Early Risers.

[iL Dottore]

Up early this morning - woken up at 4 am by the iPhone app that monitors the Schloss iD estate alarm system.  Outside there was a notable absence of sirens, floodlights, the crackle and snap of electric fences frying an intruder  or the sound of the automated sentry guns powering up. I checked the app - finding it was a “routine maintenance” notification.

 

GRRR!

Anyway, time for breakfast number 2

[iL Dottore]

After an early breakfast (breakfast number 1) of some charcuterie, a warm flat bread and strong coffee, I am now contemplating today’s activities. A lot of tedious, time consuming (ergo profitable) data reviews await, the purchase of new iPad is required (my current one takes forever to charge up and quickly looses its charge) and I have to start “downsizing” in preparation of our house move.

 

Being inveterate Jäger und Sammler*, Mrs iD have a lot to sell-on / upcycle / recycle / bin. Buying high quality items and hanging on to them is all very well and good - for most things - but, alas, not for technology.

 

It wasn’t that long ago that you could buy yourself a high-end, state-of-the-art stereo amplifier and - a few years on - it would still be a high-end, state-of-the-art stereo amplifier. Not anymore.

 

So we have an extensive VHS collection (the entire X-Files series boxed set for example), a VHS recorder, a MiniDisc recorder, an external floppy disc drive, a micro stereo system with cassette deck and much else to “upcycle”

 

Being an inveterate Jäger und Sammler does mean that it is incredibly hard (psychologically) to “let things go”. Somethings are clearly no longer viable - like the VHS tapes - which have a lifespan of 10 - 25 years, the latter figure being for tapes stored in climate controlled conditions. Other things? Much more difficult to say goodbye to (I mean, that MiniDisc recorder could be useful again one day).

 

Time for breakfast number 2 (more coffee and perhaps a biscuit).

 

* we never, ever, throw anything away, we still have a file of credit card receipts from the late 90s. Yes, it’s that bad!

 

Edited August 26 by iL Dottore
Spelling

[rockershovel]

24 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

After an early breakfast (breakfast number 1) of some charcuterie, a warm flat bread and strong coffee, I am now contemplating today’s activities. A lot of tedious, time consuming (ergo profitable) data reviews await, the purchase of new iPad is required (my current one takes forever to charge up and quickly looses its charge) and I have to start “downsizing” in preparation of our house move.

 

Being inveterate Jäger und Sammler*, Mrs iD have a lot to sell-on / upcycle / recycle / bin. Buying high quality items and hanging on to them is all very well and good - for most things - but, alas, not for technology.

 

It wasn’t that long ago that you could buy yourself a high-end, state-of-the-art stereo amplifier and - a few years on - it would still be a high-end, state-of-the-art stereo amplifier. Not anymore.

 

So we have an extensive VHS collection (the entire X-Files series boxed set for example), a VHS recorder, a MiniDisc recorder, an external floppy disc drive, a micro stereo system with cassette deck and much else to “upcycle”

 

Being an inveterate Jäger und Sammler does mean that it is incredibly hard (psychologically) to “let things go”. Somethings are clearly no longer viable - like the VHS tapes - which have a lifespan of 10 - 25 years, the latter figure being for tapes stored in climate controlled conditions. Other things? Much more difficult to say goodbye to (I mean, that MiniDisc recorder could be useful again one day).

 

Time for breakfast number 2 (more coffee and perhaps a biscuit).

 

* we never, ever, throw anything away, we still have a file of credit card receipts from the late 90s. Yes, it’s that bad!

 

No wonder we're not in Europe any more... coffee and a biscuit doesn't qualify as breakfast of any description over here, and ham sandwiches are for lunch. 

Edited August 26 by rockershovel

[Ozexpatriate]

28 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

So we have an extensive VHS collection (the entire X-Files series boxed set for example), a VHS recorder, a MiniDisc recorder, an external floppy disc drive, a micro stereo system with cassette deck and much else to “upcycle”

e-cycle?

 

Meaning controlled disposal of electronic garbage where useful elements are extracted?

 

"upcycle" usually means being turned to something else - like plastic containers being transformed into fake wood decking. It is a one-time form of recycling.

 

Edited August 26 by Ozexpatriate

[rockershovel]

28 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

e-cycle?

 

Meaning controlled disposal of electronic garbage where useful elements are extracted?

 

"upcycle" usually means being turned to something else - like plastic containers being transformed into fake wood decking. It is a one-time form of recycling.

 

Isn't an e-cycle an electric bike?

 

I don't really get the impression that iD is the sort of person who makes much use of fake wood decking made from recycled plastic containers. 

 

 

[Barry O]

Ey up!

@jamie92208 what do you expect from the doilums ..aka Leeds City Council??

 

Library has been restocked. Other than putting the curtain rail up room is complete. Yippppppeeeeedddddoooo!!

 

Celebrated by going to the Sheesh Mahal for a nice curry. Place was quite busy. The grey pound was much in attendance. What's the chess term for taking on the wrong people?

 

Today should see some muddling being undertaken.

 

@rockershovel in hospital I was offered a biscuit with my 6 am tea delivery.. why? Well the tests conducted at 5:50 am included a blood sugarvtest. When this was low I got the biscuit!

 

Stay safe!

Baz

Edited August 26 by Barry O

[rockershovel]

Watched the Proms last night. Mostly I find them a great evenings TV but the Sam Smith one.... I watched a few minutes of his self-indulgent preening to the commentator and switched to iplayer for one I'd missed. Definitely a "win" for my increasing habit of disengaging entirely from modern media and thinking. 

 

They are achingly "BBC" in some ways. The commentators often burble among themselves to no evident purpose - how do you get a paid job exchanging inconsequential chit-chat on prime time tv? What does Sandi Toksvig know about classical music? Was the conductor for The Planets really wearing some sort of Star Trek uniform? The  indecent haste to cancel the "Last Night", together with the blatant attempt to scrap it entirely during Covid was flagrantly political, as was that American soprano who brought political activism to the role of Britannia

 

Still and all, we'd be much the poorer without them. They show what the BBC is capable of; they are hugely popular world wide. 

Edited August 26 by rockershovel

[jamie92208]

8 hours ago, PupCam said:

 

I wondered why I couldn't pay in cheques via the scanner and PC but only via the mobile App.

 

I don't know but I surmise that because the mobile App is responsible for taking the image of the cheque and directly processing and transferring it to the bank it is essentially a "sealed" process with which the user can not interfere with the image.    On the other hand if Joe Public scans the cheque on his PC scanner, than imports it to Photoshop, does his own processing (malicious or otherwise) and then "sends it to the bank" there's plenty of opportunity for foul play.

 

As I say, I don't know that actually to be the reason why you cant "scan your own cheques" but when I thought the process through it seemed entirely logical to this Pup.

 

 

 

 

 

Yes I had surmised something similar. Eg that the scanner gathering the image must be the phone on which the banking app resides, checked by the IMEI presumably.  It did actually get close to succeed g but told me there was a possible tear. I think that was a small dimple where Laura had obviously handled the cheque before photographing it. I had asked them to deliver the cheque to the girls address prior to the 12th August.  The cheque was printed on the 15th. Snottogram coming on. 

5 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

¿Que?

 

Qu'est-ce que le "BACS", s'il vous plaît.

 

Q beat me to it with a better explanation than I could have given. 

4 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Today our little cold spell ended. It was marvelous - very sunny but not too hot. Highs were somewhere around 27°C - just a bit below the seasonal average. 

 

A local dahlia farm has been advertising their summer 'festival'. They have food carts and music etc, to bring in custom. It was impressive.

 

Do I have many flower pictures? Why yes I do. Here are a few.

 

 

 

Here in France Dahlias are associated with death and funerals.  They are sold e erywhere at the end of October and graves are covered in them on November 1st which is the Day of the Dead.  You Never give them as part of a gift of flowers. 

 

Jamie

[polybear]

4 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

It's OK after seven years of good behaviour you'll get your manumission and if you work hard you can open a winery/brewpub/distillery + resort in WA and host destination weddings in front of an Indian Ocean sunset for impressionable Gen Alphas from the old sod. Sounds like a nice life.

 

Assuming you actually manage to survive 7 years, that is..........

 

4 hours ago, TheQ said:

Bankers' Automated Clearing System,

The  receiver of the monies issues their bank details to the payer of the monies.

The payer goes online to his own account and pays the receiver directly into the receivers account.

 

Before payment goes through, your bank shows the details of the receiver on screen and says " is this the right person"? If you click yes the payment goes through. Seemingly it's a fully secure system. Certainly the MRC payments for layout expenses have never had a problem.

 

The safety of BACS took a huge leap forwards when it started to check & display the recipient to the sender before the transfer took place (IIRC it never used to do this); before that it was all too easy the send £X's to a complete stranger with nottalottahope of getting it back again.

 

Even with that check a certain Bear has been known (for large amounts) to transfer some random small amount (e.g. 57p) to the recipient and then ask them "how much did you get?"  If they come back with the right answer they get the rest....

 

When Harry was sold 😢 I suggested to the buyer he did the same - but he was happy to go with the lot in one go (his - small - risk, not mine.....) but responsibility for reading the correct sort & account number off my debit card was his, not mine; we did both do a "read check" before "send" was hit though, just to make sure no silly typo's had snuck in.

[jamie92208]

Good moaning from a sunny and warming up Charente.  10 overnight and due to get to 27.  We will be dogsitting today which will be a pleasure.  The G word awaits me.  More clearing of the Staghorn and other foliage.  This afternoon I may head for the shed. 

 

Jamie

[polybear]

Bear here.....

 

Today sees Bear doin' a bit of wielding of the hot smoothy thingy - one of the possible downsides of taking Bertie the Bosch for a drive, sadly.  Fortunately it's just a couple of pairs of strides plus a couple of t-shirts, so not too bad.

 

I'll also investigate the possibility of doing a bit of (virtual) Deltic Juggling, along with some research and printing/copying of some important info.  S'pose I'd better look into descaling Kevin the Kettle as well - that was on yesterday's to-do list.....; I reckon the tyres on the Bearmobile are overdue for a pressure check as well.

 

Other than that it's MIUABGAD - some of which may include taking Mickey the Miele for a quick spin round Bear Towers.  So, all in all, a pretty wild B/H Monday for Bear awaits.....🤣

 

 

ION....

 

This story was mentioned on Radio 2 earlier - just how  does Nellie know that??

 

https://worldofbuzz.com/elephants-walk-12-hours-every-year-to-pay-respect-to-human-friend-who-passed-away-7-years-ago/#:~:text=Well%2C it looks like they,cared for them as well.&text=BBC One recently posted on,Anthony%2C after he passed away.

 

Wriggle time....

 

BG

Edited August 26 by polybear

[TheQ]

Yes the check and display on BACS was a huge step forward, there were a few cases in the past where huge sums of money went into the wrong bank account, there is no legal way to make the receiver pay it back, but the receiver can never touch it. The moment the receiver spends a penny of it, it becomes theft and it's court time.

 

 

Mooring Awl,

5 hours sleep, long awake, 2 hours sleep, not too bad.

 

I have a sore right side of face, right shoulder, right ankle, yesterday while removing one one the MRC signs. I'd had to park some distance from the sign, was walking along the rough grass verge, and my right foot went down a hidden hole. Over I went, the sign 3ft by 2 ft hit my face as I went down, my shoulder on top edge of it..

 

A new mini drill arrived yesterday, I can't wait any longer for a new motor for the old one, though it will get repaired.

Not as such tried it yet , just switched on to check it works, it's thinner, feels more comfortable in the paw, has a led to illuminate the work, It's now charged up, so I'll try it later.

 

The grass has said thank you for the water and has grown like mad, so a mow is due today. The trees were showing signs of drought stress having only had about 25% of Augusts normal rain, whether they'll perk up or just decide it's Autumn I don't know.

 

Some pension paperwork needs doing with swmbo for her biggest pension due to be paid out early next year.

 

Then I'll play with the mini drill, as there is some parallel bits of metal that need cutting to size.

 

Time for brekky.

 

 

[Barry O]

Curry..

 

Starter..

 

And..

 

 

Main course.. meat and mushroom bhuna with a tandoori Rotti...

 

Jab test suggest my blood sugars are about 6.1.. so little sugar in the meal...

 

 

All set up to do not a lot today.. then.. grass needs cutting, car needs petrol...various other small tasks have been added to my list..

 

Pah!

 

Baz

 

 

[Sidecar Racer]

7 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

 That'll be transportation for you my lad. An all expenses paid holiday to the Pilbara for you.

 

It's OK after seven years of good behaviour you'll get your manumission and if you work hard you can open a winery/brewpub/distillery + resort in WA and host destination weddings in front of an Indian Ocean sunset for impressionable Gen Alphas from the old sod. Sounds like a nice life.

 

 I'm 74 , so a free trip to Oz would be good as with my health problems  I doubt I could

get travel insurance so that's one expense out of the way, I no longer have a days hard work

in me so the chance of getting seven years is slim to none . And then the funeral expenses

will be someone else's too . Sounding more like a win / win to me .    😎

 

[Tony_S]

31 minutes ago, Sidecar Racer said:

I doubt I could

get travel insurance

The main no no for travel insurance is if a doctor had advised against travel.

However the travel insurance company  charge more for each health problem  and also a supplement for age, in my case over 70. 

[PhilJ W]

4 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

Though you'll struggle to find a Fosters here...

What about Castlemaine XXXX then? Reputedly so named because those who drank it couldn't spell beer. Another theory is if they called it beer they'd be in breach of the Trade Descriptions Act. We had our own P-water anyway called Skol, the only liquid that could pass through the human body completely unaltered.

[iL Dottore]

4 hours ago, rockershovel said:

No wonder we're not in Europe any more... coffee and a biscuit doesn't qualify as breakfast of any description over here, and ham sandwiches are for lunch. 

You do realise that charcuterie also includes

• sausages
• bacon
• black pudding
• ham

We also have eggs on the continent - just in case you're wondering.....

 

p.s. The Americans have a number of breakfast dishes featuring ham: such as biscuits and gravy, ham and eggs, etc...

 

Edited August 26 by iL Dottore
Added text

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. I was intending to do a bit of gardening today but there's still a lot of (nettle?) pollen around. The hay fever season seems to be getting longer every year, global warming? If I do any planting I choose plants that are germinated by bees and other insects rather than those that release a cloud of pollen.

[iL Dottore]

3 hours ago, rockershovel said:

I don't really get the impression that iD is the sort of person who makes much use of fake wood decking made from recycled plastic containers. 

 

 

True, very true.

[rockershovel]

11 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

You do realise that charcuterie also includes

• sausages
• bacon
• black pudding
• ham

We also have eggs on the continent - just in case you're wondering.....

Ooh, hours of fun in that reply!

 

I challenge you to go into Greggs and find anything you would recognise as a sausage! Does the word "bangers" mean anything? Or "Richmond"?

 

Good luck finding a charcuterie in those remoter parts of the UK where black pudding is considered edible. 

 

 

I did know about eggs. My late grandfather would cry "oofs poms frits!" and we children would all respond "napoo!" and laugh uproarious. Much later in life I discovered what this meant....

 

Edited August 26 by rockershovel

[jjb1970]

My ideal breakfast would be scrambled eggs with sausage, but the scrambled eggs have to be cooked how I like them - soft and quite fluid. Unfortunately most scrambled eggs are overdone, the country that knows how to do it is Japan in my experience.  Omelette are the same, I like omelette to have a crisp grilled skin but soft and fluid inside, most omelette are way overdone, again the Japanese have a knack for it.

[DaveF]

A pleasant morning, dry for now but showers expected later.  I have done some tidying and started to clean the uPVC window frames on the inside to get the dust/dirt etc out of the corners.  Looking at them a couple are beginning to look a bit the worse for wear, sometime I may get some quotes, they are around 20 years old and are not as good as newer ones for insulation, draughts etc.  They also have the beading on the outside so theoretically you can remove it, lift out the glass and burgle the place.

 

Being a Bank Holiday I won't be going far so any traffic won't bother me.  I don't think the beach car park will get very busy and the heaviest traffic here will probably be if you get to a roundabout and have 3 cars in front of you.

 

Instead I will continue sorting photos, perhaps have a walk and catch up on magazines.  I meant even use something called grass mat at some stage.

 

My cleaner has been, a different one today as so many are on holiday.  She has done a very good job.

 

David

[polybear]

1 hour ago, Sidecar Racer said:

 

 I'm 74 , so a free trip to Oz would be good as with my health problems  I doubt I could

get travel insurance so that's one expense out of the way, I no longer have a days hard work

in me so the chance of getting seven years is slim to none . And then the funeral expenses

will be someone else's too . Sounding more like a win / win to me .    😎

 

 

If a croc or shark gets you then you won't have to worry about a funeral.....

 

ION.....

 

Missions "ongoing"; three Ticks awarded so far.....

 

And finally......

 

It seems there are rumours that two Gobby Manutopian Bruvvers *may* be getting back together for some Band or other....I guess they're running out of money and need to boost the Pension Fund to cover the G&L Bills.  I wonder if either of them have actually managed to learn to sing over the last 15 years?  Thought not....

 

BG

[jamie92208]

45 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

What about Castlemaine XXXX then? Reputedly so named because those who drank it couldn't spell beer. Another theory is if they called it beer they'd be in breach of the Trade Descriptions Act. We had our own P-water anyway called Skol, the only liquid that could pass through the human body completely unaltered.

HowcaboutvWatneys Red Barrel that really was just coloured water.  As bad as French curry powder which should be labelled food colouring. 

 

Anyway lots of foliage chopped and moved.  The area looks a lot tidier.  I postponed the chemical warfare until our dog sitting duties have finished. 

 

Anyway a suitable snottogram has now been despatched to a certain Tom Riordan the CEO of Leeds City Council.  I just wish that the department that I dealt with gave as good service as the elections office her one of my former colleagues works.  

 

Jamie

[Tony_S]

Morning all.

It is overcast with a few sunny spells here. 
We aren’t going anywhere. The slightest hint of sunshine encourages people to go to Southend for the day. There is evening traffic to Southend now as a lot of people who like to display their cars go to the sea front roads. Canvey Island became an alternative but there are lots of notices prohibiting such things there now.

However I think a local pub (Hoy and Helmet) might be after a different sort of visitor.

 

Edited August 26 by Tony_S