h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I have never seen raw chestnuts in my local supermarkets.

I assume by "slits in the tops" you mean the shell and not the chestnut itself? Those little buggers seem pretty hard and rather impervious to the average paring knife. I could be wrong, though. I've never tried to cut into one.

*Matina and Chloe move unobtrusively through the salon, collecting ashtrays and dirty glasses, preparing for tomorrow morning's speed clean*

*Laces up his running shoes so he can lose the race in a most spectacular fashion*

Good night all.

The chestnuts lying around are not for eating - they are for collecting by small boys, who then thread a piece of string through them to make conkers with which to have playground battles.

Mornin All

Season of mellow fruitfullness. Who was that? Warmer this morning and no frost. Yes Poets day

We sometimes forget just what a fantastic resourse the internet is. Twenty years ago, possibly less, I'd have to have found a text book and looked up first lines. Now the magic of Google does it in seconds:

http://www.artofeurope.com/keats/kea1.htm

Holy Moses - I'm among the top 3% richest people in the world!
Rich List Position 180,133,896

http://nanok.com/glo/

*Puts on his best plimsolls.*

Hiya Z, and BB! How've things been with you two?

Frost. In Swindon. In October. Warming up nicely now that the sun's out but in areas which have not yet felt Ra's tender caress there's still an icy crust.

577,767,357th richest person in the world... top 9% ish.

It never rains but it pours, every pun intended.
.
I had a plumber here yesterday, one in flat above a few days ago and low and behold there is one in another flat this morning. Which means 50% of flats have had plumbers in within three days. And guess what the plumber is looking for this morning? Yes the mains stop cock! My plumber didn't want to freeze the mains cold water pipe due to risk from high pressure so froze the smaller run off pipe from mains pipe so still have no internal stop cock and neither does the other flat by sound of it this morning.
.
As opposed to the literally a couple of minutes baths I have had over last week as usually rushing to get to work I had a long soak this moring as hands and feet, etc are aching due to all DIY I have done. It is a joy to be able to look out of window at wildlife and not feel pressurised into getting on with DIY, sure it is only a three day break with a fair amount still to do but it is nice to have time to notice birds again.
Purely by luck I found a good DIY tip. I had cut the palm of my hand and put on a pair of rubber coated cotton builder's glove to protect it while screwing woodscrews in and found the rubberised gloves give a lot more grip on screwdriver handle, stop blisters and allow the woodscrew to be driven in further hence giving a better job.
...this tip was brought to you by Strangely's DIY World and is not copywright.

Mornin SS,

A better tip would be to get yourself a power screwdriver. They are reasonably priced and come with a variety of heads for straight, posidrive and phillips screws and a small number of drills.

Powerdriver screwdrivers are good but I was going for the quiet option for DIY tools in general for serveral reasons...to stop general noise and to try and not alert my downstairs neighbour that I might be fitting noise insulation as they might just make more noise if know there is new insulation.
While doing DIY I was actually thinking that although power drivers have their uses manual tools like the old fashioned Brace And Bit still have their place as can get some real power on for larger wood screws of the 4 inch and above type. I still have one that maybe as much 50 years old as used it in the boat yard I left around 35 years ago where boat repairs on wooden boats were carried out. The Brace And Bit was quite old then so could easily be 50 years old.

There are times and places when a powered screwdriver is not appropriate and good old fashioned manual screwing is what is needed.

I agree there's nothing like having the right tool for the job and I think the quality of the materials the tools were made from was better. The most impressive tool box I ever saw was a friend's who was a machine tool maker.

*resisting the temptation to pick up the innuendo and run with it.*

Stop it, sit.

I have what would be the for runner of power screwdrivers, again not far off 50 years old. You can get small versions which are called, I think, Yankee Screwdrivers but there is a version 3 times bigger and great for boatyards where a lot of screw fixings are used over say 8 feet by 4 feet sheets of Marine plywood.
I have in my mother's loft a carpenters Tri Plane and assorted unusual shaped wood planes for rebates, etc. There is even one the the normally flat metal base can bend for curved wood! I even have some that are made from wood not metal and sometimes appear on antiques programmes on TV.
As mentioned if the tool is made from quality materials then they will last like my 35 year old plus Stanley steel hammer.

On my normal wage I'm in the top 9.09%

On the increased wages I'm being paid at the moment for acting up to a higher grade, I'm in the top 5.32%

You have to be very careful using Yankee Screw Drivers as I'm sure you know. Getting delicate bits caught in the pump action or slipping off the screw can cause damage.

Yep you are right. The larger Yankee screwdrives are perhaps a little safer as used on perhaps a little larger screws so a little more stable, however they can slip. The largest size one I have is one foot seven inches long and when you want to can get some suprising amount of power using it, even when using the pump action. Not as much power as using a Brace And Bit though but they are designed for differant purposes though.