The not-so-good-news thread

[billplumtree]

Osiicles

Blimey!  You don't expect those in June...

[jogler]

you do actually...they are unisex

[Wowbagger]

I read the following on our local rag's website a couple of days ago.

Man's body washed up on Southend seafront (From Echo)

I have just learned that it was a friend of ours, one Michael Woolcott, a cyclist / sailor, who was a stalwart of our local FoE group. He was round here only last Friday collecting some info for him to pass on to his MP, David Amess.

I learned today that Michael died of a heart attack, and not of drowning.

I told the Coroner last week that he was especially vague when he came to see us the Friday before he died, so I wondered whether he was showing symptoms and felt that information might have been useful.

[Regulator]

I managed to break my cafetiere this morning... and unfortunately the spare has been left at a friends... 

But it was the JetBoil cafetiere to the rescure.    The world is safe as I am caffeinated.

[Regulator]

The BNP/EDL have decided to march in Cambridge today....  

[clarion]

Nice.

[Regulator]

Nice.

I was in town and saw the UAF march, which was the usual disparate mix of well meaning people there to protest peacefully against fascists and the few who were just there for some aggro.  Why they think it appropriate to be so obnoxious to the police who are facilitating their protest I don't know...

The EDL contingent was much smaller than the UAF crowd, and they didn't get much truck from the locals, who treated them with the contempt they deserved.  The knuckle-dragging troglodytes ended fighting amongst themselves.

 

[YahudaMoon]

My TV screen is getting more green by the day. It will be only a matter of weeks I think that I'll have a black & green TV set

[Wowbagger]

This perhaps should be posted on the flabbergasting thread. The wee lassie in charge of the cake aisle in Inverness Morrisons had never heard of a bannock.

[hbunnet]

This perhaps should be posted on the flabbergasting thread. The wee lassie in charge of the cake aisle in Inverness Morrisons had never heard of a bannock.

Names for baked things can be very local in Scotland.

[MattH]

Of course, this isn't just a Scottish problem. Years ago we used to own a transport cafe in the Manchester area, and I remember one trucker coming in and asking for a bacon teacake. Then double checking what he'd get, as he'd asked for the same up in Leeds, insisted that that was what he wanted, then then been given bacon in a currant teacake - and then the staff had all watched him eat it as they thought it was an odd combination!

Where we were, drivers used muffin, roll and teacake interchangeably.

[Wowbagger]

But is there not a Scottish festival called Bannockburn?

[hbunnet]

But is there not a Scottish festival called Bannockburn?

If you ever come across a combination padlock on a gate in Scotland , try 1314 first.

[rogerzilla]

The bath has cracked.  Never seen that happen before.  It's supposed to be 8mm thick - bollocks is it.  Mrs Z texted me this morning to say there were damp patches on the living room ceiling.  On close inspection there were drips from two places under the bath and eventually I found the huge crack - the water is dripping quite remote from the crack, because it runs between the reinforcing fibreglass and the acrylic.  B&Q shite.

I sense a miserable job coming up for half term 

[Greenbank]

Similar problem with our living room ceiling, except above it is not our bathroom but our upstairs neighbour's bathroom. And he's got the place on the market. He's not going to like it when I tell him he needs to get someone in to rip up his shower and bathroom floor to check for leaks.

[rogerzilla]

The bath has actually been subject to impact damage, I suspect from someone lifting up the pop-up waste (which is metal, heavy and pointy) with the rubber-sucker bath mat and then letting it fall from a great height.  For some reason Mrs Z insists on sticking the bath mat high up the tiled wall to dry off, rather than just to the side of the bath 

The bulge in the ceiling is probably not going to sort itself out so I have made an insurance claim (accidental damage to buldings).  It's definitely valid but I expect they will try and wriggle out of it.  If the downstairs ceiling (which is Artexed) needs a complete skim after the affected bit is replaced, it could cost £1000 with the new bath etc.

[Wombat]

How long ago was it artexed, RZ?  If pre-1985, its probably got asbestos in it.  Sorry!  DIY removal is possible, if very careful indeed, and using the right stuff and a steam stripper, and fully masked and suited up.  Otherwise, you pay thousands for a professional to do it.