Early Risers.

[Winslow Boy]

1 hour ago, Sidecar Racer said:

 

Maybe it will be more impressive next time it comes to visit .    

 

What in another 50,000 years. Mind you it'll give Puppers enough time to perfect his heavenly detection spy glass.

[DaveF]

Today is a bit dull but mild and I am keeping myself quite busy.

 

Yesterday was a much more relaxed day, the shopping came within the agreed time slot and everyhting came as ordered apart from one substitute which was more than acceptable - in fact I may order it again.

 

Once everything was put away and e mails etc dealt with I made a flask of coffee and packed a Wagonwheel and went out in the car.  I wasn't quite sure where I would end up but decided to head north.  On the way out of town I found a new stretch of temporary 30mph limit where they are building the new station and altering the road.  Then it was onto the dual carriageway until it ends and becomes a very ordinary road.  As it is February there wasn't too much traffic so I was able to settle down to travelling at a steady 55-60mph.  Being Northumberland the road doesn't really got through any towns (what's a town?) or even villages for a number of miles.  

 

Eventually I arrived at Amble and decided to go a bit further, ending up at the village of Warkworth.  I parked by the River Coquet and had a look at the birds.  As usual there was a heron on the far bank standing just below the weir hoping to catch some fish.  There were the usual mallard and pochard and plenty of seagulls - herring and black headed.  I had a pleasant walk along the riverbank path, there were quite a lot of sparrows, blackbirds, blue tits and great tits about.  There was a lot of rustling coming from inside one bush but whatever it was decided to stay put and not come into view.

 

On the way back I made a detour along the road through the village and looked at the shops but didn't find anything to buy.  Then it was back to the car for coffee and biscuit before heading home.  What had started as a sunny morning had become a cloudy day so I didn't want to stay out any longer.  On the drive back I saw several kestrels hovering by the roadside looking for food. Coming back into my town I used the other road only to discover road works and traffic lights which delayed me a bit.  I called at Homebase to get some storage boxes as I am sorting out the garage.  I do sometimes think that it would be helpful if my town had more than three roads in and out of it - especially as one of them just leads south along the coast.

 

Then the rest of the day passed as usual.

 

David

 

 

Edited February 8, 2023 by DaveF

[45156]

1 hour ago, jjb1970 said:

Yum yum, what could be more delicious?

 

Where's the yeuk button when you need it?

[Peter Kazmierczak]

45 minutes ago, DaveF said:

Today is a bit dull but mild and I am keeping myself quite busy.

 

Yesterday was a much more relaxed day, the shopping came within the agreed time slot and everyhting came as ordered apart from one substitute which was more than acceptable - in fact I may order it again.

 

Once everything was put away and e mails etc dealt with I made a flask of coffee and packed a Wagonwheel and went out in the car. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Original Wagonwheel or a jamie one, David?  I think we should be told..

[jjb1970]

22 minutes ago, 45156 said:

Where's the yeuk button when you need it?

 

I find one of the secrets to enjoying genuine Chinese and peranakan food is to eat first and ask what it was later 😉🤣

 

Singapore is often described as Asia for beginners. With good reason. The language of administration and business is English, the legal and education systems are still very much based on England, it's safe, and the food is both excellent and non-threatening by some Asian standards.

 

However, when you go into what are known as the heartlands in Singapore it can feel very alien and you start to see a lot of Chinese and peranakan food which you don't tend to see in the downtown. And language tends to be hokkien or mandarin. We live in the heartlands and I love it, people are very straight forward and genuine and there's a vibrancy about it. 

[Tony_S]

6 minutes ago, jjb1970 said:

Chinese and peranakan food is to eat first and ask what it was later 😉🤣

 

When my son went to a very rural part of Vietnam he used to eat his evening meal in a local cafe. The meal was rice, protein of the day and a beer preferably paid with dollars,  2USD. Matthew said he only looked at the translation of what he had eaten when he returned to the hotel afterwards. 
Tony

Edited February 8, 2023 by Tony_S

[monkeysarefun]

One of the risks the local fruit shop runs when it displays fruit outside.

 

[Mike Bellamy]

2 hours ago, TheQ said:

10 pairs of shorts I have found,

Not worn in years I'll be bound,

etc. etc.

 

You are obviously enjoying your retirement doing all those jobs you never had time for . . . . . 

.

[Gwiwer]

39 minutes ago, 45156 said:

Where's the yeuk button when you need it?

I am assured by some who purport to know that the pig is one of those few creatures that we can eat "end to end".  Almost the entire beast is edible by humans if prepared correctly.  The Outlaw Family (with myself) visited a quite expensive restaurant at the good end of Melbourne's city one time.  BiL ordered the "Pig end-to-end" dish - I forget what it was actually called - and it duly turned up with snout, swisher and some far more appetising looking bits in between on a large oval plate.  I was happy with a cow steak, medium-rare.  

[iL Dottore]

2 hours ago, jjb1970 said:

Yum yum, what could be more delicious?

 

It may look and sound ugly - but I bet it tastes loads better than curly oven fries 🤣😁🤣😂

actually, when cooked properly the collagenous parts of animal become very tasty indeed - albeit a bit rich

[iL Dottore]

As I was saying earlier....

 

Just some of the stuff I need to know about.

(and, undoubtedly, there are still career masters who consider Biology to be the "soft option"...)

Edited February 8, 2023 by iL Dottore

[tigerburnie]

22 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

As I was saying earlier....

 

Just some of the stuff I need to know about.

(and, undoubtedly, there are still career masters who consider Biology to be the "soft option"...)

I ate Hedgehog once is that a plus or a minus in this calculation?

[DaveF]

48 minutes ago, Peter Kazmierczak said:

 

 

Original Wagonwheel or a jamie one, David?  I think we should be told..

 

Definitely original.

 

David

[Ian Abel]

18 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

Great heels!

"Trendy pseudo-Cowboy boots..." rather popular in NYC around the time I was there.

 

@PhilJ WSorry to hear about your bother, hopefully he will be well cared for and kept as free of pain as possible.

 

HUMP day...

Another quiet day yesterday and looks to be the same today. Nothing happing to report.

 

-4c first thing bright sun, expected to reach 4c today.

 

Carry on.

[Peter Kazmierczak]

49 minutes ago, DaveF said:

 

Definitely original.

 

David

 

Jamie for me, David. They're doing a special offer in our village shop (NISA) at the moment on both varieties.

[Tony_S]

1 hour ago, tigerburnie said:

I ate Hedgehog once is that a plus or a minus in this calculation?

Dad told me how he was invited to a meal of hedgehog in Germany. As the people who did the inviting had been hiding in the forest from Nazis for some years and looked capable of being offended by a refusal he and his crew were happy to accept. Taste like chicken apparently. 

[Tony_S]

1 hour ago, iL Dottore said:

career masters who consider Biology to be the "soft option"...

I wanted to study biology at A level and go to University to study biology. I was put under a lot of pressure not to do so. Justified by “everything worth finding in biology has been found” and that it was just applied physics or chemistry. Anyway around the time I arrived at university biological sciences were starting to really be a good thing to study. However with hindsight I wish I had studied geography. 

[southern42]

7 hours ago, TheQ said:

Unfortunately some never learn...

 

That could have applied to me, today...

 

 

Having spent the morning, and well into the afternoon, placing red-centred orange lotus flowers on blue one after another on the flute until I ran out of transfers (7 of them in that size). I changed my mind and went back to my original clipart example. So, what  happened in the process. I damaged each one in turn, except the last one, while getting them to stick down in the well (the "pond") without air getting trapped inside. I managed the last one but of the two shades of orange I printed, the last flower was the lighter one. It sat on the flute for about 10 minutes,,, then I took it off. There was just something about it...

On the table among trial pieces, was one lone, more symmetrical version of the lotus flower - printed on paper.

<<Hmmm...????>>

I placed it over the well...

<<Hmmm...????>>

There are a good many layers of DecalFix over the area... and still tacky...<<Hmmm...????>>

A quick splodge of matt varnish over the top of the test flower, first, a bit more DecalFix, and it went down nicely, even over the steep section of the well, centre left and top in the pic below.

 

 

It is still there...

'Nuff said.

[New Haven Neil]

Evening all, morning failure again due to taking Mrs NHN out to a hospickle appointment first thing early doors. 

 

Then a traipse around what pass for computer shops here, new monitor chosen, still can't decide about a PC or higher spec lappy to give flexibility.  The independent shop was a joke, the price for a modest build about double what it's worth.  May see if I can engage pal H into a build for us, he knows what goes where, whereas.....harumph.  I can do hardware but making it all work is wayyy above my pay grade.

 

Windaz is an issue now too, the cheap one doesn't have everything we want, Mrs NHN not comfortable with alternatives, may have to get the annual job but at least we get a discount on the Home User Programme from her work.

 

Then got home to the farmer over the back clearing the derelict land, so relieved him of a lot of what will become firewood in a year or two, lot more to come as he removes 'weed' trees from what was his grandparents garden.  30 years at least of being left wild, the fruit trees are ruined and large.  It's OK to cut down fruit trees here, otherwise anything larger than 12cm diameter trunk needs planning permission.

[New Haven Neil]

7 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

I wanted to study biology at A level and go to University to study biology. I was put under a lot of pressure not to do so. Justified by “everything worth finding in biology has been found” and that it was just applied physics or chemistry. Anyway around the time I arrived at university biological sciences were starting to really be a good thing to study. However with hindsight I wish I had studied geography. 

 

Our 'not-god-daughter' is just finishing her MSc in marine biology in Edinburgh, hoping to go on to PhD.  Apparently it is a thriving area of research now.  She did a year in research Sweden, where 'it's all go' we're told.

[DaveF]

2 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

 

(and, undoubtedly, there are still career masters who consider Biology to be the "soft option"...)

 

I studied Biology and never regretted it.  At the very end of the 1960s there seemed to me to be so much more that could be studied and learnt about plants and animals.  I would have loved to do research but ended up teaching - no funds available then for further study in my area of interest - marine biology.  

 

After I completed my PGCE and had found a teaching post for that autumn I was offered a research grant to look at aspects of the chemistry of photosynthesis, but by then it was a bit too late.

 

David

[PupCam]

Afternoon All!

 

8 hours ago, Barry O said:

Which is why I wore my Missile Dept (470) tie when I had to go to Hatfield on a mission.. Good job ole J MacG had probably retired when you moved up to the centre of all knowledge.. he had a way with discipline which could be less than nice.. then they named a research centre after him.... yer wot!!

 

There's a slight error in that phrase, I'll correct it.

 

"when we moved the centre of all knowledge up to St Evenage".

 

Yes, that's better don't you think @polybear?   If only I'd managed to get a Hatfield Mafia tie ......  and yes I may know some of the responsible* individuals who were involved 😀

 

* used in the a fairly loose and flexible way 🤣

 

8 hours ago, TheQ said:

Then there are white lab coats from BAE and Fluke,

 

Fluke.   We didn't use a lot of Fluke equipment; mainly DMMs and dataloggers but like HP, it was jolly good stuff.    

 

6 hours ago, Winslow Boy said:

Take the offer Puppers. It will do the youngens good as they'll learn how to do a proper job unlike some of the so called professional decorators who think its quite acceptable to varnish the woodwork with gloss after they have been told that we want matt.

 

Oh how you don't know me!   

 

Puppers and decorating shall never be used in the same sentence.    Or even different sentences!

 

3 hours ago, Winslow Boy said:

What in another 50,000 years. Mind you it'll give Puppers enough time to perfect his heavenly detection spy glass.

 

Nah, can't be ar***d to hang around that long.

 

In Other News

 

Some LED strip lights turned up today that will replace the ageing, yellowing, inefficient and (if the most recent tube is anything to go by) short-lived  florescent tubes.       A quick test with a safe block revealed that they are bright, no, make that very  bright if rather "cool" in comparison.      Might be able to see what I'm doing now!

 

I received notification today from a classic bike parts emporium in deepest Suffolk that they had processed my order and had attached the invoice.    That's good.   I received the bits (bearing retaining circlips and breather disc valves) at least a week ago and the circlip is in the crankcase retaining the bearing!  

 

I wonder if they've duplicated the order?   

Just so long as they haven't duplicated the payment!!!

 

I noticed yesterday with astonishment a very large contractors lorry facing me, blocking my side of a road near home with a caption on the front along the lines of "Making your roads safer".   As I'd just dodged 3 flippin' great pot holes and the lorry's front wheels had stopped just short of a fourth I thought oh that's good!     When I was finally able to pull onto the other side of the road to pass it I saw some workers beavering away.    Were they filling pot holes and making good?   Of course they weren't!    They were going over the (perfectly adequate) 30 mph sign on the carriageway with some nice shiny new white paint.     I may have expressed an opinion as I drove past and my windows may have been open at the time.   FFS and yep, that's a rant!!     I really must charge the old GoPro up and go for a chug on the AJ and record the parlous state of the local roads.

 

TTFNQ

 

Alan

[Peter Kazmierczak]

I studied geography with subsidiary economics and ended-up as a local history librarian, though never even did history at O level.

[pH]

5 hours ago, jjb1970 said:

Yum yum, what could be more delicious?

 

Would it be more delicious if it was called ‘tripe’?

[polybear]

1 hour ago, jjb1970 said:

 

I find one of the secrets to enjoying genuine Chinese and peranakan food is to eat first and ask what it was later 😉🤣

 

 

Two days later, when it's too late to barf it back up again....

 

1 hour ago, iL Dottore said:

It may look and sound ugly - but I bet it tastes loads better than curly oven fries 🤣😁🤣😂

actually, when cooked properly the collagenous parts of animal become very tasty indeed - albeit a bit rich

 

What odds is iD offering here?

 

Bear here......

The Coving is.......finished**.  Big Tick

(** I do still have to fill & sand the corner joints though, followed by painting it.  Fortunately the joints have come out pretty well - unusual in Bear Castle cos' nothing is square & straight; the Hall Coving is much smaller and a lot less ornate that that used in the Beary Lounge - the corners on that were a Grade 'A' b'steward and required much fiddly fillin'sandin'fillin'sanding'fillin'sandin'fillin'sandin' before Bear was happy.  The Paws were a lot less happy though.....).

 

In other news.....

One word:  Tw@ts:

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-64561868

 

And finally.......

I've just discovered that good 'ol Ernie was kind to a certain Bear at the end of January 😁 LDC here I come.....