Post a bad thing that happened in your life today

[Betty LaRue]

On 20/10/2022 at 08:47, Allan Bell said:

Rotten day here.  Raining cats and dogs and the streets are full of Poodles.

 

Allan

 

Send some of that my way, Allan. We are in an exceptional drought. We’ve had less than an inch total covering over 3 months, some of it through 100 plus temperature days.

I love rain.

 

[Bryan]

6 hours ago, Betty LaRue said:

Send some of that my way, Allan. We are in an exceptional drought. We’ve had less than an inch total covering over 3 months, some of it through 100 plus temperature days.

I love rain.

 

We could use some of your sunshine.  

 

The local council has prohibited allotment gardeners from lighting fires during the summer months, but now that we are able to have a fire everything is too wet to burn. Once upon a time they would provide us with an annual skip but cutbacks mean that doesn't happen any more. I can bring stuff home to put in our garden refuse bin, or drive to the local authority dump, but some of our gardeners don't have a garden bin or a car so it's very difficult for them to dispose of woody cuttings etc. It's a crazy restriction, stuff burnt dry in the summer causes very little smoke while trying to light a soggy mass is a nightmare and causes a lot of pollution.

Edited October 22, 2022 by Bryan

[Ed Rooney]

 

The River of Light began last evening in Liverpool. Unfortunately, it began the same time as the rainy river of water Bryan and Allan mentioned.  

[gvallee]

Australia is suffering from massive flooding over 4 States, some beating all time records I believe. We're trying to travel as far north as we can to avoid them to get back to Cairns where we have exciting business (...  switch to good news thread).

The other bad news is that, after several thousand kms on Outback corrugated gravel roads over 3 years, we had a massive bill for wear and tear 4x4 repairs. So eyewatering that I don't want to think about it.

Meanwhile in the north where we are, it's so hot (39C) that 4 icecubes put in cool white wine dissolve in about 5mn. Lesson: from tomorrow, also put the glasses in the fridge.

[sb photos]

Heading home from Greater London last night on the M1 and met traffic at a standstill between junctions 4 and 5. Eventually started to crawl and stop, passing an accident across the 2 outside lanes. Was lucky to get past it in around an hour. I pass a fair few accident, but usually on the other side of the motorway. 

[Dave Richards]

10 hours ago, gvallee said:

Australia is suffering from massive flooding over 4 States, some beating all time records I believe. We're trying to travel as far north as we can to avoid them to get back to Cairns where we have exciting business (...  switch to good news thread).

The other bad news is that, after several thousand kms on Outback corrugated gravel roads over 3 years, we had a massive bill for wear and tear 4x4 repairs. So eyewatering that I don't want to think about it.

Meanwhile in the north where we are, it's so hot (39C) that 4 icecubes put in cool white wine dissolve in about 5mn. Lesson: from tomorrow, also put the glasses in the fridge.

Have you thought about using pebbles? Put them in the freezer and use instead of ice cubes and they won’t dilute the wine. Just mind you don’t swallow one!!😳

[gvallee]

1 hour ago, Dave Richards said:

Have you thought about using pebbles? Put them in the freezer and use instead of ice cubes and they won’t dilute the wine. Just mind you don’t swallow one!!😳

 

Never heard of this, seems like a good trick, unless you drink too much wine and swallow one 😆

[wiskerke]

1 hour ago, gvallee said:

 

Never heard of this, seems like a good trick, unless you drink too much wine and swallow one 😆

Try marbles. I mean in stead of pebbles. Not for swallowing.

Actually a cooling sleeve works just fine. If you use a flat piece of the same material with a strap, it can do double duty to treat a sprained ankle.

We have both the ankle sleeve and the bottle one: they rest on top of the drawers of the refrigerator with the cooling elements. Nothing else fits there, so they don't take up extra space.

 

wim

[gvallee]

2 hours ago, wiskerke said:

Try marbles. I mean in stead of pebbles. Not for swallowing.

Actually a cooling sleeve works just fine. If you use a flat piece of the same material with a strap, it can do double duty to treat a sprained ankle.

We have both the ankle sleeve and the bottle one: they rest on top of the drawers of the refrigerator with the cooling elements. Nothing else fits there, so they don't take up extra space.

 

wim

 

We have a bottle cooler which we use while driving. For water that is. In our bus, the engine is between the driver and the passenger seats. Its cover has 2 layers of heat protection but still gets very hot.

 

Actually, you have just reminded me that our camping chairs have a cool compartment in the armrests for ice cubes. We've never used it because it's more for tinnies but our glasses should be able to fit vertically. 40C for several days later this week.

[Dave Richards]

9 hours ago, wiskerke said:

Try marbles. I mean in stead of pebbles. Not for swallowing.

Actually a cooling sleeve works just fine. If you use a flat piece of the same material with a strap, it can do double duty to treat a sprained ankle.

We have both the ankle sleeve and the bottle one: they rest on top of the drawers of the refrigerator with the cooling elements. Nothing else fits there, so they don't take up extra space.

 

wim

Marbles may not be a good idea as they would roll towards your mouth when you tilt the glass. Drink cooling stones can be bought. They are usually cube shaped and are available in all sorts of fancy sets. Made from various stone types, e.g. granite, soapstone, or metal types in stainless steel, gold etc.

Edited October 23, 2022 by Dave Richards
correction

[gvallee]

2 minutes ago, Dave Richards said:

Marbles may not be a good idea as they would roll towards your mouth when you tilt the glass. Drink cooling stones can be bought. They are usually cube shaped and are available in all sorts of fancy sets. Made from various stone types, e.g. marble, granite, soapstone, or metal types in stainless steel, gold etc.

 

Love what we learn on this Forum. 👍

[Ed Rooney]

 

I have some plastic wine glasses. Not as elegant as crystal but crystal crakes if you stare at it.

[Allan Bell]

 

Rotten day here again.  Raining cats, dogs and elephants.

 

Allan

 

[Dave Richards]

6 hours ago, Allan Bell said:

 

Rotten day here again.  Raining cats, dogs and elephants.

 

Allan

 

Just coming up to 5 p.m. here and one hell of a storm is breaking. Crashing thunder and lightning and torrential rain. Really screwing up my satellite TV reception.

Edited October 23, 2022 by Dave Richards
added text

[sb photos]

1 hour ago, Dave Richards said:

Just coming up to 5 p.m. here and one hell of a storm is breaking. Crashing thunder and lightning and torrential rain. Really screwing up my satellite TV reception.

 

We had the same in Buckinghamshire as the storm moved north. When I opened the back door to see if our cat wanted to come in, he broke cover and shot across the lawn and through the kitchen door at incredible speed. He was very wet.

[Betty LaRue]

Just a few nights ago, we had our first hard freeze…two nights of it and coat weather for daytime. The past three days it’s been up in the high 80s and I’ve had the air-con on. The wind is blowing very hard with gusts even higher. Dust hanging in the sky since it’s been so long since we’ve had rain. A cold front is coming overnight, and we do have a chance of rain, but nothing like up what you are getting.
A shame we couldn’t flip weather for a week. You'd dry up, we”d get wet. I could handle a nice toad-strangler.

[Bryan]

1 hour ago, Betty LaRue said:

 I could handle a nice toad-strangler.

Not heard that one before, had to look it up !  Not too much toad strangling in these parts, I guess we got the tail end of what the folk in the south and west endured. 

 

During the rain we headed off to Washington Old Hall and played music, had some bairns dancing and trying to drum in time. A pleasant way to spend a couple of hours.

 

Meanwhile I've been collecting leaves fallen from our neighbour's trees to make leaf mould. Confess I don't know what kind of trees they are, but they have small leaves that rot down readily, ideal as a component of compost for growing tomatoes. You need to collect a fair quantity to make enough to be useful as the volume shrinks dramatically as they decompose. It's best to chop up larger leaves with the mower before adding to the heap, but the small ones are fine as is.

[spacecadet]

On 22/10/2022 at 21:44, gvallee said:

 

Never heard of this, seems like a good trick, unless you drink too much wine and swallow one 😆

Pink elephants. Plastic shapes with water sealed inside which you freeze and pop in the drink. We still call them that because our first ones actually were little puce pachyderms We now have dapper little penguins, white for white wine, black for red (yes, we now have to do that sometimes in hot summers- first place we got red out of the cooler was in Oviedo a few years back).

They are big enough not to swallow.

 

The lightning (probably) put out our internet. It was almost worth half-an-hour on the phone to BT to be able to listen to the Irish tech Patrick, who had a wonderful lilt and a very powerful cattle prod with which he disciplined our smart hub most severely- and effectively.

Edited October 24, 2022 by spacecadet

[Betty LaRue]

We are getting rain, although not a toad strangler. I won’t look a toad in the mouth, though. 😁

So far, only a third of an inch in my gauge, but it is still raining…albeit slowly. I’ll rejoice every drop and consider it a blessing. I’m a bit tempted to grab the umbrella and take a walk in it.

[Betty LaRue]

I talked to my neighbor across the back fence on the phone last evening. She got breast cancer a couple of years ago and went through a double mastectomy and intense chemo & radiation, finished last November. She had reconstructive surgery a couple of months ago.

She found a small lump in or just under her skin a couple of weeks ago…it’s cancer but not the same type as before. She can’t have the same treatment as before because it would kill her. She will see an oncologist before long who specializes in triple negative breast cancer who has access to some trial drugs.

I feel so bad for her..she’s in her mid or late-50s. What a nasty disease. Then she recently found out the company she works for is laying off 90% of the work force, so she’ll be without a job at the end of November. She’s scrambling to prepare to go on disability payments to take over when the job ends. Sometimes when it rains, it pours on certain people.

[Ed Rooney]

 

Liverpool does a good job repairing the city streets and promoting tourism. That includes lots of street art. However, the present street art project, River of Light 2022, is a disappointing failure. 2021's exhibit was creative and photogenic. Not this year. I've been out twice with my cameras with no success. Luckily, my walks are always made better by the many young families with small children and friendly dogs

[spacecadet]

17 minutes ago, Ed Rooney said:

promoting tourism.

Indeed, the city council was an investor in the Ipcress File show I worked on. (So you could say I've had a penny or two of your council tax!)

Liverpool locations stood in for London and the indoor sets were in an abandoned school in Wallasey standing in for the spooks' offices in Charlotte Street.

[Ed Rooney]

 

Ahh, looking forward to seeing that. Someday. I so intend to buy a TV and get a licence. Maybe. 

 

Mark, looking at the trailer, I spotted a couple of Liverpool locations. Too bad they couldn't get Michael Caine for a cameo. 

[spacecadet]

18 minutes ago, Ed Rooney said:

 

Ahh, looking forward to seeing that. Someday. I so intend to buy a TV and get a licence. Maybe. 

 

Mark, looking at the trailer, I spotted a couple of Liverpool locations. Too bad they couldn't get Michael Caine for a cameo. 

I thought that Joe Cole looked about 12, but he was the same age as Michael Caine was in 1964. The glasses were still wrong though. And they cut the scene with the Steenbeck. Still, I've never earned so much for a day's work.

It's an ITV show, not BBC, so you can watch it on ITV Hub on a computer without a licence.

https://www.itv.com/news/2019-06-11/what-can-i-watch-without-a-tv-licence

"But if you’re watching a catch-up show or something on demand and you’re not using BBC iPlayer, then you won’t need a licence."

Edited October 25, 2022 by spacecadet

[Allan Bell]

Went into Lincoln city today with two cameras and lenses in my bag and did not take either of them out at all. Could have saved myself an aching shoulder and left the camera bag at home.

 

Allan