19,799 posts
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Dec 1, 2020 18:03:20 GMT
Just got a newsflash on my phone that Elaine Paige has come out as transgender and changed her name to Eliot.
Then I read it again and it’s Ellen Paige 😄
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3,321 posts
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Post by david on Dec 1, 2020 18:46:15 GMT
Me too. Valve gone on Friday just as it was getting chilly. Will be repaired with another fault discovered by engineer, tomorrow we hope. Meanwhile burning up the electricity with heaters. Got hot water so not entirely prehistoric. For us it always the weeks before Christmas. I remember when a telly broke about a week before. Can you imagine? Local shop brought one round, set it up. Then the car does something weird....all before the shut down /lockdown we impose on ourselves, called Christmas. Ours got fixed yesterday afternoon. Now we just have to spend the next two weeks hoping we haven't caught covid from the two repair men! A weekend without heating was inconvenient but not unbearable as we have a back-up immersion heater, a fireplace in the sitting room, & my mother found the electric heater I bought 14 years ago when I had a boiler failure while at university. In that case it took a fortnight to be mended & there was no hot water available so it was absolutely ghastly. I escaped home for as much of the fortnight as I was able to. I find doing without heating decidedly easier than doing without hot water. If I was stuck on a desert island I think my luxury would be a fully plumbed bathroom with ample hot water & soap supplies! , talking about boilers, I had my boiler serviced last winter without any issues, then a few weeks later it decided to completely die on me at the beginning of the year 😡 so I ended up getting a brand new boiler as the repair job would be at least 50% of the cost of a new one. No hot water or heating for a few weeks in winter was an experience I don’t want to repeat anytime soon. |
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2,389 posts
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Post by peggs on Dec 1, 2020 19:49:55 GMT
The boiler people have been out now three times in last 2 weeks, due back friday and came at beginning of first lock down too, issue still not fixed, each new person does the same thing and confidently says it will be fine this time. Really hoping haven't just dislodged part of a filling and it was just some random very hard food. Had three different back to back meetings this afternoon, crashed from one to another never really sure what I was doing. So impressed londonpostie got dentist sorted by dint of the uniform. |
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4,030 posts
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Post by Dawnstar on Dec 1, 2020 22:45:20 GMT
The boiler people have been out now three times in last 2 weeks, due back friday and came at beginning of first lock down too, issue still not fixed, each new person does the same thing and confidently says it will be fine this time. Really hoping haven't just dislodged part of a filling and it was just some random very hard food. I had to read this twice as the first time I thought your boiler was having problems with fillings & food! That makes me feel we were very lucky to just have 2 people come on the one day.
david Ugh, that sounds horribly cold. Though at least you didn't have to worry about the covid complication last winter (I'm assuming you don't live in China!). |
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Post by londonpostie on Dec 2, 2020 5:33:24 GMT
So impressed londonpostie got dentist sorted by dint of the uniform. We do get occasional random acts of politeness and recognition  Always comes as a surprise. |
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2,389 posts
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Post by peggs on Dec 2, 2020 11:59:21 GMT
The boiler people have been out now three times in last 2 weeks, due back friday and came at beginning of first lock down too, issue still not fixed, each new person does the same thing and confidently says it will be fine this time. Really hoping haven't just dislodged part of a filling and it was just some random very hard food. I had to read this twice as the first time I thought your boiler was having problems with fillings & food! That makes me feel we were very lucky to just have 2 people come on the one day.
david Ugh, that sounds horribly cold. Though at least you didn't have to worry about the covid complication last winter (I'm assuming you don't live in China!). Sorry my mind wanders a fair bit! |
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Post by Deleted on Dec 2, 2020 13:25:55 GMT
I need to get my boiler serviced. Had to skip it last year for health reasons; haven't booked it this year for pandemic reasons. At least it's only a few years old so it's likely to be reliable, replacing a back boiler that probably dated from the 1970s and was reliable only in its ability to fail at heating anything.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 3, 2020 19:51:59 GMT
As a child I had a paddling pool in the garden. As an adult I have one in the back of my car.
I have a leak somewhere. I'm going to have to mop out the boot and then pour water on to various parts in the rear left corner to see where it starts coming through and then see if I can get it patched up. The same issue was the beginning of the end for my last car so I expect this one will need to be replaced in the next year or two as well.
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5,160 posts
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Post by TallPaul on Dec 4, 2020 10:19:03 GMT
It's snowing! ❄
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2,389 posts
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Post by peggs on Dec 4, 2020 18:50:08 GMT
Played hide and seek with my niece via facetime. I think it might be better than in actual person as you don't have to try and find somewhere to hide you just tilt your phone so they can't see you (that really threw her when she came back to the cupboard she'd left me and phone in and she couldn't see me) and you just shout boo a lot. Plus virtually sat in the bottom of a cupboard going shhh and giggling with a toddler while her mother pretends she can't find you both is oddly therapeutic.
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4,993 posts
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Post by Someone in a tree on Dec 4, 2020 19:07:25 GMT
My employer, Southwark Council has given all staff an additional days leave as a thank you
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Post by Forrest on Dec 4, 2020 21:01:40 GMT
My employer, Southwark Council has given all staff an additional days leave as a thank you That's nice! We got two additional days off, so the Christmas break comes to a full two weeks, and I think everyone is kind of slowly but surely counting the days... On a less Christmassy note, I'm adding myself to the Board's list of people having household trouble: the heating in my room doesn't work properly, so I've spent the day working in a semi-cold room (we have no shared living room in my flat, just a tiny kitchen) or under a blanket. My landlord is coming to "fix it" tomorrow, but every time he offers to fix things they end up being equally bad or worse, so I'm not overly optimistic about this... |
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2,412 posts
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Post by theatreian on Dec 4, 2020 23:31:37 GMT
My landlord is coming to "fix it" tomorrow, Well best of luck and hope it gets sorted. We have had a few problems with our boiler the last few weeks , hopefully sorted now. |
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2,389 posts
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Post by peggs on Dec 4, 2020 23:37:01 GMT
Oh dear @forrest I hope this time is different. I swear the gas man has made the hot radiators even hotter and the colder ones even colder. So that means my room and the living room might as well not have a radiator but if I want to live and work in the dog bed i'll be fine!
I used to work in education so it would shut from christmas until new year which was nice, now get christmas day and that's about it. I'm on duty roster on top of normal day up until 23 and then again from 29 so can't book time off. Someone suggested it would be a nice gesture to give staff christmas eve off but we were told that we'd all been working so hard that we hadn't been able to take all our leave so giving us more leave would in fact just make us more stressed?! Right, yes.
Still the alarm clock is at least switched off for tomorrow and i've marked waterstones word of the year, snaccident, by eating a whole packet of jaffa cakes.
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5,160 posts
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Post by TallPaul on Dec 5, 2020 9:59:12 GMT
Being an expert on such matters, I would suggest a bleeding key is a good place to start. It could be the best 59p ever spent! 🙂
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Post by Forrest on Dec 5, 2020 15:13:34 GMT
peggs, I think we may have the same issue: two of the rooms have great heating, two (mine included) have crappy one. Btw, your employer's logic is just... Baffling. Sure, since you're already overworked, the idea of a day off would surely make you all anxious; flawless! :where's_a_facepalm_emoji_when_I_really_need_one: TallPaul, next time I (and peggs) should just call you, I'm sure you'd do a better job! :)
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1,348 posts
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Post by tmesis on Dec 5, 2020 15:51:05 GMT
Being an expert on such matters, I would suggest a bleeding key is a good place to start. It could be the best 59p ever spent! 🙂 I find bleeding radiators a strangely satisfying pastime. Also with the more modern type a key is not necessary - a screwdriver does the job. |
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1,863 posts
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Post by NeilVHughes on Dec 5, 2020 16:25:47 GMT
Damn modernity, your first radiator bleeding key is a rite of passage to adulthood and responsibility.
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1,348 posts
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Post by tmesis on Dec 5, 2020 17:49:50 GMT
... aah yes, the satisfying hiss as the air lock is released followed by the tension filled wait and the delightful frisson as it turns to water. I like to play fast and loose - no namby pamby dishes to collect the water for me - my timing is impeccable for the all-important turn off.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 6, 2020 19:45:05 GMT
I bought a table lamp this morning. I thought the one at the front of the shelf might have been knocked around so I took the one behind it instead. Got home to find it was broken. Took it back and replaced it with the one at the front of the shelf that I'd rejected the first time, and that turned out to be fine after all. (Mostly. It was slightly bent off the vertical but I was able to bend it back.)
But come on, manufacturers. Protecting a glass globe with a single layer of bubble wrap that doesn't even cover all of it really isn't good enough.
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2,342 posts
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Post by theglenbucklaird on Dec 7, 2020 10:27:39 GMT
Took some supplies to my mother in laws at the weekend. She has just the six christmas trees up this year. One three foot one on a side unit, the remaining all floor standing one four foot, two six feet and two seven foot tall.
Wouldn't mind so much, it cheers her up and of course she does it for the grandchildren. But she only has a small two bed bungalow!!
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2,389 posts
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Post by peggs on Dec 7, 2020 11:48:49 GMT
Oh well played your mother in law.
Just managed to end up behind person sending two large bags worth of parcels round world in post office as I watched the postman arrive and go. Mind you his van seemed a bit full, the contents fell out and had to be thrown back in several times so maybe just as well my stuff wasn't part if it!
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2,342 posts
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Post by theglenbucklaird on Dec 7, 2020 12:07:13 GMT
Another thing I was going to say on the hope thing Christmas is bringing this year. We had the local roundtable Father Christmas on a sleigh come around on Saturday night. Loads of people out, not just on the doorsteps as Santa passes. Maybe two hundred out following.
They weren't knocking on doors this year for donations but did have socially distanced buckets on a stick Dick Whittington style if you did want to stick a few bob in the bucket.
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Post by vickyg on Dec 11, 2020 9:13:56 GMT
I was contacted late last night on the test and trace app and told to isolate until 22nd December. I feel completely fine and I know I'm very lucky that I haven't developed anything so far but I'm absolutely gutted to be missing the Artemisia exhibition on Sunday.
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2,389 posts
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Post by peggs on Dec 11, 2020 20:04:16 GMT
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Always comes as a surprise. 
