What's made you smile today?

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What's made you smile today?

Good man Dave. Recon you probably saved someone's bacon there.

Thanks Jock. :) The guy was very relieved. I think he will stow things more carefully in future.

My uncle retired from the Railway at 65, did the usual retirement things (doing DIY, sorting his classic cars, etc) then got bored. He took on a failing youth club in a rough part of town and really turned it around. Everyone loved him and with fewer lads hanging around bored, the area was quite probably improving.

Then the local council found out that he was over 70 and sacked him on the spot. The youth club never re-opened.

This was the early 90s and today it would probably be run by a charity but a sad story of unthinking bureaucracy all the same.
 
Trip up the road to Edinburgh with my boy.

Did A68 rather than A1 both directions and it's so much better..also takes same amount of time due to more as crow flies distance. That and all the English border side all the cams have gone so you can get a decent average speed going without going mental. Way up was lovely caught people at points I could pass them didn't have any one up my chuff. Although the only people who caught me were clearly racing each other so might be something do with my own pace. Let them go by not wanting to get involved...Stuck behind a logging truck who was suspiciously fast everywhere except the long uphill sections that have double white lines on the way back. Unfortunately nothing I could do safely to pass him, touching 70 on the straights and had a habit on the straight bits of using a lane and half.

Good day at the Zoo and my 11 month old didn't kick off at all all day..which for him is miraculous so all around awesome.

Had forgotten how knackering 5 hours of actual driving is rather than 5 hours of motorway on cruise is though, I'm broken.
 
Had forgotten how knackering 5 hours of actual driving is rather than 5 hours of motorway on cruise is though, I'm broken.

I used to regularly do Cardiff to Stafford. M6/M5/A40 was the obvious route but border country Ludlow/Leominster/Hay on Wye/Brecon was far nicer and not a lot more time. The only snag was an infestations of speed cams so you spent more time watching the speed than the road.
 
I used to regularly do Cardiff to Stafford. M6/M5/A40 was the obvious route but border country Ludlow/Leominster/Hay on Wye/Brecon was far nicer and not a lot more time. The only snag was an infestations of speed cams so you spent more time watching the speed than the road.

Didn't need to worry about that thankfully was using Google maps/android auto on the way up and pinged every camera with about 300 yds warning.

Just knackering cos its one of those roads that's fun..but doing it either side of 4 hours of walking round Edinburgh zoo is not ideal. Can't switch off at any point, if its not corners its blind crests..if it's not blind crests its compressions and if it's none of that it's a really weathered road surface, which in my particular car means a lot of following cambers. But still fun if exhausted by the time home came into view at 9pm.
 
Unusual problem

An older chap this week had a nasty knee pain. NHS offered him painkillers, imaging showed nothing, physio offered exercises. Nothing was working.

I spent 1/2 hour doing all the tests nothing negative found. OK, let's go out of the box Parasthetica Meralgia - nope. Palpate all over looking for a painful bit - Nope. Upper lumbar nerve root - nope! Eventually I did find one of his quad muscles had a tight band. That's it! Massage did nothing much and it still hurt.

Have you had any head injuries, whiplash? "Well, I did have a stroke last year". This question is on my patient form but he forgot to mention that minor detail.

So there we had it - muscle hypertonicity caused by stroke damage. Prescription - regular massage of the tight muscles.

Phew!
 
Had a horrible noise coming from the back of the car...

Solved it!
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Early trip to the supermarket. (Ordinarily this would be a grumpy thread, or if not too bad, the 'not smile not grumpy' thread.)

An opportunity arose for a bit of mischief, which brightened the day.

About to enter an aisle, ahead, two women, one late middle-aged and her mum presumably, a trolley each, both nicely close to one side, but managing to knock stuff off the shelves.
So I moved along to another aisle, and returned a few minutes later. They're still there but past the point I needed.
I got what I wanted, and moved out to pass them, at which point the one in front spun her trolley around to block the remaining two-thirds width. I'm now central, trying to pass the older woman, who also spun her trolley around to face me.
So now I have these two facing me, side-by-side, no way past. People behind, one tutting nicely.
Initially I just stood my groound, waiting for one or both of them to realise they were the problem and move to create passage. Then the older woman looked directly at me and said, "could I just squeeze through please".
"NO", I said, calmly, quietly, but firmly, "you two are blocking the aisle, no-one is going anywhere until you sort it".
Got a snigger from behind me, some angry looks from the two women, but then they did manage to move sideways to create space for the rest of us to pass.

Did the rest of the shopping with a smile.
 
As a care worker part of my job is taking some clients shopping. One client who is very vocal, a nice chap in his thirties with slight learning difficulties, perfectly harmless but calls a spade a spade & laughs a lot. We always encounter yappy women blocking the isles. After some choice describing words from my client " you wimmin are too fat & taking up too much space" when said women are just about to retaliate, I produce my work card identity tag, shove it front of them & utter CARE IN THE COMMUNITY. The effect is priceless.:devil:

My client loves going out with me for various reasons..:D I love my job.
 
We've been doing the A1/M1 a couple of times lately when visiting my Daughter (and family) down near Salisbury Wilts instead of the A702/M74/M6 and I rather like it - need to keep your wits about you when not on the dualed bits though. I used to always use the A68 back in the late '60's and 70's when we lived down in London and were coming up to stay with parents (one set in Edinburgh the others in the Borders) It was always good fun up and down the hills and around the bends. (much more fun in my MK1 Cortina GT than the old Anglia we first had when married.) but I've tended to stay off it after reports of the multiplicity of speed cameras. Nice to hear many of them have now gone - thanks for that must give it a go soon.

Edinburgh Zoo was a regular for us as kids when up in Edinburgh for a day out from the Borders but very tiring for little legs (and big old ones too). For those not in the know, it's all up and down on a pretty steep hillside. We were right "country bumpkins" as kids and the Zoo was always "exotic" and exciting. Invariably we would all be asleep in the car before Mum got us back onto the A7.
 
Repaired my 2007 160gb iPod classic today.

It’s been sitting in a draw for 9 years since the hard drive died. Saw a video pop up on YouTube a few days ago showing how you can now buy a board that replicates the original hard drive, but has an SD card slot.

Ordered one up, a 128gb sd card, a new screen for £15 as the old one had some line of dead pixels and a new earphone socket as I’d ripped the ribbon wire, all the bits arrived over the last couple of days. Put it all together and it fired up like brand new!!

Loving the retro iPod function and it’s bringing back a lot of memories of long road trips with it plugged into one of those cassette adaptor things, and coincided with about the same time I met my now wife. Very happy, paid way too much to fix it, probably won’t use it much but love it all the same.

Plugged it into blue and me in the punto and it kinda works, sort of. You have to unplug it to change the album then plug it back in again as the punto locks the screen when plugged in.
 
We've been doing the A1/M1 a couple of times lately when visiting my Daughter (and family) down near Salisbury Wilts instead of the A702/M74/M6 and I rather like it - need to keep your wits about you when not on the dualed bits though. I used to always use the A68 back in the late '60's and 70's when we lived down in London and were coming up to stay with parents (one set in Edinburgh the others in the Borders) It was always good fun up and down the hills and around the bends. (much more fun in my MK1 Cortina GT than the old Anglia we first had when married.) but I've tended to stay off it after reports of the multiplicity of speed cameras. Nice to hear many of them have now gone - thanks for that must give it a go soon.

I'd normally use the A1 (the coastal sections are a highlight) but Sat nav reckoned using the A68 was 20 miles shorter and about 2 minutes slower. Figured using the road less travelled was better as there's hardly any services on the A1 that far north anyway so it would be easier to find somewhere to pull over on the 68 out of the way if munchkin needed attention.

Will say if you do go up, Jedburgh to Edinburgh there's at least 10 speed cameras with 1 or maybe 2 Newcastle to Jedburgh. So once you see the border keep your wits about you. Though if memory serves theres no more than there is on the A1. That and last time I did the A1 my memory is having the cruise control set at around ACPO guidelines..I.e. within +10% of the speed limit and bell ends in Audis and BMWs piling up behind to make questionable overtaking maneuvers so at least theres less of that.

Google maps pinged them all...much to my wife's annoyance "is that another speed camera? this is ridiculous". Its actually much better than it was, it's just that passengers notice them more when every 5 or 10 minutes in some sections you hear "bong! There's a speed camera ahead"
 
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Well. Maybe not so good when on the long haul down south which is what we're usually doing on this route. I only have a "steam driven" phone and even then it's rarely switched on so Google maps is something I look at on my laptop - if at all.

Although I did drive quite rapidly when younger, did a bit of rallying and was professionally involved in racing, I now just potter along with the general flow and pretty much stick strictly to the speed limits. I think I'm more likely to spot them on the A1 as it's borders are quite open compared to the A68 and I am more familiar with it too. So maybe I'll go a wee detour on the A68 instead of the A7 when visiting my brother or other friends down in the Border country but I think it'll be the A1 for the long haul.

Hope you guys had a nice day out on your Edinburgh adventure.
Regards Jock
 
Early trip to the supermarket. (Ordinarily this would be a grumpy thread, or if not too bad, the 'not smile not grumpy' thread.)

An opportunity arose for a bit of mischief, which brightened the day.

About to enter an aisle, ahead, two women, one late middle-aged and her mum presumably, a trolley each, both nicely close to one side, but managing to knock stuff off the shelves.
So I moved along to another aisle, and returned a few minutes later. They're still there but past the point I needed.
I got what I wanted, and moved out to pass them, at which point the one in front spun her trolley around to block the remaining two-thirds width. I'm now central, trying to pass the older woman, who also spun her trolley around to face me.
So now I have these two facing me, side-by-side, no way past. People behind, one tutting nicely.
Initially I just stood my groound, waiting for one or both of them to realise they were the problem and move to create passage. Then the older woman looked directly at me and said, "could I just squeeze through please".
"NO", I said, calmly, quietly, but firmly, "you two are blocking the aisle, no-one is going anywhere until you sort it".
Got a snigger from behind me, some angry looks from the two women, but then they did manage to move sideways to create space for the rest of us to pass.

Did the rest of the shopping with a smile.

The other day, we had a narrow road blocking car driver with same attitude. She was properly wedged between a Transit van and the hedge and refusing to move. The fact there was at least 12" clear on either side, there had been no grinding noises and neither vehicle can jump sideways was above and beyond any comprehension. I was getting out of the car to give directions when a driver closer-to had the same idea. These people have zero self awareness yet we let them operate killing machines.
In fairness, the road is narrow, busy at times and the hedge is never cut back far enough. But its common knowledge so she's unlikely to be not aware of the situation.
 
Had a lovely short conversation with a guy in a pick-up. Road narrows due to parked cars on my side. Enough room for us both, so I kept going. Into the middle, he stops and waves at me to stop too. So windows alongside, he squeaks about 'right of way' and I should have given way.
"Have our mirrors clashed?" I asked. "No".
"Have you hit the kerb?" "No"
"Where's the problem then?"
And off I went, with a silly smirk.
 
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