• Visitors can check out the Forum FAQ by clicking this link. You have to register before you can post: click the REGISTER link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below. View our Forum Privacy Policy.
  • Want to receive the latest contracting news and advice straight to your inbox? Sign up to the ContractorUK newsletter here. Every sign up will also be entered into a draw to WIN £100 Amazon vouchers!

test please delete

Collapse
This is a sticky topic.
X
X
  •  
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    My dinner-making has been hindered by gate-related nonsense

    I was in the process of moving from stage 1 to stage 2 of making scouse in the InstantPot™ when the phone went, with the Caller ID showing "Landlord". This is very unusual, as that number is the sister of the chap I usually deal with, who tends to restrict herself to the business side of things; it must be years since I last spoke to her.

    Now, a rumour has been going around that the council is going to install a new lock on the main back gate to where the cars and the bins live, the existing one having been broken for ages, and everybody's been in a flap because nobody knows how the business of replacing the existing keys will be handled. Now "Landlord" had received word from a bloke who leases various bits of storage space out the back, such as our old stable and a compound that used to be the garden of one of the houses in the side street, that the gate was locked and his key wouldn't open it, and she wanted to know if I'd heard anything about it.

    I told her it had been fine at teatime when I went for my walk, and I thought it a bit unlikely that the council would send somebody to do the job in the evening, but I offered to go down and have a look. Doing so, I met storage guy in the hall downstairs, apparently on the phone to the other landlord chap I usually deal with. So out we both went.

    Even in the dark, it looked to me like the lock hadn't been changed; I figured somebody had managed to lock it, which generally hasn't been possible for ages, but which has occasionally been achieved. Further experiment showed that neither storage guy's key nor mine could get it open, but that was because it was jammed, not because it was a new lock. This is why nobody even tries to lock it any more - if you manage it, you usually can't unlock it again.

    Anyway, I eventually remembered a trick I worked out a few years ago when it had been playing up. I put my key in, turned it as far as it would go the wrong way, then turned it back - and the lock opened, smooth as anything

    So I was the hero of the hour, we're still waiting for the panic that will ensue when the council really do change the lock, and I was able to get back to making my dinner

    Comment


      The scouse turned out exceedingly nice once it was finally done, dished up with a thick end chunk of sesame bloomer

      Comment


        Not much time for TV tonight due to gate and scouse matters taking up so much time; so just another episode of Trucking Hell

        Goodnight all

        Comment


          Water temperature
          Birs 7.2 °C
          Rhein 9.3 °C

          Temperature -0.6 °C
          Relative humidity 77%
          Pressure 982 hPa
          Snow coverage 2 cm

          And it's still snowing. Max temp 5 today.
          Down with racism. Long live miscegenation!

          Comment


            Morning denizens

            Grey overcast to start the day, with frost on the roofs of the outbuildings out the back; currently 1°C with 6° projected for later, 1012/1020mB

            Comment


              Toast time, to sustain me through the daily 9:30 meeting

              Comment


                Morning.

                Dry (as in it's not raining, hailing, snowing, or murraining of beasts).

                Grey.

                Sunless.

                Cold. 16 deg in here again this morning.

                1024 mBar, 30.24 in Hg, 53% RH.

                Wednesday apparently.

                As a pleasant change from the usual nightmares, an erotic dream.

                'Tis years since I've had one of those.

                Quite tasteful too, which made a change.

                <hiatus>

                Shopping trip to Morrisons and Wilko done, dusted, sanitised, and put away, with 6 fatballs dispensed to the feathered dinos.

                Walk walked in the slightly warmer cold with no signs of precipitation.

                As far as the res this morning, the workpersons still being present.

                In other news, there's snow on the hills further up the valley, there's tidy then boyo.

                Lunch: scrambled egg and poached tomato on Morrisons wholemeal sunflower and spelt toast, bramble jelly sandwich on Morrisons sunflower and pumpkin seed bread, red corner yog, 0.91 pints of good Glengettie tea.

                <hiatus>

                Freecell score: 100% (of 6), running average 84%.

                Afternoon Entertainment for the :

                "Engineering Disasters" being the bit I missed the other day covering the way the USM manage to crash more Harriers than anyone else , the Piper Alpha disaster, or don't turn on a pump when a valve isn't there any more, and how not to build a cooling tower in Virginia.

                Followed by "The Spy who stole the atomic bomb": Ursula Kuczynski who ran a shedload of spies for the Reds, under the code name "Sonya".

                Tea: liver & bacon with some rather odd onion gravy, tinned peaches, 0.91 pints of good Glengettie tea.

                Entertainment: bit of a thing about Steve MacQueen on Sky Arts.

                "Great Expectations (1946)" with John Mills, Alec Guinness, Valerie Hobson (Mrs Profumo).

                Rather good in its way with Finlay Currie as Magwitch.

                Directed by David Lean in Proper Black & White.

                There's parts in that which don't make it into the other adaptations.

                Oh, and Dr Pimple Popper is back on, but I only caught the last 10 minutes of it, that chap with the peculiar lump on his finger had it (the lump) removed, but not by Dr Pimple Popper.
                Last edited by DoctorStrangelove; 7 April 2021, 21:18.
                When the fun stops, STOP.

                Comment


                  Good job I had that toast - I'd forgotten it wasn't just the daily meeting, which is only about fifteen minutes, but the fortnightly planning meeting; it went on until about eleven

                  Still, that got us most of the way to lunchtime, and I've filled the time since the meeting ended convincing the other devs that they should implement certain things my way in accordance with widely-accepted best practices

                  Comment


                    Just found that the person who authorises my timesheets is away until this time next week

                    Comment


                      Scotch broth and wholemeal bread for lunch

                      I need something to sustain me: another hour-long meeting in a few minutes

                      But I'm able to look at tomorrow afternoon's box saying "Out of office: vaccine 2" in Google Calendar, which is enough to cheer anyone up

                      Comment

                      Working...
                      X