What makes you grin? Antidote to grumpy thread

[dozeydustman]

I hope I have a legacy, but I don't think it's going to be the Chilli Lasagne that I once made by confusion

 

 

Now that sounds worth trying. Me gusta chill, me gusta lasaña. Perhaps a different cheese in the sauce would work?

[Guest Hooli]

They were known as festitutes at festival park

A mate's sister who hung out with us but didn't drive was called queen skippy, she still hates to be called that as far as I know.

[Saabnut]

After 2 weeks of glorious sunshine and mid 20s temperatures down here in France, today whilst still sunny was down to 13c. The forecast for the next few days is much colder (6-7c) and night temps to about 2c, so I decided to fire up the heating to check all was OK before I needed it. It is oil fired CH and the last time it was switched on was early April, so WCPGW?

Turned it on, it went through the start up sequence and ..... nothing! It failed to ignite and the reset button just resulted in repeated repeats!

 

Why is this a grin? Phoned my mate (a rare example of a good plumber/heating engineer) who listened to the attempted start and then took me through how to clean the optical sensor. Five minutes later a re-try and all was OK.

 

Typing this from a toasty living room with a crystal clear night outside with temps around 4c.

[cobblers]

This morning I was freezing cold, wet, frustrated and covered in mucky brake fluid after spending about an hour fucking about trying in vain to get all the shoe retaining springs back together on my other halfs fiat 500. A simple job, but as my hands got colder and colder and my (crap, but all I had to hand here) tools and gloves got wetter and more covered in slime I was getting knowhere. Fed up, I chucked all the tools in the boot of the car, locked it and walked all the way down the street back home, in a right mood, freezing cold and pissed off.

 

The mrs saw how miserable I was, told me to not bother over her car.

She made me a hot chocolate and while she cooked me a full english she forced me to sit on the sofa next to the radiator with a dog either side to warm me back up.

 

Once I was fed and warmed up, I went back up and it took about 5 minutes to sort it all out. She's not so bad really.

 

[Aston Martin]

So, tell me about your ex-wife.

[dozeydustman]

[JeeExEll]

I overheard a conversation today in which a colleague spent a decent amount of time and effort trying to explain to someone how somewhere could in the south end of Northern Ireland. "But how can it be in the south if its in the north?"

 

She absolutely couldn't comprehend this until it clicked with me that she didn't realise that North and South were "directions" as well as regions. She's in her mid-20s.

We used google maps to try and help illustrate this, and I ended up mentioning that France is a lot closer to us than Ireland. My colleague mentioned the Channel Tunnel to her, and she didn't believe it was real.

"What? a tunnel? Underwater? Won't it flood? How do the cars see where they are going?"

Reminds me of when my mum and dad went to visit my brother who lives in Dublin. Probably about 15 years ago now, and there was a LOT of construction work going on around the Dublin airport area.

Brother picked them up in his car and my dad asked what all the construction work was for. Brother jokingly said "They're building a tunnel across to Scotland". My dad asked where it would come out in Scotland, and my brother answered "Aberdeen".

 

My mum then said "Oh, that'll be really handy, we won't need to get the plane anymore".

Proposed route of the Aberdeen - Dublin Tunnel. Further tunnel branches may open later going to Glasgow, Edinburgh, and possibly Inverness.

[Cavcraft]

Shouldn't really laugh about this as I hate drugs, but a lad I knew years back spent about 40 minutes last night repeatedly telling me how he doesn't do coke any more. Hmm. 

[chaseracer]

 

Oops.

 

I've just enjoyed a very early lunch...

 

 

[xtriple]

It is effin freezing out there, I was not looking forward to the afternoon mooch round the clifftop park and to add to the lack of desire, I have lost my dog walking tea-cosy. However, Phoebe has discovered the lost joys of storage heaters and is squeezed into a gap half a  dog-sized to be as close as possible to the heat.

 

Chester can just get dragged round later.

[Frogchod]

Look at this beauty It even has an AutoShite logo

I removed this from a 1950's French house I'm re-wiring. I have no use for it, but I'm keeping it coz it's cool.

100 virtual internet points if you know what it is.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

 

Oops.

 

I've just enjoyed a very early lunch...

 

 

You're not alone, at about 09.35 I got a call from my 10.30 asking where I was...

[JeeExEll]

Look at this beauty It even has an AutoShite logo

I removed this from a 1950's French house I'm re-wiring. I have no use for it, but I'm keeping it coz it's cool.

T1.jpg

100 virtual internet points if you know what it is.

Is it a doorbell?

[LightBulbFun]

Look at this beauty It even has an AutoShite logo

I removed this from a 1950's French house I'm re-wiring. I have no use for it, but I'm keeping it coz it's cool.

T1.jpg

100 virtual internet points if you know what it is.

 

I spy a mercury tilt switch  (interesting 3 position mercury tilt switch too)

 

so im guessing some sort of old thermostat?

[somewhatfoolish]

Look at this beauty It even has an AutoShite logo

I removed this from a 1950's French house I'm re-wiring. I have no use for it, but I'm keeping it coz it's cool.

T1.jpg

100 virtual internet points if you know what it is.

A bell ringer of some kind? Doorbell or maybe phone?

[dozeydustman]

Look at this beauty It even has an AutoShite logo

I removed this from a 1950's French house I'm re-wiring. I have no use for it, but I'm keeping it coz it's cool.

T1.jpg

100 virtual internet points if you know what it is.

 

 

Electro-mechanical gubbins. Given that the bottom quadrant piece looks like it's designed to swing, some kind of indicator. Servant's call bell box like this, but for one room/door (rear/delivery entrance)

 

[chadders]

We had one of these in out last house, built in the 1930's.

 

I planned on getting it to work but 14 years wasn't long enough so we left it for the next owners, who probably skipped it as they did with the stained glass windows etc. in order to create a glass monstrosity.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

I spy a mercury tilt switch  (interesting 3 position mercury tilt switch too)

 

so im guessing some sort of old thermostat?

I know nothing of electrical shite, but I've seen enough movies and read enough thrillers to know that sounds like a component of a car bomb.

[Cavcraft]

We had one of these in out last house, built in the 1930's.

 

I planned on getting it to work but 14 years wasn't long enough so we left it for the next owners, who probably skipped it as they did with the stained glass windows etc. in order to create a glass monstrosity.

 

There have been (at least) two incidents of that quite locally. Some really, really nice probably 1930's large houses having been bought by some twat/s with shares in grey paint and bad taste. From lovely, characterful houses that were easy on the eye, they've turned into vile 'new money' style shit palaces. 

[fordperv]

My capri has returned to my house from mums this afternoon, chucked a battery on and it fired straight into life, when it was back gave it a nice bath, it's ready for me to fire into now after grabbing a few more bits

[Timewaster]

Shouldn't really laugh about this as I hate drugs, but a lad I knew years back spent about 40 minutes last night repeatedly telling me how he doesn't do coke any more. Hmm.

Moved on to crack?

[richardmorris]

Just spotted on Surrey traffic cops twitter.

[fordperv]

That's brill I bet their bollocks soon shrunk when they realised their mistake

[Frogchod]

I spy a mercury tilt switch  (interesting 3 position mercury tilt switch too)

 

so im guessing some sort of old thermostat?

You should have got this lightBulbFun It's a timer relay for a lighting circuit. In this instance there were 4 push buttons to control a light over some stairs. Push any button and the solenoid activates momentarily, tips the mercury switch and sets the pendulum going. Pendulum swings and with mechanical magic tips the mercury back and the lights go off. There's a cam to adjust time delay.

I'll be replacing it with a solid state gizmo that'll fit behind one of the switches. This one had to go because the room it was in will be a shower.

[richardmorris]

Electro-mechanical gubbins. Given that the bottom quadrant piece looks like it's designed to swing, some kind of indicator. Servant's call bell box like this, but for one room/door (rear/delivery entrance)

 

Butlers-Servants-Bell-Call-Box-5.jpg

My parents have the exact same one in their breakfast room. The house is about 1910 and when they moved in had the pull cords in the rooms.

[Wack]

Didn't know which thread to put this in

At a boot sale this morning I saw a mountain bike with a small petrol engine fitted

 

Not a heath robinson one, it looked professionally built

 

The guy riding it was American, no crash helmet or number plate , I didn't speak to him but wondered if he'd bought it with him from the US because surely it needs registering as a moped

[LightBulbFun]

You should have got this lightBulbFun It's a timer relay for a lighting circuit. In this instance there were 4 push buttons to control a light over some stairs. Push any button and the solenoid activates momentarily, tips the mercury switch and sets the pendulum going. Pendulum swings and with mechanical magic tips the mercury back and the lights go off. There's a cam to adjust time delay.

I'll be replacing it with a solid state gizmo that'll fit behind one of the switches. This one had to go because the room it was in will be a shower.

 

Crap I had a hunch it may of been some sort of time switch

 

but I remembered that some old thermostat units have mercury tilt switches in them (you hear about it from time to time (heh) in Lawsuit land also known as the US) so decided to go with that

 

but since this is a good excuse to mention lightbulbs (hah like I need a good excuse ) find anything interesting in the house?

 

IIRC France back in the old days used to be 110V but used Bayonet capped lightbulbs, wonder if theres anything hiding in the loft or such?

[Fumbler]

Didn't know which thread to put this in

At a boot sale this morning I saw a mountain bike with a small petrol engine fitted

 

Not a heath robinson one, it looked professionally built

 

The guy riding it was American, no crash helmet or number plate , I didn't speak to him but wondered if he'd bought it with him from the US because surely it needs registering as a moped

Project Farm did some tests on those engines. They seem pretty nice and the finished outcome can be good but the guards and universal mounts aren't really "universal". Horrendous breaking in mixture you have to use on one of those! (thinking it's 15 parts oil to 1 part petrol).

[richardmorris]

My parents have the exact same one in their breakfast room. The house is about 1910 and when they moved in had the pull cords in the rooms.

Here you go...

[mat_the_cat]

We've just been on holiday to Greece for my wife's 40th birthday, and went back (briefly) to the same small village that we spent some time in on our first holiday together some 20 years ago. I didn't ask for a re-run of the photo though!

 

 

 

Oh, and as a bonus saw this on the back streets of Athens!