Recent content by Pattree

….. or Possessing Low Expectation Beyond Survival.

Congratulations on your recent gift!! Hope all are doing well.

Been out hunting for metal. I find that I own eight or nine panel saws of various tooth. I now think that a blade made from one of them might be too thin for my envisaged needs. So: Today we set out for a tour of the South Shropshire junk shops. I found an old file easily - £1 ( + a couple of...

Gordon Brown, as PM, was quite clear that the British standard of living had to go down. This obviously means lower relative incomes, reduction in services & welfare and reduction in opportunities. This is what we are experiencing as Britain loses its influence on the world stage...

I clung on to my guessing pole aka slide rule and refused to have a computer in my desk For a long time. I knew what would happen: I would end up typing my own documents, handouts and letters and the typing pool would disappear. I picked up a bit of the jargon and when nearly everyone...

Hi, Welcome.

@MrEd I hope you realise that “proper tea is theft!” Karl Marx said so!

Nope. Xylis coffee cup (cafetière in a mug) Or “Brew Tea Co” Individual teapot. Loose leaf tea with strainer built in. It’s Pyrex but it’s bounced a couple of times. My beverage of choice is entirely unaffected by clock changes.

We used to call them comptometers. We recruited young women by sending the short list from the ground floor to finance in the 4th. Those that arrived in the right floor were interviewed. On of my early working memories was the thunder of the comps. I have no idea how they worked or were...

No but I’ve used my watch as a compass to find south: Point the hour hand at the sun and divide the angle between it and twelve in half. The halfway line is pointing south. Adjust for Bloody Supid Time. The big problem with the system is that you need the sun.

Probably too techy but easy to set up: One local scout group used W3W treasure hunts as a way of training members how to use it. Each location has the next reference as usual. I suppose that you could have riddles and clues to a missing word in each reference. It would be self checking as...

Who was it said “Ask not ……..”?

So will you be standing for election? Campaigning? Asking questions? Making suggestions? Sorry - I’m not having a go at you or anyone else here. While I was working abroad my wife was elected to chair the parish council. She still chairs the village hall committee. They DO have an admittedly...

Do you have a landline? Do you know where the nearest landline is? Do you know the owner of the landline? Does your locality have a phone box? (ours doesn’t but the line is still there under a cover - it can be set up fairly quickly.) This is all part of preparedness. Edited to add: Over the...

How many Council meetings have you attended? How carefully have you studied your councils audits and financial reports? People are giving up considerable amounts of time and taking considerable amounts of flak in an attempt to interpret government intentions with government permitted finances...