A random thread for small things that don't really warrant a thread of their own

[Salvatore]

Today the post office delivered a paperback-sized package to me. It was addressed to

XXX Our Shal XXX
$myhousenumber $notmyroadname (but the 1st 2 and last syllables are the same)
$mytownname
$mytownname (again)
$randompostcode (which was a valid one but of a business park about 10 miles away in Farnborough)

So the only things which matched my address were the house number and town name.

I was going to take it to the sorting office which is close enough, but I wondered about Our Shal, whoever she was, and was she missing a birthday present. Shal is obviously Sharon, and has rellies in the north. Now my next door neighbour is a Sharon and is from the Wirral, and it was her birthday on Sunday. And indeed it was for her, from her mum who is in a care home, and didn't know it was S's birthday when she rang on Sunday.

But full marks and a gold star to Royal Mail for getting so close to the intended recipient with so few clues.

[Mrs Pingu]

After a week without, we have tv signal again.

[Jurek]

After a week without, we have tv signal again.

Is this some sort of bonus?

[Tim Hall]

<Snip>
But full marks and a gold star to Royal Mail for getting so close to the intended recipient with so few clues.

Gold star for you too, I reckon, for taking the trouble.

[Mrs Pingu]

After a week without, we have tv signal again.

Is this some sort of bonus?

Arf. We don't have BBC4 HD anymore though, which is annoying.

[Mrs Pingu]

Don't know. According to the Freeview checker site we still have Durris and the signal for that channel is predicted to be good, but even when I went and told the Humax to look manually for channel 55, 786Mhz (as described by a previous post on the Hummy.tv forum) it didn't find anything.

[Feanor]

Did it find any of the channels on that mux?

Im not up to date on this, but UHF ch55 is 746MHz, I think.
Is Durris still using that channel?
My googling is producing contradictory and out of date results.
Is your hairial grouped to get that frequency?

I cant really test, my tellys dont do Freeview HD.

[Mrs Pingu]

Answers to your 4 Q's in order:

1. I deleted a load of channels just after retuning but looking at what's on that mux I would say no, as I suspect I wouldn't have deleted BBC News HD for instsnce
2. Yes you're right, my typo
3. According to https://ukfree.tv/transmitters/tv/Durris yes. And we were on Durris at Sunnybank so I don't see that it would be transmitter related.
4. Not got a clue.

[Mrs Pingu]

Confusingly that site says COM7 to be switched off in Nov 2020 for 5G but the BBC page for Durris says that mux is still available and our recent experience agrees. How messy.

[Feanor]

Stick your postcode in here:
https://www.freeview.co.uk/help/coverage-checker/detailed-view

For me it shows com7 on ch55.

A Group A aerial is only good for ch21 thru 37.
Your hairiel might be a group A,  Durris traditionally was in the analog days.
In which case you need a wider band coathanger.

You say you have just got a signal after a week.
Was some work done to facilitate this? Wot exactly?

[Mrs Pingu]

I think I just tripped across the same page and noted that all the missing channels were the ones with 2 asterisks, as you say.
Seems like a reasonable explanation anyway. Another thing for the bottom of the list.

We had no telly as the cable here had a type F connector and it's taken us a week to receive an F to Coax converter, nothing more fancy than that.

[citoyen]

Today's PR fail...

Good afternoon,
 
I hope you are well.
 
You are invited to celebrate the unveiling of Situ Live, a unique experiential retail destination at Westfield (Shepherd’s Bush).

As part of the exclusive press event, you will be some of the first people in the UK to explore the immersive space and understand how the team of on-hand experts will truly bring each innovative product to life...

It's like they've delved into my brain while I was asleep to find out what would be my Room 101. Then created it. Then invited me to it.

[ian]

A shopping experience platform that combines physical retail destinations, live storytelling and digital product discovery to emotionally re-connect consumers to brands

Finestre, the Demon of Such Things, has her new intern working hard.

[Basil]

Well, that's a little embarrassing.  We're eating dinner in front of Richard Osman's House of Games when my phone rings. It's the landlord of my local a few doors away.
"Where are you?"  He asks.
Initially I assume that this is in reference to the fact that I no longer drink during the week and maybe Friday counts as the weekend.
I explain that I'm at home eating my dinner.
"Well, Megan has has been in the pub for the last half hour"

Megan = Border Terrier.

[Basil]

Dog repatriated.  When I arrived in the pub, I've not seen anyone so disappointed to see me since Mrs B on the morning after our wedding night.
I've now taken her place in the King's.  The general consensus is that Meg was more fun than me.

[Kim]

At least it wasn't the Country Girl...

[Paul]

At least it wasn't the Country Girl...

[mrcharly-YHT]

Well, that's a little embarrassing.  We're eating dinner in front of Richard Osman's House of Games when my phone rings. It's the landlord of my local a few doors away.
"Where are you?"  He asks.
Initially I assume that this is in reference to the fact that I no longer drink during the week and maybe Friday counts as the weekend.
I explain that I'm at home eating my dinner.
"Well, Megan has has been in the pub for the last half hour and she says it is your round."

Megan = Border Terrier.

You missed a bit.

[Beardy]

I’m currently stripping the very dead paint off the exterior walls of our house with a power washer (did I mention the paint is dead) There are two issues; my visor is constantly running with water and removed paint flecks and I have learnt the hard way it’s not wise to lift it to see better (my eye is still sore 4 days after I tried it), it water keeps running down my neck an sleeves which is most unpleasant.
Lunch now, a nice cup of tea and then back to it. I need to finish today so I stop pissing of the neighbour with flakes of paint everywhere.

[slope]

Welsh Slugs in the kitchen and living room in a first floor abode

They never venture into the bathroom or bedrooms as far as I can tell. But when one is often stumbling out of bed during the night for munchies, rehydration or pills or whatever, it's never nice to feel a cold plump slimy thing being squashed between one's toes. Am sadly not a slipper person. The other night there was one scaling up the side of the larder fridge

Anyone else suffer 'em? Any second floor or higher residents?

[Wombat]

I hope you live in Wales, Slope!  Otherwise the thought of slugs making their way from Wales, and going upstairs, is somewhat terrifying.

I live in a bungalow in very rural Wales, and absolutely zero slugs are seen (or, thankfully, felt underfoot).  This is in contrast to suburban Hampshire, where it was war against the slimy bastards.

[Diver300]

I am old enough to find this Twitter thread funny:- https://twitter.com/memorialdevice/status/1437872887646539776

[T42]

I am old enough to find this Twitter thread funny:- https://twitter.com/memorialdevice/status/1437872887646539776

We had a bloke where I worked once who used some kind of magic tanning snake-oil and turned orange all over*.  Trump would have loved it.

* we took his word for it.

[hatler]

A supremely useful image from Google Streetview - https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@50.4064891,-4.669318,3a,75y,78.8h,77.08t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sS-NQO_pHHGAe_eO6qO3hrg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

[Moleman76]

Pouring tea into a saucer and drinking it.

Not tea, but my grandmother always poured her coffee with cream out into the saucer, and then sipped it through sugar cubes lined up on the saucer's edge.

We grandchildren knew where the box of sugar cubes was kept.  It was always emptier after we visited.

A very common practice among Finns, Swedes, and Norse, it seems.