It’s warped on the width (144mm) not the depth (27mm) so I don’t think soaking it will straighten it in a reasonable time.

Ivinghoe Beacon – a high point on the edge of the Chilterns with views over flat plain to the north and west. Remains of an iron age hillfort on the top – not surprising as it’s just by The Ridgeway.

It’s not strictly legal to cycle to the top (and I’ve never made it without having to push the last few yards) but the base is fine.

My daughter’s 18 on 5th July. She’s gutted.

Linksys MX4000 from Gigaclear here, replacing Tenda MW3. The MX4000 is Wifi 6 so has more bands, it’s a more expensive but performs better. I’m getting 430 Mbs from my phone!

Or pick the charity of your choice and give a small amount in your will (optional) to get it for free
https://getinvolved.yha.org.uk/donate/gifts-in-wills

Windows 11 seems fine to me on both home and work laptops. The window control is a great feature – prearranged groups so I can have YouTube in left side of the screen and Twitter in the right without having to adjust sizes or positions manually (just right click on the window control icon in the top right hand corner). Also good for Excel and Word on the works laptop :-)

Victorinox Fibrox knives – not posh, not expensive, sharp and hold an edge. And they use them in the canteen at work.

https://www.victorinox.com/en-GB/Products/Cutlery/Chef%27s-Knives/c/CUT_ChefKnives/

Spotify because of the Tesla integration

People who get annoyed with wheelchair users or infirm people in supermarkets. Show some compassion.

Any people in pickups who block the pavement with there overhanging rear bed. Especially in the Maidstone hospital carpark.

FWR Fasteners on ebay – it doesn’t really matter what sort of steel it is (other than corrosion protection) as it’s only used to pretension the bearing before the stem is clamped up

My 2.0 diesel Audi A3 was about that mileage and still almost perfect. My wife’s Ford Grand C-Max 1.6d was falling apart at that point. I think the difference was that the Ford was heavier and driven on lots of short runs whereas my car did most of its miles on a 55 mile each way commute. Driving 110 miles a day cured me of rushing, smooth driving and an auto box helped.

I’ve recently used this to patch a friend’s drive – pothole filling more than anything. The concrete gives a solid base for the tarmac. The tarmac was noticeably “flowier” than stuff I’ve had from Jewsons before, much easier to work. We also cut the edges back with and angle grinder and sealed the edges with spray.

We mixed the concrete by hand and tamped using a piece of wood and a club hammer. Next time I’d hire a proper mixer and tamper.

UltraCrete Flowcon – Self Compacting Concrete

UltraCrete SCJ-750 – Seal and Tack Coat Spray

UltraCrete Instant Road Repair 6mm

Not directly related to Tate but the BBC have an excellent programme called “How to save an incel”. Really interesting and compassionate, it looks at the self loathing of some young men, how that leads them to incel forums and how some have managed to make it out through there own self help groups.

https://www.bbc.com/mediacentre/proginfo/2024/18/how-to-save-an-incel

Happened with PDAs when the market for PDAs suddenly tanked – fairly normal.

I bet there were deer there before humans colonised and developed it.

I bet there was ice there 22 thousand years ago and no deer or humans.

M2 Minimax here, fitted more than 10 years ago. It just works and the blocks are easy to change.

Outside tap is still on the unsoftened water as is a Brita filtered water drinking water tap on the sink. We started with just a plain drinking water tap but I got fed up with descaling the kettle (also helps with the homebrew). The P3000 cartridge lasts ages.

It happened to my daughter. Luckily, the teacher for the middle set was truly excellent, really loved maths, really nice guy. He helped her to find her learning style and she ended up with a 9.

War Doctor by David Nott.

A remarkable man who picked up and used a commercial pilots licence in his spare time whilst working full time in the NHS as a surgeon (across 3 hospitals) and spending his holidays operating and teaching in war zones.

Go back and ask the pharmacist

Council car parks that give you a choice of paying by machine (but the pay by card doesn’t work and the pay by coin only works half the time as they’re not emptied daily anymore) or an app. The app’s great but paying 10p for the service on a 70p ticket is taking the piss.

They suggested that sometimes being insured would make you more likely to be sued

I used to work with a bloke who’d worked in Columbia back in the drug cartel days. The advice he was given was not to take out kidnap insurance as it made you more likely to be kidnapped. Mad bugger.

My Oral B electric toothbrush. It does a great job of cleaning my teeth but the rechargeable NiMH battery only lasts a week and takes 24 hours to charge. I’m eagerly waiting for it to die so I can get one with a modern battery but it just refuses.

WD40 will get rid of the old oil and muck, if you really want to repaint it a flap wheel in an angle grinder will take the paint off. I haven’t bothered with mine, I like the patina.

Order status update emails that contain your order number and a link to get the status, but make you re-enter the order number rather than encoding it in the URL

Laying the duct will be very useful, Openreach have guides https://www.openreach.com/building-developers-and-projects/fibre-for-developers/guides-and-handbooks

Victorinox chefs knife is a good shout. The Fibrox range is cheap (~£25), holds an edge and has a comfortable plastic handle with good grip. Add a paring knife and a bread knife and that’s knives sorted.

Oxo Good Grip are also excellent, I’d also add a decent electric can and jar opener.

As your mum can’t stand straight, a lower work surface height and a kitchen chair sound like a good idea – simple Ikea stuff would work.

Work just swapped my laptop for a new one, which is great but the ports are now on the opposite side so the cable routing is rubbish if I use it with an external monitor on the right.

(I’m sure people who have their external monitor on the left said the same thing about the old laptops)

I too don’t have a mind’s eye. I can pretty accurately describe an image or person in words but I can’t see anything. I always thought that “picture this” was a poetic way of getting people to come up with such a description, bit of a shock that most people can! When I’m imagining things it’s still in words with perhaps a tiny idea of pictures.

Perhaps that’s why I hate PowerPoint? Or perhaps it’s because most presentations are rubbish!

I had a complete ACL rupture and grade 1/2 MCL about 9 months ago. Almost totally sorted now, physio didn’t help a lot other than tracking progress. Walking, then static bike, then road bike did it. I’m now doing gym work to get the last of the strength back, it’s the best way for me to do e.g. calf extension. I’m 60 in April.

The puffin looks amazing!

The package will fund ammunition, anti-aircraft missiles, anti-tank weapons and artillery rounds, including for the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARS.

“This ammunition will keep Ukrainians’ guns firing for a period, but only a short period,” Sullivan said during a briefing.

https://www.defensenews.com/pentagon/2024/03/12/pentagon-announces-a-surprise-300-million-weapons-package-for-ukraine/

What tyre for bottomless mud?

Just off-shore the jobs completely and save a fortune. Remote working can cut both ways

That’s been happening for my whole working life. I’ve worked with and managed teams in the USA and India which leads me to believe I don’t need to be in an office when the team is on 3 continents.

I’m OK with going back to the office but part of that bargain is providing facilities. It’s annoying that my employer has withdrawn stationery and printers “because you didn’t need them when WFH” and halved the size of the canteen so I can’t get a seat at lunchtime. It’s a bit of a one way street.

Crunch time will be when the next major office refurb is needed – will they spend the millions required on the existing office, pick up a newer cheaper office or just give up on the office?

People using the stairs at work with an open laptop, a mug of tea and talking on their headphones. Yes, I know you’re very busy and important but I don’t see why you I need to squash myself against the wall for you to get past.

Thanks to Binners I’ve had my first pie of the week, nothing special, just Tesco. I’ll try and to better tomorrow.

Do sweet pies count? I quite fancy a cherry pie, made the traditional way with a tin of cherries.

I did a mechanical engineering degree but have worked in computers ever since – all sorts of roles from programmer to project manager to solutions architect. I still put “programmer” on forms that ask for job. No relevant qualificationa.

My father-in-law had a HND than a degree in aeronautical engineering via Hawker Siddeley at Filton. He then became a travelling salesman for Shell because they offered a company car which was a step up from the motorbike and sidecar that he brought his son back from hospital in. No relevant qualifications but he did have the gift of the gab.

He ended up in tribology and management at Shell – Shell did pay for him to do an MSc for the tribology and even sessions at Insead for management. Shell was a pretty good employer in the 70s and 80s.

I do feel that National Pie Week is a bit superfluous

Agreed, every day’s a pie day

Flooded rivers in the UK are likely to contain raw sewage, personally I’d avoid.

The hole I tore my knee apart in at the start of February was repaired within three days of reporting it but is already back to how it was originally.

Sadly until the weather warms up and dries up permanent repairs won’t work.