Early Risers.

[simontaylor484]

My pyracanthus hedge is full of bind weed i spend ages pulling it out and putting it in garden bin

[jamie92208]

5 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

 

So what stereotype does the Trabant I now drive put me in? 

 

Dave 

You didn't tell me about the Trabby in the garage.

 

As to indicators, we got marked down on test if we used them for no reason, but warning pedestrians as to your intentions was a legitimate reason.  The reason for this is that they wanted us to scan for hazards then make a conscious decision to use themor not.

 

I can also eport that a couteous Audi driver alliwed me to pull out in front of him on the M6 today

 

Jamie

Edited August 13, 2021 by jamie92208

[leopardml2341]

Missed out on a lot of today's ER happenings due gk:

 

Work

Doctor's appointment 

Continuing outdoor painting 

Beer

 

Will try to catch up tomorrow and read/like etc.

 

In the meantime generic greetings, positive thoughts and sympathies as required.

 

Goodnight all.

[brianusa]

6 hours ago, jonny777 said:

 

Yes, my Dad also hated Ford drivers for some reason

We were a Ford family from my Dads early Anglia, my Zodiac, numerous US Fords and my old Lincoln Mk8 coupe, which incidentally has multiple speed wipers.  Over here there is not so much brand competition as there appears to be back home, none of this BMW v Mercedes thing.  There may be some kids who street race with their favourites and do doughnuts in intersections but thats about it.  Probably enough!

      Brian.

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone 

 

Today was always going to be a busy day and getting up later than planned didn’t help at all, so I didn’t get time to post this morning. However, I have dipped in and out all day trying to catch up and rate all today’s posts. 

 

When i I was at the butchers this morning, I asked about pasties, as there haven’t been any on sale for a couple of months now. It seems the VAT man has put paid to that, as VAT would have to be charged for selling hot food like steak pies, sausage rolls and pasties! Pah and double Pah! They still sells them, put they are uncooked and frozen, so if I want one, I will have to cook it myself. 

 

After I returned from the butchers and the meat rations had been packed away, WE then went and picked up Ava who then came to the Trafford Centre with us. After the Trafford Centre we called at the small craft shop in Dunham Massey where a new tin of paint for the cupboard was purchased along with a few other small items. Ava and I then went to the ice cream counter and got ourselves an ice cream each, unfortunately Sheila had to do without!

 

After dinner Ava watched a video and I once again studied some pension quotes. The evening was rounded off with a nice bottle of merlot. 

[BSW01]

Goodnight all 

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[brianusa]

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-cornwall-58146288

 

What prompts Brits to do this kind of thing on holiday?

      Brian.

[Erichill16]

Evening All,

A better day than expected.

Fish and chips were ok.

Mil was surprisingly subdued.

A visit to a shop in Shipley was made. Modelling tokens exchanged. 
Spent the evening with a book by Yeadon doing a bit of research.

Swmbo drives an Audi but not your typical Audi driver. She always signals her intentions and in fact has a couple that aren’t in the Highway Code. 

Goodnight,

Robert

[J. S. Bach]

3 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

I would be tempted to insert a few lines of gibberish in the text just to see if it was picked up.

A line from Carroll's "Alice" would work just fine!

[J. S. Bach]

I have been told that a weed is an unwanted plant; I want all of my plants; ergo, I have NO weeds!

[J. S. Bach]

And, finally, Night Owl from the Piedmont.

[pH]

We have the worst smoke of the summer so far.  Never mind see it, you can smell and even taste it. It was 35C this afternoon, but this heat is supposed to break on Sunday night for a couple of days - there’s even some rain forecast - but temperatures could be back up to 30C in a week’s time.

[Ozexpatriate]

3 hours ago, pH said:

We have the worst smoke of the summer so far.  Never mind see it, you can smell and even taste it. It was 35C this afternoon, but this heat is supposed to break on Sunday night for a couple of days

Yup, same here. We had a "jaffa moon" last night - a waxing crescent but bright orange through the wildfire smoke - and a fuzzy orange sunrise this morning. I tried to photograph the moon but the 'phone was not up to it - it blew out the shape and the colours. No chance of seeing any meteors.

 

Yesterday AQI was "unhealthy" and "unhealthy for sensitive groups" today.

 

We're on the tail end of three days of excessive heat (depending on the reporting station), around 38°C, 39°C and today slightly less, due to the heavy pall of wildfire smoke at 35°C. No rain in the forecast and hot again tomorrow at 37°C. Monday and Tuesday are supposed to drop into the twenties, but hot again on Wednesday.

 

Despite the (re)raging pandemic, I was pretty desperate to get out of the house. My son and I visited a display of custom luxury homes to see how the 2% live (a suitably masked and distanced activity with air conditioning.) I do like the 'indoor / outdoor' spaces they are creating in these new homes, though I have absolutely no need for a half-court basketball court*.

 

* It would however be more than sufficient for two-to-three floors (not just levels) of model railway.

[polybear]

6 hours ago, brianusa said:

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-cornwall-58146288

 

What prompts Brits to do this kind of thing on holiday?

      Brian.

 

Being Pondlife, coupled with too much Lager probably.  Not sure I can see the "£2000 of damage though" - the vast majority of what's in the pool appears to be plastic, apart from one wooden table that is designed and treated to live outside and get wet anyway.

 

In other news:

Some painting, some skirting, some architrave.  In that order, probably.

[chrisf]

Greetings one and all

 

There is a bit more to report about Sidmouth.  I bought 20 CDs which will spend as long as it takes to play them in the hessian bag.  Sadly not one of them is autographed.  I find this disappointing in the extreme.  If and when I get round to writing my feedback to the festival organisers I shall be sure to suggest that the performers are afforded ample opportunity to append their signatures.  It never used to be quite so difficult.  If you don’t ask, you don’t get.

 

While I was away some unwelcome news broke.  For the second year in succession Pride in London has been cancelled.  It should have taken place on 11th September.  I suppose it was too much to expect that a gathering of one million plus in the centre of London would be permitted in these troubled times, including a parade of over 30,000 marchers which would have included yours truly.  Learning that Amsterdam’s Pride went ahead did not help.  Oh well, better luck next year?  

 

Sooner or later I must discover for myself just how unkempt my garden has become in the almost three weeks since I last set foot in it.  Before I take this giant step for mankind, however, I need to do the fodder run.  I don’t enjoy that either but I enjoy starvation even less.  

 

Best wishes to all

 

Chris   

[TheQ]

mooring AWL Inner Temple Hare,

A good night's sleep, almost 7 hours sleep I needed that..

 

That BBC clip , of furniture in the pool, £2000 of furniture destroyed? Don't make me laugh, most of it is obviously plastic and can be fished out to be used no problem, the wooden stuff is obviously left out in the rain anyway. Going in the pool chlorine  for a dip may help it, killing off the stuff growing on the woodwork.

I'm guessing a couple a couple of drunk teenagers-early twenties..

 

I'm surprised the butcher's thought they could get away without paying vat, it's been well known for years there is vat on hot prepared food, but not on food for preparation at home.

Our local butcher's has half the shop selling filled baguettes roast pork/ beef/ turkey etc. They also have a van selling the same at local shows. Absolutely wonderful they are, if you ever visit stalham , sadly a very rare treat for me now as I avoid wheat bread..

 

Today's plans, plywood bashing followed by shelf assembly..

 

Time to , take a wander with Ben.

 

 

[polybear]

Well it seems that a certain "person" in Plymouth had their Firearms Licence and gun confiscated last December - and then returned to him in July.  Oops.  Some very awkward questions heading rapidly in someone's direction me thinks.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-58209726

[iL Dottore]

19 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

…In fact Skoda produced some pretty good cars no worse or less reliable than the equivalent Ford or Vauxhall.

And now that Skoda belongs to the VW group (along with Audi, SEAT and - of course - VW)  they are very good cars indeed. Partly due to the rigourous engineering standards of the VW group and partly because tried and proven components are used “under the hood“ across all marques.

We have a Skoda Yeti and we are very happy with her (“Hettie the Yeti”).  We were looking at a number of similar vehicles before we got her and I think it was Jeremy Clarkson‘s amusing test drive of the Yeti on Top Gear that helped make up our minds.

She’s been in the shop a number of times for repair, but for various dings and scrapes that she has suffered at my hands plus, in one memorable instance, after a trainee mechanic managed to reverse - at high speed - the car he was repairing into the Skoda’s right rear passenger door.  We have only had one true defect emerge in the five years or so we’ve had the car and that was when the rear boot door lock release mechanism failed.

16 hours ago, jonny777 said:

…It appears that these days, life is increasingly about showing off - and what better way (in the minds of show-offs) to do it than with a very expensive car? 

Well, it’s not like that absolutely everywhere. Although Switzerland does have its share of the nouveau riche who like to flash their money about in one way or another, they are mostly (if not completely?) foreigners. The Swiss have a saying: “the older the money the harder it is to see”  something I can corroborate from personal experience.  For a while, the surgeon attending to my rather complicated knee problems was a gentleman who - I later found out - was/is one of THE family that owned a multi billion dollar Pharma company.  And yet, to the uninformed eye, he seemed like a modestly well off, hard-working surgeon (he eventually stepped back somewhat from his medical duties because his Pharma company responsibilities were increasing).

Nice bloke as well.

12 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

So what stereotype does the Trabant I now drive put me in? 

 

Dave 

An elderly East German apparatchik, nostalgic for the days before the wall came down?

A bit of Urban Legend about the Trabant: apparently the Smithsonian Museum had to remove the engine of the Trabant they had bought for exhibition before it was shipped to the US, as the relevant government department deemed the engine to be too dangerous and polluting to be allowed into the US - even though the engine was in a static display, destined never to be used…

10 hours ago, JohnDMJ said:

…You dangle the carrot, you torment! Any chance of a link, please?

I will post the appropriate information in the next day or so.

27 minutes ago, polybear said:

….  Not sure I can see the "£2000 of damage though" - the vast majority of what's in the pool appears to be plastic, apart from one wooden table that is designed and treated to live outside and get wet anyway.

Presumably those costs include labour and (I wouldn’t be surprised to learn) draining, cleaning and refilling the pool.

 

Well nothing much else for me to witter on about, so I bid you a wonderful Saturday.

 

iD

[Barry O]

Ey up!

Today I shall be making a short journey to umpire a cricket match. Although I have a name for my colleague  I have never "stood" with him in a match before.

 

Two excellent Zoom meetings were attended yesterday. The world has been put to rights ..twice!

 

I need to go and brew the tea.

 

Stay safe!

Have a great day!

Baz

[TheSignalEngineer]

6 hours ago, Erichill16 said:

She always signals her intentions and in fact has a couple that aren’t in the Highway Code

 

Having spent several years before I owned a car cycling along the A34, A51 and A45 in south and east Birmingham I have plenty of alternative hand signals for errant drivers. Having said that it was probably no worse than when I lived on the other side of the city where we referred to one area having a reputation for rule-free road use as the North West Frontier and the main highway through it as the Khyber Pass. That was 60 years ago.

[TheSignalEngineer]

Good Morning everyone.

A few days hiding away in a field in the White Peak has left me several pages behind so I will endeavour some carch up later. 

46 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

now that Skoda belongs to the VW group (along with Audi, SEAT and - of course - VW)  they are very good cars indeed.

I have had an Octavia for 9 years. Two spring replacement jobs but that's common on most cars round here due to the state of our roads. The only non-wear and tear job which emerged a few weeks from new was a tailgate strut replaced under warranty.

Edited August 14, 2021 by TheSignalEngineer

[Andrew P]

Well another day, and still no big bright ball of fire in the sky. It did get a little warmer around these parts yesterday, enough for the washing to dry.

 

I had a mate around last night for a chat in The POD, we put the World to rights, along with looking at the planning stage of my MR, oh, and we also consumed some biscuits and coffee, as you do.

 

Anyway, moving on to today, and I will start making Video No 3 of the Build of my MRL which I try to publish to You Tube and my Thread on a Friday. With over 600 Subscribers to the Channel and about 550 Videos to date, It's holding up quite well.

 

Anyway off to The POD now, so.

 

Have a good day one and all, stay safe and keep well

Edited August 14, 2021 by Andrew P

[TheSignalEngineer]

7 minutes ago, Andrew P said:

Well another day, and still no big bright ball of fire in the sky. I did get a little warmer around these parts yesterday, enough for the washing to dry.

 

Overcast here this morning although the sun is making some effort. Fortunately yesterday had plenty of sunny intervals. The wind was a bit of a problem at times but it meant that the washing dried quickly and all of the camping gear is now cleaned and stowed in the correct places on the rack. I even managed to clean the bikes and check them over. 

[AndyB]

12 hours ago, tigerburnie said:

You're safe just now they're all up here on their summer holidays.

Yep.

Spotted that. 

Swmbo did a double take when she saw one drive past the Co-op.