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Monday, 31 October 2016

Bathroom project cladding on the roof looks great - - - & - - - Net worth of some racing drivers is eye watering!

Enjoy the day – Enjoy the weather 
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Dont forget to check out this great book on Amazon Kindle Books
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LOCAL WEATHER NOW AND FORECAST FOR TODAY
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Nearly all the rain is in Scotland this morning and its looking like it might be very wet up there.  
This morning it's just a little under the double figure Temps we have been having lately. No rain but the humidity is high with all the fog about 
A very foggy view on the weathercam at the moment with the viz down around 100m.  Its looking like it might take some considerable time to clear.
09:20 The fog is clearing quite quickly now from the valley 

Local weather forecast for today: 
Yahoo weather seems unaware of the fog in their forecast, indicating that it will be cloudy with variable winds and a top Temp of 12.8c.  The Met O on the other hand says the fog will be around till 09:00 then we will have sunny intervals throughout the day.  The cloud will thin a little around 18:00 but the fog will return at 21:00 the max Temp for the day will be 13c.   My forecast is for the mist to be around until 11:00 then we will see some sunny intervals with no rain and the fog is likely to return at 19:00 - - - 
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The work on the bathroom project finished well yesterday and ably assisted by Sally we stood back about 15:30 and surveyed our work.  The idea was to start putting the cladding on the roof  and get it as far as the shower curtain rail.  This meant cutting holes in it for the light, the light switch and the shower fan.  While reconnecting the fan one of the tiny screws fell out and went down the sink plug hole!  I could see it but the magnetic screwdriver failed to lift it out.  Unscrewing the very difficult to get at trap only resulted in the sink waste beginning to leak.  Not finding the screw meant it had dropped into the column on which the sink fits.  Finding a replacement after a little while it finally went back together. 
Our new LED light proved a challenge and it was a joint effort that realised the "loop, neutral and switch" wires were not any different to the original light wiring.  I did realise earlier that i needed to have a an earth wire in the switch and that was done first.   The light from the tiny LED's is very good. 
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Described as A watch that isn't a watch.  It is some guys kickstarter idea and he's trying to get $40k from donations to produce the watch that isnt a watch. - - - pointless?   nice money if you can get it - - - 

Micheal Schumacher is obviously in this list of 20 racing drivers where it displays what is said to be their net worth in $,s - - - incredible sums! - - - 
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Sunday, 30 October 2016

Did you remember to put your clocks back? - - - & - - - Cute otter photos

Enjoy the day – Enjoy the weather 
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Dont forget to check out this great book on Amazon Kindle Books
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LOCAL WEATHER NOW AND FORECAST FOR TODAY
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http://www.netweather.tv precipitation display
Once again this morning it is raining very lightly right now which is not showing on the Netweather.TV radar display.  It must be so fine and light that its below the level at which it can be detected.
 It might be 11.3 but its feeling a little cool out, might have something to do with the rain and damp
The weathercam is picking up the early morning light now and showing the low cloud mist that is hanging onto the higher elevation of the valley side.

Local weather forecast for today 
The Met O is being optimistic in its predictions for today.  The early mist will clear slowly to give a day of sunny intervals and it mentions it will be a brighter day than yesterday. The Met O max Temp is 16c with a  rain probability set at 0%.  (?) Yahoo weather on the other hand has a pessimistic view with a cloudy breezy day and a max temp of only 12c. My guess is cloudy this morning with some clear sunny patches this afternoon, no rain after 10:00 with a max Temp of 14c - - - 
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The day passed reasonably uneventful at my ATA yesterday nothing out of the ordinary happening.  I spent most of my time thinking about the challenges of the bathroom project and today will tackle the roof lining panels. It will give us an idea how easy or difficult they are to get up there although i am guessing the wall panels which are the same material will be marginally easier just because of the vertical plane rather than the overhead of the roof panels.
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The Metro  picks up on this story about how a mother otter looks after its pup while its hunting for food at the same time - - -
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Saturday, 29 October 2016

The shower extractor fan is fitted - - - & - - - Don't forget to turn the clocks back tonight

Enjoy the day – Enjoy the weather 
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Dont forget to check out this great book on Amazon Kindle Books
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LOCAL WEATHER NOW AND FORECAST FOR TODAY
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http://www.netweather.tv precipitation display
It is actually raining now but its so light the radar appears not to be picking it up
Once again we are into double figures with the early morning Temp.
The weathercam view shows a little misty cloud in the valley.  The earlier very light rain has stopped now (07:50) but i think it will be a while before it looks any brighter with this cloud cover - -
Local Weather forecast for today: 
The Met O is looking at a cloudy day but with some sunny intervals between 12:00 and 15:00 and no chance of any rain.  Yahoo weather is also looking to the same forecast and both indicate the max Temp will be 14c today
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It was time to start on the bathroom project yesterday there are a number of jobs i can be getting on with before we rip everything out on the 6th of Nov.  I must remember to get some "before during and after photo's".  One job that i thought might involve pulling up the attic floor to achieve was fitting the extractor fan for the shower.  The preliminary look at it from upstairs proved fruitful because there was a handy 1 foot square piece of flooring right where i wanted to fan.  I cut the hole and connected it all up only to find a problem with the wiring on the isolator switch.  Once i resolved that we were good to go.  The fan is an xpelair ghost that's meant to be so quiet you can hardly hear it. It is quiet but i not "that quiet"
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Sally worked in the garden while i wrestled with the fan and i joined her after i finished for a glass or two of wine
 Even though its well into Autumn the plants are still pushing out flowers due to the warm days we are having
 the Nasturtiums are particularly flowery at the moment
 this is our Zebra grass around one bit of the pond.  Its good for keeping one half of it in the shade in summer.  Sally noticed these seed heads which we don't reckon to have seen before.  It might be worth trying to gather some of them and try to propagate them
 This rose is still doing well
while the lovely scented one is on its lasts legs now
 This nastutium is growing up through the box hedge
 These plants have been cut back hard once already but even they are pushing out more flowers
the view out to the other side of the valley leaves you in no doubt that it is Autumn though with its vibrant rustic colours
we often get Bees that crawl onto the fornt of the cameras in the garden here's one having a go at the birdfeeder cam - - -
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Its time for another day at the ATA before putting all the clocks back an hour tonight!
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Always a red rag to a bull with me are any "pothole" stories This one from Sky News reckons councils fixed a pothole every 15 seconds last year.  I dont think many of them were in our area! The text goes on to say that the backlog of pothole repairs will take 14 years to complete - - -
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Friday, 28 October 2016

The Bathroom project gets closer - - - & - - - Technology geeks! - - - is it me? - - - Definitely !

Enjoy the day – Enjoy the weather 
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Dont forget to check out this great book on Amazon Kindle Books
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LOCAL WEATHER NOW AND FORECAST FOR TODAY
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nothing unusual in the rain blobs on the display this morning but they dont appear to be getting any closer when you run the animation.  I think they are so light that as they try to get over the hills between Manchester and here they drop all the rain.  No doubt if they develop more moisture we will see some on the ground eventually.,   
12.5c is that normal?  looking back last year on this day it was  10.8c so I suppose its nothing out of the ordinary.  We have a bit of a breeze at the moment but i don't think it will be too cooling an influence 
The weathercam view is rather grey this morning looking like it could rain any minute - - -
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Local weather forecast:
The Met O is looking at maybe rain until 09:00 then a cloudy but with sunny interval day.  Yahoo weather has a cloudy day with 0% chance of rain.  Top Temp from both agencies is between 12 & 15c for the day  
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The shift on my ATA went well even with me agreeing the other day to do an extra couple of hours (15:00 to 21:00).  It's certainly a different experience than my previous work being there when the facility, normally busy during the day, is winding down.  Ever present in my mind is the Bathroom project and having secured our "almost silent" shower extractor fan fitting that will be today's challenge! 
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I see this story covers the Twitter shutdown of its "vine" 6 second video app.  Genuine panic amongst its users shows the desperate state people get into about their supposed "communication and being in touch" one user tweets in capital letters ITS CRAZY VINE BEING SHUT DOWN IT CHANGED MY LIFE IN SUCH AN INTENSE WAY AND I WOULDVE (SIC) NEVER GOT HERE WITHOUT IT" - - - what next ! - - - 
 
Here's another technology "disaster" ! Googles new Pixel smartphone was said to have the "highest rated smartphone camera ever".  It has however turned out that in full light the photos have a halo effect like the one in the, bottom right, of the photo above. Google is trying to resolve the issue with a software fix which is also upsetting users.   something and nothing i suppose but it has users in a spin, one said "sad but i just initiated a return for my phone, i cant gamble C$1000 on a phone with such an issue, based on a potential software fix.  Whaaaat! C$1000 for a phone! - - - is it me? - - - 
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No wait! it is me, most certainly . 
This Metro story  The press have been ramping up the ante on what the new macbook is going to be like and finally its out.  Apple streamed live the launch and the Metro updated its page as it was unveiled. .  Do i care, No, will i ever buy a Mac, No, but why?  - - - I'm a windows and sometime a linux man and i love swearing at my PC when it wont work and am supremely confident that if my PC wont do something, the number 1 fix which was relevant when PC's first came out will fix it - - - switch it off and switch it back on again - - - 
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Attempting to stifle some of the Brexit b-----t put out by the people parties and papers that did not vote to leave this Express story is peppered with facts about the UK economy since the brexit vote.  All the negativity since brexit is down to stock market wide boys scaremongering on the pound to force it down and so called "expert analysts" being completely wrong in their assessments.  - - - only my opinion of course - - - 
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Thursday, 27 October 2016

Autumn leaves on the tracks - - - & - - - Another series of Earthquake tremors in Italy

Enjoy the day – Enjoy the weather 
=====
======
Dont forget to check out this great book on Amazon Kindle Books
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LOCAL WEATHER NOW AND FORECAST FOR TODAY
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Our area looks to be clear on the rain display but the large blob just North of the Scottish mainland looks like it might give the Isles a dousing today.  
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 We have another double figure Temp right now although it did get down to 9.1c around 03:30.
the weathercam view is looking quite good with patchy cloud stopping the sun getting going 
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Local weather forecast for today: 
The Peak District Met O is looking at a cloudy day with a Max Temp of 14c.  The rain probability is at 10% most of the day dropping to 0% around 18:00. Yahoo weather also has a cloudy aspect to the day with a top Temp of 13c and 0% rain probability - - -
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Sally spotted this Mail online story  with a headline "Long cold winter of ice and blizzards with weeks of snow is set to arrive next month".  The story is genrated by a Met O source, It might be true but in the article the MEt O prediction for the period Nov 10 to 24th starts with, "The outlook for mid November remains uncertain"  Mmmmm sounds like there was a lot of room spare on the Mail onlines pages!  Its going to be mid November and normally we would expecxt it to be getting to single figures for most of a numner of days by then - - -  
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Yesterday with a short shift at my ATA in the early evening I decided to take it easy during the day.  Sally decided to walk the multi million £ cycle track for a bit of exercise so i tagged along.  I have been mentioning the colours of Autumn for a while now and they are much in evidence all around us but the walk was a bit of a revelation - - - 
 the trees that hide some of the view across the river are starting to lose their leaves exposing more river and field
 we walk passed the outfall from the stream and the stones area exposed is quite large now.  I joke that we will have a hosepipe ban by January - - - it may not be a joke! - - - we need some rain
 the meadow and nearest forest echo the Autumn story
 What really does it for us both is the fact we are ankle deep in leaves as we walk the river path.  Memories of kicking them to make them fly as kids rush back
 there is still a little mist in the air off to the North West in this view of the Chatsworth hills
 A squirrel darts up a tree from the ground and as i take this rather grainy shot we see another 2, maybe a family group colection winter food we muse.  Before we get to the point where we join the cycle track for the return walk we see another 4 squirrels.  As we get to the confluence of the Derwent and Wye rivers we startle a Grey Heron fishing and it lazily takes off and disappears up the Wye.
 We pass a spot where years ago we used to see lots of earthstar mushrooms and search once again for them but have no luck and stroll back down our multi million £ cycle track
Looking for conkers under a huge tree that is by the A6 and gives a splendid show of blooms in spring.  We don't spot any and consider the local children and the squirrels have had their fill.  We do however spot on the whole tree these sticky new pods which will be next year's leaves nestling amongst this years that have yet to fall. 
We visit the local Mole Country store to buy more Rat Bait and i spot a Gilet jacket that i tried in vain to buy when we were in Canada recently! Sally scoops one up and declares it's a "Christmas present!"
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The afternoon is spent doing prep work for the bathroom project where i find that a spare kitchen fan i have is not usable in a bathroom and the shower waste that came with the shower tray is best replaced with, of course, a more "Expensive one".  All for the best i suppose.  Up in the loft the the news is good as i discover I dont need to take up most of the flooring, as i suspected to put in our new LED bathroom light.  The shower extractor fan positioning recce goes even better because where it will vent up through the ceiling just happens to be easily accessible and the flooring panel is a handy 1 foot square above it - - - result.  
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The ATA passes without incident and as i proffer one of my book advert smaller photo's to a colleague when i am leaving i recive a strange retort, "Are you a jehovah's witness then?" - - - I'm still trying to figure that one out as i cross the almost deserted car park! - - - 
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This Sky Story  covers another earthquake or series of tremors in Italy and this time Rome has felt the tremors. After the August quake in which flattened the town of Amatrice people were understandably concerned about this event.  There are no reports of death or injuries in the story at this time.  This Mail online sroey has a scary video taken inside a building of one quake 
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