Post a good thing that happened in your life today

[wiskerke]

1 hour ago, Michael Ventura said:

 

Just saw on the local news that Blues Alley had a fire last evening.  They think it was started by a workman contractor.  The owner said they will have to close for a while, to rebuild,  but will return!  I have seen/heard some good music there!

Yes on page 137 of this thread we briefly discussed Eva Cassidy performing there. And Edo of course had met her.

I have a friend like that: A while back I just bought this nice book of a Japanese photographer I had never heard of before, and I'm showing it to him. And he says oh yes last time we met (in Tokyo) we got very drunk at her place.

BTW that fish restaurant was Sea Catch! Eva singing Autumn Leaves opened up a drawer somewhere.

 

wim

[Michael Ventura]

31 minutes ago, wiskerke said:

Yes on page 137 of this thread we briefly discussed Eva Cassidy performing there. And Edo of course had met her.

I have a friend like that: A while back I just bought this nice book of a Japanese photographer I had never heard of before, and I'm showing it to him. And he says oh yes last time we met (in Tokyo) we got very drunk at her place.

BTW that fish restaurant was Sea Catch! Eva singing Autumn Leaves opened up a drawer somewhere.

 

wim

The last act I saw there was Gil Scott-Heron…been too long 

[Ed Rooney]

 

With your permission, I shall continue with my "exciting" life story and my involvement with The Theatre. 

 

The sameness of my days now is both southing and terrifying. Several times in the past, things were going very quietly, very smoothly, until suddenly they weren’t. Remember Black Monday, Oct 19,1987? I had just put down what was for me a large deposit on a cottage on the edge of Blenheim Park in Woodstock (UK). I had planned to fix it up and rent it to visiting university professors in Oxford. The deposit was non refundable. And my income from Tony Stone’s agency suddenly stopped. 

 

In addition to my future wife Eloise and I working at that wonderful little theatre in DC, we were also in an acting class together. So was a young Texas lad named Joe Don Baker (Talking Tall). We three became fast friends and we all decided to move to New York and take a crack at the big time, a Texan, a Virginian, and a thug from Brooklyn. Joe Don and I were roommates at first. Then he got a job as a night clerk at a small hotel where his deal included a room. So Joe Don moved out and Eloise moved in. 

 

Eloise and I both worked on and off at the Circle in the Square Theatre. We both had job-jobs, she at the Gaslight Club and me running the bar in that theatre. It was when I had a small part playing the guitar in Camino Real that I got my first camera. I traded one of my guitars for it. I had no training, had never owned a camera, but from the first day I was successful shooting productions and actors' portraits. I taught George C. Scott photography and went with him to buy his Nikons. 

 

Many many famous folks in and around the Circle in the Square, including then Senator JFK, who dated two sisters in The Balcony. My personal high point? Dancing with Myrna Loy.  

 

Edo

[spacecadet]

1 hour ago, Ed Rooney said:

Dancing with Myrna Loy.  

Envious doesn't come close, Ed. There's the title of your book, right there.

[Ed Rooney]

That is a good title, Mark. But there will be no book coming from me. That ship sailed and joined the Titanic. 

 

Ms Loy was about 50 at the time of that theatre party, still attractive and couldn't have been nicer. Some of us were weekend guests at her rich boyfriend's estate on Long Island a few weeks after that. I was poor among the rich. 🙂

 

I had a finished collection of memoirs that were abandoned at Mulberry Street along with most everything from my past life. The title was/is First Show at the Paramount. 

[Ed Rooney]

On 26/10/2022 at 13:08, Cecile Marion said:

 

I’m currently on an LNER, going from Edinburgh to London, and then heading back to the US after two months of being away. Can’t say I’m ready to return, though I do miss my comfy chair. I must say, the UK trains are light years beyond what we have in the US. A joy to ride, and the people I’ve come across have been friendly and very accommodating. 

 

That is one long ride, Cecile -- even on a speedy, comfy train. 

[spacecadet]

2 hours ago, Ed Rooney said:

 

That is one long ride, Cecile -- even on a speedy, comfy train. 

Under five hours, Ed. We evidently have faster trains than you're used to.

 

On 26/10/2022 at 13:08, Cecile Marion said:

the UK trains are light years beyond what we have in the US.

I don't envy you then- our trains are reckoned very poor compared with European trains. The fares are particularly eye-watering.

[spacecadet]

2 hours ago, Ed Rooney said:

I had a finished collection of memoirs that were abandoned at Mulberry Street along with most everything from my past life. The title was/is First Show at the Paramount. 

That's a real shame, and a loss to the showbiz and other worlds, even if in a small way. I mean it, Ed.

[NYCat]

I got a letter from Social Security. They have been paying me $2 less than I should have been getting. Hooray. Better than a sale to an editorial website.

 

Paulette

[Bryan]

We've long been having trouble with our central heating system. I contacted the chap who installed the boiler but he was busy and couldn't guarantee being able to attend in the short term. I therefore searched for a reliable local engineer and found a bloke who was prepared to attend between other jobs. He rapidly diagnosed that the system was incorrectly wired, and that it had probably been so since the house was built. In essence the operation of the boiler was dependent upon a demand for hot water and if that was not being signalled, the CH would not function. He duly installed an additional lead between the controller and boiler to signal when the CH needed service. It worked and we now have a reliably warm house. He needs to return to sort out the wiring next to the hot water cylinder that controls the three way valve which will effectively separate the hot water and CH functions. 

 

He's the last in a long series of technicians who have visited the house and worked on the system, but the only one who appears to fully understand how it should be configured.

 

Most houses have combi boilers these days and our boiler and tank system is beyond the experience of a lot of these folk, but, happy days, I've discovered a man who appears to know what he is doing.

Edited November 5, 2022 by Bryan

[spacecadet]

5 hours ago, Bryan said:

In essence the operation of the boiler was dependent upon a demand for hot water and if that was not being signalled, the CH would not function.

So you only got heat when the HW was being heated up? Talk about crossed wires. The call for heat is supposed to be from the room thermostat- sounds like yours was coming from the HW cylinder thermostat or something, which is nuts.

I'm not sure I'd have been able to crack that one in a hurry. Definitely a three-pipe problem, and I don't smoke.

Edited November 5, 2022 by spacecadet

[Bryan]

1 hour ago, spacecadet said:

So you only got heat when the HW was being heated up? Talk about crossed wires. The call for heat is supposed to be from the room thermostat- sounds like yours was coming from the HW cylinder thermostat or something, which is nuts.

I'm not sure I'd have been able to crack that one in a hurry. Definitely a three-pipe problem, and I don't smoke.

 

🙂 Yes the CH would only come on when the programmer, room thermostat, and cylinder thermostat were in agreement !

[spacecadet]

3 hours ago, Bryan said:

 

🙂 Yes the CH would only come on when the programmer, room thermostat, and cylinder thermostat were in agreement !

😍 I suppose we had something similar when we moved in in winter. The frost stat was wrongly wired so the heating wouldn't go off. Fine, it was frosty. But then it wasn't, and the heating was still on. Engineer came out after a few days of heat.

Some years later I discovered that the frost stat was on the wrong side of the boiler. Since I've moved it it's never kicked in. I think it's in the right place now.........

[sb photos]

Recently our cat Bran has squeezed under the sofa whenever the bangs from fireworks frightened him. Tonight the bangs are the loudest and he has curled up on my chair without flinching. We had Classic FM playing Pet Classics and it certainly has relaxed him. I doubt if I'll get my chair back this evening.

[sb photos]

Tonight I was lucky on eBay and am well on the way to acquiring a lens I have been after for some time. A Nikon AF-S 80-400mm F4.5-5.6G ED VR zoom lens in good nick and at an acceptable price. It should be delivered Tuesday. For a while the D750/Nikon af-p 70-300 combination hasn't quite had the reach I needed. Also it should fit in my backpack with minimal movement of its partitions. Must move on my no longer used DX lenses and other kit to top up my bank account..

[Allan Bell]

On 05/11/2022 at 05:58, Bryan said:

We've long been having trouble with our central heating system. I contacted the chap who installed the boiler but he was busy and couldn't guarantee being able to attend in the short term. I therefore searched for a reliable local engineer and found a bloke who was prepared to attend between other jobs. He rapidly diagnosed that the system was incorrectly wired, and that it had probably been so since the house was built. In essence the operation of the boiler was dependent upon a demand for hot water and if that was not being signalled, the CH would not function. He duly installed an additional lead between the controller and boiler to signal when the CH needed service. It worked and we now have a reliably warm house. He needs to return to sort out the wiring next to the hot water cylinder that controls the three way valve which will effectively separate the hot water and CH functions. 

 

He's the last in a long series of technicians who have visited the house and worked on the system, but the only one who appears to fully understand how it should be configured.

 

Most houses have combi boilers these days and our boiler and tank system is beyond the experience of a lot of these folk, but, happy days, I've discovered a man who appears to know what he is doing.

 

My heating system is weird too. When everything is off, except thermostats, and I go to switch CH on it will not start. Found I need to switch HW on then when boiler fires up I switch the HW off. The CH continues to work normally on the thermostat as long as I do not switch it off at the control panel.

 

Allan

 

[spacecadet]

6 minutes ago, Allan Bell said:

 

My heating system is weird too. When everything is off, except thermostats, and I go to switch CH on it will not start. Found I need to switch HW on then when boiler fires up I switch the HW off. The CH continues to work normally on the thermostat as long as I do not switch it off at the control panel.

 

Allan

 

So yours is wired up wrong as well. Hmm.

Seems to me the controls should be completely independent of each other.

[Allan Bell]

2 minutes ago, spacecadet said:

So yours is wired up wrong as well. Hmm.

Seems to me the controls should be completely independent of each other.

 

When my gas engineer came to service the boiler I told him about it and he said it should work independently but did not have time that day to sort it. He must have forgotten about it so I have left it as is. Not paying a fortune to have it rewired when it is as easy as switching both HW and CH on to start the boiler then turning HW off immediately.

 

I now have the boiler on permanently on CH and when I need HW for a shower I use the Electric immersion heater in the water tank to heat it. The immersion id only on for about an hour then it goes off again. When the HW runs out I boil up the kettle for washing the dishes in the sink etc.

 

Allan

 

[NYCat]

The joys of renting. If I don't have heat or hot water I email management. Fortunately i am blessed with a good landlord or it might be more complicated

 

Paulette

[Bryan]

4 hours ago, Allan Bell said:

 

When my gas engineer came to service the boiler I told him about it and he said it should work independently but did not have time that day to sort it. He must have forgotten about it so I have left it as is. Not paying a fortune to have it rewired when it is as easy as switching both HW and CH on to start the boiler then turning HW off immediately.

 

I now have the boiler on permanently on CH and when I need HW for a shower I use the Electric immersion heater in the water tank to heat it. The immersion id only on for about an hour then it goes off again. When the HW runs out I boil up the kettle for washing the dishes in the sink etc.

 

Allan

 

Costing you far more to use electricity to heat the water rather than gas Allan, given that, as I understand it, the electricity price is tied to the cost of generating using gas at considerably less than 100% efficiency.  Might be worth paying a competent gas engineer - if you can find one - to sort it out.  My bloke charged £70 to come out, suss the problem and rewire between programmer and boiler.  I will probably have to pay about the same for him to sort out the 3 way valve wiring.  I've just searched for a price comparison, and the first place I looked said Gas costs 10p/kWh and electric costs 34p/kWh, i.e. over 3 x as much. You would need to check what your supplier is charging.
 

[Allan Bell]

39 minutes ago, Bryan said:

Costing you far more to use electricity to heat the water rather than gas Allan, given that, as I understand it, the electricity price is tied to the cost of generating using gas at considerably less than 100% efficiency.  Might be worth paying a competent gas engineer - if you can find one - to sort it out.  My bloke charged £70 to come out, suss the problem and rewire between programmer and boiler.  I will probably have to pay about the same for him to sort out the 3 way valve wiring.  I've just searched for a price comparison, and the first place I looked said Gas costs 10p/kWh and electric costs 34p/kWh, i.e. over 3 x as much. You would need to check what your supplier is charging.
 

 

My water cylinder has two immersion heaters, one near the bottom to heat the whole tank and one near the top if you only need a small amount of water heating. I find just using the top heater is sufficient for a shower and a bit left over. If I use gas to heat the water it heats the whole tankful. Working out the cost on your figures above it evens things out to use electric for convenience.

 

Allan

 

[Bryan]

2 hours ago, Allan Bell said:

 

My water cylinder has two immersion heaters, one near the bottom to heat the whole tank and one near the top if you only need a small amount of water heating. I find just using the top heater is sufficient for a shower and a bit left over. If I use gas to heat the water it heats the whole tankful. Working out the cost on your figures above it evens things out to use electric for convenience.

 

Allan

 

Ok it's not simple, but I presume that your cylinder is well insulated (ours has two thermal jackets !) ?  In which case you won't be heating from cold every day. 

 

If you have a smart meter you could compare the costs day to day.

[Allan Bell]

14 hours ago, Bryan said:

Ok it's not simple, but I presume that your cylinder is well insulated (ours has two thermal jackets !) ?  In which case you won't be heating from cold every day. 

 

If you have a smart meter you could compare the costs day to day.

 

Thanks Bryan but I do not have a smart meter.  The hot water cylinder is so well insulated the so called airing cupboard is not any warmer than the rest of the property.

 

Allan

 

Edited November 8, 2022 by Allan Bell

[spacecadet]

40 minutes ago, Allan Bell said:

I do not have a smart meter.

We have a smart meter, but there's, er, no GSM reception in the wine cellar cupboard under the stairs. So it's still dumb. Oh, and I did get a picture of the old one when they took it out.

And yes, it's that Weston. Made 5 miles away.

[Allan Bell]

5 hours ago, spacecadet said:

We have a smart meter, but there's, er, no GSM reception in the wine cellar cupboard under the stairs. So it's still dumb. Oh, and I did get a picture of the old one when they took it out.

And yes, it's that Weston. Made 5 miles away.

 

Ah but did you get a picture of the new smart meter?

 

Allan