The Retirement Thread

[Tenkaykev]

It arrived at 8.30.

1/4 way through, the hardest part is shovelling it out of the bag!

Btw, still got the bad head and neck, but the pain of shovelling helps me to forget 🥵

I ordered a Tonne of Welsh Slate chippings. The driver dropped the bag on the drive and I had to wheelbarrow it around to the back garden. As you said, I hadn’t appreciated how hard it was shovelling it out of the bag into the wheelbarrow 🙁

 

[Tenkaykev]

Back from my run, 8k at a slow pace, legs heavy but I’m not complaining, the sun was shining!! ☀️☀️ It wasn’t raining!! The rain has really boosted our lavender plants, the ones already in bloom are covered in Honey bees 🐝
Time for a coffee and a slice of cake 👍

 

[ColinJ]

I could be trapped indoors for hours now. It is round #2 of British Gas try to make ColinJ's dumb smartmeters smart again! The visit is booked between 09:00 and 13:00. I hope it is sooner rather than later because the last visit took well over an hour and more is being done this time.

Aha - he just rang to say that he should be here in 15 minutes or so. Let's see if that happens, and if he manages to get the meter comms working by around noon...

 

[Mo1959]

Back from my run, 8k at a slow pace, legs heavy but I’m not complaining

Bet your slow pace was still faster than mine. Lol. I did 5 miles so about the same if my conversion is accurate?

 

[oldwheels]

Up too bloody early but at least got the last load of washing dried. Back to bed and slept till 08.25. Good! When I went back to bed the weather was bright, dry and still, it's now grey, drizzly and still. Out on the bike at 9.45. Can't decide if I should take my recently cleaned and polished Cervelo or my Kinesis which is still a bit mucky from her last outing. Think I may plumb for the Kinesis.

It's club hill climb championship tonight, part of a series of five between ourselves and two other local clubs. We host this one and it doubles up as the club championship. Some idiot has designated me Start Timekeeper. Never done this before. I've gently protested, gently hinted at my nervousness, all to no avail. I really do not want to do this for fear of screwing up big time. Get it wrong by a second? I hate to think.

When I did timekeeping at cyclocross I was warned that mistakes were not tolerated by the competitors and try not to be too prominent when results were announced.

 

[oldwheels]

Lovely sunny day but stuck waiting on a phone call. Just my bad luck or bad timing.
Tomorrow looks ok tho' so may get out then.

 

[ColinJ]

Traffic must be bad...

 

[Tenkaykev]

Yes Mo, 8k is 5 Miles. Mrs Tenkaykev has her watch set to Miles, mine is in Km, when we run together our mile / km notifications are out of sync until 5 miles / 8k when they go off within a few seconds of each other.

 

[Tenkaykev]

When I did timekeeping at cyclocross I was warned that mistakes were not tolerated by the competitors and try not to be too prominent when results were announced.

Can't be as bad as one of the lads at our running club. We were hosting the final in a series of cross country races. There were several categories with the Senior men being the final event. There were several loops in the course and he was on a strategic junction, of course the Senior men's course was a few Km longer than the other categories which he remembered once he'd sent half a dozen lads who were up the sharp end the wrong way 😄

 

[ColinJ]

Aha - he just rang to say that he should be here in 15 minutes or so. Let's see if that happens, and if he manages to get the meter comms working by around noon...

Traffic must be bad...

The BG engineer finally arrived nearly an hour after he said he would. He went down to the cellar to take a look...

Round #1, a month ago...

He eventually surfaced and admitted defeat. He had replaced the comms unit and the new one picked up a signal for a few seconds and then failed in the same way that the old one had. He said that the signal isn't great in this town and would be even worse down in the cellar. Also, the meters themselves are older models so he has booked replacement meters and another replacement comms unit. There is a 28 day lead time on these jobs so it will be another month before the next attempt.

I have a feeling that this problem is going to linger on and on...

Round #2, just now...

BG engineer: "You need a new comms unit, mate! There seems to be a problem getting them in stock, Covid or summat. I'll book another visit. 4 weeks time?"

ColinJ: "I will be away - make it 6-8 weeks!"

I know it is terrible keeping you in suspense like this, but wait for the exciting 3rd episode of this saga, coming to a screen near you, mid to late July, 2021!

 

[Flick of the Elbow]

Can't be as bad as one of the lads at our running club. We were hosting the final in a series of cross country races. There were several categories with the Senior men being the final event. There were several loops in the course and he was on a strategic junction, of course the Senior men's course was a few Km longer than the other categories which he remembered once he'd sent half a dozen lads who were up the sharp end the wrong way 😄

The other challenge in timekeeping used to be in the calculation of team prizes. Before apps could do it all for you it was amazing how adept some riders became in doing calculations in base 60. On several occasions I remember the team award being announced only for an immediate and correct challenge from a rider who’d already worked out the correct result in their head.

 

[Lee_M]

I ordered a Tonne of Welsh Slate chippings. The driver dropped the bag on the drive and I had to wheelbarrow it around to the back garden. As you said, I hadn’t appreciated how hard it was shovelling it out of the bag into the wheelbarrow 🙁

Well mine was only half a ton of Welsh slate, And like you I had to wheelbarrow it round the back.
Sadly they've just emailed to let me know my ton of gravel is being delivered on Friday, so I'll have to do it all again, twice over!

 

[numbnuts]

I'm not have a lot of luck, the parcels I waited in for never came
my Dremel tool broke
and I can't get anybody to pick up this dam hire car.
And sad day tomorrow my car goes to the scrap yard "rust in peace" old girl you served me well

 

[Tenkaykev]

Postie has just been with the case I ordered for my new Kobo E reader. It was nine quid delivered, and I'm pleasantly surprised. Very well made and a custom fit. The sleep / wake function works flawlessly and the case is red / black which coordinates well with one of my Brommies 😎
I did a bit of research before ordering, the Official case from the Kobo web store is £35, Amazon do the same one as the one I ordered but about £4 more expensive.
While fitting the Kobo into the case I discovered a function that I wasn't aware of, if I touch the top right corner of the page, it turns down just like a " dog eared " page , touching a second time un dog ears it. It probably does loads of other useful stuff as well, but discovery would mean reading the instruction manual, and what bloke does that?

 

[Tenkaykev]

@oldwheels you may be interested in this YouTube video. It is from " Big Clive " , the brother of Ralphy who does the Malt reviews. He has a water purifier / distiller which is basically a miniature Still, ostensibly for purifying water by distillation, but used by nefarious people for making hooch
He has redistilled cheap supermarket whisky, but in this video he redistills a Laphroaig single malt...

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wRwi2oJDik