[Richard]

I can and I am sure the rest of the gang can only hope that it all goes well. Do not rush out, but it sounds as though good progress is being made, long may that continue.

Good luck and better health

[Richard]

I found exercise and dieting to control weight a very intensely personal project. I found over the years that it was far easier to start trying and get nowhere than it was to succeed. However, for what it is worth since mid May I have lost over 3 stone, or about 19 Kg and considerably increased by walking as I am once more dealing with our daughter’s dogs. I am out of the house by about 06:15 most mornings and then spend somewhere between and hour and an hour and a half before breakfast doing between 2.5 and 3 miles. Sometimes this is against tight time scales so the pace is usually brisk. I have been using the Google Fit application for a while and today finally agreed to increase the daily target for exercise and heart points. To be honest I had regularly exceeded both old targets anyway. This schedule is repeated in the afternoon with other periods of variable level activity during the day

I also try to keep a log of the calories that I consume. We have not used sugar for a long time, do not buy shops cakes and other similar products and avoid such horrors as processed cereals, so our scope for sugar reduction is very limited. Breakfast is based on Crushed Oats, Oat Bran and Wheat bran, raisins and hot water to soak them together washed done with about 1.2 litres weak tea using skimmed milk 50% with water. After that I drink only water  Lunch is usually a pretty frugal affair as is the evening meal with both containing, but not limited to a high proportion of fruit and vegetables.

I cut out all alcohol and pretty much all snacks since mid May. I would not cope with the no breakfast idea as the level of exercise combined with the need to be ready for early morning trips across country for appointments requires me to be capable at pretty much all times of the day.

I have found that the weight loss and exercise has had almost no impact on my blood pressure. I inherited high blood pressure from my mother and am keen not to end up with the effects that it wrought on her, vascular dementia. I check the pressure regularly though not on any sort of schedule, my tablets have been changed about quite a bit but I have dropped one due to the intestinal effects and its marginal impact on pressures, perhaps the exercise and weight loss marginally helped but I cannot be sure. What does help a great deal is trying to avoid sources of stress to which my pressure reacts unfavourably.

Smoking never entered my schedule and has never been part of my life so I had nothing to gain there, but for some it could well be the key and should always be the first action point. Some now dead relatives should have read the writing on the walls or air in their smoky rooms.

My BMI is now below 23 by a whisker or two though I would like to drive it a little lower.

However, do not rush into any none medically sanctioned action plan, walking and other activities can be low cost and very useful aids but only if you were too sedentary beforehand and if the plan is medically approved and practical. Not just sitting down can be sound advice, but remember that periods of activity should be edited with periods of less active time; again under guidance. Most areas have improved their guidance and support over recent years so you should heed what they say and offer. For me a gym would simply not be practical.

[Richard]

I was shocked by your news and cannot say more than take full advantage of the care you get and follow any instructions and warnings you receive. Others have given you their advice distilled from their own situations.

I am sure we all wish you well for a speedy recovery followed by a long and constructive post scare life.

[Richard]

Yes it was for that reason and the ability to get it through tight spaces that I bought the stuff, not for ‘structured cabling’ in any way shape or form. The new cable arrived this afternoon, it has been run in allowing the old one to be extracted and coiled up, the coiling up being a feat in its own right. There is no longer a coil of 15 metres of spare cable taped to the back of a piece of furniture, just a 30 metre coil looking for a new home and being quite hard to handle so that it does not unwrap. It is part of the price of having service entry and the office where the current ‘cable centre’ as it exists so far  apart. If I was starting from a clean sheet, or even reworking the present arrangements this is not what I would choose. However, this is not the time to think about any reworking.

[Richard]

Bob Williams wrote:

The Outer and Inner airport for this trip, a Danube river cruise, was Heathrow. All I can say about that, was that I will use any other UK airport if I am to travel by air again.

That one is so god -damned awful I refer to it as the Gobi Desert airport. Awful to get to and worse to use. I will never use it again. Southampton port was a wonderful contrast, easy access and human operatives, wonderful.

[Richard]

Thank you for the feed back, there were no surprises.

I over bought ending up with a thirty metre cable when subsequent experience showed that half that length would be right, The item I really wanted was on delayed delivery so I settled on the long item because it was certain to reach even if some re-routing turned out to be needed. The initial idea was to experiment with an alternative router position close to the service entry point, – an experiment that surprised me with the improved data rate that resulted. I am now awaiting the corrected length new cable this afternoon, when I will run in the new and extract the over length item which is likely to become an easy to tangle ‘spare’.

I will try to find a reliable way to coil and manage the excess until I can find a way to deploy it or have the courage to try experimenting with its excess length.

@ JayCeeDee; I do not know this exact cable structure, but I know the type you mean, stripping them back was a thankless task and using the right crimp is really the only act in town. I believe they were called Litz wires, there is some really fascinating theory that went into their construction – too much for me on a Sunday afternoon. Soldering could with luck be made to work after a fashion, but the result was then brittle and always prone to failure unless some very good support design relieved the stress.

I suspect this is using slightly heavier fine wires without the cotton carrier. I know that special crimping plugs are needed. Having read the references I found, this cable may also use those same types of wires for much the same reasons Liz was developed in the first place.

 

[Richard]

Have a beer for me on that input*, I hallucinate that this has all been a bad dream and I will wake up in 2020 with peace rather than pieces raining down me.

*I have not had a drink since mid May due to various family health issues, so have and enjoy the beer or its brother beers for me as well as for you.

[Richard]

I did have this trouble a while back after most updates when the PC would come up with no working sound. For some reason windows assumed that the video card with HDMI output was preferred rather than the sound card to which the speakers were attached. I cannot now remember what I did to stop this errant action but it has not happened in a year or two. Perhaps you should  see if there is some setting related to the preferred sound system that could be used to prevent windows making its own self selection. There is for printers, where Windows can be set to chose its preferred output device – another total pain for the unwary.

[Richard]

You should know to what I was referring, it was a speak by one of your new heroes praising the Liverpool criminals. However, I do not really have the time to waste on this pointless nonsense. How is your application for an EU ‘passport to federalised (or should that be feral?) freedom going and when do you leave this land you, like Corbyn and his merry thugs clearly hate?

[Richard]

If you are able to believe that UK hating EU loving claptrap, I have a few bridges you might like to buy.

 

[Richard]

I can only imagine that you have a totally self destruct bent Ed. The risks of a very left wing mob somewhat aligned to the Venezuela nut job crew should fill anyone who can think with horror, but perhaps enough do have a death wish. You would welcome the back to the ‘everybody out on strike and someone else will pay’ seventies style industrial anarchy where according to one ‘leader’ if you do not like a law you can ignore the law? Does that go for all laws, free speech ignore it, race laws, ignore them to, would murder cease to be a crime if you did not like the now dead person? Or will they try to repeal the law of consequence? Look how well Blair’s laws on banking turned out, now about the only people who can easily get a bank account are those seeking to do money laundering. As for their stupid terrorists allowed free immigration ideas, perhaps ignoring all laws will be the new style within a few weeks, except the I suspect the ‘freedom fighters’ would be a protected species.

[Richard]

Glad it turned out OK in the end even if the end felt too hard fought for both of you.

I have all I can take of those animal hostile cattle stations also known as airports. After previous ‘experiences I vowed that my last visit to hell sorry and air trip would be my last, the plane was pretty unpleasant bu the ground experience was the pits. I said I would go on a cruise given enough of a push but I suspect that insurance would now put that out of reach, too many problems for the insurers to think about.

[Richard]

Dave, I agree you have to laugh, for £6, I thought that it was a bargain for what it does offer, though not having many USB 3 devices reduces its appeal to me – that and already having an empty USB2 portable drive case.

[Richard]

Bob, I did not want to be too parochial and while the town is not ‘mine’ it is the nearest largish place that once had the daytime trade to hold interest. My local ‘town’ well it does have a town council, has one ‘main street’ with a dozen or so shops in various buildings. The buildings range in age from the last 30 years back to at least the last 300 or 400 years and some of the latter places look that way from their style rather than their state of repair. The church goes back a long, long way in History and some burials go back before some of the Royal Henry Kings for what it is worth today. Many shop units are tiny so ill suited to modern business other than a building society, or solicitors, though some have reached backwards and contain hairdressers, charity shops, a part time vet and the like. Nightlife it does not have.

The nearby town was a post war ‘new town’ and has struggled to come to terms with its own creation and all the twists and turns of its changing fate. Many local industries have moved on for various reasons so it is increasingly a dormitory town. Some actively seek to eliminate anything remotely aspirational. While I agree with both your and Ed’s views that town centres must either evolve or die the die option appears to be the front runner at the moment. It is not a place I would like to linger as dusk was falling and, from my earlier comments you can understand why. Yours Bob does appear to have evolved its cosy niche that currently serves it well, long may that remain the case, I suspect it has a broader mix of traders and customer demographics than many. Certainly from your description of its markets that appears to be the case. This one lacks any historical perspective, it is firmly rooted in a one class cheap and quality lacking offering and nothing else. Grey neglected concrete does not add a positive ambience in which to house shops that appear as unhappy as their patrons. The patrons only visit because they feel they have to go there and would probably prefer to be able to go elsewhere. Certainly the lack of stock drove me out some years back, when it was where you went if you did not want to buy something because was not available anyway.

To the North there is another place that is, I suspect more like Louth, though it appears to have missed the success boat, which sailed away some while back. Nowhere has any sort of appealing night life offering, transport is pretty dire and the car park was cunning designed so that the queuing in bound traffic completely blocks those trying to get out on all but the quietest days. On the run up to Christmas local headlines are always a reprint of last years accounts of the frustration of those trying to enjoy a visit involving more than sitting in a stationary car.

Community efforts do try to start up, but the area is probably to affected by dormitory-itis. Those who work away play, shop and order from away. This leaves the area hollowed out and lacking the social resources to sustain initiatives.One such made a great start but the lack of a solid local commercial activity from which to draw local sponsorship will destine it to fail and it will close once its twelve months launch honeymoon is over.

Only today at the pharmacy I mentioned an ongoing ‘family situation*’ for which there is a support group, a great idea for those who can get there and we might be we might be able to get there starting in a few weeks time, if our right stars align and it is still in business, not snuffed out like so many such efforts. The pending onslaught of pre op appointments is a likely serious threat to our freedom to operate.

*My wife’s chemo appears to have achieved it’s success target so the operations can press ahead as soon as possible, once she is fit enough. Several months of recovery will then be in order.

[Richard]

Dave, I have been trying Wifi Analyser as you suggested. It is quite interesting, though the results are a bit of a surprise.

[Richard]

I could not tell you what shops any of the local-ish high streets have these days. I know that when one was a thriving place it used to have the likes of the Co-op, Woolworths, Times furnishing, M&S, BHS and Littlewoods with a number of successful smaller emporia. Now all of those names are gone, with M&S choosing to go a little while back. They wanted to make the store more efficient but the local council, ably lead(?) by its leader said that M&S was ‘too up market’ for the towns’ residents. I think part of the vacated shop was then used for a video games pavilion, it gave someone somewhere to go I guess. But I am not sure who or for how long. I last walked through the town on the way back from the hospital to the bus station. It resembled a town after a declaration of plague, very few people and the few who were there looked as though they would rather not be about much longer as they smoked themselves to death. All hints, let alone trace of vibrancy have been expunged. At least the shops that were still trading had not closed for the day at 10:30, but there was precious little reason to visit any of them. So I, like others, hurried on by. Even the market square, which once hosted several dozen stalls appeared to be reduced to about 6 most of them now trading little more than bric-a-brac. Talk about depressing it was like a film set for a depression film.

The lady who does some gardening went to Skegness for a holiday to see what it was like. While Skegness still showed the odd spark of life, even there too many of the shops and stalls were keen to shut by mid afternoon while others she said were boarded up. In the surrounding places many did not bother to open at all and most were cleared closed and shut down with the expectation they would soon be torn down, but what would take their place and why?

Locally, the town where I wanted to buy something the other day and failed to get served with anything useful, still has its main off high street trading area cut in half by work to (avoid?) a gas leak repair. It is clearly going to be a long job. Judging by the number of lorries parked there this morning just brewing tea for everyone should take all day today. A task made harder by the lack of working gas supplies and a prohibition on naked flames. One of the locals only half joked that the should not have bothered about the leak and stopping naked lights and just let the whole thing blow up and start again. I could understand the thinking behind their comment, brutal though it was.

The death march of the once town centre was lead by one operator of a few enterprises at the older end of town whose enterprises were not universally loved. He blocked all of then then sensible plans for development and even bought up and closed the cinema and, I understand removed the roof to limits the buildings possible use. I suspect he achieved his aim of blighting that end of the town. Such is the way that some ‘traders’, (or should that be anti traders?) in small towns think.

[Richard]

What is it with ‘trends’ for crap images? I suspect that the front facing camera shots have been enhanced with what are thought to be a more mild version of on trend ‘enhancements’. I keep getting sent junk via Google showing ‘enhanced crap of some of the dog pictures I have taken. They are NOT improvements.

[Richard]

Things on the visa front have got a lot more complicated and expensive over the years. I have not travelled much for the past few years but as far back as 1975 I was living in one country when I had some holiday owing so I bought a car in another country and a few weeks later flew into Italy and after a few days here and there picked up the car. After that we drove round a bit, nearly ended up as far to the east as Yugoslavia where the Italian prices, especially for hotels were far superior, the crowds were far fewer and the scenery was just as good. After that we went through various immigration points into various countries and just drove about the places such as Switzerland, Germany, France, etc. All with no trouble at all, the only place we had any hold up was a police road block at somewhere about 03:00 hours, but having full documentation that was soon sorted with smiles and laughter all round. From what I am reading here the combined effects of the EU control mania and the impacts of various terrorists of all types round the world have combined into a Trump like mess where visas are seen as yet another profit centre to be milked for all it can be. The USA irritation service used to be a brooding threatening background baleful influence, now they are an all threatening doom force to be avoided at all costs.

After that we went to India, Bangladesh, Thailand, Hong Hong, Japan, Hawaii, various continental European points and all with no visa problems, a British passport and a visa stamp at the entry port was all it took. Since then the Balkanisation, terrorists and money grubbers have ruined it for everyone

The last time we went as a family it was to Canada and a more friendly welcoming bunch it would be hard to find, visas were easy, though the details of what was needed from 20 years back elude me now. Our eldest went with her family a year or two back and though she was worried rigid about making an error with the paperwork, her concerns resulting in hours of research were brushed aside over previous visit dates etc. Even her place of birth, Japan not lining up with nationality caused no concern at all and they all had a great time.

Now, I take the line that if a place wants to come the acid drop I do not want to visit and I have no interest in spending my money with them. As for changing passports why would I bother? I have been there, seen that and watched their grass grow, along with the weeds.

[Richard]

I agree with ED, the Samsung extension connections box is a great idea and bests all the neck craning of try to use the sockets on the back of a wall mounted unit. However in Bob’s case it is not really relevant as he already has the TV.

If the TV has a USB socket it appears that the ION should plug right into that since the ION units I checked out do have a built in pre-amplifier to drive the USB link. My Samsung USB sockets are labelled 1 amp and 0.5 amp, The 1 amp should drive a suitable USB hard drive, though it might power such as the ION unit. I assume the 0.5 amp one is suitable for the likes of an ION unit if it draws its own mains power. My Humax and Bluray just used HDMI sockets on the attachment box (along with a Wii, that works but is now never used).

As for your treatment Bob, that appears to be progressing well without too many ups and downs apart from accumulating tiredness. I guess you are on a long chemo programme? To be honest I have rather lost track, managing my wife’s programme is proving challenging enough. Have you had any nerve damage? That can be a side effect of some, ‘Induced Peripheral Neuropathy after Cancer Treatment’. My wife has it quite badly in her feet (not made any better by other conditions), it is also affecting her sense of taste and her endocrine system/hormone balance as well. This was after the initial accelerated intensive chemo in the first 8 weeks. She was told it could take many months to recover from the neuropathy which will continue to make walking painful, still she gets to ring the bell tomorrow then starts a few weeks off before the knife man calls. She is struggling to accept the impact that will have with a week or more post op stay in hospital after a long operation involving at least three sites and two different teams. Recuperation will take a couple of months, it will not be fun all round.

So far your activity has amazed me and I admire the way that you just keep bashing on at full power, long may that last.

[Richard]

I never went to the stadium, but the area around it and running back in towards London was ugly dire. I worked in an office near Kilburn Station, one in South Harrow, Edgware and Watford for about 6 years. I did some long ‘shifts’ at times. Monday through Friday with only a break for a wash and shave during some of the then issues. I also went up to Vauxhall from time to time and that was a really rum location. Very near to the regional crime squad building, an apt location of a business like that, hot a cold running crime at the time.

As I said Brent covers a very wide area, some were my then stomping grounds, I lived close to the job as it made travel easy though the pubs with bolted down furniture did no inspire confidence, I only ever went to pubs like that once.

[Author]

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