Good Morning Thread - Come say good morning, tell us what you've got on today. :)

We have this thread on TilersForums.com and it's just been restarted because the old thread had 20,000 replies and 500,000 views. And there were 700 pages. Started to lag a bit on slow connections.

I think we had a bash of this before, but I can't find the thread, so thought I'd start another one off.

If you have time in the mornings, come post in the thread before you head off to work, let us know what you've got on and what the weather is like in your area etc. Anything at all is fine.

Posts and likes get counted towards your total stats in this thread.

So GOOOD MORNING PEOPLE - WEATHER IS NICE TODAY IN STOKE. I'M THANKFUL IT'S FRIDAY, HAD A RUBBISH WEEK. THANK GOD IT'S OVER.

View attachment 53708

 

[littlespark]

I’ll not tell you how much I spent getting the movers fitted….

Currently trying to fix the oven igniter….

Cleaning skylights…..

Trying to get the spare wheel bracket dislodged….

 

[brianmoooore]

I've since spent £20 on another faulty remote and control box. Remote was a incorrectly fitted ribbon cable after it had been previously taken apart to replace the battery connector, so I now have a complete working spare mover, with an ebay value of around £250, so, taking paint and a couple of small things into account, I reckon mine cost me about -£100.

 

[Mike Johnson]

The most useful thing fitted to my car is the reversing camera, I don't have to strain to see out of the rear window and I can see my tow hitch to line up the trailer, would not be without one now, in fact I had the last one retro fitted.

 

[littlespark]

Big big event this weekend. Something Great Britain has been looking forward to for years and years…





No, not the coronation….

Eurovision opening ceremony!

 

[littlespark]

Wife’s away up to Aberdeen for a couple days to start bringing the eldest’s stuff back from university. So I’m cooking for the younger two for tonight and tomorrow…..

Is maccy D’s two nights on the trot exceptable?


In other news…. Waiting for an X-ray appointment for my knee. Old age has finally caught up with me, it seems.
Pain behind one kneecap when leg is at a certain angle…. Unfortunately, that angle is driving position.
Getting up off the floor is torturous…
Climbing scaffold, which I did a lot of last week, is now nigh impossible.


Oh, it’s 11…. Time for a Big Mac.

 

[Mike Johnson]

In other news…. Waiting for an X-ray appointment for my knee. Old age has finally caught up with me, it seems.
Pain behind one kneecap when leg is at a certain angle…. Unfortunately, that angle is driving position.
Getting up off the floor is torturous…
Climbing scaffold, which I did a lot of last week, is now nigh impossible.

I bet it's a bucket handle meniscal tear it normally is.

 

[littlespark]

Re me knee.

Blood test tomorrow, just to check it’s nothing too serious, and got x ray appointment for 8th of June. Hopefully doesn’t fall off before then.

Had a phone call from a gym I’ve worked at, asking me if I had time today to disconnect sockets built into his serving counter…
So a quick phone call to the wife….. “ I’m going to the gym after work so I’ll be later home”
Always gets a laugh.

Straightforward 32A radial circuit in 4mm, which I thought was overkill for a computer, bottle fridge and a phone charger… but hey.

Disconnected from RCBO in board, then started testing and removing the sockets. All great til the last one… I find this.

And this!

 

[James]

Using a fan heater to keep the server warm?

 

[littlespark]

Using a fan heater to keep the server warm?

I think he said they plugged some heaters when it was cold…. Nice and cosy in front of that socket though.

That’s the pin of the plug still in the socket… only kept safe by not turning on the socket, and a bit of yellow/ black sticky tape.

 

[brianmoooore]

I think he said they plugged some heaters when it was cold…. Nice and cosy in front of that socket though.

Couple of heaters into a cube adaptor, plugged into that side of the socket?

 

[littlespark]

Todays trip to the stately home was to investigate, repair and get working the pump that runs their fountain…. Not been used for maybe 5 years.
Found this buried behind the the shrubbery.

Weatherproof box, granted, but flex to pump just cut, with choc block connectors then feeding a 12v PSU like you get for Christmas lights.
I removed the isolator lid before taking photo.
No one seems to know or remember if there was ever lights around this. (Pond and statuette fountain in centre)

This box controlled by time clock inside house.

Pump was working fine after I tidied all that up.



While I was down in the basement sorting out the time clock end, I had a sneaky look at their old servant bell system. Opened the front up.

It appears that the connection screws at the bottom are the lines up to the bell pushes in each room. So I could easily test this end by simply shorting between the pair of screws for each push button.

Not sure why there is two bells?
Maybe one for the main front doorbell, and a different sounding one for the rooms?

 

[littlespark]

Sat last night with the wife and a little glass of vino, telly watching, but nothing on as usual.

Channel 4 or 5 at about 9pm… and one of those 999, a&e type programmes is about to start with the usual “the following programme contains surgery and scenes that some people may find upsetting”

I think, oh the usual, little Timmy has come off his scooter and grazed a knee…. Or sweet little Lily has shoved a crayon up her nose…..

Oh no…. This was 50 year old Paul… who has come off a quad bike at speed and has literally SMASHED HIS FACE IN!!!

You see him being slid over from the ambulance trolley to the resus bed as the paramedic is explaining the injuries to the team… broken just about every bone in his face. one eye is so swollen up, you can’t see it… they move a bandage, and his other eye is dangling out the socket…..!

I almost choked on my Pinot.


Emergency tracheotomy as the poor guy can’t breathe normally for all the bone fragments down his throat…

Later in the programme, we’re in theatre… they’ve cut open the skin on his head, folded it over his face, and they’re busy drilling a hole through his skull to loosen a 2 inch wide shattered off piece of skull to put it back where it belongs…

Oh look. A brain…

A million pound Mecanno set is being screwed into the separate bone pieces to hold it together.
They fold back the massive flap of skin to cover what can be described as mini all-round-band cross crossing all over a mainly off white coloured smooth football.

In the end, Paul is sitting up, drinking through a straw and talking with his family. Unfortunately, he is now blind in both eyes…. but still breathing.

All in all, a miracle by the NHS. Worth every penny.

 

[littlespark]

Swapping old 1500W halogen floodlights for more economical LED. North side needed 3 heights of tower scaffold for the car park area… South is the gardens and I could reach off the roof…. But only just.
Luckily never been bothered with working high up

Can you see them?

 

[nicebutdim]

I'd have had a boom lift across that lawn.

 

[littlespark]

I'd have had a boom lift across that lawn.

I did offer that suggestion… went no further.

It might have been easier/quicker on the gravelled car park side… but scaffold isn’t too much hassle to build up.

There’s one light still to change over the East courtyard… not as important as the 4 I’ve done so far… will take 4 heights of tower, and a very good sense of balance.

 

[James]

Swapping old 1500W halogen floodlights for more economical LED. North side needed 3 heights of tower scaffold for the car park area… South is the gardens and I could reach off the roof…. But only just.
Luckily never been bothered with working high up

Can you see them?


View attachment 108376

I didn't know you were working on my weekend house, good work,
can't see any of the wiring you have hidden it well.

p.s. If you have a word with sam, the butler, he will find you a couple of pheasants for your trouble.

 

[littlespark]

This morning, in CEF, I witnessed a lesson in reading the website properly

I was picking up some smokies, and helping myself to their coffee machine when a rather flustered gentlemen came in and approached the counter.

“Hi… I’m in to pick up those relays”

“Sorry… which ones?”

“My office ordered them last night… just to pick up. For XXXXX ltd”

“Sorry. Let me check with colleague”

A lot of to-ing and fro-ing. The guy phones his office. Turns out his office dude had seen the quantity for delivery, not collection. And hadn’t even chosen a store.

The guy had driven 4 hours to pick up a couple of relays for a local hotel kitchen equipment, then he was going into Dundee, then onto Glasgow.

First job of the day failed. He was not a happy bunny when I left.

 

[James]

I have been out the back of a similar store, obviously NOT "city electrical" but I cant remember which one.

customer comes in to front counter
Customer: I Need one of these RCD's must be this particular one.

Manager: no problem, i will just check stock.
comes out back to double check

Manager: I am sorry but we don't have one but I can Get one on an overnight delivery to me, will be here by 8am
Customer: grumbles a bit but says ok, as long as it is absolutely, definitely going to be here in the morning.

Manager: not a problem, guaranteed delivery by 8am, it is a £35 urgent delivery cost to add on, is that ok?

Customer: ok, be back in the morning.

Manager, walks back to the stores, picks up said RCD, puts a next day before 8 sticker on it and puts it on the shelf for collections.

Since that day, I have never been a fan of any company that rhymes with shitty selector factories

 

[littlespark]

Re #1025 my knee.

Doc was on the phone today and it turns out to be high uric acid, gout, leading to arthritis.

Not even bloody 50 yet.


Doc is a customer, so she knows my job involves a lot of kneeling, standing, climbing….
She said if it gets really bad, they can use surgery to shave down the back of the kneecap to stop it rubbing.

Normal healthy eating suggestions… less fat, lose weight, cut down on the booze.. so no more

Thats the wife on a mission now.

 

[Mike Johnson]

I had my right elbow shaved down some years ago, it's now hurting again I had it done because it hurt more in the morning when I got up than when I went to bed, used to sleep with my arm on the bedside cabinet, now I am wearing a strap which helps, but not being able to straighten either elbow is something I have lived with since my 30's, now 75 and feeling every year.

 

[littlespark]

Sitting in a carpark in a local seaside town, and an older fella asks me for advice.


He lives down in Northumberland, and is on holiday just now... but the story is, he's got an old miners house that he rents out.
Agency wanted an EICR, so they organised someone... (red flag!)

The guy tells me this electrician was at the house for 90 minutes (red flag!) and gave an unsatisfactory outcome. Was explained to the owner that the tails needed replaced. (thats all)

I educated the gentleman on what would normally warrant a C1 or C2.... and that C3's were only advisable. I asked if the tails were old?, damaged?

No... nothing like that.... its just that the electrician upgrades them as company policy.

Another red flag.


I also explained that there is no need for the remedials to be done by the same company... you can get others to quote for it...


We watched someone trying to park for five minutes... then i went over the fact again that what he got was a 'report' not a 'certificate'.... and again..... he can get whoever he likes to do any work.


I didnt volunteer my services... for one, he's out my local area... and 2... he was complaining about £150 for a 'certificate' in the first place.

 

[littlespark]

Drove up to Aberdeen on Monday to go to daughters graduation…. Which was yesterday morning at the big exhibition centre.

Left as soon as we could after work, but hit both Edinburgh and Dundee at peak times. Almost a 6 hour drive, which should be 3 1/2.

Proud parents, she got a MA first class honours in Language and Linguistics with Mandarin…. And topping that, her final dissertation was chosen as the best from the language school of the university and is being put forward for a national judging panel.

The drive home yesterday was quicker. Stopped off at one of those family restaurants for dinner as a congratulations for her.

For those of you that know the area, this particular one is just off the main road at Camperdown… and we remember it under the different guise of The Outside Inn… which would have been the last time the 3 of us ate there about 15 years ago…

We sat reminiscing of how it used to look, when some other diners’ Nokia phone went off… that familiar nostalgic tune.. Just seemed very appropriate to what we were talking about.

 

[littlespark]

A word of warning, ladies and gents about the importance of correct PPE. Steel toe capped footwear to be precise.

Before work this morning, (yes, on a Saturday), I booked into the local recycling centre… which you need to do with a van or trailer… just getting rid of a bag of garden rubbish and a couple of broken tvs.

One of said tv’s was an older flat screen, about 40 inch. Easily manhandled in and out of the van… and as I was lowering it to the ground, it slipped, and edge landed on my big toe.

“Gee willerkers” I thought to myself… but my mouth inadvertently said something much different.


Carried on to work, thinking yeah it’s sore, but I don’t think it’s broken or anything, can still wiggle it…
Finished at 4, drove home, took off my shoes……

Socks are now in the bin. Big hole, and stained in blood. What a mess.
And my toe isn’t much better.

Skin off the top, bruising all around, and hopefully the nail doesn’t come off.

Enjoy you dinners!

 

[littlespark]

I can feel my toe again! And there’s a black bruise creeping up behind the nail. That’s going to look great sitting at the side of the pool when I’m on my cruise…. Did I say I was going on a cruise at the end of the month?

Anyway.
Was back today at that farmers cottage, and a took a wander around the empty sheds that surround the property… now it looks like a typical farm install….. these are live… as far as I can tell.

 

[James]

I can feel my toe again! And there’s a black bruise creeping up behind the nail. That’s going to look great sitting at the side of the pool when I’m on my cruise…. Did I say I was going on a cruise at the end of the month?

Anyway.
Was back today at that farmers cottage, and a took a wander around the empty sheds that surround the property… now it looks like a typical farm install….. these are live… as far as I can tell

Have you stuck your finger in to check?

 

[littlespark]

I actually tried a light switch, @James , and it worked.

 

[James]

I actually tried a light switch, @James , and it worked.

probably a better way to test with your finger, but i was close, you did in fact use your finger to check if it was live and it worked!!!

 

[littlespark]

probably a better way to test with your finger, but i was close, you did in fact use your finger to check if it was live and it worked!!!

actually used the insulated end of my hammer to turn on the switch... I'm not stupid, you know!

Ok... i was holding the hammer in my hand, which indeed utilised one or more fingers

 

[littlespark]

Back at the cottage, and in their infinite wisdom, they’ve decided to strap the walls, add insulation and board it before plastering…. Which was suggested at the beginning of the job by the joiner and was rejected.. change their mind now, after I’ve spent hard graft and sweat on chasing out the brick for all the sockets. Going to need long screws for the faceplates now.

Also noticed this, which is the overhead supply.
Worth reporting? . (Zoom in)

 

[DPG]

So they've put the wire that secures the aerial mast over the supply cable? That's a special kind of silly is that. I'd be reporting it.