The really boring and totally pointless snippets thread V

[TheGreenAnger]

Should clear at EGLL despite the TEMPO but I guess the damage to the schedules has already been done.

EGLL 230459Z 2306/2412 VRB02KT 1500 BR SCT001 BECMG 2306/2309 5000 HZ TEMPO 2306/2311 0200 FZFG OVC000 BECMG 2309/2312 9999 NSW

[Ex-Ascot]

Mystery with all the soil in the wardrobe solved. The staff were right it was a big mouse. The housekeeper scooped it up, alive, with all the debris. The question is why was it bringing all the soil/sand in. It had buried itself into the pile. I told the gardener to take it for a long walk. He was back in minutes so the mouse is also probably back.

[Ibbie]

As British railways are unreliable with cancelation due to strikes or lack of staff, have hired a car at Gatwick for my next UK trip, rather than use railway across the Downs.

No doubt I will not be alone in my thoughts and actions.

[Wodrick]

G'day,
managed 10c now was 6c when I fell out of pit, have to when Henry is shouting to go out (08.50)
Gusting 66 km/h

I'm waiting on The Big River to deliver a rug to my mailbox then I will go and collect.
When I ordered a CO detector last night it was for next day delivery, my version of next day differs from theirs.
next day to Sunday to me is Monday, seems in Amazonia it is in fact Tuesday.

Afternoon is provisions time on Mondays as Monday is Market day = nowhere for el parking.
Seems we need a crock of cleaning stuff.

[Boac]

ibbie - don't plan on using the A29.

[1DC]

Still got a moderate fog warning on the Humber and you can still see for miles, was -2C when I emerged from my slumbers but up to 2C now, contrails galore. Yesterday frost everywhere today non in sight. Just had a bawling out for spilling my tea. How do you know it was me?,says I. Who else could it have been?,says she. Conversation ended..

[4mastacker]

Today's planned boat move on me canal was cancelled because the ice was too thick: in places it was over 4" thick. The boat was frozen in at its mooring, the lock gates were all stuck in ice and couldn't be moved, so we called it a day and went back to the depot to sit by the log burner drinking tea and eating cake.

[Ex-Ascot]

Today's planned boat move on me canal was cancelled because the ice was too thick: in places it was over 4" thick. The boat was frozen in at its mooring, the lock gates were all stuck in ice and couldn't be moved, so we called it a day and went back to the depot to sit by the log burner drinking tea and eating cake.

Sounds like a sound idea 4M. Does the thick ice damage the boats? Thinking of it pressing on the hull.

[4mastacker]

.............

Sounds like a sound idea 4M. Does the thick ice damage the boats? Thinking of it pressing on the hull.

A couple of our boats ride quite high so they are virtually sitting on the water rather than in it. Our workboat, which was built in 1936, sits slightly stern down(due to the position of the engine room) with its bow raised - gently rocking it frees the grip of the ice. It has accumulated plenty of bumps and scratches over the years so any additional dents caused by the ice won't be immediately visible.

The problem with today was we would have had to move the boat stern-first for half a mile through three iced-up locks to get it to our slipway, and our boat isn't very good at reversing at the best of times. Using the rudder to break the ice is not ideal - it's best going forwards and allowing the bow to rise up over the ice to break it but we couldn't do that today as there is no where to turn the boat between its mooring and the slipway. We'll wait until the ice melts.

[TheGreenAnger]

.............

Sounds like a sound idea 4M. Does the thick ice damage the boats? Thinking of it pressing on the hull.

A couple of our boats ride quite high so they are virtually sitting on the water rather than in it. Our workboat, which was built in 1936, sits slightly stern down(due to the position of the engine room) with its bow raised - gently rocking it frees the grip of the ice. It has accumulated plenty of bumps and scratches over the years so any additional dents caused by the ice won't be immediately visible.

The problem with today was we would have had to move the boat stern-first for half a mile through three iced-up locks to get it to our slipway, and our boat isn't very good at reversing at the best of times. Using the rudder to break the ice is not ideal - it's best going forwards and allowing the bow to rise up over the ice to break it but we couldn't do that today as there is no where to turn the boat between its mooring and the slipway. We'll wait until the ice melts.

Like Fram, Nansen's, and then Amundsen's, ship, and unlike Shackleton's Endurance.

At the time of her launch in 1912 Endurance was arguably the strongest wooden ship ever built with the possible exception of Fram, the vessel used by Fridtjof Nansen and later by Roald Amundsen. There was one major difference between the ships. Fram was bowl-bottomed, which meant that if the ice closed in against her, the ship would be squeezed up and out and not be subject to the pressure of the compressing ice. Endurance, on the other hand, was not intended to be frozen into heavy pack ice, and so was not designed to rise out of a crush. It was observed on the expedition that she instead tended to resist being crushed by floes until the ice cracked to relieve the pressure.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endurance_(1912_ship)

[Wodrick]

Sat in the health center for 16.36. The room for my appointment is empty, lights out.

[CharlieOneSix]

Argh! No hot water. Manual override lever works on the zone valve and can get hot water that way but the valve motor seems duff. I'm on a boiler parts and labour contract - including zone valves - so Certas are booked for tomorrow. Second time in 10 months that they will have replaced that motor - maybe there's more than that required. At least the central heating is not affected.

[llondel]

A couple of failures today. My server PC informed me that its UPS battery needs replacing. Not impressed, the previous one seems to have been installed less than two years ago. Fixed that in the short term by swapping to a different UPS. It's windy enough outside that it just might need it, so a controlled shutdown to replace the UPS is preferable.

The other failure is that one of our ridge tiles has come adrift. It's still on the roof, but displaced a few feet from where it's supposed to be, so I guess I'll be up there at some point to put it back where it belongs. Not had any dodgy knocks on the door offering to do it for me yet.

In better news, Tesla's tenth birthday was yesterday, so she's joined the Double Digit Leo club.

[OFSO]

A German guy, who is by no means poor, our friend used to clean for in Els Grecs, decided a couple of years ago that at 12€ an hour she was too expensive and he took on a South American girl for 8€. Apparently her and her boyfriend have just emptied his house and done a runner-offski. Its all on his webcam but because they've disappeared the police can't really do much other than denounce them, and also it's "foreigner's business" so not terribly interested. His insurance won't pay up because technically they didn't break in, she had a key and he's not covered..... Penny wise, pound foolish.

[G-CPTN]

Two years @ 4Euros x however many hours per annum . . . saving.

[OFSO]

Actually the girl/boyfriend were dumb. They should have taken the house over. Last I heard a legal eviction took 5-7 years, and it's illegal for the house owner to stop paying utilities and taxes on his property even though squatters have taken it over and he can't live there. And as for the girl having a baby while living there, he'd NEVER have got them out. Not speculation on my part, either. Been there, done it. (Not the baby part, and I was the landlord. German tenant girl turned my property into a cross between a satanic temple and a wierdo brothel. Never, but never, be a landlord in Spain. The dices are stacked against you from day one.)

[Rwy in Sight]

Mystery with all the soil in the wardrobe solved. The staff were right it was a big mouse. The housekeeper scooped it up, alive, with all the debris. The question is why was it bringing all the soil/sand in. It had buried itself into the pile. I told the gardener to take it for a long walk. He was back in minutes so the mouse is also probably back.

Maybe his definition of "long" is different from yours

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

Maybe he took it for a long walk off a short jetty...and therefore it won't be back.

[jimtherev]

Breaking news: Clive the Plumber traced the kitchen water-spring to a leaking boiler drain-down valve.
Twenty quid paid for ten minutes work and two filthy stories.
Top value.

[Opsboi]

Breaking news: Clive the Plumber traced the kitchen water-spring to a leaking boiler drain-down valve.
Twenty quid paid for ten minutes work and two filthy stories.
Top value.

The Lord wants to hear the filthy stories

Purely for research, you understand