[Bob Williams]

” I noticed it had been sent to my screwfix@realemail alias, so it’s clearly fake (and Screwfix have either sold my email or been hacked). ”

I will be watching for that, I use Screwfix a lot, thanks Drezha.

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

[Bob Williams]

Thanks Nolan, thought it would be something like that. At least I didn’t fly off the handle and accuse the supplier of selling me a duff battery! New battery has actually made it into a 3rd day today.

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

[Bob Williams]

Dwynne, not long ago I knew exactly how you felt. Under the shadow of the Lincolnshire Wolds, with the mast on the other side of the hills, our village has no coverage at all. Occasionally there would be a bit of 2G at night, but mostly dead. This extends to the village 6 miles down the A157 where my son & daughter live and they have zilch. Then I tried to find an EE Brightbox and JCD kindly sent me his, as he had changed ISP. It was miraculous, now I get 4G!

Unfortunately, during the 3 weeks I was without internet, the Brightbox was unable to work, as it is connected to the router via Ethernet. Interestingly, the loss of internet coincided with a change of battery for my Wileyfox Spark, a genuine item from a Chinese supplier. The battery would not hold charge for more than a day and I thought I had been sold a pup. However, now it’s back on, I get sometimes 2 days without charging. The old battery was kaput: 2 hours if lucky.

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

[Bob Williams]

dwynnehugh wrote:

Hi Bob, Re: ” … including an hour to finish a foul tasting drink which looked exactly the same dirty yellow colour on its way out later, lol. …” Ever thought you might have been a second user?!!!!

Invited that one, didn’t I??

I’m fairly sure that it would be sterilised Dwynne, but that would be Recycling taken to extremes! ?? Once on Desert training for the Aden Radfan, an officer told us that we could safely drink our own urine. With respect Sir: no, we could not, I told this fresh-faced 20yo, straight from Sandhurst and covered in peeling sunburn. He attempted to argue, until the M.O. intervened and gave him a lengthy medical exposition, proving me correct. I then pointed out that we had experienced an earlier demonstration, given by a possible Special Forces guy, of how to make good water in the desert. This involves a big sheet of industrial polythene, with a small hole in the centre, and a container under the hole. Making an inverted cone-shape in the sand as the sun goes down, place the container under the hole and retire for the night (if not picked for Watch). Next morning, condensation will have deposited a useful amount of clean drinking water in the container.

So, if you are contemplating a desert trip, you know what else to pack besides your usual gear. ?

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

[Bob Williams]

I stripped a similar system that my No.1 gson’s (barsteward) dad gave him to play with some years ago. I used the CD player in a rebuild for a mate, the rest went to WEE Heaven as I recall. It was Dinosaur doo-doo even then. This bloke is living an another planet.

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

[Bob Williams]

Forecast wrong again. Today it was 13°C as I drove up to Grimsby Hospital for my CT* scan. Had to wait hours to complete the process, including an hour to finish a foul tasting drink which looked exactly the same dirty yellow colour on its way out later, lol. Cold North wind off the North Sea going home at 5 pm, had not eaten since Breakfast, so called at “The Jug and Bottle”** for an excellent Carvery, fresh Turkey and as much Veg as I could get on the plate. I did it justice!

**http://tinyurl.com/ybh86854

Ever traveling up or down the A16 between Louth and Grimsby? Call here for a great meal, freshly made Pizzas are best in the area according to grandbrats. Carvery is all local meats: chicken, turkey, gammon, roast pork, beef, sausages and 7 different vegetables. Fish & chips also available, full menu of other stuff. Family loves the place and car park always packed.

*Yes, on a Saturday! Apparently they are doing that now to relieve pressure of CT/MRI scans. It was weird walking past all the other clinics and absolutely deserted, not used to seeing that.

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

[Bob Williams]

Thanks Dave, actually movement by Openreach today: last night sometime in early hours, internet was down in my side of the village, off until about 11:30 this am. Tried to reach ISP Plusnet by phone, 20 minutes forecasted wait, Chatline worse. It came back on to 1.5 Mbps Download, which advanced later to 2.8 Mbps. There were 2 OR vans at old and new cabinets, about a Km apart, made me think they are finally disconnecting old and reconnecting new. I may soon (?) get FTTC back. Parish, District and County Councils all fighting for us with BT, must be having impact. Local Tory MP sees no Media Mileage as she will not apply any pressure for us. Ex-barrister, uses Media to publicise her work on carefully chosen causes.

I understand the absolute irrelevance of Zyxel layout as you you describe it, to our situation. We have the Wolds hills above us and the area is full of trees: signal is non existent and if I did not have the EE Brightbox, connecting to router via Ethernet, we would have no signal. With that, I even get 4G. So when internet is down, we have zilch, it’s a double-edged sword. There is also an organisation called OnLincolnshire, supposedly working to get better broadband services for the County. Seems to be based mostly to help the bigger towns here: rural gets crumbs. At the last local Parish meeting, I had a discussion with their rep, only to find that I knew more than he did! Came totally unprepared, another Council Quango I think. We will get there in the end, I think.

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

[Bob Williams]

PlaneMan wrote:

My car had a very heavy frost on it this morning, it’s in the shade from about 3pm to 9am at this time of year. The front of the house can be freezing cold and the back baking hot.

Absolute opposite here Nolan: back is almost due North facing, kitchen can be as much as 5° C lower than front, which as opposite faces almost due South and even low sunlight warms up lounge through the big picture window. If we leave all doors open, that can eventually warm the whole house if sun is bright, even on cold days. Gardeners laying our new back garden Turf, concrete and edging this afternoon, coffee and biscuits supplied at regular intervals kept them sweet and working until almost dark.

Drezha, I have a cover that I cannot use somewhere in my shed. Due to state of health, I cannot get it to go over car and would not be able to remove it. It was made for the Focus I once had, about 6 years ago. The Hyundai iX20 screen heater works so well, takes about 30 seconds for ice to start flowing down the screen, so I don’t need it. If I can find it, would you want it? Just a bit of P&P would do me, I have no use for it now.

Going to freeze hard tonight, clear skies and local forecaster says East Coast is going to be colder than rest of the UK. That’s Keeley Donovan, who is a Lincs lass and appears on BBC Countryfile occasionally.

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

[Bob Williams]

I recall our first 7 week stay as an Aircraft Workshop in BAOR, over an Alpine lake near Füssen, Bavaria. 5-man tent, self and 2 mates on a Bavarian mountain, Advance Party of 35 guys including a young Lieutenant, we were setting up main Party camp, 1971. Tried to convince Lt. about Alpine Storms, which come out of nowhere fast, often from clear skies, in minutes it’s midnight. Had us build our tent at an angle at the top of the slope, dug a a vee – shape trench around the tent and down the slope. Sure enough, some awful daft o’clock time that night, down it came. We were all dry, Lt. and rest floated away. More great fun came two nights later, when drunk cook mate staggered out for a leak and peed on the electrified cattle fence behind us. Him screaming, self and other mate almost peed in sympathy, excessive lolz! Nothing beats experience and memory, defeating sneering Officers with that, is great.

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

[Bob Williams]

Dave Rice wrote:

OK, back home now. Yep that link works. Question is why do the want one? This is a solution, what is the problem?

Dave, we have bad service to new “Superfast” Cabinet from BT in village, previously discussed. The new cab not researched for Fibre capacity, everyone lost speeds, had to go ADSL, some lost service altogether. BT OR trying to correct. I lost 11+ Mbps on FTTC, BT just cut my line from new cabinet, without telling ISP. Had to go ADSL, I get anything from 1.5 to max of 2.5. Whole village, including businesses, trying to find ways to have a good service.

Superfast is Superslow joke here. We would like to see BT CEO here, we have a lot of big trees and plenty of rope. How to make a reasonably good service unusable or just worse, BT found a way!

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

[Bob Williams]

Lee, whilst I have been under Chemo my memory has suffered too, though at 73 I already entered rooms and forgot why I was there anyway! I tried mobile/PC calendars, still forgot stuff. When I forgot to order Prescriptions, I got a Wall chart and a notebook, which SWMBO makes sure I keep with me at all times. I used to do this when I was designing and printing, also publishing poetry, writing down stuff as soon as it came to my fevered brain or I lost it. Now I write down what I have to do every day and after every occasion it is brought to my notice by those annoying voices in my wife’s head. ??

Now the only problem is remembering to look.

I am practicing for senility, so I will know it when it arrives.??

Who are you again?

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

[Bob Williams]

FB Market for me is fine, you can expand from Local to wider areas if necessary. I have sold stuff locally, have people come to the house but ask for ID to be shown at the door, its Sheltered Housing. Some stuff does not move, if it’s Low Return I give it to charity. EG: I have an Aiwa HiFi sytem, which I advertised very cheaply to move it and create space, no takers apart from one who wanted to give me £5 and another who never returned. Might give to a relative.

This thing records to and from everything: vinyl, CD, Cassette, USB, but the quality is only good enough for 128 Kbps and MP3, which is OK for other formats but not vinyl. I have tried recording at highest 256 setting, but it will not set up in vinyl and does not match my expectations at home or in car. Sound is muffled and Audacity cannot improve it.

I am soon to hit FB Market with a load of stuff, might also put it on here in the classifieds, just remembered that! High Value stuff I will P&P, but Low Value stuff will be economically better collected. Gumtree has become economically impossible for me and Ebay is a minefield. Never had a problem buying, but struggled with some sales.

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

[Bob Williams]

Sorry guys, ?? I linked from my (alt) Gmail account, not much used  but hoovers up Spam for disposal.

Try this: –

http://tinyurl.com/y76fcfbp

Let me know if Link works please?

Cheers, Bob.

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

[Bob Williams]

Dwynne, we have the same problem here in the foothills of the Lincolnshire Wolds, signal 1½ miles out of Louth has no coverage at all, never mind 3G, from my village to our son and daughter’s village and 3 miles beyond, on the A157, 8 or so miles on a main route to the coast. Many puzzled Grockles park outside the shop and try to get a signal, waving phones up, down and sideways. (Lol, it’s Entertainment!)

Until JCD generously sent me the EE Brightbox, I had no chance, now it picks up 4G! Seriously chuffed with this and much Karma to JCD, but it does mean I am now pinned to EE. Well worth it atm, though. EE made a big mistake in stopping production and sale of the Brightboxes, but if you take EE, Connects via Ethernet to your router, mine is high on a bookcase top, about 1½ metres away from the router. Working well still with my miserable 2.5+ Mbps.

Edit: looks like you get it free now with EE Broadband only: –

http://tinyurl.com/yafxresl

pob lwc

Bob.

 

 

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

[Bob Williams]

Thanks Dave: I was looking at this –

http://tinyurl.com/y88drrtb

Now I am thinking about that link. Probably involve the cost aspect and go for that choice. Just had a ginormous electrical problem, landlord won’t help. Added to the garden renovation on Friday, have to draw in my horns a bit.

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

[Bob Williams]

Thanks Dave. perfick for No.2 gson!

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

[Bob Williams]

JayCeeDee wrote:

@planeman If Bob doesn’t take you up on that offer, please put me in line for it.. I’ve been looking at the G6 but the G5 is a smaller step up in size so might suit me better. Cheers

Nolan, for some reason I can’t reply to your messages. All I need to say is that I can’t afford the phone atm: Unexpected expense on the house front, sorry!

JCD, if you want it, go for it mate.

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

[Bob Williams]

Had another mixed morning, sun at first then more freezing rain, which continued as we went to service daughter’s Cucking Fat, after which out to a lovely Carvery at Woodthorpe Garden Centre*, with senior gdaughter and her partner. As I write, torrential freezing rain has given way to even colder drizzle.

Have to feed the Cucking Fat again later. She is a beautiful animal, but I am beginning to resent these trips, daughter’s house is C O L D! Family returns late tonight, they will be freezing if SWMBO has not set the Timer right. (Set it without consulting me: there may be trouble ahead…)

*Very much worth a visit if you are in the area: great food, good menu besides Carvery. Wonderful Christmas exhibition, lots of round-eyed nippers today. Restaurant is huge and very popular.

http://tinyurl.com/yba5q6v2

 

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

[Bob Williams]

Nolan I may be interested in the G5, let me know how much your mum would want please. That would be chum to the Hudl, which I still have and which works fine.

JayCeeDee, thanks for the link, but that dash cam is a bit too expensive for me, my car is a Motability Hyundai iX20 and had to get permission, with no permanent installation, just a temporary fix. Fortunately, I have (2x) 12v sockets, one in console and one under dash. If I can afford cam and phone, I will get both. Wileyfox has suddenly decided to work without killing batteries now: I suspect that comes down to internet working again and the EE Brightbox taking the weight. The Box was a brilliant addition, I can actually get 4G from it. Rest of village struggle to get 2G, it is very bad coverage here, zero in mornings.

Cheers, Bob.

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

[Bob Williams]

Thanks for all the advice guys, but have made a Change of plan: No.1 gson is looking for a Sony via work. As he is currently working 3 days a week and is at Lincoln Uni on a Microsoft course 2 days, then studying at home and also working from home, I have left it with him until he has time.

Apparently the MS course will make him one of only a few with the qualification in the UK. Boss has increased his salary (3rd time this year) and obviously knows what he has, takes him back and forth to Uni. Gson just grins and says “Becoming even more indispensable, granddad!” I am so proud of him: with his Aspergers defeated, he has a top job with a great expanding company, his own ‘Executive’ apartment in a Gated compound, shops and looks after himself. Happy as Larry on his own or with family. I wish a similar outcome for all Aspergers – affected young people, but I know it doesn’t always happen.

Anyhoo, I am now looking for a dash cam.

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

[Author]

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