PupCam

Evening All!

21 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

 

By persuading iL Dottore to have pizza and chips by saying "my treat". Poor old @polybear little realised that @iL Dottore would drag him to Salt Bae's Pizza Parlour and Kebab Shop, order The King's Surf and Turf Pizza (Wagyu Beef, Venison, Pheasant & Lobster), snaffle a bowl of truffle fries "for Lucy and Schotty under the table", empty 6 bottles of Pétrus and then cheerfully say "thanks for the pizza" before disappearing into the night with Lucy and Schotty in tow...

 

 

"That was OK, I guess" said @iL Dottore to Lucy and Schotty as they walked home with a bumper sized doggy bag...

 

 

"But it wasn't a patch on our usual place, Pizzeria Anna Rita, where they appreciate our regular custom. We're pretty much family there"

 

I can see what you've done in this post Flavio and you are a very naughty boy .... 😉

12 hours ago, polybear said:

And apart from that it'll be.....let's see now....oh yes.....Templot Time again.....

I decided/realised that the plan I've been working on was "too much" - loadsa parallel nickel silver but with buggerallroom for much else.  So now I'm on to idea #257......

Less is more  ....

3 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

I’ve just spent a happy two hours fishing dead leaves and other detritus out of our garden pond. In one net full was an unhappy looking frog who glared at me balefully until I freed him from his covering of blanket weed and placed him back in the water. As I was doing so I couldn’t help but think that this small creature with a smooth shiny head and big eyes reminded me of someone. Then it hit me - Pupcam!

 

🤣

 

Dave

Who's my friend then ..... 🤣

ION

After a very severe coat of "looking at" which involved fitting the new ignition points and replacing the super accurate DTI (but apparently difficult to read correctly) with a "standard" metric one it appears that not only are the point* gaps now correct but it has been possible (at flaming last!) to set the timing correctly with the adjustment plates somewhere near the centre of their travel.   Flushed with this success I thought I'd attempt to set the dynamic timing reference pointer correctly from its "as-received" position right up one end of the slot. Setting the left hand cylinder to the firing position I noted with some glee that to line up with the reference line on the bit that whizzes around and around** the fixed reference has to be set near enough spot-on in the middle of its slot.  Whoopee do!    So, a job for tomorrow is to get back onto draining the tank, fitting the replacement fuel tap and seeing if it goes.

*     Look away, nothing to do with parallel strips of metal here

**   A technical term

A small modification is required to the astronomy remote control unit so I fancy a bit of breadboard experimentation could be on the cards for this evening.

TTFN

Evening All!

19 hours ago, Barry O said:

.. but in my time in Bragbury End

As-in the GE's Sports & Social Club?     Who can forget their Cheeseburger with the boiling hot melted cheese cunningly contained within the burger ready to spurt out and scald a passer-by from the first mouthful of the unweary eater.   I remember an incident where one such high pressure jet of molten cheese and fat happened to strike a cold glass of refreshment.   It rapidly congealed into a yellowy/white slime on the way down the glass.  Ummmm, nice!

9 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

This morning I’ll be working on the building I’m constructing for a layout that will be exhibited at Warley (I’ll be delivering “on the day”). At the Brains Trust meet up, my “client” (for want of a better term) provided me with some materials for the building and a surprise from our late chum ChrisF.

 

Over the years I made a number of buildings for layouts ChrisF was involved in, in return he said he would express his thanks by building a GWR Toplight Coach for me (when not marching around in his rainbow boots, or attending folk music concerts, ChrisF was a talented and knowledgeable modeller - not that he thought himself so - being rather self deprecating about his skills and knowledge). When he died I thought “well, that’s that” - a lot of joint projects died with him. On Saturday, to my delight, one of the BT regulars handed me a box and inside was an exquisitely built and finished GWR toplight coach (how it got to me is a bit complicated and I won’t bother you with the story).

 

And, fittingly and poignantly, under the coach on the floor pan was a tiny label “in memory of ChrisF”

 

This, I think, shows ERs (and TNMs) at their best: thoughtful, considerate and generous.

Ah! I missed the fact that it had come from Chris!    That's very nice, as was the coach.

8 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

Because we are living in the age when “computers make life easier”. 
 

No. They don’t. Not in every situation. How many “accounts” do I have in order to shop online?  Almost one for everywhere I go; a few places allow me to “check out as a guest” without harvesting details such as my email address or phone number. 
 

Electronic payments do not always save time, do nothing for job retention and discriminate against those unable for any reason to use cash. 
 

It is still a daily occurrence in London for visitors to offer bus drivers cash for fare payment. London buses have not taken cash for years. You can buy a Travelcard for cash at a retail outlet but only if one is nearby and they are now only sold for “all zones” meaning you are probably paying a lot more than you need to for trips confined to the central area. 
 

It should be easy enough to adopt a single-coin cash payment option. Or two coins. Such that no change has to be given. London buses charge £1.75 per trip; most others in England charge the current £2 cap per trip. Hand the driver a £2 coin or two £1 coins (the latter being far more commonly found in pockets) and hop on. Drivers may not even have to pay in as they once did if a coin vault system was in use; that is emptied by security staff at the garage. 
 

Electronic systems have their place. But there must always be a KISS option as well. 
 

Good morning all. Speech over. Enjoy the day. 

Hear! Hear!

6 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

For those who think that £15 is a lot for fish and chips…. (From yesterday’s The Times)

 

No one who has eaten out recently needs telling that restaurants are getting more expensive, but before you grumble at the price of your burger and chips, think yourself lucky you don’t move in London’s more rarefied echelons. According to research by the restaurant guide Hardens, the number of establishments charging more than £200 a head has grown by over 50 per cent to 46 this year, up from 30 in 2022. It’s enough to drive you to drink, except that that, plus service, will be charged on top.

 

Before the obligatory chorus of disapproval consider this: a ticket for the upcoming Manchester City vs Liverpool match are starting at £168, Centre Court Tickets at Wimbledon cost as much as £275, if you’re into photography and have a Nikon, a NIKON AF-S NIKKOR 200-500 mm f/5.6E ED VR Telephoto Zoom Lens will set you back £1,239 whilst the 2024 spring residential modelling course at Missenden will set you back £345.

 

It’s all about enjoying the best in your chosen hobby or interest that you can treat yourself to. Whilst buying a ticket to a Premier League game goes unremarked, doing the equivalent for dining out is regarded as “pretentious”, “self indulgent” and the like. Definitely inverse snobbery and something you’d not see in Italy, France or Spain…

Yes I'm always amused at how much people will pay to go and see the over-paid kick-ballers 'perform' whilst potential getting cold, rained on and/or physically abused but each to their own.    

With respect a Nikon (other makes are available) might cost more than a "Big Nosh" but you can use a Nikon more than once ......

Just like the knowledge gained at Missenden (other course might be available) .

I would suggest there's a mighty fine line somewhere between getting really excellent but expensive nosh from those that really can and do  and just expensive nosh with people being taken for a ride because they have more money than sense.    The trick of course is to stay on the right side of that line wherever it may be.

6 hours ago, jjb1970 said:

Donner kebab meat is basically the same as gyros, the same thing in Greece. In many countries you would get a blank look if you asked for donner kebab but if you asked for gyros you'd be fine.

How on earth are they allowed to cull so many elephants for their legs!

5 hours ago, roundhouse said:

I am gobsmacked that a Mc Donalds Big Mac meal is now well over a fiver🙃

Isn't Big Mac Meal an oxymoron?🤔

ION

I had a couple of trips up-the-smoke at the end of last week.   Friday saw us visiting the big hospital for a consultation.   Very good and very efficient.    I had blood tests, a chest X Ray and an ECG done and the consultation with a consultant and two registrars.  In and out in 1.5 hours!  It would take that long to get the phone answered at the GP's  (OK, slight exaggeration but the difference in service is staggering).   After that we went for some scoff and then as our "Year Ticket" to visit St Pauls expired the very next day it would have been rude not to go for another walk round.

Then as has been mentioned elsewhere, it was up there again on Saturday for a BT gathering which was most enjoyable.   It was made even more enjoyable by revised transportation arrangements which did not at any time involve going on the UndergrounD so that was an extra big tick.

I've finished off the RD generator extractor today and it worked a treat.  The rotor came off without even a whimper.

I've also been re-processing some of my videos of Jupiter (it's usual to use video for solar, lunar and planetary imaging) and many many stills for stars and deep sky objects (e.g. nebular).   Like @polybear's  Templot learning curve, the one for processing astronomical imagery is a very steep one, with many different tools available and no "right-answer".

Anyway, I've re-processed one of the videos from last week doing it twice in effect; "exposing" one for the planet itself and then another for the moons.  The two being re-combined to make a composite image.     You can't even see the moons in the original video but they are there lurking in the blackness!

I think it's my best one yet but I've still got miles to go!   I wonder if I could persuade Mrs Puppers that splashing out 60 Deltics on a decent telescope, another 60 Deltics on a decent tracking/go-to mount and possibly another 60 Deltics on some really good astro-cameras and the necessary filters would be a really good idea.   No, thought not.   I'll just have to try harder with my 3  Deltic setup then.

Here it is for what it's worth.

Better go and start cooking dinner before Mrs P gets home.

TTFN

Not so much an Early Riser, more a Late Going to Beder because I've been outside again fiddling with the telescope because that bright little dot in the sky called Jupiter is still presenting itself conveniently.

I still don't really know what I'm doing and all though it remains far from a perfect image it's a big improvement on my previous attempts.    It's even got two of its moons for company.    All four were visible first thing this evening but one was very close to Jupiter and it had disappeared by the time I packed up and the other is out of shot.  

I just had to have a few goes processing some of the results before bed.  If only I had a clue as to how I got there and more importantly, how to do it again but better!

Night Awl!

Afternoon All!

A Junior Junior Puppers  "looking after day" today which included a drive (to get him to sleep) which just happened to end at a Garden Centre. 

That was convenient, someone having said only yesterday they wanted to go and a have a look around one for something for the front garden.

Anyway, while we were there Bear was spotted.   Clearly he's been doing a bit of moonlighting.    Isn't the pension adequate I wonder? 🤔

TTFN

Evening All

8 hours ago, New Haven Neil said:

Ah Sulzer, the Rolls-Royce of marine engines, or so my ol dad used to tell me.  When I began in the profession he said I could call myself an engineer when I could describe to him the actions of a Sulzer main engine (RND type) fuel pump - I had great pleasure in doing so a few years later.  These are a touch bigger than the one in your diesel car.

As they used to say on Crimewatch.    Neil, don't have nightmares ....

I've got a feeling Sulzer used to use the same source of background music for corporate videos as the Great Empire 🤣

2 hours ago, The White Rabbit said:

Less dramatically, I'm happy with the one generated of me in a kitchen, though I shudder to think what might be in the pot:

 

Rabbit per chance?

8 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

When I type into an Emporium's website's search engine "A 1/12 scale PupCam riding a Norton Commando"Norton Commando" )

Can't wait to see the finished model!      Hmmm.   Perhaps I need a Norton as well in the garage?

ION

We ventured over to Pegsdon Hills in Puppershire earlier for a walk.        The hills are the last gasp of the Chilterns.    Talking of gasp, Puppers actually made it to the top but was left gasping somewhat as we haven't been up there for ages and let's just say Puppers is out of condition.     Anyway, it's a nice view when you get to the top and it's always nice to give the Trig Point a friendly pat as you pass it.

Time for an early night methinks.

Night All

2 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

Could it perhaps actually be that  modern documentaries just seem more simplistic  because being much older and wiser than we were in the 60's we pretty much know everything already  by now?

No, they truly are carp now.   Bring back James Burke I say!

ION

A nice Beeza chug was chugged this morning in the sunshine.  Although the sky was looking "a bit threatening" when we set off it behaved itself nicely and the sun came out to play.   It was a bit parky though! 

Amazon goods arrived this morning while I was out.   That's good, I only ordered them yesterday afternoon  and of course, being Puppers, selected "Super Saver Delivery" (aka Slow) when I did so.   I still don't get the point of Prime UNLESS you want to avail yourself of the video content etc which I don't.

The goods included some AAA rechargeable cells which were required for the telescopes focuser stepper motor driver.  I found the stepper motor wasn't doing its stuff and I thought it had jammed/failed but no, the lashed-up AAA Duracells were just flat so that was an easy fix.     Having done a VFM comparison between a four pack in local stores (Argos, Toolstation, Screwfix) and compared it with offerings from Amazon I'm afraid there was simply no contest.    I think I got 20 high-capacity (1100mAh) ones for between 1/2 & 2/3 that for a low-capacity 4 pack!     The first tranche of printer cartridges arrived too.  The remaining two are not coming from an Amazon warehouse  but direct from the suppliers one of whom is in Jersey!    I suppose that might be delayed as they might be nailing the roof back on and bailing out the building after storm Cretin or whatever it was called.  

Which reminds me.   Many years ago I was trying unsuccessfully to contact the ADT Alarms office in Hemel Hempstead.     As it happened, it was shortly after the minor explosion that was Buncefield (look it up if you are unfamiliar with it).   As we were passing through Hemel I thought I'd swing by the office (in the industrial estate) and visit it in person.   When we got there we could see why they weren't answering the telephone as it seemed to have lost all of it's windows and other bits of its structure 🤣.   I remember the outrage at the time about how stupid it was that they built an oil storage depot right in the middle of the industrial estate.      What the outraged idiots didn't realise was that when it was built it was as far from the original industrial estate and the M1 motorway as it could be given geography.   Later the higher-paid help in the local council "allowed" (encouraged?) the industrial estate to expand and surround the oil depot.  That'll teach them!  Although no doubt it didn't .....

I did a bit more "Front porch astronomy" this evening with the now fully functioning, remote controlled focuser.   Jupiter was looking good again although one of the four moons was hiding this evening.  The two main bands clearly discernable through the eyepiece now that precise focus can be achieved.   I've also been playing around abit more with the camera & software.  Some progress in the understanding department was made unfortunately no progress was made in the results department!

Right Oh, it's bed time.

Night All

3 hours ago, grandadbob said:

As a matter of fact Sir Puppers I am interested.  I was born in WGC and lived there for  the first threeish years of my life and my Nan, Grandad and Great Aunt all lived there until they died in the 60s.  Nan and Aunt Daisy worked in the Welwyn Stores as it was in the 50s and I can remember a very young Robert (this was long before I became a Bob) being taken there by Mum in the 50s to see them.  Is the fountain still nearby?

What?   😀 This one?

Bring back any memories?

3 hours ago, grandadbob said:

Mum was a model during the war and had many pics taken by Lisa Sheridan (mother of Dinah Sheridan) who was a royal photographer and had a studio in WGC.

I think I've posted these before but here's a couple of Mum and me taken by her:

 

 The cigarette was probably a Craven A as apparently she was one of the Craven A girls and her picture was plastered over the London Underground.  Despite years of searching I've never managed to find a copy.

 

Yep, that's me and I even had some hair!   😂

Great photographs!

Nanna Puppers used to smoke Craven A.    I believe the advertising used to go along the lines of "They are good for your throat".     I think they lied .....   As young children, Puppers and his slightly older sister used to have to walk around the corner to the local newsagents which had a great view of one of the stations on the Hertford Loop to buy Nan's cigarettes when visiting.  We were ~ 7 and 11 years old at the time.   Different times!    I'm very pleased to say the experience did not induce Puppers to smoke (or even lightly fume).

3 hours ago, grandadbob said:

Yep, that's me and I even had some hair!   😂

There are similar photographs of Puppers at such an age with a similar amount of hair.   Hair?   Yes, I remember that.

In Other Late News

I had another quick play with the telescope this evening on the front door step.    Jupiter was looking splendid in the sky and it would have been rude not to have a closer look.     The mount was very crudely polar aligned and was tracking  so some twit didn't keep moving it quite so quickly.    I'm still stunned by the sight of Jupiter and its 4 Galilean moons when viewed through even my modest telescope   All 4 were clearly visible and nicely spaced this evening.    I also had a quick go with astro-camera and failed once again to really get to grips with the exposure settings in the software so although I took a sequence of images they were all under exposed so the moons were not visible (not helped by imperfect focusing but that's another story) but with a bit of Tom-Foolery in Affinity Photo I managed to tease this not-very-good image of Jupiter itself.   As I say, it's not very good but I can distinctly see some bands on there which gives me hope for the future!

Night All!

Afternoon All.

A trip was made to a quaint old thing called a "Department Store" (JL, Welwyn Garden City if you are that interested) this morning as Mrs Puppers wanted to buy some fabric.    I can't remember the last time I went in such a shop which is probably why they are becoming rare objects.  None of the products on display matched the requirement specification no purchase was made.    Shame, I'd like to support such facilities if I can so that they are available when I want them in the future.

Astonishing news!   Last night starlight was viewed through the telescope for the first time in months.    It was only a half-hearted attempt with the scope indoors and looking through an open door.   As the mount had not been polar aligned the biggest problem was of course some twit kept moving the stars as I gazed.   I also very quickly tried the astro-camera module I bought earlier in the year.   I'm struggling with getting the exposure settings correct either in the capture software that came with it or in SharpCap.    More practice required.   I'm also rather alarmed by the apparent number of dead pixels present although the use of suitable calibration frames should get round the problem.   Anyway, the camera experiment wasn't very successful and that was probably due in a large part to the aforementioned twit who kept moving the stars as I tried to gaze.

A suitable 10mm bolt that will form the basis of the starter/generator rotor extractor for the RD was blagged off of the neighbour yesterday.

Oh yes, I need to put my credit card into intensive care as I've just had to purchase another complete set (6 off) cartridges for my Canon printer.   Whilst the cost made me wince a bit at least I know that when the old cartridges finally run out I can just put the new cartridges in and it will continue to work without further attention*  unlike that huge pile of HP junk that was a Which! Best Buy (Yeah, right!) that I once had the misfortune of owning.

*   i.e. Numerous repeated ink-wasting "Cleaning & Alignment cycles" that still left it dirty, misaligned and most importantly not working and all that after accusing me of using fake cartridges (which they never were).

I wonder what the weather will be like in the morning?   Will Puppers be venturing out on the bike I wonder?

TTFN

Evening All.

Yesterday I received a DVD I ordered a short time ago   "Speed is Expensive - The Philip Vincent Story".     Interesting film detailing, not surprisingly, the life and motorcycles of one Philip Conrad Vincent.    It was quite amusing as I was getting to the end of the story when they were talking about some of the last ditch efforts to make the Rapide and Black Shadow more trendy essentially by adding new-fangled glass fibre fairings to produce the Black Knight and Black Prince respectively.    As you may know, it didn't work and Vincent Motorcycles based in St Evenage finally went out of business in 1959.

It was amusing because just as I got to the bit on the Knight and Prince I heard this deep thumping noise from an old motorcycle pulling-up.   I looked out of the lounge window to see my mate who had just turned up to show me his latest acquisition - a Vincent Black Prince.     I can see why it didn't save the company ...... 🤣

Today has seen a number of unrelated "fiddling about"  activities the main ones being;  playing dinosaurs and trains with youngest Junior Junior Puppers,  assisting my mate in his attempts to track down a time/heat(?) induced fault on his new-to-him Yamaha RD250,   trying some new points on my RD200 in order to get both the points gap and timing correct (that failed so it will require a good coat of looking at) and making some aluminium swarf as I returned to making an extended focuser tube for the new telescope focuser which was interrupted some weeks ago when the RD turned up.

Now the only thing left is to cook the dinner and dodge he Trick or Treaters!

TTFN

18 minutes ago, polybear said:

A purely hypothetical question......

 

Would a Mini Pizza (just for argument's sake let's assume Pepperoni) with new potatoes & mint sauce and peas be considered "weird"?

Just askin' for a friend you understand.....

Yes.  Next ....

On 28/10/2023 at 12:01, Dave Hunt said:

Good morning. I haven't posted here for a while as after getting back from holiday in Spain on Monday I got the news that a good friend here in Shropshire had died a few days earlier and an ex-schoolmate had also died while we were away. That kind of knocked the stuffing out of me and then on Thursday Jill went down with a bad cold so all in all I haven't felt up to visiting ERs and haven't been able to catch up with what has been going on.  If I haven't replied to something, please forgive me.

Very sorry to hear your news Dave.  Unfortunately life has a very nasty habit of juxtaposing good and bad experiences, a lesson I learnt when I was still at school.  

On a brighter note; congratulations and VSBWs to @jamie92208 on another lap of the sun.   Keep them coming!

ION

A lovely autumnal chug to the Danish Camp was had this morning on the little Beeza.  It seems to be going very nicely but I do hope I'm not empting fate.      The sky was blue, the sun was shining and there was a distinct nip in the air but it was alright, Puppers was in "Thermals" mode.   Mrs Puppers says I look like Max Wall when so equipped but fortunately no one else has to observe such a sight as they hidden by the usual proper "bikers leathers" I always wear - dress for the slide, not the ride and all that.    And I'm definitely not going to be cold for lack of layers.

Unfortunately the sun and blue sky had been replaced by dull, ominous, dark grey clouds when it came to the return journey.  In places it had clearly tipped it down very recently, but the first drop of rain wasn't actually felt until I was within about 400 yards of home.    So the bike was swiftly deposited in the garage before the Heavens opened.    Timed to perfection I'd say.  I may have mentioned before, I don't "do" wet on a motorcycle these days.

Despite the extra hour in bed last night you find Puppers rather sleepy so I think an early night is called for.

Night All!

1 hour ago, Andy Hayter said:

Am I wrong in believing that it is illegal for a male to pee in his apartment toilet overnight unless seated?  This to avoid noise transmission to neighbours.

No it's not the noise ..... but aiming is so much easier when you are sitting down, half-a-sleep and it's dark.     Don't ask me how I know.

1 hour ago, polybear said:

It seems that many members of the Public feel that two Police Officers have received a cr@p deal in the interests of seeking out scapegoats:

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-67236220

 

When those pulled over are filmed saying "Don't you know who I am??" I rapidly lose what little sympathy I may (or may not) have had.

 

Bear has a simple ooutlook:

If the Police say "Pull Over" then that's what you do.

If the Police say "Wind the window down" then that's what you do.

If the Police say "Turn the engine off and get out of the vehicle" then that's what you do.

If the Police say "Open the Boot" then that's what you do.

 

It's not hard, or difficult.

 

The moment you start arguing etc. it's all going to go downhill.

 

Whilst I generally agree with Bears succinctly stated principles I seem to remember some video that the invitations to do so were not entirely verbal.   I was always brought up to respect authority, Police, Parker Keepers,(remember them), seniors etc etc and brought my own off-spring up in a similar manner.  

I don't know a lot about this case one way or the other so can't really say a lot but I would ask the questions:

       Did the officers lie or not as stated?  (It's a simple question and doesn't need a politicians answer) If so, that would be the start of it going downhill rapidly.

       Did they stop the "suspects" on the grounds of possession or drugs and/or weapons or not?   If so,  were there any real grounds to do so at all?  If not,  that would be the start of it going downhill rapidly.

       Did they stop them on the grounds of bad driving?   If so,  were there any real grounds to do so at all?  If not,  that would be the start of it going downhill rapidly.

It also suggests in the linked article that allegations against three other officers were not proven which of course does not mean they were untrue or indeed true.

But really?   There have been some stupendously horrific Police officer own goals over the recent past months and years, one very serious one in the Met from an area Bear and I know very well indeed so I'm afraid Police automatically = Good doesn't really ring quite so true these days.     In fact, like any other organisation of course, the Police is a microcosm of society at large, just like big companies, the NHS  and just about anything else.    The members of it fall into a distribution.  That distribution might be skewed by a variety of factors, but it will be a distribution and they'll be really good people in it, most will be average-ish and then they'll be some really bad ones .....

As has been said many, many times in the past Respect is hard won and very easily lost.

Make of that what you will.

TTFN

13 hours ago, Winslow Boy said:

There is also I think some 'baggage' that needs to be addressed when considering what a house should look like. For example the sort of stereotype image i.e the typical picture a child draws when asked to picture a house is usually a square/rectangle with a triangle on top. This is what most people see as a standard home. Yet that image or design is probably unique as it reflects various pressures being applied- cost of land- lay of the land-ease of construction- cost to build - climate- imagination, and so on. When one or more of these are changed then they can a radical impact on the design and appearance.

Yes true but if it ends up looking like a a huge carbuncle on the a**e of a giant wild boar you are doing it wrong, badly wrong  ...

6 hours ago, polybear said:

C'mon, own up.....  Puppers has had a b0llokin' from Mrs. P for treading swarf round the house, haven't you?  Several times, in fact.....

As if !  *

* I thought I'd get a pre-emptive strike in to avoid an ear-bashing 🤣

6 hours ago, Barry O said:

@polybear you need to do a trade between life expectancy and track manufacturing timescales. After my stay in hospital recently my ideas have changed somewhat. Its now "what gets the job completed most easily and quickly? " rather than "what gives a perfect solution."

I couldn't have put it better myself Bear!       In my case the "Great Inconvenience"  a couple of years back put things into very sharp focus afterwards.   Just say-in'.

6 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

On the subject of housing: Mrs iD has finally, almost, completely persuaded me to downsize and move to something a bit more modern and easier to take care of. I thought this meant just exchanging our 36 room property for some things a lot smaller – say something with 20 rooms or so, but no. Apparently, it means downsizing to something apartment shaped (my first choice would be a bungalow - but those are very few and far between around here)

 

I must confess that I don’t have any great love for apartment living with one exception: the Dachwohnung (or Penthouse Apartment). if you absolutely have to live in an apartment, then the Dachwohnung is the best case scenario; optimally, you will have the entire top floor – so no neighbours next to you or above you.

 

So, to make a long story short, Mrs iD and I have been looking for a Dachwohnung (both new builds and existing buildings) and we’ve found one almost universal drawback (well, two really - to be pedantic) a lot of wasted space (in other words lots of unusable nooks and crannies, over sized bathrooms and entrances) and open plan kitchen-living room-dining room combinations!
 

TBH I completely fail to see the benefit (any benefit) of an open plan kitchen-living room-dining room. OK, you can easily talk to guests whilst cooking, but that’s small recompense for having the whole place smelling of cheese (after a raclette meal) or of the 100 garlic clove chicken you’ve just roasted. And to add insult to injury - these kitchens are usually kitted out with the usual expensive domestic “looks good, barely works” appliancess.

 

Still, one soldiers on. I’ve just found a possible purchase: a Dachwohnung that occupies the entire top floor and is split into two unequal parts: the largest part being the flat and the smaller part being a separate hobby room/workshop space with its own bathroom. It has potential.

I couldn't think of anything worse than "Apartment Living".   If nothing else, the other occupants of the building would get well grumpy when I brought my bikes up in the lift (with or without drip-trays).

9 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Cilantro / coriander* is an interesting one. To some taste buds it can taste like soap. Personally I love it.

Absolutely marvellous, I might go so far as to say the best herb although I'm very partial to tarragon in the correct circumstances.

ION

The adapter works but due to very limited room under the tank it's a bit of a faff (but essential) to use.     Basically the tank has to be lifted up to provide enough clearance to get it  "in the plug 'ole", fortunately this does not involve complete removal which as I think I've mentioned previously as a right pain in the donkey as you have to remove the balance pipe which then dispenses petrol all over the shop even when apparently empty.   Here it is (well the DTI anyway, you can't see the adapter) in position along with the DMM to show when the points open.

Just got to actually do the points and timing now then.   A job for this afternoon.

TTFNQ