Early Risers.

[PhilJ W]

4 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

Your comment is humorous, but it does reveal a very destructive mindset: that of “everyone must have prizes”. It’s destructive because it ill prepares children for real life - where, more often than not, you don’t win and because it fosters a sense of entitlement (“I bothered to turn up, I demand “X”).

Making everyone “winners” I feel is counterproductive, not only for the reasons above, but also because “failure” in one field leads to success in another. Everyone excels at something and the trick is looking beyond the usual and finding out what it is.

As @Coombe Barton will confirm some don't even bother to turn up but still expect a prize.

[Coombe Barton]

Hot here - the necessity for work outside is there - as I cook outside I can't ignore it. Then it'll be off out somewhere - where I haven't decided, but definitely with photos.

[PhilJ W]

4 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

1957? Really?
 

Was it a standard vehicle specially modded by Q Branch or was it one of those ultra-high tech concept cars that used to regularly appear at the various motor shows?

 

I must say I envy your pocket money allowance, it must have been humongously generous. In 1957 my pocket money was barely enough to buy a Corgi car, let alone anything bigger…

Enough to buy a Corgi car! my pocket money just about paid for a Matchbox car. I had to put my pocket money aside for two or three weeks if I wanted a Dinky or Corgi car. The first Dinky I purchased was the Dinky Dublo Royal Mail van which cost 2/9d. I know how much it cost  because I still have it in it's original box with the price written on  the end flap. Matchbox models were sold at 1/3d and later went up to 1/6d.

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Hot and sticky last night, woke up twice for no particular reason but managed to get back to sleep again, more than six hours sleep in all. Today seems a lot cooler than yesterday but according to the thingumy at the bottom of the screen it's 24C. but it doesn't feel that hot probably due to the breeze.

[Coombe Barton]

22 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

As @Coombe Barton will confirm some don't even bother to turn up but still expect a prize.

One of the non-regrets that I'm leaving behind

[Tony_S]

1 hour ago, iL Dottore said:

There was a fair amount of what I would term “hipster/millennial“ types of food on that list but still quite a few useful dishes/starting ingredients for the more traditionally minded.

We had a look at the list. We might try the Waitrose No 1 sourdough loaf instead of the Bertinet one we occasionally buy (we make most of our own bread) . I like Heinz low sugar salt baked beans but we will try a tin of the organic Waitrose ones. We are both baby boomers rather than Millenials or hipsters  so won’t be buying flavoured water. My intense dislike of coconut and nuts generally takes a couple of items on the list out. I was actually thinking recently whether I should swap my morning toast for Shredded Wheat. Waitrose and M&S Food do have a lot of healthy food on sale. We still have the bulk of our food,shopping delivered so I can be a bit out of touch with new stuff. 
I was amused when we recently met my brothers fiancée for the first time. She is totally opposed to convenience /processed foods and was much amused by my brother’s kitchen cupboard of bottled sauces. She was brought up in Venezuela and you ate what you had grown or purchased in a market. In England she prefers to buy from Waitrose. My brother’s late wife had been a chef who became a food technologist designing puddings for supermarkets. My brother doesn’t eat cake though. 

[The White Rabbit]

1 minute ago, Tony_S said:

We had a look at the list. We might try the Waitrose No 1 sourdough loaf instead of the Bertinet one we occasionally buy (we make most of our own bread) . I like Heinz low sugar salt baked beans but we will try a tin of the organic Waitrose ones. We are both baby boomers rather than Millenials or hipsters  so won’t be buying flavoured water. My intense dislike of coconut and nuts generally takes a couple of items on the list out. I was actually thinking recently whether I should swap my morning toast for Shredded Wheat. Waitrose and M&S Food do have a lot of healthy food on sale. We still have the bulk of our food,shopping delivered so I can be a bit out of touch with new stuff.  ....

 

I've had the Waitrose No.1 sourdough, it won't be to everyone's taste but I like it. (They also do other sourdough breads, 'white', spelt and malt and seed sourdough). https://www.waitrose.com/ecom/shop/browse/groceries/bakery/bread/sourdough_bread

 

Re flavoured water, I usually splash a bit of lemon juice into my glass. Much cheaper and I can do as much or little as I like. 

 

One reason for getting most of our supermarket groceries from Waitrose and Ocado is the availability of healthier items and more 'interesting' dishes/ingredients. The Crosta and Mollica pizza base (no. 14) is also a favourite. 

[Gwiwer]

1 hour ago, Coombe Barton said:

Hot here - the necessity for work outside is there - as I cook outside I can't ignore it. Then it'll be off out somewhere - where I haven't decided, but definitely with photos.

Warming up fast here after a brief morning shower and earlier thick cloud. 
 

The car is loaded. Tip run first, dropping more books into a shop in Camborne then filling the space with supplies from the Big Orange Place. Followed by a visit to the clubroom where I expect to find it too hot for comfort. But I’ll show my face and relocate some dust before an early departure. 
 

The new front gate has been adjusted and now hangs and swings as it should. It has gone away for painting. We are temporarily an ungated community. 

[PupCam]

Morning (Pre-munch)!

 

9 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

There is "electronic LEGO". A company in Israel markets conducting LEGO-compatible bricks under the brand BRIXO.  They can be placed on a standard LEGO plate - though they provide their own in their sets.

 

There are rules about adjacency and conductivity - they have little surface ridges that make contact and only some orientations will conduct. Their starter sets have motors and magnetic and optical switches. A couple of their 'sets' can be used to motorize LEGO vehicles.

 

I know, but I was merely referring to the Lego-like ability to join various objects in different ways to achieve a variety of results. 

The kit is not Lego, it is not compatible with Lego, it doesn't look like Lego, it doesn't smell like Lego, it doesn't taste like Lego .......

 

9 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Words are important. Choose them appropriately.

 

Indeed they are that's why I said ....

 

12 hours ago, PupCam said:

 ......Part of the amusement was building a light dependent tone generator circuit with eldest Junior Junior Puppers (6).     The box says "For ages eight years and upwards" but he got on well with it.    Each component is held on a carrier and has stackable "Popper" connections.   Straight interconnecting carriers of varying lengths and a plastic baseboard with a matrix of support pins to clip the components and interconnections to produce a form of  "Electronic Lego".    Fully illustrated instructions allow you to make the thing look "just like the picture" and get the thing working.   I didn't think it appropriate or necessary to explain the difference between the PNP transistor and the NPN transistor at this point.   Or in fact  even what a transistor is 🤣   Still, "You've got to get them hooked on technical stuff early" is my motto.

 

....... and enclosed the term in quotes.

 

5 hours ago, polybear said:

Bear plugs in his Garmin Sat Nav to the Lappy for free lifetime updates.  Isn't vintage wonderful?

 

Garmin kept worrying Puppers to buy the Updates for Life package.    When he finally shelled out the 0.75+ Deltics or whatever it was and tried to use them he got a "This device has insufficient memory and cannot be updated" error.        They would have known that because they knew what device I had when they started worrying me .......... Qualifies for a 'sterds I fancy.

 

           Garmin?       Pah!

 

5 hours ago, polybear said:

Er, WHY??  We both know there's no money in it..... (that could be a Rant).

 

Good point, well made.

 

In my defence, even though I'm past worrying about "technical" stuff for a living I remain ever interested in a very broad range of technical "stuff" and perpetually fascinated with science and engineering and keen to pass that interest on.   To misquote the saying relating to a man and Watford;  "You can take the man out of engineering but you can't take the engineering out of man" .

 

Related to that I've recently been reading a book I bought years ago; "The Secret World of Vickers Guided Weapons" by John Forbat (2nd Edition).  An interesting mix of autobiography and details of the trials and tribulations of the design and development  of a couple of early systems.    One of those was Red Dean, a first generation active radar guided, air-to-air missile.   It goes into some (de-classified) detail on the principles and problems to be addressed  in such systems which at the time were compounded by the lack of modern technology ideally suited to such things.    In the end Red Dean came to nought apart from the knowledge gained because the world moved on and the threat changed - a story as old as time particularly in the defence industry.

 

But getting back to @polybear's point, yes I should be encouraging the Junior Junior Puppers to follow the money not the interest.      You can't pay the bills with interest unless it's the interest accrued from a small fortune.

 

5 hours ago, polybear said:

Agreed; Bear never realised that Puppers has had his work published in MRJ....

 

There's a lot Bear doesn't know about Puppers 🤣   Like his motor "racing" exploits at Mallory Park, his (long lapsed) Patents, his work with the IMechE, his daredevil tight-rope motorcycling feat over Cheddar Gorge etc etc*

 

* OK so one of those is fictitious

 

1 hour ago, Coombe Barton said:

‘Avoid ingredients you don’t know’: 25 of the healthiest ultra-processed foods you can buy in the UK

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/article/2024/jul/31/avoid-ingredients-you-dont-know-25-of-the-healthiest-ultra-processed-foods-you-can-buy

 

BEAR!   looks like you are going to be OK with Items 5 &14.  Mind you the whole thing looks more like a Waitrose advert than a learned article to this Pup.

 

ION

 

A walk has been walked before it got too hot.   A friend, former colleague and fellow village dweller was bumped into so we quickly put the world to rights for 15 minutes or so whilst standing in the shade.  

 

I've been doing more spectacle comparison tests.  Inconclusive and confusing.   Maybe I just need new eyes? 

 

This afternoon there is a classic vehicle show in a nearby village but I think it's going to be too-hot-TBA so instead I might think about rustling up a couple of 1/4 scale Tiger Moth instrument panels.

 

It's getting close to munchtime so I must be off.

 

TTFN

 

 

 

 

 

[The Lurker]

19 hours ago, Peter Kazmierczak said:

I remember taking my class to the British Museum, back in the day, and noticed a child (from another school) picking the Rosetta Stone with a pencil. Presumably it's more potected nowadays...

Yes it is - surrounded by glass and tourists

[The Lurker]

8 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

 

"Gold medals per capita" sounds good. I shall suggest that to our local media once the US passes us.

 

The one thing that annoys me about the Olympics was the scandalous way that bloody horses organised to get themselves a gig in them . No other wildlife gets a look in - obviously under the table deals were done that are just waiting  for some decent  investigative journalism.

Yes, ever since the live pigeon shooting was dropped after the first Paris Olympics, it's just the horses.

[polybear]

2 hours ago, Coombe Barton said:

UPF - doesn't say they're healthy, 

‘Avoid ingredients you don’t know’: 25 of the healthiest ultra-processed foods you can buy in the UK

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/article/2024/jul/31/avoid-ingredients-you-dont-know-25-of-the-healthiest-ultra-processed-foods-you-can-buy
 

iD will be pleased to note that Baked Beans are on the list…..

[Tony_S]

19 minutes ago, The Lurker said:

Yes it is - surrounded by glass and tourists

Not quite the Rosetta Stone but I had attended an educational computing conference in Nottingham (late 1980s) and showed Aditi’s father the output from a South Asian languages word processor. It had eight different scripts. After a while FiL said “it is the same story “. He could read 7 of them . I asked why he knew so many, he said his family had moved about a lot, so he and his brothers learned each language, including Farsi, when they were based near the land  then  known as  Persia . 

[Tony_S]

4 minutes ago, polybear said:

iD will be pleased to note that Baked Beans are on the list…..

I am not convinced that baked beans are bad anyway. If they are the only thing eaten it wouldn’t be good, but neither would a diet of just Boston baked beans, which contain stuff like molasses. I don’t like coconut but am very content to let others enjoy it. 
 

[BSW01]

On this day, 7 years ago, I made my final appearance as a paid employee and ever since then I’ve loved every minute of my retirement. Although I do miss seeing and chatting with my former colleagues, I don’t miss the stress and pressure of work at all. 

[PhilJ W]

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. Just had a very nice potato salad for lunch and very nice it was too. Tonights dinner will be a pizza, not a C&M but a very similar item from Tess Coes finest range. Looking at the contents it is equally sparse of the UPF's (and not much cheaper than the C&M pizzas).

[45156]

Afternoon All,

 

30747 had to go to Shrewsbury this morning to go through the MRI scanner.  She got the bus no problem, but when I went out to have my first trip to and from Ludlow on my own, I waited an hour for the next but one bus, which hadn't arrived - I rang the bus company, and they had a problem that a driver had taken ill and they were running both local buses in one - something which they do for staff illness and vehicle failure.  I had bustimes.org open on my mobile, and it showed the bus was actually fairly close - then the next thing I saw was that it had just gone round the roundabout without coming into the Park and Ride - and was now disappearing back to Ludlow - so I just went home, and will get the dinner started as soon as 30747 shows herself off whatever bus she is able to get back up from tiwn.

 

Dinner should have been half an hour ago, but her scan was delayed due to the previous patient being taken ill inside the scanner, so she missed her bus and that service is only every hour! 

 

Back sometime soon.

 

Regards to All

Stewart

Edited July 31 by 45156

[iL Dottore]

2 hours ago, polybear said:

iD will be pleased to note that Baked Beans are on the list…..

Ah, but they're organic! (£1/tin)

Edited July 31 by iL Dottore

[iL Dottore]

2 hours ago, Tony_S said:

I am not convinced that baked beans are bad anyway. If they are the only thing eaten it wouldn’t be good, but neither would a diet of just Boston baked beans, which contain stuff like molasses. I don’t like coconut but am very content to let others enjoy it. 
 

Baked Beans, per se, aren't add bad for you. But the healthiness of those beans depends upon a lot of things, most notably the amount of salt, sugar, and things like thickeners, stabilisers, anti-oxidants, etc. (the cheaper the tin of beans, the higher the amounts of such things).

 

I don't particularly care for tinned baked beans, far preferring homemade Boston Baked Beans (with fatback bacon and molasses - yum), but apart from pelati, tomato purée, kidney and borlotti beans,artichoke hearts and Spam, I find most tinned goods to have either an unsatisfactory taste or texture or both.

Edited July 31 by iL Dottore

[Tony_S]

26 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

Ah, but they're organic! (£1/tin)

We will try them but they are similar to Heinz standard beans for salt and sugar content but have more than the Heinz no added sugar, low salt version we prefer. 
Heinz now do quite a few organic products but not baked beans at the moment. 

[jjb1970]

Just as long as you don't add a pickled egg accelerant to those organic beans.

[PupCam]

30 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

I don't particularly care for tinned baked beans, far preferring homemade Boston Baked Beans (with fatback bacon and molasses - yum), but apart from pelati, tomato purée, kidney and borlotti beans,artichoke hearts and Spam, I find most tinned goods to have either an unsatisfactory taste or texture or both.

 

 I was wondering about the health benefits of the emphasised items and was looking up molasses.

 

Am I the only one spot the irony in the cookie prompt? 🤣

 

 

 

[Ian Abel]

10 hours ago, polybear said:

I see Britain has a Gold in the Shooting; I find this rather amusing as a certain gun-obsessed country came no-where.....

I was going to comment/explain as follows;

a) I don't think they allow unhinged individuals to compete

b) I don't think multiple magazines and an AR15/AK47 is allowed

c) there are probably no live innocent people down the range

 

but that would possibly seem too cynical/stereotypical, so I thought twice about it... then couldn't stop myself!

[BoD]

7 minutes ago, PupCam said:

Am I the only one spot the irony in the cookie prompt?

Did you also spot that it shares data with 57 partners.

 

Now I know you will say that this is all just a coincidence but you can’t tell me that they aren’t all in this together.

[New Haven Neil]

Eeeup. Was a bit zombie-fied this morning so didn't get going until it was too late to post, Mrs NHN's non working day so orders were issued. So off out we went, doing boring stuff.  Had a ride out later though, very nice and warm out (22-23C) so notdaft hot enough to make it uncomfortable in protective riding gear.  We won't ride without it, but plenty nutters out in T shirts and shorts riding sports bikes.  Never mind gravel rash, they should google 'de-gloving'.  iD will know some horror stories.

 

So we just chugged about the countryside like two old duffers in their 60's. Oh....