Oop north

as most of my readers know, I live in the sunny south of England. However I’m now visiting my son in the North of the country. on the way up, Mrs FE and myself were quite shocked at so many areas were underwater to some depth.

Today we visited that fine old city of York to do some early Christmas shopping in the St Nicholas Christmas market fair. It didn’t bode well from the beginning when we boarded the train from Darlington to York, and discovered it was packed to the Gunwhales (seafaring term for chockerblock), due to delays in the trains caused by the flooding.

On arriving in York we were met by icy cold winds and this blogger was quite happy to suggest to Mrs FE that she desperately needed to look in various shops for gifts. Just so he could retreat from the cold.

After some hours of shopping I think we were all glad to go back to my son’s house. But I was wondering if I would suffer the same fate as the day before.

On arrival at my son’s house on the,Thursday evening, the boy stated that the boiler wasn’t working as it had tipped out on low water pressure, and would i just top it up as he was going to make us tea.

Dead simple in practise. Not this bloody time. On opening it up a plastic fitting blew apart and ended up soaking yours truly with freezing water before I managed to close the valve. The plastic fitting was resecured but the next problem was that the endlessly butchered valve was found to be impossible to open.

Now by this time FE is not only cold but also wet and thought it imperative that we source a new valve from the local DIY superstore. And this we did. Having arrived back at the son’s place, fitted the new valve, shivering by now, I instructed my son to switch on the boiler.

FAULT F5.

Now most people would be reaching for the phone by now, but fortunately this problem is known and can be easily rectified. The problem is a sticky air flap valve. Solution is to break out the hairdryer strategically kept under the stairs and aim it for a few minutes at the offending area of the boiler. boiler will roar into life. Prayers of thanks my now be said.

The moral of this rambling post (fuelled by the famous grouse cheaper whisky, is that modern houses cannot exist without central heating as they usually have no means of heating without it.

So at least those of you who don’t have a fireplace go out and buy yourself a fan heater or two. especially as most pundits are predicting a cold winter this year.

Where’s that bloody Global Warming got to?

Bloody windows. AGAIN!!!

Some while ago I regaled you with problems involving windows seven on my laptop. This story is an even worse state of affairs. My desktop that I usually use has a 64 bit operating system, supposedly better and faster.

Bollocks

Yesterday it refused to connect to the internet. It recognised my router but decided that it would fail to go any further.

After a search on the laptop, which is 32 bit system, and had no problem connecting, the hunt for a solution begun.

In the end I ended up on a windows seven forum and that’s where the fun and games begun. Apparently it is a well known problem with the 64 bit system in windows 7. The services used to enable the computer to enable the internet somehow become switched off or disabled.

When you enter the services area of the computer you’re given a list of about 200 services of which 2 are major players in internet connection.

At first you think that just to set them to auto, shut  down the computer, reset, and bob’s your uncle.

No not so simple. each of the services has to rely on being connected to other services or the system will not work.

As it’s the Christmas season coming up. This is the analogy.

Imagine that you have a large christmas tree with 200 lights. Imagine that every light has to connect with five others in a seemingly random order before the lights will illuminate. I was the man connecting them today.

However after all day, and pages of scribblings the desktop is now communicating.

And No, system restore didn’t work.

Time to find another operating system. 

Why we’re in the mess we are.

We’re in the age of the Zealots.

When I changed my computer a while ago I lost a lot of my bookmarks of the websites I enjoyed. I’m glad that I’ve rediscovered one, well worth a read.

John Brignell explains why the country is heading downwards at an ever increasing rate.

Imagine telling somebody twenty years ago that by 2007, it would be illegal to smoke in a pub or bus shelter or your own vehicle or that there would be £80 fines for dropping cigarette butts, or that the words "tequila slammer" would be illegal or the government would mandate what angle a drinker's head in an advertisement may be tipped at, or that it would be illegal to criticise religions or homosexuality, or rewire your own house, or that having sex after a few drinks would be classed as rape or that the State would be confiscating children for being overweight. Imagine telling them the government would be contemplating ration cards for fuel and even foods, that every citizen would be required to carry an ID card filled with private information which could be withdrawn at the state's whim. They'd have thought you a paranoid loon.

And that’s just a taster to the rest of the post.

His post covers all the usual manufactured scare stories. Smoking, drinking, salt, obesity, and you name it.

So do give a look at it.

March of the zealots

Hamas explained

Pat Condell explains why talking to Hamas is a complete, utter, waste of time.

So if you vote UKIP you're racist

It would appear that in Rotherham you are.

Foster parents 'stigmatised and slandered’ for being members of Ukip

A couple had their three foster children taken away by a council on the grounds that their membership of the UK Independence Party meant that they supported “racist” policies.

Just listen to the head of childrens' services try to weasel here way out of the controversy 

listen to ‘Council protected children from 'strong views'’ on Audioboo

UPDATE
http://rotherhampolitics.wordpress.com/2012/09/29/joyce-thackers-priority-find-the-whistle-blower/

UPDATE

FIFTY SHADES OF ................

You appeared from nowhere and shamelessly, without any reservations, you laid on my naked body...you sensed my indifference, so you applied your hungry mouth to me without any guilt or humiliation, and you drove me near crazy while you drained me.

Finally, I drifted off to sleep.

Today when I awoke, you were gone, I searched for you but to no avail, only the sheets bore witness to last night's events.

My body still bears faint marks of your enthusiastic ravishing, making it all the more difficult to forget you.

Tonight, I will remain awake, waiting for you........

  F...ing mosquito!

And you thought this was going to be smutty did you?

An Electric car

Whilst searching on line for car insurance, the comparison web site I was using, advised me that I should have my driving licence handy. (I've absolutely no idea why, as I was never asked about anything on it).

This morning I picked it up to put it away, and idly opened it up and looked to see what I could legally drive. Car,yes. motorbike, yes. Moped, yes. And that's it.

So even if I wished to drive an electric car, I would in fact be breaking the law! And no I'm never going to want to buy one of those useless pieces of green junk.

Alright my licence was obtained many, many years ago, and the wording on new ones may be different. But are they? You tell me.

It’s a dirty little secret that climatologists definitely don’t want you to know.

Just to start the ball rolling on my behalf. Here is a statement:

Firstly:            Scientists aren’t Climatologists.

Secondly:        Climatologists aren’t Scientists.

Of course I’m neither. I’m an engineer. Which personally gives me a better balance than either of these two premises.

Scientists come up with theories and climatologists refer to models.

As an engineer I distrust both of them. (I’m being balanced here). As a Marine Engineer I can’t trust either. I deal in fact. If a scientist were to tell me  theoretically, that the engine standing next to us, that I was going to start,  would give me twice the power, I would tactfully suggest HE presses that start button. (FE would head for his lifeboat).

The same would be if I was told “that models suggest”, I would exit stage left just as quickly.

In my trade, denigrated as we are, I want hard fact not supposition.

Now I’ve got that of my chest, have a read of why a satellite, monitoring solar irradiance is a cause for concern.  

The problem with TSI

And the science is settled? It’s an interesting read.

Hamas

How can the civilised world condone this sort of religious bigotry?

The answer is that it isn’t a religion, it is a 7th century ideology akin to the beliefs of the Nazis. This is an ideology that brooks no opposition. Anyone that doesn’t agree with this primitive mind-set is fair game to be killed.

And these people expect us to help them. Sheesh!

You think I’m stupid?

Today was the day my renewal notice for my car insurance tumbled through the letter box and onto the mat. With bated breath I ripped open the envelope to get to the heart of “What are they going to try and con me into paying this time”?

£33 pounds more to be exact, is the figure. That’s 8% higher than last year. I would consider that figure to be unjustifiable as inflation at the most is 4% (Depending what index you use. RPI or CPI). and my car’s value has depreciated since last year.

So quick as a flash I logged into a price comparison website to see what insurance there was available for my trusty vehicle.

The only trouble with those sites is minutiae of detail they need for some reason. Why for instance do they need to know whether I’m married, homeowner, have children, or the names of my cats. (Alright I made the last one up).

Any way the upshot of all this bollocks was that eventually I found a policy that matched my needs. And of course it was lower than the quoted new premium by my present insurer. 11.5% less to be nearly exact. That’s less than I’m paying now.

Oh and do read the back of the renewal notice. My present insurer had quietly added into the policy that they were increasing the excess by a whopping £300.

I was nearly caught out a couple of years ago when the insurance company renewal notice gave me the renewal cost in bold on the front, but had hidden on the back the insurance tax and VAT.