spikey

The latest Harry's Farm video's well worth a look, particularly from around 9 minutes in, if you have no idea at all about any aspect of the reality of farming in the UK nowadays ...

The Lady Wife reports that one of the German news sites now reckons that the Fatherland is going to ship 18 x Leopard 2A6 to Ukraine. There's also talk of some Swedish A5 plus some A4 from somewhere or other. Are any of these variants likely to be of much use to Ukraine? Also it would appear that the Swedes are intent upon providing Hawk and Iris-T air defence systems. Might that cause any concern amongst the foe?

Did that have the trick levers?

What on earth is this bike?

This morning I went to have my eyes tested, and upon entering the shop was dealt with initially by a fragrant young man with a pleasant manner and a strange haircut. He invited me to sit down at a desk, enquired as to the reason for my visit, and prepared to enter my details on his computer. So far so good. He then said "So how has your day been so far?". This threw me. With living the simple televisionless life that I do, I had not met the question before when posed by a stranger, so all I could think of by way of reply was "Mustn't grumble". How is one supposed to reply? Do you say "Well, actually I got up a bit late, then had a bit of struggle with the lid of a new jar of marmalade which set me back a bit so I was late switching the kettle off before it filled the kitchen with steam, and after that it's just gone from bad to worse", or what?

Gosh, I remember doing that on one or two ancient British bikes. It's fun, isn't it, screwing mad-hot plugs in without starting to cross-thread 'em ...

OK, it's an accumulator. If not, my money's on his pipe, tin of baccy and stale current bun.

So ,,, what do we think is in the package on the front forks? 😎

I had a feeling that might be the case. Thank you for confirming it.

A pox on MIcrosoft! They've had the confounded cheek to install Windows Edge on The Lady Wife's venerable laptop, and going to uninstall it in "Programs" is a waste of time for it gives me no option to unstall it. How can we rid ourselves of this unwanted program?

Please correct me if I've got this totally wrong, but it seems to me from Mrs Spikey's perusals of various German news sites that Ukraine is sooner or later to be favoured with the delivery of an assortment of different tanks from different countries. How many of these promised tanks will actually be in all respects good to go, i have no idea, but it wouldn't surprise me if some of them are nearer to being fit more for cannibalising for spare parts. Be that as it may, what are the operational implications of such a motley collection? In particular, do they all use the same ammunition? Could this face-saving move by various governments actually turn out to be a game-changer for Ukraine, or are there enough potential problems for it to be largely a waste of money? And while I'm asking, who's making Ukraine's ammo?

Where there's a will ...

I'll be amazed if it's less than 2-3 years. Right now, according to the German news sites Rheinmetall and Krauss-Maffei are quoting well into 2024 for any new Leopards for the Bundeswehr, and I very much doubt that the UK could do any better.

Is something missing there, or is it me in need of more coffee?

Indeed. I was going through flying training in 66-67 and only learned later how hard LBJ was trying with Wilson ...

Which is fine - if you can easily afford the £15, plus the cost of the appropriate drill bit ...

Oh joy unbounded! Thank you, kind Sir. If only my Google-fu was a strong as yours ... Problem solved 🙂

And the description says straight shank ...

It would be if I could get a 16mm shank drill in a 12mm chuck 🙂

Cheers Kevin but drill isn't SDS and I don't know anyone who could maybe lend me one. Looking at the chuck end of an SDS drill though, I'm wondering if it would fit in my non-SDS chuck ...

I wish to drill a hole of 16-18mm or so diameter through the stone wall of my humble abode, which is about 14" thick. I have an ordinary cordless hammer drill with a 12mm chuck, and I have masonry bits of 6 and 12mm which are long enough. My problem is how then to take the hole from 12mm to at least 16mm without incurring any unnecessary expense. I can probably access the 12mm hole from within and without the property in order to enlarge it from both ends with a standard-length masonry bit, but I can't find such a thing as a reduced-shank masonry bit to use with my drill. And I can't find a source of a suitable star drill chisel to do it the old-fashioned way. Anybody got any bright ideas?

Oh well ... that's one less patron for the local Waitrose, and one less flash Amercan car in their carpark every so often ...

Me neither. Didn't one of the Beatles have something to do with a candidacy at one time? Something to do with curing the world's ills by yogic flying (whatever that was)? I seem to recall that if you voted for him, you were guaranteed a decent job, plus you got free spliffs.

Who said it was? 🙂

I've just been on the BBC News website for my daily dose of lamentable English, and it's reminded me that I've been meaning to ask for ages - when did it stop being (for example) a rise of three percent and become instead a rise of three "percentage points". What's nowadays wrong with plain old percent?