OneGuyFromBarlick

For anyone like me who isn't a `connysewer' of wine but likes a red that's packed with fruity flavour, very dark red in colour and full of natural antioxidants but costs only about £5.50 a bottle I recommend my favourite, Louis De Camponac Cabernet Sauvignon from Mr Tesco: LINK

Noted - and it will be on the list.
Now return the favour, try this one from Waitrose . Primitivo di Manduria

This is recommended by my barber who is from Puglia and knows a thing or two about red wine. Don't pay that price though - they regularly reduce it by 25% so be patient. Worth waiting for.

I'll keep it in mind for next time we get to a Waitrose. There isn't one in Taunton but we make occasional visits to Wellington and they have a branch there.

Mrs Tiz recommends this web site that she has used for buying thermometers: Thermometers Direct At least they seem to be honest - there's one thermometer at the moment knocked down from £18 to £8 and a notice says: `PLEASE NOTE: Instructions included are unclear and may require some figuring out.'

I like it. Bit like the old Honda 50cc motor cycle instruction book.

I recommend looking out for `bus gates' and not getting trapped as I did and reported on OG some weeks ago. Here is the latest on the bus gate that caught me out. I notice the comment `Somerset County Council said fewer than 1% of drivers ignored the restriction'. I think `ignored' is the wrong word - most of them, like me, will not have seen the small blue signs and then found themselves trapped with no way out but through the `gate'. I still believe that the objective should be to deter motorists from entering the gates, rather than letting them in and collecting the money.

`New Taunton bus gate fines net council £107,760'
Thousands of motorists have been caught driving through a new bus gate in Taunton, earning the council more than £107,000 in fines. Many motorists say the warning signs on Bridgwater Road are not clear enough but this is disputed by the authority. The restrictions came into place on 10 August and were enforced from 16 October. More than 5,000 drivers were caught between then and 12 December. Somerset County Council said fewer than 1% of drivers ignored the restriction. A bus gate is a short stretch of road that only buses are allowed to use. Councillor John Woodman, who is responsible for highways, said the number of drivers using it was falling. "It started off at about 100 a day and now it's down to 60. We would like it to be zero," he said.

BBC reporter Clinton Rodgers said in 45 minutes he was filming at the site he saw 10 vehicles going through - including three in quick succession. He said some of the drivers he spoke to did not understand what a bus gate was. In August 2013 motorists paid more than £250,000 in fines over an eight-month period for passing through two bus gates [in Taunton]. Speaking then, a council spokesman said the money raised from the Dean Gate Avenue and Mountway Road schemes would be used for "enforcement and maintenance costs" with any surplus being reinvested in transport projects.

They can say what they like but it's transparently a Cunning Wheeze to generate revenue. Who decided on the size of the signs and the amount of pre-publicity? No wonder bureaucrats get themselves a bad name.....

As you have probably realised I have just had to use a locksmith for a job that was beyond me. I rang Thomas Oliver, cK locksmiths at Burnley on Monday. Contact details: 07747 337180/07551 902714. Web site www.ck-locksmiths.co.uk. They came out the same day, identified the problem, ordered the parts and returned the day after (yesterday) to fit them and make sure that both doors are even better than they were when new. Not cheap at £235 but what is these days. The service couldn't be faulted.

If you were a landlord and had to replace locks fairly regularly due to lost keys or unsavoury lodgers, that is a lot to build into the price of the rent! I am just saying, that is not cheap! ( we tend to do it ourselves, so maybe I am used to DIY prices)
We replaced so many keys with one property that we ended up with 15 front door keys, found in drawers after the lodgers left!
Unfortunately, they didn't leave any back door keys...we only had the one...so had to get new ones cut, yet again! The annoying part is they also "lost" all the window lock keys too. Hopeless!

These locks and door barring mechanisms are very specialised and sophisticated Maz. Brilliant for security but not cheap. I suppose you get what you pay for. In the case you describe, there wouldn't be as big a problem because the actual key operated cylinder is easily and cheaply replaced, it's the rest of the mechanism that is the problem.

Have a look at this and see if it brings back memories. Sure did with me.

http://poetrypoem.com/cgi-bin/index.pl? ... tem=poetry

Nice. I see Elsie has nicked one of my pics, the rag and bone man in Salford. I don't mind, good images need to be seen more!

I found this http://www.tablyricfm.com/Bonnie-Wee-Je ... ommy-Scott while Google-ing for memories of younger days in life. Being Scottish, my wife and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Click on the play button then on the square in the bottom right to view in full screen. I should warn you that it's 56 minutes and 2 seconds long.

If you don't want to watch it then just click the close button, scroll down and you might find something you like from the other selections.

A bit of nonsense for engineers. This is a mp4 file and will require down loading to play. Don't know of any other way to show it.

May I recommend...buying a new mouse mat now and then. I've been using an old one for a long time and got a surprise when I bought a new one and tried it just now. The old one had become slippy, both under the mouse and under the mat. Using the new one is a revelation. Because the old one changed so slowly I hadn't realised what a difference it makes. I'd thought it was my age that was making the mouse movements jerky but no, it was the mouse mat. I'm a new man...and all for £3.99 in the WH Smith shop!

Do you know Tiz I have been meaning to do the same thing for a while. I just tried the mouse on the polished table top with no mat and it works fine. But I'll get another mat.....

The one I got from Smiths is a `Fellowes' brand. The under-surface grips the table top well and the upper fabric surface is just the right balance of grip and slip to make mouse movements easily controlled.

While in Smiths I also bought a pack of Glue Dots, very useful double-sided self-adhesive plastic discs for attaching one thing to another and yet being able to part them later. The plastic is very thin, like polythene film, so there is hardly any gap between the two attached objects.

Never used a mouse mat since the advent of optical mice.

The Tapas at McCulloughs on Rainhall Rd. 6 dishes between the two of us (£4.25 a dish) makes for a great bit of tea. Every Tuesday and Wednesday from around 5pm, you may need to book as it's popular.

Ian, although there's no roller ball in the optical mouse I still find that the mouse mat surface is better for control than shiny surfaces on which the mouse slips about too easily.

Horses for courses Tiz. I always polished my mouse mat and do the same for the table surface. The slippier the better for me.

`Plastic Fantastic'. This series of three Radio 4 programmes on plastics, their benefits and problems by Mark Miodownik, is excellent. Plastic Fantastic It gives a balanced view, explains why plastic is really is fantastic, discusses the the environmental issues and explains why re-use and recycling are not as straightforward as environmentalists would have you believe. I think Chinatyke has said he worked in the plastics industry - he'll love these programmes!

Examples of insights in the programmes...
Black plastics used for meat and fish packaging trays are not currently recyclable because the infra-red (IR) sensors can't distinguish the black tray from the black conveyor belt (both are opaque to IR light). Now someone has invented black plastic that transmits IR and should solve that problem. He demonstrated it by using a remote control to switch TV through the plastic.

Biodegradable plastics are not all good news - besides sometimes breaking down too early and therefore being especially dodgy for packaging liquids they mess up the recycling system. You don't want material that's already breaking down to enter your stream of recycled plastic.

One of the biggest obstacles to recycling plastics is the lack of a consistent scheme among councils and companies collecting materials for recycling - they should get together and have one list of recyclable plastics. The other is the inconsistency in labelling plastics - consumers need clearer identification on plastics so they know what they are buying. An example here is the phrase `bio-based plastic' which leads people to think the material is biodegradable and will be good for the environment. In contrast the phrase simply means the plastic was made from a material produced biologically rather than from petrochemicals. It may be exactly the same chemical as the one from crude oil and just as resistant to degradation.

I listened to them Tiz and agreed. Common sense. They should put the man in charge of policy and give him powers to enforce but that would be too easy........

Colliers Mature Cheddar now available from Home Bargains in a 550 gram block for just £ 2.99.

Good cheese and a good price.

Recommended

Thanks for the tip David but what is Home Bargains?