems to have worked; very roughly mask the head and barrel up to stop the over-spray,  run the engine to get the cylinders nice and warm***  and give it a few light coats of Simoniz VHT black.  Because the engine was hot each coat dries off very quickly allowing reasonable coverage quite quickly.

 

*** The VHT paint has to be heated in order to cure apparently so having the engine hot is a win-win

 

It won't win any prizes but the Before & After does show it doesn't look quite as tatty.  Note the top facing fin was actually not very well polished aluminum on this side (which might indicate that this head has been replaced with an earlier version) so I had a go at painting that first. So the Before shot is actually an "In the middle shot" in reality.   I need to do the other side and then come up with a similar plan for the cases.

 

Obviously the best thing to do would be to strip the engine and have the items vapour blasted and then painted properly  and that might be the thing to do when a decoke is necessary (as implied I think by @polybear).   Removing the heads and barrels is actually very easy, for each cylinder is essentially; remove 2 nuts holding the carburetor on, remove 2 nuts holding the exhaust clamp plate on, remove 4 head nuts and the head and barrel comes off.   But as the engine is running well at the moment (touch wood it continues to do so) I'm loath to mess about with it.    As I've had a request from a local Yamaha dealer to have it attend their "2 stroke day" as an exhibit (RD200s seem to be quite rare compared with 250, 350 & 400s) in a few weeks I thought I'd at least make the effort to make it a little less scruffy even if it won't look like a beautiful Show-Pony.   I even gave the down pipes a bit of a polish this afternoon!

 

 

I spent most of the morning around at my late mate's garage.     I'm trying to help his widow dispose of some of his stuff and there's a lathe and a vertical mill to go (along with other stuff of course).    Another friend expressed an interest in them so I took him to have a look and an agreement seems to have been reached which is great.   At one point late mate's widow was thinking she'd just have to get a clearance merchant in and end up with nothing other than a clear garage.     Hopefully this way she'll get a clear garage, reasonable recompense (if not the very maximum amount of cash) and the knowledge that they are going to someone who will make good use of them all with no effort and my  (still with us) mate will get two rather old but still useful machines for a very reasonable price.   Anyway, both sides seem happy so that's the main thing and I'm calling that a result.

 

TTFN

Edited July 1 by PupCam

[grandadbob]

Unbelievable!  I fell asleep so didn't see the finish of the T de F today.  I'll have to catch up later. 

My parcel seems to still be in transit somewhere although it's "out for delivery."   Should have been delivered to local Post Office for collection from 15.00 but haven't had a notification of delivery yet.  As it's only a 6 minute walk away I popped over there but they haven't got it.  TCs to RM, they've let me down. normally they're pretty good around here.

 

 

[Hroth]

Noooooooooooooo......

 

Pingpong and foot the ball non stop all day....

 

@PupCam  Yes, I've "heard" of Twizzle*, but I don't remember seeing it, I vaguely recall Torchy, a bit more of Four Feather Falls but real recall starts with Supercar...

 

* There's a bit of one on youtube.

 

Edited July 1 by Hroth
Typo

[Tony_S]

5 minutes ago, Hroth said:

Noooooooooooooo......

 

Pingpong and foot the ball non stop all day....

 

Time for hobbies?

[The Lurker]

Fairly routine day WFH, enlivened on the lunchtime walk by seeing a kingfisher; first time I have ever seen one on the River Cray. No time for a photo but I know roughly where it was so maybe next time (Friday). So if I am in luck I will post a picture of a blue blob…!

[Coombe Barton]

... Tomorrow is results release. See what that brings. ...

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2024/07/01/election-dominates-with-aftermath-uncertain-finalising-data-transfer/

[monkeysarefun]

Supreme Court  - what the...!?

 

Though assuming the ruling applies to ALL  presidents and not just the Orange Jesus One, can't the current one "Officially" strap the orange  one to a rocket and fire him into the sun?

Edited July 1 by monkeysarefun

[tigerburnie]

I wonder what odds you'd get on a civil war?

[PhilJ W]

This creep is behind bars where he belongs.

https://www.mylondon.news/news/zone-1-news/first-picture-creep-who-dragged-29452011?utm_source=my_london_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=MyLondon+-+London+Underground+Newsletter_newsletter&utm_content=&utm_term=&ruid=a32cb9a3-ed92-4daf-845e-5ef2f6965bea

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. Been catching up on a few things this afternoon and then watched a series of archeology programs on BBC4 so haven't done much else. Now to catch up on Farcebook.

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[Winslow Boy]

7 hours ago, Tony_S said:

It is bit like Glastonbury here but with no sunshine, but at least we have plumbing. Having enjoyed seeing the Legends broadcast, Aditi has her Shania Twain Greatest Hits Album playing. She said it was one she used to listen to while driving (or sitting in traffic jams) to East Ham or Stratford (Newham, not the other one) 

Ooh I used to that. Just think we may have even sat in the same queue. She listening to Shania and me humming along to Tom Jones what's new pussycat.

[Andy Hayter]

1 hour ago, tigerburnie said:

I wonder what odds you'd get on a civil war?

 

Where?  USA or France?

[Gwiwer]

Evening all.  Two more pages have come and gone which I might be able to catch up on in due course.  But in the meantime your scribe has returned from overseas.  

 

The day trip to the Isles of Scilly was mostly good.  A taxi along to Lands End Airport and a comfortable if noisy flight aboard a Twin Otter to St. Mary's airport in good conditions suggested we would have at least a reasonable day ahead of us.  The shuttle bus took us into town though for the fit it is easily a walkable distance.  Dr. SWMBO is neither fit nor capable of very much walking at all.  The latter did make for slow progress and the lack of public transport on such a small island limited us to the immediate environs of Hugh Town.  There is a tour bus but it wasn't running today; there are golf-carts for hire to get around a bit farther afield but they were all booked out.  

 

We didn't spot any puffins but we did find the Scillonian Sea-ducks.  We have never ever seen ducks living on sandy beaches and sea-swimming let alone being happy to do so with newly-hatched ducklings and in very close proximity to human swimmers.  

 

Upon return to Penzance we tried to get a taxi but they had all been commandeered to take Skybus passengers home.  The arrival of fog on the mainland had caused return flights to be cancelled and all passengers transferred to Scillonian III.  Which of course left them many miles away from their pared cars at the various airports. 

 

We adopted Plan A (my idea all along) namely to find dinner in Penzance and take the 9pm bus home.  The walk from boat to restaurant to bus was too much for Dr. SWMBO who ended the day in extreme pain from her knees.  Here's hoping they will be better in the morning.  

 

Aside from the mobility issues we had a good day out.  

 

16 of us filled the flight.  Dr SWMBO doesn't like light aircraft but was OK with this one once aboard.

 

Approaching St. Mary's with numerous islands visible below

 

Just a nice pretty garden in town

 

Porthcressa Bay

 

The view over St. Marys Harbour and the off-islands from Buzza Tower

 

Seated aboard Scillonian III (a/k/a the Great White Stomach Pump) for the return; the sea was slight to moderate today with no excuse for any of the mal de mer she is renowed for inducing on rougher days

 

Fog shrouded the coast as we returned dashing any hopes of pretty low-sun shots.  This was as good as it got with the Arklow Brave anchored in Mounts Bay off Newlyn and Penzance awaiting orders in a shaft of light

Oh yes - those sea-ducks

 

 

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone 

 

Blood letting was completed, without any mishaps, i arrived a few minutes before my appointment and I got back home after 9:30. After making a muggertea, I headed downstairs and checked the cellar. I was expecting to see dozens of flies, crawling up the windows and on the ceiling, but there were none to be seen, not a single one! Result! That, thankfully meant that we don’t have a bird stuck down the flue. So, I then dug out the bag the old that contained bits of old carpet underlay, the old fibrous, hairy felt type of underlay and stuffed a few pieces up the flue to stop any further birds etc. Once we’ve had bird cowls fitted to all the chimney pots, I’ll pull it all back out and chuck it away. 

 

I had hoped to do some gardening after that, but it started to rain, which ended any thoughts of outdoor activities. So, instead I went to the workshop and continued working on the loco chassis. Today I built the gearbox, which went together very well, but didn’t actually fit the chassis. So I ended up disassembling it, trimming the side down slightly and then rebuilding it. 

 

I’m also in the group of those who don’t particularly like tattoos or piercings. Ian is practically addicted to getting them done and Vickie has both tattoos and piercings. I don’t have either, although I do have 3 small dots given to me by the radiography department at The Christie just before I started my radiotherapy.

[TheQ]

Stupid o'clock.

That race is on a repeat Countryfile again..

[skipepsi]

Yes it is blody car alarm is going off again.

[Ozexpatriate]

2 hours ago, BSW01 said:

I then dug out the bag the old that contained bits of old carpet underlay, the old fibrous, hairy felt type of underlay and stuffed a few pieces up the flue to stop any further birds etc.

I hope that is not asbestos? Mum and Dad have an asbestos layer under the linoleum*. It has wall-to-wall carpet over it in the hall. Their flooring needs to be redone entirely but the hazmat requirements make it very expensive. The bottom layer was laid down around 1961 if I'm not mistaken.

 

* Or similar. It might not specifically be "linoleum".

[Ozexpatriate]

We discussed this flavour a while ago.

 

UPF anyone?

 

CNN: Cup Noodles wants to rethink the way you eat ramen with new s’mores flavor

 

Filed under the "Business" section.

 

Earlier under the "Health" section:

 

CNN: These ultraprocessed foods may shorten your life, study says

 

Edited July 2 by Ozexpatriate

[BR60103]

SWMBO would like to watch tour de France but it doesn't seem to be available on any of the channels available to us. We've no idea what's happening with the cyclists, but she likes the scenery.

 

She had her ears pierced (before we met). However, she developed an allergy to certain metals. She quit wearing earrings and has to find watches where no metal bits touch her skin.

 

My nephews had their grandfather's coat of arms tattooed on them.  I claim this makes them my property now.