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Post by nob on May 23, 2021 7:45:50 GMT
I have an air gun Steve but sticking out of the upstairs window to shoot the rats might have not been wise. I didn't want SWAT turning up.
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Post by banjo on May 23, 2021 8:21:56 GMT
Too true. I live next door to a retired plain clothes detective, although he now has a similar role with TFL. I don't think he would make a fuss anyway, but no one wants to hear the crack of pellet guns plinking do they? Then again, we have to endure the thwack, thwack, thwack, thwack, thwack emanating from his golf practice nets ...
e&oe ...
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Post by banjo on May 25, 2021 15:02:02 GMT
The gas supply replacement saga;
"We'll put the meter on the wall there." "No you ******* won't". "Why?" "Because one whack reversing into the (narrow) drive and it's "goodnight vienna", especially since I understand I'll be getting 30% hydrogen later on." "OK" "You could put it up the end of the drive and I'll undertake to do my best not to back up "too close" to it." "OK, and then the gas plumber can run his pipes back along the drive." "Why can't you just excavate where the gas plumber will have to in order to get his copper pipe through?" "We can't do that with plastic pipe under the footings." "Maybe so, but the plumber will have to excavate another hole to get the pipe through after running back up the drive in parallel to your mole bored route." "I suppose so." "My money's on you'll be back to excavate another hole for the gas man." "I guess so." "So how about you dig there and not there?" "We can't do that with plastic pipe." "This is like Groundhog Day." "What's that?" "Forget it. You said the gas man will connect to the meter tail with plastic pipe?" "Yes." "But that's steel pipe." "It's copper." "Mate I've lived here for 33 years and I'm telling you it's a steel pipe, and you are going to all this effort because you can't supply the gas / hydrogen cocktail along steel pipes due to seepage?" "I don't know about that." 'I would have hoped that you would know something about that." "We're on "job and finished", we only really want to push the plastic pipe up the existing gas main, but we can't do that with 3/4 pipe. It's only your house, next door's and one right up at the other end of the road with 3/4 pipe. All this extra work we're doing we don't get paid for." "How about you mole all the way past the drive gates and under the hideous crazy paving up to the point in the kitchen wall where the underfloor gas pipe rises, put your meter there and connect to that? Then you can blank off the supply at the meter under the stairs. Job done." "We'll put it here at the end of the drive as discussed."
Best Beloved; "Can I get you a drink?"
Jayzus mother and feckin' Mary. The great British shovel warrior ...
Fair play though- they're all nice lads.
e&oe ...
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Post by nob on May 25, 2021 16:08:15 GMT
Why Hydrogen mixed? Never heard of that one. The Government are wanting gas boilers doing away with by such and such a date, what's going to replace it?
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Post by banjo on May 25, 2021 21:00:09 GMT
Well I heard / read (although I no longer recall where) that sometime in the future we will be going over to 70% natural gas blended with 30% hydrogen. This will enable the government to claim that we have reduced that element of our total greenhouse gas emissions by 30%. Neat huh? (if true).
Apparently (from the same source) that the old steel pipes leach out the hydrogen, hence the wholescale replacement with plastic pipework.
e&oe ...
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Post by banjo on May 26, 2021 9:21:30 GMT
And now ladies and gentlemen, for your delectation, the water board guys dug up the (recently installed) drive of the house opposite what was it now? yesterday or the day before? They delayed the gas work and reinstated the drive when they were done, and now two days later, the gas boys are digging it up again at exactly the same spot. Effin 'morons the lot of them.
Nice guys though.
Best Beloved: "Can I get you a drink?"
e&oe ...
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Post by pierre on May 26, 2021 12:53:52 GMT
Since the awol situation of Dave (Ratae) I am now supporting you for the Raconteur of the Year award. You have a wonderful way with words.Is it just written words,or are you just as good orally ? Btw.Any one know what the situation is with Dave ?
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Post by nob on May 26, 2021 12:58:30 GMT
Dave is ok Peter, JJ has been in touch. Steve the contractors put a new water main down our high street a few years ago, then you guessed it, all the other ancillaries started to install things by digging it up. I image it would take too long to wait to group all the workers together to do it in one go, a logistical challenge no-one seems to want to tackle.
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Post by banjo on May 26, 2021 13:22:43 GMT
Self interest motivated ultimately by profit and then of course shareholders. A legacy of the 1980s? $0.02.
e&oe ...
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Post by banjo on May 26, 2021 13:35:51 GMT
I was an extremely reluctant shop steward and convenor at my workplace for 13 years Pete. It's the same old story- no one wants to do it and once you are stupid enough to put your hand up and are esconsed, it is nigh-on impossible to find another idiot to replace you. For myself, it came to a head when my Dad was at death's door. Committee members hinted that I couldn't "just go" without someone to whom I would have to "show the ropes".I told them to man up and find someone else. Being a convenor taught me very quickly how to stand up and speak on the fly in front of a baying mob. That said, I still suffer from ums, ers and you knows just like the next fellow.
Watching politicians I realise that such involuntary hesitancy no longer matters very much. BoJo is absolutely shocking in that respect- a silver spoon jockey who sloped through Eton, and for whom everything is carefully stage managed, right down to his affected hair do, so I guess his speech is similarly calculated?
I am looking forward to Rats doing the phoenix thing, but it's been a long while. Good to know he's still prowling around.
e&oe ...
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Post by banjo on May 27, 2021 17:48:42 GMT
For those of a certain age ... "The Gas Man Cometh!"
Trouble is, he disconnected the old steel pipe, and run a new length of what looks like it could be 28mm copper. Apparently, the old 10 SWG steel pipes are leaky. Hmmm. The joints may be "leaky", but if you could run superheated steam through steel pipes, then I'm not buying that one.
I asked him whether he would remove the the old pipe and he guffawed saying "You'd need an angle grinder to get that out." Horse feathers I said to myself, and as soon as he'd gone it was history courtesy of a garden variety hacksaw. 4-5 minutes max.
As I said, the trouble is that the PME bonding was left attached to the old steel pipe. A PME installation without the gas supply pipe bonded to the consumer unit does not comply with any edition of regulations that I know of. Strictly speaking, they left me in an unsafe state.
Your silly hippy walked into the town and bought a new bonding tag and a couple of metres of 10mm sleeved bonding wire and reinstated the PME onto the new pipe. Unfortunately, I noticed that there was a serial number on the old "Do Not Remove" warning tag and pound to a penny it's quoted on my certificate for the work done previously. I am happy with my work (I cut the supply because I had to go inside the consumer unit) but I'll be on the dog and bone tomorrow advising them that my installation needs a ticket from a guy who is paid to issue them. He or she can strip mine out if him or her wants to, but I'm content that in a fault situation, touching the gas cooker at the same time as the extractor hood will not result in me conducting the current.
Turns out that the old lady next door has been similarly left without the necessary bonding. I wonder how many other folks are in that situation? They must have done or are going to do hundreds of houses around these streets. I told her not to get all panicky, but that although it would be easy for me to correct for her, I'm not prepared to do it for obvious reasons.
Some faceless kernel is paid handsomely to project plan this sort of thing. Same old same old mediocrity I guess?
Now I have to paint and smarten up under the stairs because someone recognised a golden opportunity to nail what I'd been procrastinating over for decades. It's time I guess? I got away with it for years! A can of worms though n'est ce pas? I won't bore anyone rigid with that. Promise!
e&oe ...
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Post by banjo on Jun 3, 2021 9:03:47 GMT
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Post by banjo on Jun 3, 2021 9:31:21 GMT
So Casio invented the roach pin / clip! Who knew?? >>>>Casio was established in April 1946 by Tadao Kashio, an engineer specializing in fabrication technology. Kashio's first major product was the yubiwa pipe, a finger ring that would hold a cigarette, allowing the wearer to smoke the cigarette down to its nub while also leaving the wearer's hands free. Japan was impoverished immediately following World War II, so cigarettes were valuable, and the invention was a success.>>> The above taken from this resource: infogalactic.com/info/CasioSo all our wristwatches and calculators, even my digital piano were bank rolled on the back of a smoker's aid! e&oe ...
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Post by nob on Jun 3, 2021 13:50:23 GMT
Casio calculators were all the rage back in the day.
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Post by pierre on Jun 3, 2021 14:51:58 GMT
I still use a Casio watch.It has got big figures on it and,in days of yore, I used it in the pool for timing my lengths. Not applicable now as I have slowed considerably.The pandemic closure of the pool affected me greatly.Used to be in the fast lane but now it is the medium one !
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