Early Risers.

[JohnDMJ]

 

1 hour ago, iL Dottore said:

Can be, can be.

But for frequent flyers these acronyms are well known and when you are jotting down your itinerary it is a lot easier to write BSL-LHR-SFO than to write EuroAirport Basel Mulhouse Freiburg - London Heathrow - San Francisco International Airport (and that is one of the more straightforward itineraries I’ve done).

 

 

Provided you fly frequently and have become accustomed to the TLAs! AFAIC, they go straight over my head, usually at around 30,000 feet!

 

 

Edited April 15, 2021 by JohnDMJ

[chrisf]

Greetings one and all, with continuing warm thoughts for Dave’s Dad.

 

I feel quite out of place amid the jetsetters of ERs.  I’m not sure which I dislike more, flying or airports, but needs must.  I think my first commercial flight was from Heathrow to Ronaldsway and back in 1976.  Since then I have flown to Dublin a couple of times and Luxembourg once, just before a long forgotten Christmas when Eurostar was banjaxed by the wrong kind of snow.  There was also Berlin, when good old BA put my luggage on an earlier flight without thinking to tell me.  Longer haul has taken me to Beijing and to Johannesburg.  One of these was via CDG but I forget which.  More recent was from Heathrow to Vancouver, when take-off was delayed for an hour because the plane was too hot – in December, please note - and from Toronto to Heathrow.  Fortunately Vancouver to Toronto was by train, which was why I made the journey in the first place.  A couple of years ago there was my holiday of a lifetime entailing flights from Heathrow to Singapore, from Honkers to Heathrow and quite a lot in between.   Every last air mile was in cattle class.  I’m not made of money!  If we are ever allowed to go overseas again I have booked a trip to Marrakech, flying from Gatwick.  This will be my introduction to Sleazyjet.  I can hardly wait.

 

My one flight on official business was rather different.  In my distant working life I had management responsibility for acoustic double glazing of houses near new and improved trunk roads.  Much of the work was done by Anglian Windows.  I readily agreed to an invitation to the staff concerned to visit Anglian’s factory at Norwich airport.  On the day of the visit the MD of Anglian was flying to Norwich in the company helicopter.  He kindly offered to pick us up at a small airfield just east of Bedford.  I readily agreed to that too!

 

Best wishes to all

 

Chris

[Barry O]

Ey up!

Hairdresser day.. should reduce my weight at least!

Herself is off to moreasons and will drop me off at the Barbers on her way to volunteering at the charity shop. A gentle stroll back afterwards will be in order.

 

I decided I needed some mind numbing "entertainment " last night so watched some kickball.  Skills low, intelligence of thos playing..very low.. I thought the idea was to get the round thing into the net thing? Or am I missing something  here?

 

Hope @Dave Hunt's dad is ok, positive thoughts for Gordon S. Having donated 400ml of blood for a routine covid test yesterday 9l of blood is an awful lot to lose.

 

Stay safe, enjoy your day.

 

Baz

[TheQ]

Mooring Awl, Inner Temple hare, 598 /374.

4.5 hours solid sleep, pink pills , 1.5 hours sleep.

I went to bed with both arms below the elbow , feeling  strange, a bit painful and almost like they were buzzing. It felt most odd, but  had eased by pink pills time, however I needed more sleep hence the pink pills , which made it a lot easier to find a  comfortable position.

 

Ben the alarm clock Collie was on time again, when on patrol we found another pile of feathers.. I hope  Mr Fox is as effective with the non feathered rats..

 

Another cockwomble  this morning, I really was happy to miss them in lockdown, this one was driving down the middle of the road in her shiny new Range Rover, obviously didn't want to scratch it against the bushes that line the road, GET OVER... it's a two way road!!!

 

Yesterday we had a company briefing , which I couldn't avoid, as usual it was full of TLAs, business jargon, and company speak.. So I have no clue what they were on about, which is why I try to avoid them.

 

Airports to avoid, Tabuk, Riyadh, Dammam, they started out as shiny often with lots of marble, or light magnolia paint. Now they are dirty, have no real facilities and do avoid the toilets which are the hole in the floor type...

 

I've finished, as such, the second major system, however the boss modified the software last time so the results don't match up, I've left that with him to do today, while I measure the shunts for it,  of which there are seven for that system.

That done I have another temperature meter to do, this was dead on arrival from the USA (when new) at our branch in the EU, so it's been repaired here, now I have to recalibrate it, before it's sent out again. I might start that this afternoon.

 

Time to start,  a Measuring...

 

 

 

 

 

[Andrew P]

The Sun is out 

without a doubt

so I'll go for a walk

and do a little less talk.

 

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

 

Signed.

The Amp Sher Dishwashing Company.

A. 

[AndrewC]

Good moaning all from the boring borough. 

 

Wishing Dave's Dad well in his slow recovery. 

 

Neff = merde in my book. The previous owner of the house had refurbished the kitchen about 2 years before selling up to us. All the appliances were Neff. (magnet kitchen) All the appliances were utter shite. Fridge would frost up constantly and was noisy. Quickly replaced with a Samsung American sized one which is still going 13 years later. The oven would trip the breaker randomly and was just poor. Replaced with a Hoover oven. Hob was condemned by Corgi (as it was then) Also replaced by a Hoover induction hob. the extraction fan even after being completely serviced was hopeless. Dishwasher died a slow and painful death with parts costing more than a replacement. Today's new(ish) kitchen is the aforementioned Samsung fridge, Rangemaster(Aga) cooker and extractor, and a slimline Zanuzzi dishwasher & beer fridge. All doing sterling service. I will admit the oven gets less work than the BBQs do. 

 

Auto stop/start. Have it, rarely works since covid as the battery never really gets a chance to be 100% charged. Even with the Land Rover recommended 15min a week run. 

That's about it from me. Enjoy the day. 

[jamie92208]

Morning all from a slightly warming up Charente.  It was 1 degree when I went to let the hens out.  They were good yesterday, 4 eggs from 4 of them.  

 

The shopping was shopped yesterday morning then in the afternoon the electric chainsaw was deployed on some serious work.  It performed well.  We had a rather large tree truck from a sycamore that was too near the house to dispose of.   The tree was felled about 4 years ago and a farmer moved the trunk for us with a manitou.  Anyway I finalnto manageable pieces yesterday afternoon.  This was the result of my efforts.

ly chopped most of it up .

I was quite pleased with my efforts.  The trunk was about 2' diameter and has some lovely graining in it.  At least one of the sections is going to a friend of mine for wood turning.  I'm now left with the large piece at the back.  My plan is to put some wood blocks under it and then slice it vertically into about 3 sections.  As it's well seasoned it should burn well on the log burner.  The garden will look a bit tidier as well.

 

This morning I will be wielding the saw again, thanks Mike it really does work a treat.  Then this afternoon have to go to the Ruffec DIY store which just happens to be near the railway line.   I may be some time.

 

Good wishes for Dave's dad and Gordon S.

 

Jamie

[New Haven Neil]

Morning from yet again a sunny but hint of frost Fraggle Rock.

 

NHN's arthritic hip is going bonkers this morning, not sure why - hitting all available aids, NSAIDs that is, and the co-codamol. Pah.

 

iD is apparently unaware that the NHN's have actually made a recce to his mountain redoubt, and have the are fully mapped out for a raid on culinary delicacies. Mrs NHN demonstrates its location, on top of this walnut whippy sort of thing, Mattersomething.

 

Things got a bit woozy here, explained by.....

 

 

 

[Erichill16]

1 hour ago, TheQ said:

These , Long term, turn out to be much more expensive than anything mechanical...

And temperamental.

[polybear]

9 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

 

I think you're making a category error here. You're looking for something slim to do the washing up?

 

 

 

Not that model - they have a well-known reputation for being very, very temperamental....

 

8 hours ago, PupCam said:

I have no experience of AEG or Neff so can't comment.

 

My now ageing Bosch dishwasher is still operational (touching wood now) after I had to repair the main controller board.   It has a fundamental design flaw in that one of the PCB tracks is not man enough for the job and likes to pretend it is a fuse.   

 

The official repair practice at the time was, of course, to replace the controller board with an identical one  and oh yes, make sure you get a fully approved Bosch chap to fit it.     The price of the board all those years ago was ~£90 IIRC  and that didn't include the services of "Extra special Bosch Man"!

 

The more pragmatic, unofficial repair suggested by many "practical trades people"  on the interweb was to replace the burnt out track with a suitable piece of tinned copper wire.   Puppers has tinned copper wire, the requisite soldering iron and solder and the skill and knowledge to use it.    Total cost excluding labour costs of "Extra special Puppers Man"! of £0.  

 

It seems that Bosch and Neff are part of the same group, and AEG are part of Electrolux.....

And Bosch/Neff have a policy of not sharing any technical info at all with those looking to fix their own appliances, as well as supplying spare electronic modules in an un-programmed state, which of course means a visit from "extra-special Bosch Man".....

Lots of useful info here:

https://www.ukwhitegoods.co.uk/help/about-the-appliance-industry/manufacturer-information

 

Soldering Iron?  Bear does hope it's one of these models

 

 

8 hours ago, Tony_S said:

Never had a Neff product, lots of Aditi’s family bought them when they were trendy. We did have some Bosch appliances including a dishwasher but it was so long ago they were made in Germany. We had a Siemens dishwasher, worked well until it failed. Replaced with a Miele. Had AEG washers and tumble dryers . Worked well until became uneconomic to repair. Replaced with Miele. Miele do make a 45cm wide dishwasher if that counts as slimline. 

 

Bear would love a Miele dishwasher (I have a Miele "Cat & Dog" vaccuum - excellent), but the wrong side of a grand is a mighty lot of LDC

 

8 hours ago, The Stationmaster said:

Initially we all had an Amex card for emergency use should we get stuck somewhere and need to book a flight to get home or something like that.  they were withdrawn after one of Mr Branson's imports into the company treated his card as some sort of personal payola scheme getting through a four figure sum in a month - when the MD found out Mr Branson's import was duly exported back to one of his enterprises where, presumably, that sort of behaviour (I believe it is called theft) was apparently tolerated.

 

Ah yes, the mighty Amex Corporate card - we had those too for many years, despite telling the grown-ups they were useless.  So many places would refuse them - Bear did a ten day stint in West Wales once, only two places accepted it (the Hotel, very begrudgingly, and a Costa Coffee).  I ended up having to use my own card for the rest.  High charges and slow to refund the businesses, apparently.

Rumour has it we had a manager that was doing regular trips to the states (so Business Class airfares etc.) who'd found a way of submitting duplicate expenses to different signatories.  Worked well for a while, too....

 

8 hours ago, The Stationmaster said:

When i was working out in Aus for lloyds register we were on a fixed daily allowance and after I had managed to get it increased to a more sensible figure it was enough to buy a weekly ticket for the central area (which covered me for commuting in from Mosman) plus a decent lunch in a food court every day in the CBD plus a snack of fruit or fish & chips in the evening and essentials like tea and milk for the flat where I was staying..  No receipts needed.

 

A buddy of Bear's does semi-regular field-service trips to Oz, usually for many weeks at a time.  The daily un-receipted rate he was offered wouldn't come close to covering expenses (Oz is mighty expensive it seems).  He basically told 'em to sort it or he'd stay in decent hotels (the most expensive he could find whilst still staying just inside company policy) and "kick the arse out of the expenses"  (knowing Big D he would've worded it that way too).  After doing their sums again they decided it would be a very good idea to re-think their daily rate very quickly.

 

8 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

So we commissioned a new ship, now we've got 3. 

 

From the look on the faces of the Top brass someone's navy career just went pffffffffff  but the reporter has some fun with it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It seems that none of the Royals will be wearing uniform for Phil's funeral; rumour has it that Prince Andrew was insisting on wearing an Admiral's uniform - and some of the Navy Brass were less than happy at this idea....

 

8 hours ago, Erichill16 said:

Hotels, I have more experience of those. In one particular resort I have stayed in approximately 10 different hotels and the one I’d least like to go again to was the one with the highest star rating. It was just too formal and SWMBO and myself hate that kind of thing. We much prefer to go to family run hotels that are clean and provide a good breakfast. One hotel at this particular resort we have been to we have visited probably 10 to 12 times. It’s in a lovely setting and as regulars we often get an  upgraded room.It is becoming less practical as we get older and last time we visited the resort we stayed closer to the resort centre. The resort is in Switzerland and in the size of hotel we stay in the evening  meal has two choices, take it or leave it. That’s slightly unfair as usually an alternative can be arranged if notice is given.

 

 

Ah yes, the "plastic-smile" syndrome - as perfected by BA staff.

Bear used to be able to count the number of different Hotels he'd stayed in - it passed a hundred many years ago, so must easily be 150+ now, with a fair few of those stayed in repeatedly (but only counted once).  I gave up keeping count years ago - I wish I hadn't sometimes, just for fun (fun?).

Bear would like a proper visit to Switzerland (I've done a few day trips whilst staying in Northern Italy) as I'm "in to" impressive mountain scenery (nothing more boring than the idea of lying on a beach) but it does have a deserved reputation for being a very expensive country (no doubt there are a few "dodges" though)

 

8 hours ago, BSW01 said:

Good evening everyone 

 

Well that’s it, the 2 dining chairs have now had 2 topcoats, so unless any touching up is required, that’s it. The are now sitting in the cellar until the weekend for the paint to harden off and then they can come upstairs to the kitchen. There’s still another 2 to paint, but they can wait until the new cellar ceiling has been installed. 

 

 

Any piccies?  And have you lined them yet?

 

59 minutes ago, chrisf said:

 If we are ever allowed to go overseas again I have booked a trip to Marrakech, flying from Gatwick.  This will be my introduction to Sleazyjet.  I can hardly wait.

 

 

 

Beary Tip Of The Day:

Wear some motorcycle waterproofs - at least then you'll be able to hose 'em down after the flight to remove all the dross, crumbs, kiddie's drinks (or worse...) etc. you've spent the last 2 hours sitting in.  For Ryanair an NBC suit is preferred.

 

Bl00dy hell, it 0841 and Bear isn't dressed yet.....

 

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Like Baz its haircut day today but this afternoon. Arthur Itis was making his presence felt this morning but he's now been put back in his box. Better get on and run that bath, be back later.

[AndrewC]

Good old Amex. <cough> The employer has recently dropped BarclayCard visa as our corporate expense card of choice and replaced it with Amex. I have yet to bother applying as I haven't needed any travel in 22 months now. The stupid thing is they had just replaced all the BarclayCards throughout the company and Barclay had issued card readers to all. Mine is still in the box. As mentioned, Amex is pretty crap apart from hotels and airlines. I think the company is really hoping to transfer a lot of the travel costs, especially meals onto the employee's own credit, to encourage timely submission of expenses. 

[Pacific231G]

Morning all

Lovely sunny morning in W. London but still cold. Rain showers promised for this afternoon so I'll take my walk this morning. I've been watching the first series of Poirot which I'd never bothered with before. Not sure if I'll stick with it as I find Christie's solutiions a bit contrived. They are though very good on period amosphere which, in the episode I watched last night, included a Rhodes that was then in the Italian empire and at that time under Mussolini.

 

[jcm@gwr]

17 hours ago, Barry O said:

 

The couple who lived downstairs from us in Bragbury End worked at Hatfield..he was the manager in charge of machining the 146 wing centre section from a single alumum bilet.

 

Baz

 

Small world, our first property was a top floor maisonette in Osterley Close,

and one of my school mates (whom I still see*) was the only guy for a long time,

who could work the machine making Airbus wings.

*in 'normal' times, last time we met was at a Dr. Feelgood gig in Bedford, 2019.

[tigerburnie]

Morning, wall to wall sunshine, but still cold. We have Neff oven and hob, both have been excellent, our dishwashers is a Tigerburnie model, obsolete these days...................................

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone 

 

The sun is shining, the skies are blue, the temperature is currently 4C. Today I’ll mostly be sheeting up the cupboard and shelf that I can’t yet move from the cellar as well as moving what I can to the shed or workshop. Hopefully by the end of the day the cellar will be ready to start removing the old ceiling. 

 

Thoughts with Dave's dad. 

 

Stay safe, stay sane, enjoy whatever you have planned for the day, back later. 

 

Brian

[Winslow Boy]

2 hours ago, New Haven Neil said:

Morning from yet again a sunny but hint of frost Fraggle Rock.

 

NHN's arthritic hip is going bonkers this morning, not sure why - hitting all available aids, NSAIDs that is, and the co-codamol. Pah.

 

iD is apparently unaware that the NHN's have actually made a recce to his mountain redoubt, and have the are fully mapped out for a raid on culinary delicacies. Mrs NHN demonstrates its location, on top of this walnut whippy sort of thing, Mattersomething.

 

Things got a bit woozy here, explained by.....

 

 

 

One is assuming that Mrs NHN features are being concealed in order that she may maintain her undercover status as one of I.D's trusted minions thereby providing valuable intelligence to who ever pays the most.

[iL Dottore]

3 hours ago, New Haven Neil said:

....iD is apparently unaware that the NHN's have actually made a recce to his mountain redoubt, and have the are fully mapped out for a raid on culinary delicacies. Mrs NHN demonstrates its location, on top of this walnut whippy sort of thing, Mattersomethin...

Close, but no Toblerone!

 

Back from the first dose of the Moderna vaccine. All went smoothly, without a hitch and the 15 minute post-vaccine "recovery/observation" (can't think of a better term) time was unremarkable. No side effects so far (although I did throw away my AK47, had a Vegan lunch, became a registered Democrat and told that nice Mr Gates what I was doing....)

 

Off to work

 

Tomorrow's POETS day

 

Edited April 15, 2021 by iL Dottore

[polybear]

2 hours ago, AndrewC said:

Good old Amex. <cough> The employer has recently dropped BarclayCard visa as our corporate expense card of choice and replaced it with Amex. I have yet to bother applying as I haven't needed any travel in 22 months now. The stupid thing is they had just replaced all the BarclayCards throughout the company and Barclay had issued card readers to all. Mine is still in the box. As mentioned, Amex is pretty crap apart from hotels and airlines. I think the company is really hoping to transfer a lot of the travel costs, especially meals onto the employee's own credit, to encourage timely submission of expenses. 

 

And who was the F. Superstar that dreamed up that swap?

After many years Bear's firm eventually gave in and we went to visa (or was it mastercard?)

Bear's technique (unless I could score lots of points on my own card by paying for Hotels etc. cos' they wouldn't accept Amex) was to get cash advances on the Amex for restaurants etc.  If they winced at that (because of the charges) and told me to use a restaurant that would accept Amex, that's exactly what I'd do.  Invariably such establishments would charge a fat premium on a plate of trough accordingly.  When the firm winced at that I simply replied "but you told me to...".  Game, set, match to Bear

 

Incidentally, Bear actually has an Amex for personal use - it's a B.A. Amex Card, and very useful for racking up BA Airmiles.  Most places that Bear shops at (which isn't many lately) accept it - it's the cheapo shops (Home Bargains, Wilko etc.) that tend to dislike it - though I think Poundland will take it, strangely.

 

In other news:

As it's Sunday (which ends in a "Y") that means it's .......Pizza Day!!

With Chips, naturally - just to neutralise things, you understand....plus they're a veggie, so must count as 1 of the 5.  Mustn't they?  The Tommy Sauce must be another I reckon.....

[Coombe Barton]

1 minute ago, iL Dottore said:

Tomorrow's POETS day

 

Oh s0d - thought that was today.

[PhilJ W]

Hello again from Estuary-Land. Bin day today but they seem to be running late today. Its the lesser spotted glass and bottle wagons week off this week so maybe thats the reason why.

[New Haven Neil]

1 hour ago, Winslow Boy said:

One is assuming that Mrs NHN features are being concealed in order that she may maintain her undercover status as one of I.D's trusted minions thereby providing valuable intelligence to who ever pays the most.

 

To be fair, it was a mite chilly up there, the -7c at the Gornergrat seemed cold, but the -21c at the Kleine Matterhorn was positively Baltic. Or Swiss, even. But it made for a great day, even riding iD's personal railway to his Redoubt.  It was....snowy.

 

 

 

[polybear]

In the blue corner we have.....Colin The Caterpillar   (Twenty quid to you, sir)

....and in the red corner we have....Cuthbert The Caterpillar (£4-99 to you, sir)

 

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/uk-news/ms-starts-legal-action-against-20391280

 

Ding Ding, Round One....

[Tony_S]

8 minutes ago, polybear said:

In the blue corner we have.....Colin The Caterpillar   (Twenty quid to you, sir)

....and in the red corner we have....Cuthbert The Caterpillar (£4-99 to you, sir)

 

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/uk-news/ms-starts-legal-action-against-20391280

 

Ding Ding, Round One....

I didn’t know about this but Aditi did. Her comment “what kind of child wants a caterpillar cake anyway?”  
Tony

[TheQ]

Looks more like Dougal to me