Member postings for ChrisH

Two days ago went into the shed and was surprised to see a blooming great hornet sitting on the window blind. He looked as if he was of the 'if he says it's Tuesday, it's Tuesday" variety. So I was all kind and considerate, captured him, took him outside and let him fly off.

Today I went in the shed and he's back in there, looking all mean and stroppy. Well, it might be a him, it might be a her, it might be him or it might be one of his mates. Whatever way, I was none to thrilled at the thought hornets might be considering my shed to be a good place to hang out in, so this time he came to an untimely end. I hear they eat bees so was OK doing that - I like bees.

Just hope there's not a hornets nest nearby; hornets I can do without.

Chris

Edited By ChrisH on 20/05/2018 21:30:51

Mike - good news re the tee shirt, sorry to hear about the medical problem. If you manage to find a doctor to prescribe a daily dose of cabernet sauvignon please let me know and return the favour! And I agree Nurse Dracula sound a much nicer person than a leech, there are enough leeches in this world of all types.

Chris

So sorry to hear your awful news, my wife and I offer our best wishes to both you and your wife and with for a speedy recovery for her.

In the meantime, at the risk of upsetting some no doubt, your thoughts and efforts must be directed more to your wife than in satisfying impatient customers! You are very brave in the circumstance to be doing what you are doing.

Kind regards, Chris

I liked this tee shirt...

Robin.  Love it - must get one for my grandson...... Chris

Edited By ChrisH on 17/05/2018 10:03:49

Unexpected parcel arrived in the post today from eldest daughter. She is her fathers daughter and shares my sense of humour. Parcel contained a tee shirt:

To add to a previous tee shirt:

We gave up buying sherry.

Would buy a bottle with the weekly shop, get back home and have 'a sherry' whilst we unloaded/put away the shop before lunch, and ended up every week with the bottle neigh-on gone before we had lunch.

When it got to the stage when we regularly took the top off a new bottle of sherry and threw it away on the basis we'd not need it again we binned buying sherry.

It was nice though.........

Good day out today, drove through lovely countryside to Dartmoor with it's stunning views for a picnic lunch, then on down into Plymouth to get some essential suppliers for the next brew from excellent home brew shop The Hop Shop in Mutley, then back via the A30 stopping at Monkton at the Otter Valley Ice Cream lay-by for the best chocolate ice cream, in the world (said all Jeremy Clarkson). Probably (apologies to Carlsberg)! Brew day Monday now to look forward to.

Chris

In engineering, isn't a 'screw' short for an 'engineering screw', meaning a threaded piece that needs a nut or similar thread in a metal piece to secure, as opposed to a screw that chippys use to attach thing together in wood?

(Ignoring air screws and screw propellors etc etc!)

Chris

My daughter had a only call t'other day saying her computer was being hacked. After a few moments and thankfully without giving anything away she realised it was a scam and hung up.

Next day they tried again. This time she was waiting for them and said "just hold on a moment whilst I get my dictaphone. Please note that this call will be recorded and may be used in training" - (how often have you heard that message?!).

Click.  

And they haven't been back.  She also realised it was the same mob the second time as the patter was identical, even though they said it was another company calling

She did get her computer checked out anyway "just in case" - fortunately it was OK, they hadn't managed to hack into it.

Edited By ChrisH on 25/04/2018 10:51:40

I can appreciate 'snap' being used by miners, it was back then a very mining area, but 'bait'?

'Snap'. - I have never quite got my head round the term 'snap', meaning (I think) elevenses or packed lunch, carried in a 'snap tin' or 'snap box'. Only ever heard the term in North Nottinghamshire/South Yorkshire area.

A 'midges' is well known in engineering circles meaning a very tiny amount, as is 'Donald' (from Donald Duck) meaning broken, and describing a ship as a 'disnay ship' - further refined by enlarging to 'this disnay work and that disnay work' of Scottish or Glaswegian extraction.

Ian, just because it is new doesn't mean it can't be faulty - though in this case Mick's pump fortunately was a good one.

Got a new oven control thermostat from Rayburn. Fitted it and found it was controlling about 40 deg.C low - the cooker needed to be on max to get the oven hot enough to cook. Memsahib not best pleased, so say the least. Phoned Rayburn Technical who after hearing the tale of woe said no, it wasn't adjustable - all it needed to be so was a suitably placed little adjustable grub screw - so it was faulty and needed changing. So replacement thermostat hopefully arriving today, fingers crossed!

Mike, we (i.e. me and the lads off the ship I was on) did enjoy the trip down The Gut, but it was an experience of the more basic kind - bit like the Reeperbahn and round about there in Hamburg in some ways. Glad the pump worked and all is good.

Chris (ex-MN engineer)

Keith, I quite agree that for a 2 stroke the end of the plug should be flush with the surface of the combustion chamber, or cylinder head in most realities.

However, I understand that the end of the plug in a 4 stroke should protude into the combustion space, hence the 4 stroke plugs having that extra length after the end of the threaded section. As there is more time in a 4 stroke engine for the plug to cool down between combustion firings than there is in a 2 stroke engine, the bit that protrudes into the combustion space is more exposed to the heat of combustion than a 2 stroke plug, flush with the surface, would be. This exposure allows the plug to get hotter than it would have done if left flush and thus by the time next combustion stroke comes around it is still hot enough to do the job for which it's there.

I guess the reverse of this is that if a 2 stroke plug protruded then it would get too hot and burn out more quickly; keeping the end flush helps ensure that the plug is a bit protected by the surrounding metal of the combustion chamber and thus can maintain a more suitable maximum temperature.

Chris

"The Gut", Malta, yes, once in about 1970 or very early 1971. Very basic it was, a bit too much so for me, but the Jolly Jack Tars seemed to be enjoying it.

Chris

My understanding is that the so-called 'long' type F plug for the 4 strokes is longer as the nose of the plug, the business end with no threads, has to stand proud of the cylinder head so as to receive more heat from the combustion and get and stay hotter for longer while the engine does twice as many strokes as the 2 strokes, unlike the 2 stroke plugs which end flush (or thereabouts ) with the cylinder head.

"This is the tea-room topic. Everything except sex, politics and religion is fair game." Blooming 'eck Neil, for some poor sad souls there's nothing left for them to talk about.

But cars are an interesting topic, as lads we could talk about those all day, so lets all let it roll on ........!

My mate had a Mondeo Estate as a company car which he then bought at the end of the term. Did about 250,000 miles in it. The local Ford garage used to joke and ask if there were any guarantee items to do at each service in the end...........

A supposedly true story on company cars. At a dinner party boring yuppie was banging on about his latest company car, how wonderful it was, how fast it went, what super handling it had, a Porche of course, doesn't everyone have one, The guy next to him was rather quiet, saying little, so boring yuppie turned to him and pointedly asked what company vehicle he had in a very condescending manner. A Tornado the quiet chap replied, I'm a Squadron Leader in the RAF. Dead silence from the yuppie, completely put in place and shot down.

I totally agree about badly crab pots and bits of discarded fishing nets fouling the props of sailing yachts - an absolute nightmare, especially at night. Mike is right that is not only a danger to Yotties lives but also to wild life. If one could link the danger to the culprit and punish then that would be good but in real life that is impossible.

My comments were not exactly a rant, but more comments on what I had observed in everyday sailing jaunts, and of all those who 'sail' upon the water whether by sail, motor or paddle, and their interaction with each other and with the amateur or 'hobby' fisherman; we are all persuing our hobby and at our own expense, but the lack of consideration to other engaged in their hobby on the same waters I found to be staggering and often arrogant and certainly not in the spirit of the sea, where seafarers traditionally considered and helped each other. For me it often spoilt the enjoyment of what should have been a lovely day - sailing with nice company and especially if the sun was shining and the winds fair and not fierce!

Commercial fisherman are something else but at the end of the day they are trying to earn a living; the seafarers I refer to are not.

We sailed a Prout catamaran - the peace and quiet under sail was most valued, with the bonus of being able to hoist the drive leg out the water when the engine was no longer required adding to the experience. There were times when nothing could beat it, brilliant days out.

And I totally agree that a Yottie is not someone who helms a motor boat. I was trying to be very kind. Motor motor boat drivers are generally a much lower form of seafaring life it seems, and in many ways I blame the dealers who make little of the problems of handling a boat - "oh no trouble at all sir, just like driving a car". Many of them do not take the trouble to learn the theory by attending the Yachtmaster evening courses or try and learn the skills of practical boat handling - witness one dosy 'skipper' in a 40ft gin palace trying to pick up a mooring buoy in Newton Creek next to me one sunny Sunday afternoon and making a complete bollocks of it despite having twin screws and a bow thruster to help him, pathetic!

Sorry Sam, despite what you say and with which I have a fair degree of sympathy, I still blame boaties because of their lack of consideration to others. With the crowd I sailed with, if we saw fishing going on we would keep well clear so as not to disturb them; unfortunately, not many others did. A lot of fishing gear can be damaged by inconsiderat boaties sailing too close.

Chris