Early Risers.

[Coombe Barton]

... walls shouting loudest ...

 

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2021/03/19/cases-in-europe-worrying/

[PhilJ W]

I have today had to change the name of one of my groups on Farcebook. The group was simply 'Code 3 models' but I have had to add 'buses, trucks and cars'. The reason for the change is there is an American range of fire engine models called 'Code 3 Models' and this has caused some confusion.

[Tony_S]

1 hour ago, New Haven Neil said:

  A lovely sound, I would like to know what bird it is.  Any ideas?

I find it difficult to recognise birds by their song but if you Google “Wheee” the suggestion is a greenfinch. You can then find a YouTube of a greenfinch singing “wheee”. Except for me it doesn’t sound like “wheee”. We have had a solitary slightly bedraggled Jackdaw visit our garden for a few weeks now. He was sitting on next doors tv aerial and singing (sort of croaky noise) today and another jackdaw appeared. They flew off after a while. 

Edited March 19, 2021 by Tony_S

[tigerburnie]

G'night all

[PupCam]

10 hours ago, polybear said:

As the first row went across the kitchen it became apparent that yet more self-levelling compound was required, otherwise levelling of individual tiles as required would need to be achieved using tile adhesive, which is more expensive than SLC.

Surely not!  

 

Are you certain that your tiler is using the right product and hasn't mistakenly been applying the complimentary (but far less useful) Self Sloping Compound?  

 

It's many years (35+)  since I've used SLC but the clue was in the name ...... You put down a layer over the surface to be levelled and, well, it was done (mainly with the help of the combination of its viscosity before setting and gravity).   Unless of course there's a significant but local perturbation in the direction of gravity in Bearland in which case perhaps SSC would be more appropriate?

[PupCam]

8 hours ago, TheQ said:

So it's got to be a straight fin 1 foot wide by 2ft 6inches deep, with if I can model it correctly within the limitations the boat has, a Kucheman tip. Mr Kucheman did a lot of development work on the VC 10 wings and eventually Concordes..

 

And not forgetting his drag reducing Carrots on Victors etc.

[J. S. Bach]

3 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Horses for courses there. At 13 or so I couldn't put it down and finished it in one session on the first night when school term ended. The next day I was knocking on the door of the friend from whom I borrowed it so I could read 'The Lord of the Rings'.

The only book that I tried to read in one session was Clan of the Cave Bear/Jean Auel; it was just too long to do so!

[Barry O]

Goodnight all!

Baz

[J. S. Bach]

2 hours ago, New Haven Neil said:

Evening.

A question for those interested, or knowledgeable about garden birds.  There's an awful lot of them here, and they're full of it currently, but there is a call I haven't knowingly heard before, and I can't see which bird is making it as there are so many.  I can only describe it as sounding like a 2 year old child going down a slide - WHEEeeeee' !!  Quite loud and repeated every 10 seconds or so.  A lovely sound, I would like to know what bird it is.  Any ideas?  I'm a townie and no nothing of such things, but Mrs NHN is a farm gurl, but she doesn't know what it is.

 

 

Try posting in this thread:

 

https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/47428-where-have-all-our-garden-birds-gone/page/164/

 

[Ozexpatriate]

7 minutes ago, J. S. Bach said:

The only book that I tried to read in one session was Clan of the Cave Bear/Jean Auel; it was just too long to do so!

The internet being the place that it is, apparently there is a website dedicated to the length of books.

 

Based on that, The Hobbit has an estimated word count of 96,425 words and The Clan of the Cave Bear, 193,865 - easily twice as long.

 

Like Rick's sister, I spent the weekend reading The Lord of the Rings with my first read through. It was a very enjoyable way to start school holidays.

[J. S. Bach]

1 minute ago, Ozexpatriate said:

The internet being the place that it is, apparently there is a website dedicated to the length of books.

I have heard of counting rivets (I was once paid to do just that) but words in books?? That has to be really boring as you can not really read the book.

[Ozexpatriate]

2 minutes ago, J. S. Bach said:

I have heard of counting rivets (I was once paid to do just that) but words in books?? That has to be really boring as you can not really read the book.

I formed the impression that they didn't actually count them, but estimated them based on an assessment of words per minute and total length of the audiobook.

[The Stationmaster]

2 hours ago, New Haven Neil said:

Evening.

 

A question for those interested, or knowledgeable about garden birds.  There's an awful lot of them here, and they're full of it currently, but there is a call I haven't knowingly heard before, and I can't see which bird is making it as there are so many.  I can only describe it as sounding like a 2 year old child going down a slide - WHEEeeeee' !!  Quite loud and repeated every 10 seconds or so.  A lovely sound, I would like to know what bird it is.  Any ideas?  I'm a townie and no nothing of such things, but Mrs NHN is a farm gurl, but she doesn't know what it is.

 

 

It might well be one of those masters of sound and song (and capable of brilliant impersonations) a blackbird.  They all develop their own songs and sounds and one of the more amusing ones round here some years back did an absolutely brilliant impersonation of the ringing sound of a Trimphone.   It sounds like just the sort of thing a blackbird would do and it might even actually be impersonating a child going down a slide.

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone 

 

Well the day has been quite successful, in that everything that was on the shopping list was purchased. I even managed to pick up a pastie for dinner. 

 

When I go to the Trafford Centre, I always go in WHS first to see if there is anything on the shelves that can tempt me to part with my hard earned cash. Today I purchased 2 magazines, it’s been a long time since I bought 1 magazine there, but 2 at the same time, is very unusual! Generally, I give them a quick scan and if there are articles I fancy reading, I buy it. One was connected to this hobby, the other to model boats. I’ve not bought that magazine for quite some time and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed reading it this afternoon. 

[BSW01]

Goodnight all 

[Dave Hunt]

This afternoon I was dragged kicking and.... persuaded to do some gardening when Jill was planting a helibore she had been given as a present and was having trouble digging the hole for it. It soon became apparent that the chosen site was criss-crossed with the dead roots of some nearby shrub that had been cut down but when I suggested a change of location I was overruled and had to spend the next hour or so wrestling with spade, fork, shears, saws etc. until there was enough space uncontaminated by roots for the helibore to take up residence. What I could have done with was something like a Bangalore torpedo but apparently the local authorities have an irrational prejudice against such things. The result is that my back has been complaining all evening about the treatment it has received so I have been forced to partake in the odd dram or three and now it is time to indulge in some Egyptian PT.

 

Goodnight All.

 

Dave

[laurenceb]

Night awl

[J. S. Bach]

It has been a really great day! My stimulus check was deposited yesterday and my tax refund was deposited (direct deposit for both); plenty of hobby tokens will be left after a few needed home improvements are taken care of. With that I will say Night Owl from the Piedmont.

[TheQ]

Mooring Awl inner Temple Hare,

7 hours near solid sleep I needed that.

 

Mr Kuchemans carrots, are still fitted to modern aircraft, but much smaller due to better wing design. Now often used to hide machinery, rather than being a empty fairing.

 

I came across the carrots while researching keel and rudder shapes, as far as I've been able to find out they are not used in water. This is probably because they are used on aircraft that fly just below the speed of sound, not relevant on a 6mph yacht.

That being said the density of water means many effects that affect aircraft at high speed, affect water appendages at at much lower speed.

 

Further research on the above will occur.

 

My waffle on keels and rudders is probably as confusing to many, as the talk of hobbits is to me.. Tolkien's books passed me by. Apart from a short period of reading Science fiction aged 10-12, with Swallows and Amazon's series before that. Almost all my reading has been factual books and still is.

 

Of books and marine, today's plans include another section of shelving to be assembled and installed. With more work on the boat trailer.. The missing steel tubes arrived at around 19:00 last night. All my orders for relevant items have now arrived except the Anti fouling paint and the morning that is listed as being at the local depot.

 

But  first time to... Err do nothing but wander the net, maybe search for carrots and keels.

 

[Barry O]

Ey up!

One advert on this page is in Swedish!!

I read Lord of the Rings in a weekend and have returned to re-read it a few times since. For sheer size of plots try War and Peace or the Gullag Archipelago.. I resorted to write characters names and occupations down otherwise I would never have finished either book.

 

Today will include some more painting of unmentionable objects then a few bits of walking and then .... who knows!

Have a great day! Stay safe!

 

Baz

 

 

 

Edited March 20, 2021 by Barry O

[polybear]

6 hours ago, PupCam said:

Surely not!  

 

Are you certain that your tiler is using the right product and hasn't mistakenly been applying the complimentary (but far less useful) Self Sloping Compound?  

 

It's many years (35+)  since I've used SLC but the clue was in the name ...... You put down a layer over the surface to be levelled and, well, it was done (mainly with the help of the combination of its viscosity before setting and gravity).   Unless of course there's a significant but local perturbation in the direction of gravity in Bearland in which case perhaps SSC would be more appropriate?

 

Yes - in an ideal world you'd flood the whole floor with dozens of bags of SLC and let it do it's stuff in order to get a floor that was both flat and level.  But Bear had to have a floor that is "well on the p1ss" - the floor actually slopes downhill whilst the road outside slopes uphill.....as well as having undulations in it, which is the bigger problem.

Getting the floor dead level would mean a lot of bags, plus you'd end up with a floor you'd have a step up to from the lounge.  The plan is to get the floor as flat as is needed to get the finished floor down without any unevenness between tiles etc. and looking "right" - however the floor will still slope from one end to the other, but you'll never know it unless you put a spirit level on it, which is fine by me.

The Tiler has been here four days (technically half-days) so far, as each application of SLC has to go off before you can put a level on it to "see where you are".  The bill for doing this extra work is £265 including materials, which account for £105 (the Tiler gets the SLC cheaper than Bear can buy it, and that saving - or at least some of it - is passed onto Bear).   So there's definitely no hocus-pocus going on.

 

A friend of the Tiler did a garage floor that was being converted into a room - that was so wonky it took 80 -odd bags of SLC; screeding it wasn't an option as the screed would've been wafer-thin on one side of the garage, which is a no-no.  having screed the correct depth would mean a bl00dy great step into the rest of the house.  The only other way out would've meant digging out and re-laying the concrete garage floor....

 

Today sees a visit to Toolstation, Screwfix, Wickes and Brewers; Bear was up at the silly time of 5am - no alarm clocks were involved....

 

Incidentally, if anyone needs paint, Bear can suggest "The Paint Shed" - what would cost £78 in Brewers cost Bear £50 in TPS for exactly the same stuff; using the code FORUM5 gets a 5% discount, and delivery is free over fifty quid.  The Paint Shed seem to be very well regarded in the pro decorator world as a result; not sure what the paint code is for Apple Green though....

[iL Dottore]

23 hours ago, Andrew P said:

.....Also English is the International Language of Air Line Crew. 

AND the language of Science and Medicine!

 

But yesteryear ‘‘twas something different:

 

English = the language of commerce.

French = the language of diplomacy (no, really)

German = the language of science

Italian = the language of music 

 

Of course the post WWII rise of the USA as the dominant economical and cultural force had much to do with the modern predominance of English (that and the fact in countries with distinct linguistic groups - like India or Switzerland English is a useful “neutral” language)

22 hours ago, NHY 581 said:

....Even the Memsahib refers to said MRJ as a comic.......which will no doubt upset somebody, somewhere. ...

Probably, probably. MRJ is very much a “curate’s egg” - much of the content is interesting and inspiring, but some of it.... well “fussing over minutiae” would be a polite way of putting it...

19 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

...The Dr, had told us to get booked online for vaccination due to the AZ problems.  (Not invented here apparently)....

Now that the EMA has stated that the AZ vaccine IS safe to use, it becomes more apparent (at least in my eyes)  that these “concerns” parroted by certain politicians had more to do with protectionism of their own pharma industries than anything else (or am I being a little bit cynical here.)

17 hours ago, polybear said:

...Oh well, Bear's cake budget takes another kicking....

Does this mean Bear will be signing up for the BEAR-L study, even at only 250g/kg/day?

14 hours ago, Barry O said:

Unfortunately some of it shows that the younger readers are also the younger "experts" who spout absolulte utter carp and don't bother to check things out using something other than wikkedpeddia!

 

The quality of research has fallen through the floor....

Baz

Actually I find Wikipedia to be very useful AND accurate when it comes to things like chemistry, pharmaceuticals and medicine in general. Presumably because these areas deal with facts, not opinions and the information contained therein goes through the equivalent of peer review.

I’ve recently had to code medications using the WHO classification system and I have used both the WHO website and Wikipedia. Wikipedia provides the same coding results as does the WHO website, but Wiki is easier to navigate.

There are, however, two caveats: firstly, Wikipedia isn’t always up to date (especially with medication, the Wiki entries sometimes lagging behind the real world) and secondly, you really do need to know at least something about what you are looking up

12 hours ago, pH said:

The standard schoolbag was a wartime gas mask bag. 

12 hours ago, Barry O said:

We added a lock of choice and that took a load of weight out of our haversacks.

Not a leather satchel? That was the requirement for schoolbags when I was a nipper (at least at my skool - along with skool tie, white shirt, blazer with skool badge in skool colours, skool cap, grey flannel short trousers [not “shorts” - an entirely different beastie] knee high grey socks and polished black leather shoes. No wonder N. Molesworth - the curse of St Custard’s resonated with me)

11 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

Did they tell you salmon-poaching is unlawful?

I wonder if members of the ER constabulary can elucidate on the difference between “unlawful” and “illegal”. I am truly curious.

10 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

I resisted reading Tolkein because of the way people were gushing about it. Then I read The Hobbitt and finally LOTR and couldn't put it down. Not much sleep for about 3 nights.

 

Jamie

Despite being a voracious reader (and a pretty fast one as well), there are some genres I am not just interested in reading (such as Westerns and “bodice-rippers”) and there are also books, in genres I enjoy, that I just can’t “get into”. The LOTR being one of the latter - despite enjoying The Hobbit. As for the “classics” I find many of them missing any sort of “point of connection” with which to engage (Jane Austen springs immediately to mind. There are others). I don’t mind archaic (Shakespeare comes to mind, but spoken - not read - by great actors the language is still vibrant), but pacing and storytelling are key. Which is why I avoid some of the “classics” and most things on the Booker Prize Shortlist.

 

Today’s activities may involve killing things or bursting eardrums - all depending if I pick up the PS4 controller or the guitar...

 

Enjoy the weekend

 

iD

Edited March 20, 2021 by iL Dottore
Typo

[chrisf]

Greetings one and all

 

My forgettery let me down again yesterday.  I arrived home from the fodder run with a rolled pork joint to roast on Sunday but without the key ingredient of the accompanying apple sauce, namely an apple.  Never mind: there are small shops within hobbling distance and at least one of them should be able to help.  If not, the bus at the end of the road goes to Tesco twice an hour.  At least I think it does, for it is a long time since I have used it. No-one of pensionable age and above should be without a bus pass, for you never know when it will come in handy.  My 99 year old uncle might disagree.  He lives in Wedmore, Somerset, and if I remember rightly it is not served by buses.  Among the many things I know little about is buses in Somerset.  There is the mighty 376 between Bristol and Wells, which labours up the hill out of Bristol past Tim Venton's house, but I have no idea of which way it goes after that.  My visits to Wells tend to be on the second Saturday in August when I am on my way home after a week under canvas at Sidmouth folk festival.  On that day and on the day following, the petite and humid city hall is full of kindred spirits attending something called Railwells.  Rather, it is when life is something like normal, though my memory may be playing tricks on me again.

 

On the subject of normal life, it is not looking good in mainland Europe, for that ruddy virus is resurgent.  I am trying not to be despondent over the prospects for foreign travel but I'm failing miserably.  My ambitions to spend a few days and a commensurate amount of money on the Cote d'Azur appear to be heading for a setback, despite the welcome news that the overnight train service between Paris and Nice is being reintroduced.  Why would I want a patchy night's sleep on the move instead of a hotel room at one or other end of the journey?  It has much to do with still having a sense of adventure.  When I went to Prague with Bill Bishop a year and a half ago the discovery of a sleeping car from Zurich to Prague shaped the journey from the outset and I did not look at other routes.  Now, I fear, the combination of quarantine and lockdown looks set to ruin everything again.

 

On that happy note, best wishes to all

 

Chris

[jamie92208]

Good moaning to all. The usual eclectic subjects have been read. I'd never heard ofvthe carrots, but wonder if the long bulbous bows on ships perform s similar function.  On our last cruise I attended a lecture that covered that subject. 

 

Chrisf, I hope that you do get to ride the sleeper to Nice. I used to wztch the morning arrivals at Cannes and some of the occupants were obviously enjoying breakfast as they went along the Corniche. What a way to start the day.  Many of the various international  sleeping coaches used to be serviced at Cannes jLa Bocca, near where we stayed. I often wondered what went on in a Slaapwagen.  Visions of some severe governess beung in charge came to mind.  That are will be featuring in my holiday photos that the Lurker referred to.

 

Anyway, a new day has dawned, very sunny but cool.  The sitting room has been re arranged and looks good. This morning the usual call to the girls, where no doubt young Emily will delight us. After that some wood needs cutting and I must start the framework for the chicken run.

 

Regards to all.

 

Jamie