Early Risers.

[iL Dottore]

17 hours ago, polybear said:

**STOP PRESS!!**

Do fellow ER'ers remember this:

 

 

Well I can now exclusively reveal that it's all total....cobblers 😱

A certain Bear has now discovered what has become of poor Harry - he's been Hognapped and sold into Slavery.  How does Bear know this, and what evidence can I present?  Well how about this - seen yesterday:

 

 

Pretty conclusive I'd say......

Shocked, of Bear Towers.

 

p.s. Plans are afoot to rescue poor Harry - and without exchange of muddlin' tokens either......

 

pps.  Don't let Harry's smile confuse you - he's been drugged.......

Captain Cynical is definitely going to have to have a word or two with the lads in the lab. Things should not be leaking out.

 

Harriet the Happy Hedgehog Clone* was to be the special Christmas offer from Chrimbotat this year. The photograph posted by PB was one of 150 clone prototypes – which still needed some tweaks to the hedgehog genome (everyone thought, including Harriet herself, that the hedgehog clone was too happy). How this prototype ended up on the open market will have to be investigated.

 

Fortunately Chrimbotat (a wholly owned subsidiary of CCI GmbH) has a number of backups ready to go.

 

* Harriet the Hedgehog was very happy to have her genome copied for this project, given that she would have received  a very generous royalty for each clone sold

Edited November 13, 2022 by iL Dottore

[TheQ]

Mooring Awl,

5 hours, plus, 1 hour plus, 1 hours sleep. A good total.

 

Ben the I want out Collie, has already dragged me out, no wind, the moon is shining, illuminating  the garden well, with dawn begining to arrive, even con trails are visible. Horizontally, however, the bottom of the garden is not visible from the house due to mist. We got rained on by drips from the trees as Ben enjoyed a good snuffle.

 

The forecast is a South Easterly a maximum of 17mph , that's over the trees at the club and not a good direction. Due to a late start as I lower the club flags at 11:00, we  have one 3 hour passage race programmed unfortunately, that's at maximum incoming tide, so I suspect it will be a short passage...

 

First regular flights to Australia took 37 days and cost two years average wages!! A trip not possible today as many stop point countries enroute are busy shooting anything that moves..

The post ww2 flying boat trips 10 and a bit days and a years average wages..!!!.

 

Floating around in an overcrowded tin can has no appeal to me, neither does long distance travel in a flying aluminium can. I've done the Falklands and back, in a TriStar when I was somewhat fitter than today, I don't think my knees and back would like it now. I'd have to be crained out of the seat.

They are particularly remembering today those lost in the Falklands war which was 40 years ago.. so it was 30 years ago I took my  first flight down there..

 

Breakfast is needed, I'm getting hungry

Time to get up.

Edited November 13, 2022 by TheQ

[chrisf]

I spent too long yesterday arguing with computers, much preferring instead to enjoy the Tolworth show.  Today's lunch will be a nice juicy steak, which I would much rather think about than IT related things!

 

Chris

Edited November 13, 2022 by chrisf
To correct nonsense

[Barry O]

Ey up! 

Very foggy here this morning.. a rhinoair 737 is circling.. methinksbit may be off back to Dublin.

 

@chrisf... the steak is more edible easy to eat than any IT equipment  stick with the steak!

 

My knees are telling me the gig was good musically last night but bad on the knees... ouch!

 

Don't fancy cruising but no problems flying.. especially if you get a bed type seat..

 

Time for...

 

Some cricket methinks.

 

Stay safe!

 

Baz

[polybear]

Bear here......

Having cleared the front garden of leaves yesterday I opened the bedroom curtains this morning only to be greeted by the sight of maybe a dozen new leaves in the garden. 🤬  I just hate it when it does that......

Plan for today?  Well I think I'll trim away small areas of carpet adjacent to the last bits of stair stringer yet to be stripped of paint, along with the newel post as well; then I'll splurge some more PS on, cover it and leave it overnight.  After that I'll do some work on finishing off the chassis construction jig mods, which were due to happen yesterday but never did.

 

I also need to ponder a good day for arranging an eye test (which is well overdue); this can be combined with a visit to the nearby charity warehouse to deposit some goodies - which will be very handy as it'll clear the Bearcave of several large boxes of stuff that have been annoying me for a while now.

Bear gone.

[Winslow Boy]

1 hour ago, Barry O said:

Ey up! 

Very foggy here this morning.. a rhinoair 737 is circling.. methinksbit may be off back to Dublin.

 

@chrisf... the steak is more edible easy to eat than any IT equipment  stick with the steak!

 

My knees are telling me the gig was good musically last night but bad on the knees... ouch!

 

Don't fancy cruising but no problems flying.. especially if you get a bed type seat..

 

Time for...

 

Some cricket methinks.

 

Stay safe!

 

Baz

 

Sounds like mixed messages from the knees there Baz.

 

Glad to hear that you had a good time. Were you in a special enclosure with all the other OAP's? or able to get the zimmer right to the front.

[Winslow Boy]

38 minutes ago, polybear said:

Bear here......

Having cleared the front garden of leaves yesterday I opened the bedroom curtains this morning only to be greeted by the sight of maybe a dozen new leaves in the garden. 🤬  I just hate it when it does that......

Plan for today?  Well I think I'll trim away small areas of carpet adjacent to the last bits of stair stringer yet to be stripped of paint, along with the newel post as well; then I'll splurge some more PS on, cover it and leave it overnight.  After that I'll do some work on finishing off the chassis construction jig mods, which were due to happen yesterday but never did.

 

I also need to ponder a good day for arranging an eye test (which is well overdue); this can be combined with a visit to the nearby charity warehouse to deposit some goodies - which will be very handy as it'll clear the Bearcave of several large boxes of stuff that have been annoying me for a while now.

Bear gone.

 

Its a deliberate act of prevoktion PB. I wouldn't stand for it if I were you. I bet there being brought in by ants!

[NGT6 1315]

Moaning awl. Cool, dull, grey and slightly foggy with a breeze, or in other words, weather for staying indoors!

 

The kids now both have caught a sniffle. Unsurprising at this time of year, I guess, though at least a COVID test was negative. I’m having a bit of a sore throat myself, which is just as unsurprising…

 

I guess today will see me rearranging stuff in the basement following the assembly of another storage shelf. Living on the edge, I sure am! 🤣

 

Stay safe…

[Tony_S]

Morning all.

Quite chilly and misty here. Kent and Basildon are not visible. 
I am not doing much today. I am watching the cricket from Australia at the moment. Pakistan innings nearly over. At the moment the Pakistani supporters don’t look too happy. 
Tony

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone 

 

As usual for a Sunday, I'm late on parade due to having a bit of a lie in and breakfast in bed. 

 

Now, as the sun is shining and the skies are blue I'm going to get outside and move the last hydrangea to a more suitable place. Then I'll head round to the front garden and prune 4 fuchsia bushes and sweep up all the fallen leaves. I'll then dig up the fuchsias and move them round to the back garden. 

 

Best get a move on then, back later. 

 

Brian 

[PhilJ W]

8 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

The plebs always used to be able to get  an affordable cruise to Sydney.

 

 

 

8 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

With some worse illnesses than CoViD-19. In the First Fleet, 48 died during the voyage, along with 28 births.

 

6 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

I'd still choose it over spending the time spent in a damp English prison or Thames  prison hulk I reckon.

 

The tour to  avoid   was the second fleet, from memory they had a rough trot, one quarter  of the 1000 or so  convicts died during the voyage and around 40 per cent were dead within six months of coming ashore in Australia. Understandably, I can't find any positive TripAdvisor reviews.

Preferable to the only other alternative, dancing on the end of a rope. Many were children the youngest being 9 years old.

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Arthur Itis was giving it all this morning but a combination of Nurofen, moving about and a long warm soak in the bath soon sent him on his way.

2 hours ago, Tony_S said:

Morning all.

Quite chilly and misty here. Kent and Basildon are not visible. 
I am not doing much today. I am watching the cricket from Australia at the moment. Pakistan innings nearly over. At the moment the Pakistani supporters don’t look too happy. 
Tony

Basildon isn't visible from Basildon even at nearly midday.

2 hours ago, Winslow Boy said:

 

Sounds like mixed messages from the knees there Baz.

 

Glad to hear that you had a good time. Were you in a special enclosure with all the other OAP's? or able to get the zimmer right to the front.

My zimmer frame has wheel on each corner. It's easy to get to the front, everyone hops out of the way, holding the foot that I've just run over😉.

Edited November 13, 2022 by PhilJ W

[DaveF]

 

This morning started very dull and grey but without fog.

 

Yesterday morning involved a quick trip into town to buy a replacement poppy - mine had blown away while walking in Friday's gale.  That was followed by a walk on the beach and coffee back at home.  As usual on a Saturday I was going to watch some old photos on TV, this week chromecast worked well but the latest update to Windows photos has removed the ability to play any sort of slide show without creating it first.

 

Most of the time all I want is to play a show from any folder of images I select at the time.  In the end I found "Photos Legacy" which retains a very basic slide show app and downloaded it from the App Store.  Am I the only person left in the world who does this sort of thing?  I know there are various apps available to make slideshows but that is not what I want.

 

After an early lunch I went to the Newcastle Exhibition.  It was enjoyable, I met a number of people I haven't seen for some years.  They all look somewhat older - I wonder if I do? - when I look at myself in the mirror I don't notice any changes.

 

I managed to buy some very small electrically powered devices plus things for them to pull.  The real ones are found in Switzerland so the drive system is prototypical. 

 

Then it was back home to "play" trains.

 

David

[jjb1970]

I am trying hard not to go to bed early, jet lag seems to hit me harder these days. Apologies I can't catch up on all I've missed, but hope everybody is doing well.

 

Washington DC was lovely, clear blue skies with a nice chill in the air (it actually felt like a luxury after the constant heat and humidity here) and still late autumnal colours. it was one of those nice business trips with time to do something more than just work. I had a day at the Udvar-Hazy Centre of the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum which was fantastic, much better than the older Air and Space Museum on the Mall in downtown Washington. It’s out at Dulles airport with a bus link to the airport terminal so it is quite doable if you have a few hours to waste waiting for a flight. I love Washington DC, it’s a nice city (well, the downtown is). Some magnificent public buildings and architecture (though I find the Whitehouse to be unimpressive). Our office moved from being three blocks away from the Whitehouse to the Navy Yard, which is a Washington equivalent of London Docklands in being an old waterfront area which was on skid row but which has been regenerated and is now a yuppie haven. I used to love San Francisco as my favourite US city but recent visits have been disappointing as it is so full of vagrants that even the downtown touristy areas now feel quite very threatening. The wife of one of my colleagues works for Netflix and goes to SF every month and say’s she now feels unsafe outside her hotel and office unless she is in a group. OK, that is probably exaggerated because Singaporean people are so unused to threat but I find it rather threatening now too. I have sympathy for those who fall on hard times and many of these people need medical and psychological help but it’s still uncomfortable when they’re quite aggressive and threatening. However, that's a long way from Washington.

 

A view of the River Potomac from near my office, early morning, there are some lovely boardwalks along the Potomac now.

 

 

 

 

[PhilJ W]

13 minutes ago, DaveF said:

 

This morning started very dull and grey but without fog.

 

Yesterday morning involved a quick trip into town to buy a replacement poppy - mine had blown away while walking in Friday's gale.  That was followed by a walk on the beach and coffee back at home.  As usual on a Saturday I was going to watch some old photos on TV, this week chromecast worked well but the latest update to Windows photos has removed the ability to play any sort of slide show without creating it first.

It was explained to me why the British Legion continue to use a pin to secure poppies and it is quite logical but I can't remember what it was. However I'm quite happy to drop a few more coins* in the tin for a replacement. This year though I picked the key ring poppy, its plastic and just clips onto the D ring on the pocket of my gilet.

*I paid by cash before I realised that you can contribute by plastic.

Edited November 13, 2022 by PhilJ W

[woodenhead]

14 hours ago, woodenhead said:

Have misplaced my trusty Stanley knife.

 

Last seen whilst unpacking the new bed, Mrs W thinks I’ve tossed it out with the packaging.

 

hope not

Rejoice!!

 

It has been found, Mrs W mentioned perhaps it was left under the bed when I was securing some metal cross members so they would not rattle.

 

Stuck a meter rule under the bed and there was a reassuring clunk as it made contact with an object.

 

She denies knowing it was there and just waiting for the right moment to make a prophetic announcement 🤣

[petethemole]

1 hour ago, DaveF said:

Most of the time all I want is to play a show from any folder of images I select at the time.  In the end I found "Photos Legacy" which retains a very basic slide show app and downloaded it from the App Store.  Am I the only person left in the world who does this sort of thing?  I know there are various apps available to make slideshows but that is not what I want.

Irfanview has a slide show option.  Open a folder and look under 'Manage'.

[jamie92208]

Good afternoon  from a very sumny Charente.   The market was visited this morming then we detoured via a small Christmas fair on our way home.  The small town 3 miles away has put it on as an experiment. Lots of home made but good items including some delicious cake and some honey sweets.  It's a hard life. Now off to spray some paint on a little thing that moves whilst it's warm.  

 

Yesterday my birthday cards were taken down and the last few presents tidied away.  One was a shoe box full of walnuts, or so we thought.  To our surprise there were two bottles of artisan pineau hidden underneath, a white and a red.  That's brought the total count to 24 bottles of assorted falling down water.  My liver won't be able to cope.

 

Jamie

Edited November 13, 2022 by jamie92208

[PhilJ W]

54 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

Yesterday my birthday cards were taken down and the last few presets tidied away.  One was a shoe box full of walnuts, or so we thought.  To our surprise there were two bottles of artisan pineau hidden underneath, a white and a red.  That's brought the total count to 24 bottles of assorted falling down water.  My liver won't be able to cope.

 

Jamie

I'm sure there's a few ER's able to help you out with the falling down water.

[Gwiwer]

1 hour ago, PhilJ W said:

I'm sure there's a few ER's able to help you out with the falling down water.

May I be among those willing to volunteer?  

 

In other news a little tidying of the grounds was done in this afternoon's quite warm sun.  It's amazing how many roses are out and with many more buds yet to pop it resembles Spring out there.  Everything else is readying itself for Winter though.  

 

An interesting piece on the BBC News today regarding the testing of blood for antibodies which I guess is now feasible with other things not the priority they once were.  The writer suggests there might be some validity in the concept of a few of us having a sufficient degree of natural immunity that perhaps 10% of the estimated 10% of those yet to be infected with Covid will never be so.  Of the rest it is thought that a majority may well have had asymptomatic Covid at some stage and therefore been unaware of it - perhaps before routine testing was available.  

 

That does tie up with my thoughts as to why I haven't managed to succumb despite working every day among often large numbers of the general public.  

 

I wont claim to be any sort of super-person and it is of course possible that I have in fact had asymptomatic infection myself (ditto for Dr. SWMBO who likewise has not knowingly contracted Covid) but it does bear thinking about.  It does seem to be acknowledged that a small number of us have high levels of natural resistance from the start.  

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-63256505

 

 

[TheQ]

Afternoon Awl,

The mist had mostly cleared by the time I reached the sailing club, but there was no wind.

The last post and 2 minutes silence went well.

,Racing was supposed to start 15minutes later, but was delayed by a half hour till some sort of breeze turned up. 

We started on a very broad reach the wind just having only slightly more effect than the tide. We were in a good position for the start, but sailed into a hole in the wind, and were rapidly second to last. However, by the end of the first straight we were no more than 50ft behind the leader. The last boat got swallowed by the next start, and only escaped when that start turned at a different buoy.

After the first bend we changed sides of the river, behind the main fleet, this paid off as we came along side the main body of the fleet. At around this point the leader escaped, and got away.

As we drifted down to the top mark. We changed side of the river again in a hope to turn inside  however we got a sight puff of wind which gave us an overlap on the outside which meant the long way round.

 

Going back was short tacking, across the river, we slowly worked our way up the fleet till just before  the first corner, the second place boat got a good lift along the bank, whereas we had to tack across the river.

But when we tacked back we got the lift for much longer, and over took them . We stayed that way till about 100yards from the finish, when another boat came up the left while the boat we'd overtaken came up the right. . We just kept our nose in front though and finished in second place...

Yep just up the river and back normally that would take, 15 minutes but it took over 2hours in the light winds.

 

[iL Dottore]

[iL Dottore]

Ben The Robo Dog is only just out of reach. We're getting there: https://www.cnet.com/science/robot-dog-for-seniors-made-cute-by-jim-hensons-creature-shop/

[DaveF]

2 hours ago, petethemole said:

Irfanview has a slide show option.  Open a folder and look under 'Manage'.

 

I've downloaded it and it does the job, on both Windows 10 and 11.

 

Many thanks.

 

David

[Tony_S]

1 hour ago, iL Dottore said:

Ben The Robo Dog is only just out of reach. We're getting there: https://www.cnet.com/science/robot-dog-for-seniors-made-cute-by-jim-hensons-creature-shop/

Somebody saw MIL sitting with a couple of large cuddly toys on her lap when she was at a relatives house. It was suggested that perhaps some sort of therapy toy cat would be beneficial. I was doubtful as MiL doesn’t really like pets and wouldn’t find stroking one relaxing. I asked if she thought it was a good idea. She said it was stupid. She had only put the toys (one is a large wolf) on her lap to keep warm rather than ask for a blanket. 

Edited November 13, 2022 by Tony_S