Early Risers.

[Tony_S]

2 hours ago, polybear said:

and they've got your key).

(b) mount them somewhere hidden - I see far too many that are obvious from the street, which both invites scrotes to have a go at opening them and it also advertises that someone less able is probably in the house.

Aditi’s mum has a flat. There are 19 apartments in the building. It had one of those remote camera entry systems for those who don’t have a key. I don’t think residents can have keysafes so MiL’s keysafe is round the corner on Aditi’s sisters house. MiL’s overnight carers pick up the keys from that keysafe. I have no idea whether or not this is normal. 
Tony

[polybear]

Bear here......

Towels washed.  Tick.

A bit of M.E. Group project planning carried out.  Tick.

Much pondering, planning & measuring for 6mm MDF to cover the Leccy C.U. Box; I've just ordered six variously sized bits from a supplier I've used before - they cut accurately, pack properly and deliver when promised.  It's costing me a tenner for delivery 😢 and no doubt extra for the cutting - I may well save a tenner or so by going to B&Q but it's a gamble as to whether or not their cutting service is operating and quite often I seem to get a M.O.B who applies the "two cuts only" rule and won't budge (in the past they used to offer extra cuts for a quid a time but that seems to have disappeared lately.  So I reckon this is the best option and bvgger the expense.  I've also added a small piece of Clear Polycarbonate to the order so I can make a Chuck Guard for the Taig Lathe to stop swarf from being chucked everywhere.  Hopefully.

Bear gone

 

[TheQ]

Arternoon Awl,

Radiator centre piece made, came out well, some time was spent considering how to construct it, the main problem was the lattice work panel was 24inches high. But the hole it had to fit was 29 inches high. SWMBO decided a blank piece at the bottom was acceptable,  I was going to cut the excess end off as it was too wide, and match the piece in. It made it a lot easier to build.

 

Basically it's got a frame on the inside, that tightly fits in the outer radiator cover.

An outer framework that stops it being pushed through and a couple of bits wood  to stop it falling out.

 

After that another layer of fibreglass tissue was added to the rudder. Reinforcement of fore, aft, top and bottom to do next.

 

 

Edited January 17, 2023 by TheQ

[polybear]

Bear back......

 

Remember those wise words of @Winslow Boy (a.k.a. Jonah 🤣) earlier........

 

18 hours ago, Winslow Boy said:

 

Too true Bear. Your equalling my all-time high there of three 'good' successes.

 

I'd batten down the hatches and prepare for incoming if I were you.

 

Perhaps a duvet day tomorrow?

 

A concerned ER

 

- well soon after a certain Bear 'umped the stuff from the muddlin' room into the Hallway/Stairs ready for collection by the Ebay purchaser I get a phone call......

The purchaser was to buy/collect an Estate car nearby earlier but it turned out not to be what he'd hoped, so that all went pear-shaped; this in turn screwed up collection of Bear's stuff.  Piggin' Turdycurses.

However, the good news is the buyer was making all the right noises (including offering to pay up front and collect in a week or two) so all is not lost after all; it could actually benefit Bear as well 😉 (know worri mean Puppers..... @PupCam).

 

In other news.....

It seems the Met have today held a Misconduct Hearing in order to sack a certain PC who is sure to be scoffin' Porridge (hopefully thru' a straw) for a very long time; the hearing included the Met. Assist. Commissioner and the Counsel for the Commissioner - no doubt there was also a full suite of Flunkies present also.

Is Bear missing something here??  Bearing in mind the scrote is gonna be banged up for rather a long time (TBD) then what's wrong with the HR Dept. simply sending a letter addressed to sick weirdo, telling him he's sacked and to F.O. forthwith.  A lot cheaper - and it'd mean those present could be actually doing something useful instead - like stopping such things from happening again ....

Yep, Rant.

 

 

 

[Ian Abel]

CHewsday, AWOL, and late posting <phew>

 

Busy working days and weekend was busier than expected for reasons known only to higher powers!

 

Saturday a great dinner out with Trevor and Meagan at a local Korean restaurant.

Sunday up 'o crack sparrow to sing with the schola at the MLK services, THAT was tiring. Quick nap early afternoon then a trip to the rental property to review the attic carp.

We want/need to have the attic re-insulated and that means all the carp we decided to leave/store there after we moved has NOW to be sorted/chucked and/or stored here.

Wasn't as bad as expected, so we're starting to determine when to start on it. Given we head to AZ for a week next Tuesday, there's probably not much will get done before that trip.

 

Weather all over the charts here, we had above zero temps the latter part of Sunday and yesterday, including some rain, until the temp dropped then it turned to light snow!

 

-1c and overcast first thing, supposed to remain overcast all day with a high of +1c.

 

Onward.

[PhilJ W]

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. Have done very little today as a magazine arrived concerning things that run on two parallel bars of steel, so that was most of today spoken for.

5 minutes ago, polybear said:

It seems the Met have today held a Misconduct Hearing in order to sack a certain PC who is sure to be scoffin' Porridge (hopefully thru' a straw) for a very long time; the hearing included the Met. Assist. Commissioner and the Counsel for the Commissioner - no doubt there was also a full suite of Flunkies present also.

Is Bear missing something here??  Bearing in mind the scrote is gonna be banged up for rather a long time (TBD) then what's wrong with the HR Dept. simply sending a letter addressed to sick weirdo, telling him he's sacked and to F.O. forthwith.  A lot cheaper - and it'd mean those present could be actually doing something useful instead - like stopping such things from happening again ....

Yep, Rant.

I get the idea that heads will roll over this, the question is who's head? The present commissioner is pretty safe as he's only been in the job for five minutes and his predecessor has gone (but significantly is keeping her head down).

[Tony_S]

26 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

The present commissioner is pretty safe as he's only been in the job for five minutes

Been in the current job for a short while but was still working in the Met in a very senior position from 2011 to 2018. 

[PupCam]

Evening All!  

 

A Very late on parade Puppers here.

 

6 hours ago, polybear said:

Bear deliberately used to take the country lanes home from work after heavy snow cos' everyone else wouldn't risk it - so they spent hours in traffic jams instead.....

 

As did Puppers albeit different lanes (have you seen Bears driving?😜)      Far more entertaining and as the Bear said; avoided the queues caused by those unable to control a vehicle in a half decent fashion.

 

6 hours ago, New Haven Neil said:

Meanwhile, somewhere darn sarth in the UK...

 

 

Wot!     No LDC?

 

2 hours ago, TheQ said:

This has come up on one of my forums,

https://film.iwmcollections.org.uk/record/40623

The Type 85 radar, which was one of the two main radars when I was at work.

Note, the picture of the radar head rotating is a 1/3 scale prototype.

 

Very interesting.     It's a shame Puppers was unaware of TheQ some years ago.     I could have tapped his brain for some free radar training which would have been most useful.

 

In Other News

 

Puppers and Mrs Puppers were off out early this morning (7:00 ish) to head for the railway station.     -6C and I couldn't get in the car at first but eventually got a back door open and got it going so that it could start de-icing.      Even when I'd finished scraping the windows and lights I couldn't get the passenger door open so Mrs Puppers sat in the back.   I was unable to see if she was practising her regal, royal wave as we drove through Hitchin.    The battle with the station car park payment system was thankfully reduced to a minor skirmish.   Jumped on a a Thameslink train.    I have to say I'm very impressed with the Thameslink service, it's frequent and quick from our neck-of-the-woods although was rather busier than last time unfortunately.    However, we arrived in very good time for my appointment but slightly unfortunately the procedure which involved a number of very powerful magnets playing with Puppers' molecules took rather longer than had initially been stated (about 2 hours rather than the 45 minutes) but no matter the important thing was that it's been done.  The staff were excellent so a big thank you to all of them.     One young lady had Puppers' heart racing; amazing what those up and down arrows marked "Heart Rate" on her machine could do.

 

Looks like a clear sky tonight so, now I've had an afternoon eyelid inspection, I think I might whip the telescope out.     I intended to try and get a really good polar alignment so that I can get a really long total exposure of a fairly dark bit of sky and see what I can extract.    Like cc's in cars there's no substitute for minutes of exposure when it comes to deep sky astrophotography.

 

TTFNQ

 

Alan

[pgcroc]

1 hour ago, polybear said:

Bear here......

Towels washed.  Tick.

A bit of M.E. Group project planning carried out.  Tick.

Much pondering, planning & measuring for 6mm MDF to cover the Leccy C.U. Box; I've just ordered six variously sized bits from a supplier I've used before - they cut accurately, pack properly and deliver when promised.  It's costing me a tenner for delivery 😢 and no doubt extra for the cutting - I may well save a tenner or so by going to B&Q but it's a gamble as to whether or not their cutting service is operating and quite often I seem to get a M.O.B who applies the "two cuts only" rule and won't budge (in the past they used to offer extra cuts for a quid a time but that seems to have disappeared lately.  So I reckon this is the best option and bvgger the expense.  I've also added a small piece of Clear Polycarbonate to the order so I can make a Chuck Guard for the Taig Lathe to stop swarf from being chucked everywhere.  Hopefully.

Bear gone

 

B & Q give you 5 cuts free.

If you open a trade account which costs nothing I think you get 17 cuts.

Plus you may get some deals on their products.

Agree that the cutting guy(s) might not be there 100% of the time.

[polybear]

33 minutes ago, PupCam said:

As did Puppers albeit different lanes (have you seen Bears driving?😜)     

 

Many, many moons ago, in a previous Truly Great Empire a certain Bear was asked to give a certain Section Leader from a "rival" Trials Team (note to Puppers:  the chute lot) a lift back from Abbers.....including the stretch "over the top" thru' Newcastle Emlyn to Cardigan.....

It seems that at the next Grp. Co-ordinators' Monday morning meeting (hosted by the HoD, no less) a certain Bear's Boss was shouted at......

"Just what the f. are you running - a Trials Team or a F. Rally School??"

 

Oops.

 

edit:  Bear's Boss thought it all rather funny....though did have to keep a straight face at the time

 

 

Edited January 17, 2023 by polybear

[jamie92208]

3 hours ago, polybear said:

 

It seems the Met have today held a Misconduct Hearing in order to sack a certain PC who is sure to be scoffin' Porridge (hopefully thru' a straw) for a very long time; the hearing included the Met. Assist. Commissioner and the Counsel for the Commissioner - no doubt there was also a full suite of Flunkies present also.

Is Bear missing something here??  Bearing in mind the scrote is gonna be banged up for rather a long time (TBD) then what's wrong with the HR Dept. simply sending a letter addressed to sick weirdo, telling him he's sacked and to F.O. forthwith.  A lot cheaper - and it'd mean those present could be actually doing something useful instead - like stopping such things from happening again ....

Yep, Rant.

 

 

 

Police Regulations have to be abided by to dismiss Crown Servants eg sworn Constables.  I for one am very glad that they exist having suffered  the shenanigans of various drunken bullies called senior officers.  There is a procedure and as he has been found guilty of an arrestable offence at Crown Court it's a rubber stamp job.

 

Jamie

Edited January 17, 2023 by jamie92208

[New Haven Neil]

Apropos Manx driving - no injuries (otherwise I wouldn't show it) there was two together on this corner, funnily enough at the end of a quick bit of road.

 

[Erichill16]

3 hours ago, TheQ said:

This has come up on one of my forums,

https://film.iwmcollections.org.uk/record/40623

The Type 85 radar, which was one of the two main radars when I was at work.

Note, the picture of the radar head rotating is a 1/3 scale prototype.

Really interesting film but didn't really understand much of it. What surprised me was the amount of ‘stuff’ needed to make the thing work, especially the non electronic/electrical bits. 

[Gwiwer]

Evening all. Cold innit. 
 

Snowless but icy and with large frozen puddles to deal with.  
 

Nothing a steaming muggertea can’t fix. 

[PhilJ W]

Be interesting to find out exactly what happened here.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-64301329

According to the report the bus was going slow at the time.

[PeterBB]

21 hours ago, Winslow Boy said:

 

More like from the school of if you try it on with enough people the odds are there will be enough of them who are idiots, gullible, have guilty consciences to make it your 'effort' worth while 

 

That's the beauty of computers. Amongst the many things they are able to do is doing one relevantly easy thing very quickly and a lot of times with very little human involvement.

Even years ago it was amusing (but not) to think  'that doesn't seem like her/his style' look up and, lo and behold, there was the paragraph verbatum.  

[Gwiwer]

11 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

Be interesting to find out exactly what happened here.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-64301329

According to the report the bus was going slow at the time.

As a one-time professional driver of such things I too await a fuller version of events. It is possible that a sheet of ice covering the road led to a loss of control even at modest speed. The question might be why the driver didn’t spot it and - if they did - how they reacted. 
 

Reports suggest 54 of 70 passengers were slightly injured and the rest unharmed. 

[PhilJ W]

3 minutes ago, Gwiwer said:

As a one-time professional driver of such things I too await a fuller version of events. It is possible that a sheet of ice covering the road led to a loss of control even at modest speed. The question might be why the driver didn’t spot it and - if they did - how they reacted. 
 

Reports suggest 54 of 70 passengers were slightly injured and the rest unharmed. 

Only speculation but the driver may have had to take avoiding action from the other vehicle involved, a motorcycle.

[Tony_S]

1 hour ago, polybear said:

Oops

Was it your own vehicle or a company one?

[Ozexpatriate]

Yesterday's sunshine is gone. Today is dreary and dry with a forecast for late afternoon rain.

 

We haven't seen frozen precipitation since before Christmas. There were a couple of frosty mornings around New Years' Day, but mostly we've seen temperatures above normal*. We might see frosty mornings at the end of the week, but no freezing precipitation is forecast.

 

* In large measure due to the sequence of storms in California presenting a southerly flow which brought less cool temperatures.

 

Cable television coverage of the Australian Open tennis is tediously repetitive.  128 matches were scheduled (some are incomplete due to heat-related suspensions of play on day two) yet (highlights and a handful of match/set points excepted), I have mostly seen only two matches. 

 

I saw Nadal v. Draper live, then it was rebroadcast on two different channels* no less than three additional times. The same thing is happening today with Berrettini v. Murray which I saw live last night. There are 126 other matches they could have shown.

 

* ESPN (who have live broadcast rights) and Tennis Channel. Between them they alternate replay timeslots during the following day and keep showing the same match.

 

I'm mystified. The economics of the broadcast world are in turmoil and they are not flush with cash like they were. ESPN learned during the pandemic that instead of sending a small army of analyst/commentators on a January jolly to sunny Oz, they can make them work the graveyard shift in Bristol, Connecticut. That and emphasizing their paid-subscription streaming service, means the coverage is not what it used to be. Having one foot on the boat and one foot on the dock is not the best of both worlds, and that is what their coverage choices feel like.

 

Edited January 17, 2023 by Ozexpatriate

[polybear]

1 hour ago, Erichill16 said:

Really interesting film but didn't really understand much of it. What surprised me was the amount of ‘stuff’ needed to make the thing work, especially the non electronic/electrical bits. 

 

Many moons ago one of Bear's Buddies (Vic) was a Radar Man in the RN (he served aboard HMS Eagle at one point, so a few years ago now).

Anyway, he was told to report to a promotion panel for technical interview; just before the interview he saw a mate of his (also a Radar Man) that he'd not seen for some time.  Anyway, they had a few minutes to talk.....

Vic's Mate:  "Had a hell of a time with that bluddy Radar on HMS Wotsit - it was doing allsorts and we swapped every bit of the system and still couldn't fix it.  In the end there was only one bit left we hadn't gone over - and that's what the problem was".

 

Vic:  "So what was it?"

 

Vic's Mate: "Water in the f. waveguides!!  We drained it all out, new seals etc. and it was fine after that".

 

Anyway, Vic turns up for interview and a senior officer says:

"Right, you've got a Radar System that's playing up, doing allsorts; you've swapped all the usual bits and it's still playing up.  What would you do?"

 

Vic pondered for a moment, and then says:

"Well if you've tried all that then there's only one other thing it can be - water in the waveguides (he left out the f. bit......).

 

He got the promotion.

 

27 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

Only speculation but the driver may have had to take avoiding action from the other vehicle involved, a motorcycle.

 

That's exactly what Bear thought too.

 

13 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

Was it your own vehicle or a company one?

 

In those days it'd most likely have been an Avis jobbie - we did use our own cars at times but that was usually rare.

[monkeysarefun]

30 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

 

 

Cable television coverage of the Australian Open tennis is tediously repetitive.  128 matches were scheduled (some are incomplete due to heat-related suspensions of play on day two) yet (highlights and a handful of match/set points excepted), I have mostly seen only two matches. 

 

I saw Nadal v. Draper live, then it was rebroadcast on two different channels* no less than three additional times. The same thing is happening today with Berrettini v. Murray which I saw live last night. There are 126 other matches they could have shown.

 

* ESPN (who have live broadcast rights) and Tennis Channel. Between them they alternate replay timeslots during the following day and keep showing the same match.

 

I'm mystified. The economics of the broadcast world are in turmoil and they are not flush with cash like they were. ESPN learned during the pandemic that instead of sending a small army of analyst/commentators on a January jolly to sunny Oz, they can make them work the graveyard shift in Bristol, Connecticut. That and emphasizing their paid-subscription streaming service, means the coverage is not what it used to be. Having one foot on the boat and one foot on the dock is not the best of both worlds, and that is what their coverage choices feel like.

 

 

 

With a VPN would it be possible to stream from the channel 9 live coverage site https://www.9now.com.au/australian-open-tennis? I wouldn't expect  the "Connect to your telly" button would work, I assume that the channel 9 app wouldn't be available there but there's always chromecast or similar etc if you don't want to watch on your portable device. You need to create a channel 9 account and put up with Australian ads though. 

Edited January 17, 2023 by monkeysarefun

[Ozexpatriate]

It feels like the telephone has been ringing all day. Three times a robocall from the pharmacy informed me (or tried to) that they filled a script.  I need to get them to turn that off. On balance it's far more annoying than useful.

 

The day started with a robocall from a credit card provider telling me to download their mobile app to view a denied charge. Nope.  Or call a telephone number, which I did. *Someone* charged my card at 1:30am local time when I was tucked in and headed off to the land of nod after watching tennis and a little late night television. The charge will be 'disputed'.

 

Lately I've only used that card (coincidentally) at the pharmacy (of the annoying robocalls). It hasn't been used for an online transaction since a cancelled hotel stay as the pandemic shut-down began. *Someone* used it to purchase an iPad many years ago. It's the only card I've had that needed replacement based on demonstrated fraudulent activity.

 

Edited January 17, 2023 by Ozexpatriate

[Ozexpatriate]

2 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

With a VPN would it be possible to stream from the channel 9 live coverage

It's a good suggestion - thank you. The ads would actually be a good changeup - except for all the ones on sports betting.

[monkeysarefun]

Just now, Ozexpatriate said:

It's a good suggestion - thank you. The ads would actually be a good changeup - except for all the ones on sports betting.

Sports betting ads are banned during the actual event but they sure do cram them in tight before and after, leaving every in-game  ad spot free for KFC in the case of the cricket, I assume Maccas for the tennis. Though that would make a change from the ubiquitous  US pharmaceutical ads - (that seem to be one quarter spruiking the product and three quarters  listing the side effects...)

 

(34 degrees today, late afternoon change though to bring showers and wintery mid 20s back for the next week...)