Danemouth

Talking of pubs in the centre of Cardiff that are long gone, when I worked in Bute Terrace of a lunchtime sometimes we went the the Tredegar (Hancocks) or the Salutation (Brains) in Hayes Bridge Road. The Fishguard Arms was another I have never visited. I also gave The Greyhound in Bridge Street a miss - certainly it was a rough pub. All long gone - only the Golden Cross remains and I've never been in there given it's reputation before the area was regenerated in the 80's. Dave

Thanks Jock, It was leaking via the tiny breather hole on the regulator, apparently that's common. The smell wasn't strong and the cupboard is very small so she was able to notice it - also apparently it only leaks when gas is being used. The pressure drop was still within standard tolerances even with the leak. I worked on the accounting side of Wales Gas for over 30 years and heard some horrendous stories from my engineering colleagues. One of the worst was a chip shop being refitted - its seems the gas was turned off at the meter and the range disconnected and removed in readiness for the delivery of the new range. Unfortunately nobody capped the open supply pipe as required. Later the meter stop tap was opened and you can guess what happened next! I should mention that the failure to cap the supply was not down the the Gas Board or one of it's contractors. Kindest regards, Dave

Interesting start to the day. Daughter opens the cupboard under the stairs where she keeps her working shoes and says to me there's a strong smell of gas - the gas and electric meters are in the cupboard. I am not sure but turn the mains off and call the emergency number. My call was answered in two rings! They will send an engineer within two hours. He arrives in just over an hour and identifies very quickly a very slight leak on the regulator. Regulator gets changed and the installation test again for soundness - absolutely no leaks anywhere. He then relights the boiler and checks all the appliances and is back on the street before 9:30 - less than two hours after I called them. We hear so much about indifferent service these days - I am happy to report excellent service in this case. Now waiting for the delivery of a new tumble drier this afternoon - I've had to partially empty the garage including the fiddle yard for Danemouth so that they can get it in and take the old one - Tumble drier lives and works in the garage, Regards to you all, Dave

Just followed a car with a bumper sticker proclaiming I'm in a hurry 'cos I need a poo Now you know, Dave

Like Don Bradley I have also had bad news this morning I've been heavily involved in one of the local Catholic churches for over 50 years. Our parish priest for the last twenty eight years has been poorly for the past couple of weeks but collapsed last Saturday. He passed away in the early hours of this morning. May he rest in peace. The sun is out at the moment but the sky looks threatening. Regards, Dave

Ah, the Bomb & Dagger in Portmanor Road. Remember taking pictures in the area whilst demolition was taking place - mid 70's Dave

Currans also made white enamel bowls, buckets, jugs etc. IIRC their former employees include Shirley Bassey, whom my Aunt taught in Splott Girls Secondary Modern School. Regards, Dave

Rob, Please excuse my ignorance but the last picture - what are the things hanging on the rack used for? Thanks, Dave

Arghh, Andy Y has rearranged the front page of RMWeb, that will confuse some of us! Next door are putting up a new fence - the nail gun is getting on my nerves but on the other hand my security is being improved for free, Hope thing quieten down for Sherry, Dave

Went to see Showboat in the Wales Millennium Centre last night. Brilliant production - if it comes your way don't miss it. Don Bradley - it was performed by a Capetown company with some real nice voices. Dave

Well these pictures were taken going to Spain on holiday in 1969 For the photographically minded the camera was a Agfa Super Sillette with a handheld Weston Master III exposure meter - didn't graduate to an SLR (Pentax SP500) until 1972, Regards, Dave

For those of you who shop in Waitrose http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2703863/Don-t-rummage-reduced-bin-golf-club-Hilarious-quotes-Waitrose-shoppers-collected-Facebook-page.html Dave

Well, got up this morning to discover a rash starting on both forearms. So I troop off the the morning drop in surgery. It seems I am allergic to the factor 30 sun cream I put on my forearms on Tuesday when taking GD to the park So I've been prescribed a steroid cream to get rid of the rash, Be good all of you, Dave

Well it's another hot day in the Principality, Yesterday SWMBO and I took our granddaughter to a local park - she enjoyed herself but after an hour we came home - It was just too hot and humid! GD stayed with us overnight but decided it was time to get up at 6:30 a.m. - ho-hum! Given another hot day is expected I had the grass cut and edges strimmed before 10 a.m. Off to Sainsbury's to replenish stocks of wine and beer. Incidentally being an old f@rt I wear a vest all year round - it's so hot today I've left it off. In the days when I worked my colleagues reckoned that my vest could only be removed surgically, Don't forget you hats, Dave

Bob, Absolutely the right philosophy! Being c@ck handed this has to be my approach - after all my layout will never reach exhibition standards, Regards, Dave

Don, Calon Lan is a hymn though popular at regby matches - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calon_Lan Remember it being sung in school assemblies, :yes: Regards, Dave

Mike, A lot of pension schemes are administered by Cardiff e.g. the old gas scheme (now National Grid) of which I am a member certainly is - as luck would have it the income tax for bank I subsequently worked for is in the same office. Incidentally the building is half a mile away and can be seen from our bedroom window. Regards, Dave

Neil, The other thing to watch is income tax, not so much in the year you retire but the following year! In my case I told them what my various pensions would be in the following year and my code numbers were correctly set up. I then submitted by self assessment tax return for the last (partial) year I worked and what did they do? ignore the information I had supplied for the following year and they had previously used and reinstated all the stuff I told them had ceased. It took them three attempts to get it right. This year has been fine so far! Regards, Dave

What an interesting morning! I have BT Infinity and I decide to order a new battery for my laptop - try to go to Amazon but "server not found". I tried a few other sites some were found others not. So I run DNS lookup and some sites are not resolving. Just in case I swap my normal router for the BT spare I keep but there's still a problem. Can't get to the BT site so I ring them. A wait of 20 -30 minutes to speak to an advisor is announced together with a phone number of their service announcements line, so I rang that. It seems they had a problem with DNS servers - now resolved! So that wasted over an hour this morning, and now we've just had some thunder. It's being so happy that keeps me going Dave

Heard a story about a London Hi-fi exhibition some years ago which was attended by the maker of American high end speakers - the sort that cost thousands 15 years ago. Their man came from the States and to demonstrate the quality and protection of the circuity within the cabinet proceeded to do what he did back home - connect the speaker input to the mains whilst describing the protection etc. In London this demonstration resulted in smoke coming from the speaker. He then tried it on the other one in the stereo pair with an identical result. He was extremely surprised to learn that UK voltage was 240v. Dave

It seems that in the UK the rules have changed - only working dogs can have their tail docked. Regards, Dave

You may remember me asking you where you got the feeding station from a couple of weeks ago. I duly bought one and placed it in the garden. Now I am feeding pigeons, not getting any of the birds your feeder seems to attract Regards, Dave

I did mention a few weeks ago that we had a new puppy, Tillie. Here she is today at almost four months old She's very mischievous, and is still in the nipping everything phase. Dave

Over the past couple of weeks I've spent a couple of days taking pictures in Waterfall Country - Vale of Neath. So for those of you feeling a trifle warm, or even wilting here's Mellincourt Fall yesterday. Turned into another sunny day here after a cloudy start, Regards, Dave

Well, a lovely day now very overcast and threatening rain. We are currently living in a form of builders hell. We are not having any work done but the builders next door have arrived again after an absence of a couple of weeks to work on their new extension. Two doors down the other way have had their garage reroofed, new fencing and garden landscaped. To add something to the mix the house behind us is also having an extension added. So today was a surround sound of building work - I did sit in the garden for a short while and took my hearing aid out! Off to the club meeting tonight, Dave