AndrewC

38 minutes ago, polybear said:

eight quid for 23.5 hours usage then?  Ouch.

Yep. Daily use for the house and shed is normally under £2. Then again there were 2 units running constantly, plus the fridge, beer fridge, and freezer all putting in overtime claims. Dreading next year when our 3 year fixed rate ends. Sadly not enough suitable roof space for solar panels unless I get the shed rebuilt with a stronger roof. Then I'd have about 75m² of south facing area to play with. 

Can someone explain why the British are so fecking shite when it comes to weather. 

30c = lovely holiday weather when abroad. Lay out in the sun turning into a deep fried Mars bar but still loving it.

30c at home means I'm about to burn in the fires of hell. 

-10c = perfect skiing weather with a few glasses après.

-10c at home means the end of the world. 

My solution is: when it is hot put a fake picture of a Spanish resort in your window and pretend you are in Ibiza. When it is cold, a fake pic of a ski resort to make you feel like you are in the mountains. Sorted. Now stop your bitching. 

On 16/07/2022 at 09:56, Tony_S said:

I can never look stylish or elegant so I may as well be comfortable. 
Tony

On a similar note the great Canadian philosopher Red Green once said, "If the women don't find you handsome they should at least find you handy". 

Moaning all from the main reaction chamber of Grumpy nuclear plant A. It is hot. 2 of the 3 portable air con units are draining my bank account as I write this. The third is sadly still waiting for repair and a re-gassing. We are slightly lucky here with heat and rain. With 3 wooded areas and a large open space nearby we don't have as much of a heat island effect that some parts of London do. Also the "lump" that comprises Blackheath, Shooter's Hill, most of Welling and all the other heath bits up to Crayford also seems to create a slight rain shadow. It puts us about 50m above the Thames. It can be piddling in Thamesmead but dry here. We are normally 1-3 degrees cooler than Central London. 

Twas another quiet weekend with little accomplished apart from managing to get a pair of cat6 cables finally pulled into the office. I just need to now install a back box and RJ-45 sockets at the office end. The ever increasing wifi interference around here means I really need to hardwire the mesh nodes. Once upon a time I pretty much had the 5ghz band all to my self with zero others showing up in range. Now it is bloody crowded. <geek talk> Getting rid of the dedicated wifi that connects the mesh routers will allow the main 5ghz wifi to double up to reduce interference instead of being split into 2 nodes. <end of geek talk> 

Work is work. This week I am box ticking a bunch of waste of time online courses that the client requires to be "compliant". None of it actually applies as I'm not an employee, nor am I ever going to be working in one of their offices. 

Iced latte time. Enjoy the day

19 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

I would argue that without understanding the philosophies behind the regimes of Imperial Japan, Nazi Germany and The Soviet Union - we will be fated to repeat the same mistakes....

I'd suggest man has continued this philosophy around people being expendable and disposable with no breaks since the beginning of humanity. Only the scale of barbarity varies through history. I'd argue that the current situation in Ukraine is being fuelled by a Russian leadership that has historically seen their population (mostly rural peasants) as cannon fodder for the greatness of Mother Russia. The enemy to be slaughtered without mercy as they aren't regarded as people. 

Greetings all from the boring tropical borough. 

Binmen are on strike from today. One of the guys next door works for them. Basically things have got much worse under their new management after Serco were turfed out last year. Not a good situation for anyone but I understand their predicament. 

Tiny little trees. Yes, I bought one of those little 150mm tall trees sprayed with white crap from Tesco a few years ago. It's almost 3m tall now. The birds like it. Tried last year to move it. No chance. Roots like a bloody redwood. 

Bloody hot out. The house has now turned into a pizza oven as expected. The shed's air con has failed. Can't get a repair for 2 weeks. New unit arrived yesterday. Will get it set up shortly. The old one when repaired will go into the bedroom and the bedroom one will cascade back into my office. Been tempted to look at solar panels and a fully installed whole house cooling solution. 

Back at work after a week off. Haven't left the house since last Tuesday evening. Time to throw a bottle of rum in the freezer so we can raise a glass to my Step FiL on what would have been his birthday. 
 

Enjoy the day

Greetings all from the boring borough. Been off for a bit and away from the laptop as we’ve had house pests, err guests. The ex and her hubby V2.0 have been here for a few days prior to schlepping north to visit the offspring and a bunch of her family. Loads of BBQ were consumed as part of a big Canada Day party last Friday with good friends and their munchkins. More BBQ with the visitors. I’ve still got about 1kg of brisket and some beef ribs that Fred Flintstone would drool over about to be vac sealed for future consumption. Tuesday was my solar orbit completion day. Lunch in Soho and a bit a beer crawl through Camden was enjoyed. Camden has now finally been officially ruined. The old market stalls replaced by trendy shipping container box park wanna be foodie things. What few decent pubs remain are rammed with even more horrid people than before. Thank feck for the Black Heart & British Boot Shop. (Where SWMBO just spent £900 in new footwear) 

Yesterday was a do burger all day. Today was a do burger all day. Got excited for a minute that something interesting politically would actually happen. Talk about a damp squib. Meh. Got my hopes up for a minute that something involving chains, boat down the Thames, the Bloody Tower, and a large French veggie slicer would be involved. 

Modelling Mojo has shown signs of stirring. Half of me wants to try and lay some O track in the garden when SWMBO isn’t looking. The other half of me has a box full of OO-9 and a ready made 2’ by 4’ baseboard just crying out for a micro layout which I can build on the patio while enjoying the sun and a few fermented beverages. Decisions, decisions. 

Back, eventually. Enjoy the rest of the day. 

Greetings all from the boring borough. 

Back on the beer theme, Greene Thing can brew a decent beer when they want to. Some of their specials for the GBBF over the years have been pretty amazing. Normally though, bland, forgettable, and down right boring. On the other side of the business they've got a reputation now for asset stripping. Any pub with even the slightest wobble of sales or if a developer comes sniffing means bye bye pub, hello flats. We've got 5 4 3 Greene things by us. One with a tenant which has just been totally refurbished and is quite good. The other 2 including the famous We Anchor in Hope (famous if you are a Kate Bush fan as that is where she and her brother first played live. Not at the Dirty South as some insist.) could vanish any minute as they are corporate managed ones. 

I used to enjoy going to the cinema but these days, I'd rather just wait until the movie is available to stream. Sticky floors, extreme cost, asshats on their phones, etc. It has just become an unpleasant experience. 

On to the subject of missing bits. My dad lost half of his little finger on his left hand at work way back in the 50s. Almost 30 years to the day my younger brother lost half of his little finger on his left hand at work. The running joke has always been they could only count to 9 1/2. Both had the phantom pain/itch at times. 

Fecesbook is p1ssing me off again. Really getting tired of it deciding what I want to see. Just had a promoted (read, advert) post for Brew By Numbers summer beer fest. All well and good but the bloody thing was 4 weeks ago. Anything recent, interesting, and from friends, all seems to get buried or hidden in the feed. Maybe time to finally pull the plug as it is now next to useless. 

Enough b1tchiness for one day. Time for more coffee and a whole pile of meetings bloody meetings. Enjoy the day. 

Oh wait, it is my new friday!!! Roll on a 10 day weekend as I'm off next week. 

23 minutes ago, Gwiwer said:

With pedant mode on I believe the slogan was “It’s what your right arm’s for”. 

 

I only once sampled it and found it revolting. 
 

There is also the Monty Python “Travel Agent” sketch which features it. 

 

Once upon a time I had a tee shirt that proclaimed. " I thought Puking was a city in China until I drank Watney's Red Barrel. "

Greetings all from the boring borough. Another weekend has passed. Another week begins. Looks to be a busy one. After nearly 3 years I finally get to speak to a real live surgeon prior to a physical appt on the 11th. Maybe, just maybe I'll finally get my elbow sorted. 

Little else. Currently wandering back through the past 3 days and sprinkling likes, etc. 

Time for another meeting. Enjoy the day.