spikey

Ta for that!

But alas now they've changed over to a really naff cheapo variety with a press-stud to keep it closed (while it lasts)

Having paid Messrs Specsavers a small fortune for a couple of pairs of glasses a few months ago, I now find that both the cases they came in have rendered themselves next to useless. The metal springy things have bust and fallen out. Is it actually possible to buy at a reasonable price such a thing as a glasses case that's well made, fit for purpose, and can be expected to last more than a matter of weeks?

What on earth is that square grey platform thing sticking out from the pavement? How does a stopping bus deal with that?

Couldn't help having a good gawp at a rebuilt A65 in town this morning . Somebody must have spent an inordinate amount of money having it blasted, polished and generally tarted up. Not only have I never seen Amal monoblocs polished before, but it's also never occurred to me that anyone might do that. Surely if they'd gone a bit manky over the years, all it would have taken to restore the nice original finish is blasting with the appropriate medium, of which there seems to be a vast choice nowadays.

I really don't think I could be doing with a bike that doesn't have a centre stand. Just doesn't seem right to me ...

Asking just out of curiosity as I haven't the faintest, but what sort of price would that bike have fetched as was, and how much might it go for once you've done the rebuild? And talking of prices, I've been noseying round various Facebook old Brit bike groups and there's been much shaking of head in wonder here at the prices being bandied about for old iron that would have changed hands for a tenner if you were lucky in the 1960s. Having said that though, the biggest surprise is the apparent number of people working on old bikes when it's obvious from the questions they ask that they haven't a bloody clue about anything mechanical!

That's exactly what it is! Had I not checked out a couple of videos of the op prior to having my first one done, I'd probably still be wondering why it hurts like it does for the first couple of weeks ...

Having had two TKRs myself, my money's on there being a considerable disparity between the story you heard and what actually happened ...

The chap who did both mine reckoned that although the hardware isn't designed to do much of it, there's no mechanical reason why kneeling should be a no-no after a TKR, and my own experience bears this out. I can even kneel on hard surfaces: it's just a case of telling the brain to ignore the weird sensations. Having said that, though, if I was a carpet fitter facing a TKR, I'd certainly be thinking of other ways to earn a crust in future.

And just by way of a post-script ... I had my other knee done on 15th August, and this morning I was able to ride my bike up and down the lane with no problems whatsoever. That's 25 days post-op as opposed to 43 days the first time. Same surgeon, same hospital, same everything, so I have no idea what accounts for the difference in recovery rate apart from this time I had a better idea of how hard I could push it with the bending.

Yes.

I must admit to a fondness for "real soon now", which AFAIK is one of the legacies of the Vietnam war. The written form is usually "RSN", which is clearly understood to mean "maybe somewhen".

"set to" "amid" "ahead of" "concerning" used in the sense of cause for concern ...

Ta for that. Long time since I did radio, but am I right in thinking that if they needed a long aerial, that means they were using a very low frequency? For talking to submarines?

What are the latticework jibs for, and how do they stow when not in use?

One of my pet peeves is the use of the lovey-dovey term "reach out" instead of "contact", "ask" and so forth. I therefore like this ...

So that's what they are! Thank you, kind sir 🙂

I've been looking at some pictures of the re-skinning of a WW2 aircraft wing and am puzzled by the rivetting technique used. I thought that they used what amounts to ordinary pop rivets, but in the picture (which I can't find now) the fixing process involves some kind of narrow cylindrical thing perhaps a couple of inches long sticking up from the wing at each attachment point. Anybody know what that's about?

Believe me it wasn't the only thing they were confused about in my day. Hence the translation of "Per Ardua Ad Astra" that was then current being "As you were, chaps. It's all been changed."

Same with the RAF in 1965 when I joined. It was explained to us when filling in the paperwork for our dogtags that there were no Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, atheists or anything else-ists in HM's air force. All officers were either C of E or RC.

Anybody know how they converted a steady supply of steam into a controlled regular pull/release cycle on the end of a string? What was the mechanism?

On the North American steam locomotives, what was the mechanism by which the bell was rung? I know it swung on pivots, but was the rope pulled manually, or what?

Thank you 🙂. I think I'll stick with my mirror ...

I'd never heard of this contraption so I've just looked it up. Forgive me if I'm missing the obvious, but what's the advantage of that over £20-worth of bar-end mirror - especially as you need to have your phone on your handlebars to use it?