[Bob Williams]

You could be visited by the Scouse Heavy Mob, Lee.

Probably me too, after that.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Bob Williams]

I miss that very different Pickavance humour, and his ability to start something debatable that sometimes turned into a flame war. Provocation should have been his middle name! I still check out DofG occasionally, Mr Brew remains the Geek of All Geeks.

Thanks Kumagoro and JayCeeDee for the links.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Bob Williams]

That is so right Steve, had it before, air turns blue.?

Best 2 pieces of kit I ever bought, was a PSU tester and an ethernet cable tester. Using the PSU tester, I could see straightaway that the PSU 12V CPU rail was u/s, which takes out lots of guesswork and possibly buying a replacement for something else that is not u/s. The PSU tester was a spur of the minute purchase at a computer place on Hemswell Cliff Sunday market. As usual, it has “Made in China” on it. Hemswell is one of the many WWII and Cold War ex- RAF bases in Lincolnshire. Being an ex – V Bomber base, it is massive and the market has everything you could possibly want to buy. The computer place has loads of stuff, from latest kit to really old gear:

http://tinyurl.com/yajudv79

Sunday is the best day if anyone wanted to see it, but it’s open all week. One Sunday there was a Pet Stall on the market, pups to reptiles. Now they have bought one of the buildings. The Sunday Car Boot is unbelievable.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Bob Williams]

Thanks Nolan, dgd is here now and has given me a 30 minute notice of impending bedtime. Nothing and no one more important to me than my family.

The PSU was an interesting ? exercise: Started with the arrival of my new HP VH240a Monitor and a decision to replace the noisy CM fans, which were frazzling my nerves. Decided to move an upper fan over, which I now think caused a problem with the 12V CPU cable. Boxed everything up and did what I always do, just connect the bare box with only PSU connected. All fans fired up, so I connected everything and restarted. Deader than Diplodocus doo-doo. Checked the LED’s at the network switch and the PC ethernet LED would not fire up. Tried the same connection in all ports: no LED, but the NAS and input from router, worked on all ports. I removed the PSU and used my trusty tester to find the culprit was the CPU 12V rail. On the part-modular Corsair 750M, there are two cables for this, but both are fixed and emerge from the PSU body together, with the main 24 pin rail. Neither would work.

On the new, much later 550M, those cables are now modular. I fitted the 550M and it all worked, as did the lovely new monitor, which I thoroughly recommend, especially if your eyesight is now as poor as mine. The difference between the HP and my old Iiyama, is fantastic: I appear to have about half an acre of screen. And the fans are maintaining optimum cool, which is maintaining my optimum cool.

Thanks to Dave R for the Ebuyer link to the HP VH240a:     http://tinyurl.com/yckvh3u6     < £125

Tomorrow I will fit my new Hauppage DVB-T2 TV tuner.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Bob Williams]

Bob Williams wrote:

AAC terms: A&E = Blackies, due to the oily bits. (not racist – one of my crew was Cass Coward, a 6 foot plus lad from Barbados.) Avionics = Greenies. All Army “X” tech’s were highest paid in service for each rank, which made us feel sorry for the rest when we looked at our miserable pay cheque. Sometimes. You have a BiL better-placed than my two. Oldest is 82 and an ex-market gardener, ex-Railwayman, ex-milkman and a barrel of laughs, we get on great. Youngest is ex-copper, ex-Funeral driver and the most miserable barsteward you could ever meet, probably not far behind your BiL in terms of money.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Bob Williams]

AAC terms: A&E = Blackies, due to the oily bits. (not racist – one of my crew was Cass Coward, a 6 foot plus lad from Barbados.)

Avionics = Greenies.

All Army “X” tech’s were highest paid in service for each rank, which made us feel sorry for the rest when we looked at our pay cheque. Sometimes.

You have a BiL better-placed than my two. Oldest is 82 and an ex-market gardener, ex-Railwayman, ex-milkman and a barrel of laughs, we get on great. Youngest is ex-copper, ex-Funeral driver and the most miserable barsteward you could ever meet, probably not far behind your BiL in terms of money.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Bob Williams]

The Duke wrote:

Air tech, sounds very much like my BiLs RAF role. I think he worked on airframes, his job was servicing and refitting chinooks. Was the helo invented when you was in bob? or was you still using gliders

Definitely helo’s, although they should be called Rotary Winged Aircraft, I’ll have you know. ?  They worked by clockwork, and were a bugga to wind up. Which was fine if we had some muscley RM guys around to help, and they weren’t doing much else. ??

I actually flew gliders at my A/C Workshop in Detmold, Germany. We had a Gliding Club. RAF Lightning pilots used to come over from Wildenrath, Gütersloh and Bruggen, for some proper flying. Got my GP wings a month before I left, never done it since. Curiously, my Gert wants to have a Glider flight for her birthday. No idea how I can get her into one, but she may be prevented for age and disability reasons. I’ll have to dig out the policies… I got her a Helo flight and first lesson for her 50th, she gets one daft idea every 10 years or so.??

Your BiL was a crab* and was just Airframes? In the AAC we had just two trades: 1 – Airframes and engines. 2 – Avionics. (all the bits with flashing lights, pictures and wires) We didn’t have single-type work, had to work on a variety of types – fixed wing and RWing. I was A&E, worked on FW Austers, DHC Beavers, RW Allouette, Sioux, Scout, Skeeter.

*We always said that the pilots flew sideways, and their navigators walked sideways.?? The last one was a Para saying.

JayCeeDee: I must have met a few oldphart officers who told Leonardo it would never work.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Bob Williams]

Know what you mean Dave. Senior Grandson has just bagged a Microsoft course at Lincoln Uni, new college, £15,000. His company want him on it and have managed to get funding, they pay 50%, gov pay the rest. He has to buy some very expensive books and software, I asked him if he needed help. He smiled and said no, granddad, look at my salary slip now. I was highly impressed, until he said “That should at least double in 2 years when I blow through this course.”

Met one of his old schoolmates with him yesterday in town. “How are you surviving now, got a job yet?” Gson told him what he was doing, asked him where he was working. “Aldi.”

This is the Aspergers lad: 4 years ago we wondered how we would ever get a job. Now he has a cracking job and his own flat. I just wish his physical health was better.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Bob Williams]

At School of Army Aviation (Air Corps Training base, Middle Wallop, Hants) we had a Company of WRAC’s, over 50 of them. Their part of the camp was fenced off with an 8 foot fence.

Now, Air Tech’s were supposed to be intelligent, X- rated technicians, highest paid at each rank in the Army, right? Just big kids: some of the idiots I trained with, used to make holes in the fence and peep through, trying to guess which underwear hanging on the line belonged to which WRAC. Or Dragons, as we called them. I had a thing with one of them, a BBBB (Big Buxom Brummy Blonde) after she took me to Aldershot hospital and brought me back. Training finished, I got posted, so did she, lost contact.

Wreckage.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Bob Williams]

Good job he didn’t misspell it as “Soaking WRACS.”

Pick it up, Steve and anyone else with knowledge of female military persons…?

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Bob Williams]

One of my many medical problems, is a skin condition. Diagnosed by a Dermatologist in ’82 as the result of a dormant Middle Eastern bug that woke up after an Op, it resides in my Lymph system. Because I am what my SWMBO calls a Hairy Neanderthal, any slight infection has plenty of hair follicles in which to breed. This results in lots of pimples which become boils, carbuncles and other sundry volcanic eruptions. To combat this, I have to wash and shower using Hibiscrub (the pink stuff that Surgical Teams scrub up with.) It keeps it down: there is no cure, but it is neither contagious nor infectious and I am happy about that – I would not wish this on anyone else. I can’t use soap and I cannot use a bath, no flannel or sponge, hands only: shower only, head to foot, so that whatever runs out of my battered old bod can be swiftly conducted away. I clean out and disinfect the shower drain twice a week.

Atm I have an eruption on my right shoulder blade, which is a real bugga as I struggle to reach it and SWMBO refuses to go near it. I look upon this as one more ‘entertainment’, in a life full of them.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Bob Williams]

I don’t have a Smart meter, or any form of energy tracking. My gson has built his own method, no clue how it works but I suspect he has built and programmed his own software* into some gizmo he bought online, based in his living room and using WiFi to the boiler. I know it’s Android-based, he can run it remotely, but I’ll have to ask him what he did and how he did it.

I just open my front door, take three steps, open the meter door and read it. It’s a new (non-smart) meter, installed in 2015. I send the readings to EDF website and get a new bill within 48 hours. Currently paying £73/month for Dual Fuel and expecting that to reduce as weather warms up (I live in hope).

*His energy company has asked how he did it, after he refused a Smart Meter and told them why. He requested a Consultancy Fee! No mug, is my senior GS.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Bob Williams]

Nolan you appear to have the same multiples of medical problems as myself, with the addition of plain medical bad luck. My dad had one of those abscesess, in the same area but further into the business end of his fundamental, if you understand my meaning. I was on leave at the time it burst and shudder at the memory, what a mess. He was able to get help, unlike yourself, but by the time the ambulance arrived, I had cleaned up dad, bed and bedroom. They thought mam was the patient at first, as she had tried to help but wound up ill and head down toilet and was very pale. This was a precursor to the time many years later when dad was dying of cancer and bedridden. I was able to carry him to the bathroom and bathe him, without embarrassment to either of us.

Having had 4 separate piles ops, a diseased and prolapsed bowel and a Parastomal hernia over my later years, I have an idea of the trauma you have just gone through.

Hope it gets better soon, good luck.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Bob Williams]

Most snow and ice gone now from the Close, but at around 11:00 today the one remaining piece of ice in the middle of the road gave me a really good laugh. We have one really stupid, mouthy neighbour, disliked by everyone and partnered with a female equivalent. I was looking out of our large front window as I was busy ironing*, when he stepped out of his front door, his OH screaming invective at him as he walked backwards into the road, screaming back. Not having rear vision, he failed to see the last remaining sheet of slushy ice, fell back his full length. His OH was unsympathetic, calling him stupid, with several colourful adjectives attached. He got up and observed my amusement, then, probably based on previous experience, slunk away. Had he a tail, it would have been between his legs.

*SWMBO is still unable to stand for long and I actually like ironing. I find it therapeutic. And I always do my own anyway: I have never met a female who can iron male shirts and trousers properly.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Bob Williams]

We have the Best of the Rest from MM here, Lee.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Bob Williams]

I had a neighbour do that to me in our old village Nolan. I was working at the time as a Workshop foreman and living back with my parents, who were about the age I am now. The big Recovery truck down had a snow shovel bolted on, after my boss had been digging out his lane to the farm. I took it down to our house, completely buried his car and garden, right up to his front door. I was incensed by the fact that he was stopping my parents getting out, not just my car. There was a bank and a total of 9 steps up to our front doors at the bottom of the dale….

He did not confront me about it, he was the kind who did things behind my back and then denied it, but it took him several days to remove the lot, by barrow, most of it to his back garden. His lawn died and his plants did nothing that year, but he moved in the summer. His kids were evil little buggas as well, the whole neighbourhood was glad to see that family go.

We did not get more than a dusting of snow overnight, gone by now. Hovering around 2°c here atm, a very slow thaw which is good, otherwise the Close will be flooded, there is so much ice on the road. It flooded in March 2010, after that long, hard winter. Problem is going to be the previous long periods of rain. The ground is waterlogged and the runoff will take ages to disperse. Much worse elsewhere of course: look out for flood warnings after the thaw.

Stay warm and well Guys!

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Bob Williams]

It’s probably my parents’ fault that I got it wrong.

Explanation: if they had advanced my conception by 24 hours, I would have been born on St. David’s Day, 1945.

I have been late a few times since…

But it’s not my fault.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Bob Williams]

Bruce was entertaining, Ed (well, most of the time ?) He was also helpful (see last bracketed comment ?)

The guy I was reminiscing about would, as my mam used to say “Argue the hind legs off a donkey.”

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Bob Williams]

That’s a milestone, and who thought it wouldn’t last?

There are certain people that I was glad did not follow the path from MM to Forumite. Initials GG mean anything?

Well done Lee.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Bob Williams]

Looks like East Lindsey is going to be the first to get the next Siberian delivery during the night and tomorrow early hours. We have been lucky so far, no snow for 2 days, but very cold. The next lot is coming from due East, right across the Lincolnshire coast. My BIL and SIL live way up in the Peaks, Derbyshire and are snowed in solid. SIL just had a new knee at the same time as my Gert had the new hip. The sisters must be genetically programmed to self-destruct after 70: ?? there is a younger sister who has hip and knee problems too.

Very icy in the Close, I have been out this morning as I ran out of sandwich filling.

Front door view:

Little Toyota Yaris belongs to a disabled elderly lady 4 doors to the right: she has been out, done her shopping and returned. Tough old lass from Derbyshire.

Backyard view, can only get half of it in, I cleared the paths 2 days ago which shows that we have had just that first fall.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Author]

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