Early Risers.

[AndyID]

52 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

 

Just a quick requedt, can the combined grey mater of ER's suggest a good but free form of photo cataloguing  software please.  Any suggestions would be helpful.

 

 

One way to do it is use the metadata fields in Windows. You can't change the field names but you can use your own definition for a field name. That may or may not work for you.

 

The advantage of this method is that the metadata cannot become dissociated from the jpeg file. It's embedded in it so you do not have to rely on some app that might disappear or suddenly get expensive in the future.

[Coombe Barton]

When I was PC based I used Google Picassa. Ut's available in archive but is no longer being updated.

 

Now in the Mac I use Apple Photos

[Happy Hippo]

13 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

 The cottage I had in Burnham when first built had an outside privy. Though it was long gone by the time I moved in i

One dreads to think what the state of the area behind the hedge was like.

Edited July 12, 2020 by Happy Hippo

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Again a bit nippy this morning, enough for the central heating to fire up, and its July! Jamie mentioning riding tandem reminded me of when my brother was a teenager he had a motorbike. He didn't like me riding pillion because I was 'too rigid', my retort was 'from fear'. His motorbike riding and later his driving left a lot to be desired. 

3 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

A friend of mine worked in shipping logistics (he worked for UPS or DHL or similar) and when I asked him for some advice about shipping an item from the US he informed me that as important as, if not more important than, weight is volume.  Apparently, so my friend maintains, volume is important because empty spaces in cargo containers, whether by air or by sea, represent lost revenue.  So, I would imagine, consignments consisting of small boxes would be split up so that the small boxes can be use to fill up empty spaces in cargo containers. Presumably a small amount of extra paperwork this requires is more than offset by the financial advantages it brings to the carrier. The fact that a small customer (or should I say, perhaps with more accuracy, a customer with a small order) is inconvenienced is neither here or there for carriers for whom the large corporate customers are considered to be the priority.

 

 

iD

That probably explains why Hattons and some other traders use boxes far to big for the items enclosed within, though I imagine Hattons fill several containers in a week.

I will need to visit Tess Coe's for a few more items, I discovered a few more things that I've run out of. Now for that muggatee, be back later.

[jamie92208]

12 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Again a bit nippy this morning, enough for the central heating to fire up, and its July! Jamie mentioning riding tandem reminded me of when my brother was a teenager he had a motorbike. He didn't like me riding pillion because I was 'too rigid', my retort was 'from fear'. His motorbike riding and later his driving left a lot to be desired. 

That probably explains why Hattons and some other traders use boxes far to big for the items enclosed within, though I imagine Hattons fill several containers in a week.

I will need to visit Tess Coe's for a few more items, I discovered a few more things that I've run out of. Now for that muggatee, be back later.

I have seen somewhere that most shipping containers cube out rather than gross out when loaded.

 

Jamie

[Barry O]

Goosegogs and black currants (part 1) harvested.

 

Grass edging has been cut at last. Weather wise it is ok as it's warm enough to warrant a T Shirt but the garden still has a lot of water in it.

 

Lunch awaits...

 

Barry 

[Coombe Barton]

Turned on the hose this morning. All went well for about five seconds when a connection decided to part company.

 

Jeez, it's cold on the willy!

Off to the garden centre to get a replacement.

 

[EDIT[ For the hose, in case anyone is thinking of making a comment!!!!

Edited July 12, 2020 by Coombe Barton

[BokStein]

Tomorrow's breakfast and lunch now in captivity courtesy of two Tess & Co's meal deal.

 

[The Stationmaster]

G'day all.

 

I agree very much with Chrisf regarding teh casting of Rowan atkinson as Maigret - undoubtedly an inspired decision which resulted in an excellent series of programmes and an absolutely believable characterisation even if one has strong memories of Rupert Davies playing the role.  No doubt some very careful attention to trying to set the scenes in an authentic manner also plays a big part in producing some high quality tv drama.  Not sure if I will watch it tonight as other family members may have different views but it is a delightfully confounding and l misleading tale at various times  as I'm sure Chris already knows.

 

Just to keep iD up to the mark two of my pensions have of course already passed through the depredations of HMRC before herself gets her hands on one if them.   The one which goes into my account, obviously the smallest tiniest of the three in monetary  terms is the other one which HMRC have taken their cut out of, at Basic Rate - no Code Number.  But if I were still a consumer of the dreaded weed it would actually be enough to buy me a packet of cigarettes (of a brand I used to smoke) a week at Tesco prices.  Not the cheapest fags on the block and admittedly I usually used to but them in Paris or Brussels at a saving on UK prices but a pension that pays out, after tax, the cost of a packet of cigarettes per week is hardly a fortune.

 

Also to help iD back to more normal equilibrium.  Because the Cornish Pasty has a PDO (Protected Designation of Origin) those made by Mrs Stationmaster are not technically Cornish Pasties because they are not made in Cornwall although they are actually made to a Cornish recipe handed down through the family.   This of course shows just how stupid a PDO can be because Mrs Stationmasters makes real 'proper job' pasties but they legally can't be called Cornish Pasties while what Ginsters sell as their Cornish Pasty. allegedly made to the original recipe, is nowhere near as good as it used to be and is now mass produced but can be sold as a Cornish Pasty because it is made in Cornwall.  BTW - I've just had a half a pasty for a lunch time snack.

 

I'm not sure how up to date this PDO list on Wiki  happens to be but at least you know some good grub is properly protected from pale imitations.

 

ah well back to idiot land on RN Mweb where various naysayers continue to swear blind that black is white despite having the blindingly obvious pointed out to them, several times over.  Idiocy seems to be getting ever closer when people can't even be bothered to read maps!

 

Enjoy the rest of your day one and all.

Edited July 12, 2020 by The Stationmaster

[The Stationmaster]

2 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

I have seen somewhere that most shipping containers cube out rather than gross out when loaded.

 

Jamie

Although figures vary from country to country (and in the USA from mode to mode) a standard 40ft ISO box has a tonnage carrying capacity of around 26 - 28 tons.   Hapag Lloyd quote 28.8 tonnes maximum load for an ISO 8ft box which is presumably their stowage and handling limit and might not be the structural limit although that probably isn't much different.   So its hardly surprising that boxes max out on volume for a pretty wide range of goods.

[iL Dottore]

1 hour ago, Barry O said:

Goosegogs and black currants (part 1) harvested....

I love blackberries and gooseberries, and, I am told, they are very easy to grow; something I welcome as I have a “brown thumb“ as opposed to a “green thumb“ (i.e. everything plant-based that I touch turns immediately to compost).

However, I have been prohibited from planting these in the garden by Mrs iD who claims that once planted, the blackberries and gooseberries will take over the garden.  It must be mentioned that we do not have a “domesticated garden“ but rather a “wild garden“ – inasmuch as it is untameable, grows where and when it likes and contains no plants that I recognise (beyond the roses and the fig tree).  So I fail to understand Mrs iDs objections.

31 minutes ago, Coombe Barton said:

Turned on the hose this morning. All went well for about five seconds when a connection decided to part company.

 

Jeez, it's cold on the willy!

Off to the garden centre to get a replacement.

 

[EDIT[ For the hose, in case anyone is thinking of making a comment!!!!

I wouldn’t dream of making a comment, although perhaps a quick revision of your phrasing before posting may save some embarrassment in future 

21 minutes ago, The Stationmaster said:

...The one which goes into my account, obviously the smallest tiniest of the three in monetary  terms is the other one which HMRC have taken their cut out of, at Basic Rate - no Code Number.  But if I were still a consumer of the dreaded weed it would actually be enough to buy me a packet of cigarettes (of a brand I used to smoke) a week at Tesco prices. ...

So, dare I ask, what is the point of this pension? Given the cost of administrating it, the cost of extracting the tax of what I presume is already a small amount, is it really worth claiming it on a weekly or monthly basis?. Apart from the fact that a pension payment which, even without tax, is not much more than the price of a packet of good quality cigarettes shouldn’t be taxed at all, wouldn’t it make more sense to get the payment all at once, once a year? That way you would know that once a year you will have £XX to spend on a treat of some kind.

 

if I may make a comment, I think what you describe Mike is a perfect example of how HMRC has pretty much become unfit for purpose. They assiduously, and at no little expense, chase after small sums from small individuals or small companies, whilst hardly bothering the big income earners who, if only forced to pay up only what they are required to pay if they didn’t “hide the money“, would provide a much more useful source of income for the Exchequer.

[TheQ]

UK tax is cumulative,  you add all your taxable income together,  take off £12,500 which is untaxed,  then the rest is taxed  20% from £ 12,500 to £ 50,000, 40% up to 150,000, 45% above that. It may appear the smallest pension is taxed but it's the overall amount that is. It's all done by computer these days,  very little human intervention once it's initially sorted out.  There are other variations to the tax system. But much to complicated for here. 

 

Afternoon awl, 

Little barons plinth,  sanded and revarnished. 

 

It was decided,  that the barbeque is to be moved,  it's original position was for when the Mobile home faced west,  after I rebuilt the internals of the mobile home to face south,  the barbeque got left out on a limb of the old deck. 

It was moved to its new position edging the patio on the south side,  after some discussion a built-in cupboard will be block built  around it. That is a task for next weekend.  It's on its own rickety legs at the moment so a shelf will be built in for it.

Luckily some years ago,  during a refit of the Tescos I was maintenance man for, I recovered about 10 Stainless Steel shelves  51 inches by 20 inches with 2.5 inch folded edges being thrown away as part of a refit. 3 will get used as the shelf and serving area, the 5 burner barbeque will sit nicely on one. 

 

The Exterior plant shelving was widened,  unfortunately  one decking board short..  I'll get one when getting the blocks for the cupboard.. 

 

Then  to the stern of the boat to sand it for the next coat of varnish,  unfortunately,  it's not yet set hard enough. 

So I completed sanding the decks with 60 grit except for those bits  repaired yesterday they too are not set hard.  

 

Lots of lost grockles here with the stupid road works signs,  every time they drive past there's clouds of dust from the now dried mud deposited by the harvesters. 

[45156]

Afternoon All

 

Sorry, but I've been AWOL for about a week, due to acute knackeration, which resulted from us "deciding" to completely redecorate our bedroom, a task which was not even contemplated last week.  30747 was rooting in the cupboard where we keep the paint and wallpaper (yes, we keep stocks of wallpaper just in case it might come in handy some day) for some unknown reason, and she "found" four rolls of a really, and I mean really, good wallpaper which we had bought about three years ago at the A6 car boot - think around 45 - 50 quid a roll, and you get the idea - bought, if I remember from a lady selling off her stock - either an interior designer or a high class professional decorator - and she wanted £3 a roll - 30747 got her down to £2 a roll, as one was incomplete. 

 

Well getting back to the story, out this stuff came, and "it's just right for our bedroom" - yes, except that it is so different that it also mean paiting all the gloss work and the ceiling,  So we were going to use the cream paint that we use everywhere else, and which we have in spades - but no, at the very last minute, we tried it against the wallpaper, and it was just too cream.  So off to Johnstones for some off white emulsion, which seemed to match.  Gets it up on the ceiling, and it's just too white - in fact, it seemed to glow in the dark.  So next day, it's out with the tin of off white, and the tin of cream which was too cream, and then it was mix the two until we had a compromise, and repaint the ceiling.  Of course, the gloss was too creamy as well, so that got the same treatment.  We are now half way done with the wallpaper, and I have to say, it IS looking good.

 

But, our heavy art deco cupboard which was on the hollow wall was, as I discovered on taking it down, actually hanging off the wall, as the wall is a lot more fragile that I thought, and it can't go back there - so there will be a lot of rethinking to do yet.

 

Hence my absence for a week, as in the evenings, I have just been too tired to post, and I have now missed upwards of 19 pages.  If there is anything of any consequence that I need to know, can somebody please PM me.

 

And of course, the generic greetings of an entire week are proferred to all my fellow ERs,

 

Regards to All

Stewart

[The Stationmaster]

1 hour ago, iL Dottore said:

 

if I may make a comment, I think what you describe Mike is a perfect example of how HMRC has pretty much become unfit for purpose. They assiduously, and at no little expense, chase after small sums from small individuals or small companies, whilst hardly bothering the big income earners who, if only forced to pay up only what they are required to pay if they didn’t “hide the money“, would provide a much more useful source of income for the Exchequer.

It's an odd situation.  Staring with the I suspect unusual situation that it is a final salary pension from what is nowadays called a zero hours contract job and in any event has been reduced because I opted for the largest possible lump sum when the pension became due, I also got a second lump sum when they found that various pensions had been incorrectly calculated and I had been underpaid.  The company concerned (Lloyd's Register) only paid pensions on a monthly basis and the pension payments are now handled by another company on their behalf, i.e. they have been contracted out) and they have offered no change in payment frequencies.  Just to complicate things even more, or create more jobs for various concerns to contract out, I happen to have two tax offices plus of course the dept that deals with my state pension.

 

I quite agree in resect of big income earners, where the world of television provides some striking examples  of ways of mitigating exposure to personal taxation.   But looking on the bright side those who had been following that course won't have got any money out of the state if they have not been working during the lockdown and its after effects.  On a wider view the byzantine world of UK tax rules means that on two occasions I have not needed to pay 5 figure sums of tax which I would have incurred had I in one case not known about taxation relating to lumps sum pension contributions or in the other case had not had a solicitor confirm what I had worked out to be part of the rules applying to Inheritance Tax.  If a fairly ordinary bloke can suss out things like that it hardly surprises me that those prepared to pay for expensive expert advice are able to greatly mitigate their exposure to various personal taxes.   I bet the situation in a number of other European countries (especially France) is little different.

[Tony_S]

Most of the rooms in our house have magnolia walls and almond white ceilings. Both in matt finish. With large ceilings gloss white would be just too bright for this house. Fortunately when it was built we were lucky that it wasn’t treated to some of the colours the builders chose in other houses. This was supposed to be a show home but they needed to sell it quickly. We have redecorated but haven’t changed the colours. All woodwork other than the kitchen units in the house is  stained with Ronseal  walnut finish. 
Tony

[Tony_S]

2 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

gooseberries will take over the garden.

Our gooseberries have not taken over the garden. They do need a little pruning to keep the middle of the bush open but no more effort than a rose bush. There are even thornless varieties. In case anyone thinks I have suddenly developed green fingers, I haven’t, I asked Aditi. But even I noticed the gooseberry bushes are well behaved. One year we did have visits from a gooseberry insect pest but we used nematodes to defeat them. 

[TheQ]

Having had years of military accommodation, magnolia paint is banned in this house by both of us. 

 

[The White Rabbit]

Arternoon awl,

 

If you had to choose a fruit which is bent on world domination, Bond villain style, then our wild strawberries must be on the shortlist. Five days after last looking at the garden with more than a casual glance and some bad language about the weather, they seem to have doubled in spread and height. Even with the birds taking a healthy share, we've had a good crop this year. Inside, the trouble is the Chief Acolyte likes strawberries with chocolate cake, so I tend to get lent on to spend an hour baking to provide the latter... 

 

Made some progress on the great sort out and tidy up, outside this morning, saw a Herky-bird doing circuit & bumps at Leeds-Bradford. It's been so quiet lately, when I hear a plane I tend to look up, even without that distinctive engine sound. Last time we had an airforce transport practicing, it was a C17. It's a bit bigger than the red kites which (these days!) are the most common large flying things visible in the sky. 

 

I can see me getting into trouble over Cornish Pasties. I can understand some things having special status as they are produced in a very specialist or precise way and can understand why they want to protect themselves against imitations. But (and I confess to playing Devil's Advocate) what might be permissible on the west bank of the Tamar, suddenly becoming an offence or cause of civil action if a cook ordered her better half to put all the gear in a row-boat and paddle a few yards* across to the other bank and cook her pre-prepared ingredients there. Oh dear. Have we nothing better to do? 

 

* I'm talking about somewhere upstream, where a bold teenager with drink taken might think he could polevault across the river, not the bit down near Devonport. 

 

Anyway, the sun's now moved round, so time to shut up and head back outside and do some painting. 

[Florence Locomotive Works]

Light in closet fixed and working. Now we’ve had to dissemble the fan for the third time add some new wires. Shower vent can’t even be seen from inside the attic so will have to be an external install. Aka from inside the very very small bathroom.

Edited July 12, 2020 by Florence Locomotive Works

[PhilJ W]

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. Having spent 30+ years doing payroll I find the talk on income tax interesting. When I started doing payroll pensions and low earners paid very little if any tax. This was due to the none taxable allowance. This meant that someone on average earnings would only pay tax on about a quarter of earnings, the rest being tax free. The allowances were usually raised in line with inflation. Then starting in the 80's tax 'cuts' were all the rage but the government had to get the revenue from somewhere so the tax allowances were frozen, in the middle of a period of high inflation no less. Despite subsequent changes of government that has not been properly dealt with so the end result is now the tax allowance is only about a quarter of average earnings. There is talk of giving those who still carried on during the Covid-19 crisis despite the very big risks involved some sort of financial award then how about a 'Social Allowance' added to their tax code (permanently i.e. for life) for all those from dustmen to doctors to recognise their efforts during the crisis. You can tell how much you can earn in a year before tax by taking your tax code and replacing the letter at the end with a 5, so if its 600L it becomes £6,005 that is how much you can earn before tax. If it hadn't been mucked about so much by the politicians tax allowances would be between twice and three times what they are now. 

[Happy Hippo]

1 hour ago, TheQ said:

Having had years of military accommodation, magnolia paint is banned in this house by both of us. 

 

Obviously RAF quarters, if you had paint.

 

 

[Ozexpatriate]

1 hour ago, The White Rabbit said:

If you had to choose a fruit which is bent on world domination, Bond villain style, then our wild strawberries must be on the shortlist.

First place for that award goes to the Himalayan blackberry which is an invasive species here and occupies every patch of unmanaged wild land on the verges of the suburbs.  Thickets of Himalayan blackberry easily grow to 2m high. They do produce a prodigious amount of fruit which is readily edible to humans (and bears).

 

Second place would be raspberries. Their canes come back and back and back.

[pH]

Ouch!

 

 

Would any of our resident seafarers (past and present) like to comment?

[NGT6 1315]

E'ning all. Man, where has all that time gone again… 

 

Felt a migraine was imminent during my shift last night, so I called in sick when I got home and felt so exhausted upon waking from my slumber that I decided to see my GP tomorrow. I cannot really single out one principal issue but work has been quite demanding in recent weeks. Yes, I suppose it's better than being out of work altogether, as too many around the globe are as a result of COVID, but still, I needed to put my well-being first...also for the sake of safety.

 

Anyway, I'm hoping that a couple of days at my disposal will have a remedial effect.

 

I guess there's no way I can ever catch up with your doings in here, so I hope you have been well, or on the mend if that should not have been the case.  

 

Perhaps I'll be able to follow things here more closely too. Yes, I felt like something has been missing from my daily constants, and I often do feel guilty for not being able to find even just a few minutes...

 

Enjoy whatever you're doing…

[pH]

17 hours ago, AndyID said:

Bit warm to be in the shed so I'm watching "Halt And Catch Fire".

I had to look up what that was about. I had assumed at first that it was a programme on the Clayton Class 17s.