Wakey-Wakey! it's Tuesday

[Onelife]

So, what have you got planned today?

We’ve got the stove fitter coming at 9.00… then it’s mince pies and coffee at 10.30 with the locals. Then it’s a trip into Ludlow to make a small donation to my bookie, then a quick stroll round the market to see if I can find my wife a stocking filler.
Must dash as I’ve got to see if Betty has torn Doris apart.

Enjoy your day whatever you are doing.

[Stephen]

Bu99er all.

[oldbluefox]

Not as exciting as OL, having all of his estate workers round for sherry and mince pies but I'm pretty chuffed at the moment. This morning I have made us a good, wholesome carrot and celery soup. Actually it's more of a vegetable soup because I have added peas, beans, sweetcorn and onions just for that bit of extra flavour. Mrs says all of my soups taste the same.

So why am I chuffed? Well for weeks I have been getting a BIOS/CMOS error coming up whenever I restart the computer and after much investigation I thought the best place to start was the CMOS battery. I had a look on the manufacturer's website to see if there was anything there to tell me how to get into the machine, where the CMOS battery was, what type of battery I would need and anything else which might be handy to know. It was like wading through treacle and was no hel whatsoever so this morning I took the bull by the horns, unplugged all of the cables and set about the task of getting to the innards. There were no screws, just a crafty little catch hidden away and once inside, lo and behold, it was a simple matter of replacing a CR2032 battery which was staring at me. Within half an hour I had cleaned the dust out, put the case back, plugged back all of the cables and got the machine running again. Job done and hopefully an end to the error message!!!

It does beg the question why there cannot be better advice on manufacturers' websites for carrying out simple maintenance tasks rather than relying on intuition, a basic knowledge and a fear of getting a big bill for a simple task. I wonder why there's smoke coming out of the back of it?!!!!

[Stephen]

That’s the reason Foxy, they want you to spend money. Either having it repaired or buying a new machine which some people will do through fear of the unknown.

I’m like you, get in and have a go. What’s the worst that can happen, you either fix it, ruin it or it stays the same.

[barney]

Highlight of my day so far.
New watch battery fitted.

[Mervyn and Trish]

Breakfast, supermarket, coffee. That's it.

[oldbluefox]

I’m like you, get in and have a go. What’s the worst that can happen, you either fix it, ruin it or it stays the same.

Spot on Stephen.
More often than not these things are easily fixed for the price of a few Google or YouTube queries. I wish things came apart just as easily as they do in the demos but as long as you are not silly about these things you can save yourself a small fortune!!! I wonder how much PCWorld would have charged me for fitting a £1 battery which took me, as an amateur half an hour to sort out.

I always rue the day they axed the practical courses at the colleges for OAPs. I always fancied building my own computer. There are plenty of online tutorials but I think you really need some human guidance. I think I'll give that one a miss. In the meantime I'm happy sorting out CMOS batteries and watch batteries.

[Onelife]

Hi Foxy, it sounds like you’ve had a very productive day, much better than mine, I’ve just had six of the estate workers banging on my door asking for a pay rise, arguing they can’t afford to feed their families…I told them to sod off up to Cumbria as I’ve got a lorry load of workers ready to start Monday. Any chance of forwarding your soup recipe as it sounds like a well-balanced cheap food alternative for the less well off.

Where would we be without the www…cheap labour and good hints of fixing computer problems.

[Mervyn and Trish]

There are even reliable on line sources from whom you can receive excellent chocolates. Though I've never found them......

[Manoverboard]

Fired up my new log splitter for a test run ... amazing, albeit a tad expensive, bit of kit.

[Stephen]

Fired up my new log splitter for a test run ... amazing, albeit a tad expensive, bit of kit.

Do tell, details of this new toy.


I thought you brought your ornamental logs all prepped and ready to go.

[CaroleF]

For the first time for ages I tried to navigate the P&O website - big mistake. I'm going with my daughter on a short 4 night cruise on Aurora in April. My daughter has a friend who lives in Amsterdam, which is our only port of call, an overnight stay. She wanted to know which day we arrive in Amsterdam, at what time and what time we leave the next day so she tried to find the itinerary on the website and eventually gave up. So I had a try, and after a lot of moaning and I admit cursing I eventually found it. Why, once I found the specific cruise, and that wasn't as easy as it should be, couldn't I find the itinerary? Why do P&O make it so difficult. So eventually I was able to tell my daughter which day we arrived early morning and that we would leave the next day, also in the morning. She told me she'd eventually found the details herself - by looking at another Travel Agent's site. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. I had an email the other day telling me P&O were being very generous and giving me an extra £50 OBC - they'd given me £65 on booking. I think I deserved the extra after all the effort it took to navigate the website.

Otherwise today, I've organised travel insurance for myself and also paid the balance of the cruise, via Bolsover. So a rather expensive day. Now I'm going to make myself a Nespresso and have a mince pie!

Carole
Carole

[Manoverboard]

My two most recent pallets of ash were full of half logs, they were mainly 8 to 10 inches at the widest edge. I simply cannot expect Mobietta to swing the axe through those without further extensive training. Apart from that there is a real risk that she could damage the garage floor ... so I thought sod it and bought this one

ps ... Merry Christmas to me

[oldbluefox]

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[Stephen]

Nice bit of kit Moby, although fitness weights and a sheet of mfd for Mrs Moby would have been cheaper

[towny44]

61ePLbgsVkL._AC_SL1500_.jpg

That looks rather like the beheading axe from "Slow Horses" on Apple TV.

[Mervyn and Trish]

My two most recent pallets of ash were full of half logs, they were mainly 8 to 10 inches at the widest edge. I simply cannot expect Mobietta to swing the axe through those without further extensive training. Apart from that there is a real risk that she could damage the garage floor ... so I thought sod it and bought this one

ps ... Merry Christmas to me

I thought this log burning lark was supposed to save money! I could pay my gas bill for almost two weeks for that.

[Onelife]

Hi Mob, considering your previous attempts with an axe this sounds an excellent purchase. May I suggest that you mount this beast on a firm work surface because Paracetamol may help with a cut finger but it certainly won’t help for a crippled back.

[Onelife]

Well, not a bad Tuesday for me, Stove fitted, lost donated £7.50 to the bookie, couldn’t find a stocking filler for wife ( saved £1.50) Doris survived the night..oh’ and my wife has just made me a snowball…cheers!

[Mervyn and Trish]

Legs make good stocking fillers. Just saying......

[Ray B]

Fired up my new log splitter for a test run ... amazing, albeit a tad expensive, bit of kit.

Boys and their toys.

[towny44]

Log splitter £400, Wood burning stove £1500, installation costs including chimney, £1500, 40l net of hardwood logs ,£20. Then you have to factor in the regular cleaning and ash removal, and all the derogatory comments from the clean air brigade.
I don't think it would be for us, even if we didnt live in flat which precludes us having a living fire.

[Onelife]

Hi John, there is evidence that suggests having a fire, whether that be an open fire or log burner has considerable health benefits…I certainly find myself more relaxed when watching the flames and feeling the warmth that is emitted from our log burner.

Whilst logs have increased over this past year or so we are paying £120 for a builder’s size bag of logs (you can pay more if they are cut to size and come on pallets. We generally use a bag and a half through the winter months, we beg, steel or borrow kindling from wherever we can get it. One wooden pallet chopped will make enough kindling to start 40 fires. There are also health benefits for those in the community who can’t afford to keep warm this winter…. we allow then to look through the window at our roaring fires.

[Manoverboard]

Hi Mob, considering your previous attempts with an axe this sounds an excellent purchase. May I suggest that you mount this beast on a firm work surface because Paracetamol may help with a cut finger but it certainly won’t help for a crippled back.

Indeed so ... it resides on a very solid surface and one wears ones Amazon protective Goggles when one is operating it

One stands behind and to the right of it, the logs go forwards and to both sides. Only a complete idiot could come to grief with one of these ... albeit I haven't ruled it out

Log splitter £400, Wood burning stove £1500, installation costs including chimney, £1500, 40l net of hardwood logs ,£20. Then you have to factor in the regular cleaning and ash removal, and all the derogatory comments from the clean air brigade.
I don't think it would be for us, even if we didnt live in flat which precludes us having a living fire.

You forgot to include the cost of building a log store or a single/ double / triple garage for storing the logs in. The cost is of no consequence because the benefits far exceed it.

[Stephen]

Has the log store got a padlock on it.

Asking for a friend.