AndyID

2 hours ago, Tony_S said:

I haven’t had a report frm the Cincinnati Zoo hippos recently but have just received one. . Today’s hippo fact was that the collective noun for a group of hippos is “a bloat” 

"on the landscape" springeth to mind 🤣

1 minute ago, pH said:

Completely agree. However - the rules they have to administer? 😡🤬

Ah yes, we better not go into that 😁

Just now, polybear said:

 

Assuming you don't lose the will to live whilst waiting on the phone for them to answer....

We used the special ex-pats hotline 🤣🤣🤣

In our limited dealings with the UK Pensions people in Newcastle we have always found them to be very courteous and helpful 😀

Winter has returned - well it is still February. 27F this morning and snow expected tonight. It may be necessary for me to head for the hills this week.

9 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

It's a special produced by one of our local Cognac producers though he can't call it Cognac.  It is fizzy Cognac.  He also does a fizzy pineau. 

 

Jamie

Are you in the legit Cognac area?

5 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

 

Whilst I'm out I'd better fuel the car up for tomorrow's trip to Hereford.

Where, hopefully, 'urricanes 'ardly ever 'appen.

2 hours ago, SM42 said:

 

Wait for me

 

Andy

Save some for me. I've been looking for an excuse to visit la Belle France.

6 minutes ago, SM42 said:

After a quick bit of reading it seems that ice holds less CO2 than the liquid so as it starts to freeze, the CO2 pressure increases, the expanding liquid fill the empty spaces in the bottle, reducing the space and the gas pressure will likely beat the formation of ice in splitting the vessel.

 

It could in theory get up to 2000psi  apparently but by then the vessel would have ruptured  probably at around 80 - 100psi depending on what it is made of

 

Yikes

 

It involved physics and maths so I may have got it wrong a bit, but the basic premise is the dissolved gas will be released as the liquid freezes to create pressures far above the design limit of the vessel

 

Andy 

 

 

Yes, I was coming to a similar conclusion. Essentially the CO2 is forced to occupy a much smaller volume as it is no longer able to dissolve in the liquid.

13 minutes ago, SM42 said:

 

I think it is more about the pressure vessel ( the bottle) being overpressurised when the carbonated fluid defrosts.

 

You could be right. Judging by the total destruction of the bottle there must have been a serious explosion 😆

We had a little do on New Year's Day for the neighbors. There was some champagne but nobody wanted any so it stayed outside in a cooler on the deck and was forgotten about.

Today I happened to look inside the cooler and discovered that a rather large bottle of the stuff was completely shattered in the cooler. It was extremely cold here for around a week around the middle of January and I think the champagne must have frozen solid, expanded and shattered the glass bottle.

Champagne freezes at around -8C so it's not surprising that the glass let go because I think it was much colder than that. There were also two smaller bottles in the cooler but they remained intact although one of them does seem to have lost some of its fizz.

5 hours ago, New Haven Neil said:

 

I put a curtain rail up for friend Jayne when she rebuild her cottage, dead level with the help of appropriate devices.  Looks awful as the floor runs off really badly.....the whole place is a parallelogram. It is VERY old, proper Manx stone cottage. She insists on leaving it as a 'feature', it drives me mad.

 Ah yes, there is level according to gravity at that particular location then there is level as meets the eye.

25 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

More drops in eyes, and the car got washed before the match started.

 

Some Guinness  and crisps consumed.

 

I've decided to go shooting tomorrow afternoon, which should be fun, as I can't remember what range I zeroed my two rifles.

 

Was it 10/25 or 15/30?

 

I suspect I'd better do a quick test shoot tomorrow lunchtime before I set off for the range....

 

I don't want to look like a chump by not hitting anything🤣

You could use the excuse that you had to put drops in your mince pies.

Home again after a pleasant 550 mile drive from Pocatello to North Idaho. The reason it was pleasant was because the weather was beautiful. Lots of sunshine and the mountains have lot of snow. It was also quite relaxing because most of it was with the cruise control set at 82 mph and there was very little traffic on the road.

The route was North on Interstate 15 then West on Interstate 90. The I-15 section crosses the Continental Divide West to East at 6,800 feet then recrosses East to West at 5,800 feet. Quite cold up there but the road was free of ice and snow. Truly spectacular on a clear day as it was today.

9 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

I've just written a post full of erudite, entertaining and interesting stuff but when I hit 'Submit Reply' the system went into hold for about a minute then the post simply disappeared 😡

 

Since I can't be ar$ed to go through the whole business again you'll never know what words of wisdom you have missed. Just thought I'd let you know.

 

Night night

 

Dave

I get that a lot. It might have been saved. You'll find out next time you visit 

6 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

I can't see what all the fuss is about.

 

Here is a picture of my helmet:

 

At this altitude a helmet and a brandy to calm the nerves ain't all bad 😂

53 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

 

joule

But you can go to work on an erg. Joules might not be too happy. 😄

7 minutes ago, DenysW said:

Never really used. Ft-lb, yes, as in 550 ft-lb-wt/sec = 1 hp.

It was a wind-up 🤣

38 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

 

joule

What's wrong with the inch-ounce?

I've spent the last few weeks in Utah and Colorado doing this sort of stuff. This is at Snowmass ski area, Aspen.

Weather at Buttermilk, Aspen yesterday was great. Seven inches of new snow overnight then not a cloud all day.

11 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

As expected today was taken up with burning papers containing sensitive information, sorting my part of a wardrobe, taking a load of stuff to a charity shop, food shopping and a couple of '5 minute' jobs. The frustrating bit was when the clever press a button key thingy failed to connect with the car in order to open the doors so I was stuck in Moreasons carpark until Jill could bring me the second key thingy from home. It's a good job that neither of us I was a hundred miles away. I'll have to contact the VW agents but I bet it will be expensive to get a new key dongler thingy.

At least my activities over the last couple of days have earned me a weekend of modelling and watching 6 nations rugby so there is a silver lining.

 

Dave

If this is up to date you should be able to replace the battery and there is a slide out key in the fob.

https://www.stohlman-vw.com/service-tips-and-tricks/change-battery-in-vw-key/

2 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

As expected today was taken up with burning papers containing sensitive information, sorting my part of a wardrobe, taking a load of stuff to a charity shop, food shopping and a couple of '5 minute' jobs. The frustrating bit was when the clever press a button key thingy failed to connect with the car in order to open the doors so I was stuck in Moreasons carpark until Jill could bring me the second key thingy from home. It's a good job that neither of us I was a hundred miles away. I'll have to contact the VW agents but I bet it will be expensive to get a new key dongler thingy.

At least my activities over the last couple of days have earned me a weekend of modelling and watching 6 nations rugby so there is a silver lining.

 

Dave

The thingy for my Fiat has a battery that needs to be replaced every so often. It also has an actual key that slides out in case the battery is flat. Maybe your's does too?

Gratings from Sandy, Utah. I'm staying with friends who have a house near the Little Cottonwood Canyon. There are two ski areas there, Alta and Snowbird. A serious storm has passed now and it dumped a lot of snow up there.

Despite our close proximity to the ski resorts it took two hours to get there yesterday. The road was closed due to avalanche control work and by the time it opened there was an enormous line of cars. We still managed to run out of skiing energy well before the lifts stopped running.

Tomorrow we plan to ski at Deer Valley although I prefer to call it "Dear Valet" because it's rather posh.

16 hours ago, pH said:

I went through to Edinburgh on several international rugby days, but I only ever went to one game!

But you did spend a fair bit of time on Rose Street 😄