SM42

I fear your prayers may be answered soon Andy

The vacuum cleaner attachments. This is my usual method, but Mrs SM42 insisted the whole car got washed before she went out. It won't win any concourse awards but at least it looks a bit like the colour it came out of the factory now. Andy

That took longer than I thought. Had to try 4 car washes before I found one that worked. As usual had to finish the job off at hone as not all the gull concrete came off, bit a least the majority did and the rest was softened up to be easily removed. Time for breakfast Andy

It appears that I have to wash the car before breakfast ☹️, it having recently been the target in a rather successful bombing raid by the local gull infestation. 🤬 Luckily there is a car wash less than 500yds down the road so no need to get the hosepipe and buckets out this early. This is a good thing as the outside tap is still in winter isolated mode and the hose pipe is full of holes anyway. Later we will be going shopping as Mrs SM42 has a voucher to use. I will be mainly trying to get various ongoing household projects to progress in the mean time. Andy

Mrs SM42 has just gone to put the milk bottles out and found that tomorrow's delivery has already been delivered. I suspect our milkman has plans for tomorrow. Maybe he's off to the NEC Andy

Not sure if he was there when one of our club layouts appeared in RM complete with Virgin liveried Mk2s on show. You couldn't buy such an item at the time and the owner had made his own. A letter was received about them and use of the trade mark, but they went away happy when it was explained that it was a private project and not intended for commercial sale. I do wonder how Avanti West Coast got away with it though https://avantikb.co.uk/ They even use orange in their logo. Andy

I used a well.known ear drop ( the name escapes me) for mine instead of the olive oil they suggested to soften stuff up before my syringing When it came to my appointment a week later they said there was nothing to remove, so it obviously works quite well. Andy

And we're all done It can be a bit hit and miss getting hold of him, but he always calls back. Used him for years. Andy

Houston. We have a plumber. What we don't have is a valve of the right size. It turns out he needs one for a larger diameter pipe than he thought from memory Still it's only a half a mile to the shop. Andy

I sit here waiting patiently for the plumber to arrive to change a leaking radiator valve. He's my regular man, but sometimes his diary arrangements can be hit and miss, so I'm hoping today is not one of those miss days. Still, I've nowhere to go and have jobs about the house to do. Andy

One I had one that involved several menus and choices to turn it off and you had to do this every time.you started it. The default position was on. Bit like headlights that are default auto. At Le Shuttle they request you to turn off headlights as you board. No chance nowadays. You sit there with the red glow of rear lights stopping you getting a nap cos the kids in the car in front want to watch a video Andy

There are too many electric gizmos in modern cars and whilst some are useful not all are. By far the worst I've experienced is lane assist, which tried to steer me into to oncoming traffic on a narrow road and the car then had the cheek to warn me about the car I was about to hit. The constant beeping and flashing warnings on the dashboard are downright distracting at the very time you don't need distracting. My other pet hate is emergency brake assist, another system that has almost caused an accident. I could see the 44 tonner on the busyish roundabout would not be there when I got there. The car thought otherwise. The people around me had to take avoiding action to miss the unexpectedly stationary vehicle in the middle of a now empty gap in the traffic flow. I don't need the car to beep and the dashboard display to change to tell me I've turned on the wipers. I know I did, I did it and there are two visual clues in front of me wiping the screen. I would quite like to not turn the headlights on at midday on a sunny day because I've passed a tree. I don't like following cars that do as unexpectedl red lights instantly register as braking, so everyone behind does too unnecessarily A colleague apparently has a car that puts the brake lights on if you lift off the throttle. This explains the sudden stationary traffic on the motorway with no apparent cause. Oh and don't start me on the electric parking brake. I much prefer control over the car rather than being in a constant state of " what's it doing now?" Andy

The one thing I worry about with barriers is the propensity for parents to sit small children on them. Legs go flailing as they are lifted over to be sat 9n barrier and then of course there's is the almost universal propensity for dangling legs to be swung back and forth Then they flail about again as child is lifted off the barrier. Far more potential for damage than the leaner and probably more common Andy

Barriers will always creep inwards but the worst kinds are those that look sturdy but aren't or those that don't look ay a sturdy and provd to collapse ag the merest hit of pressure. ( concrete flower pots and ropes I'm looking at you) The worst offender we had was the operator. Had to lean full weight on the support table that was lightweight and purely designed to hold up the layout and control system. Maybe a cup of tea and cake too. Why some people find it hard to stand up, or even sit on stool provided is beyond me. Mind you he had to lean so he could get his head up against the inside of the lighting unit. If only we'd used filament lamps. We don't left him operate the layout now. Andy

I was thinking about the red bit on the inside. I find felt quite a slippy material on a hard smooth surface, such as our 17th century side table. I find the track cutting is less damaging to the table than the track pins. Andy