WHAT ATTRACTED YOUR ATTENTION TODAY?

[Stanley]

We're too scattered to 'all meet up' Anna. If you are brave enough I could give you some tips. I am a simple minded bugger and so I do things the easiest way.... If you want to chance it mail me at scg1936@talktalk.net and we could get you started. By the way, If you do come round you'll meet Jack the Patterdale Terrier. Are you OK with dogs?
What grabbed me was the fact that just for once, Barlick got the best weather! How the hell a light fall of snow can paralyse a large part of the south beats me. I note that there were no shock horror reports of mayhem from Scotland.....

[Tizer]

There's no snow here in Taunton but I can see the towering snow-capped mountains of Exmoor from my window!

[PanBiker]

How the hell a light fall of snow can paralyse a large part of the south beats me. I note that there were no shock horror reports of mayhem from Scotland.....

Indeed Stanley, I'm sure I heard 50mm of snow and gridlock! regarding further North a neighbour who is a Scot by birth set off up to Aviemore on Boxing day.

I took Sally to the train this morning, she's picking our Ruby up to bring her up here for the New Year.

[chinatyke]

...but I can see the towering snow-capped mountains of Exmoor from my window!

Mountains? Them's 'illocks, lad!

[PanBiker]

I was going to say the same China, this is a mountain (just)



and my favourite of the locals.

[plaques]

Mountains and lakes. Well we can all pretend.
View from the top of Red Lane Colne. Yesterday.

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[Gloria]

We watched the 2nd of the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures on BBC4, 3rd and last one on tonight 8pm. Very interesting, about how we and animals communicate. Well worth a watch.

[Stanley]

How cold it was out in the wind. A pleasure to get back indoors!
What an interesting but fiddly job sharpening milling cutters is. Every one is different!
Have a look at THIS link to a World Service programme yesterday on Il Cannone, a very famous violin. Fascinating account of how a man in Wyoming made a successful replica. If you type in 'Strad Style' on Youtube you'll find a link to a film that has been made about it.

[Stanley]

Listening to the news I heard, during a report on the 'terrible weather' that 2000 homes were without electricity. It struck me that there were probably the same number disconnected on any day of the year! Could they be short of news?
The way that the rain washed the snow away by 19:00 last night. A lovely sight for an old bloke who has a fear of falling on icy pavements!

[Tizer]

Listening to the news I heard, during a report on the 'terrible weather' that 2000 homes were without electricity. It struck me that there were probably the same number disconnected on any day of the year! Could they be short of news.

In the same way a motorway pile up with a number of deaths will make news headlines but we rarely hear about the more than 1700 people killed on the roads every year.

On the radio this morning a robotics expert was asked about concerns that `robots might take over'. She said she thinks it's a Western concern and her colleagues in the Eastern world can't understand our concern, they see robots as our friends. She speculates that our attitude stems from fiction, all the way back to Frankenstein and through the scifi stories since.

[plaques]

Millennials will become fabulously wealthy when you pop your clogs. Link. . Just think your kids will be able to buy new cars every year, pay off their mortgage, travel abroad and have no worries at all. Unless of course you spend your last years in a nursing home. Taking the average terrace house price in Barlick to be £106,000 (Right Move) and Residential care costs for 3 years 3 X 27,000 = £81,000, that's £21 grand to splash about. But if you and your spouse want to hold hands in this care home your kids are £60 grand down the tube. Makes you feel good that the Nanny State will look after you.

[Stanley]

Could someone be trying to con them into spending more money?

[Tizer]

Plaques, it's worse than that. You said `spend your last years in a nursing home' but you've quoted figures for care, not nursing. If you spend them in a nursing home you can double the cost. Sorry to have to tell you that!

[plaques]

Tizer, Yes I knew when I was posting it I picked the cheapest option 'Residential care' add another £3-4 grand a year for very basic nursing care. Also I made it 3 years, some with a bit of luck ? may last seven. But being Christmas and New year I didn't want to depress people. That's me, Mr Nice Guy all over.

[Tizer]

Another example of the UK government and industry being slow to notice what's going on in the world - China has placed a ban on the import of plastics for recycling. We've been getting rid of half a billion tons a year to China and now it's going to accumulate here and the industry doesn't know what to do with it. Even Michael Gove, bless his cotton socks, says he didn't realise what was going to happen. BBC

In a newspaper report the work at the Avonmouth recycling plant is described. They're swamped with plastics as well as all the other stuff for recycling. What makes it even more difficult is the stuff that people wrongly put in their recycling bins. The worst thing for them is the electric cables and plastic strapping that keeps turning up - it wraps itself around the sorting machinery and shuts down the plant. The workers have to go in and cut it all out by hand. They do a hard, dirty job in hot conditions. And guess what - they're East Europeans. I wonder if our clever politicians have realised yet that there lies another future problem?

[plaques]

We make an attempt to put all our plastic bottles in the recycle bin. At the end of the day the government will have to raise some legislation to curb the laissez faire attitude towards the manufactures. The Tories will have to be dragged screaming and shouting down this road, its not good for the image to be seen as anti-business. Most people are in favor of recycling especially if it can be seen to be put to some good purpose. To just throw it into landfill or incinerators will get peoples back up and finish up in a 'what the hell' situation. Lets start with each type of bottle being identified with a government approved logo that classifies its recycle potential. Public opinion may just vote with their pockets on packaging that doesn't make the standard. Wishful thinking I know but it could be a start.

[Stanley]

Funny how we managed all those years with glass bottles...... The bottom line is that we aren't fit to run the planet..... I sort all my waste religiously and take six weeks to fill a wheelie bin, same for the general waste. Even so, that's too much but can't be avoided with modern packaging.

[Tizer]

Here's a photo of one of my young relatives eating his breakfast...



...and these photos show the New Year's firework display in London for which his dad spent 4 consecutive days on the set up.

[Big Kev]

Two flexible brake hoses and the car is through its MOT for another year

[PanBiker]

Good news Kev.

I ran into a problem yesterday when I attempted to use the mincing attachment on our Kenwood mixer. You have to rotate the attachment as you locate it to the front of the machine so it engages with the drive shaft correctly. Removing the cover from the drive shaft and using the locking lever for the mincer once engaged disconnects the drive to the orbital beater connector. I prepared all the ingredients I wanted to shove through it and loaded the tray at the top shoving the first load down the feed tube from the top. I switched it on and it was dead in the water! I removed mincer to re-engage the main drive but it was still dead, bugger thought I, sods law, search out new attachment for 40 year old mixer, one go with it and then the mixer turns its toes up. No time to look at it yesterday as the kids were clamouring for their tea, so onto plan B and the Hotpoint whizzer came out and saved the day with its steel shredder. Tea was rescued and the kids enjoyed their rissoles.

Time to look at the mixer today, fuse first, checked out OK so I flipped the mixer over to see where the mains lead went. In through strain relief and terminated live and neutral on two screw terminals under the bottom cover. I plugged it in hoping to find the lead faulty and no 240v across the terminals. No such luck full mains between the two, bugger again. The mixer is very well built and I was looking for a way to get into it, failing that my next step was to hit the internet for some kind of service manual to show me how to get into the motor and speed switching assembly. I don't know why but when I turned it back over I tried rotating the beater drive manually, I could only get a bit of movement on it through the gearing but when I switched it on again the motor and drive worked perfectly. Saved hopefully, I will have to try it again with the mincer to see if it works in both configurations. As far as I can see it is just a mechanical defeat between one drive shaft and the other. I must have managed to get it into neutral.

[Stanley]

Ian, one of James May's programmes where he rebuilds a household item is on the Kenwood mixer.....
See Shed Matters for how important a squirt of oil in the right place can be. I think I cured what looked like a major problem yesterday with a small amount of SAE40 in the right place!
My great grandson Alex is 5 on Saturday...... How can this be possible? Time goes past quicker as you get older......

[PanBiker]

Ian, one of James May's programmes where he rebuilds a household item is on the Kenwood mixer....

I might look that one up Stanley, thanks for that. I don't mind James May, he is OK as long as he isn't with that oaf Clarkson.

[Big Kev]

Despite the repair to the broken drain I have water in the cellar again, I suspect a rise in the water table. It's only in one corner which is also a low spot, the plan is to dig a sump and drop a submersible pump in. I did look at digging a gulley to the cellar drain but the levels are too far out to be practical.

[chinatyke]

Despite the repair to the broken drain I have water in the cellar again, I suspect a rise in the water table. It's only in one corner which is also a low spot, the plan is to dig a sump and drop a submersible pump in. I did look at digging a gulley to the cellar drain but the levels are too far out to be practical.

I don't understand something here. Why doesn't water come up the central drain if you are below the water table? How much lower is your low spot?

[Stanley]

China is thinking on the right lines Kev. Bit of a problem. It's a bummer and I wish you well with it.
See THIS report of the welcome move by Norway to stop selling arms to the UAE. See also the latest news of a Diphtheria epidemic in Yemen in addition to the Cholera. Unfortunately our government is convinced that all human life would be affected if we took the same principled stance.....
See THIS for another example of caring Tory Council policies. Windsor Council as demanding that the police clear 'aggressive beggars' and rough sleepers from the streets of the town before the royal wedding.... Local charities are, quite rightly, protesting saying that nobody chooses to be homeless. A disgusting attitude.