Haha, Mow Cop is ace, was my local castle growing up. Favourite proper castle is also local – Beeston Castle. Loved going there on school trips.

Some economy data for anyone who’s interested…

Kia EV6 2WD with the long-range battery. General pootling about town is about 14 kWh per 100km (4.4 miles per kWh).

Overall since we bought it is 17.1 kWh (3.7 kWh).

On our last day out to the trails (80km each way of mostly 100km/h hilly, twisty rural highway – similar to an A road through the Lakes or Yorkshire Dales, but without the traffic) it used 24 kWh per 100km (2.6 miles per kWh), but it had two adults, two 12-year-olds, an eight-year-old, a medium-sized dog, all the biking clobber, and was not exactly aerodynamic…

I tend to have earbuds in to listen to podcasts while I work, Jabra elite 75t. They have decent noise cancellation that just clicks on and off at the touch of a button. Works well for quite a few tools, but they’re small enough that I can just chuck proper ear defenders on over the top when needed, and keep listening.

My wife has fancier Bose earbuds that are much bigger (better sound & battery life) but ear defenders press on them hard so she can’t do the same.

This is a great cover. Gets more and more uplifting as it goes.

And this is great – a tribute to yourself and those around you who help you through the crap times

We use Tiles, the ones with replaceable coin batteries. They work well, even in little old sparsely-populated New Zealand.

We got them in the UK when flying back to NZ, it had been in the news that baggage handling at Auckland airport was an absolute shit-show, rooms full of bags ceiling-high etc.

As it happened, our connection in Frankfurt was cutting it fine. We had to sprint through the airport to make it, we figured the bags would have no chance. Sure enough, as we were taxiing out we could see that the bags were still in the terminal. When we transited through Hong Kong we could see that the bags were still in Frankfurt, and again when we got to Auckland.

The benefit to us was that after 30-odd hours of travel with two kids in tow, we didn’t have to stand by the luggage carousel for however long it takes to reach the conclusion that your bags have been lost en route. We just went straight to the lost luggage office and told them the bags were still in Frankfurt.

These days the wife uses them for bags on business trips, and we have a couple on the car keys as my wife is forever leaving a set in one of her thousand or so bags/jackets. We can just ping them using our phones so they beep.

The batteries lasted just over a year and we got messages via the app that they were getting low and needed replacing.

Edit – not sure what CounZero is referring to about daily reconnecting, we connected ours on day one and that was it (as you’d expect).

My little sister, when aged about two or three, stuck a peanut up her nose without anyone noticing. Some time much, much later it got manky enough to start off an epic sinus infection, it smelled like something had died up there. Kids are useless!

Our washing machine started making lumpy noises and bouncing round the laundry. Opened the door and saw the drum had dropped a couple of inches. Took the top off and saw that one of the two big springs that the drum hangs off was loose.

Where the spring hooks through an eye hole on the drum casing it used to have a nylon sleeve, which has gone AWOL at some point. The bare metal of the spring has then slowly worn through the eye hole.

(The two holes at the sides were drilled by me as part of the bodge)

So I knocked together a couple of plates out of a bit of scrap steel (an old L-bracket) and bolted them to the sides of the flange, creating a new eye hole for the spring.

Simple enough except that the flange was in a really small space. Couldn’t get a drill in there, or my knock-off Dremel. Had to resort to a puny micro-dremel to that I use for tidying up 3D prints. It can only take a 2mm drill bit so I had to drill small holes and use sideways pressure on the drill bit to (very, very slowly) remove enough material to get my 5mm bolts through. Good as new, at least the washing machine should make it to its 15th birthday next month!

Similar to the OP, picked this up on the commute a few years back. 50mm nail. The tyre didn’t deflate but the nail was catching the frame so I carried the bike the last 300m or so to the office.

On the odd occasion when the Tooth Fairy’s assistants have forgotten to put the coin under the pillow ($1 in our household – about 50p) we always said it was probably because the tooth wasn’t clean enough, maybe if they cleaned it really well then tried again the next night they might get a dollar…

Gave us a chance to set a reminder on the phone, and also got the kids to brush their teeth better (for a few weeks at least).

The dishwasher. It stopped mid-cycle, googled the error code which identified a lack of incoming water. More googling said that the most likely suspect was the solenoid valve that controls the incoming water.

A bit of dismantling later, I had the valve disconnected from the internal electrics – it’s one of those where the solenoid is integrated into the water supply pipe. I knocked together a mains test cable from the box of useful electrical bits in the garage, which confirmed the solenoid was knackered.

For bonus satisfaction points I found a local independent parts guy who had a replacement in stock at a good price, he even delivered it for free the same day.

mashr
Full Member
On recommendation from this forum I’m now on Children Of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky 1 really enjoying reading about Portia(s) in particular at the moment

I read that a few weeks ago, also on a recommendation from here. Really enjoyed it, it’s an interesting take on alternatives to humans being the dominant species.

After that I read the last book in The Expanse series, the whole series is excellent.

Then I went in a different direction and read The Satsuma Complex by Bob Mortimer. If you’re not a fan of Bob already, it might not suit you, the humour is very understated and often wildly surreal. It’s a story of gritty South London crime drama, but less gritty and more melancholy. More squirrel action than you’d expect. Recommended if you’re after a light-hearted easy read.

I’m now reading Seveneves by Neal Stephenson, also from a recommendation on this thread. Early days but enjoying it so far.

Haven’t lived there for fifteen years, but Southdown Hardware in Harpenden was a great little hardware shop (Google Street view suggests it was still there recently). Only as big as an average living room but somehow stocked everything that a massive superstore does.

In terms of smell, for me nothing beats Motorways in Alsager (the ‘parent’ shop from which Sideways Cycles is an offshoot).  It’s the motoring equivalent of the hardware shops described in this thread. Smells of new tyres, old tools, and a hint of WD-40.

Boxelder – I know what you mean. Not dead, but for how long?

I’ve only read The Road, it was superb. Unputdownable. It’s also utterly, unrelentingly bleak. There are no silver linings, no glimmers of hope. Just misery. But it’s gripping from start to finish (I think I’m missing the same bit of brain as woody2000, I have two boys and didn’t feel it was so similar to our future that I couldn’t continue…)

Must read some of his other stuff. Just need to finish the Expanse series… And still have half a dozen Discworld books to go… And I want to have a crack at the Baroque Cycle…

This popped up in my recommendations. Bollywod does metal… could do without the baldy nu-metal fella, but liking it very much nonetheless.

Out by a day, but anyway…. Butcher Babies:

My wife sent the first photo back from her pilates class, apparently this contraption is super useful and also hard to acquire.

A bit of googling told me they go for $200+ with shipping on top…

A couple of springs, two M10 stainless bolts and washers (about $10), plus an off-cut of 18mm ply from my scraps pile, and I made this:

For bonus points the curved foot pedal bit is made from an off-cut of a seat tube from when I trimmed one down to fit one of the kids’ bikes 😄

My son’s chain guide broke so I knocked up a prototype in tinkercad and printed it out to test. Turned out pretty good so I just fitted it to the bike, works a treat.

I’ve been quite enjoying a bit of Swedish death metal lately:

I also suffer from incessant internal monologue in the we shall hours. Mostly current stuff rather than old issues.

I find Daniel and Jorge Explain the Universe is good, two softly-spoken guys breaking down particle physics, black holes, quantum mechanics and other brain-melty topics in a way that the average person can understand. You need to pay attention so it’s hard for the inner voices to intrude, but often still too complicated to fully grasp so your brain switches of and you go to sleep.

Son of Zorn, superb live-action/animated sitcom that apparently no-one but me has ever heard of. Binged most of it on a Quantas flight to Melbourne, spent the entire weekend itching to get back on the plane to watch the last few episodes.

Film-wise, The Big Lebowski.

A couple we know decided to get married in February, picked especially because February generally has the most settled weather of the NZ summer. Still lovely and warm in the tail end of the summer, but the pre-Christmas winds have died away and it’s generally ideal weather for getting married outdoors…

They’d hired a big marquee which filled their back lawn (the lawn was level and supported by a wooden retaining wall at one end, which came in very useful later in the day).

On the Big Day we had what is known locally as a weather bomb. Basically the arse-end of a tropical storm. Storm-force winds, torrential rain, all that sort of goodness. The groom, best man, me and another mate begged and borrowed a ton of clamps, tie-downs, ratchet straps and so on, put some massive nails into the retaining wall and anchored the marquee down. The tall, very full, glass-fronted beer fridge in the tent started leaning because the ground was saturated, and we luckily caught it just as it started to topple. We managed to get some boards under it to keep it upright. We also managed to scrounge some big sheets of ply to make a floor down the aisle.

The bride was due to arrive in a mate’s very fancy combi van but the apartment she was getting ready in was on the first floor and the only access was a set of external steps on the exposed side of the building. They basically had to wrap her in a sacrificial duvet and manhandle her down to the van as she couldn’t see where she was going. Then the van had to pull right up to the marquee with the side door up to the marquee entrance.

The noise of the wind and rain was so loud the ceremony was largely conducted by shouting at each other.

Despite all that it all worked out ok, and it made for some great memories. Luckily the photographer they’d hired was a surf-photographer as well as doing weddings. He turned up in his wetsuit and brought his waterproof gear instead, got great photos.

@mefty obviously your friend’s daughter’s opinions are based on her experience of living here in NZ, but that doesn’t mean they’re entirely accurate (same goes for my opinions, as a Brit who’s lived in NZ for the last 15 years, but here goes)…

The NZ farming industry is almost entirely dairy farming, and it’s a mess. Aside from the methane issues (it’s a belching problem, not farting) half of our rivers are unsafe for swimming because dairy farmers refuse to fence their herds and the effluent run-off goes directly into waterways. This is also contributing to algal blooms in estuaries, killing off native wildlife. Vast swathes of the country are devoid of biodiversity, just mile after mile of pasture. The industry will be fine, it’ll just pass on the methane tax costs to the consumers (i.e. China, which buys vast quantities of baby formula made from NZ milk).

As someone with family in the UK and America, I regularly got to hear about the border controls and lockdowns in those countries, and I’m very happy with how NZ handled it. It wasn’t perfect, but was way better than almost every other country. The tourism industry is still alive and kicking. Some businesses folded, but that’s true of many industries and was the same around the world, it’s not specific to NZ or tourism. With the borders closed most Kiwis took the money they would have spent on going overseas and travelled domestically instead.

Even Amazon going elsewhere was a mixed result. They were going to bring in many staff from overseas (hence the border issues) which wouldn’t have benefited NZ, none of their profits would have stayed here, and they pay a fraction of eff-all in taxes anyway. Plus, they were going to get a massive subsidy from the NZ government (i.e. us taxpayers). Not a great loss.

I’m guessing your guest lived in South Auckland. It’s one of the lowest socio-economic areas of NZ and crime is about what you’re expect of a poor inner-city area. Gun crime happens and is reported nationally. Shots fired being a daily occurrence sounds like a bit (maybe a lot) of an exaggeration. It’d be weird that it’s some sort of secret the only people who live there know about. But, I don’t live in South Auckland so I’m happy to accept I might be wrong on that.

Also, vaping hasn’t been banned. You’ll be pleased to know that kids can get into it if they want (assuming they can get an adult to buy it, or aquire a fake ID). As for the new law, anyone who smokes now can smoke for the rest of their life if they so choose. It’s just that current non-smokers can’t take up the habit. Seems pretty reasonable. It’s likely that some small shop-owners (small shops, not small owners) will go out of business as cigarettes will be a main source of income for some. The money saved by the heath service not having to deal with smoking-related illnesses will be significant.

batfink
Full Member
…What has tripped-her-up is the overlap of her recent “progressive” policies, with the economic issues that pretty much all countries are facing. Doing things like a total ban on battery hens, making eggs unavailable/obscenely expensive in NZ during a cost of living crisis is obviously difficult to defend…

Except this law was passed *ten years ago*, under the National government. It just came into force last month and has nothing to do with the current administration. The egg industry knew this was coming for ten years and did precisely naff-all about it, so they could overcharge during the ‘crisis’ of their own making.

For what it’s worth, I voted for Labour (with Ardern as leader) in the last two elections. If she hadn’t resigned I probably wouldn’t have voted for her this year though.

Unfortunately the Nats look like a shoe-in, so we’re properly **** 🙄
Edit – to clarify, it’s not the Nats (National party) that are the problem, it’s Chris Luxon, who is an utter moron and will be a car-crash of a PM.

@redmex Nice work. That bowl on top looks pretty substantial, did you make it?

@joshvegas also nice work…
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I’m pretty confident it’s going to outlive the rest of the bin 😆

The foot pedal on our ancient pedal-bin finally have up the ghost. It’s died a couple of times before but I’ve always been able to revive it, Igor-style.

So I grabbed some offcuts of 25mm ply; some glueing and clamping, table-sawing, band-sawing, sanding and a quick coat of polyurethane later…

For me a regular one is fixing things on my commuter. Towards the end of the life of the pads when the brakes aren’t quite as good as they used to be, so I subtly adjust my riding and braking to suit. Then when I change the pads I always wonder why I didn’t do it sooner.

Same as occasions when the indexing goes a bit wonky for some reason. I live with it for ages, then eventually it gets so bad I actually fix it, usually in a couple of minutes, and wonder why it took so bloody long to get round to.

There is plenty of wholesome stuff in among the crazies and downright depressing bigotry. For example, Andrew McCarthy, an amateur astro-photographer who takes some staggering shots and is happy to discuss his equipment and techniques.

The ethereal Pillars of Creation by my backyard telescope/Hubble/JWST.

Probably my favorite area of the sky, I’m thrilled we have the technology in our lifetimes to look deeper into it. Perhaps one day humanity will visit them? pic.twitter.com/DcGzn8FhuM

— Andrew McCarthy (@AJamesMcCarthy) October 19, 2022

The mini spray arm at the top of our dishwasher kept falling off. The ~10mm vertical tube it was attached to used to have a wee flange at the end which appears to have worn away over the last ten years, to the point the arm wouldn’t stay on at all.

New part took all my google-fu to find and would be $110 posted…

Five minutes with my Leatherman and an old wire coathanger, and I present to you:

Honestly, the worst bit was how bad the predator was…

I thought the general back-story of the predators is that they come to earth as a sort of big game/trophy hunt holiday. Humans do similar here, you’ll have seen the occasional American dentist who goes viral for getting tooled up to the eyeballs and standing proudly over the carcass of a vicious giraffe etc. And probably shot it with a massively over-powered rifle from the safety of a vehicle, and with the help of trackers and so on.

Other hunters choose to do things like head into the bush alone on foot, and hunt with a bow.

Who’s to say that the predator in Prey isn’t just one of the latter types? Keeping it old-skool with minimal armour and just yer basic weapons.

Well I’ve just finished watching Prey and I thought it was pretty good. Definitely not Disneyfied, plenty of blood and gore as you’d expect. One plot device that gives the heroine an advantage that was slightly disappointing, given how well they dealt with all of the old weapons vs alien tech, but overall quite enjoyable.

Some good stuff on here 👍🤘

Couple of contributions from down here in Aotearoa…

And another one… Fifteen years ago my wife and I decided to move to new Zealand, pretty much on a whim, having never been here before. Looked at places to live, applied for jobs, got jobs, got visas, booked flights, sold house & car, flew over, started work about a week later. First day in the new job, getting shown around the office and introduced to everyone (only about 15 people), one of them was a guy I used to work with about three years previously.

On the same day my wife was starting her new job at a different company down the road, the guy at the desk next to her was a former colleague from back in the UK…

The odds of these things happening must be a million to one*

At my wedding, my dad got chatting to one of my wife’s uncles (who’d married into her family) and they worked out they were at school together forty years previously.

A friend of mine did a gap year at 18, spent six months or so in a small non-touristy town in Nepal teaching English. Left there, did more backpacking, went back to the UK and started uni. Third year of the degree was a placement year, she ended up in Toulouse, France (which is where I met her). One day in our local bar a young Asian guy comes up and says hi – cue much hugging and amazement. Turns out he was one of her pupils from the school she taught in, he’d done well and got on some sort of exchange/scholarship to go to uni in Europe, chose Toulouse, happened to be there at the same time as she was there.

I applied online on March 31st, received the new passport on 10th May, so 5 weeks all in. I’m in New Zealand.

Shitey black useless thing that it is

Yeah, I thought that, but I also got my NZ passport at the same time, and that’s proper black. Side by side in good light you can just about see the UK one is very dark blue. Will definitely be travelling as a Kiwi from now on though.

Hot shower

Not my bodge, but this was the shower in a place we stayed in on our honeymoon. Heater element in the shower head, complete with exposed mains connection… I wonder if the galv water pipe is the earth, or the water running over you while you shower.

I applied online on March 31st, have had an email today saying the application is approved and the new passport is being printed. I’m in New Zealand though, and they waited until they received my old passport (couriered to the UK) before approving the new one, so imagine would’ve been a week or two quicker if I was in the UK.

@benp1 they all sound interesting, definitely need some pics for inspiration/plagiarism purposes…

I’ve just bought a new leaf blower, and since the end of the tube on the old one was starting to wear away from contact with the ground (I tend to use the tube to scrape up stubborn bits), like this…

…I thought I’d have a crack at making a sacrificial strip to mount at the end of the new one.

Knocked together in Tinkercad and then 3D printed. Sank a couple of M3 threaded inserts into the lugs, and a couple of wee bolts to tighten it up on the end of the blower tube.

That’s really nice Hobster. What are the white dots? Something inlaid? And have you made some equally impressive counters?