Post a good thing that happened in your life today

[Bryan]

So another good and not so good thing, perhaps I should start another thread?  

 

My wife was finally persuaded to make an apple pie using the Bramley cooking apples that we grow. It tasted Ok but the apple crumbled to a mush. Apple pie experts out there how do you ensure that the apple is properly cooked yet retains its shape in the pie? I might have a go at making one myself.  

 

Then we have the case of the broken earth pin of a power supply to our radio. Now the radio operates at 5V, is presumably well insulated and doesn't actually need an earth connection, but you can't plug the supply into a UK 3 pin socket without an earth pin, which acts to push aside a retractable barrier to the live connections.

 

Somebody, there are only two of us, must have stood on the plug and broke the plastic earth pin without realising that the  damage had been done. Having tried to plug the supply into the mains I realised that the pin was missing and by good fortune found the broken bit. 

 

How to fix it? I elected on using a steel nail cut to length within the hollow pin and epoxy resin to hold the lot together, hopefully the repair will be at least as strong as the original. It works. 

Edited August 23, 2022 by Bryan

[spacecadet]

5 hours ago, Bryan said:

So another good and not so good thing, perhaps I should start another thread?  

 

My wife was finally persuaded to make an apple pie using the Bramley cooking apples that we grow. It tasted Ok but the apple crumbled to a mush. Apple pie experts out there how do you ensure that the apple is properly cooked yet retains its shape in the pie? I might have a go at making one myself.  

 

Then we have the case of the broken earth pin of a power supply to our radio. Now the radio operates at 5V, is presumably well insulated and doesn't actually need an earth connection, but you can't plug the supply into a UK 3 pin socket without an earth pin, which acts to push aside a retractable barrier to the live connections.

 

Somebody, there are only two of us, must have stood on the plug and broke the plastic earth pin without realising that the  damage had been done. Having tried to plug the supply into the mains I realised that the pin was missing and by good fortune found the broken bit. 

 

How to fix it? I elected on using a steel nail cut to length within the hollow pin and epoxy resin to hold the lot together, hopefully the repair will be at least as strong as the original. It works. 

You don't need it now, but it's quite acceptable to push the shutter out of the way with a screwdriver. Then insert the live and neutral. If you can't get at them, turn the plug upside down- polarity doesn't matter. Done it many a time in days past to get a 2-pin plug in the socket. Don't do it if anyone under about 40 is in the house, obvs, and young persons shouldn't see it at all. More of an emergency measure.

Before anyone takes fright, this is perfectly safe. The plug/transformer is double insulated and you can't touch any live parts.

Edited August 23, 2022 by spacecadet

[Bryan]

4 hours ago, spacecadet said:

You don't need it now, but it's quite acceptable to push the shutter out of the way with a screwdriver. Then insert the live and neutral. If you can't get at them, turn the plug upside down- polarity doesn't matter. Done it many a time in days past to get a 2-pin plug in the socket. Don't do it if anyone under about 40 is in the house, obvs, and young persons shouldn't see it at all. More of an emergency measure.

Before anyone takes fright, this is perfectly safe. The plug/transformer is double insulated and you can't touch any live parts.

 

Confess that I did that very thing before fixing the plug !

[spacecadet]

53 minutes ago, Bryan said:

 

Confess that I did that very thing before fixing the plug !

 

Steely-eyed missile man under that cautious exterior. I knew it.

[Allan Bell]

1 hour ago, Bryan said:

 

Confess that I did that very thing before fixing the plug !

 

I have a little red gadget which came with a mains socket tester. It is inserted into the socket to push the shutter out of the way while the probes are pushed into the glory holes (neg/pos) to get a reading. Or if you do it wrong frizzled hair.

 

Gets you to the moon quicker than the new NASA moon rocket going up next week.

 

Allan

 

Edited August 23, 2022 by Allan Bell

[spacecadet]

I'd assumed we had the earth pin shutter type, but I've just checked and we have the newer foolproof pivoting type (not that new- 1991!) that require live and neutral pins to go in together.

You can still do what Bryan did though. The earth socket is not part of the show.

Edited August 23, 2022 by spacecadet

[Dave Richards]

11 hours ago, Bryan said:

So another good and not so good thing, perhaps I should start another thread?  

 

My wife was finally persuaded to make an apple pie using the Bramley cooking apples that we grow. It tasted Ok but the apple crumbled to a mush. Apple pie experts out there how do you ensure that the apple is properly cooked yet retains its shape in the pie? I might have a go at making one myself.  

 

Then we have the case of the broken earth pin of a power supply to our radio. Now the radio operates at 5V, is presumably well insulated and doesn't actually need an earth connection, but you can't plug the supply into a UK 3 pin socket without an earth pin, which acts to push aside a retractable barrier to the live connections.

 

Somebody, there are only two of us, must have stood on the plug and broke the plastic earth pin without realising that the  damage had been done. Having tried to plug the supply into the mains I realised that the pin was missing and by good fortune found the broken bit. 

 

How to fix it? I elected on using a steel nail cut to length within the hollow pin and epoxy resin to hold the lot together, hopefully the repair will be at least as strong as the original. It works. 

I won’t comment regarding the electrical  subject, but my other half says Bramley apples tend not to hold their shape when cooked and do go mushy. May be better to use a desert apple which will stay in shape, that’s why they are used for tart tatin (?sic) and any other apple desert where the shape needs to hold. We are currently harvesting a bumper crop of Tydemans Early Worcester apples which are great for all sorts of pies, tarts, crumbles etc.

[Bryan]

2 hours ago, Dave Richards said:

I won’t comment regarding the electrical  subject, but my other half says Bramley apples tend not to hold their shape when cooked and do go mushy. May be better to use a desert apple which will stay in shape, that’s why they are used for tart tatin (?sic) and any other apple desert where the shape needs to hold. We are currently harvesting a bumper crop of Tydemans Early Worcester apples which are great for all sorts of pies, tarts, crumbles etc.

 

Thanks Dave, I clearly need to do further research on apples.

[Betty LaRue]

My favorite doughnuts are plain cake doughnuts fried then rolled in sugar and cinnamon, not dipped in glaze. Over the last 10 years, it’s been increasing hard if not impossible to find them. The shops just don’t seem to roll them in sugar anymore.

Yesterday I saw a commercial on television for those doughnuts, except they are minis. One or two bites per doughnut.

After a shopping excursion today while I hunted a Roman shade for my breakfast area window, my daughter & I stopped at Spangles. No hamburger, no fries, but 16 mini doughnuts. I asked for them and they were fried on the spot, so got them hot. They melted in our mouths.

I brought the leftovers home and can’t wait to finish them off. 
Oink oink.

[Michael Ventura]

10 minutes ago, Betty LaRue said:

My favorite doughnuts are plain cake doughnuts fried then rolled in sugar and cinnamon, not dipped in glaze. Over the last 10 years, it’s been increasing hard if not impossible to find them. The shops just don’t seem to roll them in sugar anymore.

Yesterday I saw a commercial on television for those doughnuts, except they are minis. One or two bites per doughnut.

After a shopping excursion today while I hunted a Roman shade for my breakfast area window, my daughter & I stopped at Spangles. No hamburger, no fries, but 16 mini doughnuts. I asked for them and they were fried on the spot, so got them hot. They melted in our mouths.

I brought the leftovers home and can’t wait to finish them off. 
Oink oink.

 

Nothing like a fresh hot donut!  When I was 14, I worked at donut shop nearby to home.  I worked weekends cleaning...dough was everywhere, on the sheet pans, large mixing bowls and all over the floor.  When it dried, it was like cement!  Had to do a lot of scraping and scrubbing.  But the upside was that I got to take home what I wanted....within reason.  My favorite was the "cinnamon twist", basically it was a glazed donut twisted to a figure eight and then dusted in cinnamon.   Yes, they truly melted in your mouth!!  Now there are these fancy "gourmet" donut shops but they are too fancy for me.  I like them fairly simple, like your sugar donut.

[Betty LaRue]

16 hours ago, Michael Ventura said:

 

Nothing like a fresh hot donut!  When I was 14, I worked at donut shop nearby to home.  I worked weekends cleaning...dough was everywhere, on the sheet pans, large mixing bowls and all over the floor.  When it dried, it was like cement!  Had to do a lot of scraping and scrubbing.  But the upside was that I got to take home what I wanted....within reason.  My favorite was the "cinnamon twist", basically it was a glazed donut twisted to a figure eight and then dusted in cinnamon.   Yes, they truly melted in your mouth!!  Now there are these fancy "gourmet" donut shops but they are too fancy for me.  I like them fairly simple, like your sugar donut.

I worked in a doughnut bakery for 4 days. It was the only job I felt like a failure. I had 3 little ones at home. I had to be there at 3 am.  My duties were to kick this lever on a huge rack that contained dozens of doughnuts and lower them into the frying oil, flip them to cook the other side, then lower them into the icing, and raise them up again, take them off the rack once the dripping stopped, box them up and while keeping an eye on the next batch that was frying. It was a frantic sequence that gave me no time to scratch my nose, let alone have a bathroom break.

The foot lever was really hard to engage and took a lot of force.  
Then I came home around 7, before my husband left for work. Those few hours I got to sleep (about 4 1/2) was filled with horrible leg cramps and nightmares, then the exhaustion kicked in my asthma. After 4 days, I knew my health was being ruined and quit. Maybe I could have made it if I could have gotten a few hours of sleep at the end of my shift, but I had one child in the first grade, two at home, and had to be awake. And yes, I got free doughnuts within reason.

The bakery had a lot of different products, bear claws, twists, apple fritters and such. My favorite was a cream filled oval one.  The bakery was across the street from the high school, and got a lot of traffic from kids, including mine when they reached high school.

That job failure haunted me forever because I had always accomplished every job I set my mind to except that one. I thought it would work because I wouldn’t have to pay a babysitter. Hah!

[Michael Ventura]

22 minutes ago, Betty LaRue said:

I worked in a doughnut bakery for 4 days. It was the only job I felt like a failure. I had 3 little ones at home. I had to be there at 3 am.  My duties were to kick this lever on a huge rack that contained dozens of doughnuts and lower them into the frying oil, flip them to cook the other side, then lower them into the icing, and raise them up again, take them off the rack once the dripping stopped, box them up and while keeping an eye on the next batch that was frying. It was a frantic sequence that gave me no time to scratch my nose, let alone have a bathroom break.

The foot lever was really hard to engage and took a lot of force.  
Then I came home around 7, before my husband left for work. Those few hours I got to sleep (about 4 1/2) was filled with horrible leg cramps and nightmares, then the exhaustion kicked in my asthma. After 4 days, I knew my health was being ruined and quit. Maybe I could have made it if I could have gotten a few hours of sleep at the end of my shift, but I had one child in the first grade, two at home, and had to be awake. And yes, I got free doughnuts within reason.

The bakery had a lot of different products, bear claws, twists, apple fritters and such. My favorite was a cream filled oval one.  The bakery was across the street from the high school, and got a lot of traffic from kids, including mine when they reached high school.

That job failure haunted me forever because I had always accomplished every job I set my mind to except that one. I thought it would work because I wouldn’t have to pay a babysitter. Hah!

 

I was too young to work the donut fryer but occasionally I had to step in and help out the baker if he/she needed a quick break and so I know what you mean about having to be on the ball all the time!  As the donuts were coming out of the hot oil, you had to put them on a cooling tray (with the wire mesh) and then into a tall rack on wheels.  If you didn't keep paying attention, they would end up on the ground and owner hated that...money down the drain!

[NYCat]

1 hour ago, Betty LaRue said:

I worked in a doughnut bakery for 4 days. It was the only job I felt like a failure. I had 3 little ones at home. I had to be there at 3 am.  My duties were to kick this lever on a huge rack that contained dozens of doughnuts and lower them into the frying oil, flip them to cook the other side, then lower them into the icing, and raise them up again, take them off the rack once the dripping stopped, box them up and while keeping an eye on the next batch that was frying. It was a frantic sequence that gave me no time to scratch my nose, let alone have a bathroom break.

The foot lever was really hard to engage and took a lot of force.  

 

I wonder what Lucille Ball would have done with that job...

 

Paulette

[Betty LaRue]

1 hour ago, NYCat said:

 

I wonder what Lucille Ball would have done with that job...

 

Paulette

Oh My Gosh, Paulette! I can see it now! Her stuffing them in her mouth, cheeks like a chipmunk as she falls behind and doughnuts are rolling everywhere! Good thought you had…it would have made a great episode.

[Bryan]

So, as I reported in the bad things thread, I dropped my Sony RX100 V camera and it ceased to work.  I was confident that our local repair man would be able to fix it, but he's away on holiday.😒

 

I tend to use the RX100 as a wide angle supplement to my old film camera lenses on the Sony a6500, and I found myself with  nothing between a 12 and a 28 mm lens, a tad limiting. I decided to push the boat out and buy a 20mm lens.  Now my lens of choice would be a used film era Pentax 20 mm f4, but they go for silly money, so I decided to give Mr Sony another chance in the lens department - my previous experiences being far from satisfactory - and bought a used Sony 20 mm f2.8 at a very decent price.  It arrived this afternoon and was on the camera PDQ.

 

A result! Initial test shots indicate that it is sharp across the frame, and produces punchy images.  Fingers crossed that it is reliable, but, for now, I'm one happy bunny! 😀

[John Mitchell]

59 minutes ago, Bryan said:

So, as I reported in the bad things thread, I dropped my Sony RX100 V camera and it ceased to work.  I was confident that our local repair man would be able to fix it, but he's away on holiday.😒

 

I tend to use the RX100 as a wide angle supplement to my old film camera lenses on the Sony a6500, and I found myself with  nothing between a 12 and a 28 mm lens, a tad limiting. I decided to push the boat out and buy a 20mm lens.  Now my lens of choice would be a used film era Pentax 20 mm f4, but they go for silly money, so I decided to give Mr Sony another chance in the lens department - my previous experiences being far from satisfactory - and bought a used Sony 20 mm f2.8 at a very decent price.  It arrived this afternoon and was on the camera PDQ.

 

A result! Initial test shots indicate that it is sharp across the frame, and produces punchy images.  Fingers crossed that it is reliable, but, for now, I'm one happy bunny! 😀

 

Glad to hear that you like the 20mm lens. I've thought of looking around for a used one myself (if I wasn't so parsimonious). The 20mm is very compact, almost like a "pancake" lens, which I like, and it always seems to get good reviews.

[Bryan]

1 hour ago, John Mitchell said:

 

Glad to hear that you like the 20mm lens. I've thought of looking around for a used one myself (if I wasn't so parsimonious). The 20mm is very compact, almost like a "pancake" lens, which I like, and it always seems to get good reviews.

Cheers John. I was about to ask you how best to set it up for autofocus - all of my other lenses are manual - when I discovered that it has a manual focus ring, so no need to get into that level of complexity !

[John Mitchell]

41 minutes ago, Bryan said:

Cheers John. I was about to ask you how best to set it up for autofocus - all of my other lenses are manual - when I discovered that it has a manual focus ring, so no need to get into that level of complexity !

 

I tend to use the "flexible spot" option a lot, so that I can choose the main focus point. I also like the DMF (direct manual focus) setting that allows you to tweak the focus manually if desired. I still have the original 16mm pancake lens (forerunner of the 20mm) and use it sometimes. You wouldn't like this lens because you have to close down to f/5.6+ in order to get half-decent edge/corner results. The centre is sharp even wide open, though. The 16mm also takes the Sony fisheye conversion lens, which is surprisingly good in the right light. I've read that the fisheye converter also works with the 20mm lens, with less of a fisheye effect of course.

 

 

Edited August 26, 2022 by John Mitchell

[ReeRay]

Negative test today from 7 days of Covid. Still feel listless and pretty weak but getting through it now. It's been a stressful few months in all, what with relocation and Covid but hopefully better and calmer times ahead.

[Ed Rooney]

Good going, ReeRay!

 

Today, I did it again -- won first prize in the annual Best Scrambled Eggs on Earth competition. Jamie Oliver had to stay out because of an upset stomach. And Gordon Ramsay got into a fist fight with one of the judges. I just wish the prize was more than a half-dozen mixed-size eggs. 

 

 

(I lead a rich fantasy life.)

[Allan Bell]

3 hours ago, Ed Rooney said:

Good going, ReeRay!

 

Today, I did it again -- won first prize in the annual Best Scrambled Eggs on Earth competition. Jamie Oliver had to stay out because of an upset stomach. And Gordon Ramsay got into a fist fight with one of the judges. I just wish the prize was more than a half-dozen mixed-size eggs. 

 

 

(I lead a rich fantasy life.)

 

 

I recognise the scrambled eggs and the ham but what is the item cut in half please. I only ask because it looks good and I do not know what I am missing.

 

Allan

 

PS  Love the gold cutlery.

 

ITMA

 

Edited August 29, 2022 by Allan Bell

[Ed Rooney]

 

That, Allan, is a simple blueberry muffin. 🙂

[spacecadet]

5 hours ago, Ed Rooney said:

Good going, ReeRay!

 

Today, I did it again -- won first prize in the annual Best Scrambled Eggs on Earth competition. Jamie Oliver had to stay out because of an upset stomach. And Gordon Ramsay got into a fist fight with one of the judges. I just wish the prize was more than a half-dozen mixed-size eggs. 

 

 

(I lead a rich fantasy life.)

Reminds me of the Gold Fork in Carmel, Ed. Long gone, I think. They laid out plain cutlery, then replaced the fork when you sat down. Great schtick.

Mind you we have a big set of the brass stuff. Little used because it has a yucky taint to it. Unlike your scrambled eggs.

Edited August 29, 2022 by spacecadet

[Ed Rooney]

 

Yucky? My eggs? My eggs are fluffy -- famously so.

[Betty LaRue]

On 23/08/2022 at 12:47, Bryan said:

 

Thanks Dave, I clearly need to do further research on apples.

It seems the apples you have in the UK don’t relate to what we have in the US. When I bake an apple pie, I use Granny Smith apples. They are green colored, quite large, tart and hold up well to baking. They are too tart for hand-snacking.
Sometimes I buy two kind, those above and another recommended baking apple and use a mix in my pies. The spices I use are nutmeg & cinnamon, along with 3 tablespoons flour, butter, brown sugar and white sugar and a tad of salt. The delicious aroma of it baking makes me want to tear the oven door off.