test please delete

[DoctorStrangelove]

Warning: For those of a nervous disposition, Sunny Jim and the Iron Lady feature in this epic.

[NickFitz]

There's drilling going on, and a specimen of the Great British Workman has been sighted in the back yard.

As the bricks in this place are so hard, the sound of drilling reverberates through the entire building, and it goes on for ages. This makes it hard to work out where it's coming from, but I think it's the flat beneath me. However, there was some more just now which seemed like it might be from the flat above me

Hope they're not expecting to drill in here; I could do without that

[BR14]

There's drilling going on, and a specimen of the Great British Workman has been sighted in the back yard.

As the bricks in this place are so hard, the sound of drilling reverberates through the entire building, and it goes on for ages. This makes it hard to work out where it's coming from, but I think it's the flat beneath me. However, there was some more just now which seemed like it might be from the flat above me

Hope they're not expecting to drill in here; I could do without that

maybe it'll stop after 5 mins.
just a drill.

[DoctorStrangelove]

One of my fave films. Glad it ended there rather than be dragged out into a huge franchise

I haven't found the receipt but judging from its position in the heap it must have been there 10 years or more.

I paid the astonishing sum of £3 for it.

Clearly more money than sense.

Nothing of innerest in the charity emporium I visited today coz it was shut for Fair Week*.

*For the uninitiated, "Fair Week" is the week of the September Horse & Hiring Fair that's been going on every year since about 1300 and something. There's no horses bought or sold and no hiring either, just a shedload (though a seemilngly decreasing size of shed in recent years) of stalls selling gimcrack crap from China and places east. Neath is best avoided during the 2nd week of September. Almost every year it is drenched with rain. The funfair used to be on The Bird In Hand Field but these days is located down behind the railway station, in the car park that used to be coal sidings back in the now very distant day.

Ain't the interweb magick:

Neath Fair - Research and Articles - National Fairground and Circus Archive - The University of Sheffield

Back in the almost equally distant days when "we" used to make stuff in this country, there were a couple of tool stalls that were always worth visiting.

Naturally enough those disappeared long ago and now all you see is gimcrack crap tools from China and the East.

[NickFitz]

There's a gas fire sitting in pieces in the back yard, and the workman is upstairs; no idea if he was also downstairs earlier though. But it looks like that's what's going on.

As I've not heard anything about an ongoing programme of gas fire replacement, I assume mine will remain as is. Fine by me; I'm used to it after all these years, and it does a decent enough job

[NickFitz]

Ham toasties for lunch

[BR14]

Ham toasties for lunch

cooked on the gas fire?

[NickFitz]

cooked on the gas fire?

No toasting fork, sadly

But the Breville does an excellent job

[BrilloPad]

cooked on the gas fire?

I think upstairs tried that. As you can tell, it went well.....

[NickFitz]

Just remembered that a few weeks ago, the landlord was talking to upstairs guy - our doors are opposite, so he was just outside. As I was going to the kitchen I caught a few words about something having to be turned off while something was done.

I thought it might be related to the leaky pipe in the ground floor back not long before that and he was talking about the water supply, but he never knocked on my door to say anything, so I forgot about it.

So my conjecture now is that when the gas man did the annual check of the appliances the other month he condemned the fire upstairs, or at least said it was on its last legs and should be replaced sooner rather than later, and it's taken until now to organise fitting a replacement.

And as he said no such thing to me about my fire (even though it's of the same type and age) I probably shouldn't expect any change, or not this year