Tony_S

I hope after all the swimming @polybear will be available for other advice. I have been trying to improve the grip in my hands, especially the left one. Aditi read an article in the New York Times that suggested “walking like a bear”. Not too sure how to do that.

But not if you are playing tennis.

Our next cruise won’t be calling at the Isle of Man. The proposed route seems to be going past the IoM but slightly nearer to Ireland.

Ours has been re-plumbed and has had network cables routed through it but I am sure it has never been painted since the house was built in 1990. Tony

I didn’t think I would like going on a cruise, mainly as I didn’t really want to go anywhere where there was a dress code more formal than I would normally wear. However, Aditi was keen so it would have been a bit mean to object. We have never been in one of the giant 5000 passenger ships. The biggest we have been on were about 2500 .The one we will be on in July has 2900.It has just completed sea trials, and will have done a few cruises before we cruise to Iceland. Some of the entertainment, like shows or lectures can be full but we don’t go to the entertainment so are not affected. Other busy times are people quieting to get off early on port calls. Unless we are on an organised tour we wander down after breakfast and avoid queues. When we went on QM2 our cabins were at the front and our designated restaurant was at the back. In the evening we could walk to dinner and not see any other passengers until we arrived at the restaurant. It wasn’t deserted as there were always cabin crew cleaning something en-route. I don’t think I would like to cruise as a single person, but I probably wouldn’t go on holiday anyway. Aditi enjoys travelling and I like going with her, I am sure I will learn lots about lava on our next holiday.

I think,he means an Arduino cat…

When we last went it was early September (2018) and we arrived at about 8pm after driving all day from Karlsruhe. It was raining. We had no problem finding somewhere to eat. The next day we wandered about, it wasn’t crowded. Beer and chocolate may have been purchased.

Dad said as well as the sunken lanes and the impassable hedgerows they also had on occasion to contend with irate French farmers.

Aditi sometimes makes a soup like that. Not sure where she got the recipe but it is probably only safe to consume if you have blocked sinuses or a bad cold. Aditi doesn’t really like very spicy food but will do so for medicinal reasons.

This was the sky yesterday evening. I can’t see any delighted shepherds this morning though.

At the end of WW2 Finland ceded territory to the Soviet Union, and had to pay reparations. Finland had a sort of neutrality that was friendly to the USSR imposed. The invasion of Ukraine ended that neutrality.

Oh no, it hasn’t!

Coreless motors as fitted in many devices allegedly don’t like lumpy DC either.

If you want to connect it try out with any super soundy Deltic type things it probably isn’t a good idea to use a simple power supply. They are not very well (if at all regulated). I found this out years ago, the loco raced off at high speed and never worked again. Perhaps I was very unlucky but I am not making that mistake again. I have a couple of bench type variable voltage DC supplies that don’t harm decoder fitted locos.

Yesterday Aditi mentioned that it was the Bahrain F1 Grand Prix this weekend. This was a surprise to me. Anyway I am sitting down at home watching it, or at least watching the cars move to,the grid. I did have a quick look at the F1 thread on Wheeltappers but won’t post. Seem to be rules about not saying stuff until Channel Four have broadcast a time delayed free to view version.

We went on a tram tour of Lisbon and the refreshments were tarts from the Belem shop and wine. The tour was mainly US and UK passengers from our cruise ship. Most of the Americans declined the cakes and alcohol so for the rest of us there were seconds. In a traffic jam, one of the couriers got off and bought back bottles of water and soft drinks for those who had declined alcohol. I am not sure which part of the ship those US citizens came from, the Americans in our onboard restaurant didn’t seem to have any problems with alcohol or cakes.

We have been driving out to the RHS gardens at Hyde Hall near us for many years now. Yesterday was the wettest I have ever seen the local countryside. The ditches were full and water was flowing off fields across roads. I know this is not unusual elsewhere but it is here. Up on the hill at the gardens it was quite windy. I had my new “big coat” on. It is windproof, waterproof and keeps me warm. I found out another useful property yesterday. It seems to be blood resistant too. I had another nosebleed and the blood just wiped off the coat. Tony

Happy Birthday Ian. @Ian Abel Hope your weather isn’t too bad. We have rain and occasional flurries of white blossom here today. Tony

Won’t be supported “for free” after that date. Individual owners will be able to subscribe to updates after that, like business users. Well, that was what it said in one of the IT profession news websites I still seem to subscribed to.

Yes, after ordering a lawnmower blade they suggested men's necklaces.

Not polar bears.

I thought it was snowing this morning but it was lots of blossom blowing across the garden. Probably blackthorn. It is now sunny, not that warm though so I be,I eve we are going for a walk. Perhaps cake (small portion, shared) will be available.

Morning all. It is raining here. Our shopping was delivered with waterproof covers on the crates. First time I have seen that in all the time we have had Waitrose deliveries. Shows, I suppose, how rarely it rains here. As I sat up this morning, after a gentle request for tea, I had to deal with a nosebleed. It certainly flowed but not for long. Tony

I saw some photos of Dad in his army uniform. Tank crew had sidearms. He said being small he couldn’t really hold a large calibre pistol properly and had, I think he said, some sort of .38 revolver. After a scary incident after getting out of an immobilised tank he acquired a Sten gun as an additional personal weapon. Also concerning how well protected car doors are, Dad said even inside an armoured vehicle in WW2 era, you could be under fire from machine guns that were not going to penetrate but it was really irritating as flakes of metal came off the interior and flew about. I wonder if modern vehicles have some sort of coating internally to prevent that.

We acquired a great niece on Saturday. Parents had chosen baby’s name some time ago but didn’t reveal it until arrival. Baby is doing fine but her mummy ended up in the ICU for a day having lost 2 litres of blood. She is making progress now but still was having to lie down and not sit up yesterday.