Early Risers.

[Ozexpatriate]

52 minutes ago, The Lurker said:

... laws introduced by either Obama or Clinton ( I forget which)

The Obama administration relaxed many of the sanction-related restrictions* with Cuba. Most of them had been in force since the Cuban revolution.

 

They later went back into effect with an administration change.

 

* I'm presuming only those under executive (not legislative) authority.

 

Edited May 13, 2023 by Ozexpatriate
Spelling

[Ozexpatriate]

3 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

No,  its a Ford F650, could be coming to a car park near you!

Never seen one. It's a custom - not a factory offering.

 

Built on the Ford F-650 commercial truck - small dump truck etc.

[monkeysarefun]

1 hour ago, Hroth said:

Apparently the UK tried exporting Morris Minor Pickups to Australia as "Utes"

 

 

I wonder why they didn't catch on?  🤪

 

 

 

 

If it didnt it would have been based on its performance in Australian conditions compared to local utes  rather than its "uteness".

 

Its not unlike the first mass produced Holden ute, the FX of 1953.

Speaking of which, I drew one up in Blender recently and a company here with a colour 3D printer knocked them out in all the prototype colours in  N gauge for last weekends Great Train Show at Rosehill, among various other cars I've done.

 

Theres not been any Aussie N scale Australian car  models available before so the sales were crazy, sold out in the first few hours!

 

Edited May 13, 2023 by monkeysarefun

[monkeysarefun]

1 hour ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Never seen one. It's a custom - not a factory offering.

 

Built on the Ford F-650 commercial truck - small dump truck etc.

Fair enough! I admit I  didnt actually read too far into the story, reading about those things just makes me sad when I think of all the awesome utes  we used to make here and the ridiculous US monsta trucks that are coming in to replace them.

 

There was an episode of Wheeler Dealers on TV at work last week and they did up some monstrous US pickup , the fat bloke was raving over how amazing it was -  all powerful and mental with a V8 in it -  "only in the US!" - obviously needs to do more homework about Australia and what we did here, the Malloo specs cr@pped all over it!

Edited May 14, 2023 by monkeysarefun

[Andy Hayter]

36 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

That's a lot of cats. Does Mme Vétérinaire offer a volume discount?

 

We do indeed get a "bulk buy" discount.

[monkeysarefun]

21 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

The Obama administration relaxed many of the sanction-related restrictions* with Cuba. Most of them had been in force since the Cuban revolution.

 

They later went back into effect with an administrative change.

 

* I'm presuming only those under executive (not legislative) authority.

 

Out of all the countries in the world Cuba is the only one that will cost me my security clearance if I go there. No idea what they have done to offend Australia so badly , I assume its on orders from the US!

[Ozexpatriate]

6 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

Cuba is the only one that will cost me my security clearance if I go there.

I'm surprised that the DPRK and (less so) Iran aren't on that list too.

[monkeysarefun]

5 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

I'm surprised that the DPRK and (less so) Iran aren't on that list too.

About 10 years ago a  bloke I work with went on a tour of Nth Korea with his church group, had no issues other than  undergoing a brief and debrief. He

brought us all back Nth Korean postcards - all of which have depictions of various war atrocities (hangings, bayonetings etc etc) that the Nth Koreans accuse the US and Sth Korea of perpetrating on their brave soldiers  during the Korean War, along with what I assume is "Greetings From Nth Korea!" or similar on them. Pretty grim!

Edited May 14, 2023 by monkeysarefun

[monkeysarefun]

What I love about time zones is that while everyone else is asleep I can fill the entire ER space up with utes.

 

I know - while I've got the place to myself I reckon I can do a bloody brilliant burn out right through the middle of it!

 

 

Hmmm that didnt go as expected..

 

 

Edited May 14, 2023 by monkeysarefun

[jjb1970]

6 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

Not sure about that, but perhaps yes. I do see Toblerone in the (non-tourist) shops, but the amount available (in terms of display space) is but a fraction of that dedicated to Lindt, Caillier and to other Swiss chocolate makers (including the shop’s own house brands)

 

Of course the premiere Swiss chocolate, the Rolls Royce of deliciousness is Sprüngli. All their products are still handmade and use high-quality ingredients and this is reflected in the price. For example a box of 16 Grand Cru dark chocolates will set you back £34. And the chocolates you buy in their shops are meant to be eaten within a day or so of purchase (not that they ever last that long)

 

One of my pet hates is abuse of the 'made in....' or 'xxxx made' moniker, I know I'm like a record with a scratch but in most cases it is a meaningless marketing tag.

 

Things vary by country, but in most cases it means assembled in xxxx and with a percentage of value (more than 50% or a higher figure) added in xxxx. That means that a company can produce knockdown kits in their preferred low cost manufacturing location, assemble and package them in their prestigious location of choice, do a QA check which costs more than making the kit and hey presto, suddenly it's made in xxxx. 

 

I'm a watch enthusiast, true Swiss watches cost $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$s, but the world is full of 'Swiss Made' watches assembled from kits in Switzerland and with a nice name and fake heritage story to sell them (sorry for sounding cynical). The real losers are the genuine companies making stuff in a given country who see their heritage diluted and abused by lower cost competition. The Swiss watchmaker H.Moser refused to apply 'Swiss Made' to their watches as they consider it a joke, and they actually are Swiss made.

 

And for all I like to support artisan and traditional production in countries with a heritage in a certain field (where I can afford it), in terms of product quality it doesn't matter. One (of many) things the Japanese are excellent at is maintaining global consistency in product quality, so if you buy a Toyota it doesn't matter where it was manufactured, it's a Toyota. 

[Ozexpatriate]

19 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

What I love about time zones is that while everyone else is asleep

I've been here much of the day because it is unseasonably hot (33°C).  We probably set a record for the date. It's a stunning cloudless day with bright blue skies but not a day for outside chores. The weather reports constantly remind people that the rivers (full of snowmelt and debris) are dangerously cold for swimming - some are still below 10°C.

 

I closed the hatches and turned the air conditioning on this morning when it was 24°C inside this morning around 9:00am and it was going to get hotter. There was no other way to shift the thermal mass. (I set my cooling set point on the thermostat to 76°F / 24°C.)

[jjb1970]

10 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

Grrr! Now in Greenwich and The Queen’s House is closed - due to “private function” (I wonder how much that costs?)

 

I also visited the National Maritime Museum (although Saturday probably isn’t the best day - wot wif loads of screamin kids and all dat).

 

I was pleased to note that, compared with my previous visit, a lot more of the museum’s artefacts, paintings an beautiful ship models were on display (and displayed well). However, all the labels to the displays were really dumbed down (and some were just plain wrong) with some totally inappropriate PC (or “wokery” if you are being caustic and unkind) - such as the label referring to the number of people crewing a warship in Nelson’s time (silly me, thinking that Nelson had his ships manned by sailors)

 

I was particularly annoyed by a special about “connections to the sea” (or some such) that failed to mention the Dutch, the French, the Spanish, the Portuguese, the Venetians and Genoese or even the British (which, uninformed numbskull that I am, I had thought were great seafaring nations and nation states…)

 

Well, I shan’t loose any sleep over it, I’ll be dead soon and no longer bothered…

 

I visited the National Maritime Museum for the first time in many years last December and found it rather disappointing, it can't seem to decide what it wants to be with the result it doesn't really seem to be anything. However, as you say, they do have some wonderful paintings and models on display. Something that made me smile is they have a model of one of the big HMM containerships, the IMO building in London has an identical model on display, HMM must have had a glut of the things to distribute.

[jjb1970]

The story about the frigate under construction in Glasgow isn't that unusual in British yards. American yards are if anything worse. The weird ones are the yards in South Korea, they're obsessed with quality but the unions are very strong so if they get upset it can get rather nasty. They don't sabotage ships but it can get quite scary with stand offs and aggressive behaviour, though in their defence they leave outsiders such as class surveyors and owners representatives out of it and keep it between the yard and unions.

[jjb1970]

1 hour ago, monkeysarefun said:

About 10 years ago a  bloke I work with went on a tour of Nth Korea with his church group, had no issues other than  undergoing a brief and debrief. He

brought us all back Nth Korean postcards - all of which have depictions of various war atrocities (hangings, bayonetings etc etc) that the Nth Koreans accused the US and Sth Korea of perpetrating on their brave soldiers  during the Korean War, along with what I assume is "Greetings From Nth Korea!" or similar on them. Pretty grim!

 

The DPRK is one of the countries I'd really love to visit, primarily out of curiosity as it's one of the few countries in the world about which little is known and which seems to be different. The conventional wisdom is it is some sort of cartoon looney cesspit where people are killed in ever more imaginative ways by their rulers but most people probably lead their everyday lives and go about their business quite happily despite their political system. I see representatives of the DPRK at IMO and they're just normal people (though I'm sure they're heavily vetted and politically 'reliable' to be posted to London), I'd like to go there just to satisfy my own interest. I love the Republic of Korea, it's a beautiful country.

[monkeysarefun]

3 hours ago, jjb1970 said:

One of my pet hates is abuse of the 'made in....' or 'xxxx made' moniker, I know I'm like a record with a scratch but in most cases it is a meaningless marketing tag.

 

 

One of the major supermarkets here used to claim one of their bread lines was "baked fresh in-store daily "  Which actually turned out to mean "bread that was made in Ireland, Germany and Denmark months earlier then frozen before being flown right across to  the other side of the world to be reheated in-store daily.. "

 

Their solicitor tied himself in knots trying to explain why that wasn't deceptive in any way:

 

https://www.smh.com.au/national/coles-found-guilty-of-passing-off-bread-made-overseas-as-freshly-baked-20140618-zsddz.html

 

 

Edited May 14, 2023 by monkeysarefun

[monkeysarefun]

28 minutes ago, jjb1970 said:

 

The DPRK is one of the countries I'd really love to visit, primarily out of curiosity as it's one of the few countries in the world about which little is known and which seems to be different. The conventional wisdom is it is some sort of cartoon looney cesspit where people are killed in ever more imaginative ways by their rulers but most people probably lead their everyday lives and go about their business quite happily despite their political system. I see representatives of the DPRK at IMO and they're just normal people (though I'm sure they're heavily vetted and politically 'reliable' to be posted to London), I'd like to go there just to satisfy my own interest. I love the Republic of Korea, it's a beautiful country.

My workmate said they have amazing 12 lane freeways with absolutely no cars on them. He was too paranoid to take any photos of anything though!

[zarniwhoop]

1 hour ago, monkeysarefun said:

What I love about time zones is that while everyone else is asleep I can fill the entire ER space up with utes.

Sleep ?  That's something for the daytime, isn't it ? And no, I'm not a black-ribboner  [discworld reference], I lurvve garlick and I do not sleep in a coffin, nor have a servant called Igor. 🙂

[Ozexpatriate]

2 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

He was too paranoid to take any photos of anything though!

Don't take any posters as souvenirs. 

[Ozexpatriate]

3 hours ago, jjb1970 said:

The conventional wisdom is it is some sort of cartoon looney cesspit where people are killed in ever more imaginative ways by their rulers but most people probably lead their everyday lives and go about their business quite happily despite their political system.

The question is really one of what the quality of life looks like for everyday people - those who are not rocket scientists or in the military - and whether they have sufficient food. The 1990s were reputedly very bad.

 

People are the same everywhere and subject to whatever 'world view' is presented to them.

 

Edited May 14, 2023 by Ozexpatriate

[jjb1970]

Anyone for chocolate coated potato crisps?

 

[Ozexpatriate]

8 minutes ago, jjb1970 said:

Anyone for chocolate coated potato crisps?

Not really much different to chocolate coated salty pretzels - which are also an add-in to ice cream.

[Hroth]

3 hours ago, zarniwhoop said:

Sleep ?  That's something for the daytime, isn't it ? And no, I'm not a black-ribboner  [discworld reference], I lurvve garlick and I do not sleep in a coffin, nor have a servant called Igor. 🙂

 

How are you with mirrors?

 

[jamie92208]

Good moaning.  It's sunny here.  Market then lunch at a friends.  Not a bad day to look forward to.  We didn't have a 6 Yr old for a sleepover otherwise we would probably be in the shed playing trains now.  He was poorly. 

 

Regards to all. 

 

Jamie

[Ozexpatriate]

The forecast for the week ahead is hot, hot, hot.

 

Seasonally 'normal' high temperatures for this time of year are 20°C. Every day through Friday is forecast to be >29°C.

 

Normally we see on average one day in May over 90°F / 32°C. Tomorrow with be the third consecutive day over 90°F, each a record for the day.

[Barry O]

Ey up!

 

Interesting match to umpire yesterday. Pitch and outfield a bit soft. Low scores with the home team scoring 104 for 9 wickets to win...

 

Another match today.. it is now due to be dry and sunny..wooooppppiiiiddddoo!

 

Big problem today as the Leeds Marathon (the Rob Burrow marathon) is taking place. I commend the money raising but question why the route goes up and down some big hills around here and is somewhat difficult to avoid.

 

The UTE my friend has is badged as a Holden @monkeysarefun. But I checked out others which allseem reverse tardis like.

 

Time for tea, breakfast then.. a bit more cricket paperwork before my match today.

 

Have a great day!

 

Baz