SM42

It's a wet start here. 

I'm told the priest has set up the BBQ underneath some sort of  temporary cover arrangement. 

Probably just as well. 

Andy

Turns our we ate off toast friends 50th birthday celebrations tomorrow. 

This will involve a BBQ at the church after the service, so an early start. 

I suspect the person cooking might be under an umbrella while the rest of us hide inside. 

Regardless there will be cake. 

Yay!

Andy

8 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

Well, the weather did indeed put paid to my hoped-for trip to Attingham Park this afternoon. Instead I tried to fix our ancient Technics record deck of at least 25 years of age which refuses to do anything remotely connected with playing a record. Sadly I was unable to find what is wrong so transferred my efforts to looking for someone who can fix it. I think I may have found one in Nantwich, which is only about 15 miles away so I've sent an email asking whether they can, in fact, help and hope to hear from them on Monday. My sons think that I should embrace new tech and get an Alexa or something rather than persist with vinyl records and such but although I have gone as far as CDs and even iTunes I still like playing my old discs.

 

Dinosaur, me? I've even got an electric soldering iron!

 

Dave 

I've got my old GEC set up (which I inherited from my parents in the late 80s) which I hoping to resurrect at some point. 

3 speed turntable, 33, 45 and 78. 

I last used it around 1991. 

Andy

32 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

I was in a pub in a forest in Kent in I think in  early 1973.  A friend had taken a group of of us  there as he said it had Youngs seasonal ales. While we were there, someone came in and ordered a pint of Red Barrel.The landlord said they didn’t serve it. The customer asked for the nearest equivalent and was given a glass of water. The landlord was a bit of a “character” but didn’t automatically ban students or motorcyclists like some places not that far away. 

A friend of mine who hails from Kent once told  of a New Year's Eve event at his local pub. 

It was a fancy dress event and there were several competitions. 

One was a caption competition, the picture was of a man holding up and admiring a pint of the house beer in traditional advertising poster pose .  

One entry which went down well with all except the landlord  was 

" Even the water's come in fancy dress this  year."

Andy

Round here the Party 7 was a Worthingtons thing. 

Cut the top off the empty can and it was ideal for dropping the oil out of a Mini or Renault 16 at oil change time. 

The central part half of our  drive was unsurfaced for this activity. ( it also saved a lot of concrete)

Dig a hole. Insert can, remove sump plug. 

Store can about the garden for when you needed to get a bonfire going. 

Happy days

Andy

19 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

We have recently had the same happen to our conservatory roof but judging by the amount of splatter it must have been a South American Condor on its holidays. Unfortunately I can’t take the conservatory to the car wash and since at present I can’t ascend ladders well just have to pray for heavy rain.

 

Dave

 

I fear your prayers may be answered soon

Andy

10 minutes ago, Oldddudders said:

Unusual. A few decades ago, I recall a London Underground car-card ad campaign by a firm offering office air-con kit. They had a cartoon character called Mr Cool or similar. One of his lines was "I keep my socks in the fridge!" Perhaps we should have a fridge-content confessional on here?

The vacuum cleaner attachments. 

3 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

Cover the cr@p with a piece of nicely wet kitchen roll for a few minutes - then it'll wipe off.  Saves having to wash the car.  Ask a Bear how he knows.....

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 home 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

9 hours ago, Wheatley said:

 Chris Green was famously relaxed about the use of the Virgin West Coast livery on model trains, 

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

2 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

As long as it does the job they can use whatever they like. I did know someone who tried to do it himself with cotton buds and made a right mess of his ear that ended up needing hospital visits so maybe that won’t be an option though.

 

Dave

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

40 minutes ago, BSW01 said:

I suspect getting the plumber was the hard part. 

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

5 minutes ago, big jim said:

the one thing I always turn off straight away when I get a hire car! 

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

1 hour ago, RichardT said:

Old-school anti-slip material. Also to mitigate damage to the surface on which you’re using the cutting block, should you absent-mindedly be using your antique dining room table for track works…

 

RichardT

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

Kenwater was a retail business ( based in Leominster) that sold a lot of Peco products by mail order and at exhibitions. 

Some sort of track cutting jig is possible but why the felt?

Andy

Last time I had a hearing test, I mentioned that it was extra hard as the, I presume, cooling fan in the top of the box was rattling/ humming. 

"What fan?" Asked the tester. 

"That one," sez  I pointing to the whirling thing that seemed to have an issue with its bearings. 

" Oh" they said, "I can't hear it."

" Well I can and it was downright distracting "

The other distraction was my pulse.

I still managed to pass OK even with the pum, pum, pum,  whirr, rattle backing track

Andy

I've been doing the same as HH at Ludlow Castle

This was followed by a brisk walk up Clee Hill and dinner in Bewdley.

Wine and cake are on the agenda this evening. 

Andy

7 hours ago, bbishop said:

All I know about guns is that when I put the sight thing to my eye, there is a bloody great bolt in front of my face.  In the CCF, the other cadets got the Lee-Enfields, I was given the map.

If you thought that was scary, try using a shotgun in fading light. 

The cloud of sparks from the muzzle is quite impressive  

The bright flash at the breach end,  between the stock and barrel, next to your cheek is more eye opening ( or eye closing  if you've got any sense)

Andy

Talking of water management, it's  raining here. 

That's a relief really as I was expecting a hose pipe ban to be announced if the drought of the last 48 hours went on much longer 

Andy