Leaderboard

My latest ex GWR model is in a rather attractive lined crimson lake livery.

This one - dislike the 'open plan' stuff. Advantages - hopefully PH view; sepatrate kitchen, mainliving area and fair size area for things that run on parallel track. Disadvantages - dogs love gardens and if in UK the reliability of the lifts as stairs potentially a problem in the event of mobility problems. Having said that in Switzerland and PH the lift will be properly maintained although at an annual cost. Cannot comment on flights as the last one was almost beyong memory and as for holidays ... We live in an area that has plenty of 'walks' but with dodgy knees and hips and a very very long waiting list is impossible for SWMBO and phenomally frustrates her, so, it is just as well that we have good countryside views. Big changes have been made to the dwelling to her designs. The really positive thing about SWMBO is that she is a fantastic homemaker and does not 'have to be out' like some of our friends need to be. On another note spend too long going through all the posts that means by the end have often forgot the earlier reads ... hopefully senility is not beckoning. Did note that GDB had returned.

As long as the toaster itself can’t talk to people, holograms, robots or cats! Andi

The camera is in the toaster that also talks to the washing machine and kettle!

In that case It'd be helpful if it took a photo of the person opening the door too, and one of the interior when the door was opened and when it was closed....

We have a smart oven that connects to the internet. Can it automatically set the time when the clocks change? No it bloody can't.

There's a new retirement complex in Rayleigh so I looked it up. It looks OK but it's more care home than retirement home. Anyway by the time I need that sort of establishment it will probably have a long waiting list.

I think Paneers do look fine in LT livery. I have a Caramac version, actually two now I think about it, 4mm and 7mm scale versions!

I'm still using the washing machine I purchased in 1983, also a Zanussi.

I managed to keep myself occupied on occasions whilst I was absent and spent some time in The Shed. I'll just claim that I was decorating it and putting up some new blinds. Anything else in the photos just happens to be there by coincidence. 😂 I better go and hide now.

Happy Birthday fellow Tiger........................................ Height of excitement, the washing machine packed up so a trip into town to order a new one, we have realised we had the old one fitted when we bought this place and had a new kitchen, so 20 plus years old, so I guess it owes us nothing. We also realised it's not the record. the Zanussi we got as a wedding present lasted even longer, 2 washing machines in over 40 years, maybe a record?. I replaced the hob and the fan oven, so we now are nervously looking at the fridge, as that was also installed over 20 years ago.............................tight...................me?...........frugal is how I describe my self, though the wife has another phrase for it.

Happy birthday Dave. David

Yep I've bypassed the cartridge instant ink on the HP4507 we got given when swmbo's brother went to live in Thailand . But it's too complicated for the neighbour should I not be around. I do hardly any printing , then every 3 months print the club accounts for the quarterly meeting . Which reminds me I have to print out several copies of this.. ( ignore contents to be safe from the Awl) to be displayed at the sailing club, the radar museum and anywhere else I can think of.

I don't have instant ink, having found a way to avoid it. My printing is too erratic - weeks and months of no printing and then tens (and just recently hundreds) of pages. I have however on two occasions had problems when loading legitimate HP cartridges with the system telling me that they are empty or not suitable. Each time I have had to get their on line help desk to tell their machine that the cartridges are legitimate. The last time the boss of the help desk individual rang me after the system had been reset and admitted that their detection system is too sensitive.

Still lurking after lunch and shopping, I really should go and do something. No inspiration today to do so. Happy Birthday to Midland Red Dave, may your singles never be compounded. Or anyone mention the Midland used to paint their locos green.....🤡

Afternoon Awl, just. Message left for vet as she's on holiday today, two locums at work which explains why she's so busy. Next door called, she's been given a brand new printer a HP Envy 6020e... It took over 2 hours for me to set it up. A 149MB " HP Smart App" , then that allowed you to go get the driver for the printer, then registration for the printer then... Hp use " instant ink", they supply cartridges when the printer says it needs them, you buy a contract for 10 pages a month ( 1.49), or 50 pages a month (3.99), or 100 pages a month (5.99) etc.. anyway I've signed her up for the cheapest, you can change anytime . There are way around this but she is computer illiterate, I'd be round there every 5 minutes bypassing " instant ink" And then I inserted the cartridges and paper, .. black cartridge faulty so it said, close inspection showed a plastic " hair" glued to a pin on the cartridge , scraped that off but it seems to make no difference .. tried one of our Envy cartridges but it's the wrong model.. Went round and round the HP "smart app" trying to get to their contacts pages... All 404 not found, their phone lines didn't appeal as I've no wish to wait for hours with their online system being offline. In the end I've ordered via Amazon for a tomorrow delivery with her agreement as she's got something she wants to print out.. Her old printer? An Epson 442, that's 9 years old, very cheap in the first place, not used enough so the ink cartridges / heads used to dry out... SWMBO is out with Ben, I'm defrosting as next doors computer room is effectively unheated..

Afternoon All, Yay - I've been to the supermarket - by bus yesterday morning (bus stops outside the shop in bith directions). Aldi staff were pleased to see me - it's been almost five months since I was able to get there - and the main shock was the prices. Still not heard anything more from the hospital for any follow up appointment, so I've booked to see my GP practice's senior partner next month. Also, it transpires (so people are saying) that my hearing has deteriorated quite a bit - I felt that it was while in hospital. I have been on the NHS waiting list for some time now but no appointment has transpired, and they say I am still "quite a way" down the waiting list. So i've booked to go to Specsavers next week - stand by for a pretty massive bill for hearing aids. Another large price increase has just come through to dent our pension increases - phone/broadband/TV package is up by 8.9%. Other than that. I seem to be progressing well. Regards to All Stewart

We have used Ocado since Mrs Lurker was pregnant with Younger Lurker - and he’s 15. We’ve not had any real problems- a couple of times where the substitution didn’t meet our desires and once where we fit a bag of someone else’s shopping in addition to our own. In all those years they have only once not been able to make their one hour slot and they rang to let us know so we could reschedule

There isn’t much non green field building land round here. Most developments now are flats or apartment buildings where a small business or a couple of bungalows with big gardens previously occupied the land. There are two sorts of apartment buildings “executive development “ and “retirement”. Executive means near the railway station with communal gym in basement. Retirement means alarm pull cords and a communal lounge area.

Don't apologise Bob , your drivel is no better or worse than anyone else's . 😎 In the past when someone seems to go AWOL I have looked back at content around the time to try and work out out if they are just taking a break or whether someone has annoyed then and they have taken there ball and gone home . you seemed to fit the first option . I did at one time post a bit more frequently but my miserable existence varies so little I gave up , now I just follow and chime in from time to time .

Happy Birthday @Dave Hunt.

I am now very careful in coffee shops and now almost always just have black coffee in case they have anything almond in the place - having found out that one place I go to sometimes uses almond milk. I have a (so far) fairly mild allergy to nuts, but over the years it has gradually become worse so now I avoid them. David

A very salient point, Andy. I sometimes wonder if the UK would be better off building Euro-style (and quality) apartments instead of trying to cram smaller and smaller houses into poorly thought out and designed “developments” in Britain’s remaining green space. I would have thought that the government would have made the (re-) development of brown-field sites a priority - providing tax breaks and - if necessary - subsidies for cleaning up such sites. Having an open plan arrangement in a tiny house does have solid logic behind it. But I notice, from programmes like Grand Designs, even those with both the space and the money to do otherwise go for open plan layouts (OPL). in fact, I would go as far as to argue that OPL has become an architect’s cliché. Along with: Flat roofs Square and boxy buildings Overabundant, nay, excessive use of concrete, glass and steel floor to ceiling windows no curtains and no blinds polished concrete floors glossy, shiny, kitchen cupboards and furniture* A lot of these builds, appear - at least to my eyes - to be of the “look at how much money I can throw at an on-trend architect to build me a house” types. The great Terry Pratchett made a comment or two about modern architecture, one of which was along the lines of “it was a newly built house by a famous architect. You could tell that it was new as the windows hadn’t yet fallen out or the flat roof started leaking” There is a reason traditional architecture looks the way it does…. * do you know how hard it is to keep high gloss finished cabinets clean and finger print free? You’re constantly wiping down and polishing the surfaces (as a friend found out to his cost when his missus got such a kitchen)

It's a real problem for peope with gluten intolerance/allergies because they used to be able to enjoy a coffee with almond, soya or coconut at a coffee shop but now that oat has become popular you can no longer be safe in knowing your non dairy choice is not contaminated. And the likes of Costa, Starbucks, Nero, Pret etc don't care. I would imagine most independent coffee shops are the same, but some might make the effort to source gluten free oats, there aren't enough gluten free cafes sadly.

Well even space flights with multiple redundant systems can go wrong. Once our Waitrose order van was crash damaged and the order was delayed but I wouldn’t criticise them. I think if @zarniwhoop is able to order his white asparagus from Ocado it will be despatched. It could of course be snatched from the air by an aggressive gull as it is carried to the front door…

Not quite, I'd certainly say they are significantly more dependable than others but there has been the odd time when we haven't got things ordered. Not through driver error (as below) either. Perhaps the automation in the ordering/warehousing/picking processes is following the automotive industry from a generation or two ago, with emphasis on eliminating human error/misjudgement from the process? No 'Friday afternoon' cars or overly ripe bent bananas? The trouble may be there's a potential weak point at the point of delivery - once the driver forgot to give us one of several bags in a delivery and we had 5/6 items missing. We were refunded without quibble and it's by far the worst problem we've ever had with them but it can happen. I should add for @zarniwhoop's benefit (and anyone else who hasn't used Ocado) that their web-site showing the groceries does show the not available ones (at the time of ordering) as being so, they are at the bottom of the page, marked unavailable and the listing 'faded out'.

I checked my usual oat milk (Alpro) and it is not gluten free, not that I have a problem with gluten. They do make a coconut drink and the unsweetened version has zero carbohydrates or sugar.

My non smart central heating timer, now 13 years old changes with the clock changes. (MSF radio control?) My car has a touch screen DAB+ radio/media player/Satnav does not use the time data from the DAB signal and has to be set manually. My previous car same make, same range had a much more basic manual DAB radio/CD player and did get the time info from the DAB data🙂

I know the kitchen is where the best socialising takes place during parties, but that's plain silly.

I had one like that. And it would go off if a tyre was out by around 2psi. The one I have now shows me the actual pressures.

During the 1960s my Mum bought quite a few Val Doonican records.

Try Irish records before 1922 - though things are apparently getting better.

Any news?

Hellfire mileage on my hire car my own car is in the EMT meridian numbering range!

Yes I enjoyed listening to those at a dual language bingo session on Lanzagrotty. Jamie

Life is too short, well it is for us olden's anyway. Ok for you spring chickens!🐤🐤

Family records often start in the late 1600s. The Roundheads destroyed many Church and Parish records between 1640-60 so before that date, research is difficult.

My Astra has that, and does know which tyre - except when they were last changed they got them all mixed up...

I bet you were pi**ed off.....

Retirement brought some additional spare time. . As an occasional break from railways I decided to trace my family tree. . My paternal side, I have traced back to the late 17th. Century and the Derbyshire Peak District. . With today being ANZAC Day, I have been enlightening the family with details of the following relative . Ernest David Rolley was born at Herberton, Queensland in 1920, one of five children; whose grandfather, from Bonsall, Derbys. had arrived in Australia in 1877.. . He enisted into the Royal Australian Navy, at Brisbane on 22nd. July, 1940. . Ernest was killed in action aged 21 years on 20th. November, 1941, when his vessel, H.M.A.S. Sydney was lost with all hands (645 souls) in the Indian Ocean - sunk by the German commerce raider 'Kormoran' masquerading as a Dutch trader. . Such is life that I only discovered a branch of my paternal family live in the Atherton / Herberton area of the Tablelands - after - having visited the area twice ! .

Because it's also there to tell you that someone has been opening up your fridge when you aren't there.... Loads of people have shared kitchens nowadays. I believe they are pretty common in the Far East where Samsung are from.

My Wife has a Fiat 500X. It`s smart enough to tell you if there`s a problem with tyre pressures, but not which tyre is faulty.

Not just Miami. I can’t remember when the outside temperature went over 20C!

It's just really cold this time of year in Miami.

Looking at the skintones, it seems that something went wrong with the colour balance in the Photoshop workflow...

As in ‘what are you going to do when the 4-minute warning goes off? What are you going to do in the other 3 minutes?

The Bison tanker has made it off the printer.