Good Morning Thread - Come say good morning, tell us what you've got on today. :)

We have this thread on TilersForums.com and it's just been restarted because the old thread had 20,000 replies and 500,000 views. And there were 700 pages. Started to lag a bit on slow connections.

I think we had a bash of this before, but I can't find the thread, so thought I'd start another one off.

If you have time in the mornings, come post in the thread before you head off to work, let us know what you've got on and what the weather is like in your area etc. Anything at all is fine.

Posts and likes get counted towards your total stats in this thread.

So GOOOD MORNING PEOPLE - WEATHER IS NICE TODAY IN STOKE. I'M THANKFUL IT'S FRIDAY, HAD A RUBBISH WEEK. THANK GOD IT'S OVER.

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[littlespark]

I hadn’t noticed that, to be honest.

It was more that the bracket for the overhead was away from the chimney and not secure.

But I’ll tell him about both issues

 

[nicebutdim]

Back at the cottage, and in their infinite wisdom, they’ve decided to strap the walls, add insulation and board it before plastering…. Which was suggested at the beginning of the job by the joiner and was rejected.. change their mind now, after I’ve spent hard graft and sweat on chasing out the brick for all the sockets. Going to need long screws for the faceplates now.

Even better when they want flat plate, for which it's impossible to find 4" screws. God help whoever finds several stacked thread extenders.

 

[James]

One of the cables that hold it to the stack has broken, one more to go before the bangs and flashes start bouncing around the driveway!

 

[littlespark]

I’m posting this now in case I don’t get a chance over next couple of days.

2am Thursday morning we will be driving down to Newcastle to fly out to Dubrovnik to board our cruise ship. I will spend 7 days sailing, docking at a few stops along the way and I will be taking photos of whatever dodgy electrics I can find…. Much to wife’s dismay.

 

[littlespark]

Hello from sunny sunny Dubrovnik!
28 degrees, and it’s too damn hot.

No dodgy electrics yet, but it smells like the drains aren’t up to much.

 

[DPG]

Just on our last day of a week in Bruges. Lovely place - would recommend it.

 

[nicebutdim]

Just on our last day of a week in Bruges. Lovely place - would recommend it.

Throw anyone from the clock tower?

 

[brianmoooore]

Throw anyone from the clock tower?

No, but I did almost kill my young son there. My wife and I rode up to it on our bikes, dismounted and propped the bikes against the wall, forgetting that our son was in his bike seat on the back of her bike.
The bike promptly reared up, front wheel in the air, and the back of my son's head on the ground. Fortunately he was wearing a helmet, and I half grabbed the bike, so he didn't hit the ground that hard, but it caused a bit of excitement and concern from the other tourists around.

 

[littlespark]

pulling into Ravenna Italy right now. Had a whole day at see yesterday after leaving Kotor, Montenegro. Which is where I took this photo. Only piece of electrical worth noting so far.

Inside the walled old town of Kotor, narrow streets, and all the street lights were fed from these boxes.
Someone’s tapped off this one for an outlet.

 

[nicebutdim]

Combined car and phone charging point. Very thoughtful of the local authorities.

 

[littlespark]

Combined car and phone charging point. Very thoughtful of the local authorities.

Couldn’t get a car into these streets, they were so narrow.
Possibly, the town developed around keeping people in shade rather than making room for horse and carts like many other places.

 

[littlespark]

a couple of things about the ship and cabin we are in.

The electric outlets are euro and American.. side by side, with differing voltages. The switches are upside down… as in push top in for on, and bottom off.
I’m sure someone will say they are correct, and only us in the Uk is wrong, but I’m wanting to turn them all over.

Wandering the ship one day, I saw this. CU cover hanging off, limited space to work, space shared with plumbing and data servers…

I thought it was only the UK that went a bit daft with warning signage…. Ie, “contents of kettle may be hot”, “don’t walk out into moving traffic” That kind of thing.
I imagine someone in the past has had an accident, so from then on in, that situation must be warned against somehow to avoid further identical accidents….

Which makes me wonder how this sign came about….

 

[littlespark]

Back home late last night, will sort out a few pics to show you later.

First thought…. For sunnier climes, there was a distinct lack of PV roof panels… Now, I know it’s less efficient if the sun is too bright, and places we visited weren’t huge cities… just tourist towns, but I thought I’d see more.

Did see this though in one of the ports. Solar benches with phone charging.

And I don’t know what looks more fake…. The Iron Throne or the Daenerys Targaryen

 

[nicebutdim]

Back home late last night, will sort out a few pics to show you later.

First thought…. For sunnier climes, there was a distinct lack of PV roof panels… Now, I know it’s less efficient if the sun is too bright, and places we visited weren’t huge cities… just tourist towns, but I thought I’d see more.

I note that almost every home and business along the Mediterranean coast of Turkey avails of solar energy for water heating, but I'm yet to see a single panel used to harvest solar energy for generation of electricity.

 

[littlespark]

I note that almost every home and business along the Mediterranean coast of Turkey avails of solar energy for water heating, but I'm yet to see a single panel used to harvest solar energy for generation of electricity.

Thats what i thought. there was a couple of hot water systems seen on failrly new buildings, but no PV

Is it something to do with overheating?
Maybe a polarising screen over the panel that could limit the light through would work? Adjustable opaqueness for levels of brightness??

 

[nicebutdim]

Thats what i thought. there was a couple of hot water systems seen on failrly new buildings, but no PV

Is it something to do with overheating?
Maybe a polarising screen over the panel that could limit the light through would work? Adjustable opaqueness for levels of brightness??

No idea, but it always struck me as odd. Perhaps installation costs heavily outweigh benefits? If electricity is cheap, or usage light, payback may take an incredibly long time.

Solar hot water systems are probably fairly cheap, as they're on every roof, and provide more hot water than anyone could need. Probably also helps keep consumption of electricity at an acceptable level.

 

[littlespark]

A couple of nights ago, we stepped out onto the aft deck… (picked up the lingo no bother!)
Way out in the distance we saw this lightning storm…. Completely silent.
No rumbles, no crackles… and only the wind, engines and water can be heard.

I think this was over land…. But couldn’t see.

Does lightning need land to earth to…. Or can it happen over open water?

Is a big metal boat safe to be bobbing about on the water near one of these?

 

[James]

Lightning often strikes the sea.
it will be drawn to large steel vessels because they are a large conductive mass at earth potentail.
it can damage electronics by striking antennas etc as they are often high up.
for these reasons, passenger ships keep a close eye on the weather and will change course to avoid storms in general, not just electrical storms.

 

[littlespark]

Lightning often strikes the sea.
it will be drawn to large steel vessels because they are a large conductive mass at earth potentail.
it can damage electronics by striking antennas etc as they are often high up.
for these reasons, passenger ships keep a close eye on the weather and will change course to avoid storms in general, not just electrical storms.

yes, a ship is a large conductive mass.... but is it connected to earth or insulated by the water?

Actually... when docked, there was just ropes between the boat and shore..... no massive bonding cable.... not one i could see.
I didn't even see it plug into a 16A Rolec marine box

 

[nicebutdim]

I didn't even see it plug into a 16A Rolec marine box

Probably use Scame or Gewiss in those countries.

 

[littlespark]

Mulling through my jobs I need to go back and I remembered my daughters short lived job at an embroidery factory, packing boxes. I was giving her a lift in each morning if I was passing.

One day, when I was pulling out the car park, I noticed a little car drive past with some contraption on the roof.
Turned out to be the Google cam

So I’ve had a search…..

 

[DPG]

Mulling through my jobs I need to go back and I remembered my daughters short lived job at an embroidery factory, packing boxes. I was giving her a lift in each morning if I was passing.

One day, when I was pulling out the car park, I noticed a little car drive past with some contraption on the roof.
Turned out to be the Google cam

So I’ve had a search…..

View attachment 109789

Are the roads named after 1980s comedies??!

 

[littlespark]

Are the roads named after 1980s comedies??!

Yea, it joins onto Young Ones Road at the junction with Not The 9 o’clock News Lane…..


Nah. Name of a local dribble of a river.
We got a Blackadder and a Whiteadder nearby.

 

[littlespark]

My local CEF had a charity day today… buy a raffle ticket, speak to a few reps, get a free bacon roll.
Came away with a bag full of freeby tat… aico pens, wago tape measure, a little key ring torch….

Facebook brought up this picture…. Posted by one of the local charity’s being helped today…. And I thought I recognised this handsome chap.

“They got your good side” says the wife…..

No, I didn’t buy a new fluke.

 

[nicebutdim]

Anything to avoid doing some work.

I'll swap your wago tape for an aico tape.

 

[littlespark]

Anything to avoid doing some work.

I'll swap your wago tape for an aico tape.

Anything for a free bacon roll, more like

 

[littlespark]

I also picked up one of these….

What is it? Answers on a postcard please.

 

[littlespark]

That (above) is a small bit of plastic with a magnet in it. Shaped to fit on a BG consumer unit, and all it does is hold the lid open.


Non job related, but clearing out some stuff in the house I came across an old JVC camcorder and a dozen tapes. I remembered this needed a certain cable and port on the computer for importing, and the old desktop pc that never gets turned on now had the correct port… (1394, FireWire)

Couldn’t find the cable, so got one from Amazon. Couldn’t get the pc to boot, so reinstalled windows 10… working fine.

Then couldn’t get any modern software to work that would import the tape…. Had to go back to a Windows Live Essentials 2011 executable to find the old Movie Maker software.

Imported all the tapes, one by one, dating back to 2006, 7 and 8. So that was pre youngest child.
Had a good watch of some of the scenes… christmases, family bbq…. nostalgic…. Great. So glad to have saved the footage….

However.

Got back to it yesterday, and the damn PC won’t boot again. It’s not recognising the HDD. Everything’s plugged in, and it’s seeing the DRW drive, but not the HDD

I’ll have a good look at the BIOS, see if there’s something I’ve missed…. But I think it’s time for a new drive.
Then install windows again
Then install movie maker again
Then import all those tapes again.


Me in 2006…. 2 stone lighter, hair on my head, not on my face.

 

[littlespark]

PC resurrection update.

Old laptop in the attic which had a broken screen hinge… pulled out the SSD and connected in to the pc.
Proves the motherboard is ok, it’s def the hdd gone bad.

Now have to install the software, transfer the tapes again… and pray I don’t break this one as well.

 

[littlespark]

update on above..... Went for a new hybrid SSD/HDD... 1Tb.
The old laptop drive didn't have enough space to import all the tapes... So now its all working well... PC is back together, not sitting with its guts spilled out on the floor, and the camcorder has been reboxed and put back in the attic for another 10 years.


A timely reminder for anyone who runs a van for their business.....
When a vehicle reaches a certain age, every so often they require something called an MOT.....Annually, it turns out.

Answers on a postcard please if anyone can guess how far out of date my MOT is as of today....
Closest wins a Werthers Original and a Tesco Bag-For-Life

 

[DPG]

update on above..... Went for a new hybrid SSD/HDD... 1Tb.
The old laptop drive didn't have enough space to import all the tapes... So now its all working well... PC is back together, not sitting with its guts spilled out on the floor, and the camcorder has been reboxed and put back in the attic for another 10 years.


A timely reminder for anyone who runs a van for their business.....
When a vehicle reaches a certain age, every so often they require something called an MOT.....Annually, it turns out.

Answers on a postcard please if anyone can guess how far out of date my MOT is as of today....
Closest wins a Werthers Original and a Tesco Bag-For-Life

3 months?

That's how long one of the bikes was out of test a few years ago. I use the DVLA reminder service now, and also put it in the calendar!

 

[nicebutdim]

3 months?

That's how long one of the bikes was out of test a few years ago. I use the DVLA reminder service now, and also put it in the calendar!

We get automatic reminders from DVANI and hefty fines for driving without MOT, although the entire MOT service is in disarray here and fines aren't handed out if you have applied for a test (all carried out in government test centres).

 

[DPG]

We get automatic reminders from DVANI and hefty fines for driving without MOT, although the entire MOT service is in disarray here and fines aren't handed out if you have applied for a test (all carried out in government test centres).

Not a bad system if they provide reminders.

Our DVLA do the same, bit you have to sign up for them yourself.

 

[nicebutdim]

Not a bad system if they provide reminders.

Our DVLA do the same, bit you have to sign up for them yourself.

All automatic here by post and email (where provided to them). It used to be a fantastic system, but suffered a few major issues in the last 20 years. Around 5 or 6 years ago cracks were detected in their ramps (very fancy and not available for immediate dispatch). They had to work with considerably reduced capacity while new ramps slowly filtered through, then covid turned all on its head as normality was slowly returning to the service.

It's great in that testing is very thorough and much lower chance of getting a POS through with the aid of a few £. The downside is that any problems are dealt with by local government who couldn't find their backside with both hands.

 

[James]

9 weeks?
or maybe more??????

 

[littlespark]

Do you think the adchoices adverts spy on my search results??

 

[littlespark]

Oh no…. I better click on that link and sort this out double pronto!








It’s ok… I know it’s a scam…. But looks legit until you start reading.

 

[DPG]

Oh no…. I better click on that link and sort this out double pronto!

View attachment 110772






It’s ok… I know it’s a scam…. But looks legit until you start reading.

I just got the Disney email this morning as well !!

 

[littlespark]

I just got the Disney email this morning as well !!

I only just took it out for the 2 quid a month for 3 month special price…. So for a millisecond, I did think it was genuine.

 

[Mike Johnson]

The best thing to come out of Disney for years:

 

[littlespark]

Fault finding job this morning. Returning customer with an rfc downstairs tripping the mcb (no rcd)
Was at the house a couple years ago fixing the lights which had been ravaged by rodents a while ago and finally gave up.

Only 6 sockets, so whipped the fronts off and did a bit of testing. CU to first socket ok… first to second 0.06Mohm on L to E
2nd to 3rd clear
3rd to 4th also shorting to earth
4th, 5th and 6th ok…. But the cable leaving 6 is clear testing at socket, but short L to E tested at board…

Carpet rolled back in lounge and board up. Found the cables, but they’re run with a load of redundant cables that used to feed the kitchen… (kitchen is now elsewhere, and old kitchen is now bathroom) Cables look ok, no rodent damage here.

Next step is carpet up in hallway… trace from consumer unit to here they pass under the lounge wall…..
I have an uneasy feeling that there’s a radiator on the wall directly below the CU, and there is a possibility that the fixing screw for that has gone through a cable and has only just now broken down.

I’ll keep this job updated, but won’t be going back until after my hols.

 

[Mike Johnson]

Where are you going on your hols? Make sure to get a Covid booster before you go.

 

[littlespark]

Where are you going on your hols? Make sure to get a Covid booster before you go.

I mentioned it on another thread…. Derbyshire.
Should I take my mask?

 

[DPG]

I mentioned it on another thread…. Derbyshire.
Should I take my mask?

Some nice places there. You won't be disappointed.

 

[Mike Johnson]

Full breathing gear is advised.

 

[littlespark]

We got down on Saturday, and now have the lights fixed on the caravan…. (See other thread)

I should know by now, when choosing a site through the Caravan And Mortorhome Club, pay attention to where it says “non members welcome”

There is a contingent of, well… let’s see without being too condescending… large family units with too many people per caravan… too many vehicles per pitch… massive caravans of the Hobby and LMC variety. Broken toys, windbreaks, clothes dryers strewn about the grass and onto the roads…

19kg gas cylinders sitting outside the vans rather than the smaller 13 that fit inside….

And I know… I said it myself… it’s stereotyping…. But they all have a strong Irish accents.. even the toddlers.


To top all that off, first night we were here on Saturday… midnight to maybe 2am, it sounded like the filming of the next FnF movie in the town/ industrial estate nearby.

 

[littlespark]

Last night was eventful.
The occupants of one of the caravans mentioned above had a full blown screwing match at about 7:30.pm

Shrieking banshees

It interrupted our monopoly game

 

[Mike Johnson]

What's a full blown screwing match, I can't remember back that far?

 

[littlespark]

What's a full blown screwing match, I can't remember back that far?

Screaming…. I meant screaming


Although screwing might have been more entertaining

 

[Mike Johnson]

More entertaining for whom?