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How are people getting on in the storms? Guess who's on a Water Rescue training week? 70mph winds and hail in Capel Curig made this afternoon's session there interesting. The wind chill actually meant it was warmer in the river than on the bank. Probably the most dangerous bit of the day was my drive home down the Llanberis Pass - had to wrestle with the wheel a few times to stay on the road. A hot shower now I'm home has helped warm me up, I reckon I'll probably eat my own body weight in carbohydrates this evening.

There'll be a bit of a respite tomorrow before it blows up again on Friday - they've already said they're going to shut the Britannia Bridge, glad I don't have to go to Anglesey!

Stay safe everyone.

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13 hours ago, Pete-M said:

Reverted to night owl mode. 

3am this morning and I've just spent the last hour learning about audio time alignment. 

It's because I'm one of those people who reads manuals when he buys something. I like to see if things can do cool stuff. 

This led to me sitting in the car at 3am measuring the distance from my ears to each speaker in the car. With a tape measure, a pen and paper, and some audiogeekery website with a magic calculator that works out how long sounds will take to get to my old cloth ears. 

It's literally to do with the speed of sound. 

Anyway, it turns out there's nearly a millisecond of delay between sounds from the left front speaker and the right front reaching my head. 

A millisecond isn't much in the grand scheme of things admittedly, but if you can delete that delay by adjusting the speaker timing to compensate then things mysteriously sound much better (to the listener whose ears are in the correct listening position).

Anyway, it turns out the stereo in the car can do this voodoo, but it is hidden deep in menus nobody other than people like me ever look at.

It works, too. Better than I expected it to. It isn't even a particularly modern or expensive unit. It's a £130 Alpine CDA-193BT job. As the car has a DAB aerial but no DAB radio I'm guessing they've taken the good stereo out and got this from Halfords or summat. 

This is what happens when you RTFM. 

Sound delay is one of the main reasons I never go to the cinema.

Unless you have a seat in the right place, the sound delay is terrible.

Sitting on the extreme left, right or rear of the cinema ruins it for me.

I am a miserable cunt though.

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27 minutes ago, Sunny Jim said:

How are people getting on in the storms? Guess who's on a Water Rescue training week? 70mph winds and hail in Capel Curig made this afternoon's session there interesting. The wind chill actually meant it was warmer in the river than on the bank. Probably the most dangerous bit of the day was my drive home down the Llanberis Pass - had to wrestle with the wheel a few times to stay on the road. A hot shower now I'm home has helped warm me up, I reckon I'll probably eat my own body weight in carbohydrates this evening.

There'll be a bit of a respite tomorrow before it blows up again on Friday - they've already said they're going to shut the Britannia Bridge, glad I don't have to go to Anglesey!

Stay safe everyone.

It's certainly fooking windy here! The lights keep dimming, I've got all the phones and torches on charge!

One of the bins blew over a few minutes ago and I think I'll just leave it down. Glad I don't have to go to the office tomorrow, the roads are always awful round here with tree's and branches all over the place, and being out pre 7am you're usually the first to come across it!

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2 hours ago, Sunny Jim said:

How are people getting on in the storms? Guess who's on a Water Rescue training week? 70mph winds and hail in Capel Curig made this afternoon's session there interesting. The wind chill actually meant it was warmer in the river than on the bank. Probably the most dangerous bit of the day was my drive home down the Llanberis Pass - had to wrestle with the wheel a few times to stay on the road. A hot shower now I'm home has helped warm me up, I reckon I'll probably eat my own body weight in carbohydrates this evening.

There'll be a bit of a respite tomorrow before it blows up again on Friday - they've already said they're going to shut the Britannia Bridge, glad I don't have to go to Anglesey!

Stay safe everyone.

It's all very exciting on the south east coast. Cladding is blowing off walls over 100' up, guttering is being blown off and they're forecasting hurricane-force winds on Friday. It's so bad they've cancelled Friday overtime work altogether! The drive home certainly was interesting.

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Saw a right scene this evening.

Went to get fish and chips in central Canterbury and as I'm standing on the pavement outside the shop admiring a bright yellow Lamborghini, I hear an almighty crash, look up and a Deliveroo scooter has gone into the back of a red car (didn't actually catch the model) on the other side of the road.  Bloke gets out of the red car and starts shouting at the scooter driver, demanding insurance details and getting very aggressive until it was pointed out by a bystander that the blue Golf that's directly behind the scooter went into the back of the scooter, smashing it in turn into the back of the red car.

After about three or four minutes of shouting, everyone seems to be getting on better when they try to pick up the scooter.  As soon as the scooter is upright, the engine starts and it's evidently still in gear so these two blokes are desperately trying to stop it crashing into the door of the Lamborghini and kill the engine.

I thought they'd actually tapped it but it didn't look like there was any damage.  Lamborghini owner nowhere in sight.  Another scooter pulls over (another Deliveroo) and the arguments start all over again.  Fuck knows why.

Police turn up.  Lamborghini driver turns up and the chip shop owner (who obviously knows him) tells him to check his door.

'For fucks' sake, I've just had a 25 thousand Pound door fitted!  That's how much they cost!'

He seems happy that the door hasn't been damaged and drives off, making a racket with his V12, briefly drowning out the continuing arguments across the road (at this point I have no idea why they're even arguing). 

Get my food, scarper back and drive off.  Filmed the first argument but sadly missed the scooter-Lamborghini-interface antics.

 

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3 minutes ago, GrumpiusMaximus said:

Saw a right scene this evening.

Went to get fish and chips in central Canterbury and as I'm standing on the pavement outside the shop admiring a bright yellow Lamborghini, I hear an almighty crash, look up and a Deliveroo scooter has gone into the back of a red car (didn't actually catch the model) on the other side of the road.  Bloke gets out of the red car and starts shouting at the scooter driver, demanding insurance details and getting very aggressive until it was pointed out by a bystander that the blue Golf that's directly behind the scooter went into the back of the scooter, smashing it in turn into the back of the red car.

After about three or four minutes of shouting, everyone seems to be getting on better when they try to pick up the scooter.  As soon as the scooter is upright, the engine starts and it's evidently still in gear and the two blokes are desperately trying to stop it crashing into the door of the Lamborghini and kill the engine.

I thought they'd actually tapped it but it didn't look like there was any damage.  Lamborghini owner nowhere in sight.  Another scooter pulls over (another Deliveroo) and the arguments start all over again.  Fuck knows why.

Police turn up.  Lamborghini driver turns up and the chip shop owner (who obviously knows him) tells him to check his door.

'For fucks' sake, I've just had a 25 thousand Pound door fitted!  That's how much they cost!'

He seems happy that the door hasn't been damaged and drives off, making a racket with his V12, briefly drowning out the continuing arguments across the road (at this point I have no idea why they're even arguing). 

Get my food, scarper back and drive off.  Filmed the first argument but sadly missed the scooter-Lamborghini-interface antics.

 

Id have loved to have been a fly on the wall at this scenario ha ha

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28 minutes ago, GrumpiusMaximus said:

Bloke gets out of the red car and starts shouting at the scooter driver, demanding insurance details and getting very aggressive until it was pointed out by a bystander that the blue Golf that's directly behind the scooter went into the back of the scooter, smashing it in turn into the back of the red car.

Had similar, years ago when I stopped at a Zebra crossing. Woman just started crossing when I got rear-ended and pushed forward. Woman's Mother (mouthy & Italian) started ranting and raving at ME for trying to run over her daughter.

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We've had a couple of dry and fairly mild (if a tad* breezy) days this week so I've been doing a bit of mid-week fettling in my lunch breaks.

The Maxus now has a working heater blower, thanks to the excellent Sunny Jim of this parish who extricated one from a dead Maxus and posted it to me.  I was pleased to find that it works on all four speeds - I was half expecting the resistor to be dead which would have meant that it only worked on hurricane setting.  It'll be nice to be able to get some warm air without having to plug the inverter in, and it may also come in handy if we get a summer this year and I need to run the aircon.

The next job on the van is to try and fix the passenger window, which doesn't go down.  The motor appears to be doing something as trying to wind the window up makes the interior light dim so it's obviously drawing current, but it doesn't want to go down.  Both door switches have the same effect so I think it's a motor issue rather than a switch issue - maybe the "down" wire has broken, come loose or corroded.  I'm going to have to get the door card off and investigate at some point.

I attempted a fix on the Laguna's boost hose - I Gorilla glued the plastic back together where it had split, then ran a thick bead of Tiger Seal round the outside of the join - that way there's a minimal risk of anything getting sucked into the engine.  It's definitely made an improvement but it's not 100% - I don't think superglue or Tiger Seal were designed to cope with that sort of temperature, so I think I'm going to have to bite the bullet and buy a repair section.  At least I now know how the thing goes together - I found that unclipping the PAS reservoir gives a bit of extra wiggle room to get the pipe in and out, which helps avoid having to bend it too far, although the replacement section is rubber so that will be less of an issue.  Still an expense I could have done without mind...

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8 hours ago, wuvvum said:

The next job on the van is to try and fix the passenger window, which doesn't go down.  The motor appears to be doing something as trying to wind the window up makes the interior light dim so it's obviously drawing current, but it doesn't want to go down.  Both door switches have the same effect so I think it's a motor issue rather than a switch issue - maybe the "down" wire has broken, come loose or corroded.  I'm going to have to get the door card off and investigate at some point.

Don't know what's the failure point on the Maxus but I've fixed a few broken motors by hitting them with a mallet while pushing down on the open button. 

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On 17/02/2022 at 01:27, mitsisigma01 said:

Would of been more interesting if he had hit the Lambo and then found out the scooter rider didn't have business insurance for his moped 😕

What, lyke...... You sayyin the line of baldy/partworn shod Clio's n Pugz - half wheel parked along the High St pavement - dooinn Pizza/Kebab runs are....errrr NOT 😱

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I've just been in the town's Cheap Shop. They've got everything useful eg paint, brushes, bolts, washers, buckets, plastic storage bins etc. You know the sort of place, heavily into vape stuff too. 

Anyway I went in for some electrical plugs and was grateful they were open and had some, 75p each or summat, perfect. 

Old boy walks in and shouts, "How much is your shoe polish?"

"One pound fifty" they replied. 

"That's too much! Too much! It's ninety pence in Leamington you know."

"Better go to Leamington then" I said. 

Miserable old bastard! Just comes in to moan about the prices. Which are very reasonable, and they're open Sundays. Unlike the old-timey hardware store opposite, which even shuts for lunch. lunch during the week. 

Some people are just cunts. 

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15 minutes ago, Split_Pin said:

In that first picture I can't see any rust free metal.

Right down to the jacking point is rotten, there's a ton of corrosion on the back end but looks like it's only on the drivers side.

Rear valance from drivers side to the middle is gone too, anywhere the seam sealer failed just fell to bits. 

 

 

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2 hours ago, grogee said:

I've just been in the town's Cheap Shop. They've got everything useful eg paint, brushes, bolts, washers, buckets, plastic storage bins etc. You know the sort of place, heavily into vape stuff too. 

Anyway I went in for some electrical plugs and was grateful they were open and had some, 75p each or summat, perfect. 

Old boy walks in and shouts, "How much is your shoe polish?"

"One pound fifty" they replied. 

"That's too much! Too much! It's ninety pence in Leamington you know."

"Better go to Leamington then" I said. 

Miserable old bastard! Just comes in to moan about the prices. Which are very reasonable, and they're open Sundays. Unlike the old-timey hardware store opposite, which even shuts for lunch. lunch during the week. 

Some people are just cunts. 

I repair a particular gear ECU for a truck, it's a lot of work and materials. We charge £880. They're £3500 new, or £400 for a 2nd hand one that's usually knackered.

Had one in the other day, tested it, confirmed it was fucked, phoned the guy with a quote "Yep, we can recondition it, it'll be ready in 3 days. £880 please"

"HOW MUCH? I can get a 2nd hand one for £400"

"OK then you'll have to do that instead, our prices are what they are and we think they're very good value, especially compared to a new unit with a warranty"

"But I've already bought three 2nd hand ones and none of them worked"

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1 hour ago, GingerNuttz said:

Right down to the jacking point is rotten, there's a ton of corrosion on the back end but looks like it's only on the drivers side.

Rear valance from drivers side to the middle is gone too, anywhere the seam sealer failed just fell to bits. 

 

 

I liked this, but probably shouldn't as I'm paying the bill...

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