Todays - What Grinds my gears

[hellkat]

[hellkat]

Fucking Lawrence (alpha male tabby) brought a freshly killed pigeon into the house ... just as I was about to leave for work (in a brand new white summery dress )

So I went to get the broom to sweep it out into the back garden, and when I got back to where it was, it was gone - Billie (doggo) had stolen it from Lawrence and brought it into the living room. She has that quick "thieving street-dog" stealth, its not often someone gets fresh food off Lawrence when he catches it himself.

So I swept it out the front gate where Billie couldn't get to to it, and kicked Lawrence out with the pigeon, then stomped off to work.

By the time I got home, there was no sign of the pigeon so I assume Lawrence found a nice shady place to disembowel and eat it during the day.
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Not nearly as interesting in real life.

[BanditsHigh]

The joke that are companies!

Just out of curiosity, when a guy knocked the door wanting to see if I wanted my house painted, I said ok give me a quote.

Now I bough the cheapest 25L drums off Ebay nearly 20 years ago, and only in the past few years has some flaked off, but I didn't use any stabilising solution, so quite surprised at how well it has lasted.

So quote is to jet wash the old paint off, fix any blown render and repaint ... semi-detached 3 bedroom house ....

£8430

I just smiled and said that was a bit over the top, when he asked how much I'd expected, I said £1k-2k, he said I couldn't even buy the materials for that price!

Is that so ...

1) Bags of sand and cement for render, probably around £20-£100 depending on how much needs done.

2) Paint, I'll probably splash out and get some textured Sandtex, which has the same guarantee as the stuff they used, £35 for 10L, around 50L = £175 ... or go for the expensive stuff like Wethertex AP77 at around £360 for the same amount.

3) Labour = FREE ... me for as long as it takes!

Slightly cheaper overall and just as good, if not better, and I'll be able to patch it up at any point because I can just buy another tub of paint!

[recman]

[panrider_uk]

Go for the Wethertex.
Sandtex lets the moisture get behind it and blows the paint eventually
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Current bikes: Honda ST1100 Pan European. Moto Guzzi V85 TT Travel

[A100man]

[hellkat]

Dennis is being a bit peculiar. Even for her...

This week she has been:
1. AWOL for 36 hours
2. Grumpy upon her return, grumbles when I stroke her
3. Distancing herself from me and growling (yesterday she clawed me after only three strokes
4. Not eating much, not even licky-licks and today barely a mouthful of roast chicken (one of her favourites)

Today she returned late in the evening, and is covered in those little green sticky prickles. I will have to wrap her in a towel and gently brush her to get them out.

Happily, the dog is on her holidays untll the weekend so the house is calmer than usual.

But I am a tad concerned. Although she recovered from last year's chemo, and has recently been looking better than she has for a couple of years, I am a bit worried she might be going back down hill.

Time will tell I suppose.

Edit: So anyway, we went to the vet on Thursday and only one of us came home. Bless her grumpy little tripod self. I shall scatter her ashes in the garden where she took such delight in shitting under my camellia bush.
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Not nearly as interesting in real life.

[Tracey Suntan-King]

Sorry to hear this. It’s devastating to lose a pet. She was loved
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Whether you think you can, or think you can't, you're probably right

[panrider_uk]

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Current bikes: Honda ST1100 Pan European. Moto Guzzi V85 TT Travel

[Polarbear]

Sorry to hear this. It's gut wrenching to lose a pet at any time.
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Triumph Trophy Launch Edition

[hellkat]

Thanks for the kind wishes. It was always gonna be a tough one.

This evening my mind was taken off my own sorrow during late night walkies by having to phone the old bill about rather a lot of banging from someone who seemed to be locked in, including letter box rattling and female screaming that was going on in a house we walked past. Within 3 minutes of me dialling 999 there was a carful of burly coppers pulling up. I didn't stick around as I had explained enough on the phone and just pointed them in the right direction.

I hope whoever she is, is okay.
Didn't sound like it.
For all I know she might be a nutter, but having been in the occasional domestic blue or two myself over the years, I couldn't just walk past.

Knowing my luck, its probably camera'd up and whoever is locking her in has now got my image burned on his mind

EDIT:
*gears more ground this morning when I was chatting to a neighbour who tells me that the place is a "hostel" and that when standing at the bus stop across the road, he has also heard the door-banging and letterbox-rattling/screaming thing which he reckons is a bunch of kids (aged from 9 to 15) who are left to run amok at all times of the day and night.

I did think the nature of the screaming and banging was odd and was wondering why I couldn't hear any what I would think of as "typical sounds of DV" , no man shouting or swearing etc etc.

But then ... I watch too much murder-tv and thought it might be a woman trying to escape a dungeon

When I came round the corner on this morning's walkies, one of the windows has all the contact paper torn off and you can see kids toys etc, so yeah I guess maybe it fits in.
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Not nearly as interesting in real life.

[CrypticCrud]

I wonder if Kevin Bacon is as sick and tired of talking about EE as I am hearing about it?
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CBT - Aug24, Theory - Jun25, Mod 1 - Jul25, Mod 2 - Sep25
Kawasaki Z125 > Honda Z125 > GSX-R600 Y

[to v or not to v]

dogs been limping for two weeks. went to vets and still none the wiser.
just pain killers, advice not to walk him and a £130 bill.
now the dogs giving me guilts for not taking him out
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current bike Yamaha Thunderace.
Moto Guzzi V7.

[hellkat]

My left hip has started to play up ...

Obviously years of extreme weight bearing may be starting to take its toll.
I have lost a couple of kilos recently, not a whole lot of difference in one of my size, but I am quietly working on it

But I do not need this to happen now ... six months before planning to take a long haul flight. So will have to schedule appt with the GP and see what's going on.

I may need a *large* sedative if I have to have an MRI ..
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Not nearly as interesting in real life.

[recman]

[Easy-X]

Building some units today that run Armbian Linux. It has a snazzy feature where it gives you memory, disk and CPU usage as "Message of the Day" when you log in. CPU temperature on the first unit (which I put together) ~32 degrees so just a touch above room temperature.

Next unit just needed re-imaging as there was a software fault that had it pulled from site. CPU temp reads ~42 Dismantle the thing and... heatsink fitted back to front, no heatsink paste

The downside of working from home is the drive necessary to cuff someone round the ear'ole
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Royal Enfield Continental GT 535, Husqvarna Vitpilen 401, Yamaha XSR700, Honda Rebel, Yamaha DT175, Suzuki SV650 (loan) Fazer 600, Keeway Superlight 125, 50cc turd scooter

[hellkat]

I'm just sitting here wondering how many boat people will arrive whilst everyone's attention is on "the rally"
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Not nearly as interesting in real life.

[CrypticCrud]

The weather forecast.. says there's going to be light rain all day, between 40-70% chance..

What kind of odds are those?

.I don't wanna get piss wet through but I don't wanna waste a day sat doing nothing.. And you can bet your bottom dollar if I don't go out it won't rain at all. FFS
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CBT - Aug24, Theory - Jun25, Mod 1 - Jul25, Mod 2 - Sep25
Kawasaki Z125 > Honda Z125 > GSX-R600 Y

[A100man]

[Freddyfruitba...]

[CrypticCrud]

[hellkat]

I suspect that I forgot to send the "quirky food choices" list to the hospitality team organising my 60-person event tomorrow, and I felt guilty so I've ran around Waitrose in Canary Wharf trying to find kosher food to feed a favoured colleague (who I want to keep sweet ) - but I've managed to make a very nice packed lunch for him, which I might be able to sneak onto the sandwiches table just before lunch, while my boss is otherwise preoccupied with running the meeting (although I think the sarnies will be a bit soggy, cos they are made from that nice soft Jewish bread )

I tried to drain the tomatoes which I put on top of the salt beef, but well, that's what tomatoes do ... make a soggy sarnie.

Plus I am too weak and feeble to open the jar of pickles so he'll have to go without pickles on his salt beef sarnie anyway.

Nearly made the mistake of putting cream cheese on it but came to my senses at the last minute

Knowing my luck, the list of quirky food people will turn up and they will manage to organise things themselves so there will be TWO lots of kosher sandwiches - one mysterious soggy set and one freshly made tomorrow morning.

I can only hope
At least I tried.

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Not nearly as interesting in real life.

[Easy-X]

The secret to not letting tomatoes make the bread soggy is trap them between them between two other things. The classic BLT for example.

Ah... no. That won't work
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Royal Enfield Continental GT 535, Husqvarna Vitpilen 401, Yamaha XSR700, Honda Rebel, Yamaha DT175, Suzuki SV650 (loan) Fazer 600, Keeway Superlight 125, 50cc turd scooter

[Islander]

Mayonnaise is an excellent moisture barrier.

[CrypticCrud]

After the dog ate my last phone, I’ve now bought an iPhone 16 from CEX, but can I find a suitably priced case.

Quad lock want £36, then £54 for the reservoir mount & then £30 for the anti vibration mount.. wtaf!

Otter box want £42

Cheap Folio for the pocket me thinks.
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CBT - Aug24, Theory - Jun25, Mod 1 - Jul25, Mod 2 - Sep25
Kawasaki Z125 > Honda Z125 > GSX-R600 Y