What's made you smile today?

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What's made you smile today?

One Vulcan with toddler for scale...

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Despite the surprisingly small Vulcan...

Was a great afternoon...he was buzzing oddly enough the exhibit he spent the most time in was a Blackpool tram?!?

Also got to have lovely surreal moment which involved the words "stop walking backwards or you're going to hit your head on a helicopter..told you." Thankfully just a plexiglass door panel with some give in it.

So very definitely made me smile, shall go back at some point probably not wait another 20 years though. Quite odd as I've sat in the most of the planes there when I was a little bit older than him but not much. Probably a bit health and safety allowing a child to climb a cockpit ladder into a Lightning now..seems rather high but I've got a photo of young me sitting in it.

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Wife is complaining about the wee flies that are flying around my chilli plant, so when I had a look I was ecstatic when I discovered a second fruit growing :D It’s a scotch bonnet variety and I’m led to believe they are quite hard to produce fruits, so at least I’m doing something right (slightly) However my wife is not as happy as I am….:rolleyes:
 
Probably a bit health and safety allowing a child to climb a cockpit ladder into a Lightning now..seems rather high but I've got a photo of young me sitting in it.

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how many toddlers high do you think it is ?


The new standardised Fiat forum measuring tool
 
I'm sure, like me, most of you get regular marketing emails form every website we've ever shown an interest in. Occasionally useful often interesting, so I let them come, easy to delete, and it shows the email system is not broken. Most use some browsing tracking to determine what products should be suitable, often worryingly accurate, sometimes quite bizarre, and often, with eBAY, silly. Just because I looked at a set of shock absorbers for a Panda, why would I then be interested in some for a Clio, or a Mazda, etc.?

Today, one from Toolstation. (One of the worst websites to locate any product, but often good prices if found.) The varied selection suggests this is just vague marketing, and definitely not specific, to anyone.
A desk fan, some specialised pain brushes, and 10kg of wall filler. (I think that is what it is) There's a nice mix for the first line.
A bucket, a 2-stroke oil mixer bottle and a brushcutter. Anyone see a link there? I suppose the mixer bottle and bucket are vaguely linked.
Wet & dry sheets, floor protector and a 2" paintbrush, at last a set that go together.
Some arc welding electrodes, some 22mm plastic pipe clips, and an SDS breaker. (like a heavy electric drill) Linking them together might make a brain hurt. Could be a good sequence for 'Only Connect'.
There's more, with no theme or link between them.
I could do with a new bucket, as the one I wash the car with lost its handle, but I manage, and don't need another 'planter', and this busket is twice the price of a B&Q one.
 
I'm sure, like me, most of you get regular marketing emails form every website we've ever shown an interest in. Occasionally useful often interesting, so I let them come, easy to delete, and it shows the email system is not broken. Most use some browsing tracking to determine what products should be suitable, often worryingly accurate, sometimes quite bizarre, and often, with eBAY, silly. Just because I looked at a set of shock absorbers for a Panda, why would I then be interested in some for a Clio, or a Mazda, etc.?

Today, one from Toolstation.

Ah, Toolstation. Quite some years ago Screwfix opened a branch nearby and I was very impressed with what they offered especially as I was then at the height of my DIY activities. A number of years later a Toolstation branch opened on the same industrial area. I bought a pair of middling quality work boots from SF on one of which the stitching failed within about 10 days. Trying to return them was not a pleasant experience so I decided to try TS the next time I needed "stuff" and I've never looked back. On of the reasons I find TS so much better is that you can buy stuff in much smaller batch quantities with virtually no price penalty but also I find their staff seem much more obliging (this of course depends on the individual people locally in your store so maybe I was just unlucky with the SF man on that day).

Regarding marketing, the one that really gets me is EuroCarParts. I think all I've ever bought from them was a can of Plus Gas about 5 years ago and that brake anti rattle spring for the Jazz a couple of weeks ago, but they frequently inform me of all their latest offers especially seeming to push their oils, which I would probably never buy as I always buy either my favourite Fuchs or a really big name oil. If I were going to buy a cheaper oil for some reason I'd probably go for the Napa branded (made by Exon I believe?) product sold at a very good price by my local factor. Their branches up here are a goodly drive for me too so that makes them less attractive for me to pop round for just the odd component.

I bought my air compressor from UKHS who also regularly contact me but their offers are always interesting and I invariably then link through to their interesting website to see what else they have so I'm very happy to get their communication. I was quite suspicious of the quality of their stuff (often branded "WOLF") but actually the small number of things I've bought from them have been very good and their service/spares department were very good indeed when the compressor arrived with a damaged pulley - it looked likely it had fallen over onto it during shipping - They immediately offered to replace the entire compressor but, as the damage was minimal I said I'd be happy with a pulley if they could supply. It arrived in under 2 days! Machine Mart are another I like who are also very good at supplying spares for their Clarke branded tools. They also sometimes make their VAT free invitations via their emails.

Richer Sounds, ever since I bought my Blu Ray player from them have also joined in and I like dreaming about some of the nice shiny gadgetry. If John Lewis ever go to the wall then Richer would be my next choice of supplier.

The last of the ones I really look forward to come from Grant at Gendan who sends regular communications featuring something of interest often with an entertaining link to some You tube video, mostly car related, about something interesting or outrageous.

Of all the other irrelevant ones which arrive I'm puzzled by the one which seems to think I would like to increase the size of a certain part of my anatomy! I can't remember at any time having either expressed a desire for this or explored the possibilities available. Why would they think a decrepit old man like me would be a good target for this product/service?

Aye the internet is a wondrous thing indeed.
 
There's a guy just along the road a bit, who's vehicle-related behaviour makes me both smile, and cringe, for the poor vehicles. He seems to be a painter/decorator, with absolutely no mechanical sympathy at all.
He used to have a Transit van, one of the early sloping front ones, with one of the noisiest engines ever. These are prone to being difficult to start as they age, but his, despite his best (worst) efforts stared better than one might expect. With those, and many older diesels, it is important to wait for the glowplug light to extinguish, then start it immediately. His technique, with all vehicles, is to jump in, turn the key fully, and churn until it fires, then rev it mercilessly until it will pull away. Of course, there are clouds of grey smoke from the partly atomised and unburnt fuel. The Transit coped with this, but eventually died for other reasons.
Transit was replaced with a Citroen Dispatch, of 2010 vintage, I think. Despite being newer, and generally more tolerant of early starting, this one objects, taking significantly longer to start, and struggling to run properly for some time. It seems to work for about 3-4 weeks at a time, before disappearing for 'repair' and returning a week or so later for more abuse.
Recently, there was some black scuffing over and behind the nearside front wheelarch, which appeared to be from a truck wheel. I'd expect it to be his fault, not the truck.
Van broke again 10 days ago, but has returned today, with the scuffing polished out, but the dents remain, and the rest of the van still dirty. It sounds awful, poor thing, but is again pressed into service, as he appears to have broken his pride & joy Mercedes coupe. It makes me laugh when he has to use that for work, as normally he will not put his young daughter in it, preferring always to use the child seat in the van.

His wife has a Fiat Bravo diesel. That gets similar abuse from her as the van does from him, and sounds worse every time I hear it. He never drives the Fiat, and she never the Mercedes.
 
Ah the old "beat it to death, then complain it's broken" my father in law is a great proponent.

Oddly enough most of his last vehicles suffer catastrophic engine failure relatively young. Come to think of it I can't remember a single car surviving him, they all leave on a tow rope with the scrap man. Last one was an 07 Nissan Note (blew up at around 11), before that was a 56 plate vectra (about 9 years when that one died). Before that he had a Rover which was a nightmare to start...his solution was to get a trickle charger so he could churn it over the 20 odd minutes it required some days to start. You'd imagine fixing whatever it was would have been easier...

Although this was the man who decided to say I was being too cautious when he was following me down a hill that the previous night I knew had been sheet ice the night before as I'd had a mare getting up it. Then a few days later as the cold snap continued put his car into a bollard.

Anyway what made me smile today was went out early doors as weather forecast was bad for this afternoon. In general bad weather stayed away so had a nice day wandering about with the toddler who should sleep tonight having been out and about for 6 hours. I did 10000 odd steps so God knows how many he did!

Oh and car is running lovely after it's service, it wasn't running badly by any means but new gearbox oil has sorted a little notchiness shift that was creeping in and it's pulling as good as it ever has with super unleaded, new plugs, filters etc.
 
Seeing people of a certain persuasion having spent years complaining about the National trust having a "woke lefty agenda" and accusing them of re-writing history for attempting to a more complete account of the history of their sites are now banging on about links between the RNLI founder and the slave trade.

To culturally appropriate a phrase.. "You couldn't make it up"
 
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With Daughter and her family up from the "deep south" staying with us for the week, my oldest boy had us all - so all three of my children, their spouses and children, (8 adults and 5 children) round to his for a barbie yesterday. Great fun with lots of tasty and unhealthy food, children getting overexcited and the dog pinching the hot dog sausages!

My youngest granddaughter, in her excitement, managed to grip her hamburger too tightly which resulted in it jumping out of it's roll - rather like squeezing a bar of wet soap too tightly - and landing, resplendent in it's copious coating of tomato sauce and yellow mustard, in my lap and then sliding down my right leg! I was wearing my new jeans too! I gave up trying to behave in an adult fashion after that and spent the next half hour or so crawling about on their lawn, on my hands and knees, playing with my youngest grandson and his "special" tractor. That's really rubbed the newness off the jeans!

Mrs J and I went in Becky, the Panda, because we knew parking space would be difficult and the Panda can be squeezed into very small spaces. What made me really smile was that, as we were leaving at the end of the day with the window down to wave goodbye, I heard my younger boy say to his older brother "That's just such a cool wee car don't you think?" Perfect ending to a wonderful day!
 
All the towns in the area are starting to host their local festivals again. It usually revolves around sweet corn. This will run through September. Anyway, the big one, formally called the Northern Illinois Thresherbee, now the Sycamore Steam Show, has nothing to do with Sycamore, IL. Antique tractors; both gas and steam, coal smoke, hit n miss engines, old cars, old farm equipment, working steam locomotives, flea market, junk food, and yes, sweet corn. Even an old left wing hippie like myself lets his latent red neck out for a few hours.

We took our 5 year old grandson with us in the DeSoto. It was the first time in his life that he got to sit in the back seat of a car and not be in a 'baby prison'. Grandma sat with him and he put his head on her lap and went to sleep. Taking an antique car to the show, gets a car full in for the price of one.

Met up with our daughter, son in law, and other grandson there. Wandered around, got the grandsons to actually watch how the machines worked, the boys rode the scaled down steam train, we ate brats and roast corn.

After wandering around for a few hours, it was decided to go for a drive in the country. The boys would ride in the DeSoto with us and we'd follow their mom and dad in their pickup. I did explain to our oldest grandson that discipline in an old car without 3 point seat belts could be severe. With no seat belts to hinder the front seat occupants, misbehaving children in the rear seat were subject to a 'back hand' from the front seat very quickly. I was subjected to it many times. His eyes got large.

The drive in the country had an ulterior motive for the boys. Meet Anna, our new grand puppy.
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