grendel

As someone who was in the same position a couple of years back as you are now SGWilco, I wish you all the best, I was lucky and unlucky, lucky in as much as the redundancy payment paid the mortgage, the pension scheme I was on, paid a pension at age 50+ if you were made redundant, unfortunately we couldnt cut the outgoings to manage on that, and I had 3 months with no job, I then got a job, on a zero hours contract, where they sent me minimal work, after 1 hours work in 6 months I had to find another job, this time I struck gold, a job doing what I do best that I really enjoy, the only down side was the travel, at first it was 160 miles a day, while I learned the procedures and processes, after that they moved me to the depot closest to my home, still 100 miles a day, but dartford tunnel willing, just over an hours journey each way. All I can say is look for a job that you will enjoy, many companies are falling over themselves to get experienced workers, so good luck finding that perfect job. Grendel

Alan, most diet cokes (non coca cola brand or pepsi) use sucralose, this is supposed to be a substance made from sugar, but without the calories as the body doesn't absorb it, for most people this is a better choice, but for me anything with sucralose causes me to get acid reflux (I am currently on a medicine to reduce this anyway) with sucralose I would need to double the daily dose of the medicine I take, just to reduce the acid reflux to a tolerable level (I am a miserable git when my acid reflux is playing up). aspartame doesn't have this effect on me. It may not be the sucralose as such, it may be a by product remaining in trace amounts from the process they use to get sucralose from sugar, and while I agree that sugar would be a better choice, I don't need those extra calories (how many teaspoons of sugar in a can of coke???) if you look online you can see similar stories saying that aspartame is bad for you, sucralose is bad for you, in fact all of these things are artificially manufactured using chemical processes, you just have to weigh up the balance for what is going to kill you first, I am a non smoker so hopefully should be safer from that aspect. The fact is that when Britain was on rationing during the war, the country as a whole was far healthier than it is nowadays. Grendel

I thought you were going to say scarecrow Tim. Grendel

Griff - I have, its just that the alternatives have a physically worse effect on me, and I dont want to drink the full sugar alternatives. Grendel

when we get the religious doorstep visitors, I pointedly go to the bookshelf beside the front door, and grab the handful of books specially left there, there is a bible, the book of mormon, the jehovahs witnesses book, one that was given out by the ones in orange robes, and a copy of chariots of the gods, and ezekiels spaceship, I then make a point of going through to find the right book, plus further down the doorstep experience will grab a relevant book, and compare the point they are trying to make in the different religions, or if they provide the opening I will catch them with chariots, or ezekiels spaceship, apart from one jehovahs witness (who is a really nice guy and always asks if you have time to talk, and if you are busy will excuse himself and leave) I dont ever get the same lot around twice (having a tame JW is also a good way to turn away other JW's, just say oh x was just here last week and they retreat, not wanting to poach on anothers territory.) Grendel

Coca Cola is another good case in point, a while back it came in 2l bottles, then the 4 packs were suddenly 1.5 litre bottles, then they shelved the 2l and it became 1.75 litres, now the other day I saw they have put out a 2.25 litre bottle, now the individual price is always around the £2 a bottle mark, but then of course they sweeten the deal, 2 bottles for £3, 2 for £2.50, or even 2 for £2, so with all the new sizes and the offers how on earth are you supposed to be able to figure the cheapest way to buy the stuff. (short of taking tha abacus with you to the shops. (at this point I will explain, the reason I can only drink the real diet coke is due to an intolerance with the sweeteners they have changed to in all the rest of the diet coke brands, aspartame is one of the few sweeteners I can tolerate without getting chronic acid - most of the rest have now transferred to sucralose, which gives me bucket loads of grief). Grendel

I was thinking we will just clear the windowsill in the kitchen and let all of our black cats sit there. Grendel

Maurice, you forget the obvious capture of the offenders fingerprints on the bubblewrap. Grendel

the cats have all abandoned the conservatory, unfortunately they think my lap is a safe place. Grendel

I was going to say it looked like an upside down periscope Grendel

our fridge in the caravan is missing the button bit from the middle of that - on ours it is replaced with a small bolt.

loved the write up on your Blog, had everyone looking at me wondering what I was laughing at. fortunately food arrived afterwards or my poor laptop would have been covered in shepherds pie. Grendel

I am not sure that I could fit a boat in the oven, so there wont be any roast boat and 2 veg recipies from me unfortunately. Grendel

don't forget that the vehicle you tow with may well have a manufacturers gross train weight limit, and that any extra baggage carried in the vehicle may reduce the weight you can tow as well. Grendel

just remember that an anodised surface is usually just a few microns in thickness, I used to work in aluminium double glazing years back and for industrial purposes the anodising was generally only about 20 microns thick, most is even less. generally getting the right solvent should work as the anodised surface is quite resistant to most things other than abrasion. toothpaste is gentle enough though. Grendel

more likely Bluebottles knees....

Tim, one trick for cleaning up brightwork is to wad up a ball of aluminium foil and use that to polish the item (brings up tarnished and lightly pitted chrome a treat). another very mild abrasive is toothpaste (this is so mild it can be used on Perspex to remove scratches). yet another very mild abrasive is talcum powder (used by draughtsmen to dry ink and restore a matt surface to drawing film). once the item is clean and bright you can protect the finish by lightly polishing with beeswax furniture polish, this will protect it from the oils and moisture from your fingers (this was a great trick of mine to keep rust away from sword blades, which can show signs of rust very quickly after Little Johnny has put their fingers all over the blade at re-enactment shows (also does a very good job on wet days). with any luck it might even make them Uncle Albert proof. Grendel

Timbo, are you sure it was Guides clinking against the mast, it would make more sense if it was sea Scouts.... Grendel

there is a small wad kept in the tin of beeswax polish, never rusted yet.

30mA is the amperage above which a shock can be fatal. Grendel

I too am an exponent of wire wool (it can be bought in several grades) the finest I use when applying wax polish to furniture, but the coarser grades are good for final preparation of said furniture. I also use a tool now seldom used, a cabinet makers scraper, there is a fine art involved with raising the burr on the working edge of a scraper, but once done it removes material in even smaller quantities than sanding and leaves a smooth surface to boot. Grendel

you just ought to see the paperwork involved when someone at work cut their finger on the serrated edge of the sellotape dispenser, they were nearly banned until we solved the problem by putting a warning label on them..... Grendel

I cant be the only one who has reached out and stuck my fingers into the wrong end of a 110V plug that was live from the other end - surely (and for some reason it was live at 240V ) fortunately I was lying under the caravan on a metal sheet at the time (did I say I worked for an electricity company)- actually perhaps that cable should go in the bodged jobs thread - the previous occupant had provided 240V to the caravan - by wiring a 110V socket into the floor, and wiring a cable with 110V plug on one end and a 240V plug on the other, I had crawled under the caravan to see what was needed to plug it in, reached out for the plug and stuck a finger straight down the inside to the pins. ouch. Grendel

are they not under footwear for guitars?

I once made a painful mistake with an old 90v radio battery - fortunately it only had about 20v left when I stuck it across my tongue, boy what a headache that left. I am fairly lucky to be blessed with a high resistance thankfully after several incidences with mains electrickery (remember to turn off and unplug from sockets before getting a knife out and cutting the cable off an appliance). Grendel