Days In – Page 5 – Seb Palmer

8 February 20238 February 2023

HOME/DiY: More Loft Flooring

Last Tuesday I managed to do a bunch of home and DIY stuff. In addition to what I’ve pictured here (very poorly, alas), in the loft, I also shifted some shelving units and 90% of our fairly big DVD collection, downstairs in the lounge.

I did the latter in order to shift the two sofas towards the back end of the house, and thereby allow the new mid-room partitioning curtains to hang better. Before one of them was getting hung up on ‘my’ sofa (the ultra tatty sofa-bed, which is now covered in a curtain throw).

Having done that, I then had to move masses of rather heavy boxes, full of books and magazines, etc, from one side of the loft to the other, in order to access the front. Once that was done – exhausting in itself – I could lay the beams and boards for an additional two runs of chipboard floor panels, as pictured below.

Two small sub-sections needed to finish.

Two pics up is a short notched section of transverse beam. The beams that these beams rest on aren’t all level. The notches mean the boards should sit flat. I didn’t bother to do this on the very last beam. So there may be a bit of twisting in the final board.

The above photo, that shows the two boards in place, with square-ish gaps either end, is how I left things at days’ end. The nearer of the two new boards is screwed down. The farther one isn’t; I need to get the final piece of the the first one in place, before I can attach the final run of boards.

Hoping to get that done tomorrow!

The final two pics show, albeit not very well/clearly, the sheer mounds of crap we have up in the attic. Once the flooring up there is complete I can start to actually rationalise and tidy all the stuff up there.

The large piece of timber that bisects the image below is the central horizontal roof tie-beam. If we want to make this attic space into a usable room, that’ll have to go!

Speaking of long wooden boards that had to go, I had to borrow a pry bar from Sean, at #72, to get a very rudimentary transverse beam (it had an unfinished outside-edge-of-the-log curved cross-section!) up and out of the way, in order the place the final transverse 2”x4” supporting beam.

Doing this kind of stuff up in our attic is filthy work. I had to wear gloves and a mask, due to all the dust, soot and dirt. This then plays havoc with my vision, fogging up my glasses. And on the topic of glasses, observant readers might spot a dram o’ whisky in one photo. Working man’s fuel, I guess?

6 February 202314 March 2023

BOOK REViEW: The War For All The Oceans, Adkins

This is a fantastic book. Worthy of the rare but coveted six stars.

In some respects it’s quite surprising that there’s so much interesting naval history to be told, when one remembers that Nelson’s 1805 victory at Trafalgar meant there wasn’t another major maritime engagement ‘twixt then and the end of the era, at Waterloo, in 1815.

The book commences with three chapters that culminate in the ill-starred fate of Napoleon’s Eastern adventure. Once again it’s Nelson who puts the kibosh on ‘Little Boney’s’ plans, at the Battle of Aboukir.

Remarkably, despite the period that Trafalgar indubitably represents, there is still much of great interest to be told, as Britain and France carry out global economic warfare, Bonaparte with his Continental System, and England with her blockading and her growing global hegemony at sea.

It’s quite revealing and surprising, given how The Napoleonic Wars as a whole have come down to us as a vastly oversimplified tale of the British David vanquishing the ‘Corsican Upstart’s’ Franco-European Goliath, to learn how often we bungled things.

And the British Royal Navy, as much as it formed the oaken walls protecting Fortress Albion, was complicit in some of these disasters. (?)’s Buenos Aires fiasco is dwarfed by the almost D-Day like (in size) but also Dunkirk like (in losses) Walcheren affair.

Add to all this Britain’s nautical rise to ascendancy in both the East and West Indies, and eventual supremacy in the Med and Adriatic, and even accounting for such mishaps as the 1811 Baltic convoy disaster (the biggest loss of life of the period being attributable to Nature, not war!), and a brewing stand-off that develops into war with the US (again!), and it’s apparent that it’s only natural that this era is so ripe for vivid storytelling in the age sail.

The colour and drama leant to the overall narrative, excellent as that is in itself, by the supremely well chosen and deployed firsthand testimonies, can’t be overstated. This is a rollicking good read. History at its dramatic finest.

4 February 20234 February 2023

HOME/DiY: Fixing Teresa’s Jugs (chortle)

This rather nice jug was one of the many ‘free for review’ items we got under the Amazon Vine scheme, which I took part in for a number of years.

At least it’s a single and very clean break.

My time on Amazon Vine appears to have ended. And this jug also appears to have reached a demise of sorts. Fortunately it’s a single and very clean break. Quite a rare occurrence!

Really ought to have pictured the actual mix!

Teresa was insistent that I fix this. So a free jug is now costing me roughly £5, which is what the Araldite epoxy cost. I mixed a good amount of that up, applied it liberally to the break line, and – as they say on TV – ‘wallah’!

The pieces went together again very nicely. My only issue was removing the excess epoxy which didst leaketh from the seam. I wound up trying warm soapy water, tissues, and plain ol’ fingers. It’s far from conservationist levels. But hopefully it’ll do the trick, repair wise. And if you don’t look too closely, the damage is nigh on invisible.

I ought to have worn gloves when mixing and using this epoxy. And I’d liked to have known what if anything would act as a solvent, for cleaning away the excess. I did look into it online. But in such a cursory way that I just ended winging it.

Still, all told, not too shabby. Another small but (hopefully?) relatively rewarding little home fix.

29 January 202329 January 2023

CAR: More Exhaustion…

In readiness for the work that needs doing on the MX5 exhaust system, I’ve chopped out the section with the oxygen sensor attached. I did try to take the sensor off/out. But it’s seized solid!

The section I need, with attached sensor.

Apparently the garages that do this sort of thing can undo such tightly seized joints. I hope so! I certainly can’t. But at least now I can transport the parts more easily.

Got all the parts on order – for Monday, they tell me – from bofiracing.co.uk, and scheduled to go straight in for fitting at fourpawracing.co.uk, either Monday or Tuesday.

29 January 202329 January 2023

BOOK REViEW: Finest Hour, Clayton/Craig

This is another book gifted to me on my recent birthday, by friend and neighbour, Chris. Thanks, mate!

The first I read from this new batch of books was Waiting For Hitler (read my review of it here). That was about the 1940 invasion scare, and there’s a significant amount of overlap with this book, which is mainly about the 1940 Battle of Britain.

I say mainly because this really quite epic and yet very homely account starts with the collapse and retreat of the BEF, in France, and is therefore initially more land and sea based, rather than aerial.

Authors and historians – and, I guess, TV presenters; this is the book companion to a BBC TV series (which I haven’t seen) – Clayton and Craig expertly weave together accounts from every level of British society (plus a few others, mostly Americans). There are sailors, pilots, soldiers, child evacuees, WAAFs, secretaries, journalists and even the big guns, like Churchill and FDR.

I found this a thrilling and very gripping read. And I was glued to it from start to finish. Starting out in France, with an ignominious retreat in the face of the seemingly invincible Wehrmacht, via the ‘miracle of Dunkirk’, to the Luftwaffe’s battles to first destroy the RAF, and then bring terror and ‘revenge’ to London and Britain’s cities.

I’ve knocked off half a star, about which I feel a bit conflicted, for the slightly ‘tally-ho, chaps’ populist tone the books slips into occasionally. It is in truth a very broad ranging and nuanced account. But just every now and then it tips a little too far towards the ‘celebratory patriotic myths of WWII’ vibe.

But in conclusion, Clayton and Craig very deftly weave together a highly exciting and often quite moving tapestry of accounts of this incredible period in British and World history. One is drawn into the very real moments, and even the feelings, from the mundane to hugely significant, from personal sorrow, to national hope.

A superb book that I’d highly recommend.

27 January 202327 January 2023

MiSC: Life & Art, Poetry & Depression

Black eyed dog he called at my door
The black eyed dog he called for more
A black eyed dog he knew my name
A black eyed dog he knew my name
A black eyed dog
A black eyed dog
I'm growing old and I wanna go home, I'm growing old and I dont wanna know
I'm growing old and I wanna go home
Black eyed dog he called at my door
The black eyed dog he called for more

Never been a dog person. Much prefer cats! But a little yappy terrier called Insomnia is barking and biting at my heels again. Put the little fucker down, I say.

And in the hallway, in the shadows, his darker more vulpine cousin can be heard, panting and drooling, occasionally pacing the few meagre feet of corridor. Depression is that mutt’s name. I can smell his stink from here.

I’m not listening to it literally. But the words and melodies of Drake’s ‘Black Eyed Dog’ are circling like carrion in my spent and careworn brain.

I'm growing old and I wanna go home, I'm growing old and I dont wanna know

Can I get an a-men? Too right! Ah-bleedin’-men! Can I get a hallelujah? You must be fucking joking! Tired of scrabbling in the dirt and dust in the peripheral shadows. Stop the ride, I’m sick and dizzy, and I want to get off.

26 January 202326 January 2023

CAR: Thievery & Exhuastion

[thievery vid… need to find!]

Some while ago our neighbour alerted me to some footage he’d caught on his home security videos, showing some villains fiddling with several cars on our street, inc. mine!

Rear view; exhaust attached by sensor lead!

At the time we’d concluded – and confirmed with a neighbour further down the road – that these miscreants were thieving catalytic converters. One of the neighbours further down the road had actually arrived home as the bastards were leaving his front drive.

Look how the thieves cut/compressed the pipe!

They were so quickly down and back up again by my car that I assumed they’d decided against bothering to try and take mine. I was wrong! But it took a while for the issue to develop; gradually my exhaust system grew noisier and noisier.

It turns out that some cunts do this ‘professionally’, and use a tool called the jaws of life* (or something like that?) to snip through pipes and noiselessly remove CATs.

Sheets and tools in the road, trying to disconnect the sensor.

Anyway, as I got into my car today, to go to do a delivery route for Amazon, the whole exhaust system was roaring and rattling like an emphysemic dragon. I barely got 10 yards, and had to stop, get out, and look under the car. Almost all of the exhaust between where it exits the engine bay, and the box at the rear of the car, was hanging loose.

The rear of the car, and the other break.

Even worse, it transpired that it was solely connected to the car by the wiring of a lambda oxygen sensor. After several hours spent getting the car up on jacks, with thoughts of zip-tying it back in place, which didn’t work, I tried to remove the sensor, where it joins the exhaust.

But that was seized solid; so, no dice! It then became a question of finding out how to disconnect the other end of the sensor wiring. This, it turned out, disappeared up into the bodywork of the car. It took a lot of hard work, both on the car and researching online, to finally crack that conundrum.

And all of this in very cold, muddy, drizzly conditions, with the car protruding several feet into a busy road. Gaaargh!!! I had to cancel the Amazon delivery shift, and forego any lunch. And I spent literally three or four hours doing all this. It’s the sort of thing one ought to be able to do in minutes if, A) one knows the anatomy of the vehicle intimately, and B) has the right tools.

The clip end of the sensor cable. Inaccessible!

Once I’d finally and mercifully got the damaged and broken section of exhaust off, I stuck it in the passenger side of the car. Doing all of this did teach me more about the motor. And I took the photos that illustrate this post, which I sent to various MX5 parts folk, and potential repair garages.

A YouTuber’s vid’ located the sensor clip junction, inside the passenger side interior.

It was thanks to the photographic evidence that I learned my CAT definitely had been stolen. The most damning and conclusive evidence was how the exhaust had clearly been snipped, and compressed, just around where the CAT ought to have been.

So not only do I have to replace 80% of the exhaust assembly. I also have to get a new catalytic converter. I got some quotes on parts and work. And it’s a nightmare, frankly. Because, as ever, I’m stone broke.

Finally! Unclipped. Allowing exhaust removal.

Still, in the past we’ve always battled through and found a way, even if – as with the cam-belt episode – I had to do the sourcing, buying and fitting of everything myself. This time I can’t see myself doing the installation. Partly this is due to the time of year; having to try and do such work out in the front drive or the main road? It’s just too cold and wet!

* As used by fire crews to rescue passengers trapped in crash-damaged vehicles.

PS – This is the YouTube video that enabled me to finally locate and uncouple the sensor:

26 January 202326 January 2023

MEDiA: Beach Boys, Get Around Shred

A friend and neighbour, of many years past, Denis, first showed me this video. Many, many moons ago. And I wept tears of laughter. It totally slew me. So funny!

And watching it again now, probably at least a decade later, it still makes me laugh and smile. It’s clearly a labour of love, by whoever originated it. I’s actually really very well done.

But what I think I like best about it, and it’s rather timely right now, is the hipster in the sports car that bookends the Beach Boys studio mime performance. The cat in the shades, top down in the palm-lined Hollywood boulevards, is clearly a major dude.

Yeah, man. One slick cruising’ stud. (Gurgle, splutter!)

But just dig that gurgling drain of an engine! It sets up the video perfectly, and the attention to changing timbres and nuances, in the final segment? Genius! Comedy gold.

It’s very apt for me right now, as a jaded and disappointed middle-aged man, driving a convertible car whose exhaust has just literally fallen off (this very day!). My dear little MX5 sounds rather like this hipster’s ride. Not as comedically chortling a chariot, admittedly. But close.

I tried to find out who made this video, and my best guess so far is Total Shreds. Here are a few more. Some, like this Elvis one, subtract the music, to great comic effect:

And this ABBA one shows the degree of dedication to the art of making these. The Smoke On The Water guitar moment is priceless.

22 January 202323 January 2023

MUSiC: CD Review – It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, Vince Guaraldi, 1966/2022

I’ve been digging my other Vince Guaraldi Charlie Brown recordings so much I wanted more. A bit of rooting about online revealed this as a potential next acquisition. So I pulled the trigger!

It’s an odd album compared to the other two CB Guaraldi albums (A Boy Named CB, and A CB Christmas), in that they are both quite conventional musical albums. This, on the other hand, is a collection of shorter ‘musical cues’.

So rather than an album of longer recorded pieces derived from the shorter cues used on the TV animations, these are those short musical cues. And not only that, there are many repeated iterations of the same or very similar short musical themes.

This means this disc largely comprises many renderings of a rather limited number of compositions, plus a few more singular oddments. So, for example, take that old favourite, Linus and Lucy… there are seven, yes, seven versions here! Similarly, there are five Great Pumpkin Waltzes and five Graveyard Themes, and so on.

This makes listening to the entire CD in the way you would most normal albums a bit odd. I love the music contained herein. But I’m not sure how often I’d want to sit through such a repetitive program of music.

But let’s backtrack momentarily. How did this music come down the years to us in this form? Well, the love for Guaraldi’s Peanuts/Charlie Brown themed music endures, and a kind of ‘quest in to the archives’ brought to light what had long been assumed to be lost; master tapes of the Guaraldi sessions for this Halloween themed TV special.

And it’s clear from the liner notes that this has been a passion project for lovers of Guaraldi’s great jazzy extension of the whole Schulz Peanutsiverse, so to speak. So from the perspective of musical and artistic cultural archaeology this is pure gold. Five star fare!

And really it is musically, as well. Admittedly modern mastering does reveal some of the limitations of the source material, in terms of hi-fi or sonic clarity. For those in love with Guaraldi’s CB work, this is a great treasure trove. And I’d count myself in that demographic. But nonetheless, I’ll probably cherry pick my favourite tracks/takes, and make a more succinct less repetitive playlist, rather than frequently listening to the album entirely as it is.

For these 1966 dates Guaraldi was once again in trio with Monty Budwig (bass) and Colin Bailey (drums), who had recorded CB sessions with Vince before. But that core group was further augmented by guitarist John Gray, Emmanuel Klein (trumpet), and Ronald Lang (woodwinds). Also in the studio, in a new development, was a John Scott Trotter, credited with orchestration (waving a baton while the tape rolled, apparently!).

Back to the tunes: it’s interesting hearing the oh so familiar Linus & Lucy getting reworked, and with horns. And there are a few lovely themes or pieces unique to this special, such as the achingly gorgeous Great Pumpkin Waltz, and the spooky Graveyard Theme.

Then there are some slightly odder less oft repeated things, like Snoopy and the Leaf, Frieda, Fanfare/Breathless, and a little suite of solo piano ‘oldies’: It’s A Long Way to Tipperary/There’s a Long-Long Trail a-Winding/Pack Up Your Troubles In Your Old Kit Bag/Roses of Picardy.

I’m pretty sure I read online that this stuff was released a while back in straight-off-the-soundtrack form, with sounds from the cartoon show included/intruding. Alas, I can’t recall where I read that? But mention was made that there was much grumbling about this, and a cleaned up version was in the works. I guess this must be that?

It’s an oddball CD, I guess, and probably likely to appeal most strongly to Guaraldi and/or Charlie Brown über-buffs. Whatever, as folk say these days, I’m glad I got it!

22 January 202323 March 2023

MiSC: Lazy Sundays

Today was a terrifically relaxing Sunday, after a rather odd Saturday (about the latter*; least said, soonest mended!).

For once we actually got properly stuck in to doing next to nothing. And boy was it worth it! It’s actually incredibly hard to really stop and do very little. Modern life has this way of making one feel permanently plugged in to myriad little chores and worries.

Of course we didn’t literally do absolutely nothing. It was Chinese New Year, so we had a Chinese meal, partly from the local takeaway, and partly home cooked. We ate at the dining table. A rare event! Mainly because it’s usually overloaded with detritus.

We also played our usual game of Sunday afternoon Scrabble, after taking some turns on Crash Bandicoot 2, on my ancient but still functioning PS1. Whilst playing Scrabble we watched The Fast Lady, starring Stanley Baxter, James Robertson Justice, Leslie Phillips and Julie Christie. Goodness me, Christie really was something!

I think we must’ve watched this movie before? Either that, or it’s almost identical to another we’ve seen!? The weird thing is that I have memories of watching a film with almost exactly the same plot (and possibly even the same actors?) but in black and white, not colour. And with a different car at the centre of the action. A car with all kinds of weird pipes coming out of the engine? Or am I conflating two different films into one? But of a mystery either way!

And talking about cars: my Mazda needs these protective window doodads Teresa bought me, which keep the two main screens frost-free. And I’ve also been putting a blanket in the boot, to wrap up the battery, and prevent it causing no-starts!

* This little asterisked note is a much later (23/3/‘23) addition to this post; only much later – the gravity of the situation at the time eluded me – have I come to realise what a complete effin’ nightmare might ensue from my getting thrown out of our local ‘Spoons, aka The Hippodrome.

Teresa and I used to be model customers, and regular patrons. Not because of Tim the Twat’s appalling politics, or the enlightened way in which he runs his business, but because it was just good enough on the cost/benefit scales, when it came to eating out as an occasional treat, to work well for us.

I am now a leper pariah, barred entrance!

** If misleading: Leslie Phillips, his babes, and JRJ all really take a back seat to the two stars missing from this poster, Baxter & Christie!