Sirbendy

I have to admit, if I leave home for work without my Leatherman (Blast), I feel like I've had a limb removed..heh. Not had to consult the (naff) IT toolkit since my missus bought that for me.

Beware. We started off with 3 cats..heh. Still got them too. Jem says her ideal # of kiddos is 3, but we've both agreed - lets wait until these 2 are a fair bit older. a 2.5 year gap works, but we hadn't quite realised how different Olly would be to his sister. Not hard work, by any means, he's a laid back and happy little dude, but he won't nurse to sleep, doesn't feed constantly like she did (but has just outgrown his 12 month sleepsuits@6 months, and weighs what his sister did just past her 1st b'day!), and has meant we've had to relearn eveything, pretty much..heh. He's just got the hang of rolling over and trying to crawl..it won't be long. And as soon as I'm heard in the house coming home or getting up, it's "DADADAAAADA!", which is nice.. Izz seems to like PCs, but not in preference to "non tech" toys, and I'm glad of that.

Us for internal cameras, and footage recovery. Gatehouse for additional/out of hours. 130 or so cameras across 6 panasonic DVRs.

One girl, aged 3 (doesn't time fly), and one boychild, aged 6 months.

We did a stocking up shop last week, I have a large box of blankets ready to use, a house plated with 6 inches of insulated render and rolls of insulation in the roof, I've duct taped the iffy DG window (hinges gone, so draughty), heavy velvet curtained the external doors, got all my 12v SLAs and backup car battery ready to go, inverter and leads all laid out for a power cut, candles, matches etc ready for the stove/gas fire (240v ignition WHY?), torches readied, animal food stocked up, and the old Bermuda boiler has no condensate to freeze, and laughs at cold anyway..Jems car has brand new rubber, I have my snow tyres on and my autosocks as well. Come on if you're hard enough..

I built one for the missus a couple of weekends back, as she's self employed now and wanted something that wasn't in the living room. We picked the under-stairs poorly utilised space for it. One 3 tier pine shelf from Homebase bracketed to the sloping roof and floor, on the top shelf was laid some laminate flooring (homebase), that was then cut to size with a jigsaw, battens round the walls to lay it on and fix to. Tank cutter to put a hole through for power, 4 way extension mounted to the desk, running down to the socket under the stairs, Ikea swivel chair, Homebase halogen desk lamp for light, and then I've mounted her jobs wipe-clean board to the wall as well, and another shelf. Her laptop and the baby monitor now live under there on the stealth desk, with the radiator on the opposite wall making it warm. Shelving is making better use of the space, so we've lost nothing, andd I relocated the coat rack to by the door..which is more convenient. Build your own...you get exactly what you want then..

No snow in telford, ruddy cold, and overnight rain has frozen. Not a problem for me, thanks to sticky winter tyres, but plenty of people sliding around/spinning wheels, and salt on the works carpark (which was icy shiny in places).

Camera wise, I've not bothered...but I've got a PTZ IPCAM that cost me about £30 too..it does sound and night vision, so I've pondered puting it in daughters room..heh

OK. Our fisher price one just died...after 3 years of decent service, but fuzzy and interference prone reception. We now have a new one, arived last night..tommee tippee DECT thing, with remote thermometer and remove controlled light, 2 way speech..about £30 from Amazon..much better...

Manta, yes. Ditch the 1.8...something like a Senator/Viceroy straight-six, or a Carlton 24v, or an Omega lump... Prefer the capri though...there's a Tickford Turbo tooling round Ironbridge..the 2.8i with added turbo...that made me stare. Or the RS3100 MK1 that I often see round Atcham, with the "big wing" on the boot. LOVE the MK1..

even the 1.8's were a tail happy beastie in the wet though...reliving their capri heritage a bit on the rear axle..heh..Mind you, I WOULD have a Capri..

I chose my guy though his website (which I forget) but because he's a time served guy with a long experience of back boilers. A lot of people will do the whole "Ooo, you need to replace that.."..or "parts not available"...BG tried that with my nans Bermuda - they got sent on their way. It's still running fine, and hers is a good 15 years older than mine, heh. I shall issue a word of caution...I needed a plumber in a hurry to fix my Close-coupled loo..I called "Able Group", who then find a local guy and send him round.. Now, he did fix my loo, but the next day I had an "in kitchen shower" that I traced back to a loosened off pipe on the bath sink cold tap. Bearing in mind that's nowhere near the loo, we've lived in the house for a year without issue, and it was standing idle for a year before that, and I'm NOT calling a co-incience. Maybe a hope of a callback and another job, but no co-incidence... I've since found a really good local plumber, who's based 20 minutes from me. He had to rebuild the loo again (stupid drop valves), but he left me with a personal guarantee for a month that if there was any recurring issue, he'd sort it for free. I build up a business card library of "good 'uns", and stick to them.

the lack of the temp gauge annoys me on the Corsa C/Astra H etc. What good is a warning light? It's too late by then. Or if it drops fluid, there's nothing left to fire the light..useless design. My Z series with the external thermostat (I had the internal one punched through, damn silly thing) is as close to bombproof as I can get. 2001 8 valver (so cavalier design of engine, Z16SE derived from X16SZR, which derived from C16SE/C14SE, which dates back a LONG way). People say it's the "worst of the worst" for power etc...yet the autobox will merrily spin the wheels up to 3rd, it's more than happy over the ton, and it's no slouch. Give me the old 8 valve growl.. I've boiled mine once when the internal thermo jammed shut, but the heater matrix and full fans can easily pull them down to cold very quickly. I just did it in stages to avoid thermal shock, and let the engine idle down until it was around 80 degrees on the gauge, then shut down as normal. Then fill with boiling water from a kettle. Job done, no harm befell. Best one I ever saw was a 1.8 CVH Sierra that arrived at my house one night, sounding like i was about to explode...no lights on etc. My mate jumped out and hid behind my motor..."the fanbelt's gone, I had to run without lights to get here (no alternator, no water pump). Shut it down, opened the bonnet...steam galore, 2 hoses blown off. Let it cool, reassembled it, new belt on, refilled with coolant, kicked it in the guts...and off it went quite happily. Soon destroyed by an Astra-G in a flat spin that ripped the roof clean off.

I use a guy who I call up as and when. My CH is run by a venerable and ancient Bermuda Back boiler. He serviced it when I moved into the house VERY thoroughly indeed, all stripped down, each part checked and cleaned, air blasted and reassembled, new thermocouple, full workup. Took him an hour, cost £80. He gave it a clean bill of health and when I asked about replacing it he laughed and said "It'll run a good 20 years or so more, these are indestructable. Ignore modern, they have a design life of 10 years, these were made to last." He advised about best setup, recommended a CO detector as it's an old open-flue boiler etc, tidied up perfectly and left. Damn good service. I do my own inhibitor topups and concentration tests, and there's not much else in my system bar that, the 3 port valve (which I will replace myself when it dies, syncron motors are £10 from Screwfix), the pump (running fine) and the control gear (Rewired and updated by me anyway to Honeywell wiring system standards). That reminds me, I need to arrange a yearly service nowish, an get a quote on replacing a rotted out radiator (from before I bought the place, currently isolated).

DIYNOT.COM - very knowledgeable people on there who could advise...

Also common to 98% of the 8 valver 1.4/1.6s..

Yep, no water drop/oil film in header or full-on mayo in oil, you're probably looking at condensation in the engine, and that's nothing to worry about. All my Vauxhalls have done this. I do short trips too. If I do a nice long run (for instance, this Friday I'm off to the Neurosurgeon for a "future planning" session in Oswestry), it clears up beautifully. A PITA, but mostly a harmless one. It can slightly choke the breathers, but it'll be fine. I intend to run the Astra from Telford to Oswestry and back in Sports mode and bounce the old girl off the redline a few times, which should clear it.

Believe me, it's a common one on Vauxhalls too...heh...but it knocked a significant chunk off the asking price of my Astra when I negotiated that..well, that and the EML lamp (EGR Valve value out of range - or "stuck until you belt it with a hammer").

Vauxhall? I'm on Astra #3 now, 2000 model. Also had a 1997, and a 1995. No problems, cheap parts, plentiful spares in scrapyards, handling's a hoot..

WTF type of fuse is that?! Astra-Gs have mini ones which annoyed me. But that's something else again..

500ish "fixed" workstations, also laptops, IP phone systems, CCTV and security systems, 6 ESX servers running lots of Vservers, across 3 buildings on 1 site - 2 staff here. NM is currently bogged down in CMiS/SLASC/Data verification/Timetabling, so I'm manning the helpdesk and going out to do stuff. Hectic, yes..a bit!

IIRC, 2015s are common for it too. I tried it with a heatgun, but it didn't take. Using the DT oven though..ticking up to 24 hours with no lockups or issues. Not bad, considering it was unuseable beforehand, and I mildly cooked the caps..heh. I'll de-board the other dead ones and do them on friday after early doors, as it'll just be me here.

I'm really rather pleased today....we've got a fleet of HP P3005 printers, all are starting to flake at boot etc. 3 in our store at this moment, written off. After reading about this, I decided to place one formatter PCB from the LRC P3005, which is starting to go senile, into DT's precision fan oven, preheated to 190degrees C. 5 minutes in, one of the capacitors is looking a bit bulgy. Out it came, onto the Anvil to cool. Popped it back into the 3005..still running nicely this AM..heh. Before it would do maybe a page then lock up. Next batch I cook, 175 degrees for 5 minutes, give the caps a break. Rock on, heh...

Projector off, remote out, press and hold..I think it's "help" until the unit beeps. Sounds like you've reached max lamp hours and the unit has locked out - you need to reset the timer as described to get it to fire back up..

They do make fun pets..I had a rescued one for a while that was quite a talking point. Still lives at parents house, still see him down the bottom of the garden where the hedgehog box is. I have a habit of stopping when I see one crossing the road, and moving it on (much to the annoyance of others). Must crack on next year with making a wildlife corner in the garden and have another hedgehog box..