Early Risers.

[pH]

12 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

One Cathay Pacific airline pilot I chatted with, remarked that a lot of pilots loved flying into the old Hong Kong Airport (Kai Tak Airport) because “they got the opportunity to play Top Gun with the airliner“ (his words, not mine. But the fellow was Australian, so a little bit of exaggeration might have been present).

Approach to Kai Tak from the cockpit:

 

 

and from the ground:

 

 

[polybear]

45 minutes ago, simontaylor484 said:

I would have thought in some cases in an accident/fire situation the batteries in an EV would ideally need to be disconnected. Now would this be as simple a procedure as cutting the cable with a fire axe although I doubt it.

 

I am currently sat in a Chinese takeaway waiting to pick up tonight's tea first time since before the pandemic 

 

Pretty much the first thing the Brigade will do in an RTA of any significance is up the bonnet and chop the battery leads using insulated cutters (similar to bolt cutters IIRC).  It would make sense to do that with an EV as well, but that's a guess.  If it were on fire I suspect they wouldn't be able to get near the thing to do that - and if the battery is already burning I suspect it'd be pointless anyway.

There have been more and more warnings about E-Bikes & Scooters in the news recently - especially about kits to convert ordinary bikes to an E-Bike (Halfords won't sell the kits) and also replacement batteries and chargers as they seem to be one of the biggest culprits in a fire.

 

In other news.....

Bear discovered yesterday that I'm almost out of one of the meds. I take.  Turdycurses.

So a quick call to the local chemist and......

.....it appears that when the Doc bumped the dose up from 25mg/day to 50mg/day *a certain Bear* assumed that I'd need to take two tablets instead of one.  Seems reasonable.....

......only the Doc & Chemist had other ideas and decided to feed Bear 50mg tabs instead, meaning I went from 25mg to 100mg.  Oops.  No doubt the sticky label mentioned something about all this, but hey, who reads instructions??  At this point Vivienne holds his head in despair....

After the Chemist reeled off a load of possible side-effects (none of which Bear has) I've been instructed to phone the Doc on Monday for further instructions - I may be told to lay off the tabs altogether for a few days.  

I guess it's pretty fortunate that they're not Viagra Tablets, as that could've been a bit awkward down the Co-op....

[zarniwhoop]

1 hour ago, simontaylor484 said:

I would have thought in some cases in an accident/fire situation the batteries in an EV would ideally need to be disconnected. Now would this be as simple a procedure as cutting the cable with a fire axe although I doubt it.

I have read several online reports of EVs catching fire a long time after an accident, mostly american reports.  I forget if all the reports I read had initially caught fire and then been extinguished, or if some had caught fire while in storage, but I suspect the latter. If I have remembered correctly, the battery structure in an EV can be damaged by a mild impact, eventually leading to self-ignition.

[Erichill16]

1 hour ago, polybear said:

 

 

 

At this point Vivienne holds his head in despair....

I may be told to lay off the tabs altogether for a few days.  

 

FFS.

I’d keep off all medication  for good if I were you!

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. My trip to the Mid-Suffolk might not happen after all. I telephoned my friend and he said he's not feeling well. I'll give him a call in the morning to see how he is. I don't want to travel all that distance on my own.

[andyram]

Evening all. This a quick check in before I head off to bed.it has been a long day. We were up at 6am and away by 7.30, arriving in Hunstanton some three hours later after a relatively clear run. Breakfast was consumed after we had found an establishment which catered for Sarah’s vegan needs.

 

The day has been spent around the town, ending with a meal in a pub in the old village. This was well stocked with a range of Adnams Ales including Broadside so I was more than happy. 
 

I spoke to mum and dad today. They are still not well, but symptoms seem no more serious than a heavy cold. That is promising news.

 

Sleep well.

Andy

[J. S. Bach]

Night Owl from the Piedmont.

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone 

 

Well  spoke too soon about the weather, it started to rain just after Ava and I got home. It’s been raging on and off ever since and it’s still raining now. Still, it did mean that I did ave to water the garden again! 

 

Today, Ava brought with her, her end of term certificates and her achievement medal. The medal is awarded to the student who achieves the highest marks for that academic year. As part of her award prizes, she also received £15 in amazon vouchers. Needless to say both Sheila and I are immensely proud of her, especially as she is borderline autistic and suffers from anxiety issues. 

 

This morning Ava assisted me in the kitchen, helping me to finish making the cheesecake. Once that was completed, we all went to the gift shop at Dunham Massey to pick up an jacket that Sheila had ordered. 

 

After dinner, Ava sat and watched a film, whilst I prepared the meat and vegetables etc for tonight’s curry. Both the curry and the cheesecake cake went down very well and everyone enjoyed them. After tea we all had a good chat, as we’d got plenty to catch up with. 

Edited July 24, 2022 by BSW01

[BSW01]

Goodnight all 

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[45568]

12 hours ago, tigerburnie said:

 On 50/60/70mph roads I drive around 10 mph slower, still do 30 or 40 on those bits where allowed,

 

AAAHHHH, a Toyota driver then!

 

 and I get the pleasure of annoying the inconsiderate who try everywhere flat out.

 

You mean those people who prefer to drive at the posted speed limits rather than dawdle??

This is exactly the sort of behaviour that leads to driver frustration and, it has been shown, ultimately accidents. I'm afraid I cannot agree with your sense of 'correct' 'clever' driving.

From Oz, aka 'The land of the slow white Toyota',

Peter C.

[monkeysarefun]

18 hours ago, Winslow Boy said:

 

Wow your well red for an antipodian.

It's just the land of common sense mate. To all those complaining about their books taking up too much room,  I don't want to come across as Captain Obvious, but just buy thinner books! Geez it's not rocket science. When I own  a bookshop it'll have 2 sections, thin books for the space conscious, and thick books for the show offs. 

Edited July 24, 2022 by monkeysarefun

[monkeysarefun]

Woke up to a cloudless sky and a top of 21 degrees.

Walked outside to have colourful birds come land on and around  me like I'm St Francis or a statue of some famous bloke but not one of those blokes who owned slaves or whatever.

Went  back inside to catch  up on my inbox, find email from Tuesday saying I've won $289 on Powerball. Place order for the pre-release Elegoo Saturn 2 3D printer (bigger build area! 8K screen!)

Pressed buy button expecting huge postage on a big box  from China to find that it's free shipping.

 

Australia - The opposite of a rant!

Edited July 24, 2022 by monkeysarefun

[Ozexpatriate]

2 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

When I own  a bookshop itll have 2 sections, thin books for the space conscious, and thick books for the show offs.

Don't forget to have a section organized by the colour of the spines, and another section "spines in" so only the paper is showing, organized in shades of white, off white, ecru, eggshell etc; so people who use bookshelves for decorating/Zoom* backgrounds will be delighted. (Sell 'em by the kilo.)

 

* Other web-conferencing solutions are available: Microsoft Teams, Cisco WebEx, Google Meet, etc.

 

I'm sure that the "Insta"** can help you with 'styling'.

 

**Meta Systems/Instagram

[Ozexpatriate]

1 hour ago, monkeysarefun said:

Walked outside to have colourful birds come land on and around  me like I'm St Francis

Is this because of the birdseed and/or mince in your pockets?

[monkeysarefun]

1 hour ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Is this because of the birdseed and/or mince in your pockets?

I've recently upped my intake of  unicorn sprinkles, I reckon they're making me irresistible.

 

Edited July 24, 2022 by monkeysarefun

[BR60103]

We had a reasonable trip to Niagara for Dayle's lunch.  There was a big convoy of flag-waving trucks going the other way. I identified one as a French flag, then realized that it was mounted sideways. ???

The government recently raised the speed limit on part of the road by 10 kph (100 to 110). It was impossible to go that fast. I don't know if the other drivers weren't reading the signs or ...

 

 

[iL Dottore]

17 hours ago, polybear said:

 

Ian "no sheds"

Eric "no workshop"

Bear " no garage"

This is getting serious.

…iD “no helicopter landing pad”

 

Yup, it’s pretty serious, alright .

[TheQ]

2 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

I've recently upped my intake of  unicorn sprinkles, I reckon they're making me irresistible.

 

Looking at that recipe I think you're trying to give yourself diabetes unless unicorn sprinkles are a herbal remedy.

 

Mooring Awl,

Ben the happy Collie was insistent on going out, however after a quick charge around he wanted back in fairly quickly.

 

5.5 hours sleep followed by 2 hours sleep a good total.

 

Cool breeze out there, sunny, 

The forecast is 17 gusting 30 mph which is a bit strong for sailing, but on our bit of river it's often less.

High tide is about the start of the first race so an increasing outgoing tide, all racing day.

 

I've read every one of my several thousand books except for one or two which were so badly written I just gave up on them, and the 14 in the to be read pile. At the moment however I'm re reading " A history of the English language"  a bit of a hefty book, you're lucky I'm not typing this in old English... Though I've just passed that and have reached the 1500s. The language becomes more easily readable but the spelling is a bit weird..

 

Yesterday our road outside was bicycle central, lots of people wobbling along who've obviously recently bought an E bike for the summer. They weren't as a single group, just tourists getting a sore back side.

 

Helicopter pad.. I don't need one. There's a 100ft square concrete pad less than 50yards from the house, most of the year it's available, just not when it's full of sugar beet... At the moment any landing would produce a cloud of mud dust like any car going past does..

 

Time for. A muggacoffee.

 

 

 

[iL Dottore]

Good morning all,

 

A better night, somewhat: in the absence of thunderstorms both dogs slept well, as did their humans. One thing that has become evident during this warm weather* we’ve been having, is that the dachraum (the loft which has been converted to a home office/TV room/spare bedroom) is in need of some really serious insulation. Not only will it make the space cooler in summer but also keep it warmer in winter.

 

*British Understatement 

 

Yesterday, whilst out shopping, I made a detour to one of our local DIY/garden centre places and bought some solar powered garden lights for me to play around with. The idea being to increase the light output and the duration so the light lasts overnight. A preliminary and cursory examination shows them to be a lot better than the solar lights I bought about 10 years ago (and which rapidly failed) with some very elegant and minimalistic circuitry. They are all, with one exception, using a 1.2 V 100mAh NiMh rechargeable battery - the exception is using a 200mAh one. Increasing the battery output life is definitely a “plug and play“ upgrade: just replacing the battery with something like a 400mAh or 500mAh battery should do the trick. Getting more light out of the LEDs is going to require a little bit more careful thinking: a detailed examination of the circuitry will reveal what the bits and bobs soldered on to the board are – which will allow me to figure out what needs to be changed (any suggestions from those who have “been there, done that“ would be welcome).

 

Unfortunately, just because The Bear is currently not having any symptoms from taking double doses of his medication, it doesn’t mean that he is out of the woods yet (no pun intended). Many of the serious side-effects of overdosage – including those involving the kidneys and/or the liver - can be initially asymptomatic and can only be detected by blood tests.
 

Although “being in the biz“ does make me somewhat cavalier about reading the prescribing information leaflet that usually comes with the medication (unless the medication is dispensed the old fashion way with the pharmacist filling little bottles with capsules or tablets from a big jar); there are a few things I do pay careful attention to: method and time of administration as well as contraindicated medications. Although the first would seem to be self evident (although it is not unknown for patients to use tablets as suppositories or suppositories as tablets) but the time of day and whether you should take the medication before or after meals is very important. The second is also critical: one medication can potentially attenuate or potentiate the effects of another and certain foodstuffs can also potentiate or attenuate the effects of a medication.

 

When you think about it, it’s amazing how underrated and underappreciated the liver is by the general public. As an organ, it doesn’t have the self evident prowess of a decent brain or the “entertainment appeal“ of the reproductive organs. And yet, arguably, it is even more critical for an individual’s survival than a number of other organs – especially “the home entertainment system”.

 

Enough anatomical waffling, I’m off to the workshop!

 

Have a great Sunday

Edited July 24, 2022 by iL Dottore

[polybear]

6 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

It's just the land of common sense mate. To all those complaining about their books taking up too much room,  I don't want to come across as Captain Obvious, but just buy thinner books! Geez it's not rocket science. When I own  a bookshop it'll have 2 sections, thin books for the space conscious, and thick books for the show offs. 

 

Cunning Bear employs Option 3:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Multi-Colour-Bookcase-Bookshelf-Wallpapers/dp/B01N29D56F/ref=asc_df_B01N29D56F/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=226377587466&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=14539515110077025487&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1007193&hvtargid=pla-765774429960&psc=1

Just think - no weight, no loss of space, no dusting, quick to read (just read the book titles), impress the neighbours (just don't let 'em get too close).  Sorted.

 

29 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

Unfortunately, just because The Bear is currently not having any symptoms from taking double doses of his medication, it doesn’t mean that he is out of the woods yet (no pun intended). Many of the serious side-effects of overdosage – including those involving the kidneys and/or the liver - can be initially asymptomatic and can only be detected by blood tests.

 

 

Bear just took a dekkers at the on-line instructions and it seems that doses up to 200mg a day are ok, so Bear at 100mg should be ok (though jumping from 25mg straight to 100mg isn't perhaps quite what the Doc had in mind).

 

Bear here....

Well the Beary Back is, er, back.  Turdycurses.  I expect the floor bashin' antics of yesterday gave it the right 'ump and it's decided to give Bear a little reminder.  It should ease off once I get moving.  Hopefully.

Today?  MIUABGA

 

Edit:  Oh yes, found this - with video.  Fortunately the painting is protected by glass.  I did think the security guard was a little too caring in the way he dragged them away once he'd unstuck their mitts (their superglue was pretty P.P. in this Bear's book - I didn't notice any cries of pain):

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/video/news/activists-dragged-away-after-glueing-themselves-to-painting/vi-AAZT694?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=5aa3c4f8597d4d178e2f49d8ee6d8031&category=foryou

 

Edited July 24, 2022 by polybear

[jamie92208]

Good moaning. 21 and clear blue skies here. It's going to be warm.  

 

We had our usual delightful hour chatting to Emily and her mums yesterday.  Rachel was commenting that Emily doesn't naturally play with other kids ther own age apart from the few she knows from nursery.  Thry've noticed the same solo behaiviour at birthday parties.  Apparently  parents are attributing it to the kids having been brought up for 2 years in virtual isolation.  Lockdown syndrome perhaps.  

 

Anyway various tasks got done during the day.  Today we are off to the market as usual then this afternoon will bob down to meet our other set of friends who arrived yesterday.  They had eventually got through the tunnel and found a hotel in Le Touquet, getting to bed at 02.00.

 

Ttfn.

 

Jamie

[chrisf]

I've been up for two hours already, with much to do.  The first task was to retrieve the car from the next street, where it had been left for want of a space anywhere near my house.  Between now and Thursday it will be loaded with camping gear and other holiday accessories.  The latter should include a portable radio which was not where I half-recalled leaving it and has not yet surfaced.  One happy rediscovery was a carrier bag containing three Swiss rail atlases which I had not left on a train after all.  After I retrieved the car I enjoyed a long soak in the bath.   Oh, the luxury.

 

There was a river festival in Bedford yesterday which I did not bother to attend.  I thought it best to devote the time preparing for my imminent week and a bit in Sidmouth.  It's the sort of job where I think I have packed everything only to find something that I had overlooked.  It continues today.

 

Chris  

[Barry O]

Ey up!

Rain delayed the start of our match yesterday. The pitch was "interesting".. variable bounce which caused the batters much tribulations.

 

We only needed to get the ball back out of the River 3 times, only once did they need to use their coracle.

 

Game went well and it could have gone either way until the Home captain came in to bat. He smashed the ball everywhere.

 

Meanwhile youngest Herbert managed to get out for 92..silly boy!

 

Today we are all off to Headingley to watch England v South Africa. They need to remember how to bat!

 

Time to get started for the day..  mugatea then bacon and mushroom sarnies for breakfast.

 

Enjoy your day!

 

Baz

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. The day out at the Middy is on. My friend is feeling fit enough to go but has overslept so we will be setting off a bit later than intended. Now just have to pack the food and drink into  the cool bag and set off.