polybear

Bear here.... I tried on the new strides this evening - two pairs, both identical - except one is 34W (my norm) and the other is 32W (wishful thinking). But..... After all Bear's d**t antics over the last few months it seems the 32W are most suitable. Result - a Very Happy Bear 😁....so long as they don't shrink much in the wash..... I can't recall the last time a pair of 32W fitted - I think it was when I was helping some bloke called Noah to launch some boat or other. BG

Does Puppers recall what Lathes & Mill they are? And if all else fails then https://Homeworkshop.org.uk is rather useful - fixed price (no "best offer" etc. - that's Ebay) and no fees either. You can specify that buyers must be prepared to move/load etc.

Cricket Ball shaped rather than Hockey Puck by any chance? Yes, the sound is better. Note to @PupCam Puppers - see, Bear isn't a total Luddite after all.....

Bear has five such gadgets - I find that every now & then they misbehave; an executive reset** usually sorts it. ** Power off, wait ten seconds then on again

I'd hazard a guess that's got real scope for stinging in the morning

Just had a delivery from The Big River....he rung the bell, waited for Bear to answer the door, handed me two pairs of Strides rather politely then closed the gate as he left. That's really confused me. What's the betting they don't fit?

Google suggests they were discontinued in 2003 😭

Bear here..... A bits n' pieces day; I did manage to gather together all the bits (that I can find.....) for Harry the Honda - there's a cabinet in the shed that may have one or two odd bits as well. The last MoT is being elusive though - but as it expired 20-odd years ago I'm none too worried. Getting the Exhaust System out of the loft was "interesting" - but it's now in the muddlin' room awaiting a polish; I think I'll postpone getting Harry out of the shed again until Sunday and concentrate on the Exhaust instead - I also need to hacksaw the old Silencers off the downpipes at some point as well 😱, ready to clamp the new and rather shiny replacement Silencers on in their place. It'll definitely be a case of "Measure fifty times, stop, ponder, measure again and then pray to The Great Cake Bear before going for it" - screw that job up and Bear will be in Poo soooooo deep that not even the bravest Hippo could rescue me. I've been expecting a delivery this afternoon - a new Battery** for Harry; I just knew the guy would appear just as soon as I went up into the Loft - and I wasn't wrong. Fortunately I heard the sound of screeching DPD Van tyres followed by the sound of the front gate being opened so I was on the way as the doorbell rang. (**Note to Fraggles - it's yellow..... 😉) ION........ Marmite flavour choccy bikkies? No thanks - that's just weird (and that comes from a Bear that has pretty much lived his life on Toast & Marmite - and will continue to do so until I'm in a box. Vegemite? Never tried it. As for Penguins, well I'd rather have a minty flavour Yo-Yo choccy bikky anyday. Bear gone....

Rumour has it you need to make allowances for Pongos....

Er, wot's a "Wordl".....? @PupCam Puppeeeeeeerzzzzzz..........

Bear here.... Well I climbed the little wooden hill at 9pm last night, with the full intention of going for a piddle in the pool today (requiring an 04-30am roll call). But then at 02-something that bluddy Wee Wee Fairy paid Bear a visit - after which I couldn't get back to zeddyland. Poo. I did eventually manage it, only to wake again at 04-something with an achy back and an uncommon headache. Double Poo. Well they were the only excuses I needed so when Alexa did sound the Gong I cancelled it quickly and carried on fighting to get back to zeddyland ...... I guess it was 6am when I finally gave up - I'm now all Wallowed (though swimming a Km was kinda tricky in the Bear Castle Muddy Hollow) and I guess I'd better get dressed and make the Beary Pit soon; I've got numerous deliveries scheduled for today (mainly parts for Harry the Honda, as well as couple of new pairs of Strides from The Big River) so the chances of going for a Hilly Wander are looking kinda shaky at present. Right, time to get a wriggle on - I think this morning's activities will focus on searching Bear Towers for various bits that belong to Harry the Honda - so that'll be Beamland, numerous Bedrooms, the Muddlin' room, the Front room (or Lounge if you're posh...). I may be some time.... Bear gone.......

Rumour has it that certain models can be (a) very expensive, (b) temperamental, (c) liable to play up at a moment's notice - or indeed any combination of the above. Sounds tricky to this Bear.

That's cheap - I went on a Factory Tour (25 years ago?) around Royal Crown Derby (or was is Royal Doulton?); one of the things we saw were two Ladies hand-painting scenes on the sides of very, very impressive vases (and I'm talking Arthur Negus stuff on Antiques Roadshow here - the painted scenes were really top-end work. All the public were told (under pain of death) NOT to distract or try to talk to the Ladies in any way. Apparently these vases were made exclusively for a particular Kitchen Supplier - order one of their Kitchens and they "give" you a vase when it's completed. Oh yes, and they fly you off to Barbados for a Holiday whilst it's being installed. The Tour Guide didn't know how much the kitchens cost....but the vases cost £30K.... There - corrected it for you. 😁 "Now look, dearest - you're gettin' an Apartment, so I'm having my kitchen!!" We'll send Flowers. I understand they've banned them now.

Bear's Tip of the Day..... If you want to make oodles and oodles of money then invent a machine that does all the ironing automatically.

Put a leg on each corner of the big book and you could use it as a coffee table.........

Plus (as Puppers has noted) a lot of the traditional sellers have now long gone. Once upon a time I suspect many went to Woolworths for it. ION..... I'd arranged for Bear's Buddy to assist with pulling Harry the Honda out of the shed again in the morning (there's real scope for things going wrong) but it now seems that it's gonna rain instead. Oh Poo - I wanted to start work on getting Harry ready for sale. Saturday morning is now hoped for instead..... A local Window Cleaner visited Bear Towers earlier today as arranged to put a quote thru' the door - seven quid to do the front. That'll do - he also gave quotes to my next door neighbours each side (also as arranged by Bear) as well as Buddy over the road - I suspect that all will use him at those sort of prices; the last guy who called to ask if I'd be interested in having the windows cleaned wanted telephone numbers by comparison. It does seem that many Cleaners use those long pole jobbies to clean upper windows now, rather than ladders - 'Elf n' Sayfetee n' all that I suspect. I'd waffle on more - but there's a wedge of low calorie Triple Layer Choccy Cake (with choccy buttercream....) sitting next to Bear - and in need of urgent attention before a Marauding Hippo appears..... Bear gone.....

A couple of things spotted in the Warehouse today: First, a rather large book - the smaller book measures something like 8 x 7 inches or so: Plus a "little something for the weekend, Sir...." - whatever floats yer boat....

Bear here..... Another day at the Hospice - I arrived to discover that some T0sser had "donated" a kid's bed (an Ikea jobbie - so left as a kit of parts) at the Warehouse Door - this is despite (a) signs asking people not to do this, and (b) both Furniture (and especially) Mattresses being on the Website No-No list 🤬. They'd even gone to the trouble to include all the screws etc. (neatly bagged up) so were obviously hoping we'd re-home it....yes we have - in the Commercial Bin, meaning more cost to dispose of it. Yep, Rant. There was only one Driver + Bear working on deliveries & collections today, so we had to get a bit of a wriggle on; eight shops visited in all, four of which are on the "long run". Not sure how many miles we did in all today - it must be 100-ish +. Another kind person had dumped a bluddy great desk (a pile of cr@p) round by the back door of one of the shops - along with a bluddy great (and old) flat screen TV as well (same person - or another?), all of which have been rained on too. Thanks a bunch, Ar5ehole(s) - we collected those and took them back to clog the Commercial Bin (one of three, in fact - all of which have to be emptied EVERY DAY) at the Warehouse even more.....more money wasted.....🤬🤬 We had Tea & Bikkies at this last shop on the a.m run; they had a customer come in a few days ago with a donation - he placed it just inside the doorway of the back room, whereupon he spotted the staff were having their tea break and the bikky tin was right in front of him. What does he do? Yep, helped himself to a bikky....and not just any 'ol bikky either - it was THE LAST Jammie Dodger 🤬🤬 Wottab'sterd - and to add insult to injury every single thing in his donation was cr@p and unsellable... When we left I nipped into the Sainsbury's almost opposite as I needed Bread - so I grabbed a couple of packets of J.D's and took them back for the Manageress in the Shop; she was more than a bit taken aback and rather pleased - Brownie Points earned methinks. They're always nice to us in that shop (as are all other shops) and offer us T & B every time, so fair's fair in This Bear's book. Donuts? Available - but Bear didn't scoff one, amazingly....there was still Bear's B/day cake left over so I had a wedge of that with my din dins instead.....😁 Even better, I still have a lump left over from last night and I suspect a close encounter with that is rapidly approaching...... Bear gone.... edit: I heard that one of the shop staff (the Manageress?) at one shop chased after a shoplifter a while back - and got a whack for her trouble. There really are some ar5eholes out there.

Bear has encountered numerous individuals at the G.E. over the years, some of which had very impressive qualifications along with being members of some Society thingy or other. A number of those individuals were so useless they weren't worth a wet f@rt. Bear delivers new wool to the Charity Shops - it's rather a popular item and sells well. Ricky the Rover reached 239,000 miles - so Monty has a way to go yet....

Add in the fact that Timber Preservative has gone all cuddly? (Creocote? Cr@p - you can't beat good ol' Creosote any day - I believe the likes of Farmers etc. can still buy it - but in nothing smaller than 25(?) Litre drums. Also, timber that is supposedly "treated" when manufactured gets such a miniscule dunking etc. that it's barely worth the effort; when Bear created a raised flower bed in the back garden I used softwood "railway sleepers" (ever tried shiftin' one of those without help? - genuine hardwood jobs would be nigh-on impossible to shift on your own unless your name is Arnie). I stood the ends in Creosote (I had a bit left) overnight - it really hoovered it up thru' the end grain. Each one then got rather a lot of coats all over - so hopefully they'll last a while.

Some people go to interviews purely to practice their interview technique - they have no interest in the job. Timewasters. Though if their technical knowledge is lacking then it won't be long before they fall over.

Certainly trying to create some of the designs using Templot shows up some issues with tight radii.

Agreed - I won't forget it... That looks like electrikkery befitting of a @PupCam..... p.s. welcome back @Debs. 😃 In case it does get nicked off the doorstep? At least you'll know it was there....

Bear here..... Another day an the Hospice - all good fun. On the way there a Certain Bear needed to go into the nearby Morrisons for various stuff that I'm sure even @iL Dottore would may possibly approve of (ok, so they weren't organic). And what happens just as soon as I walked thru' the Supermarket doors? I was accosted by two packs of still-warm strawberry jam donuts. Oops. It's quite possible that Bear & others may have scoffed some for elevenses.... Only for this to happen at din dins time...... - The Warehouse Manageress was very apologetic to A Certain Bear cos' she realised that they'd missed my Birthday a little while ago - the sight of a Triple Layer Choccy Cake with Choccy Buttercream (and Candles) was more than a surprise**; I didn't blub but it's possible my bottom lip may have quivered a little......I can't remember when the last time was that I had a cake with candles.... **Bear was at The Great Empire for 39 years - and how many times did something similar happen there? Not fuggin' once 😢 - in fact your were expected to take the cakes in for the Department.....of 60 or 70+ people (some of which were total Tw@ts). Did I mention just how nice all the people working at the Hospice are? Oh yes, and the Manageress did insist that Bear took a large wedge home with me too (enough for tomorrow's Tea as well - the first half is sitting next to me as I type but there's a fair chance it may not be safe for much longer....). Bear gone.....

Bear's Postie told me a few months back that they're not allowed to do such tactics anymore.