Early Risers.

[Tony_S]

12 minutes ago, The Lurker said:

Lisbon, where i have been for a week.

We will be there next week, just for a day. There will be cakes and trams.

[The Lurker]

2 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

We will be there next week, just for a day. There will be cakes and trams.

good job it is not this week - the place is full of people for the International Youth "day" and for the Pope's visit. The last few days we were there, lying by the pool we were serenaded by what sounded like music for the coronation, and then lots of choruses from the Edward VII park.

[The Lurker]

5 hours ago, polybear said:

 

Bear'll do a quick n' dirty measure of Bear Towers [(internal width x length) x2, plus the Conservatory to get an idea of the size; obviously it'll be slightly smaller than that in reality because of internal walls, and will also include the H/S/L (are they normally included as a "living space"?).

Friends over the road brought up four kids in one quite happily without too much trouble, so they can't be too bad; I suspect there have been bigger families than that in the past as well.

 

 

According to Right Move, one up the road from us is 126.3m^2 (-1359 sq ft). Three bed semi plus conservatory. Ours is somewhat bigger because it was extended to the back of and over the top of the garage, giving a utility room and two more bedrooms

[Tim Dubya]

2 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

 

There's an element of social responsibility at work. If enough older people (with, perhaps, an increasing antipathy to stairs) sell up and downsize, that would increase the supply of family homes on the market and hence makes them more affordable for the families that could do with the space.

 

Part of the reason Derek is downsizing, the other is the hassle and cost of maintaining a large property.

 

He also wants some wedge to spend on his hobbies 😉

[Compound2632]

7 minutes ago, The Lurker said:

good job it is not this week - the place is full of people for the International Youth "day" and for the Pope's visit. 

 

Yes, No. 1 Son is there. I forgot to tell him to look out for the Dick Kerr worksplates on the trams.

[woodenhead]

Imagine being the person who lost Voyager 2....

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-66371569

[polybear]

3 hours ago, Mike Bellamy said:

 

I thought the Fraggles were in the same time zone as UK, not a month behind . . . . 😀

.

 

Same TZ, but in a parallel universe......

 

1 hour ago, iL Dottore said:

Reading through the recent posts makes me realise how lucky I was to work for companies that weren't at all stingy with either business travel or expenses.

 

 

Bear once got a crafty shufti at the Sales Director's (signed) expenses.  A lot?  Obscene would be a better description; it's a pity I didn't have a camera phone back then.

 

1 hour ago, iL Dottore said:

And whilst ruminating upon recent posts, for the life of me I don't see the point of "downsizing" one's accommodation when one gets older. Surely, as we age and our toys, hobbies an interests accumulate, there is a need to increase one's living space? After all having a combined living room/dining room/kitchen: workshop/model railway room is a recipe for - if not disaster, then certainly confusion.

 

 

Absolutely, especially where the owner has some disposable income (or can raise it) in order to pay for help with maintenance tasks, gardening and cleaning etc.  From what I understand it's all too easy to run up moving costs of £££, so why not stay put and use that money in other ways.  It also avoids the risk of moving somewhere that has nasty neighbours, problems with the house/flat etc. etc.

 

30 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

There's an element of social responsibility at work. If enough older people (with, perhaps, an increasing antipathy to stairs) sell up and downsize, that would increase the supply of family homes on the market and hence makes them more affordable for the families that could do with the space.

  

Bear Castle is Bear's - I'm going no-where unless I actually WANT to (or drop dead...).

 

In other news.....

A reasonably productive morning - though not with anything to do with Coving.  I've been working thru' my "Reminders" List on the Lappy, doing my best to clear those items that I could - some of which may be "well overdue" (the longest being 153 days ago - and some of those might well have been "refreshed" with new dates).  One of those items is to download new maps for the Garmin sat nav (I have free updates for life), as well as to renew my Speed Camera Database Membership for another year (twenty quid) so I can download new camera locations as well as POI's (such as Petrol Stations etc.).  The existing locations were "well out of date" (by several years).

 

The Display Cabinet has just been collected as well, so that's a bit more space in the muddlin' room.  Tick.

 

And as for Bear Towers, well a quick check says it's 88 sq. m, which is "OK"

 

Right, time to "do something else"

 

BG

[iL Dottore]

3 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

 

There's an element of social responsibility at work. If enough older people (with, perhaps, an increasing antipathy to stairs) sell up and downsize, that would increase the supply of family homes on the market and hence makes them more affordable for the families that could do with the space.

Fortunately, Switzerland doesn't have the same problems with housing as the UK does.

 

Firstly, the rental sector is by far the biggest chunk of the housing market (most people in Switzerland rent), it's tightly regulated and many owners of apartment blocks are pensionskasse - pension funds: so everyone comes out a winner: renters get decent apartments and pension funds get a reliable teturn on investment.

Secondly, although the price of purchasing a house or apartment in Switzerland has gone up, it's nothing compared to how house prices have rocketed in the UK. Whilst it's true that both Zürich and Geneva have had a bit of a property bubble (mostly due to too much money chasing too little available housing) it's still nothing by UK standards. Mind you, property in Zürich or Geneva has never been cheap.

 

Mrs iD and I bought our place as many years ago we did the calculations and a mortgage ended up being less expensive than renting (by dint of a combination of circumstances). So we bought a 1950s Swiss Air Raid shelter with an attached house 😀🤣).

[Tim Dubya]

1 hour ago, polybear said:

Speed Camera Database Membership 

 

Ah, I wondered how Bears navigated...

[Compound2632]

1 hour ago, polybear said:

to renew my Speed Camera Database Membership for another year (twenty quid)

 

I thought the way to get onto that database is to drive at 40 mph in a 30 mph zone, and also that the subscription is rather more than £20?

[jjb1970]

On overtime and allowances, that can have odd consequences. When I worked in electricity generation normal practice was that promotion from shift charge engineer to operations manager resulted in losing money. The arrangement was that shift pay and certain other allowances were consolidated into salary so it should have been equal pay, but even someone like me who didn't chase over time did a bit to cover sickness, holidays, doubling up senior authorised and control persons etc during outages so it ended up with a net pay loss. That made many refuse promotion, I had zero issue with anybody who was happy in their role and didn't want promotion, didn't want the responsibility for managing a department budget, plant efficiency, managing all the people in the department and everything else that went with it (in some ways operations manager is the worst job in a power plant), but some people wanted to go onwards and upwards but refused the conditions of ops manager. I'd have 1:1 conversations and appraisals and tell those people that I agreed with them, it did indeed suck to have a massive jump in work load, be expected to work more hours, have to deal with higher management etc and lose money for the privilege but if they had ambition then it was a step they had to go through (or look elsewhere, but electricity generation was quite a cushy number). Otherwise they had to accept staying at shift charge level, what did they really want? I would try to suggest that they needed to think about what they could get out of a role in terms of career development and long term potential, where did they want to be in five years etc but it was a waste of effort if they couldn't see beyond tomorrows pay slip. Some got really stroppy about it. And going into what was called the 'professional' grade structure did have advantages, for all a consolidated salary has downsides (you get x/12 regardless of what you do) there were other benefits and it was a nicer life. And knowing how much you'll get each month isn't a bad thing.

 

I got caught twice, when I went to strategic development engineer that was a promotion above ops manager in the grade structure, but my pay stayed the same because I no longer had to hold a full suite of authorisations, I no longer had all sorts of horribly legalistic safety responsibilities and my role was normal office hours (as ops manager I was expected to be available pretty much at all times and go in at night and weekends if needed). So I had a double promotion with no more than annual uplifts relative to my pay as shift charge engineer. For me it worked well as I was a bit of an ambitious so and so and it led to some excellent opportunities but I also get why many others would say 'stuff that'.

[45156]

Afternoon All,

 

IT'S OVER AT LAST - all the decoration is done - paste table and tools are away - three rooms done in as many weeks - to say that I'm cream crackered is an understatement - on Thursday, we were doing the bookwork, having been to Leominster, and 30747 heard what she said was a  steam loco very melodic whistle  - I said it was probably the Cl67 hauled service to Manchester - it wasn't it was this, and it returned later as well

 

Still, we got the bookwork done which would not have happened had I known - this video appears to have been taken on one of the three occupation crossings near my home.

 

And at the risk of boring everybody, I am very pleased with the results from the bedroom wallpapering, so here's a pic.

 

Regards to All

Stewart

 

 

[polybear]

50 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

So we bought a 1950s Swiss Air Raid shelter with an attached house 😀🤣).

 

It'll be interesting to see what this becomes:

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-66369705

 

It'd make an interesting episode of Grand Designs - if the Production Team aren't already onto it then they should be.

 

11 minutes ago, 45156 said:

Afternoon All,

 

IT'S OVER AT LAST - all the decoration is done - paste table and tools are away - three rooms done in as many weeks......

 

Bear can very easily go off some people....

It took me 3 years to do 3 rooms (s'pose I could claim that H/S/L is three rooms in itself, jacking the total up to five).

 

In other news....

An afternoon backing up Laptop files to external HDD's - the excitement is killing me....

 

In other, other news.....

The London Plane Tree outside Bear Towers has previously been identified as requiring pruning/reduction every five years - well that was in March this year, so Bear has been onto the Council to see what the situation is.  It now appears that Trees on the verge are now the responsibility of the County Council, not the local herbs (apparently they just cut the grass now).  So it looks like I'll be tackling that Empire tomorrow - why am I not feeling hopeful?

Incidentally, could I discover the local council telephone number on their website?  Could I 'eck as like - if it wasn't for a little Google pop-up on the rhs of the laptop screen I reckon I'd still be looking.  Oh yes, and they don't wake up until HALF PAST NINE!!  Bluddy Hell, what is this Country coming to - Bear had been at work three hours by then**

(** OK, so I wasn't actually working....scoffin' the brekkies and surfin' the web took priority - as well as jackin' up the O/T and Flexitime in the process.....)

 

BG

[Ozexpatriate]

10 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

The "Queensland Room" which was basically a skillion-roofed  extension on the back of the house made from aluminium cladding and flyscreen was a popular add-on in the 70's and '80's, usually furnished with the old lounge and telly  from the  lounge-room, probably a pool table, cheap 3 in 1 stereo system  and a beer fridge covered in stickers. The dog would sleep out there. 

In Queensland there is the concept of the 'sleepout'. A Victorian-era Queenslander I am familiar with (it was actually a stationmaster's residence) was designed with large covered verandahs on three sides. At some point in its history one of the side verandahs was enclosed to become (what in the US) might be called a bunkhouse to accommodate larger families. They called it a 'sleepout'.

 

The original home only had two (very large) bedrooms. They both had large French doors opening onto the verandah.

 

Edited August 1, 2023 by Ozexpatriate

[Ozexpatriate]

9 hours ago, TheQ said:

Quiet easy when two of the bedrooms are 6ft 6 inches by 7 ft .. as they were in our first house.

That's smaller than any modern prison cell in a western country.

 

Old US prison cells are 6'x8' / 48 sq ft (4.5 m^2). Modern standards stipulate 70 sq ft (6.5 m^2).

 

It's also smaller than most 'compressed' office cubicles (also 6'x8') - though there are 6'x6' versions.

[Winslow Boy]

30 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

It'll be interesting to see what this becomes:

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-66369705

 

It'd make an interesting episode of Grand Designs - if the Production Team aren't already onto it then they should be.

 

 

Bear can very easily go off some people....

It took me 3 years to do 3 rooms (s'pose I could claim that H/S/L is three rooms in itself, jacking the total up to five).

 

In other news....

An afternoon backing up Laptop files to external HDD's - the excitement is killing me....

 

In other, other news.....

The London Plane Tree outside Bear Towers has previously been identified as requiring pruning/reduction every five years - well that was in March this year, so Bear has been onto the Council to see what the situation is.  It now appears that Trees on the verge are now the responsibility of the County Council, not the local herbs (apparently they just cut the grass now).  So it looks like I'll be tackling that Empire tomorrow - why am I not feeling hopeful?

Incidentally, could I discover the local council telephone number on their website?  Could I 'eck as like - if it wasn't for a little Google pop-up on the rhs of the laptop screen I reckon I'd still be looking.  Oh yes, and they don't wake up until HALF PAST NINE!!  Bluddy Hell, what is this Country coming to - Bear had been at work three hours by then**

(** OK, so I wasn't actually working....scoffin' the brekkies and surfin' the web took priority - as well as jackin' up the O/T and Flexitime in the process.....)

 

BG

 

Now Bear be careful what you say to the nice people at County Hall. Don't go upsetting them by asking them there name as that will be seen as a sexiest, an outdated expression of white Bear discrimination and a representation of male domination and you will be put on a list to have your community charge de-counciled.  

Incidentally if the tree is on the grass verge then they are both on highway land and therefore the county council's. The district, town or parish may be cutting the verge but it will on behalf of the CC. They not the statutory highway authority. That can only be the county council.

Edited August 1, 2023 by Winslow Boy

[DaveF]

After some thought I went shopping this morning in Morpeth.  Parking was easy in one of the short stay car parks, 3 hours allowed, free and just display a parking disc.

 

I quickly visisted Boots, then Smiths - 2 photo magazines, O2  - new mobile phone and smart watch (cheapish), coffee shop - coffee and scone, Waterstones - several books and maps, 2 antiques shops - one paperweight from each, model shop - 3 scenic items.

 

I then thought it might be an idea to stop buying things and come home for lunch.  

 

The mobile was set up by the O2 lady including copying everything across from the old phone while I had coffee and did the shopping, so far it makes and receives calls, texts, Whats Apps, e mails and sync works to my laptop etc.  My mobile banking took ages to get to work until I changed my password.  It is now busy updating all the apps.  Obviously I've kept the same phone number but jad to have a new SIM card capable of 5G, before leaving Morpeth I got one of the shops to ring me to make sure it worked!  I have not yet found my old Whats App messages but that doesn't really matter, I really only use it with a couple of friends.

 

This afternoon I went into town and picked up a new charger - I forgot in Morpeth, I knew I wanted one and some USB C leads which the new phone uses.

 

Now I am watching some cricket and "playing" with the phone.  Tomorrow I will check every app works and may delete some.

 

I intend  hope to have a quiet evening reading with some music.

 

David

[jjb1970]

I've never had an expense claim questioned for many years, I'm treated very generously with a quid pro-quo that I'm expected to look at prices and book the best value for money, and be sensible when eating out (go to a good restaurant, but don't order £1000 bottles of wine type of deal). I may be in the slightly odd position of being told by my boss to spend more as I am an airline geek so actually like using the less obvious airlines, he worries that I am risking my life by flying on any airline other than Singapore Airlines. He also tells me not to be cheap when eating, he enjoys fine dining. The only time I go to pricey fine dining places is if entertaining members when a certain standard is expected.

 

I never understand why some people risk well paid jobs (or at least career prospects) by submitting dodgy mileage claims and frivolous/excessive expense claims. Is it really worth blowing a well paid job or solid career for a quick quid which is utterly trivial next to what you could lose?

 

The strangest one I had was in my last job. I took a Whitehall mandarin for a working dinner to discuss various things at our expense. He proceeded to order a hideously expensive bottle of fine (of the £1000 type) and got really stroppy when I pointed out my largesse stopped short of such wine. I suspect my boss has picked up tabs like that when he has considered the potential value of a relationship worth it and if I'd put a note on a claim highlighting the value (and in some cases it is), in this case it frankly wasn't. Given UK civil servant salaries I find it hard to believe he'd drink wine of that sort unless he was a man of independent means playing in the civil service for something to do. It really pee'd me off.

[grandadbob]

Evenin' each,

Using the PBMOM * GDB Towers comes in at about 98m2.  We have no intention of downsizing as the extra rooms come in very handy when family or friends want to stay.  ( a fairly frequent occurrence)

 

*Polybear Method of Measurement.

 

Not a bad day today.  This morning was spent in The Shed, generally tidying up after all the ballasting and then checking that everything works properly....it does now.   After lunch a pleasant three hours was spent zooming with friends.

 

It's now raining, hopefully it'll be enough to get me out of watering the garden.

Edited August 1, 2023 by grandadbob

[Tony_S]

36 minutes ago, Winslow Boy said:

They not the statutory highway authority. That can only be the county council.

As we found out when reporting a faulty streetlight. The County Council have a good app for reporting faults. Then there is no way of finding out what or when something will be done. For Essex County Council the only way to find out is to raise a complaint. Then raise a complaint that your complaint has been ignored. The district council is rather efficient in comparison.  

[Coombe Barton]

... responding to the challenge of pointing the fisheye lens at things other than buildings ...

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2023/08/01/postcards-from-the-periphery-2023-13-covid-wobbling-and-summer-weather-and-newts/

[polybear]

38 minutes ago, Winslow Boy said:

Incidentally if the tree is on the grass verge then they are both on highway land and therefore the county council's. The district, town or parish may be cutting the verge but it will on behalf of the CC. They not the statutory highway authority. That can only be the county council.

 

Certainly as recently as early 2018 the local herbs were dealing with Bear's Tree (I call it that cos' I stopped a certain person on the Council trying to have it cut down on more than one occasion** - which really, REALLY p1ssed her off cos' the Contractors billed her anyway 🤣)

 

**It was her own fault - the Council would send me a letter saying they were coming, and when - all I had to do was park the Bearmobile underneath; the Tree Guys said it was crazy to drop it and thought it all rather funny.

 

27 minutes ago, jjb1970 said:

I never understand why some people risk well paid jobs (or at least career prospects) by submitting dodgy mileage claims and frivolous/excessive expense claims. Is it really worth blowing a well paid job or solid career for a quick quid which is utterly trivial next to what you could lose?

 

 

Bear's expenses were once described by the HoD as being "as immaculate as they always are"; the rest of the Guys nearly wet themselves laughing....

Mind you, whilst Bear was happy with one or maybe two Blackcurrant & Lemonade's a night (or Pineapple Juice), along with a Pizza or Gammon n' Chips etc, the rest of the Guys were downing Pints, Wine, Rib Eye Steaks etc., so it's no wonder I stayed well under the Radar.

 

I heard of one Manager at the G.E. (mid 90's) who got caught bangin' in duplicate expenses to two different signatories; now when those Expenses include Business Class Flights to the USA it goes beyond "getting a b0llokin' for too much wine" to "you're in deep doo doo, matey".  He didn't survive, from what I heard.

[45156]

1 hour ago, polybear said:

Bear can very easily go off some people....

It took me 3 years to do 3 rooms (s'pose I could claim that H/S/L is three rooms in itself, jacking the total up to five).

But you didn't have 30747 pushing you every inch of the way, and TBH, she did a lot of the actual paperhanging, and trimming while I was around for consultation, moving furniture, unloading freestanding cupboards (largely of my railway book collection) and taking down and putting back the heavy wall mounted cabinets.  Also, other than the trips out to town, Dr, and bank in Leominster, we worked every day from 8 til 2.30 with only a couple of breaks.  Had I not been so busy, I would not have checked for steam movements, and would not have missed

That's him passing Ludlow station.

[New Haven Neil]

10 hours ago, Mike Bellamy said:

 

I thought the Fraggles were in the same time zone as UK, not a month behind . . . . 😀

.

 

Actually it is 1950 here and I don't mean ten to eight!  🤣   We have a rather slower pace of life.

[TheQ]

As a former member of GEC, I know all about no drinks on the bills, that existed before gec bought Ferranti and put my division under Ferranti. After that every time my division won a contract Ferranti got the work in Edinburgh. My division went from 1200 people to zero in 6 years . That's why I bailed out to Saudi...

When I started at GEC MK in 1988 we had a max hotel bill of £50 inc breakfast , a main meal allowance max of £12 all itemised of course. When I left for Saudi in 1996, the allowances were exactly the same we couldn't afford hotel meals in some places ( not even a single course). We started using take aways, they even rang a Chinese takeaway to see if I'd had alcohol with a meal... (They didn't have alcohol).

 

Evening Awl,

One rescue today, a female teenager capsized her dinghy , sticking it's mast in the mud and she was too light to get in upright again.

 

First race I was late for the start, but did reasonably well, although last at the finish on the water, BM was mid fleet on handicap.

Second race got the start right and was briefly in the lead, remained second for a lap and a half but as the wind dropped the boats with bigger sail area overtook. So BM finished 4th on the water but second on handicap.

 

I've had a Chinese meal for dinner, I have a can of Thatchers in hand, nd quiz night is about to start..

Time to go join my team...