Early Risers.

[chrisf]

Greetings

 

I bought a new wooden spoon yesterday so at least I can have porridge for breakfast again.  The one that went AWOL has not reappeared.  If it does it will be when I least expect it.  I hope that it is not lost and gone for ever.  Forgive me for being sentimental but my mother gave it to me and she has been dead for 36 years.

 

I have more than a little sympathy with Flavio's remarks about the festive season.  The late Paddy Roberts got it spot on with his song from 1963, "Merry Christmas You Suckers".  Among other things it says: "If it goes on like this you will find pretty soon you'll be singing 'White Christmas as early as June".  Although I am firmly of the humbug persuasion I recognise the value of keeping in touch with friends and other loved ones.  I have nearly finished the letter that will go in with the seasonal greetings cards that I unleash on Royal Snail at the beginning of December.  Once they have been despatched and the gift shopping done, that's it.  I dread the appearance of seasonal music on tannoys everywhere but I am still glad to hear tracks from the Phil Spector Christmas album, first issued in 1963.

 

Ho ho ho

 

Chris

[polybear]

7 hours ago, Erichill16 said:

Goodnight all, except for the effing smart ar$e effing bear who can get to effing sleep. Cheeky tw@.

ROBERT

 

Thanks for that EH - you let Bear forget the stingy paws.  Briefly.

 

3 hours ago, PeterBB said:

Insulation comments interesting as too the ground source/heat pump (cannot quite remember which) that confirmed that although apparently a great idea that even with the government grant I would probably need to live to130! to recover all the additional costs.  Need the storage so with insulation couldn't possibly put a raised floor in the roof area.

 

 

Pictures of the air source heat pump installation under discussion were shown on the telly prog last night.  Loads of copper spaghetti and dross adorned their garage.  Bear did wonder where such an installation would fit in (garage-less) Bear Towers - the upheaval to fit it in the loft ain't gonna happen in my lifetime, no sirree. 

 

1 hour ago, iL Dottore said:

..... flour may contain an anti-caking agent....

 

Is this some sort of evil Swiss secret weapon against cake -loving Bears?

 

12 minutes ago, chrisf said:

Greetings

 

I bought a new wooden spoon yesterday so at least I can have porridge for breakfast again.  The one that went AWOL has not reappeared.  If it does it will be when I least expect it.  I hope that it is not lost and gone for ever.  Forgive me for being sentimental but my mother gave it to me and she has been dead for 36 years.

 

 

Have you thoroughly checked the bin(s)?  If it's not there then it'll surely still be in chris towers - and so safe.  All you then need to do is wait until it gets fed up hiding and comes home for tea.

 

Right, off to TP....

[TheQ]

Mooring Awl, Inner Temple Hare,

A much better nights sleep with only light paw pain, I'm beginning to wonder what's causing it, I shall have to diary the days it happens and what I've eaten..

Ben the I want out Collie is liking the extra hour in bed in the morning and condescended to go out for a full patrol, I doubt this will continue a nights get longer..

 

There is an outbreak of external insulation being fitted to houses on my route from work, I shall keep an Eye out on finishes etc as to what I'll do with our house.

 

Heat pumps can be fitted outside the house, there is no requirement for them  to be inside.. Every big supermarket has rows of heat pumps on the roof to cool the store.. The main Tesco I worked in had 16 packs of up to 5 compressors each just for  the freezers, but then the Airconditioners had more . I looked at house  heat pumps at the Felbrigg green show last time they held it. For our house it would require a 6 ft tall box about 3 ft per side. That could sit outside the kitchen..  it only needs a couple of pipes through the wall, one to a drain and of course wiring through the wall.    But it won't work for us without tons more insulation..

 

Time I went down the lab, there are two major systems waiting..

[iL Dottore]

15 minutes ago, polybear said:

….Is this some sort of evil Swiss secret weapon against cake -loving Bears?

....

Are you having a larf, Bear?

 

An anti-caking agent is put in powdered ingredients to prevent them from clumping togther, as ane fule kno.

Given that anti-caking agents include tricalcium phosphate, sodium ferrocyanide, sodium silicate, silicon dioxide, talcum powder and polydimethylsiloxane; I think that having to sieve your flour (which a good baker does as a matter of course anyway) is a small price to pay for not having any of the above in one’s bread and cakes.

 

Although I have said this before, I repeat with proselytising zeal, that no matter what you enjoy, before you buy it read the effing label! The majority of the food stuffs we buy contain enough chemicals to keep ICI and Unilever in very generous profitable status each year (and it’s not surprising to learn that some of the worst offenders are vegan foods. Not because they are vegan per se [lentils are vegan and free of chemicals] but because the replacements for animal based products are highly processed and incredibly laden with chemicals).

 

iD

[jamie92208]

8 hours ago, Erichill16 said:

Evening All,

busy day here. Had mil, Sydney and nephew but still managed quite a bit of bookwork and a couple of phone calls.

Goodnight all, except for the effing smart ar$e effing bear who can get to effing sleep. Cheeky tw@.

ROBERT

It's nice to see the punk roots are still alive and well.  Robert there's a thread that I started back in 2014 that might interest you. It's in Prorotype Questions and is titled 'Stiff Records tour train  1978'.

 

Jamiie

 

[jamie92208]

Good moaning to all and of course Sundry.  It's not raining.  It rained most of yesterday but things still got done. The shopping was shopped, and we went quizzing last night and enjoyed ourselves but didn't bring any bottles home.  Today is do estic engineering day as some friends are coming for dinner tonight. A mushroom risotto and some sort of pear upside down cake are being prepared. My main task to floor cleaning. No doubt many more instructions will be issued during the day.

 

I would put the tree and decorations up on Christmas Eve, given the chance. Bah Humbug.  Tom Lehrer has a good take on it, one line is God rest you merry merchants may you make the yuletide oay.

 

Thoughts with Simon and his family and Neil, I hope that you get something done with your hip.

 

Regards to all.

 

Jamie

[iL Dottore]

An Update

After I had sent off a snotogram (™ @polybear) was sent to DPD and received their late night response (which I read this morning), I just checked their tracking website and lo-and-behold the website had been updated - showing that the parcel had arrived at the distribution centre at 05:09.

 

Will it be delivered today???? Who knows.

 

Whenever it will be delivered, I am certainly looking forward to the unboxing and to seeing whether or not the guitar is as gorgeous in real life as it appears to be in the photographs. Then I will tune it up and see how it sounds.

 

Stay tuned “gear heads“

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Heavy frost first thing this morning. I'm sure glad that I'm retired and don't have to scrape it off. Still feeling a bit tired so going back to bed.

[The Lurker]

Greetings all from LBG where the skies are blue and the air is cool.

 

My part of the boring borough also had frost, perhaps an irony after yesterday's post, and certainly the first of the year (or this end of it anyway).

 

I see someone (iD) has been quoting molesworth. I read my Dad's copy of one of those books (probably "Down with Skool") when I was a child and found it hilarious.

 

 

The auditors appear to have woken up and asked a whole load of questions overnight. At least some of them seem to be "thanks for doing that piece of work early like we asked you to, even though not all the info was properly ready. Please can you do it again?" No doubt we will get billed for the overrun....

 

Continued thoughts with Simon and family

 

 

 

 

[The Lurker]

1 hour ago, iL Dottore said:

 

 

Although I have said this before, I repeat with proselytising zeal, that no matter what you enjoy, before you buy it read the effing label! The majority of the food stuffs we buy contain enough chemicals to keep ICI and Unilever in very generous profitable status each year (and it’s not surprising to learn that some of the worst offenders are vegan foods. Not because they are vegan per se [lentils are vegan and free of chemicals] but because the replacements for animal based products are highly processed and incredibly laden with chemicals).

 

 

At university I went out with a girl who was doing Food Science. I recall that she told me that the chemicals they used to decaffeinate coffee did you more harm than the caffeine itself. Certainly at that time, decaff coffee tasted awful, so it was a no brainer not to switch!

[New Haven Neil]

Morning, from a breezy 8c rock where the flour is unadulterated.

 

The hip - or whatever is causing it - is in meltdown this morning after the rather painful injection yesterday - I remain unconvinced at the new diagnosis, currently the pain/gain balance is firmly with the former. As I have already had remedial surgery on this hip and pelvis 10 years ago, the Dr's dismissal of issues in there seemed a bit odd to me.  Maybe he didn't read the notes......quelle suprise.  We may fall out.  A shame I didn't get to see the 'main guy' who is familiar with my issues.  I was warned the steroids may affect my diabetes, he wasn't kidding, 7.7 on waking this morning, not a good starting point. Pah!

[Tony_S]

4 minutes ago, The Lurker said:

At university I went out with a girl who was doing Food Science. I recall that she told me that the chemicals they used to decaffeinate coffee did you more harm than the caffeine itself. Certainly at that time, decaff coffee tasted awful, so it was a no brainer not to switch!

Another one to read the label for, some sort of water process used instead of dichloromethane for de caff coffee. 

[Tony_S]

It seems to be a nice day for a trip out. Off soon to Whitechapel. 
I didn’t have any problems with the 4 litres of bowel cleanser yesterday. I wish there was a food additive other than vile for its taste though. 

[polybear]

1 hour ago, iL Dottore said:

Are you having a larf, Bear?

 

As if......

 

30 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

I didn’t have any problems with the 4 litres of bowel cleanser yesterday. I wish there was a food additive other than vile for its taste though. 

 

No arguments from this Bear on that score - grim it certainly is.  I reckon that was the worst bit.

 

In other news....

TP visit successful, though they did try to overcharge me by a couple of quid on a tube of gripfill  (they claimed the label on the shelf "was an old one") - they also tried that stunt yesterday too, on the wall ties (the guy didn't know what they were).  They did charge me "the old price" today though.  I'll have to watch out for that when visiting in the future.

I'm expecting Hermes to collect a parcel some time today (a sale on the 'bay, for the glorious sum of a fiver) - I had to rush to pack it this morning in case they turned up unusually early.  They didn't.

Right, off to (hopefully) finish this wall....

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone. 

 

A sunny bright, but cool start to the day here in England’s northwest. We had some more rain last night, but by the look of the patio, it stopped some time ago. Not a great deal planned for today, it’s far too weren’t outside for any outdoor activities, so I think another day in the cellar is on the cards (see what I did there!). The plan is to complete the construction of the engine shed and workshop rafters. Then I think I’ll make a start on the inspection pits!  

 

Back later. 

 

Brian

[iL Dottore]

R E S U LT ! 

I received an eMail from DPD at 08:52 that read "Your parcel xxxxxxxxxxx from Thomann GmbH is expected to be delivered today between 11:43 and 12:43 against signature."

So well done customer support at DPD (Schweiz). Thomann Customer Service, on the orther hand, still has not replied to my eMail of last Thursday. Let's hope that the Harley Benton is better than their customer service...

 

3 hours ago, The Lurker said:

.....I see someone (iD) has been quoting molesworth. I read my Dad's copy of one of those books (probably "Down with Skool") when I was a child and found it hilarious....

 

I still do find Nigel (and company) hilarious.

 

I very much saw myself as Nigel Molesworth (Curse of St Custards) and at skool there was certainly a Fotherington-Thomas and a Grabber amongst us. The only good thing about skool were the boys who are noble brave fearless etc. although you have various swots, bullies, cissies, milksops greedy guts and oiks with whom I was forced to mingle hem-hem. in fact any skool is a bit of a shambles.

I would go so far as to say my best friend at the time was very much a Peason (until the age of 12 I had been in an all boys skool and and when I moved to Italy with the family I was immmediatle smiten by the sultre Italyann gurls when I arrived in the land of spagetty)

 

3 hours ago, New Haven Neil said:

...The hip - or whatever is causing it - is in meltdown this morning after the rather painful injection yesterday - I remain unconvinced at the new diagnosis, currently the pain/gain balance is firmly with the former. ....

 

It sounds like you are experiencing a "Cortisone Flare" - which is when the cortisone crystallises inside the joint causing pain - it is self limiting but paracetamol and ice-packs are frequently used for symptomatic treatment. Depending upon which reference you use, a cortisone flare lasts typically between 1 and 5 days.

 

Did your doctor mention this possibility to you?

 

Stay Well Guys

 

p.s. The HB CST-24 arrived (and after spending a few days in a cold environment I'm letting it acclimatise before re-tuning though tuning wasn't off by much). The figured top isn't as spectacular as I had expected but is nice. The neck feels nice, the only bugbear is that the trem arm is a push fit and is looser than I like them to be (and the pickup switch is at an angle - easy enough to fix). Once I've had it for a bit I'll get it professionally set up. In all I'm pretty much satisfied @Andrew P - I'll post some pics later...

 

Edited November 3, 2021 by iL Dottore
Typo

[New Haven Neil]

@iL Dottore No he didn't, just the warning about blood sugar control. Thank you for the hint, off to Dr Google.

 

A gentle walk to the village shop earlier eased things a little, now I read that I shouldn't have done that, but stayed off my feet - pah!  A little information from the clinician would have been helpful here, as opposed to 'you should feel better very quickly, we'll speak in a fortnight' and out the door.  Well I felt a bit better until the lidocaine they mix in with the cortisone wore off a couple of hours later.....pah, once again.  The injection site is swollen and very painful to the touch, your pointer was spot-on accurate.

 

I'm normally supportive of the NHS (especially as it paid my wages for 20 years) but I feel a little short changed from this particular consultation. Ah well, let's see what the next few days brings!

[AndrewC]

Greetings all. Back in the boring borough after a week away. 

Most of the time was quite enjoyable. Too much food, too much beer. 

 

<grumble zone>

All the hassle and crap to follow the rules seems to be a waste of time and money. Arrived in Belgium last Wednesday, no scan of vaccine pass, nothing more than a fast visual check of the passenger locator form. 

We knew we'd have to take daily tests in the Netherlands as they didn't accept the UK vaccination pass. That changed on Friday, supposedly. Good thing we didn't cancel the test as it still wasn't working by late Friday night. Saturday though it seemed to work ok providing we used the French AntiCovid app instead of the NHS one. The UK locator form is built on the standard UK gov platform and as such is a nightmare to fill in if using a mobile device. After all of that effort, it was never checked at either end of the trip home. We could have saved the cost of the tests.

The day 2 tests arrived, so tomorrow will be another shove a stick up the nose effort. At least it is now a diy flow test @ £20 instead of the £80 + mail in ones you needed 2 weeks ago. 

Eurostar seem to have been taking lessons from the crappier airlines. Yesterday's trip was quite possibly the worst one ever. Brussels Eurostar has been transformed into an even darker, more depressing, crowed space with no café or table space in order to give over 50% of the area to an overly large but mostly empty (in terms of floor space) duty free shop. Note: buy your sandwiches & drinks in the Carrefour before going through security. Same packaging, 2.50€ cheaper than the duty free shop. Captive audience, I can see why they closed the café. b*stards. The train itself seemed to be missing any form of suspension. Our carriage bottomed out several times and even at slower speeds there was a lot of hunting & bouncing. 

Back to work today to find out I've been extended on one client's project until April. Shame the muppets forgot to extend my login and other credentials. Today I will be mostly thumb twiddling and clearing my inbox of merde. 

</grumble zone>

 

Enjoy the day. 

 

[tigerburnie]

Afternoon all, 10 degrees and sunny here in NE Britain(formerly Pictish lands) a gentle breeze, I should be out, but I have chores to do, it's SWMBO Birthday soon and I have to wrap presents from the kids that I didn't buy, how is that my job I hear you ask................oh well, where's the cello tape.......................

[simontaylor484]

Afternoon all

Its a cold day here the wind cuts through you.

@polybear have you thought about using the Hermes parcel shop service, you pack and label as normal then take it to a local shop or locker and get a receipt for it. The locations are on line to save you having to wait around for them.

@TheQ The only house I have seen done in the external insulation was a HMO brick end terraced house in Castleford. Polystyrene panels about 2-3 inches thick was fastened to the walls then rendered over. The numpties who were doing the job made loads of holes in the polystyrene with ladders and they just stuck vent covers over it. We used to call it Vent Axia House because of this

[Two_sugars]

Weather is  'orrible . .  .   .          

 

John

[TheQ]

Some of the houses I've seen have had up to 6 inches thick polystyrene pinned to the walls, but it is I believe fireproofed. They seem to use scaffolding here to put it up and any ladders have spreader bars.

it's then got a mesh glued on which I believe is for the mortar / screed topcoat to get a grip..

 

i've also seen just a damp proof cloth pinned on then plastic planking fixed on, unfortunately I missed how they did that it must have been very quick..

[polybear]

19 minutes ago, simontaylor484 said:

 

@polybear have you thought about using the Hermes parcel shop service, you pack and label as normal then take it to a local shop or locker and get a receipt for it. The locations are on line to save you having to wait around for them.

 

I did ponder that choice but if I can get them to collect from me that's better - I just have to juggle it a bit sometimes.  

In other news....

Bear has laid a grand total of....two bricks....

This photo shows the problem - the top row of bricks is inset into the ceiling, so can't be laid last.  Luckily the helical stainless steel Helibar can be used as a support for the top row whilst the lower row is laid (the second isn't shown yet as I needed to cut a brick to fit).  So today I laid the lower course; I'll leave it alone for a day or so then insert plastic wedges to raise the remaining top course bricks until they touch the joist, then pump mortar into the joints with a mortar gun.  Seems like a plan.

 

[Ian Abel]

19 hours ago, Tony_S said:

The airport experience was interesting as someone was running about offering money to delay until the following day’s flight. The plane wasn’t full so I don’t know why. 

Tony, actually not as unusual as you'd expect. With some flights, especially either longer distances and/or into potentially restricting airports, there are often load restrictions as a result of weather, especially westbound with strong jet-streams. They often need to offload "someone or a few" to get their required fuel load.

This can happen even with a less than full aircraft.

Additional issues include the availability of the planned "alternate". If the usual one isn't available or weather restricted they may have to plan a much longer alternate destination and the appropriate fuel for that eventuality

All a lot more complicated than it would appear to the casual observer.

 

HUMP Day - <yay>!

Yesterday work and then some rest, the COVID booster doing a number on us both by mid-afternoon, tired and aching, so a nap/rest was in order.

Seems much better today, and as predicted by lots of folks. Better than the alternative anyway!

 

Working, that's about it O)

 

-1 first thing and sunny. Brisk for sure, only going to manage 5 for the high!

 

Tally ho.

 

 

 

 

[PupCam]

Afternoon everyone.

 

Mrs Puppers said to me earlier; "It's very November like today". 

 

Tis true!  It is and it is

 

18 hours ago, polybear said:

Bear has visions of Puppers with a Bow Pen.....

 

Bear may have hit upon an idea!

 

 

 

 

17 hours ago, simontaylor484 said:

   I have bought some brush draught excluders for around my garage door I am then going to line the door with the foil backed bubble wrap stuff.   

 

I've done this, two layers actually.    It did make a difference but the thermal index of bubble wrap  is not that great so it does not make that much of a difference.   I've just removed mine and have been replacing it with a type of  3/8" foam underlay.  I don't actually know what its thermal index is  but it's certainly warmer to the touch so it will be interesting to see the difference.    I've also added 2" wide rubber sealing strips down the sides to blank off the 3/4" wide gap either side.   I need to add a draught excluder along / across the bottom gap.

 

 

16 hours ago, polybear said:

Incidentally, there was a programme on earlier about going green etc. - a family had swapped to an air source heat pump; they were saving £100 (a month?) on the gas bill - but the leccy went up by £130.  Oops.

 

I'll give that a miss in my quest to reduce my bills save the planet. then.

 

7 hours ago, TheQ said:

Heat pumps can be fitted outside the house, there is no requirement for them  to be inside.. Every big supermarket has rows of heat pumps on the roof to cool the store.. The main Tesco I worked in had 16 packs of up to 5 compressors each just for  the freezers, but then the Airconditioners had more . I looked at house  heat pumps at the Felbrigg green show last time they held it. For our house it would require a 6 ft tall box about 3 ft per side. That could sit outside the kitchen..  it only needs a couple of pipes through the wall, one to a drain and of course wiring through the wall.    But it won't work for us without tons more insulation..

 

External heat pumps and air-conditioning units don't half annoy the neighbours with the drone of their pumps and fans running.   Well it certainly annoyed me when the neighbour had an air-con unit stuck right outside our house and garden when it was running in the summer.   Still he's gone now and the new neigbours got rid of it, built an extension (which is silent) and they are much friendlier to boot.   Shame he had to snuff it though .....

 

Alan