spikey

One of several reasons I have for being a bit touchy about implications that there's no reason why people shouldn't be embarrassed about bodily functions, examinations and whatnot is to do with the slow and painful death of a friend, who finally admitted to his wife that the reason he wouldn't go to the GP about his problems when he should have done was his steadfast refusal to entertain the idea of a finger up the bum. All that she could make of it was that he considered that to be a gross indignity associated with homosexuality. It was all very sad, and completely unnecessary.

I'm sorry Legend but I have to take issue with you there. Some folk suffer embarrassment talking about these things. Some folk consider a doctor inserting his finger up their bum to be an indignity. Thankfully, many are not embarrassed by such talk, and they couldn't care less what a doctor does to them if it may save their life.

Ah yes ... ROBERRY. The doctrine, practices and ceremonies associated with robes? Feeling like or otherwise resembling a robe?

No no no. Surely it would be "I could of died"?

Quite - as any fule kno.

One of the simple pleasures in my life is to marvel at the constant mangling of the English language by BBC News website copywriters. Today we have a particularly fine example of the genre, which I feel compelled to share ... The heading of the story is "Trump ordered to remove envoy in Ukraine in 2018 - video", and the first sentence starts with "President Donald Trump in 2018 ordered the removal of the US Ambassador to Ukraine ..."

Thank you gentlemen. I think that's enough information now for me to persuade the good woman that we wouldn't really be much better off if we got involved with it. After all, to go back to the no water example, we didn't actually suffer any hardship from not knowing about the bottled water distribution because, being the sort of people who like to be resilient and as self-sufficient as possible, we always have 40 litres of fresh water tucked away for just such eventualities. I'm inclined to think that on balance, for us, we can manage perfectly well without social media, at least for the time being. And besides, we're still trying to get our heads round our first smartphone ...

Hmmm ... OK. We're actually registered for updates and whatnot with the utilities, but that seems to be only useful up to a point e.g. when the water stopped coming out the tap, it didn't tell us the bottled stuff would be available. I take the point about Twitter though. Sorry to be so ignorant about this stuff, but how does Twitter actually work in a scenario like I'm on about? So the water people announce on Twitter that our water's going to be off for yonks but there'll be bottles of it at the church hall. If Mrs Spikey has a Twitter account, how does she actually get the news? Is it a case of checking your Twitter account every so often to see what's what? Or what?

Or to be more precise, for Mrs Spikey? Words of wisdom, please chaps ... Both of us here are private people in the sense that apart from my posting on a few forums, we don't have a web presence of any kind. Until recently, we've been quite happy like that, but of late Mrs Spikey has formed the opinion that because we don't have access to Facebook, we could be missing out on things which could affect us. For example, when our water last went off, we didn't get to hear about the bottled water that was distributed in the next street. It also seems to us that if you want to complain about anything a firm does nowadays, the thing to do is to take to Facebook! Apart from the potential benefit(s) to us rather than to folk in general, one other aspect of it that's not clear to me is how little personal information disclosure could we get away with in joining and/or using it? We don't like the idea of everybody and his dog having access to our personal details. So, given that neither of us has a clue about how Facebook works, and that we have no interest whatsoever in using it as a form of online chat with family and friends, how might getting on it actually benefit us?

IMO the trick with SEEPs is ... 1 Make the hole in the baseboard big enough. I use 8mm but no harm in using 10. 2 On the underside of the baseboard, look up through the hole and draw a line (with a ruler) at least 50mm long parallel to the tiebar. 3 Offer up the point motor, having to hand a suitable bradawl, screwdriver and screw. Ideally the screwdriver will be magnetic, and a suitable crosspoint self-tapper will be perched on its tip. 4 Align the unit along your line, then slide it along the line as necessary until it's centralised i.e. at each end of its travel, the pin is the same distance from the coil. 5 Without moving the unit longitudinally, move it at right angles to the line until the pin is vertical (ie at right angles to the baeeboard). 6 Poke screw hole, fit screw and tighten, then repeat for second screw. It's easier if you leave the pin full length then cut it down after installation with a cutting disc on a Dremel, remembering to Hoover up well afterwards. HTH a bit

Hmmm I wonder ... What's driving this is a distinct memory of seeing a train of no more than 4 blood 'n' custards behind a couple of Pullmans pulling into a platform at York, probably 1960 give or take a year or two. The loco looked like a B1 from where we trainspotters were, but before we could confirm that or find out what the Pullmans were about, somebody spotted Wine Gums coming towards us. He was a porter who had A Reputation, so we beat a hasty retreat, in the course of which I lost the cheese and pickle sandwich which I'd just started eating. That's why the memory's locked in what's ;eft of my brain.

Ah, thank you. So what if I re-phrased the question to make it a short rake of maroon Mk1s with a couple of Pullmans up front?

In the early 60s, could there have been any circumstances apart from ECS movements in which a short steam-hauled train of blood and custard Mk1s might have been seen with a couple of Mk1 Pullmans added at the front end of it?

A kilo of "Tiny Friends Farm Bathing Sand" from the local pet shop cost me £3.20, just about filled a container 20cm high and 10cm diameter wide, and cost me £3.30. Marvellous stuff

According to the Whirlpool engineer who came out to out Indesit washing machine last week for an unconnected issue, the whole door lock thing is actually straightforward. There are four different ones: either four different makers or four slightly different designs, I'm not sure which, but only one of them is iffy, and it's readily identifiable to the engineer by colour and part number. As to why the door lock carries so much current, it's simple - the lock mechanism is a bi-metal strip. Switch machine on, strip heats up, flicks over and forms a mechanical lock. That's why when the machine has finished its cycle, you have to wait for the bi-metal strip to cool down and flick back to its normal state.

More than somewhat. Initially because after I'd stripped the whole thing down to its component parts, sorted them out, then spent many a happy night shift in the toolroom carefully putting it all back together, it was one amazing motorcycle. Then more regret when I realised that mine was one of the last dozen Series D Shadows built before the firm went bust. And then one day not so long ago, a pal had to go and tell me how much a genuine one goes for nowadays ...

Thanks folks. Actually, the question stemmed from my not recalling seeing that many of them in my train-spotting days, but never having forgotten wheeling my beloved Vincent Black Shadow up a scaffold board into one at Grimsby Town when I sold it to a firm in London maybe ten years later.

In the mid-1950s, why might a train have run with a full brake on the end rather than a brake second?

They are, actually! Unfortunately my brain's currently unable to process your suggested way of solving the problem, but I'm greatly encouraged by how a simple solution seems to be possible. Two cups of coffee in the morning and a bit of peace and quiet should let me get my head round what you say. Thanks EDITED TO ADD that despite several hours' pondering, I'm still struggling with your suggestion. Sorry if I'm being thick here, but for one thing I don't understand "The push button on the short siding should be wired in parallel with the middle PB on the 3-way point." To what purpose? Surely if the two push buttons are wired in parallel, they both simply switch the 3-way? Whatever, I need to sit down with a template of a double slip and do myself a sort of logic diagram showing which solenoid needs to be fired which way for each of the four possible routes through the point, then try again to relate that to your suggested way of doing the switching.

I currently have a set of three storage loops (those marked with red dots above), access to which is via a three-way point controlled by push buttons and a simple diode matrix. and all is well. Or rather it was until I realised that if I added a double slip as shown, I could squeeze in a fourth loop as above. The short siding to the left already exists and it's very handy, with access to it being off the uppermost of the three existing loops via a left-hand point, which the proposed double slip would replace. That LH point is currently switched via a SPDT momentary switch, and from an operational POV, that plus the push-button selection of the three loops all works very well operationally. However, if I replace that LH point with a double slip, how on earth do I organise the switching for it so that a route through it may be selected simply, and with the minimum complexity added to my control panel?

Ahah! Much obliged to you, sir. I could see that getting complicated, so am greatly relieved to know that it won't be.

Following the sad demise of my long-suffering £14 Nokia mobile with its multi-sectioned screen and added SpikeyMatic Non-Slip Grip System (the red Royal Mail rubber band wrapped twice round it), I have succumbed to persuasion and acquired My First Smartphone (a Motorola G7 Power, since you asked). All is well, considering, so far, but I am concerned about a potential operational problem. If whilst out and about I have a need to take a snap of something and wish to send it back to base, how might I do that when Mrs Spikey does not (yet) have a smartphone of her own? All I can think of is to attach it to an email and send that, then phone her and urge her to strike up the laptop. But is it even possible to attach a picture to an email sent from an Android phone? Is there another way of achieving the objective?

During my time as a wedding photographer, I once left my camera bag in the back of a black cab in London in late one night, the worst part being that half that day's wedding photos were on cards in that bag. The cabbie's next fare spotted it as soon as she got in, told the cabbie, he opened it and found some of my business cards, took his fare to her destination, phoned me and delivered the bag to me at the car park where I was quietly whimpering in a corner. For that, he got my heartfelt thanks and, despite his protests, all the cash I had in my wallet, which IIRC was £130.

I'm shaking my head in wonder that somebody could consider £1300-ish worth of bracelet to be "fairly valuable", and I'm amazed at your friend's attitude. Tell her to get over herself and do the decent thing.