A place to have a chat.

Bloomin' eck it's been quiet in here for the past week. If we're not careful they'll shut the place down. 😉

My electric scarifier and aerator arrived on Thursday. So this weekend I'll be doing the jobs I should have done last weekend. 🙂

Great to hear from you Spongebob. Great news about son no 1, I hope he continues to get well.

As for beers, I've had 3 afternoon sessions in the Club this week.  Four hours a go. I may as well take my bed there. I'm on mild now, proper old fogies brew. 😁

Just finished my scarifying and aerating. Brilliant machine. My front and back lawn combined are 75 square metres. In 20 years I'd never scarified or aerated them. I was gob smacked how much thatch came off them. It filled a 600 litre compost bin! Although the machine was fantastic at lifting the muck from the lawn the collection bag was far too small. So I ended up not using it and raked the debis up by hand. Quite hard graft.

My lawns looked decent last night, today they look like a  herd of rhino's had been playing rugby on them! I've chucked a load of grass seed down. We'll see what happens. As they say, you can't make omelettes without cracking eggs.

I'm now sat down on my beloved bench in the back garden, admiring the carnage, and having a couple of well earned Kronenbourgs. It's sunny and 70 degrees in my suntrap corner.

I hope you all have a good weekend.

Edited by member 05 Oct 2024 at 15:28  | Reason: Additional text

Hi Phil,

I'm sorry to hear about the difficulties and cancellations that your Chemo is causing, especially as I know how much you enjoy traveling, socialising and your food.

I  was in Osnabruck, in the Army, from 1976 to 1978. I loved Germany.

Everything was cheap then. In the Forces you got paid a generous overseas allowance. There were 4 Deutsche mark to the pound. In the bar you could buy 200 fags for 10 marks. A litre bottle of spirits cost the same. You also got a huge discount on buying a car. Happy days. 🙂

Morning Kev.

I hope that you had a good holiday mate. Do your grapes compare to theirs? We've had loads of rain, at least I don't have to water my reseeded lawns.

No mate. just the life size aluminium cast boar and sow. I was considering buying a handcrafted 5 feet high 4 feet wide, steel fabricated clenched fist, that was the symbol for Northern soul, but the wife didn't like it. I wonder if Phil ever tried Northern Soul dancing, pretty energetic stuff!

I did get a weather vane with a goose in flight, which I've  bunged on the apex of my garage roof. We've had hundreds of geese flying over the house this week, God knows where they are going. As for my aerating, there are three depth settings and I went the deepest, I should have gone shallow. However, its already recovering and I've got a feeling all will be good. I've stored the ploughing machine away for the winter in the sleeping compartment of our empty dog kennel/run. I nearly ended up sleeping there last night. I'm not in the wife's good books.😁

I hope that you're still recovering OK. 

Edited by member 09 Oct 2024 at 13:14  | Reason: Additional text.

Steady on Phil! Are you accusing Adrian of being inept in the scarifying dept? 😂

I see Adrian has answered that as he set it at deepest. I actually had mine as shallowest and it still looked like a herd of Wilderbeast had run through. Oh well dont need it now.

Regarding the Northern soul music im still not sure what it is. The wife’s brother lives in Derbyshire and we went to his discos when we went up to visit from Essex. So first time would have been autumn 1979. Whether he played Northern Soul i have no idea. I just liked to shake my booty……

Kev you did the outside tap quick , you’ll have to do the cars this afternoon now….

Hope the holiday went well? Probably a good time of the year to visit the Canaries.

Phil

Edited by member 09 Oct 2024 at 14:11  | Reason: Not specified

Ian.

😂 Spot on!😂

Yesterday I went on the 11:30 train to the Club. I missed the the 16:00 home so had to stay another 2 hours. Rolled back home about 18:15. I tried to convince her that it was good for my bladder training, which is completely back to normal.

Phil.

A small clip on Northern Soul which was predominantly based in the North of England, so you may have been too down South.

https://youtu.be/wxWOhod7biU?si=vgFjxmsGOxXSFO2f

Back in the seventies, to them, an all nighter meant dancing all night. To me now approaching my seventies, an all nighter,  means not having to get up for a pee all night. 😁

Edited by member 09 Oct 2024 at 16:26  | Reason: Additional text

Unfortunately there are no windows in the dog house. 😁

It was a close game, but Wigan were the better team, and it was a brilliant try by Bevan French.

I feel a bit pukey and headachey this morning, may be one of the 36 spicy chicken wings was past its sell by date. Just thinking about them makes me want to throw up. 🤢

Spongebob, I hope your curry and cider combo has treated you more kindly.

Kev are you a fellow Libran? I'm 68 tomorrow. The grandkids are doing me a birthday tea, God knows what that'll be. I just hope my stomach's recovered enough to take another beating.😬

I didn't realise that you were only 61, a mere child in this aged community. I see the virtual pub carpark is full of motability scooters again. 😁

Yes, I'm nearly four years on after diagnosis and you're almost six? Doesn't time fly whilst you're enjoying yourself.

I have a feeling my birthday tea, although lovingly made by young grandkids, will be very irregular homemade sausage rolls, Nutella sarnies, unset jelly and ice cream and a homemade cake which will resemble a car crash. I will sit and pretend to love every gut churning mouthful. 😁

Edited by member 13 Oct 2024 at 15:52  | Reason: Typo

I’ve been decorating the dining room all week, scraping off the woodchip on the ceiling- oh what joy 😬.

My first car and pride & joy was an Austin Allegro 🚙. It was great, well not the Allegro for as we all know an Allegro was the stereotypical old man’s rust bucket (possibly the most ‘beige’ thing known to man - oops sorry should say ‘known to person’ or ‘known to they’?).

But I’d learnt how to drive in a Fiat 500 so my car aspirations weren’t high (you started the engine by pulling up little leevers - anyway …). My Allegro was shiny navy blue, it looked fabulous, however got to admit that it was not quite as cool as the bright yellow one my teacher training mate from Croydon had at UEA, but in my mind mine was the bees knees. Also, my mate’s car did set on fire once whilst waiting at some traffic lights, so not that cool.

My shiny blue Allegro took me and the then girlfriend on a tour of the Isle of Mull and Ardnamurchan, that was back in the days when those parts were out of scope for the ordinary tourist. It was absolutely marvellous, miles and miles of single-track roads, sandy beaches and wilderness with no-one there. Good memories 😀.

My shiny blue Allegro had many faults, and I never got used to the windscreen wipers and the oil warning light was always on. Then one Friday evening I was driving down the M1 to Barnsley when it conked out good and proper. The RAC man told me that the oil pump had packed in and the engine had seized up ☹️.  So he gave me a tow to the girlfriends house and arranged to pick me and my shiny blue Allegro up on Sunday night to tow back to my local garage in Bradford (Fast car clinic) for a replacement re-conditioned engine to be fitted (£500 😵‍💫).

Fancy that with the RAC, we took good service like that for granted then. You would need Super dooper dooper cover (££££££s) for them to even consider helping you out of a hole like that in today’s world.

Oh well Chaps, hope all is well, have a good weekend, enjoy the footy 😬

Monsieur Le SpongeBob 

I learned to drive in a Fiat 127, the windscreen washer wasn't electric, but was a rubber bung on the dashboard that you had to squish. The exhaust manifold broke one day so me and my mate got another from a scrap yard. Cars were stacked on top of each other in those days, and we had to unbolt the manifold from a car that was on top of other cars. Crazy! I wouldn't do it now. 

As for Allegros, don't see many these days but I saw one in a motor museum this year. 

Cheers, 

Kev.

Hello chaps, I’ve been a bit lax on visiting the pub… Been busy trying to feel better. 

Love the stories and chit chat 👍.

My first car was a Triumph 1300 saloon. Bought because i was learning to drive in a Mini and really didn’t like it. The old Mini i’m talking about obviously as i think it might have been 1972 ish when i was 17.  It looked really nice but was seriously rotten inside. So i used my boatbuilding skills honed at school to repair it all with fibreglass. I had to repair all round the bottom of the windscreen and the rear pillars. Then spent a fortune on paint spray cans to cover it all up. Then when i came to sell it the buyer brought a mechanic with her and I thought oh no… But amazingly he said it was sound. Then i bought a Mk 1 Escort 1300 Sport. What a brilliant little car. Souped up the engine which was a gem, fitted Bilstein uprated suspension and springs , Mexico wheels. New wings and a complete respray. I did try twin 40 Webers once but they were too finicky. Even fitted carpets and the obligatory sheepskin rug in the back 😎. Also fitted a stonking cassette player and amplifier/speakers as the car didn’t come with a radio. Those were the days eh guys….

Regarding Allegros , i had a Marina Van once, just for a laugh, and I’ve never had a car so badly built. Even the body panels didn’t line up. It leaked up past the inner front LH wheel arch as there was a gap between panels… Had some nice cars over the years as i was lucky to have the money for new ones. Mk 2 and Mk 5 RS2000s, Golf GTi Cabrio and a Sierra 4X4 2.8 Estate to name a few but one of my favorites was a 70’s Audi 100S Coupe. It was a proper drug dealers car fitted with twin 45 Dellorto carbs but they used to ice up at motorway speeds which didn’t please the wife too much. So it had to go …!

I’ve not seen the Chris Hoy TV thing but I’ve seen snippets and do empathize with his situation but it must be doubly difficult for him being so young and with a young family. Isn’t it a shame that it takes a celebrity to shake things up with the Government though. Fingers crossed his Stage 4 diagnosis isn’t as bad as it sounds and he has a good few years left. He’s had/having chemo so it could halt the PCa progress for a long time if he’s lucky. I did notice he had cooled mittens/socks on to stop the Neuropathy in the fingers. Ive never seen that offered and i certainly didn’t get it and I’ve got a bit of nerve damage in my toes due to the chemo. Hoping it will possible get better.

Regarding the US election, I think we should all be very afraid as the guy is barking mad. It’s ok being isolationist but a country cannot exist in a vacuum. I love the US and the Americans but to think over 70mill voted for him is very worrying….. Need to wait to see what his actions will be with regard to foreign involvement in the current war situations. 

Take care guys,

Phil

Hi Kev. Feeling loads better thanks. Even doing a little painting today . 

Sounds like your house is fighting you all the way. It’s so demoralising when it’s like that , but extra special when you’ve finally done it in spite of the problems. Although fitting an RSJ is not cheap …! If it’s not too long maybe you can do it yourself.

Good luck …

Gonna watch the footie tonight but worried with such a changed team they’ll not do so good… 

Take care all

Phil

Morning chaps.

I'm not a great DIYer but if I do have a go at something, I always go to my favourite DIY expert for advice.

https://youtu.be/goj0cWaDZJY?si=mu1n9o63ovUKCzOr

Although Mary is very good at explaining how a job should be done, I often have to view several times, to double check her instructions.

I've had vehicle problems. The passenger heater vents are blowing cold air. The drivers side is perfectly OK. Again, I've  gone to youtube, unfortunately Mary Burke, doesn't do cars. I've discovered that there is about a hundred possible causes. Some involving removing the entire dashboard, that may involve a full day's labour. I have therefore decided to buy the wife a fleecey.

Life is jarring me off at the mo, so I'm going to the Club for a few hours to do a bit of self medicating.

Have a good weekend end.

Edited by member 17 Nov 2024 at 10:06  | Reason: Additional text.